


Queen of the Night

by dragonchallenge



Series: Queen of the Night [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Friendship, Multiple Pairings, Quidditch, School, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-22 06:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 59
Words: 1,019,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12475692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonchallenge/pseuds/dragonchallenge
Summary: Tara Nox was born in Godric's Hollow, exactly nine months before Harry Potter. For the first year of their lives they were like siblings. And then Lord Voldemort attacked. Tara's family was forced to flee to the United States as Harry was sent to Surrey, to live with the Dursley's. Now, nine years later, Tara returns to Surrey to befriend the boy that doesn't remember her; and more importantly, to protect him from the evils to come.*Rating may change as we get into the later years*





	1. Heading Home

The No-Maj's would never have any clue what they were missing out on. Sure, they had some pretty cool gadgets. The radio was definitely great. No-Maj's had surprisingly good music. It was why I went to their entertainment stores so often. Televisions were fantastic! I loved them. My parents loved shouting at me to get to my homework and quit using it to watch stupid shows. But come on! There were shows on where we could watch other people live out their lives. Who wouldn't want that?

Wizards, I suppose. They hated anything that had to do with magic. From what I'd heard, other countries had better relationships with No-Maj's. My parents had told me that England was one of the best with relations to No-Maj's. Here in the United States the Magical Congress of the United States hated the thought of No-Maj's being with witches or wizards. It was why the majority of witches and wizards in the United States were Pureblooded. I was. All of my friends were. There was only one girl I knew that was a Half-Blood. And even she got raked over the coals for it.

There was apparently a neighbor of ours that was a No-Maj-born and they had been treated so terribly that they had moved across the pond. They were evidently living out their life much better there. I was pretty sure that they had finished their schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was considered one of the best magical schools in the world. Most people believed that. I did not.

Nearly everyone in the United States believed that the best magical school was the one that I currently attending as a summer student. Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was definitely the best magical school in the world. There were plenty of reasons that it was better than Hogwarts. We didn't have the house prejudiced that they did. Our houses were cooler and we all got along. Plus we were allowed to use electricity! Not only that, but Ilvermorny had a summer exchange program. Starting the summer that a student turned eight they were allowed to come for eight weeks to learn basics of the Wizarding World. It was why American witches and wizards were much smarter than English ones.

Of course maybe I was just prejudiced. I didn't know it at the time, but I would soon realize that while Ilvermorny might have been the home that I'd know, Hogwarts would be the one that I would come to love.

It all started on the most normal of mornings. I was in my second-story bedroom practicing the levitating spell without my wand. I'd been working on it for well over a month. Like everyone other witch and wizard I couldn't get my wand until I was eleven and ready to head to Ilvermorny as a permanent student.

The spell had been going just the way that I'd wanted it too. All I was trying to do was get my bathing suit from my open drawer over to my bed without having to walk over to it. "Wingardium Leviosa," I muttered softly. The cloth rattled slightly before lifting. "Yes!" I hissed. The suit immediately dropped to the ground at my lapse in concentration.

I knitted my eyebrows together and took a deep breath. It was such a simple spell. First years knew it! And I had to know at least a few simple spells when I got to school. I had always been at the top of my classes. Both No-Maj and magical. Not that anyone ever knew that. I was a prankster that constantly got letters and phone-calls home. My parents always asked me why I couldn't get the good grades without melting my eyebrows off. It was just one time...

"Wingardium Leviosa," I whispered again. This time it wasn't the bathing suit that moved. It was the lamp that sat on the edge of my nightstand. Uh-oh. What was the counter-spell? I didn't know. "Uh... Drop! Please?" I muttered to the lamp. It didn't work.

Without warning the lamp swung out towards my head and I shrieked, dropping to the ground. It was not a wise choice. The lamp went flying past my head and smashed into the window behind me. Although it didn't just stop there. The lamp went through the glass window and flew over to my next-door neighbor's house. They were a rather grumpy pair of older No-Maj's. The lamp shattered against their stucco walls and I sank to my carpeted floor as they stuck their heads out of the windows, wondering what had just happened.

"Tara Nox!" I heard a hideously loud shout from down the stair. Despite the feminine British tone of voice I knew that it was my mother. She and my father were both from England. Surrey, I was pretty sure that it was. They'd never told me why they'd made the move to Florida when I was only a year old. It was certainly a large move.

Knowing that hiding in my room would only make it even worse I stood from my floor and walked down the stairs, into the living room. My mother was standing with her arms folded over her chest. My father was clearly trying not to laugh. Despite the fact that they were constantly shouting at me to be better behaved I knew that they loved me. And I loved them. They were the best parents that someone could ask for.

My mother was a Healer at St. Dorrin's. She was rather gifted with Charms. My father was a Chaser on the United States Quidditch team, the Stars. He wasn't the best with classes but he was pretty good with Defense Against the Dark Arts. They had both gone to Hogwarts when they were younger. They swore that I would like Ilvermorny just as much. It used to bother me that I wouldn't be at their alma mater but now I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. My first and second summers at Ilvermorny had made me so much more excited to go there.

They were usually pretty relaxed about everything that I did but now they looked extremely upset. The door to our house was open and I could hear our neighbor's shouting about the pieces of lamp that had somehow ended up across their lawn. My mother whispered a quick spell and I watched as the door slammed shut. "What was that about studying quietly upstairs?" My mother asked me.

Her voice was dangerously soft and I knew that I was going to get it later. "I was studying quietly. Until the stupid lamp broke," I muttered under my breath.

"I thought that you were reading," my mother scolded me. I had told both her and my father that I was going to be reading Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. And it had started out that way. But then I'd wanted to go see if I could find a Grindylow. And thus my attempt at levitating my bathing suit was born. So it had really been innocent.

"Well you see, Mom," I started. The tight-lipped stare she was giving me told me that she was not going to buy whatever story I told her. "I was studying for my summer Care of Magical Creatures Class when I saw that we were going to be going over Grindylow's in the next class. I wanted to get ahead on my classwork and check to see if there were any Grindylow's in the lake. So I went to go get my bathing suit and when I did I accidentally tripped over the cord and it fell. When I tried to catch it I twirled and fell. The lamp flew from my hands and went out the window. I must have dropped it harder than I thought that I did," I told my mother with a smile.

My father was smirking in the background. He always knew when I was lying. But then, so did my mother. She hummed at me and handed me a glass of water. "I'll get that window fixed before you go to bed. Here. Get ready for lunch," my mother told me with a smile.

If I'd had any less control over myself my jaw would have dropped. I never got away with things. Never. Was I seriously about to get away with breaking my lamp and scaring my No-Maj neighbors? I took the glass from my mother and smiled as I walked towards the table. I took a seat in the center of the table, taking a long sip of the water. My parents each sat at the head of the table as my mother passed out the burgers that my father had just been 'cooking'. Which of course meant that he used a heating spell. I wasn't sure what it was yet. My parents didn't seem to trust me with any spells having anything to do with fire. It was probably for the best.

Just as I took the first few bites of my burger I started to feel a funny bubbling in my stomach. What was my problem? It wasn't the burgers. I always loved burgers. Finally I couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore. As I thought that I would throw up it was something else. The truth. "Everything I told you was true up until when I went to get my bathing suit. I didn't want to get up and I wanted to practice wandless magic. So I was using the Levitation spell and I messed it up. The lamp went flying towards me and I ducked. It went through the window and broke it. I'm sorry for lying. Also, I'm the one who ate the last slice of chocolate pie."

A soft blush filled my face as my mother smirked and held up a small vial. "Truth serum," she said with a laugh. I wanted to roll my eyes at myself. Of course. "Cough up all of your schoolbooks to me tonight. And you'll be making me another chocolate pie," she teased.

I laughed softly and went back to my lunch. My father was reading through Quidditch Weekly, mumbling about how he should have been the sponsored athlete of the week. One bark from my mother to put down the magazine later and we were all eating, chatting softly about our days. "Oh we had the worst case of Scrofungulus today! It was this poor younger woman. A No-Maj too. She'd been wandering through the Everglades when she caught it. Dear was nearly dead when they got her in. She had to be treated under the Obliviate spell. She was too frantic to be treated before. She'll be released in the morning. The President was not happy about it," my mother explained.

The thought of someone having Scrofungulus made me want to vomit. It was a rather infectious Wizarding disease. I wasn't really sure what exactly caused it. I was pretty sure that it was from fungus plant. Which would explain exactly why she had gotten it while in the Everglades. It was a fungal infection in someone's neck. I knew that if it was left untreated for long enough it would grow into the airways and cut off oxygen to the brain, suffocating someone. It was not a pretty disease. My mother had to be careful too. Nearly everything that she treated was infectious. But she was one of the best Healers in St. Dorrin's. She knew what she was doing.

"How horrible, dear. Glad to hear that you're alright," my father told my mother. He grabbed her hand and leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the forehead. A small smile crossed over my lips. They were perfect together. Everything that knew our families told me that my parents were one of the best couples they'd ever seen. Perhaps it was because of how different my parents were.

My mother was very much a straight-laced woman. She had never gotten in trouble during her days in Hogwarts. She'd always been at the top of her class. Or close, as she'd told me. Her skin was a soft ivory without a blemish to be found. There was one freckle that she had at her hairline. It somehow matched with her. She was rather tall with a long and lean frame. With her figure you would think that she played Quidditch. But she thought that it was too primitive. That didn't mean that she wasn't a fan though. She just kept it in secret. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, so blue that they looked like crystals. Her hair matched; amber colored hair that hung over her hips in soft waves.

My father was almost the complete opposite. He was the prankster. It was where I had gotten it from. My mother had told me that he was always in trouble with the Headmaster. Him and some of his other friends. He had a deeper tan than my mother. He looked more like someone that actually belonged in Florida. My mother burned too easily. He had a different figure from my mother. While she was thin and tall my father was broad-shouldered and strong. His muscles made sure that no other kids made fun of me. No one wanted to mess with the daughter of a world-famous Chaser. He was just a tad taller than my mother. He had light blonde hair that was chopped short, it was so light that it was almost white. His eyes were amber, like my mother's hair.

Then there was me. Friends of ours said that I was a perfect mix of my parents. I had my mother's grades and my father's sense of humor. Definitely his temper too. It probably came from being on the amateur Quidditch team at Ilvermorny. I couldn't try out for their real teams until I was a first year. My tan matched my father's. His was from spending all of his time working out in the Quidditch Pitch. Mine was from a mix of Quidditch practices with my team and days spent out on the water. There were a few spattered freckles on my face from the frequent sun exposure. Many more than my mother had. I had missed the height gene. I was just over four feet. Three inches shorter than average. My frame was still lean though, muscles exposed from my days trying to match my father as we played Chaser's against each other. My eyes were somewhere in between my parent's. They were a soft brown with little hints of blue. My hair was also in between my parent's. It was a dirty blonde that hung straight down my back, settling at the bottom on my back.

We were quite the little group. My father ate the last piece of his burger and my mother passed him the rest of hers. I picked at the rest of the meat on my plate and pushed the bun off to the side. "You know, Tara," my father started. I turned to look over at him, startled out of my thoughts. "We were practicing today, and Steven's couldn't get any of the moves right." Steven's was one of the alternate Chaser's - the players that wouldn't come in unless one of the mains were injured - that my father had always had issues with. "He couldn't even do the Harlem Shuffle!"

That was when my jaw dropped. The Harlem Shuffle was the signature move of the Stars. It was a complicated move but all American Quidditch fans knew it. First, the main Chaser, my father, would spins it atop his finger, shouting to his fellow Chasers, "Get ready, guys!" He then passes the Quaffle immediately on to the next Chaser, who dribbles it back and forth on his broomsticks for a few moments, then passes to the third Chaser. The third Chaser then plays piggie-in-the-middle with the other team's Chasers, while sliding the Quaffle down their outstretched arms and behind their head. They then throw it to the second Chaser, who throws it to my father, who scores by throwing the Quaffle in from behind the goal post after diving off of his broomstick, while falling. The second Chaser takes it and scores once again, the other team's Keeper diving off their broom, but failing to make the save. It always worked.

"You're kidding!" I shouted to my father.

"Inside voices," my mother chided. I apologized to her softly before turning back to my father.

She picked up my plate as I leaned back in my chair. "You know, Dad, you guys should start hiring aspiring Quidditch players for your alternates. I mean, even I could do the Harlem Shuffle!" I shouted. My mother once more hissed at me to be quieter. "Sorry. But I'm serious. It would be something for me to do until I can start school," I muttered under my breath.

My father grinned at me but when my mother turned back I knew that I had said something wrong. She didn't look happy with me. "And what exactly is it that you are doing when September comes?" My mother asked me with her hands on her hips.

I let out a soft groan. No-Maj school was so boring. It wasn't that I was bad at it. I was actually really good at it. But there was no point for me to be going there. I wasn't going to be a lawyer or police woman or something like that. I wasn't sure what I wanted to be. But it was going to be something like a Magizoologist, or Healer, or Auror, or Quidditch player. Nothing that No-Maj's could do. Nothing where I would need to know how to divide fractions, read poems, or know the history of the No-Maj world.

Even though we lived in it, I was not a No-Maj. I was a witch. I belonged in the Wizarding World. "Come on, Mom! Why should I have to know how to do No-Maj things? They're so boring! Let me help around the house, or teach me yourself, or I could get a job somewhere," I said hopefully.

My mother smiled at me and sighed, leaning down in front of me. She kneeled in between my legs and brushed my long hair out of my face. "Tara Nox, you listen to me. You are such a bright girl. But you are nine years old. You have time to do all of these things. Do you really want to do chores all day? Of course you don't. I don't have time to teach you myself. I have a job. And as for you getting a job yourself, I somehow don't think that anyone is going to want to hire a nine year old," she told me.

I let out a soft sigh. "I know that learning No-Maj things are important to them but what about to us? We have better things to be doing. We have real problems. Learning about the periodic table is not going to help me become an Auror," I argued weakly.

My mother smiled and my father came up to my side. He laid a large and scabbed hand on my shoulder. "So you want to be an Auror?" She asked me. I nodded at her slowly. "That's a noble profession. You want to save the world. You need top marks in those classes."

"I have top marks," I argued proudly.

It wasn't a lie. For most of the early education classes that I took at Ilvermorny, when I wasn't in No-Maj school, I had top marks. We couldn't use wand magic or wandless magic but we did learn practical applications and we read through most books that we would be using in our first year. I knew my marks were some of the best of my age group. Transfiguration was one of my better subjects. I had an O. Charms was another one of my better classes. Another O. Potions was a class that I always had to work had in. I was decent at it. I had been in between an O and E for most of the summer. I'd ended up with an O by the grace of my professor. History of Magic was dreadfully boring. But I did have an E. Defense Against the Dark Arts was my strongest subject. I had an easy O. Astronomy was one of my weaker subjects. I'd always hated it. It was my only A. Herbology was another of my less fascinating subject. My mother was wonderful at it. She was the reason that I had an O.

"I know you have top marks," my mother told me. I saw a hint of pride in the back of her eyes. I knew that she liked saying that her child was one of the brightest students at Ilvermorny. "You also need to be at one of the top-ranked schools to be an Auror," she added.

My eyebrows knitted. Ilvermorny was a good school. It was one of the best magical schools around. It was considered the best school in the United States. "Ilvermorny is the best school in the country," I told her.

This time it was my father that stepped forward. It made me realize that something was going on. They didn't talk to me like this unless they were going to tell me something that they knew I wouldn't like. "But it isn't one of the elite schools," my mother told me. She was right. It wasn't. While Ilvermorny was considered one of the better schools around it wasn't like Durmstrang Institute, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, or Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were the elite three.

My head was spinning as I thought about what they were telling me. I knew that this was not going anywhere that I wanted it to go. "What's this all about?" I asked my parents sternly. As stern as a nine year old could be.

"Tara, you know where you were born, correct?" My father asked me.

I nodded at them. I'd heard this story before. "I was born at St. Mungo's in London, England. We lived in Godric's Hollow, in the West Country of England until I was a year old. And then you moved to the United States because you both got jobs here," I parroted to them the story that they'd told me any time I asked about my childhood.

They both shifted uncomfortably as they handed me a pamphlet. It was for a small neighborhood in a No-Maj community. It was called Little Whinging, Surrey. It was cute. But I didn't like that I was holding a pamphlet for it. Unless we were visiting relatives that I had never known. "Well, your mother and I were thinking about how you would feel if we decided to move back?" My father asked hopefully.

I'd seen it before in the No-Maj movies. The main character gets some sort of life-changing news and they stand there in utter silence, unable to think about anything else. I stood there too. I didn't have a clue of what to think. Ilvermorny, Florida, they were my homes! My parents worked here! I lived here. My friends were here. Everything was here. I might have been born in England but it was not my home.

"Come again?" I asked my parents, praying that I'd heard them wrong.

My mother pushed my father off to the side and helped me to stand from the chair. "Tara, sweetheart. I know that you've been looking forward to going to Ilvermorny since we told you about it but I'm so sorry. We've already made the decision. We need to move back. It's time. We went to school at Hogwarts and you will too. You'll love it there! They don't do a summer program so you'll be ahead. And it's a boarding school, just like Ilvermorny. We even have a home set aside. It's in there," my mother said, pointing down to the pamphlet.

There were only a handful of times that I had ever shouted at my parents. The first time was when I was five. My parents were trying to drag me away from the Quidditch Pitch that my father had taken me too to watch him practice. I hadn't wanted to leave. The second time had been when I was seven. I had told my mother in confidence about a boy that I'd thought was cute. She'd made the mistake of saying it to his mother, who had in turn told him. I'd been mortified when my friends had found out. I hadn't spoken to my mother for a week. The last time had been last year. My parents had refused to get me an owl for my birthday as penance for accidentally throwing away my favorite book.

This would now be the fourth. "How could you do this to me? I was going to start Ilvermorny in two years! I was already sorted into my house! I have Ilvermorny things all over my room. This is my home. My friends are here! This is my house. I want to live here. I don't know anyone in England. I can't go swimming over there. They don't have warm water or beaches! And what about you? What about your jobs?" I asked desperately.

Tears were building in my eyes. "We got jobs in the Ministry of Magic. It's not the jobs that we have here but they're good for us. We need to go back overseas. That's our home. It's yours too. We made a mistake raising you here for so long. We should have brought you back long ago. Before you even started No-Maj school. You'll make new friends. Most people at Hogwarts won't know each other. You aren't going to be alone. And you can keep in contact with your friends here," my mother tried.

"And when are we leaving? Since I clearly don't have a choice," I said sadly.

There was a hint of guilt in both of my parent's eyes. "Tomorrow," my father said. My jaw dropped. They had dropped this bombshell on me the day before we left? I took it back. My parents were awful.

At that point there was nothing left to say to them. My teeth were grinding together as I stomped up the stairs and slammed my door shut. I could hear my parents talking to each other downstairs but I ignored them. All I could think about was how they were taking my life and turning it on its head. I had an entire plan and they were ruining it! The pamphlet was still in my hands and I angrily tossed it to the floor.

This was one of the worst things that could have happened to me! Maybe I was being a tad overly dramatic but they were taking me away from the school that I had gotten so accustomed to. I knew that Hogwarts was one of the best schools in the world but that didn't mean that I hadn't become very faithful to Ilvermorny. Even though I was only a summer exchange student as of now I already had my house picked out for when I would be a first year. I was part of the Thunderbird's. I was going to try out for the Quidditch team as either a Keeper or Chaser. My marks were some of the best of my age. I had a bunch of good friends.

They were half of the reason that I was upset that I was leaving. And we were leaving tomorrow! I wouldn't even get a chance to say goodbye. None of them lived in Florida. They all lived in Tennessee, Massachusetts, California, Nevada, and Ohio. My No-Maj friends too. They wouldn't know what happened to me. No-Maj's used telephone's to communicate but my parents didn't like having one in the house. They preferred the Wizarding World way of communication. Letters. But I couldn't exactly have the family owl drop off a handwritten letter on a piece of parchment about how I was moving to another country without warning. I supposed that my disappearance would always be a mystery.

In reality I knew that I wouldn't keep these friends forever anyways. For the No-Maj's, in two years I would stop going to school with them. As for my other friends, I was only nine. Chances were that we would all grow apart with time anyways. Especially now with me being in another country. I had been a part of a group of six. My two best friends were Ellie Simpson and Morena Lyons. They were from California and Ohio respectively. They were both from Pureblood families and were very much polar opposites. While Ellie was loud and outgoing, Morena was soft spoken and mild mannered. I liked to think that I was in the middle of the two girls. There was also Michael Conner, David Bore, and Justin Hennway. The three of them were just like the three of us. Michael was boisterous, Justin was quiet, and David was in the middle. We were a good group.

I took a few minutes to write a letter to Ellie, telling her what had happened. Not wanting to write duplicate letters I told her to repeat it to everyone else and tell them to owl me later. I told her that I would give her my new address once I was settled in to respond to me with. I walked out of my room and briefly dipped into the library to see Hale on my father's desk. Hale was a five year old Barn Owl. He had a white face with a white and brown speckled body. He was not overly friendly but he got the job done.

"Take this to Ellie. Be back by morning, yeah?" Hale nipped at my finger slightly harder than he needed to before taking off. I hissed in pain and debated on shutting the window to lock him out. As much as I loved owls, Hale was a jerk.

Walking back to my room I looked through the house. It was my home. I didn't remember anything about my life in Godric's Hollow or England. That wasn't my home. This was. It was a craftsman style home, as most in Florida were. Our house was a soft peach color on the outside with white trim and a white door, adding to the beach look. It was two floors, the top floor about three-quarters of the size of the first. You walked into the large kitchen first. All marble and white counter-tops. My mother had told me more than once that I wasn't allowed in the kitchen alone. The living room was next. It had plush brown couches with a No-Maj television set in the far corner. On the first floor there was also a guest bedroom and bathroom.

Then there was the second floor. There were three bedrooms upstairs. My parents' bedroom was the closest from the staircase. Attached to it was a bathroom that they used. A guest bathroom was next to the bedroom and next to that was another bedroom. My parents mostly used that for storage for our magical tools. Just in case we had No-Maj guests. At the very end of the hall was my room. It was the one room in the house that had things scattered all over the place.

From posters of Quidditch players and teams to Ilvermorny decor strung up on my bed, no area of the room was bare. The entire room was painted and decorated in blue and cranberry, the colors of Ilvermorny. My entire wall over my bed was covered in a poster of the Stars Quidditch team. The Ilvermorny shield was on my bedspread. My walls were alternating blue and cranberry. My bookcase was painted with a Thunderbird. My magical schoolbooks were laid out all over the place. The No-Maj books were all stuffed away in my closet. Some Ilvermorny robes were scattered on the floor too, mixed in with No-Maj clothes.

As much as I wanted to pretend that I could avoid leaving forever I knew that there was no way that I was getting out of this one. So begrudgingly I stood and began to pack up my things. My truck was the easiest to pack. There was a bottomless pit spell on it. I could stuff as much into it as I wanted and it wouldn't weigh any more than it normally would. I began to throw my books in, clothes and shoes following. I only left out an outfit for tomorrow. The extra quilt over my bed went in next along with most of my toiletries. I only left out my toothbrush, hairbrush, and deodorant. Once they were packed I threw in the posters that were hung up on my wall.

Nearly an hour after I'd started packing everything was in my truck. There were two other bags. One had my very expensive dress robes that my mother would have a cow over if they were ruined. The other would be where my bedding, extra clothes, and toiletries would go once I was done. It was also where I had put in all of the paperwork that my mother had left out for me. It was called St. Grogory's Primary School. It even sounded awful. At least my No-Maj school was called Palm City Elementary School. There were other papers but I ignored them, wanting to not think about England for as long as humanly possible.

As I laid down for bed that night, after writing letters to my No-Maj friends from school, just in case I decided to send them, I laid down in my bed and brushed tears from my eyes. My bags and trunk sat in the corner and I sighed. This was really happening. It wasn't just a bad dream. The pamphlet my parents had given me was still on the ground. I rolled my eyes and picked it up, wanting to see my new home. Written in my mother's neat script at the bottom was the address of the new house. Number Five, Privet Drive.

The Next Day...

I'd heard my parents calling for me for nearly half an hour but I continued to ignore them. I merely packed up the last of my things in silence and changed into my clothing. I knew that Surrey was cold. It would be in the lower seventies at the absolute warmest. It was a major change from July in Florida; it was already in the upper eighties. By midday it would be in the nineties.

Shaking my head and pushing my shorts and t-shirts back into my trunk I grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them on. A purple shirt and black jacket went over my torso. A moment later I slid black Chuck Taylor's onto my feet. Once my blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail I walked down the stairs. It would be up to my parents to grab the trunk since this was their decision. I noticed that my father was standing in the fireplace, clearly using the Floo Powder. But was he leaving before us?

"What's Dad doing?" I asked my mother. She looked somewhat surprised to hear me speaking to her.

She handed me a plate of eggs, which I began to pick at slowly. I wasn't exactly feeling very hungry. "Your father is going to go move some of the larger things into the house first. He's been Apparating the car and furniture all morning." It explained why I had heard some loud cracking noises earlier. "Your stuff, it's upstairs?" She asked me. I nodded and she repeated it back to my father. "Sweetheart, I have to be honest with you about why we're making the move to Surrey," my mother told me.

Before she could say anything else I spoke over her. "Why Surrey? Why not Godric's Hollow? At least I could make real friends there. Magical friends. Everyone in Surrey is going to be a No-Maj," I whined.

"Enough," my mother snapped, letting me know that I had better listen to her. I shut my mouth and nodded. "We aren't moving back to Godric's Hollow because there are lots of... memories back there for us. It isn't a place that we want to return. Tara, we've taught you all about the Wizarding War," my mother said. I nodded slowly. She had told me enough to let me know what a horror it was, but not so much that I would have nightmares. "When your father and I were at Hogwarts we stood with many of our friends in a fight against Voldemort. He started putting out hits against the witches or wizards that dared oppose him. Lily and James Potter. They were our friends. They were some of his targets."

"I know this story," I interrupted my mother. "Everyone knows this story. Voldemort broke into their house in Godric's Hollow in the middle of the night and killed them both. When he tried to kill their kid something happened. The spell backfired on him. We don't know if he's dead or just too weak to do anything. But all we know is that he's gone and the world was better off with it. The boy became the Boy Who Lived. He's the only person in history to survive the Killing Curse," I recited. It was history that all magical people knew.

My mother nodded at me. "But there's more to the story. You were born about nine months before he was. We shared many of the same friends. When you were born it was wonderful. And then Harry came along. You two played together all of the time. Not long after James and Lily were put on Voldemort's hit list. Your father and I were placed on that same list too. We all stayed and fought. He went after James and Lily first. When they were killed we knew that we had to leave. Everyone warned us to go. Voldemort's followers were still all over the place. We wanted to take Harry and raise him as your brother but he wasn't safe with us. Not with the hits still on us. So we left. We came here, as far away as we could think to get. Harry was left with a family of No-Maj's. His aunt and uncle. A cousin his age too."

If my head hadn't been spinning before it was now. Harry Potter, the Harry Potter, was my childhood best friend? I couldn't picture him no matter how hard I tried. "I don't remember him," I admitted.

My mother gave a bitter smile. "I didn't think that you would. It's been a long time. Tara we should have told you this long ago but we never expected you to go to Ilvermorny. Hogwarts is where you belong. England is your home. Harry is your friend. It's why we need to go back. And Harry has been kept from the Wizarding World. Someone needs to be there for him when the time comes to adjust. He doesn't even know who his is. What he did. He needs, more than anything else, a friend."

"So let me get this straight. You're uprooting my entire life to send me for protection for The Boy Who Lived?" I howled at my mother. She sheepishly nodded. "Did anyone bother to ask me if I wanted this? If this was something that I wanted? I'm sure that Harry is a lovely boy but no one asked me if I wanted to be his friend. No one asked me if I wanted this. This isn't even a choice for me," I said, tears threatening to spill over.

"Tara, Harry was your best friend. You'll be happy to be back around him again. Hogwarts is a wonderful school. I used to consider it my home. You'll make more friends. We can get you an owl too." I knew that my mother was grasping at straws to make me happy again.

It seemed like nothing would ever make me happy again. My life was being laid out for me without giving me even a single choice. I had to go to England, go to Hogwarts, and befriend Harry Potter. "Can I ask you something?" I said softer, not wanting to upset my mother any more than she already looked. She nodded at me. "Why do we need to do this now?" I asked.

I could tell that she was grateful that I was at least trying to calm down. "This is imperative that we have you two become friends again. Harry will need a friend as the time comes closer to him finding out who he is. His powers should be starting now. Help him try to control them without telling him what he is. Be there for him. Be his friend. I guarantee that he will be yours. The day will come that something greater than Harry understands comes back to test him. He needs guidance. And that guidance begins with you. His friend. Who knows, he might remember you."

As much as I wanted to say something to her I couldn't find it in myself. My father Apparated back into the living room and I stared at him. He was sweating slightly as he smiled at the two of us. "I've got everything in the house except for my two favorite girls. Are we ready to go?" He asked carefully, his eyes never trailing from my face.

"Of course," my mother chirped happily. I merely nodded.

As we walked back into the fireplace I looked around at my house one last time. All of the walls that had held family pictures were empty and without furniture it looked cold. There didn't seem to be a hint of magic left anywhere. My face fell and I stared down at my shoes before looking back up. I needed just one last look because somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that I would never be coming back here again. "Number Five, Privet Drive!" My father shouted before tossing down the powder.

We were sucked through the fireplace before being spit out into a rather clean living room. I brushed a tiny bit of soot out of my hair as I tried to calm my rattled stomach. Looking around I saw that the place wasn't really half bad. It was actually rather similar to the house that we had back in Florida. The kitchen was at the back of the first floor. It faced the dining room, and beyond that were both the living room and the front door. There was a hallway beyond the kitchen that I assumed led to the front door. On the other side of the wall was a staircase that seemed to lead to the bedrooms and bathrooms. There was a small cupboard underneath the stairs. All of our things were laid out in the middle of the house.

Glancing out the window I saw that the car was already outside. Hale was sitting in his cage in the corner of the living room. He looked about as thrilled with the move as I was. My father clapped his hands together, startling both my mother and I, who had been looking around. "So, shall we get to unpacking?" He asked us.

My mother nodded and went to grab a box. They looked towards me and I shook my head. "I'd like to go for a walk and check out the neighborhood, if you don't mind?" I asked them. I was trying to be as nice as possible. If I was going to have to live here it was probably best not to make enemies out of the only friends that I had right now.

They were probably just happy that I'd spoken to them. My mother nodded at me. "Of course, dear. Be home a little before dinner so that you can unpack, yeah?" She asked me. I nodded and headed to the door, throwing it open and walking outside.

I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of the houses. Like my own, they were all identical. They had pristine manicured yards that were all the exact same length. It was actually a reasonably pretty house. It was a deep beige color with dark brown accents. The front face was all stone. There were plants and trees all around the entrance and the door was a dark wood. To the right of the door was a small window and rose bush. Beyond that was a garage. On the other side of the door was a large bay window. The second floor had only two sets of large windows that I could see. It was rather unremarkable but it was better than it could have been.

"Go get the post, boy!" I heard a deeply masculine voice call. I was startled from my thoughts about the rather unremarkable house when I saw a very overweight man literally throw a tiny boy from their house. The one right next to mine.

The boy looked like he was nearly drowning in the clothes that he was wearing. An oversized blue checkered button down shirt and jeans that were about three sizes too big. His hair was black and sticking up in all directions. He wore round glasses that were taped together in the middle and I smiled. The eyes behind it were a brilliant green. He was a rather plain-looking boy, save his eyes. He looked nothing like the family that slammed the door in his face. The two men were porky and mean-looking. The woman vaguely resembled a horse.

The boy walked down to the mailbox and caught eyes with me. I blushed, realizing that I had been blatantly staring. "Hello," the boy said. He had a thick British accent.

"Hi," I responded shyly.

His eyes widened and I realized just how green they were. "You're an American, aren't you?" He asked me. I nodded softly and smiled. "Cool! What are you doing in Little Whinging?" He asked me.

It took me a moment to remember that this place was called Little Whinging. "I just moved here from Florida. It's in the United States. I was actually born here. Moved away when I was young." The boy nodded and stuck his hand out for me to shake. After a moment I took it. "That's quite the family you have in there," I mentioned carefully, not wanting to upset my first chance at a new friend.

He looked a little startled. "They aren't my family. I mean they are but they aren't. That's my cousin Dudley Dursley. His parents are my aunt and uncle. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. They took me in when I was a baby. My parents were killed in a car crash." My jaw nearly dropped when I realized that I didn't even know this boy's name and here we were talking about his dead parents. "It's okay, it was a long time ago. I don't remember them."

"Well I'm still very sorry to hear that. You seem like you deserve better than Aunt Horse-Face and Uncle Vermin. You'll have to give me time for Dudley," I said teasingly.

The boy laughed loudly and grabbed the mail out of the mailbox. "Oh don't worry about him, I already have a name for him. I curiously cocked an eyebrow. My Ickle Diddykins." I couldn't help it. I lost it. I was glad that I'd gone to the bathroom before leaving the house. The boy laughed for a while longer before smiling at me. "That's what my Aunt Petunia called him once," he explained to me.

I nodded at him with a smile. Behind him I could see his family starting to come to the door. I guessed they thought that he had been taking too long. "Well you could make your own sitcom with them. You could call them the Dynamic Dursley's!" I said jokingly. The boy laughed. He was definitely a No-Maj if he knew what a sitcom was.

The door swung open and Vermin yelled out again, "Boy! Get back here with the post! Who the bloody hell are you?" He asked as his eyes turned to me. They were beady, like Hale's. And his mustache twitched like an animal waiting for a meal.

"Tara! Tara Nox," I called back, waving to the family. "I'm your new neighbor," I said, motioning back to my house. I could hear my parents turning on the music to listen to while they moved in. The Dursley family all welcomed me to the neighborhood. They must not have gotten new people around here that often. They looked far too confused. I turned to leave, knowing that the boy wouldn't be allowed to stay out here much longer, and called out. "What's your name? I didn't catch it."

The boy held out a hand to shake mine once more. "Harry. Harry Potter," he told me with a grin. I had to keep from reacting. As he moved away from me I saw his hair fall back and show off a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. It was from the curse. I smiled at him and nodded. This was why my parents had wanted to move here exactly. My neighbor was The Boy Who Lived.

"Well Harry," I started confidently. Vermin chirped something not too friendly in the background as Horse-Face gave a stern glare and Diddykins stared at me far longer than I liked. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," I told him with a smile.

He laughed at me and turned back to his family. They looked extremely angry that we had made them wait. "I think you're right," Harry told me. We both smiled and waved at each other as he made his way back up the driveway and I turned to head back to my house. "Hey Tara!" Harry called. I turned back to look at him. "Come by any time," he said with a smile. I nodded at him and gave a quick turn back to my house.

As I made the short trip into my foyer I realized that maybe this move wouldn't be so bad. Maybe this was my first chance to have a real friend, someone more than a person to keep me company. Maybe Little Whinging, Hogwarts, and Harry Potter would change my life completely, for the best. It wouldn't be long before I realized how right I was.


	2. Making Friends

Two Years Later...

It was late June as Harry and I laid in my front lawn. I knew that in a few minutes Harry would get yelled at for being out in public, where the neighbors could see him. But we were enjoying the weather while we could. Normally Surrey was freezing cold and raining all of the time. Even in the summer it was normally in the lower seventies. Today it was nearly eighty and sunny. It was a rare sight. So Harry and I were enjoying it while we could. He was laying with a book open in his lap. It was one of mine. He was reading The Legendary Origins of Merlin the Magician.

It was a No-Maj book that had quite a bit of his history messed up, but I wanted Harry to know just a little bit about the world that he came from. I had found out over the past two years that Harry had been lied to for his entire life. His parents, James and Lily Potter, had been murdered in Godric's Hollow when he was a year old. Voldemort had then turned to kill Harry. However when he had tried to use the Killing Curse against Harry it had rebounded and destroyed Voldemort. No one knew why Harry had survived it. He was the only person in history to survive it. And the only evidence that he had survived it was a a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead.

Early on in my friendship with Harry he had told me the story that the Dursley's had clearly fed him. They had told him that when he was a year old his parents were in a car crash. Harry had been in the backseat. They had told him that the wreck had killed James and Lily and Harry was left an orphan. They claimed that his scar was from a well-placed shard of flying glass. I had nearly told him the truth of his lineage one day when Harry had told me about the school that he would be sent to when he turned eleven. Smelting's or something like that. It had taken a few long conversations with my parents to convince me that the time to tell Harry about the Wizarding World wasn't yet.

Needless to say, my parents were thrilled when they realized that the move here hadn't been all that awful. For me or them. I knew that my father missed playing on a professional Quidditch team. But he was happy enough working for the Ministry of Magic. My father worked in the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters. We all knew that he still secretly rooted for the American team. My mother worked in the Department of International Magical Corporation in the International Office of Law. I knew that she missed being a Healer but St. Mungo's - the English wizarding hospital - currently didn't need any more workers.

It hadn't been that bad of a move for me either. I certainly missed my friends back in the United States. I kept in contact with them but it was irregular. I only sent them letters about once a month. But they kept me updated about what was happening back home and swore that they would tell me all about what Ilvermorny was really like. I hadn't really made that many friends in Surrey. Most people in the No-Maj school, St. Grogory's, didn't like me. It was probably because I spent almost all of my time with Harry. He was extremely unpopular. That was thanks to his cousin Dudley and his cronies, who relentlessly bullied him.

The only reason that Harry didn't receive constant swirlies and other brutal treatments in school was because Dudley had somewhat of a crush on me. Maybe it wasn't a crush but he certainly liked me more than he liked other girls. It was also the only reason that I was even allowed inside the Dursley household. They thought that my family was weird - they would soon find out just how weird I was - and they didn't like weird things. They were perfectly normal. It was only a while longer that the Dursley's would live in ignorant bliss. They would get the Hogwarts letter for Harry in about a month or so.

Hogwarts acceptance letters come out in late July. Harry's should arrive shortly before his eleventh birthday. I couldn't wait to show him everything about the Wizarding World. I had wanted to tell him plenty of times before but my mother and father made sure that I kept my mouth shut. It had taken a while but I'd finally agreed. So here I was, sitting and waiting in eager anticipation for the time to come that I went to Hogwarts.

More than anything I still wanted to go to Ilvermorny but I had come to accept my fate of going to Hogwarts. The more that I thought about it the more that I realized it might be kind of cool. I would be the only American. Witches and wizards typically went to the schools that were the closest to their homes. For Romanian, Bulgarian, and Russian magical people, they went to Durmstrang. French witches and wizards went to Beauxbatons. English kids went to Hogwarts. There were never any American's. They all went to Ilvermorny and Salem Witching Academy. I supposed that it might be kind of fun to be the different kid. For the right reason; not like at St. Grogory's.

Harry dropped the book that he had been reading and I jumped slightly. We could both hear Aunt Horse-Face shouting for Harry. She should have known that we were outside on the lovely day. She finally broke through the screen door and glared at the two of us. "Get in here!" She shouted. "Are you awake yet?" she demanded when Harry didn't move.

Harry groaned at her. "Nearly," he told her.

She looked about ready to throw the glass plate that she was holding at him. "Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday." That's right. Today was June 23rd. It was Dudley's eleventh birthday. They were taking a trip to the zoo today. Well, everyone except for Harry. Harry let out a little groan. "What did you say?" Horse-Face snapped from the door.

"Nothing, nothing..." Harry moaned to her. He stood and I moved from my position on his legs. Horse-Face disappeared back through the doorway and Harry stood for a moment, staring at his house. I knew that somewhere in the back of his mind he was wishing for it to be lit on fire. I spoke to him before he got the chance to do just that.

"How about I help you with Dudley's birthday breakfast?" I offered.

Harry looked slightly surprised that I had suggested helping him. Normally every time he went to go help the Dursley's I went back home. But I knew that Dudley's birthday was always a nightmare and I wanted to help Harry get through it a little better. "Are you sure, Tara?" Harry asked.

I nodded at him. "Absolutely. Maybe we can slip some cayenne pepper into the bacon grease," I teased. Harry laughed and stood from the grass, giving me a hand up. I thanked him and took back my book on Merlin. We walked into Harry's house and I stared in horror at the living room. It was like some twisted version of those No-Maj reality shows that talk about kids who have way too much money and parents who refuse to put them in their place.

The dining room table was covered in presents. You couldn't even see the expensive wood anymore. It was clear that Dudley had gotten the presents that he wanted. Those included many things that he didn't need. A computer, a second television, and racing bike. Not that Dudley was going to be able to actually fit on the bike.

Harry and I both snorted at each other and walked into the kitchen. I was next to miserable with cooking so I stood in the background and handed Harry whatever it was that he needed. Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. I was standing in the background. A minute prior I'd been burned by a popping piece of bacon. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. As a last minute thought he turned to me and said, "Good morning, Tara."

"Good morning, Mr. Dursley. How are you?" I asked, remembering my parents telling me to always treat adults with the utmost respect. There was also the lingering fact that if I was rude I would get kicked out of their house and back to my own. Which was currently empty, as my parents were at work. Harry was my sole source of entertainment.

"I'll be better once our trip is done," Vernon snapped. There was nothing that I knew to say back to that. I knew that Vermin had always hated Dudley's birthday because they were always doing something active on Dudley's birthday. It was the one day of the year that he got off of his butt and did something other than bully Harry.

Harry and I were finishing up frying the eggs as Dudley walked into the kitchen. He turned to me and gave me a small smile. "Good morning, Tara." As usual, he ignored Harry.

"Morning, Dudley," I responded.

Dudley walked over to the table and began to count his presents. It was the same thing that he did every year. Harry and I rolled our eyes and grabbed the plates, walking them over to the living room. We went to setting them down on the table, which was very difficult, seeing that there wasn't much room. We had finally found some room to put the plates down when Dudley's fat little finger stopped moving. His face fell. Harry and I exchanged looks, knowing that the fireworks were about to start.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. Harry and I were both at the edge of the table, just barely balancing our plates. "That's two less than last year." I had to repress a laugh. My parents were rich, considering that my father was a professional athlete, but they didn't even buy me thirty-six presents for my birthday.

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy," Horse-Face explained, pointing out a disgustingly covered package.

Dudley still didn't look impressed. "All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.

Harry and I could both see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on. We began wolfing down the bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over. He had done so before. Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?" She offered.

I wanted to scream. That was just going to make his problem worse. Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work from my respective. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," Horse-Face said. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel, tearing into the packaging. "All right then."

They would certainly have fun trying to buy him forty presents next year. Vermin chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair, who swatted his father away.

At that moment the telephone rang and Horse-Face went to answer it. Even from here I could tell that she was angry with whoever was on the other end. Meanwhile Harry and Vermin watched Dudley unwrap his presents. The racing bike was certainly going to be too small for him. There was a video camera that I knew he would break in a week and a remote control airplane that he would more than likely lose. There were sixteen new computer games, all of which would prove too difficult for Dudley to comprehend, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Horse-Face came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

She looked over at her husband. "Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction and I smirked.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry gave me a small smile. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day; to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry and I both hated it there. I had gone with him one year. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made us look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

The choice should have been easy. They should have said that they were just going to take him with them. But I knew that it would be a last resort choice. "Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy," Horse-Face responded. I hated the way that they spoke to Harry, as if he wasn't there. As if he was the reason that they had all of these problems, which weren't really problems at all.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?" Vermin asked.

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

A sudden thought went shooting through my head. "Harry could come stay at my house for a few hours," I offered. Vermin and Horse-Face acted as if they hadn't even heard me. I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to speak again but Harry beat me to it.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully. I knew that he was hoping to come over to my house. Or maybe have a go on Dudley's new computer before the boy broke it. That was the way that all of his presents were. They would only be nice for a week before Dudley would destroy them or get bored of them.

Horse-Face looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. "And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled. I rolled my eyes. Harry stood more of a chance blowing up the house now than he did if they were gone. Not that they understood that. They were the worst types of No-Maj's.

"I won't blow up the house," Harry argued. I knew that it was pointless. They weren't listening to him. The same way that they never listened to him. Or anyone that wasn't either one of them.

A beat passed. "I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car..." My eyes narrowed. They were not seriously planning on leaving Harry in a car for hours at a time while they all had fun.

Vermin looked disgusted at the thought of having Harry in his car. "That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone..."

Another beat passed. Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - I wasn't sure that I'd ever even seen Dudley cry - but he had learned that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted. "Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

Harry and I both looked at each other and rolled our eyes. At least the day would not be uneventful. "I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

I was going to step in once more and offer my home. I was sure that they would rather have Harry stay with me than actually come with them and risk their neighbors seeing them with a boy who barely looked put together. Just then, the doorbell rang. "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Horse-Face frantically. A moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later we were all in the Dursley's car, on our way to the zoo. I knew that Harry couldn't believe his luck. He had never been anywhere. Every time that my parents offered to take him somewhere with us the Dursley's would pretend that he had something better to be doing. We all knew that it was because they wanted to make him even more miserable. Dudley had offered me to go the minute that it had been decided that they would allow Harry to go too. Dudley had invited me the other day but I had turned it down. I didn't want to be stuck with them all day. This time I didn't deny them, now that I knew that Harry would be going with them. I knew that Piers and Dudley were hoping to impress me today. I intended to spend the day around Harry.

Despite wanting to talk to Harry during the drive I knew that it would be best that we stayed silent. There was no privacy back here. In every manner of speaking. It was far too crowded in the small car. Vermin and Horse-Face were in the front seat. Harry and I were pressed against the left side of the back seat. Piers and Dudley were pressed on the right. We had practically had to shove each other into the car to even manage to close the door. It was meant for three people. Not four. And Dudley might as well have been worth two people.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. So were the odd people that 'wore bath robes.' I'd never been as happy as the day that Harry told me that he liked the way that they dressed. The day was coming very soon that Harry would start dressing like that. I had a feeling that it would suit him much better than No-Maj clothes.

This morning, the complaining was about motorcycles. "... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle passed by us, narrowly avoiding scraping the paint off of the front end.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." A small smile appeared on my lips as I turned to focus on the floor of the car. My parents had told me that Harry was brought to the Dursley's in the sidecar of a flying motorcycle by the Groundskeeper of Hogwarts, Rubeus Hagrid. I'd never met him but my parents told me that I would love him.

My head shot up as Vermin nearly crashed into the car in front. He came to a short stop on the side of the road. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "Motorcycles don't fly!" Dudley and Piers sniggered.

A smirk appeared on the corners of my lips. Vermin and Horse-Face both knew about magic but neither wanted to acknowledge that it was real. They liked to pretend that their world was the only one. They clearly knew that Harry was remembering bits and pieces of the Wizarding World. "I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

Just like back home in Surrey, it was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. It looked very much like it did the only other time that I had been here with my family a year ago. They brought me here to try and acclimate me to life in England. As much as I loved Harry, he simply wasn't enough. I really hated life in frigid Surrey. The weather was horrid and the schools were terrible. It was why I kept a countdown of the days until I could leave and go to Hogwarts with Harry. Magic, and the potential for more than one friend, was more than a little appealing.

As we walked into the zoo the Dursley's bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry and I what we'd wanted before they could hurry us away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. I paid for the both of us to get vanilla and chocolate swirl pops. Harry offered to pay me back but I shook my head at him. I had the money. He wouldn't until he could get to Gringott's next month. And even then, I didn't know how much money his parents had left him.

While we ate our ice cream we watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blonde. Harry and I were having fun telling stories about how the gorilla was probably smarter than Dudley. In fact, for each animal we passed we made up a story about what Dudley would be like if he were that animal.

For the hippos we didn't even need a story. We just imagined that the submerged giants were Dudley in the bathtub. That provided horrifying images that nearly made us upchuck our ice cream. We thought about an overweight Dudley tiger that broke a tree branch and shook the entire ground when he fell. We laughed about Dudley birds that were so heavy that they couldn't even fly. In the aquarium center we thought about Dudley, swimming into the glass over and over again. It provided for a fun game for the two of us.

Without a doubt I knew that Harry was having the best morning he'd had in a long time. The two of us were careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursley's so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting Harry. Of course they would always stop hitting him when light bulbs would mysteriously explode and papers would go flying at their heads. Courtesy of yours truly, of course.

A little after noon we ate in the zoo restaurant. Harry ordered himself a burger, a kid's menu size at Vermin's insistence that he was gaining weight. I ordered myself a plate of chicken fingers and handed Harry my fries. We were halfway through eating, letting Dudley and Piers lead the conversation. As much as I wanted to have a conversation with Harry I knew that we wouldn't be able to have one without Piers and Dudley making fun of us. So we relented to silently laughing at their stupidity.

Harry was nearly finished with his food when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top. I couldn't help but to shake my head. He'd already had more food today than one of my friends back in America could have in a week. But the Dursley's saw it as gaining muscle. So Vermin bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. I supposed that if nothing else at least Harry would be allowed to eat more today than I'd ever seen him eat before.

Nearly an hour after we'd gone for lunch we went to the reptile house. It certainly wasn't my favorite place. The only animal I wasn't overly fond of was snakes. It wasn't that I was scared of them, I just preferred to avoid them if at all possible. But I knew that I would have to go in. If I didn't I was sure that it would mean that Dudley and his cronies would bring a snake to his house and chase me around with it. Of course at that point, screw not being allowed to use magic, I'd be sure to use a Jelly-Legs Hex.

It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. I enjoyed standing near the lizards and small spider tanks. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Vermin's car and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

The fact that the animal was so docile made me slightly more comfortable standing and watching it. I would much rather see it do that than watch it kill a rat or something like that. Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. "Make it move," he whined at his father. Vermin tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. "Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. "This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.

His family and Piers followed, leaving Harry and I standing in front of the snake's cage. "Having a good day?" I asked Harry.

He looked at me and smiled. "Yeah, I am. Better with you here. I can only imagine the way that they'd be treating me if you weren't here," Harry told me. It made my brows furrow with sadness. I wished that his parents were still here. He deserved to have grown up with them. I hated having to make Harry think that he would be spending the next seven years with these people.

"They don't know what they're missing," I told Harry softly.

We moved in front of the tank and stared down at the snake. Harry was standing pressed against me. I knew that some part of him was hoping for something incredible to happen to him. He was growing bored of his monotonous life. He would never be able to guess just how much things would change. "I'm going to miss you when I go to Stonewall High this year," Harry said sadly.

Stonewall High was a disgusting public school that Harry thought he would be going to. It was a No-Maj school. I had told him that I already knew that I was going to a prestigious boarding school. He had seemed so depressed when I told him that I would be there for the majority of the year. He had no idea that his Hogwarts acceptance letter was most likely being written as we spoke. We would be at the same school. He would never set foot in Stonewall High. "We might end up closer than you think," I said with a smile.

Harry nodded. "That's true. I mean we are neighbors," he said. I laughed softly. He was right about that. Oh well, soon enough he would know exactly what I meant. We lapsed into silence and I stared intently at the snake. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It reminded me of the way that Harry lived his life with the Dursley's. Hogwarts would be like Heaven for him.

Disturbing me from my thoughts the snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's and mine. It winked. Harry and I stared at it. Then Harry looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't.

"You saw that, right?" Harry asked me. The snake was still watching the two of us. I was staring at the snake with something in between fear and confusion. A little bit of amazement too.

Finally I remembered that Harry had asked me something. "Yeah," I said softly, unable to say anything else. To my surprise, Harry looked back at the snake and winked, too. The snake jerked its head toward Vermin and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling in something akin to an eye-roll. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: I get that all the time.

"I know," Harry murmured through the glass. My head shot over to him. What was he talking to the snake for? "It must be really annoying," he continued, leaning against the wooden bar.

After a moment I laid my hand gently on Harry's shoulder. He jumped. It was like he had forgotten that I was even here. "Harry, you know that the snake can't hear you, right? It probably just woke up from a nap. I'd imagine we're some of the least irritating guests it's seen in months," I told him softly. He seemed oddly attached to the snake.

I was about to suggest that we move on when the snake nodded vigorously. That time I couldn't deny it. The snake could understand us. It was talking to us. "You can understand us?" I asked the snake, feeling incredibly stupid.

It nodded at me with something that looked almost like a smile. Harry nudged me with a small grin and turned to look back at the snake. It hadn't looked away from us once. "Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked. The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry and I both peered at it. Boa Constrictor, Brazil. "Was it nice there?" Harry asked it. The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and we read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. Depressing. It had never been home. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"

Before the snake got the chance to answer Harry I asked it another question. "Would you like to go?" I asked. As the snake nodded its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made all three of us jump. "Dudley! Mr. Dursley! Come and look at this snake! You won't believe what it's doing!" Piers was shouting. The snake recoiled slightly. Dudley came waddling towards us as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. I ran over to him and extended my hand. I could tell by the pained look on his face that he was in pain.

"Are you alright?" I asked worriedly. Harry never got the chance to answer. He was too busy glaring at Dudley, who was pressed up against the snake's tank with Piers right alongside him.

What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened. One second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had fallen into the tank with howls of horror. Harry sat up and threw me behind him. We both gasped loudly; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, heading towards the walkway in the center of the reptile building.

It moved over Piers and Dudley, both screaming louder than I had thought was possible. The snake turned back and stuck out its forked tongue before slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. As the snake slid swiftly past us I noticed that it stopped and turned back to us. "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigos," it hissed at us.

The snake didn't wait for us to say anything else. "You're welcome," I muttered stupidly. Magic was one thing. But that snake had just spoken to me. Snakes didn't speak to people. Not even in the Wizarding World. At least not as far as I knew. "Did you hear that?" I asked Harry.

He didn't say anything but he did nod. The two of us sat on the floor of the reptile house while the building was cleared out. Zookeepers were running all over the zoo, trying to keep the boa from getting out of the zoo. From what it sounded like, they had yet to catch it. I watched in stunned silence as Dudley and Piers were pulled from the tank. They were both soaking wet and shaken. Piers was muttering unintelligibly while Dudley seemed to be on the verge of tears. Not that I blamed either one of them.

They were both given blankets and we were led into the back room of the reptile house, where the zookeepers went on their breaks. The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. "But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

The day had gone from completely normal to stranger than anything that either one of us had ever experienced. The zoo director himself made Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as either Harry or myself had seen the snake had only snapped at their heels playfully as it passed, but by the time we were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.

But worst of all, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry and Tara were talking to it, weren't you?" That had earned shouts from both Vernon and Petunia to be quiet until we got back to the house. No one said anything after that. We all knew how much trouble everyone was going to be getting into once we all got back to our respective houses.

I watched as we pulled back into the driveway of Number Four, Privet Drive. We were all ushered out of the cars and into the living room. Once more no one said a word. Everyone was silent as we took seats on the couches. Even Harry, who I had never seen sit on the couches before. He was always locked up in his cupboard under the stairs. Nearly twenty minutes after arriving at the Dursley's home the doorbell rang. It was Piers' mother. Petunia quickly regaled the story of what happened at the zoo before the pair took off. I'd never seen Piers look so attached to his mother.

The room once more went into silence as I turned to stare at the Dursley's. "If you'd like, I can take Harry to my house for dinner. Just so that you can be here, grateful that nothing worse happened today," I offered carefully.

Clearly it had not been the right thing to say. "Get out!" Vermin shouted. I jumped slightly and started to the door. Harry went to follow me but Vermin grabbed him by the collar of his shirt before he could. "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," Vernon snapped at Harry. He barely had time to move to the oversized burgundy chair before collapsing.

It was obvious that Harry wanted to say something else to me but I shook my head. I didn't want to get him into any more trouble tonight. So I said a quick goodbye and walked out of the house. The sun had sunk nearly an hour ago. My walk over to my house was slow, despite the fact that it was barely five meters from my front door to theirs. Behind me I could hear shouting in Harry's house. It was all between Vermin and Horse-Face. I could barely hear him asking her what had happened, and how it was possible.

I imagined that it was something that Harry was wondering at this very moment. He had probably been thinking about it in the car ride too. To a No-Maj it was something that they could never fathom. They were probably trying to think of scientific ways that it was possible that the glass could have broken. Maybe it had shattered into such small pieces that it had seemed like it just vanished. And all of the pieces were so small that no one could see them. Or maybe they were thinking that the glass had never been there. That it was a force field or something like that. Or maybe they were thinking that it was a screen. Something cruel like someone had seen the boys leaning on it and had raised the glass screen, letting them fall into the tank and let the snake slither over them as it passed over them.

They were all far-fetched ideas but the truth was that they were easier to believe than the actual truth was. The truth was extremely difficult to believe. Most magical kids, especially No-Maj Born's, had a habit of being unable to control their powers when they were young. The problem was that they didn't know how to manage their anger when they got angry or happy. Things happened that they couldn't explain. I knew exactly what had happened at the zoo. Harry had gotten angry when Dudley had hit him. He had been in pain too. That was half of the reason that what had happened to him was somewhat cruel. The anger had gotten the best of him and he had made the glass disappear, letting Dudley and Piers fall into the enclosure. He hadn't really been hoping for it to happen, he had just wanted some type of karma.

It wasn't like it hadn't happened to me before. It had happened to me quite a few times. Some had been dangerous and others had been funny. One of my father's favorite instances of uncontrolled magic had been when I had set my teacher's wig on fire in the third grade. I rarely got bad grades. On a time-telling test I had scored lower than normal. It was the first average grade I'd ever gotten. She had read out my answer, one that was apparently not even close to be correct. The entire class had laughed and asked me to tell them the time from the analog clocks in the school for weeks. One day my teacher had even done it too. I'd never heard those kids laugh so loud.

I really hadn't meant to do it. I had only wanted to do something like strip the toupee off of her head. But instead the thing lit on fire. I knew that it had hurt. We could hear her screaming all through the halls. The wig burned up almost immediately. It had been a huge deal. She'd suffered burns all over her scalp that were down almost to the bone. The entire class needed to be Obliviated, so did my teacher. My mother had come in and Healed my teacher's burns. Magical Law Enforcement had been called on me and everything. Of course it was accidental underage magic so I was cleared almost immediately. Now the only thing that people remembered was her wig slipping off in class.

Although she always did seem to have the strangest fear of fire afterwards. I had gotten into a ton of trouble for that incident. My mother had grounded me for nearly a month, telling me that I had to get better control on my emotion. My father had taken me out for ice cream. He thought that it was good the way that I had stood up for myself. But he had told me that the next time I wanted to do something to someone, setting them on fire was probably not the best way to do it.

This wasn't to say that my mother hadn't laughed at some of my accidental magic instances. She just liked the less dangerous ones. There was one time when I was two that I had broken my favorite doll. I had been so upset that I had made all of the plates and silverware come to life to be my friends. My mother thought that it was hysterical that I had been playing with the forks, with the supervision of the spoons. She had left them like that for almost the entire day before changing them back. It was probably why Beauty and the Beast was one of my favorite No-Maj movies.

Her other favorite instance was when I had accidentally turned all of the furniture inside out. My parents had been furious when I had accidentally let a Niffler inside of our house. I thought that the thing was cute so I brought it home. It stole all of our jewelry and coins before hiding somewhere in the house. My parents searched for it for hours before turning around and yelling at me. I had been so upset that I'd cried for hours. In the process I had turned all of the furniture inside out. My mother had laughed louder than I'd ever heard her when she found the Niffler stuck against the inside of my father's armchair, coins and jewels falling from every inch of its body. She still had a picture of the three of us with our little Niffler friend on our refrigerator.

Smiling at the fond memories I opened the door to my house and walked through. I was met with the smell of freshly baked cookies. I grinned widely and ducked into the kitchen. My parents were both standing there, clearly waiting for me. "Tara! How was the zoo?" My mother asked me.

She gave me a quick hug as my father helped lift me onto the kitchen counter. I sat on the edge and folded my legs under myself. My father handed me a cookie and I took it, pouring myself some milk from the carton that was on the edge of the counter. "It was good. Harry accidentally set a boa on Dudley and his friend Piers," I said with the shrug of my shoulders.

Both of my parents were staring at me like I had just told them that Harry had murdered the Dursley's. My father began to chuckle a moment later and my mother shot him a stern glare. He shut up immediately but still grinned behind her back. "And why did Harry do that?" My mother asked.

I rolled my eyes. Although the moment that my mother looked shocked at my actions I blushed. I was rarely rude to my parents. I always felt bad after I was. "Sorry. But don't be thick. It wasn't like Harry found a boa and told it to go attack Dudley. We were looking at the snake through a glass tank and it looked at us. We were talking to it." My parents exchanged a strange look. "It lifted its head up and looked at us. Piers saw and started shouting for Dudley and Vermin to come over and look at it."

"Tara!" My mother shouted.

"Sorry," I muttered. She didn't like him any more than I did but she rarely believed in being rude to people. "They came over and saw that the snake had been staring at Harry and I. Dudley punched Harry in the ribs and he fell! Harry must have gotten angry with him because a minute later the glass disappeared and Dudley and Piers fell in. The snake just slithered over them and left the reptile house. No one was hurt," I said.

"Did they catch the snake?" My father asked.

Truth be told they hadn't actually said whether the snake had been caught or not. I had a feeling that it meant that the snake most certainly had not been caught. Good. "I don't think they caught it," I told them.

My father let out another biting laugh. "You wouldn't happen to have a rubber snake around here anywhere?" My father asked. I couldn't help it. I let out a loud snort, matching the ones that my father was making.

"Marcus!" My mother howled. My father turned to stare at her but only ended up laughing even louder. It took her a moment but eventually she began to laugh as well. She had to admit it, it was funny. Especially considering what a ghastly little boy Dudley was. If only Vermin and Horse-Face had fallen into the tank as well. It was well over ten minutes later that we all calmed down enough to speak.

Both of my parents wiped tears from their eyes. "I suppose the important part is that no one was injured. How are the Dursley's taking it with Harry?" My father asked.

The smile on my face fell. "Not well. They're going to lock him in that cupboard for the rest of summer. They know that it was Harry that made the glass vanish. They don't realize that Harry doesn't know a thing about it. The magic or the Wizarding World. They're so afraid that he'll find out and they'll be forced to live this abnormal life. They're blaming him. They sent him to bed without food tonight! They don't get that kid witches and wizards sometimes do magic without meaning too when they experience strong emotions," I ranted.

My mother placed her hand on my shoulder. She gave me a soft smile. "Sweetheart I know that you care about Harry. It's nice to see. He's a good boy. But don't worry. He'll be away from the Dursley's soon enough. You'll both be away at Hogwarts. And in the morning I'll send you over there with some breakfast for him," she consoled me.

They wouldn't even let me bring it to him. I knew the Dursley's well enough to know that they would tell me that they would give it to Harry and then feed it to Dudley. "Why can't we just adopt Harry?" I asked bitterly.

Hey, I'd always wanted a brother. Both of my parents laughed at me and helped me down from the counter as I let out a soft yawn. It had been a long day. I walked up to my bathroom and changed into my matching maroon pajamas. My parents seemed determined that I was going to be in Gryffindor house. Considering that was where they had both been too. They had told me that Harry's parents had both been in Gryffindor too. It sounded like the most similar of houses to the Thunderbird's. Perhaps besides Slytherin. But they would have a canary if I told them that. Evidently there was a nasty House rivalry there.

Once I had my teeth brushed my parents rasped softly at the door. I turned to see that they were both standing in the threshold of the door. "Tara. You mentioned that you were talking to the snake. What do you mean?" My father asked.

I knew that I should have told him that the snake spoke to me. That I had actually been able to understand what the boa was saying to me, but for some reason I couldn't find it in myself to tell him. Something told me that it was not a good thing. Especially the way that my parents had looked at each other before. So I smiled and shook my head.

"You know when you see a cute animal and you start talking to it? That's what Harry and I were doing. We were just talking to it. I think that it was fascinated by the way that our jaws were moving. They're animals. They don't speak. The thing didn't understand what we were doing," I reasoned. "I'm just glad that it didn't bite anyone," I added.

Not that it seemed like it was going to bite anyone. The thing looked more inclined to get out of there and head back home. "We are too. Good night, sweetheart," my mother said. She leaned over and kissed me on the forehead, my father following suit a moment later. "Would you like to go to Diagon Alley with us sometime next week or the week after? We have some shopping to do and we haven't been there yet," my mother offered.

There weren't many ways that I genuinely enjoyed being a girl. But there would always be one. Shopping. Despite the fact that most of the things that I bought were books and Quidditch supplies, I loved shopping. And Diagon Alley was supposed to be one of the best Wizarding World shopping areas. "Absolutely!" I shouted.

My parents both laughed softly. They were obviously expecting me to say yes. "I'll give you a day's notice before we go. You'll have to give Harry some excuse." I nodded sadly. I wanted Harry to be able to go but I knew that he would see it soon enough. We could go Hogwarts shopping together. I gave my parents a quick hug before turning back to my bed. They both let me climb into bed and nod at them to turn the light off.

The room was plunged into darkness and I rolled over to face the window that was facing the Dursley's home. I could see the shadow of Vermin and Horse-Face. They seemed to be arguing. Probably still about what had happened at the zoo. Part of me was hoping that Harry was starting to realize that something was different about him. In just a month, he would realize how different he really was. We would have our letters and be on the way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With each passing day I got more and more excited. It was to the point now that I could hardly sleep anymore. There would be real wands and I would get to meet a ton of other witches and wizards. It would be my second home.

After nearly an hour of imagining what Hogwarts would be like, and trying to convince myself that I was still upset over the fact that I wouldn't be going to Ilvermorny, I closed my eyes to try and drift off to sleep. That night I dreamt of sunbathing in the Brazilian rainforests.


	3. Diagon Alley

As funny as the boa constrictor incident at the zoo had been, it had resulted in a rather boring rest of the summer for Harry and myself. For nearly a month Harry hadn't been allowed outside of his house. He had been trapped in that stupid cupboard under the stairs, only let out a few times a day to go to the bathroom and stretch his legs. They fed him his dinner through the slot in the bottom of the door. Every time that I knocked on the door to see if Harry was around I was told that he was 'busy with chores.' It really meant that they were giving him slave labor.

Every now and again I did actually go over and hang out with Dudley for lack of something better to do. I wanted to go to Diagon Alley - which was supposed to be one of the best Wizarding World shopping areas around - more than anything else. My parents seemed to think that I wouldn't be okay to go there by myself. I couldn't just Apparate. I wasn't old enough. And I didn't know where exactly Diagon Alley was. I was pretty sure that it was somewhere in London. I had asked my parents once before if I could take a cab but they said that an hour in the cab was too long. And they refused to let me go anywhere with the Floo system without their supervision.

Just because I had accidentally wound up in India one time they thought that I was unable to use it properly. It had been an accident. When I was six I'd walked into the fireplace, as I saw my parents do frequently, and mumbled something that was next to unintelligible. Apparently the fireplace thought that I had said Dubai because that was where I'd ended up. It had taken me hours to find my way back home and I was a sobbing mess when I got back. I hadn't wanted to use the Floo system without them for months.

My parents promised me that today they were going to take me to go see Diagon Alley. We were expecting my Hogwarts letter today and I could barely sit still with anticipation. I knew that today would be the day that I could finally tell Harry what he was. I would get to tell him all about the Wizarding World. We would be bringing Harry with us. My mother and I would Floo together and my father would follow with Harry. There we would be able to take him to Gringott's and get him his school supplies.

I wanted to leave now but I knew that I had to wait. Patience was key. That was what my parents always said. Besides, I knew that I would have to wait for them to get back from work. They were both at the Ministry until midday. Most of the parents of First-Year age Hogwarts students would be forcibly dragged back home by their children once the letters came. It was somewhat of a tradition to be brought back home at midday and forced out to Diagon Alley to get the school stuff. Well, more like wands. They were always the first things that kids got.

Just as I was thinking about what it was that kids were going to be getting a large owl started pecking at my kitchen window. It was a Horned owl. I jumped up from my spot on the couch and pushed the window open. The owl flew into the kitchen and landed on the table, dropping the letter on my table. It hopped over to me and nibbled softly on my shoulder. I laughed softly. "Alright, just a second. I have to find the treats." I walked into the cupboard and grabbed the owl treats, feeding him two, just because he'd brought the letter that I'd been so excited to get.

It took me a few minutes to shoo to owl on his way. I knew that he had more letters to deliver. After giving in and feeding him another treat he went on his way. I shut the window behind him and ran back over to my kitchen table. I quickly scribbled a note to my parents, telling them that my letter had finally come and that it was time to go to Diagon Alley, and shouted out for Hale. When the owl finally came over to me he looked less than thrilled that I had woken him up. After a few minutes of a one-sided argument, Hale finally picked up the letter, swiping me across the forehead with his wings as he made his way to the Ministry.

Finally I was able to glance down at the letter written to me. It was on old parchment and written in deep emerald. Whoever wrote it had stunning penmanship. It was clearly written with a quill and ink. It was the one thing that bothered me about the Wizarding World. Why couldn't we write with pens like the No-Maj's? I stared down at the letter.

Miss T. Nox

Third Bedroom to the Left on the Second Floor

5 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

My hand was shaking in anticipation as I turned the letter over. There was no return address. Most kids would know what to do, and I assumed that there would be instructions on the inside of the letter. Turning it over I saw that there was the sigil of Hogwarts. It was a purple wax seal with a large gold H in the center. Surrounding it was the four House symbols; the serpent for Slytherin, the badger for Hufflepuff, the eagle for Ravenclaw, and a lion for Gryffindor. My heart gave a little leap as I broke the seal.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Miss Nox,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress.

Despite the fact that I'd known for years that I would be accepted into Hogwarts it made my heart leap with joy at the thought that I would be going to a real school. Some part of me always thought that when I was taken away from Ilvermorny no one else would want me. The thought of going to Hogwarts, one of the greatest magical schools in the world, made me let out a little screech. Next door I could hear Vermin shouting through his open window for me to pipe down. I laughed softly and continued reading on the second piece of paper.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Uniform

First-year students will require:

1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4\. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

Course Books

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

I already had a few of the books. I had The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), A History of Magic, A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration, and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. That only left a few books left to buy. Somewhere around here I also had Magical Drafts and Potions. Or at least I used to. Until I had spilled something on it. I still wasn't sure what it was but I was glad that it was not on me. It had completely dissolved the book. When my parents had asked me where it had gone I'd lied and said that I lost it in the move. My eyes continued to scan down the page.

Other Equipment:

Wand

Cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

Set of glass or crystal phials

Telescope set

Brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.

That was the one part that bothered me. I wanted my own broomstick. My father had promised me that if I managed to make it onto the Quidditch team of whatever House that I was in he would get me the new Nimbus 2000. It was the best broom in the world. He had one. First-Years at Ilvermorny were allowed their brooms but they weren't allowed to have them in their rooms. They had to be kept in storage. At least they were allowed to have one. Now, even if I was on the team, I'd have to use one of the school's brooms. Probably a Cleansweep, like the one that I had now.

Hale flew back in through the open window and landed on the table. I shooed him away from my Hogwarts letter and he nipped at my hand as he gave me back the letter from my parents. The letter read that they would be back in about half an hour and to go over and see if Harry's letter had been delivered yet. They told me to start explaining to him what was happening so that Diagon Alley would be somewhat less of a shock.

By now I knew that Harry was allowed out of the cupboard. I dashed out of my house, startling some of Ms. Figg's cats. They went running back to her home. I ran up the drive to the Dursley's household and let out a few deep breaths. I had to pretend to be just a little bit calm. Especially since the Dursley's were probably in a bit of a tizzy right now. I finally knocked on the door. It opened a moment later and I gave Dudley a fake smile. "Hey Tara," he greeted me. He was wearing his Smelting's uniform.

"Dudley," I greeted simply. He stepped aside to let me into the house. I could tell that he was hoping for a comment on his Smelting's uniform but I ignored it. I knew that he and Piers, along with their other friends, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon, had all been 'Harry Hunting' for the latter part of the summer.

As I walked into the kitchen to face Harry and Horse-Face I smiled. Although my smile faded quickly when I caught the horrible smell. Horse-Face was in the kitchen, standing over a metal tub. Harry motioned me forward and I smiled softly at him. The letter hadn't come yet. I could tell by the still calm air of the house. I looked over the tub and saw that there were dirty rags in the grey water. "What is that?" I asked Harry is disgust.

He shrugged his shoulders at me. "Not the slightest," he said before walking to stand next to Horse-Face. "What's this?" He asked her. Her lips tightened to the point where I was sure that they were going to crack in half.

"Your new school uniform," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. They were going to try and force Harry to wear that? At least Hogwarts uniforms were better.

Harry looked in the bowl again. His face of disgust matched mine. "Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet." I snorted under my breath and stomped on his foot. If he wanted food until the end of August he was going to have to be somewhat nice.

Horse-Face appreciated the comment much less than I had. "Don't be stupid," she snapped. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished." Oh God. He'd look like an elephant in Dudley's old clothes. Even Dudley's baby clothes would more than likely be too big on Harry.

Vermin and Dudley both came into the living room, wrinkling their noses at the smell. Vermin took a seat on his old recliner and began to read through the newspaper. I couldn't understand why he found it so fascinating. The pictures didn't even move. Dudley was banging his Smelting stick, something that I assumed was to be used for smacking around younger and smaller Smelting students, on the table. The mail slot clicked open and I smirked. Somewhere in there would be Harry's letter for Hogwarts.

I tapped my foot impatiently. "Get the mail, Dudley," Vermin said from behind his paper.

Dudley continued to bang his Smelting stick against the table. I wanted to use the Levitating spell to smack him across the backside with it. "Make Harry get it," Dudley insisted.

"Get the mail, Harry," Vermin parroted to Harry.

"Make Dudley get it," Harry insisted.

"Get the mail!" I snapped at Harry. All eyes turned to me curiously, including Harry's. I never agreed with the Dursley's. On anything. It must have been weird to hear me agree with them to make Harry do such a mundane thing.

"Listen to her. Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley," Vermin put in. I watched as Harry dodged the Smelting stick that was jabbed his way and went to the grab the mail. I could hear his shoes scuffing against the floor as he walked back into the main living room. There were three letters in his hand. My heart was pumping loudly, so loud that I thought that they could hear it.

My eyes traveled over the letters with Harry's. The first was from Vermin's sister, Marge. She was ten times worse than he was. She was probably one of my least favorite people in the world. When I was younger I had accidentally broken the chair that she was sitting in after she had called Harry a useless waste of space. The next was more than likely a bill. The third was the one that I was looking for. It was written on old yellow postage with bright emerald, looping handwriting. It was addressed as:

Mr. H. Potter

The Cupboard under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

Harry's hands trembled as he flipped the letter open. Just like mine, it had the Hogwarts shield on the back. I nudged Harry with my arm. I knew that he was shocked. He never got letters except for the occasions last summer when my parents had taken me back to the States for a few weeks. I had written to Harry with a promise that I would keep in contact with him. "Go on. Open it. It's addressed to you," I whispered to him.

Like myself, Vermin was not fond of waiting. "Hurry up, boy!" Vermin shouted from the kitchen. We were standing on the edge of the living room. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Vermin the bill and the postcard, and sat down on the couch. He slowly began to open the yellow envelope.

I wanted to shout at him to hurry up but I kept calm as I watched. Harry looked over to me, as if he was asking me whether or not he should. "Go on. What's the worst that can happen?" I teased softly.

He laughed and looked slightly more relieved, but his hands were still shaking. In the kitchen Vermin ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard. "Marge's ill," he informed Horse-Face. "Ate a funny whelk-"

"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. I realized that he had seen Harry opening the letter. I debated on attempting to set his pants on fire. "Dad, Harry's got something!" Harry had pulled the letter out of the packaging and was about to unfold it, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Vermin. I went to reach for it, but my arms were too short. I missed by a mile.

"That's mine!" Harry barked, trying to snatch it back. It was no use. Vermin was holding it out of the both of our reach.

"Give it back! It's his!" I shouted.

"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Vermin, giving a cruel laugh. He shook the letter open with one hand and glanced at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the same color as my old parchment, the ones from Ilvermorny that I'd never used. "P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.

They knew. They knew exactly what this letter was. I glared softly and moved to grab the letter. They were not going to hide this from Harry. Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Vermin held it high out of his reach. It wasn't really like Dudley could jump and reach it. Horse-Face took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise. "Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"

They stared at each other, seemingly forgetting that Harry, Dudley, and I were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.

"I want to read that letter," Harry said loudly, "as it's mine." The tactic did not work the way that Harry thought that it would.

"Get out, all three of you," croaked Vermin, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. My blood boiled. They were not going to do this. Harry had to know who he was. He had to go to Hogwarts. Harry didn't move. Neither did Dudley or myself.

"I want my letter!" He shouted.

A moment later Dudley demanded the same. "Let me see it!"

"Out!" Vermin roared. He took Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks, Harry grabbing me by the arm, and threw us into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind him as he walked back into the living room.

Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. I had stayed in the background during the fight. Now I was pressed behind Harry and Dudley, just barely able to make out any conversation.

"Vernon," Horse-Face was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?" She asked. I nearly laughed. Everyone knew that Albus Dumbledore knew everything. We didn't know how but we all knew that he was one of the smartest wizards on the planet.

"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Vermin wildly. Even from here I could tell that he was probably sweating and pacing. They had been avoiding this for ten years. Now it was coming back to them.

"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want-" Horse-Face said before being interrupted by her husband.

"No," he said firmly. It didn't matter anyways. We weren't going to let them tell us that Harry didn't want to go to Hogwarts. He was going. One way or another, he was going. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything..."

"But-"

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?" Vermin asked his wife. I rolled my eyes at them. Magic was not dangerous unless is was uncontrolled. That was why kids were usually more dangerous than adults were. They didn't know how to manage their magic.

The room went silent and I fought to press against the door. Dudley was blocking most of it. "What's going on in there?" I asked Dudley, to see if he could actually see anything. I couldn't see, I could only hear.

The door to the living room swung open and the three of us dropped onto our backsides. I was sure that I'd never seen Vermin that angry before. "Go to your cupboard!" Vermin shouted at Harry. "Go to your room!" He then shouted at Dudley. "Get out of my house!" He roared at me. Harry stepped in to say something but before he could, Vermin had backed me up to the door.

"Give Harry the letter! It's his!" I tried to argue once more. Vermin didn't care. He opened the door from behind me and pushed me roughly out. I fell over my own feet and hit the concrete sidewalk roughly, groaning at the sharp pain that went through my tailbone.

"Tara!" I heard Harry yell. That was the last intelligible thing that I could hear anyone say before the door was slammed shut in my face. It was bolted a moment later, shouts echoing through the neighborhood.

I could have unlocked it, I knew the spell, but I didn't. Harry would have to wait. I needed to get to my parents and make sure that someone knew that the letter was not going to get to Harry in the traditional sense. If I knew Vermin he was going to burn it and make sure that Harry thought that it was just a cruel joke. I had to make sure that another letter was sent to Harry. Or maybe it would make sense if Dumbledore came here himself and delivered the letter. One way or another, I was going to make sure that Harry was at Hogwarts with me on September 1st.

So instead of continuing to gripe to myself I stood and marched over to the door to my house. I threw it open and saw my mother and father fawning over the letter. They were probably happy to know that I was definitely going to be going to Hogwarts. Not that anyone thought that I wouldn't get in. My name had been down since birth. My parents had both gone there. Dumbledore had apparently even paid me a visit a few times when I was an infant. Harry was in a similar position. Not that he knew that.

My parents turned around to see me pop into the kitchen. They were both grinning madly at me. "I see you've already opened your Hogwarts letter. It's exciting, isn't it? How is Harry taking the news? Oh Tara, you should have brought him back here! We're just going to be taking him with us anyways. Maybe it's for the best that we speak to Vernon and Petunia," my mother babbled.

"Mom!" I shouted, cutting her off. She stared at me curiously. "They took the letter from Harry before he got the chance to open it. Vermin burned it! They're going to try and hide it from him," I told them.

My parents both stared at each other in shock. "Did he see anything about the letter?" My father asked.

I shook my head. "The only thing that he saw was the Hogwarts shield on the back. He was about to unfold the letters inside when Vermin grabbed it from him. Mom, Dad, how are we going to get Harry to realize what he is? They destroyed the letter! I should go over there and tell him what he is," I muttered before turning towards the door.

"No!" My mother shouted. She grabbed me and put me back in my spot. "No one can tell Harry what he is until he gets that letter. We're under strict direction from Dumbledore not to tell him what he is. And Harry still has a few weeks to get the letter back to them," my mother said.

I rolled my eyes at them. Some adults were so thick. "You don't get it. They burned the letter! There's no way that Harry's going to know what the letter said. We have to tell someone back at Hogwarts. Maybe Dumbledore can come and tell Harry himself," I said hopefully.

My father shook his head. "Tara, there isn't a thing that happens that Dumbledore doesn't know about. Harry is going to get that latter one way or another. Trust me. If it makes you feel better I'll send an owl to Dumbledore, telling him what happened. Even if Harry doesn't get the letter he could maybe send Hagrid or someone else. Don't worry, Tara, no matter where they try and bring Harry, he's going to find out what he is," my father told me with a smile.

"Now, what do you say that we go to Diagon Alley and buy you your Hogwarts supplies? I know you've been looking forward to it for almost a year," my mother told me with a smile.

She was right. I had been looking forward to getting my school supplies, with Harry. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun doing everything by myself. I knew that I would be alone. My parents had to run errands. They were going to let Harry and I get everything by ourselves. "I don't want to go school shopping by myself. Harry was supposed to come with me," I said sadly.

My mother and father both exchanged a look and sighed. They grabbed me in for a hug. "Sweetheart, we can wait to get you your school things until Harry can come too. But how about we go to Diagon Alley anyways? That way you'll know all about it when Harry can come! You can give him a tour. There's no point in staying here. It seems that Harry is on lock-down," my mother said softly.

"Can't we just adopt, Harry?" I asked bitterly.

They both laughed softly. "Perhaps one day we will," my father told me with a smile. He went rooting through his pockets and grabbed a handful of coins. He gave them to me to put in my pouch, which I did. He gave me twenty Galleons, ten Sickles, and five Knuts. "Go take these and do something fun, yeah?" My father asked me.

I smiled. "Yeah. Can we go?" I asked softly.

We walked over to the fireplace and stood inside it. My mother had a hand on my shoulder and my father was holding my mother's other hand. He grabbed a handful of Floo powder and cleared his throat. "Diagon Alley!" He shouted before throwing it into the green flames. They shot up and we were pulled through the Floo network. My stomach felt like it was turning inside out and my intestines felt like they were falling out of my throat. Finally we came to a fireplace and my father jumped out, with my mother and me in tow.

Without giving me a moment to recover, my parents pulled me out of the fireplace. Someone else almost immediately took our place. It was another family. Probably another First-Year. We were in a bookstore that was poorly organized. With the exception of the schoolbooks section. That was currently being combed through by well over a hundred kids. I smiled and turned away. I would come back here later, maybe when there were less people roaming around. As much as I liked books, I didn't want to have to deal with the crowd. It was called Flourish and Blotts.

Once we were on the edge of the store my mother and father pulled me close into them. "We're heading to Gringott's, dear. We have to sort a few things out. We'll be back for you in two hours, you understand?" My mother asked me. I nodded happily. "Good. Go buy yourself something and make sure you save room if you get any food. Dinner is soon!"

My father shook his head with a fond smile over my mother's shoulder. He grabbed onto her and pulled her away slowly. They gave me one last wave before disappearing through the incredibly thick crowd. Most of the people here were families. I could tell that most of them were students who had just gotten their Hogwarts letters. Many of them were running around with others who were clearly their friends. I suddenly felt extremely alone and I didn't like it. I wished that Harry was here.

Turning towards the main walkway of the Alley I gasped softly. This place was amazing. It was incredible. Shops lined the entire street. Each one was more magical than the next. At the end was a large grey building that my parents had just walked into. It was Gringott's. Most of the shops seemed to be family-owned. Young witches and wizards were running in and out of each one. Some came out empty-handed and others came out with bundles of things. Each person made me smile. They were all so excited. So was I. This place was enough to make everyone feel like a No-Maj. The magic seemed to be better here and it seemed like it was oozing out of every crack and crevice.

The first store I passed was for second-hand brooms. There were a handful of kids in there. They all seemed to be buying. None of them were my age. They were all a little older. Most of them seemed in between twelve and fourteen. They were probably the kids that were wealthy enough to buy brooms but too poor to actually afford a brand-new broom. I thought about walking in but I decided to pass. I really wanted to check out a store that had new brooms. Maybe I wouldn't get one now, but I intended to eventually join one of the Hogwarts Quidditch teams, and I would take my father up on his promise to buy me the Nimbus 2000.

Next to it was Amanuensis Quills. Like its name suggested, it was a store that sold all sorts of quills. I thought about picking something up but I passed. My parents would buy me all of the quills that I needed when I actually went Hogwarts shopping. Next door to that was a store that I knew my mother would eventually drag me into. Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions. I passed without going in. There were quite a few kids in there. It actually looked rather nice but I decided to wait until I actually was forced to go in. I had a feeling that it wouldn't be too long.

A few shops down was an Apothecary. There was everything that someone would need in there. In the front window were sets for each year of Hogwarts student's needs. I made a mental note to return there. Next to that was Broomstix. It was the shop that sold broomsticks. I spent most of my time in there. As I had figured, most of the kids inside were crowded around the Nimbus 2000 display. I checked the price tag on it. It was well over two-hundred Galleons. I frowned and turned to leave the store. I wasn't getting that broom without my parents' money.

The other store that was overly-crowded was called Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. I smiled and went in. It seemed that they sold almost everything that someone could want. Although you could barely move, considering how many kids were walking back and forth in the store. There were things as simple as Invisible Ink and Inflatable Tongues. The Inflatable Tongues were to combat the Tongue-Tying Curse and allow someone to speak again. There were Dung Bombs that I passed quickly. I knew all too well what they were. There were Fanged Flyer's - Frisbee's with fanged edges that would cut you - that I knew would give my mother a heart attack. There were also Screaming Yo Yo's and Sneakoscope's. I thought about buying a multitude of things but I left empty-handed. If I didn't find anything else I would definitely come back here.

There was a junk shop that I passed without a second thought. The only thing in there that was of mild interest were broken wands. I supposed that someone would be able to fix them. Next to it was the Leaky Cauldron. It would apparently dump someone out on the No-Maj side of London. It was how witches and wizards got back here. It was invisible to No-Maj's. I decided that I would have to go and check it out later.

Not far from the Leaky Cauldron was Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions. There was a fair amount of older teenage witches in there. I knew that it was a store that I would have to stop in in a few years. Acne was not something that I was planning on dealing with. Next door to that was Magical Menagerie. It was a store full of pets. I smiled and walked in, spending a good amount of time playing with the cats, toads, rats, and others. There were no owls though. I sighed and left the store, determined to go find them. Hale was alright, but I wanted an owl that wasn't going to bite me every time I tried to tell it to deliver a letter.

Obscurus Books was next to that. I liked it. It had a number of odd books that were hard to find in other stores. It was also pricier. The cheapest book that they had was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. And I already had that book. I left with a promise to come back when I had more money. Ollivander's had a line out the door. He was the sole wandmaker in Diagon Alley. I wanted to go in more than anything but I was waiting for Harry. So I sighed and passed it by. Potage's Cauldron Shop was next to that. Like many of the other stores, most of the customers were Hogwarts students, looking to buy their supplies.

Rosa Lee Teabag was a tea store that had mostly older women perusing through the shelves. I smiled and passed by it. I was more of a coffee fan. It came from living in the United States. Scribbulus Writing Instruments was next to it. I passed it. It was extremely busy with people that looked old and young. People always needed to write. There was a Second-Hand bookshop and robes shop. Neither one of them were doing very good business. I sighed but passed by anyways.

There was Slug and Jigger's Apothecary. They seemed to be selling most of the Hogwarts supplies as well as the other Apothecary in the front of Diagon Alley. They were slightly more expensive. Sugarplum's Sweets Shop was next to it. I could smell the sugar emanating into the air and I grinned. My mother would kill me if I went in. I begrudgingly passed it. TerrorTours was next to it. It seemed like a Wizarding World traveling agency. The Ministry Press was next to that. It was a publishing agency that worked with the Ministry of Magic.

On the other side of the store was The Daily Prophet's main office. It was one of the largest stores. The Daily Prophet was one of the most popular Wizarding World newspapers. My parents read it, as did most people. Nearly everyone loved it. Although they had a rather nasty new writer named Rita Skeeter. Twilfitt and Tatting's was an upscale clothing store. I passed by it with a snort. I was not going in there unless my mother made me. Which I knew she would. Whizz Hard Books was another book store. It sold only wizarding books. Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment was at the end of the street. It had nearly everything that the other stores didn't.

There were lots of vendors in between and a few of the stores. There was a flower vendor, a man who was selling roasted chestnuts, and a small jewelry vendor. I turned around and went to head back to the stores that I had passed. I went back by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and smiled. My parents would take me there later. My eyes locked onto a store that had been covered with students before. There was finally enough room to make it in the door. Quality Quidditch Supplies. I grinned madly and made my way in.

It was like candy to me. I knew that I would have to bring my father back through here. It sold Quaffles, Bludgers, and Snitches. There were even Spiked Bludgers that most parents were trying to keep their kids away from. It also sold the bats and mini goal-posts. Quidditch Starter Kits were flying off of the shelves. Literally. Broomstick Servicing Kits seemed to be almost gone. Quidditch uniforms for every Hogwarts House were all over the place. Gryffindor seemed to be the most popular. There was also a Chudley Cannon's jersey that I snorted at. There were Quidditch gloves and helmets - that some parents were forcing their kids to buy. In the corner were robes and rope belts that the players wore.

On the back wall was what everyone was crowded around. Once I saw a break in the crowd I walked forward and scanned over all of the brooms. There was the Comet 260 that seemed to be reasonably popular. It was what most kids were buying. Others were also buying versions of the Cleansweep that I had. They were decent brooms. In the far corner, up out of reach, was the Nimbus 2000. Everyone was staring at it and whispering about what a great broom it was.

"Why do you waste all of your money on these things?" I heard an older voice drone. It was definitely from an older teenager. For a moment I thought that he was talking to me until another voice spoke up.

"The same reason you waste all of your time on being a pesky git," the other voice said. I snorted softly and realized that the voices had probably heard me. I blushed and looked down towards the ground. That was embarrassing.

"C'mon Perce, pretend like you're having fun," a third voice spoke up. It was startlingly similar to the second voice. I had a feeling that the three were somehow related. They all sounded the slightest bit similar. Probably brothers.

I ran my hand over the Cleansweep. I couldn't afford it. I couldn't afford anything in this shop that I actually wanted. "Quidditch players do not contribute anything to society. They only grunt and swing and yell at each other. It's a waste of time," the first voice spoke up once more.

That time I couldn't hold my tongue. Just like my father, I had a temper that was about as short as I was. "Excuse you!" I snapped, whirling around on the boy. He looked like he was about fifteen. He had bright red hair and green eyes. He looked stunned that I had even spoken to him. "Quidditch players are not useless! They have to use all of their senses while determining what to do at least five moves ahead of the move that they are about to make. In school they have to keep up their grades and most are well-mannered. The only waste around here in the breath that you're using," I snarled at the older boy.

He looked absolutely shell-shocked at my choice of wording. "And who are you?" The boy asked me after a minute. The other two, who I had yet to face, were laughing loudly behind us.

"Tara," I answered.

"Do you go to Hogwarts?" The boy asked me.

I nodded proudly. "I'm going to be a First-Year," I told the boy.

He smirked at me. "Well, Tara," he accentuated my name, "I'll have you know that I am one of the Prefects for Gryffindor House. I do so hope that you get sorted there as well. I know that we will be enjoying our time together as I watch over you in detention," he told me proudly.

Before I got the chance to say anything else the other two voices stepped forward. "Lay off of her, Perce. He isn't going to do anything to you. Fred Weasley. That's my twin George, and this twat is Percy, our older brother," the first twin introduced themselves. The twins shared the same red hair and green eyes that Percy did. They were younger though. They looked like they were in between Percy and myself. They both had mischievous smiles on their faces that brought an infectious smile to my face.

I held out a hand for Fred to shake. He took it and George took his place a moment later. After a beat passed I even turned to Percy and shook his head. It was very professional but better than nothing. Percy was not smiling but Fred and George still were. "Like I said, I'm Tara. Tara Nox."

Some hint of recognition came into Fred and George's eyes. Percy was nodding at me. "I know that name," Fred finally said.

A small grin appeared on my face. If they were in here I assumed that they were pretty big Quidditch fans. "You guys wouldn't happen to like following professional Quidditch, would you?" I asked them. Percy shook his head no while Fred and George nodded theirs vigorously. "You might know my father. Marcus Nox. He played as a Chaser on the United States Stars a while ago," I told them.

"That's where your accent is from," Percy said suddenly. I smiled at him and nodded as Fred and George began to smack each other.

"That's awesome!" They both shouted. I smiled and nodded. It was pretty awesome. I wished that my father still played. I missed going to watch his practices. "So are you a Quidditch player too?" George asked me.

Despite the fact that I couldn't see myself I knew that my eyes had brightened. "Absolutely! Mostly I play Chaser with my father. Although I'm a halfway decent Keeper too. I was hoping that once I got to Hogwarts I could try out for the Quidditch team of whatever House I end up getting sorted in. Although I don't know how well First-Years do," I said softly.

"Not well at all," Percy cut in.

Fred and George both stomped on his feet. He cringed in pain. "Not that Percy isn't wrong but there's always a chance. Especially if you're half as good as your father. George and I are on the Gryffindor team. We're the Beaters," Fred told me. I smiled and nodded. "There's only room for a Seeker on the Gryffindor team right now but we need an alternate Chaser too," he said.

A frown filled my face. I was a pretty lousy Seeker. I wanted to be a Chaser. I supposed that an alternate wouldn't be too bad. Especially as a First-Year. "You think that she'll be in Gryffindor?" Percy asked his brothers.

"Absolutely," Fred said.

"Definitely," George added.

The smile came back on my face. "Well come on Miss Nox, let us take you for a Butterbeer." I smiled and nodded as Fred took one arm and George took the other. Percy rolled his eyes and walked with us anyways. The three brothers walked with me towards the Leaky Cauldron. We were coming down to the twenty minute mark of when I had to meet my parents. They sat me down at a small table in the middle of the bar. Fred and George took the seats at my side. Percy sat across from me.

They ordered the three of us Butterbeer's and I dropped back into my seat. "So is it just the three of you?" I asked them as we waited for our drinks to be brought to us.

This time all of the brothers laughed. It must have been a large family. I'd heard of the Weasley's before. They were an old and large Pureblood wizarding family. "Our father is Arthur Weasley. He works at the Misuse of Muggle Artifact's office in the Ministry. Our mother is Molly. She's a stay-at-home mother. Bill is the oldest. He works at Gringott's as a Curse-Breaker. Charlie is next. He studies dragons in Romania. I'm next and in my fifth year at Hogwarts. Fred and George are after me; Third-Years. Ron is our younger brother. Like you, he's going to be a First-Year. Ginny is the youngest. She's our only sister. She's a year younger than Ron," Percy explained.

My jaw nearly dropped. That was a huge family. That was their two parents along with seven kids. I could only imagine how busy that household was. "Sounds like you guys have quite the fun house," I said with a smile.

"It's a disaster," Percy told me with a wry smile. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that he really did love his brother and his family.

The Butterbeer's came to the table and I took a small sip. The twins laughed as the foam left a small mustache on my upper lip. I giggled and accepted a napkin from Percy. "So where is the rest of your family?" I asked them.

They weren't carrying anything. I assumed that Fred, George, and Percy all got hand-me-down books. Bill must have gotten all the new books and the kids must have each used his. Although Fred and George would probably need an extra set of Third-Year books. "Charlie is off in Romania and Bill is at work. Ron is getting the things that he needs for Hogwarts. Ginny and Mum are with him. Dad's at work too," Fred explained.

I nodded and took another sip of the sweet drink. Fred and George had already finished theirs and I grinned. They were certainly teenage boys. "What about you? Shouldn't you be shopping for Hogwarts? Letters just came out today," Percy told me.

"Yeah I got my letter this morning but I'm waiting to go shopping. My friend is still waiting on his letter. Must have gotten lost in the mail," I lied. "Once he gets his letter I'll come back and get my things. Besides, I already have a few of the books and things that I need."

Percy looked confused about how I knew which things that I already had. "How do you already have some of the things that you need for Hogwarts?" He asked.

Sometimes I forgot that Hogwarts didn't do a summer program like Ilvermorny did. They had to wait until a month before school started to actually get the things that they needed. "I forget that Hogwarts is so different from Ilvermorny. It does a summer program that kids start when they turn eight. They do it until they can come as First-Years. We don't have wands or anything like that but we practice theory and spoken, wandless, magic. So I have some books and the cauldron, scales, and telescopes; stuff like that," I explained to the boys.

"What's an Ilvimerny?" Fred asked, painfully butchering the name of my former school.

I laughed and shook my head at him. "It's the school that I thought that I would be going to. Il-ver-mor-ny," I accentuated slowly.

"Ilvermorny," Fred parroted back to me slowly.

With a small smile on my face I nodded at him. Percy broke our concentration. "What is Ilvermorny like? And where is it? I've only ever seen Hogwarts. Besides Durmstrang and Beauxbatons I don't know about any other magical schools," he said.

I dug through the back of my brain to think about everything that I knew about Ilvermorny. "It's on Mount Greylock in Massachusetts. The Headmaster is Agilbert Fontaine. It's castle and there's almost always a mist over everything. It makes it look like something out of a fairy-tale. It's newer than Hogwarts, it's six hundred and thirty years younger than Hogwarts. Like Hogwarts, we have four Houses. The founders of the school each created their own Houses. Isolt Sayer created Horned Serpent. Webster Boot created Wampus. Chadwick Boot created Thunderbird. James Steward created Pukwudgie. They say that Horned Serpent represents the mind of a witch or wizard. It also tends to favor scholars. They say that Wampus represents the body of a witch or wizard. It tends to favor warriors. Thunderbird represents the soul of a witch or wizard. It tends to favor adventurers. Pukwudgie represents the heart of a witch or wizard. It tends to favor healers," I explained.

The boys all nodded. I knew that they were processing what I had just told them. "Did the kids in the summer programs get Sorted too?" George asked me.

I nodded at them. "Yeah. Not everyone came to the summer programs. Lots of Half-Bloods choose to just wait. Some Purebloods let their parents teach them until it's time to come. And No-Maj-Born's don't get their letters until they turn eleven and are put in the registry," I explained.

"No-Maj?" Fred asked.

He didn't know what a No-Maj was? What kind of Third-Year didn't know what a No-Maj was? But it wasn't just Fred and George that didn't seem to understand. Percy looked lost as well. "You know? Like someone with no magical blood in their veins," I explained slowly.

"Oh! That's right, different countries have different terms for it," Percy told me. I cocked my eyebrow at them. "Muggles. That's what we call them here in England. Most of Europe call them Muggles. Muggle-Born's. That's what we're used to," he explained.

I nodded. "Two years here and no one ever bothered explaining to me that you guys call No-Maj's, Muggles. I like that. It takes a little less effort," I said. Fred and George both laughed. Even Percy cracked a smile.

"So how do they do the Sorting at Ilvermorny?" Percy asked.

My hands shook slightly. I was so terrified during my Sorting I had thought that I would keel over and die. I had never been as happy as when it was over. I couldn't believe that I'd have to go through it again at Hogwarts. "We're led in first. We step onto a Gordian Knot on the floor in the center of the entrance hall. These huge wooden statues of the mascots for the four Houses face us on the knot. The carved statues react if they want that student in their House. The older students watch in silence from a circular balcony on a floor above them," I explained.

Percy looked absolutely enamored at the knowledge of what was going on in another magical school. "So do the statues just speak and say that they want you?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No. They do things if they want you. For Horned Serpent the crystal in the forehead of the serpent glows. For Wampus, its carving roars. For Thunderbird the carving beats its wings. For Pukwudgie their carving raises its arrow."

"But it gives you a choice of where to go?" George asked me.

"Yeah. Well sort of. I mean if you get more than one House that wants you," I explained.

The three of them looked floored by that. "So more than one House can want you?" Fred asked me. I nodded. "What happens if more than one House wants you?" He asked.

"You pick which one you want," I explained.

"Wow. At Hogwarts we have the Sorting Hat. It combs through your mind and picks out which attributes you have the most of in your mind. It tells you where to go," Percy explained. That certainly sounded easier than Ilvermorny. "So when you were Sorted, what happened?" Percy asked me.

I very nearly fell over my own feet and destroyed the carvings that had been there for over three hundred years. I decided not to say that. "The Wampus roared first. A moment later the Thunderbird beat its wings. I wasn't sure. For a long time I stood and waited. But I finally decided that I wanted to be an adventurer. So I picked Thunderbird," I told them.

The boys all turned and shared a grin that only brothers could, before turning back to me. "Definitely Gryffindor," Fred said. I laughed and smiled, polishing off the last bit of Butterbeer. "We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks, Tara. Make sure you come and find us. We'll give you the grand tour," Fred told me, a devious look in the back of his eyes.

"You most certainly will not!" Percy snapped at his brothers. "Don't listen to anything that they tell you. They'll get you detention for a month. If you know what's best for you, avoid them at all costs," he warned me. I snorted and nodded.

"Oi! I resent that!" George shouted. He looked like he was about to continue arguing with his older brother when a startlingly loud voice rang out through the restaurant.

"Fred! George! Percy!" The feminine voice hollered.

The whole restaurant turned back to see a short and stocky red-headed woman. She had a young red-headed girl clinging to her skirt. Most likely Molly and Ginny Weasley. Fred, George, and Percy's mother and sister. Their mother seemed to be steaming. "You have the time?" Fred asked me, without taking his eyes off of his mother.

I glanced down at my watch. "Half past four," I told him. His eyes bugged. Percy and George whipped back to me in horror.

Molly Weasley shifted slightly on her feet and turned to head out the door. My mother was something like theirs. I knew that they were going to get a big chewing out when they got back to their house. "Well, we should go before she actually kills us. See you around, Tara! Come find us on the Hogwarts Express!" Fred shouted before tearing off through the restaurant. I laughed and waved off the three.

Once they were out of the restaurant I chuckled and looked down at the table. One of the boys had left three Sickles. I sighed and picked the money up, pocketing it. When I found them on the Hogwarts Express I would return it to them. With seven kids I imagined that they needed the money. So I placed my own Sickles down and walked out of the Leaky Cauldron. They sun was starting to sink as I headed out into the main stretch of the street. I was out in front of Twilfitt and Tatting's when I saw my parents.

"Tara!" My mother chirped. I greeted her and walked over. "Did you enjoy your time out here?" She asked me. I nodded happily at her. "Good. Come on in here. I saw a coat that you would just love," she said.

I groaned under my breath. I knew that she would drag me in here. It wasn't that I hated going shopping I just hated how long my mother took while we were out. "Did you meet any friends out here?" My father asked me as my mother went combing through the racks. She was clearly trying to find the coat that she thought that I would love.

We walked through another rack and I nodded at my father. "Yeah. I was in Quality Quidditch Supplies. Three boys that I met. Two are Third-Years and the other was a Fifth-Year. They're brothers. They have another brother that's going to be a First-Year with me," I explained.

My father's eyebrows knitted. "What are you doing speaking to boys that are in their Third and Fifth year?" My father asked huffily. I smiled and shook my head. I opened my mouth to explain to him that they were just talking with me when I heard a crash come from behind us. Both my father and I turned back to see my mother and another woman fighting to hold up a rack.

The both of us went dashing over to the rack. We grabbed them from my mother and the other woman and I helped my father straighten out the rack. The owner of the shop was glaring at us and I gave her a bashful smile as I turned back to my mother and the foreign woman. I was about ready to give them both a what for. The woman that I'd never seen before was a little older than my parents with the strangest hair. It was a white-blonde on the sides but the top, going all the way down, was black. She was clearly very wealthy. Pureblood too, judging by the way that she was dressing. She also clearly knew my parents.

She was staring at them both with a mix of false pleasantry and disgust. My parents were both staring at her like they had just seen her throw up. Bad blood was here. It was easy to see. "Narcissa Black," my mother snarled softly.

"Malfoy," the woman snapped. "Lucius and I got married not long after we graduated from Hogwarts," the woman, Narcissa, explained.

"Lovely," my father put in. The conversation was beyond awkward. My father pushed me forward and I stumbled slightly. I stared at the woman and gave her as pleasant of a smile as I could muster. "This is our daughter. Tara," my father showed me off proudly.

Narcissa extended her hand to me. I shook it very briefly before standing awkwardly. I wasn't sure if I should have said anything or not. "How old are you?" Narcissa asked me after a moment.

"Eleven," I told her. "I'll be a First-Year at Hogwarts this year."

She gave a tight-lipped smile. It looked like she had done way too much of that No-Maj thing, liposuction. Or something like that. I didn't understand it. "Lucius and I have a son your age. He'll be attending Hogwarts for the first time this year too." My mother quipped about how nice it was that our kids were the same age but I didn't hear it. I only heard the deep voices behind me. Probably her husband and her son. I wanted nothing to do with them if they were anything like her.

Giving a sharp turn I backed off quickly. I assumed that it was Lucius Malfoy that I stared at first. He was startling to say the least. He was huge. He was just a little bit taller than my father, probably standing close to six feet tall. He had whitish hair that went down over his back. It was longer than mine. He was dressed in long black robes and carried a cane. I was pretty sure that his wand was attached at the top. It had a snake's head as the grip and I gulped. He set me on edge. He was staring down at me with distaste. A moment later he moved past me to go check on his wife.

It left his son standing alone with me. Their son was essentially a smaller version of his father. He had the same white-blonde hair that his mother and father had. It was slicked back over his head, hitting about the middle of his neck. He had bright blue eyes that were hard to look at without getting lost in. He was currently wearing a light brown turtleneck with plain black slacks. Everything was very expensive. He held an air of 'holier-than-thou' about him. He was staring down at me, despite the fact that he was only a few inches taller than me.

The boy moved forward to me. It felt like I was in one of those shark cages that No-Maj's went in to swim with the creatures. He was definitely the shark. He held out his hand to me. "Draco Malfoy," he said smoothly.

After a beat I took his hand and shook it quickly. "Tara Nox," I answered. His eyebrows quirked but he said nothing.

"That accent isn't English. Where are you from?" Draco asked. He was extremely abrasive and brash. I'd never met someone quite like him.

"The United States. I moved to Surrey about two years ago," I answered him.

"Why?" He asked me quickly.

My eyes narrowed. "Why are you named after a constellation?" I rebutted. I was reasonably curious. His entire family had strange names. Draco, Narcissa, Lucius. At least my family all had normal names.

He was clearly the kind of kid that wasn't used to getting questioned. He looked less than thrilled that I hadn't bothered answering his question. "I asked you first," he told me. I still didn't answer. I didn't think that I could really tell him. After a moment he scoffed at me but continued to speak. "Are you going to Hogwarts this year?" He asked me.

My eyes brightened slightly. "Yeah! I'm going to be a First-Year this year. What about you?" I asked him. I already knew because of his mother but I thought that it would be polite to actually ask him myself.

He nodded at me with a small smirk. "Yes. Do you know what House you'll be in?" Draco asked me.

I shook my head at him. "I don't know much about Hogwarts. I was going to go to the American Wizarding School. It's called Ilvermorny. I've read through Hogwarts: A History a few times but it doesn't really say much about the kinds of people that go to the different Houses. I've had a few people tell me that they thought that I would be good in Gryffindor," I told him with a shrug.

A look of disgust crossed Draco's face. "Here's hoping that whoever you spoke to was as daft as they sound," he snarled. "Gryffindor is the worst House that someone can be in. Besides maybe Hufflepuff. I think you'll do better in Slytherin," he told me with a grin.

Part of me thought that I would rather be in Gryffindor than Slytherin. It sounded a little nicer. And Fred, George, and Percy seemed nicer than Draco did. So I said nothing but nodded. "Perhaps. I suppose that we'll have to see where the Sorting Hat puts us," I told Draco with a smile. He grinned back at me.

"I suppose."

Suddenly my parents walked over and grabbed me by the arms. Narcissa Malfoy came stomping past us with a furious look on her face. My mother looked just about as angry as she was. Something had clearly just happened. Our fathers were giving each other nasty glares as they passed each other, following after their lives. My father half-dragged me out of the store as Draco's father shoved him roughly into the streets of Diagon Alley. We were turned the opposite ways from each other, each of us ready to head back home.

The next time that I would see him would be in a month when we were both getting ready to be placed into the Houses that would become our homes for the next seven years. "See you at Hogwarts, Tara," Draco told me with a grin.

"See you there," I told him with another smile. My father gave me a yank on the arm that was slightly harder than necessary. Between the Weasley twins and their Prefect brother, Harry finding out that he was a wizard, and the thought of seeing Draco Malfoy without his father to back him up, I was more excited to go to Hogwarts than I ever had been before.


	4. Keeper of the Keys

It had been an entire week since the letter from Hogwarts had arrived. I still had yet to buy my things because I couldn't. Not until Harry was able to buy his. But now he was nowhere to be found. Two days ago the Dursley's had suddenly packed up and left. My parents and I all knew that it was because the letters just kept on coming. Hogwarts had sent nearly forty letters through his chimney a few days ago. Somehow Harry still hadn't managed to swipe one. I'd tried to see him when they were still here but it was impossible. Every time I would come over to his house Vermin would slam the door in my face and start muttering about 'damn letters.'

We were getting close to the point where Harry had to write back to Hogwarts to let them know that he would be coming and I was getting antsy. He had to know. We had to tell him. But my parents kept telling me that they had it under control. I didn't have the slightest as to what that meant. They just kept telling me to calm down and let them handle it. It was bothering me that I could do nothing about it. Especially as we were coming gradually closer and closer to Harry's eleventh birthday. In fact, tomorrow was his birthday.

On a trip to Diagon Alley in the middle of the week, this time I had stayed with my parents the entire time, I'd gone and gotten Harry Quidditch Throughout the Ages. I had a feeling that he would like it and be good at it. Mostly considering that his father was evidently a great player. On my trip to Diagon Alley I had once more met up with the Weasley family. Fred and George had been walking around in the second-hand bookstore when I'd found them. They had Ginny - their little sister - with them. She seemed sweet but still overly shy. I had decided to let the boys be with their sister and waved them off with a promise that I would see them in a few weeks at Hogwarts.

To my utter surprise I had also seen Draco Malfoy again. He was alone this time and headed into Knockturn Alley. It was supposedly the place where all of the dark witches and wizards went. I'd debated on going to speak with him but when I saw Lucius Malfoy walking behind him I'd passed up the opportunity. As my parents had taken me to fit me for a new pair of dress robes I'd met Dean Thomas, a young black boy who was very sweet. He was also a huge Quidditch fan. My father had signed his new school parchment - which his mother had not been happy about. After buying another set of parchment for Dean we'd left and I'd told him that I would see him on the Hogwarts Express.

We would both be First-Years this coming year. Dean didn't seem to care where he went as long as he went to Hogwarts. There were a few other kids that I'd run into. Cho Chang was a girl going into her Second Year. A Ravenclaw by the looks of it. I'd accidentally spilled my ice cream on her shoes. After yelling at me for a few good minutes I'd laughed under my breath and run off. There was another First Year girl named Pansy Parkinson I'd met outside of The Leaky Cauldron that had been looking for Draco. I'd laughed and sent her the wrong way.

I was sure that there were plenty of other kids that would be going to Hogwarts in September that I had passed without even knowing. There were clearly plenty of Muggle-Born's there that day. I could hear them all shouting with glee at the discovery of the Wizarding World. There was one girl that stood out to me as she walked out of Flourish and Blotts. She had extremely bushy brown hair as she walked out of the bookstore, her arms about to fall off with the amount of books that she was carrying. Far more than the required reading. I grinned to myself. She would certainly be one of the brightest kids in First Year.

That had been earlier this week. Now I was sitting at home, attempting to bake cookies with my mother. Neither one of us were very good chefs. We mostly relied on my father. But he was currently out in London with his old friends from the Stars. They had come to visit, probably for an away game. "Wait. Were we supposed to put the butter in before or after the eggs?" My mother asked.

I glanced up at her in surprise. "We were supposed to put eggs in it?"

The two of us stared at each other for a minute before bursting out laughing. We knew that the cookies were going to come out terribly. But at least we were trying. "Well, we'll just improvise! Now get the mixer, will you?" My mother asked me. I wasn't sure that we were supposed to be mixing the batter but she seemed sure of herself. I handed her the mixer and watched as she attempted to figure it out. "Blasted thing. How do the Muggles use these?" She mumbled to herself.

As my mother reached for her wand to put an enchantment on the machine I nudged her back gently. "Perhaps you should let me use it?" My mother nodded in agreement. I had spent plenty of days at the Dursley household. I knew how to use machines that the No-Maj's used. One day I would have to start calling them Muggles. It was what everyone at school would call them.

Plugging the mixer into the wall I motioned for my mother to pour the batter in. We did so and I waited a moment before hitting the power on button, as I'd seen Horse-Face do so many times before. But just as I turned the machine on it whirred to life at the highest setting and whipped the cookie batter all over the kitchen. Some slopped onto me while other bits of it went onto my mother. Most of it went onto the walls and floor. We were both shrieking loudly as we fought to turn the stupid mixer off.

"Unplug it!" I yelled to my mother, who was standing closer to the counter than I was.

As my mother fought to reach the machine it threw a large glop onto her face. "Oh enough of this! Arresto Momentum!" My mother shouted. The mixer suddenly froze and I looked around the kitchen. It was too late. The damage had already been done. Cookie batter was all over the place, over all of the white cabinets, all over the beige tiled floor, on the white counter tops, and all over the two of us.

We both stared at each other in shock for a moment before bursting out into a fit of laughter. We were both terrible cooks but nothing like that had ever happened. It was rather funny seeing just how terrible the two of us really were. We were on the ground, wiping off bits of cookie dough. I tried a little scoop off of my mother's nose and recoiled. It was horrible. It tasted like cardboard, extremely bitter cardboard. I spit it out in my hand which only made my mother laugh. She gave me a hand up off of the floor which I took, letting her wipe me off.

The door opened and that precise moment and I watched as my father walked through, dropping his light jacket off on the hook by the door. He was still staring at the floor. "Afternoon girls. You should have seen the way that the boys are now, it's like without me there they're -" My father cut himself off as he looked around the room. "What the bloody hell happened in here?" He asked us.

He didn't look angry or upset, just confused. "We made you cookies, Daddy," I said softly. I was seriously hoping to get out of this relatively unscathed.

My father nodded at me and grabbed a small finger of the cookie dough that had been still in the bowl. He licked it off the tip of his finger before recoiling. Probably in disgust. "Well darling, the only thing that I can say about when you're old enough to live without us is that you better either marry a man that can cook or get yourself a House Elf."

The three of us laughed loudly and grinned at each other. My mother patted down some of my hair and motioned through the living room towards the stairs. "Go get cleaned up. We'll clean this mess up," she told me.

"We? This was the two of you. I'm going to go order out for some pizza," my father said with a smile. I laughed under my breath and turned to head up the stairs. As I walked into my room I pressed the door shut behind me and walked over to my old dresser.

Inside was all of my clothing. Much of it was still warmer weather clothes that I had once worn in Florida. It was rarely warm enough to wear any of these things in Surrey. I grabbed a pair of long jeans and a blue sweater before dropping my blonde hair into the sink and ringing it out. I watched as the globs of cookie dough slid out and down the drain. Once I had all of the cookie dough out I ran my brush through my hair and shook it out, tossing my dirty clothes into my hamper. As I went to grab a book - deciding that the weather was far too nice to be cooped up inside all day - I heard the doorbell ring downstairs. For a moment my heart skipped. Could it be Harry?

Deciding that I had to go find out I dashed down the stairs. The man that was standing in our living room was certainly not Harry Potter. My parents were both hugging him and laughing like he was an old friend, which he clearly was. He was huge. Well over seven feet tall. He was about three Dudley's wide and two in height. His long brown hair was bushy over his face, matching was a fluffy beard and mustache. It went down to his chest. He was wearing a battered old cloak and carrying a bright pink umbrella.

"Hagrid!" My father chirped happily. "Glad you got our owl. About Harry, correct?"

"'Course. Gotta get 'im to Diagon Alley. Needs his Hogwarts things. Now where's Tara? Been years since I seen her. Don' think I've seen her since she was a little 'un," the giant responded. Did he know me? I certainly didn't know him.

"She's upstairs. Tara!" My mother shouted. I jumped slightly and bounced from my hiding spot. My mother grinned at me and motioned me forwards. She grabbed me by my shoulders and turned me to face the giant. "Tara, this is Hagrid. He's the Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts. He's the Groundskeeper too. You'll see him a fair bit when you go off to school. He's here to help us get Harry his letter."

My eyes brightened as I stared at Hagrid. Finally someone was here to help get Harry his letter. We needed to make sure that he was able to go to Hogwarts in September. "Do I know you?" I asked rudely. I immediately wanted to take the words back. I should have said thank you.

The giant named Hagrid didn't seem offended. Instead he took a step towards me and held his hand out. I took it and watched as it completely engulfed me. I giggled softly. His touch was barely anything and one of his was bigger than both of mine. "Ah Tara, yeh were jus' a little one las' time I saw yeh. Jus' over a year ole. Pretty then an' pretty now." I smiled softly.

"Thank you. So you're here about Harry?" I asked him suddenly.

Hagrid laughed. Yer parents tol' me tha' yeh were a quick one. Yeh, the two o' us will be headin' to get Harry jus' about now. Jus' had ter stop by to pick yeh up," he told me.

I turned back to my parents, more than a little surprised. "You knew that he was coming?" I asked them.

It was my father that stepped forward. "Yes, Tara. We've been in contact with Dumbledore about getting the letter to Harry. After multiple failed attempts, even to the hotel that the Dursley's were at, we figured that the direct approach would be for the best. Dumbledore was going to just send Hagrid to get Harry but we all felt that it would be better if he had someone he knew and trusted with him. Might be a little easier to take in. You and Hagrid will stay the night with Harry and head to Diagon Alley in the morning. Here's the money you'll need for your things," my father said, handing me a pouch filled with coins.

"Thanks!" I chirped, throwing my arms around my father. He chuckled softly and nodded. Bashfully I added, "Is there enough money in there for an owl?"

My mother stepped forward and grinned at me. "There is. We figured that you'd be wanting one of your own. And you need one if you want to be writing us back and forth. The school owls are painfully slow and not always that nice," she told me.

I wrapped my arms around her too and thanked her softly. I supposed that my spirits had risen since finding out that it was time to get Harry his Hogwarts letter. I turned back to Hagrid, who was watching the three of us with a bright smile, and nodded at him. I couldn't remember ever seeing him before but I was too young to ever remember him. Although my parents seemed to trust him, he was an employee of Hogwarts, and he had Dumbledore's trust. That made him good enough to me.

Staring at Hagrid for a moment I smiled. "Well come on! Time is wasting! Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" I shouted, dragging Hagrid from our living room and out to the front yard. "Oh! Wait right here!" I told him before dashing back into my house. My parents were watching and smiling at me. "I almost forgot Harry's present," I said with a smile, grabbing the wrapped book off of the table.

"Tell Harry we said hello. And be careful!" My mother shouted after me. I called back an affirmative to her before dashing out the door. It closed with a soft thump behind me and I walked over to where Hagrid was standing, surprised that it was already nighttime. I didn't realize that it was already dark outside. The sun was just setting.

Hagrid walked us around to my back yard. I assumed that we would be Apparating. So that meant that we had to do it away from prying eyes. "Yer folks were sayin' that Harry don't know nothin' about his parents?" Hagrid asked me.

I sighed deeply and shook my head at the giant. "Nope. Harry doesn't know anything about the Wizarding World. I mean he might have some memories that he hasn't chosen to share with me but it doesn't seem like he knows. The Dursley's kept his life before them a secret. Harry just knows that his parents died. He doesn't know about magic and he doesn't know about any of us. Witches and wizards. This is going to be quite the shock for him. Take it easy on him," I told Hagrid.

He looked less and less pleased the longer that I spoke. "He know about You-Know-Who?" Hagrid asked me after a long pause. I shook my head at him. Not that I knew of. "Well, someone's gotta tell him eventually. Might as well be us," he said and I nodded. "Yer parents 'ave Apparated with yeh before, righ'?" Hagrid asked me.

"'Course. Not my favorite mode of transportation but it'll do. Plus we're on a time crunch. Harry has to send back that letter in the next few days," I told him.

He nodded. "Not ta worry. Dumbledore knows all about Harry's situation. He'll be waitin' on me letter tellin' 'im that I got Harry the letter and we're on our way to Diagon Alley to get you two yer things," Hagrid said. I nodded.

"Sounds like a plan. Shall we?" I asked him with a smile. I gave him my arm and he chuckled, wrapping his hand completely around it. He, like my parents, was good enough with magic to not have to say the words. I felt a small tugging behind my belly-button and all of a sudden we were whooshing through the air. I bid my parents a silent goodbye. I would see them soon.

We went twirling through the air and I groaned at the feeling of Apparating. Everyone said that Side-Apparating was way worse than Apparating on your own. I could see the air turn dark and I felt the rain began to pelt me as we made our way over the sea. The Dursley's had gone a long way away just to have Harry still get his letter. We landed on a large chunk of rock with a small hut that looked like it might fall apart at any moment on it. The hut was the sole building on the rock. The sea was whipping harshly around us. The rain was falling in heavy sheets as the wind threatened to blow me over. I was glad that Hagrid had a steel grip on me.

There was a boat tied to the dock near us and I watched as it was nearly whipped away. I tried to shield myself from the rain but it was too late. I was already soaked to the bone. A loud crack of thunder and lightning shot over us and Hagrid kicked back into motion. He led me over to the door, somewhat out of the rain, and tried to cover me as best as he could. The door that I tried was locked and Hagrid shrugged his shoulders at me. Did he not know Alohomora? I thought that it was one of the First-Year spells.

Instead of using his wand - which somehow I hadn't seen yet - he knocked heavily on the door. I jumped slightly, startled at just how loud the knock was. It had shaken the entire place. "Are we sure that Harry's in there?" I yelled to Hagrid.

"Positive!" He shouted back. So I nodded and watched as Hagrid continued to knock. I knew that we must have been startling them. It was just past midnight. They were probably all asleep. At least I would get to wish Harry a happy birthday.

Hagrid knocked another time. I could hear the door creaking. It was pretty obvious that in a few moments the door would get blown off of its hinges. "Who's there?" I heard Vermin shout from the inside. "I warn you - I'm armed!" He yelled. I snorted and watched as Hagrid hesitated for a moment before knocking once more. He had hit the door so hard that this time it actually went swinging off of the hinges, hitting the floor heavily.

Just as I had expected, the Dursley's and Harry were all standing in the open house. The Dursley's were all on or near the staircase. Dudley was sitting on the couch, staring in absolute horror. Harry was laying on the rug in the living room. I ran up to him and smiled. "Harry! Happy birthday!" I shouted, wrapping my arms around him.

Harry's arms were somewhat limp around me. "Thanks, Tara," he said softly. I could tell that he hadn't bothered looking away from Hagrid since the door had been knocked off of its hinges.

Hagrid had a slightly harder time getting into the hut than I had. He squeezed through the frame and I watched as he walked in. His head just brushed against the ceiling. Hagrid bent down and picked up the door like it was nothing more than a feather. I watched as he fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise from the storm outside dropped a little. Hagrid turned and looked over the Dursley's. He looked less than impressed at them. Not that I could blame him. They weren't a super fascinating bunch.

Hagrid shifted and stared at the Dursley's with a bored expression. "Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey." He turned to me and gave me a small wink, which I giggled at.

Harry stared at Hagrid before turning to me. It seemed like he was seeing me for the first time. I dropped the package on the table and shivered slightly. The rain was ice cold. "Oh, Tara. Here, take this." He reached into his bags and pulled out a long sleeved blue shirt and a pair of black stretch pants that would probably trail a mile past my legs. I smiled anyways.

"Thanks," I told Harry before jumping behind a wall that was jutting out.

As I changed out of the soaking wet clothes I watched Hagrid walk over to the sofa where Dudley sat, still frozen with fear. "Budge up, yeh great lump," Hagrid told Dudley.

Before anyone could say anything else I fixed the oversized clothes. The shirt extended a few inches past my arms and laid on me like a bag. The pants needed to be tied as tight as they could go and they needed to be double-knotted. They were still almost falling off of my waist. The legs extended almost a foot past my feet. But they were warm and dry. And that was good for me. So I left my clothes in the corner of the room on the table to dry and walked back over to Harry.

No one had said anything since I had bothered to get changed. Harry didn't take his eyes off of Hagrid but he did look over at me with his jaw hanging slightly. "Tara, who is this?" He asked me softly.

"Hagrid," I answered with a smile. "He's a friend of my parents. He was a friend of yours too," I told him.

Harry looked like he was about to ask me something but before he got the chance Dudley let out a high-pitched squeak. He jumped from the couch and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Vermin. "An' here's Harry!" Hagrid yelled with a grin. "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes," he said.

I smiled slightly. My parents had once said the same thing. Vermin made a funny rasping noise, detracting the attention from Harry and Hagrid. "I demand that you leave at once, sir! And take her with you!" He yelled, looking over at me. Harry took a protective stance in front of me. "You are breaking and entering! What have you brought him here for?" Vermin asked, hissing at me.

Rolling my eyes, I moved in front of Harry and stared down Vermin. "To give him the letter that you keep hiding! It's his!" I shouted, motioning back to Harry, who looked completely surprised that I had even remembered the letter debacle.

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," Hagrid said. I smirked and watched as Vermin slunk back. Hagrid reached over the back of the sofa and jerked the rifle out of Vermin's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room. Vermin made another noise tha made me let out a small laugh. "Anyway - Harry, a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here. I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

I watched as Hagrid pulled out a slightly squashed box from his overcoat. How had I not even noticed that he had a box in there? Maybe that coat was half the reason that Hagrid was as big as he was. He handed it over to Harry, who looked back at me. I gave him a nod and watched as he opened it. Harry's hands were trembling as he opened the box. Immediately it smelled delicious. Inside the box was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing. Harry looked up at Hagrid with a stunned face.

It was easy to see that Harry was searching for something to say. He stared at Hagrid for a moment before opening his mouth. "Who are you?" He asked suddenly.

The smile that had been on my face dropped as I stared at my friend. "That's polite, Harry," I told him.

Hagrid chuckled at the two of us. "Now, now, Tara. Harry here don't know who I am. True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out one of his enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm. He was not as gentle as he was with me. It made me furrow my brows. "What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind." I smiled but shook my head.

Hagrid's eyes fell on the empty grate over the fireplace with a shriveled chip bags in it and snorted. He bent down over the fireplace so that we couldn't see what he was doing. But a moment later he drew back and there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and I smiled. I was still a little cold from the rain. Hagrid sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a pack of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid - probably Firewhisky - that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while Hagrid worked. I thought about saying something but I decided to wait for Hagrid.

As Hagrid slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Harry's voice startled me slightly. I had almost forgot that I didn't come here just to watch Hagrid cook. "Tara, not that I'm not happy to see you, but why are you here? And with him?" Harry asked.

His voice was quiet enough so that Hagrid wouldn't be able to hear us. I smiled and laid my hand on Harry's shoulder. "You'll see, Harry. Just wait. I promise that we're here on good terms," I told him with a small grin.

He shifted for a moment before looking back over at Hagrid. "So you know him?" He asked me.

I nodded. "I knew of him for a long time. I only met him just earlier today." Harry looked slightly concerned. It was the truth. I'd heard my parents make mention of a man named Hagrid but I'd never actually met him. And I never knew that he was a giant. "Don't worry Harry, he's a good man. I promise. Just sit and wait. Be patient," I told him with a smile.

Vermin's voice made me look away from Harry as he said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley." I snorted under my breath. I was reasonably sure that Hagrid wasn't planning on giving Dudley any of the food that he was cooking.

Hagrid seemed to share my thoughts as he chuckled darkly. "Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry." I snorted loudly and even Harry cracked a smile. He passed the sausages to Harry and I, who both are them quickly. I could tell that Harry was starving. His food was gone in under two minutes. I was only about halfway through my sausage.

We were all sitting in a somewhat awkward silence. Hagrid didn't seem to notice anything and I didn't want to say anything without his approval. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be telling Harry everything. "I'm sorry," Harry started, breaking the silence, "but I still don't really know who you are. Tara seems to trust you though," he added as an afterthought.

Hagrid took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "She's right ter do so," he said with a grin in my direction that I returned. "Call me Hagrid, everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course," Hagrid said.

I had mentioned to Hagrid that Harry knew nothing about the Wizarding World but I was sure that he had underestimated just how little Harry really knew about our world. His world. But Hagrid was about to find out. "Er - no," said Harry. Hagrid looked shocked. He turned to me and I gave a small nod. "Sorry," Harry said quickly, probably thinking that he had offended Hagrid.

"Sorry?" Hagrid barked, making Harry and I both jump. Hagrid turned to stare at the Dursley's, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them who should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?" Hagrid asked.

Harry suddenly looked more shocked than before. Probably at the mention of his parents. I knew that the Dursley's rarely spoke of them. Only to tell him that his parents had died in a car crash - which was utter hogwash. "All what?" Harry asked.

"Hagrid I told you all of this! Dumbledore told you all of this! My parents told you all of this!" I shouted at him.

"All what?" Hagrid thundered before turning back to me, looking slightly calmer. "I know Tara, but I thought yeh were all exaggeratin'." He turned back to the Dursley's. "Now wait jus' one second!" He shouted as he jumped to his feet. He suddenly seemed to be closer to nine feet tall, rather than seven. The Dursley's were now all cowering against the far wall. "Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursley's, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about anything?"

Turning my glance over to Harry I could tell that he looked offended. He probably thought that we meant primary school education. Where he got halfway decent marks. "I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."

No one was paying him any attention other than myself. Hagrid was still glaring at the Dursley's and the Dursley's were slowly shrinking in on themselves. "Harry, shut up. You aren't helping," I told him.

He looked over at me in shock, probably desperate for someone to tell him what was going on, but I was back to looking at Hagrid. He simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Yer world. My world. Her world. Yer parents' world."

Harry's head snapped over at me, seemingly now realizing that he was the least informed person in the room. Perhaps other than Dudley. I was reasonably sure his parents hadn't told him what Harry was. The Dursley's had turned their frightened gazes on me now. They looked angry. "You! You're like - like him?" Horse-Face asked me.

I smiled proudly. "Yep!" I chirped, popping the P.

They all suddenly looked horrified. Dudley and Harry were still staring at me in confusion. "What world?" Harry asked, breaking the awkward silence. I couldn't tell if Harry was asking me, Hagrid, or the Dursley's. Probably all of the above.

Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. "Dursley!" He boomed.

Vermin went extremely pale and muttered some type of nonsensical word. Hagrid finally turned back to stare at Harry, both of whom looked bewildered. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous," he said. Harry's jaw nearly dropped.

Taking a step forward I pushed Harry towards the couch, fearing that he might collapse from the sudden intake of knowledge. Harry didn't bother sitting. "Hagrid, I told you. He doesn't know anything. Mom and Dad wouldn't let me say anything until he got the letter. They thought that it would be best for him to take it all in at once," I told Hagrid, who looked defeated.

Harry turned towards me, a sudden spring in his step. "What? For me to take all of what in at once? Your parents know something about me?" He asked me. I nodded slowly, fearing that he was becoming upset with me. "Why does everyone seem to know things about me except for me? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?" He asked Hagrid, his voice dropping to just above a whisper.

"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare. "Yeh don' know what yeh are?" He finally asked. Harry shook his head.

Vermin suddenly found his voice. "Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything! And you!" He shouted, turning his gaze on me. "Are never to return to our house again."

Harry looked very put off by the last piece of Vermin's rant. I rolled my eyes. A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him. When Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage. "You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?" Hagrid asked.

I hadn't known that the Dursley's had gotten a letter explaining what had happened. I thought that Dumbledore had personally gone and explained what had happened. "Kept what from me?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Shut up, Harry," I quickly interjected; this conversation seemed to have taken a turn to only involve the adults.

"Stop! I forbid you!" Vermin yelled in a sudden panic. Horse-Face gave a gasp of horror as they realized that there was nothing to be done. Harry was going to find out what he was today.

Hagrid shook his head at the Dursley's. "Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," he said. He then walked over to Harry and stood in front of him. Harry looked like a kid on Christmas morning. "Harry - yer a wizard," Hagrid said.

A small smile broke over my face. Harry turned back to me and I gave him a reassuring nod. There was silence inside the hut as Harry went back to stare at Hagrid. I could practically see the gears turning in his head. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard. "A what?" Harry gasped, sounding completely out of breath. Of course if I'd been raised essentially as a Muggle I would be completely shocked too.

Hagrid smiled at Harry. "A wizard, o' course," Hagrid said. He sat back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower. "An' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? Migh' 'ave the two of yer fightin' fer the top spot." I smiled and nodded. Harry still looked bewildered. "An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."

As Hagrid searched in his pockets for Harry's letter, the boy in question turned back to me. He dropped his voice so that only the two of us could hear him. "Is he serious?" Harry asked me.

I nodded with a smile. "Afraid so."

Harry still looked stunned. He was looking at me as if he had never seen me before. "Are - are you a wizard?" He asked me.

Smiling at him, I shook my head. "Witch. Males are wizards, females are witches," I explained. Harry nodded weakly at me, although I was sure that he didn't quite comprehend what I had just told him.

Hagrid finally found the letter and I watched as he pulled it out and handed it over to Harry. Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope. Just like my own, it was addressed in emerald green.

Mr. H. Potter  
The Floor  
Hut-on-the-Rock  
The Sea

He pulled out the letter with the welcoming information, his hand shaking, and read the same thing that had been written out on mine. The only difference was that Harry's name was on it rather than my own. Harry was never a fast reader but he was even slower than he normally was. It was like he was reading Arabic or French. He read over each word carefully and by the time he looked back up I was sure that he had already read over the letter at least five times. If I hadn't been expecting mine I probably would have read it over a few times too.

The silence in the hut was startling. No one dared to say a word as the information processed. After a few minutes he weakly stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"

I nearly rolled my eyes. Of all of the questions that he could have asked he had asked about the owl. "Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl. This time when Harry looked over at me even I couldn't help the surprised look on my face. How big was that thing? Hagrid also pulled out a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry and I read upside down:

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

Given Harry his letter. Taking him and Tara to buy their things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.

Hagrid.

Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. I almost felt bad for the poor thing. Then he came back and sat down. I looked over at Harry - whose mouth was open - and motioned for him to close it; he closed it quickly. "Where was I?" Hagrid asked.

I opened my mouth to tell him to explain Hogwarts but at that moment, Vermin, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight. He'd clearly gotten his spine back. "He's not going," he said.

Hagrid grunted and looked over at the Dursley's. "I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.

"A what?" Harry asked, his interest piqued.

"A Muggle," Hagrid repeated, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on," Hagrid said, thinly veiling the insult.

If the Dursley's realized that it had been an insult they didn't show it. "We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish, swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!" Vermin growled. I narrowed my eyes. Magic was certainly not rubbish.

"You knew?" Harry asked, his attitude suddenly turning vile. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"

"Knew!" Horse-Face shouted suddenly. All eyes turned over to her. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!" She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed that she had been wanting to say all this for years. "Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"

Harry had gone very white. My heart was beating rapidly as I looked over at Harry. My parents had told me that Horse-Face never liked Harry's mother but they had never made it seem as bad as it was. "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!" Harry shouted.

It was the angriest that I'd ever seen him. But his rage was nothing compared to Hagrid's. "Car crash!" Hagrid roared, jumping up so angrily that the Dursley's scuttled back to their corner. Harry suddenly looked very confused. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"

He wasn't wrong about that. There were already rumors that Harry would be coming to Hogwarts this term. I had made sure to not tell anyone that I knew him. "But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.

The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He suddenly looked very anxious. "I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'." He threw a dirty look at the Dursley's. "Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..." He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"

"Who?" Harry asked.

I knew this part of the story but Hagrid seemed to be the one that should say it. After all, he could remember it. I couldn't. "Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does," he said solemnly.

He was right about that. My parents had taught me to never be afraid to speak the name but they had also warned me to not speak it freely. Many still feared it and most would not use it. "Why not?" Harry asked.

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..." Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.

"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.

"Nah - can't spell it."

This was not working out the way that I had expected. I stepped past Harry and turned so that I was facing him. "Oh for goodness sake. His name was Voldemort," I said quickly.

Hagrid shuddered. "Don' say his name, Tara!" He barked at me.

I shrunk back and shrugged my shoulders. "Sorry but we were going to be here all night if I didn't say it," I excused myself.

Hagrid nodded at me. "Just don' say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway. "Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side," Hagrid said.

Shaking my head I stepped forward. Harry was watching me curiously. "You know why. Lily was a Muggle-Born. Vol- Sorry," I cut myself off when I saw the warning look that Hagrid was giving me. "He hated them. He would have never taken her. And he knew that James would never abandon his wife," I reasoned.

Hagrid nodded at me. "Good point. Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. Tara was almost two. Lived jus' next door to yeh. Bes' friends I ever saw." Hagrid smiled at the memory and Harry gave a curious stare in my direction. I smiled at him.

"He came ter yer house an' - an'-" Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn. "Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..." You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts; woulda come fer Tara's family too if yeh hadn' stumped him - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

Suddenly a memory I'd never seen before shot through my head. A flash of green light and the echo of laughter. It wasn't friendly. It was high-pitched and cold. Hagrid was watching us sadly. "Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."

"Load of old tosh," Vermin said, breaking the solemn air. Harry and I both jumped. he had almost forgotten that the Dursley's were there. Vermin seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched. "Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled at Harry, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"

"How dare you!" I shouted over Vermin. Harry suddenly looked very surprised at me.

Before I could say anything else, Hagrid leaped from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing it at Vermin like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley - I'm warning you - one more word... " In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Vermin's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. "That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.

Harry still had questions, I could tell. Perhaps tonight I would try to answer some of them. "But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?" He asked. Hagrid had given him the same warning glance he'd given me.

"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go? Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."

Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes. I was smiling at Harry as well. But I could tell that he still didn't completely believe us. He probably wouldn't until we got him to Diagon Alley, maybe not even until we got him to Hogwarts. "Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."

Hagrid chuckled softly. "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?" Harry looked into the fire and I grinned. I knew that he was thinking about every strange thing that he'd ever done. And I'd seen him do quite a few.

Harry seemed to finally realize that we might just have been telling him the truth. He turned to me with a bewildered face. "You mean the boa constrictor?" He asked me weakly.

Hagrid looked confused but was still staring at the two of us with a grin. I smiled at Harry and nodded. "That very one. You accidentally made the glass disappear because you were angry. There were plenty of other times too. You might not even remember some of them," I told him.

Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling from my encouragement, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at the two of us. "See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."

That was certainly the truth. Although I wasn't sure how much Harry would like that. Vermin suddenly spoke up again and I scowled. "Haven't I told you he's not going?" He hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and-"

"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"

"I am not paying for some crackpot old fool to teach him magic tricks!" Vermin yelled. I sucked in a breath, knowing that insulting Albus Dumbledore would not go over well with Hagrid. Dumbledore was one of the most respected wizards in the world.

I was correct in thinking that he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "Never," he thundered, "- Insult- Albus- Dumbledore- in- front- of - me!" He shouted.

Hagrid brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley - there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on us I realized that a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers. Vermin shouted angrily as Harry and I chuckled loudly. Vermin pulled Horse-Face and Dudley into the other room; he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.

Harry and I were still chuckling softly. Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. "Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do." We both grinned as Hagrid gave a sideways glace at the two of us. "Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."

I wasn't sure what he meant about that. Harry cast a glance at me but I shrugged. I wasn't aware that Harry wasn't supposed to be doing magic. "Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" Harry finally asked.

Hagrid suddenly looked bashful. "Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."

Hagrid had been expelled? Why was he expelled? Harry looked at me again but once more I shrugged. I couldn't believe that my parents hadn't told me this. "Why were you expelled?" Harry asked.

It made me slightly nervous that Hagrid had been expelled but if my parents trusted him that was good enough for me. "It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," Hagrid said loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that." Hagrid took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry and I. "You can sleep under that," he said. "Big enough fer the two of yeh. Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."

Harry looked bewildered. I smiled and motioned for Hagrid to go find a place to rest. I assumed that Harry wouldn't be sleeping much tonight after everything that had happened. But Hagrid needed to rest. "Go on Hagrid, I think I need to stay up and have a chat with Harry for a while." Hagrid nodded at me gratefully before bidding us goodnight and walking through a small doorway. I turned back to Harry, who was still staring at me curiously. Hagrid's coat had been dropped to the floor. "Are you angry with me?" I asked him softly.

Harry ran his hands through his already messy black hair. "Angry? No. I'm - I'm just confused." I nodded. I had been expecting that. I was glad that he wasn't angry with me though. "You've known all this time who I was?" He asked me.

I nodded abashedly. Everyone with the exception of him knew who he was. "I suppose that I should start from the beginning. I really don't remember you from before. But my parents and yours, they were friends. During their time at Hogwarts and after. We really did live right next door to each other. Once our parents rose up in the fight against Voldemort they were placed on his... hit list, I suppose would be the best term for it. As circumstance had it, Voldemort attacked your parents first. I'm sorry about that. But if you hadn't done whatever it was that you did to him, Voldemort would have come for my family next," I said softly.

It was unnerving to think about. How close it had been to Harry being the one with parents and me without. I bickered with my parents from time to time but I loved them more than anything. I couldn't imagine what my life would be like without them. "So what happened? How did you end up in America?" Harry asked after a moment.

"Voldemort's followers were still out there. It wasn't safe for anyone that had been an enemy of Voldemort to remain. Especially not if they had a family to protect. So my parents packed up and moved us across the world. They restarted their lives there and raised me to know about what had happened when I was only a child. They didn't tell me until a day before we left the States to move to Surrey that I had actually known you. They didn't tell me that the reason that we were moving back was because I belonged here," I weakly explained.

Harry processed the information for a moment. "So you were always going to come back to England?"

I nodded. "Yes. Not that I knew that. I was completely ready to go to Ilvermorny. But my parents always knew that I would be going to Hogwarts. So they brought me back a few years early so that we could get reacquainted. I originally hated the thought of coming back here just so that I could look after you. But then we really became friends. And now I couldn't imagine not knowing you. I'm sorry for lying to you. But I had to. I wasn't allowed to tell you the truth," I told him.

Harry grabbed my hand and smiled at me. "I understand. Must have been hard to keep a secret like this." I nodded. It really was. "What's Ilvermorny?" Harry asked after a moment.

"The American wizarding school. It's where I was originally going to go. Or at least where I thought that I would be going. But, like you, my name has been down to go to Hogwarts since I was a baby," I said.

It seemed that Harry had finally come to the question that I had been waiting for. "Why wasn't I sent to America with you?" He asked.

"Because you had to be hidden somewhere in plain sight. Dumbledore - the Headmaster of Hogwarts - thought that it would be better that you be placed with Muggles. He thought that it would be easier for you to be raised not knowing who you were. In the public eye. You're a hero in our world. You stopped the greatest dark wizard in the world." Harry seemed a little put-off by the thought that in the world he would soon be introduced to, he was a hero. "They just thought that the Dursley's might eventually tell you what you were. They were wrong."

I couldn't really blame him for not being overly thrilled. He only now learned who he was. The kids at school would probably know more about him than he would. "Everyone will know who I am at Hogwarts," he said slowly.

That wasn't technically true. I shook my head at him. "Not everyone. You'll have the Muggle-Born's. There are some kids - like your mother - that are born to completely previously Muggle families. But somehow a little drop of magical blood gets in their veins. They won't know a thing about the Wizarding World. And it's not like you'll be that far behind anyone else. No one has done magic purposely before entering Hogwarts anyways."

Harry looked confused at my words. "How do you mean?" He asked.

Despite knowing that I would have to explain the Wizarding World to Harry I kept forgetting just how much there really was to explain. My eleven years of knowledge were all being forced onto him in a matter of days. "Well you're not technically allowed to do magic outside of school until you're of age. Seventeen. You could get your wand snapped for it. You could be arrested," I told him.

Harry suddenly seemed extremely worried. "Why?" He asked me.

My mouth opened and shut quickly. I wasn't actually sure why we weren't allowed. So I gave him the best answer that I could think of. "I actually have no idea. Probably because we can't really control our magic until we've been trained. And by your Seventh-Year - both when you'll be seventeen and in your last year at Hogwarts - you'll know enough to be trusted on your own. Don't worry. The Pure-Blood's and Half-Blood's might know the theory behind the magic but they'll never have done it," I told him.

Harry nodded for a moment before his eyebrows knitted in confusion once more. "What's a Pure-Blood and Half-Blood?"

"Oh. We'll be up all night if I explain everything to you." Harry looked a little guilty but I gave him a small smile to show that I didn't mind explaining it all to him. "I'll keep to the basics. You're a Half-Blood. They're most of the Wizarding World population. They can either have one Muggle and one Pure-Blood parent, two Half-Blood parents, two Muggle-Born parents, or one Half-Blood and one Pure-Blood parents. Muggle-Born's are people like your mother. They come from a strictly Muggle family but somehow they got a little drop of magical blood mixed in. Pure-Blood's are just that. No Muggle, no Muggle-Born's, and no Half-Blood's in the line. I'm a Pure-Blood."

It didn't seem that Harry really got the concept of Half-Blood's but he seemed to understand Pure-Blood and Muggle-Born well enough. "They sound almost like royalty," Harry said, referring to Pure-Blood's.

A small smile crossed over my face. "I suppose in a way we kind of are. Pure-Blood's are the oldest houses. Many refuse to even accept Muggle-Born's as proper magical folk. They think that they just dilute the gene pool. Many hate even associating with Muggle's or Muggle-Born's and Half-Blood's," I explained with a sour look on my face.

It seemed to put Harry off as well. "Your parents can't be like that. They're great people," he argued.

I smiled softly at him. He had always loved my parents and they loved him. "They aren't. They're one of the more accepting Pure-Blood families. They taught me that everyone is the same. It's your actions that determine the kind of person that you are," I told him.

Harry's mood almost immediately brightened before his face fell again. "This is all pretty cool but I don't really understand much of it," he said.

There was a slightly defeated look on his face. I smiled at him and walked a little closer, placing my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. It'll be an adjustment period. Tomorrow in Diagon Alley you'll learn all sorts of other stuff about the Wizarding World," I told him happily.

He nodded at me before asking another question. "What's Diagon Alley?"

To be fair I hadn't even known what Diagon Alley was until my parents had told me about it. "It's a sort of Wizarding World mall. All magical stores. It's invisible to Muggles. It's where we'll get all of our things for this term - and the six more to follow - at Hogwarts. Oh!" I shouted, suddenly remembering I had bought Harry a present. "Open my present! It'll be your first bit of Wizarding World material," I said proudly.

Harry stared at the well wrapped book for a moment before tearing the wrappings off. He stared at the book before pushing the red wrapping paper to the side. "Quidditch Through the Ages. What's Quidditch?" He asked, drawing out every syllable in the name as if to ask me if he was pronouncing it correctly.

"You didn't think that Muggles were the only ones that played sports," I said with a sly smile. "Quidditch is a very popular Wizarding World sport. My father was a professional player in the States." Harry gave an impressed smile. "That book will tell you everything that you need to know about it. You can read it while you wait for the term to start. It's a little wordy in spots but it gets the point across. Still, you won't even believe it until you see it for yourself," I told him with a small grin.

Harry laughed under his breath and began to thumb through the book, stopping to stare at a few of the painted pictures. "I'm still not sure that I believe it yet," he said softly.

I smiled at him and grabbed the book. "Here. Watch this. Wingardium Leviosa," I said softly, hoping not to wake Hagrid. The book began to float low in the air and I turned back to see Harry staring at the book, absolutely shell-shocked.

The book continued to float for a minute until I lost my grip on it and the book went soaring across the room. It hit a painting that was up on the wall and knocked it to the ground, shattering the glass case that had been over it. The book laid splayed open on the ground next to the frame. I turned to Harry and grinned bashfully.

Despite the bad landing, Harry was still staring at me and the book in astonishment. Wicked. I want to learn the knock-paintings-off-the-wall-with-a-book spell," he told me with a grin, obviously knowing that was not what the spell was for.

"Shut up, Harry," I muttered, punching his arm roughly. He laughed and grabbed his arm. "It's a levitating charm. I don't have it completely right yet. Probably because I don't have a wand," I added as a secondary thought.

No part of me even wanted to begin to get into the wand discussion with Harry. That would be a conversation best left for Ollivander. I didn't really even know that many things about wands. Just the basics. Harry's face knitted into one of confusion. "I thought you said that underage wizards couldn't do magic outside of Hogwarts?" He asked me.

I nodded with a small smile, impressed that he had actually retained something that I had told him. "We can't. But that's with a wand. Wandless magic is almost impossible to trace. Especially when there's more than one magical being around," I said, pointing to myself, Harry, and the area where Hagrid had last gone to. "Although it's difficult. Far more difficult than with a wand. Probably why I can't do it properly yet," I said.

As far as I knew we started learning to do wandless magic in either our Fifth or Sixth Year. Harry ran his hands through his hair again. It was so mussed that it nearly gave him another two or three inches of height. "This is so weird," he muttered.

I gave a small grin. "It gets weirder. Trust me, what I just did was nothing." Harry looked exhausted at the mere thought that magic got more complicated than what he had already discovered. "Go to bed, we have a long day in front of us. I'm sure you have a million questions and before we go to school I'll try to answer as many as I can. I'll see you in the morning." He nodded and reached out for Hagrid's coat, motioning to the area of the dirty ground that he had been sitting on before. I laid down with him and pressed my back up against his as he threw Hagrid's coat over us. "Hey Harry?" I called out after a moment. He hummed and turned to look back at me. "Has it been a good birthday?" I asked him.

He smiled and tightened his grip on my arm for a moment. "I think that this one might be the best one," he said. I smiled softly to myself and rolled back over. "Goodnight, Tara," Harry said as we both closed our eyes.

"Goodnight, Harry." As I drifted off to sleep I realized that the storm had passed. There was now only a light drizzle outside as the sun began to peak over the distant sea. Perhaps it was a sign of the brighter times to come.


	5. The Elder's Brother

Harry shuffling around underneath Hagrid's coat woke me early the next morning. The sun was streaming in through the windows. The storm from last night had long since past. Although there were still a few puddles in the little hut where the floor had ruts. Harry's voice made me glance over at him, over my shoulder. "It was a dream," he said lowly. I cocked my head at him. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid and Tara came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."

My lips turned up in a smirk as I realized that Harry was still convinced that he wasn't really a wizard. "Who are you talking to?" I called to him. Harry jumped from his spot on the floor and turned over to stare at me, wide-eyed. I gave him a small grin.

"T-Tara. You're here," he said weakly. I smiled at him and nodded. He opened his mouth to say something else but before he could an owl landed on the windowsill. Harry sat up staring with a bewildered look on his face and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off of us. I stood with Harry and glanced over at Hagrid, who was asleep on the collapsed sofa.

The small tawny owl was holding The Daily Prophet newspaper in its beak. I rolled my eyes. They had a rotten new reporter named Rita Skeeter who had recently written a nasty article on my father, whom she believed had paid off the Department of Magical Sports and Games to let the United States Stars into the Quidditch World Cup. All because they hadn't been to the World Cup in over a century. It wasn't his fault that Ireland and Hungary were doing terribly this year. Hungary was always good but they needed a new Seeker. Ireland were usually pretty good too but they'd been taken out of the running when a cheating scandal had come out earlier this year. Now it was the United States and Norway in the Cup.

Harry scrambled to his feet, startling me from my thoughts. The smile on his face made a small one come to mine. I'd never seen him look so excited in his life. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the Prophet on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat. I smiled and began to reach through his coat in search of his money bag.

Harry was clearly clueless as to why the owl was attacking the coat. "Don't do that." Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat. I snorted loudly.

"Hagrid, where's your money pouch?" I asked with a slight shriek to my voice as a rat tail fell out of the pocket. I was good at Potions but I always hated how many disgusting ingredients we had to use. And I liked rats...

Hagrid hadn't shifted from when I called out to him. He was a heavy sleeper. Although I supposed that could be expected of a giant. Harry seemed to catch on that I was trying to wake Hagrid us while still searching through his coat. There had to be over a hundred pockets in here. "Hagrid!" Harry called loudly. "There's an owl."

I loved Harry but sometimes I wanted to hit him. Of course there was an owl. I was pretty sure that we'd all realized that there was an owl. "Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa. He hadn't bothered to glance up at us.

"What?" Harry asked. I could see that he was now looking for Muggle money. I rolled my eyes and shoved him out of the way.

The owl had stepped away from the coat and was watching us impatiently as we tried to find the money. "He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets." Harry began to help me search for the money. Together it seemed that we pulled out what seemed like half of everything that was being sold in Diagon Alley - bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags, and everything else under the sun. Finally it seemed that Harry had found the coins. "Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.

Harry gave me a confused glance. "Knuts?" He asked.

Dumping the coins onto the floor I began to rifle through them, shoving the small owl out of the way. "It's magical money. We don't use different kinds of currency like the dollar and quid. We use coins. Everywhere in the Wizarding World. Here, the States, anywhere else. There are Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons. You'll learn it faster than you think," I told him.

It was pretty obvious that Harry was still lost about the money. He grabbed a Sickle to hand to the owl but I grabbed it back quickly. "The little bronze ones," Hagrid grunted. He was finally beginning to wake up.

Harry waited a moment to see if I would do it but I shook my head. This was his world. He had to learn how to do it. So he nodded and I watched as he counted out five little bronze coins. He gave me a quick glance to ensure that he had counted correctly and I nodded. The owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. He had just barely tightened the straps when the owl flew off through the open window. I walked over and shut it once more. Grabbing my clothes I walked into the corner and quickly slipped them back on. They had dried from the night before. Harry grabbed his pajamas back from me.

Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched. He glanced over at the two of us. "Best be off you two, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school." Harry was currently turning over the coins and looking at them.

The confused face suddenly dropped from his face and it was replaced with a slightly depressed face. I walked over to him and laid my hand on his shoulder. "Um - Hagrid?" He called awkwardly.

"Mm?" Hagrid mumbled, he was pulling on his huge boots.

Harry shifted awkwardly once more. "I haven't got any money - and you heard Uncle Vernon last night..." I frowned at Harry and shook my head. He had money. My parents had told me that Lily and James were pretty well off. But their fortune was in Gringotts. Harry wouldn't know a thing about it. "He won't pay for me to go and learn magic."

I nearly snorted. Vermin barely paid for Harry to eat. I couldn't count the times Harry had gone outside and I had met him with leftovers from my dinner. "Don't worry about that," Hagrid said, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"

Harry suddenly looked very confused. "But if their house was destroyed -"

He was cut off by Hagrid, who I thought might slap Harry. "They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank," Hagrid continued when he saw that Harry was once more confused. Hagrid pulled out the sausages from last night from another pocket in his coat. "Have a sausage, they're not bad cold - an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."

Harry took the hint and grabbed the box of cake, splitting it between Hagrid, himself, and me. We each took a bit of sausage too. "Wizards have banks?" Harry asked.

I was munching on my sausage as Harry processed the additional information. "Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins." Hagrid then turned to me. "Ain't no banks in America, are there, Tara?" He asked me.

I shook my head. "Gringotts is the only one. It has branches in other countries around the world. There was one in Florida near where we used to live. But the main one is in London in Diagon Alley." I was explaining half to Hagrid and half to Harry. Although the latter didn't seem to be completely paying attention to what I was saying.

I finally realized that Harry had dropped the bit of sausage he was holding. "Goblins?" He asked.

He had suddenly gone paler than he normally was. I didn't blame him. Goblins were nasty little creatures. They were why my parents didn't allow me to go to Gringotts with them. "Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you, gettin' things from Gringotts - knows he can trust me, see. Got everythin'?" He asked the two of us. We both nodded. "Come on, then."

No one bothered to call our departure out to the Dursley's. Harry and I followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The place was actually rather pretty when a storm wasn't passing over it. The house could use a magical touch though. It seemed like it was about to fall apart, even without the storm. The boat that I assumed Harry had gotten here in was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.

As we walked over to the dock I realized that Harry was glancing around curiously. "How did you get here?" Harry asked.

"Flew," Hagrid answered simply. I wanted to say something about how Apparating wasn't exactly like flying but I also didn't really want to explain the reasonably complex concept of Apparating to Harry. Especially this early in the morning.

Of course I should have realized that flying would be just as complex of an idea to Harry as Apparating would be. "Flew?" He parroted.

Hagrid nodded. "Yeah - but we'll go back in this," he said, motioning down to the boat. "Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh." Hagrid offered Harry a hand into the boat first, and me after him. When Hagrid jumped in the boat settled low in the water. "Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry and I another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter - er - speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?" He asked the two of us.

I shook my head. I'd rather us speed up a bit. "Of course not," Harry chirped. He was clearly eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and we sped off toward land.

A small gasp escaped my mouth as I grabbed onto Harry, trying to prevent falling over. He grabbed me tightly for a moment before letting go once he was sure that I had regained my balance. I leaned back and let the breeze blow through my hair as I listened to Harry ask Hagrid another question. "Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" He asked.

"Spells - enchantments," Hagrid said, unfolding the Prophet as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat." I could see Harry fighting the urge not to speak as Hagrid read. It didn't last long. "Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.

My head popped up, considering that both of my parents worked for the Ministry. "What happened with the Ministry?" I asked.

Before Hagrid got a chance to answer my question, Harry spoke. "There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked. I realized that it was probably an 'adult problem' as my parents like to call it, as Hagrid didn't bother answering me.

Instead he went to Harry's question. "'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one." I smiled as we approached land. My father often liked to call Fudge a gormless wanker. "So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."

Instead of looking like he understood what Hagrid had said, Harry only looked even more confused. "But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"

Hagrid didn't look bothered by the questions. He seemed to be somewhat grateful that someone was asking so many questions. "Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."

Once, long ago, Muggles and magical beings had once lived all together. But then they had started wanting everything that we could do. And when we had refused things had gotten violent. They had started to believe that we were a danger. The Salem Witching Trials weren't as foolish as Muggle classes made them seem. They were real. Of course they didn't catch many real ones. They were almost all Muggles. "Why?" Harry asked.

He didn't know just how dangerous the Muggles thought that we were. "Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone," he said, steering us into the harbor on the mainland.

The boat bumped gently into the harbor wall and Harry and I wobbled slightly. Hagrid folded up the Prophet, and we all clambered up the stone steps onto the street. We were in a small town just about an hour away from London. We walked onto the main road as we headed for the Underground. Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Hagrid was probably over ten feet tall. He dwarfed everyone else that were walking down the street. And the fact that he was staring them down didn't help. He terrified people. I noticed that most of them were running to the other side of the street when they saw him.

It also didn't help that he kept pointing at ordinary Muggle things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, kids? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?" It only made people mutter and point to each other. Harry glanced over at me and I smiled.

"Magical beings don't really have the same technology that Muggles do. Since we have magic we don't really worry about things like lights, parking, all that lot. We have brooms and ways of transporting that mean that we don't need cars. There are spells to make light. And we mostly use oil-burning lamps. Muggle-Born's and Half-Blood's will usually use some forms of technology. Purebloods often use things almost like they did in the Dark Ages," I told Harry under my breath as we walked through the street.

"That doesn't make any sense," Harry muttered as we continued to walk. More like run. Hagrid's one stride was like four of ours.

I gave a small grin and picked up my pace to keep up with Harry. "Wait until you realize that we write with quills," I told him.

Harry stopped short for a moment, contemplating my words. I laughed and kept up with Hagrid. A moment later Harry came running up to the two of us. "Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?" He asked.

Hagrid shrugged. "Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon." I smiled to myself as we walked, remembering Fred, George, and Percy. More like their brother, Charlie. He worked with dragons. I wondered if Hagrid had known him when he'd gone to Hogwarts. They probably would have got on well.

"Hagrid, did you know a Charlie Weasley?" I asked him.

He turned to me, looking slightly surprised before smiling. "Knew him well, I did! Used ta come stop by fer a spot o' tea every now an' again. You met him?" Hagrid asked me suspiciously after a moment.

I shook my head. "No. I met a few of his brothers. Fred, George, and Percy."

"Good lot o' kids," Hagrid said absentmindedly. I nodded with a small smile.

Harry hadn't been paying a bit of attention to the side conversation that we had been having. He was clearly still caught up in the whole dragon discussion. "You'd like a dragon?" He asked after a moment.

I almost laughed. Seeing Harry learn all of these things must have been the way that my parents had felt when I was growing up, becoming more and more fascinated by the idea of magic. I did feel bad that Harry seemed to feel so left out. "Wanted one ever since I was a kid," Hagrid told Harry, who looked very concerned for the giant's well-being. "Here we go," Hagrid chirped as we walked into the station.

Harry and I were hanging back slightly from Hagrid, who was still attracting all sorts of attention. "Dragons are pretty cool but they're hard to work with. Not exactly very friendly animals. Charlie Weasley is a dragonologist. He studies dragons and tries to train them sometimes. Not that it really ever works. Dangerous job but pretty cool."

Harry looked too stunned at my words to say anything back. So I nudged him on the shoulder as we walked up to the window to buy our tickets. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid was standing at the window and trying to figure out how to count the money it would cost for our three tickets. The entire time he was muttering about 'Muggle money' and how he couldn't understand it. After a moment of arguing with the attendant - who looked about ready to call security - Harry and I managed to convince Hagrid to give us the bills. We paid and ran off to the platform before anything else could happen.

The train arrived quickly and we took our seats near the back. It was a crowded area and it didn't help that Hagrid was as large as he was. People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two entire seats - not that any guard bothered mentioning that to him - and sat knitting what looked like a yellow circus tent. I assumed that it was probably something like a tablecloth. Although Hagrid was big enough to wear something like that as a shirt. But something told me that he wasn't really a fan of yellow.

Harry and I sat pressed together near the window. "Still got yer letter, Harry?" Hagrid asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket. "Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."

Suddenly a slightly worried shadow fell over Harry's face. He looked over at me and I cocked my head at him. "Tara, where is your list of supplies? How are you going to know what you need?" He asked me.

I rolled my eyes and motioned to the parchment that Harry was carrying. "We'll both be First-Years, we need the same things, you dingbat," I told him with a small laugh. The tips of his ears turned pink in embarrassment. He would more than likely not be in Ravenclaw. My parents were still thinking Gryffindor. I didn't care as long as we were together. Right now he was my only friend.

As I stared out the window I saw that Harry was glancing over the list. With each new object that he needed to buy he looked even more confused. He glanced over at me and handed me the list. "Can we buy all this in London?" He asked both Hagrid and I.

Hagrid was the one that answered first. "If yeh know where to go," he answered vaguely. Harry looked over at me as if to ask him what Hagrid meant by that but I simply smiled. Some things were best left to be surprises.

Despite having been to Diagon Alley I had never been to London before. We had never set foot in the Muggle area before. We had always taken the Floo network here before. Hagrid clearly knew where he was going but he - like myself - probably always used the Floo network. Although I wondered how a man like Hagrid could fit into a fireplace. Harry and I both had to refrain from laughing when he got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and we shushed him as he complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.

It still only took a little over an hour to get to London. "I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," Hagrid said as we climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops. It was downtown London. The Leaky Cauldron couldn't be far from here.

Despite the fact that it was crowded in the area Hagrid was easily able to walk. He was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry and I had to do was keep close behind him. As we walked we passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but I didn't see The Leaky Cauldron anywhere. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Harry looked a little defeated at the realization that nothing was around here that could have been remotely magical. I smiled and nudged his shoulder. He looked up at me with a weak smile.

"I promise this isn't some horrible trick that the Dursley's cooked up. Magic is real. And we're getting there soon," I told him, hoping that I was telling him the truth. Honestly I didn't know where The Leaky Cauldron was.

"You've been here before, right?" Harry asked me and I nodded. "Are we getting close?" He asked me.

Sighing deeply, I shrugged my shoulders. "Don't know. I've only ever come through the magical side of the Alley. I've taken the Floo network here and Apparated. Trust me when I say that it's better that the adults explain those to you. But we're coming up on it. It's gotta be around here somewhere," I said, looking closely for a sign for the pub.

I saw it at the same time as Hagrid did. "This is it," Hagrid said, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place." It looked about as dinky on the outside as it did on the inside. Harry looked as underwhelmed as one person could be.

I didn't blame him. The Leaky Cauldron wasn't exactly a magical looking place. Although it was good. The people here were friendly and it was also evidently a hotel. I could only imagine the type of people that they got in here. But we were down in the bar area. A few old women were sitting in a corner - the same table that Fred, George, Percy, and I had sat in a few weeks ago - drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of the women was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was completely bald and looked about ready to fall apart.

The low buzz of chatter stopped when we walked in. Most people were eyeing Hagrid first, but their gazes shot to Harry - who looked petrified - afterwards. They glanced right over me. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him. As we walked up to the bar the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"

He spoke better than I thought that he would, considering a few of his teeth were gone. "Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping Harry and I on the back. Harry's knees buckled and mine actually dropped. Thankfully Harry had seen it coming and caught me before I could actually fall.

"Good Lord," Tom said, peering at Harry, "is this - can this be -?" He stuttered over his words. The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent. I glanced over at Harry to gauge his reaction. He had been stunned into silence. "Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter... what an honor." He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes. "Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."

The man hadn't even bothered to look over at me. Not that it was surprising. I was just another passing witch. Harry was the Boy Who Lived. Harry clearly didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. Of course, no one had seen or heard a word from Harry since he had mysteriously defeated Voldemort ten years ago. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming. His hand was laying on my shoulder, probably thinking that I was bothered by the lack of attention. I wasn't. I smiled up at Hagrid before giving Harry a reassuring nod. I knew that he was internally panicking as everyone suddenly leaped from their chairs to greet him.

As Hagrid and I stood back from the scene Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron. An older woman came over to Harry first. "Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last." The others followed quickly, everyone shoving against each other to get a moment with Harry.

"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."

"Always wanted to shake your hand - I'm all of a flutter."

"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle." Hagrid let out a little groan as the small man in the top hat shook Harry's hand excitably.

He looked less than thrilled to see Harry speaking with Dedalus Diggle. I turned to Hagrid curiously. "Not a fan?" I asked softly.

Hagrid shook his head at me. "Good man, Diggle, but he don' got a wick o' sense about him," Hagrid told me. I nodded. He did seem a bit on the odd side. Like he had taken one too many Hexes to the head.

Harry's voice startled us both to look over at him once more. "I've seen you before!" Harry exclaimed as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop." I cocked my eyebrow. I was almost surprised that Diggle hadn't said anything about Harry when they had first met. Or that Harry hadn't said anything.

Diggle looked thrilled that Harry remembered him. "He remembers!" Diggle cried out loudly, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!" Diggle was shoved out of the way by Doris Crockford, who kept coming back for more. After what seemed like an eternity a pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.

He looked over at me first and I smiled softly at him. "Professor Quirrell!" Hagrid called out. I smiled a little wider. Professor Quirrell was going to be one of our teachers at Hogwarts. "Harry, Tara, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts," Hagrid said, probably for Harry's sake.

"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand. "C-can't t-tell you how p- pleased I am to meet you," he said with a nervous smile. A-and T-T-Tara, g-good to m-meet you," he told me, shaking my hand next.

He was the only other person that had bothered to say something to me. As Professor Quirrell let go of my hand I found myself feeling a bit light-headed. I needed something to eat or drink. Or maybe it was from the crowds. Perhaps it was even from the Floo. After my trip to India I was never overly thrilled about using it. "What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked, startling me from my thoughts.

My head spun for a moment before I once more felt normal. "D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. He seemed a bit nervous for a Defense teacher. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.

We managed to give Professor Quirrell the affirmative before he was pushed away from us by the crowd. The others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. Although I did have a brief conversation with the stuttering Professor about looking forward to coming to Hogwarts. He seemed like a sweet man, it just struck me odd the way that he would sometimes interrupt himself - almost to stare into space - before continuing to speak. It took almost ten minutes for Harry to get away from them all.

At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble. "Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on, Harry, Tara." Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time before I grabbed Harry, dragging him with us. Hagrid led us through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. Hagrid grinned over at Harry. "Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh - mind you, he's usually tremblin'."

"Is he always that nervous?" Harry asked.

Hagrid nodded with a sad smile. "Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now, where's me umbrella?" Hagrid muttered to himself.

Glancing over at Harry to see how he was taking things in I could see that he wasn't taking it well. "There are vampires? And hags?" He asked me with wide eyes.

I nodded with a slight shiver. "Never met them before but yeah, they're real. Vampires tend to stay away from us. And hags do too. There are werewolves and all sorts of other things. But the werewolves are pretty much like normal people when they aren't in the transformation. My parents taught me not to be prejudiced to them. Most people are," I told Harry.

"Do you know any werewolves?" Harry asked me.

For a moment I thought back before shaking my head. "Not really. I mean I've met a few in passing but I don't actually know any. Trust me, Harry. Things are weird in the Wizarding World but it will all become routine soon enough."

It was easy to see that Harry didn't believe me but he nodded anyways. Hagrid seemed to have finally found his umbrella. He was currently counting the bricks in the wall above the trash can. "Three up... two across," he muttered. "Right, stand back, you two." He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered, it wiggled for a moment before - in the middle - a small hole appeared. It grew wider and wider until a second later we were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid. "Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."

Having seen the Alley before I turned to look at Harry before briefly glancing up at Hagrid. We were both grinning madly at Harry's amazement. His head was shooting every which way. I knew how he felt. The first time I'd come here I'd wandered through the streets looking at the shops for well over at hour. Even now, after having been here twice, I was still amazed. Hagrid led us through the archway. Once we were through the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.

The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Harry was staring at them with wide eyes. "Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."

A plump woman outside the Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..." I wanted to laugh at her. Dragon liver was always up-marked. Strictly because it was so hard to get.

As we walked I leaned over to Hagrid, knowing that Harry would have no clue what we were talking about. "She's mad to think that even that's high. Before we left the States the dragon liver was twenty Sickles an ounce!" I told him.

Hagrid's jaw nearly dropped. "Yer kiddin'," he told me. I shook my head. "When I was young it was only twelve Sickles an once," he told me. That time it was my turn for my jaw to drop. I'd never heard of dragon liver for that cheap.

Turning back I saw that Harry looked a little sick at our conversation. "What do you use dragon liver for?" He asked. His face was slowly turning as green as his eyes were. I smiled brightly at him. He would not do well with Potions.

"All sorts of things. You'll need it for your First Year - and all the other years to follow. You'll use it in Potions. Mostly we use it for Doxycide. Doxycide is used to remove Doxies - nasty little pixie-type creatures. It stuns them for long enough to jar them and get rid of them. You have to be careful. Their bite is venomous to humans. But there is a cure," I told Harry, who had gone from green to white.

Deciding that it was best not to say anything else to Harry I walked behind Hagrid with him to Gringotts. I'd never actually been inside before. But I knew that it was run by goblins, who were notoriously nasty creatures. "Gringotts," Hagrid said as we walked up to the building. Harry still looked stunned.

Gringotts was a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a goblin. This was was shorter than most other ones I had seen. He had pointed ears and long, thin fingers. The nails on it were sharper than mine. It made me cringe slightly. His beady eyes were completely black and following us closely. The goblin was staring at Harry closely. I could feel him shaking next to me. I grabbed his hand as we walked into the building. Even Hagrid looked put-off by the creature. And I assumed that there weren't many things that scared Hagrid.

"Yeah, that's a goblin," Hagrid said quietly as we walked up the white stone steps toward the goblin. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry and I. He bowed as we walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there.

Harry had gone back to being green. Even I was a tad nervous. Now I could understand why my parents had never wanted me to come into Gringotts with them before. "What do you think they do if you try to rob it?" Harry asked me.

For once I didn't know the answer. "Nothing good," I answered him softly. I still hadn't let go of his hand. But now it was for more of my sake than his own. Although he seemed to appreciate the contact.

"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," Hagrid said. We both turned to look at a pair of goblins standing at the end of the silver doors.

Like the one outside, they bowed us through the silver doors and we entered a vast marble hall. My eyes couldn't scan the place fast enough. This had to have been the largest room I'd ever stood in. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, and examining precious stones through eyeglasses. In some of their eyes I noticed a little too much curiosity. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. There had to have been a thousand goblins working here.

Of course I'd heard that Gringotts was one of the only places that hired goblins. The three of us made for the long counter. Harry and I could barely see over. "Morning," Hagrid said to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."

The goblin just barely looked us over. "You have his key, Sir?" He had a high pitched and rather squeaky voice.

"Got it here somewhere," Hagrid said. He rifled through the coat for a second before he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. "Got it," Hagrid said at last, holding up a tiny golden key. It looked just like the one that my parents had.

I wondered if it was Hagrid or Dumbledore that had been holding onto that key for all these years. Probably Dumbledore. The goblin looked at it closely. "That seems to be in order."

"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid said importantly, throwing out his chest. I almost smiled. Harry looked like he might laugh, the best I'd seen him look since entering the bank. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen." My eyebrows shot to my forehead. Was this something to do with Voldemort?

Harry's curiosity had suddenly been piqued as well. The goblin read the letter carefully. I tried to read it as well but I couldn't see through the parchment. "Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!" Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, the three of us followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.

"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked. I somehow knew that he would eventually ask that. Of course I wanted to ask too.

"Can't tell yeh that," Hagrid said mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that," he said. Harry and I both nodded, respecting the fact that this was going to have to remain a mystery to the both of us.

As we walked to the edge of the great white room Griphook held the door open for us. I was more than a little surprised. I had been expecting another marble room. But we were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled a high-pitched tune that set the hair on the back of my neck to stand and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. The four of us climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and we were off.

Harry and I were both thrown to the side at the quick moving vehicle. Harry and I were gripping the other tightly, hoping that neither one of us would be thrown from the cart. At first we just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry was clearly trying to remember. It didn't last long. The cart was moving so fast and there were so many paths that it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering. The cold air stung my eyes and I let out a little shriek as we plunged even deeper.

Thankfully Harry had been startled too. Although he had just gasped. We passed an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. "I never know," Harry called to us over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?" He asked.

"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick." He did look very green. I assumed that a big man like Hagrid didn't like being rattled around like this.

Looking around the large cave I turned to Harry and leaned into his ear. "A stalagmite grows from the ground. Stalactite grows from the ceiling. They're both from calcium salt deposits," I told him. Harry nodded and I smiled proudly. I still remembered some things from Muggle school.

Harry nodded but looked a little too stunned to say anything else. When the cart finally stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling. Harry and I stood at his sides just in case. Not that we could have caught him. Griphook unlocked the door with the key and I watched as it opened. It must have been a long time since someone had been in here. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped softly. Inside were mounds of gold Galleons. Columns of silver Sickles. Heaps of little bronze Knuts. I smiled softly.

"All yours," smiled Hagrid. I was sure that Harry had never realized that his family had actually been rather wealthy. "Tara, yer parents gave yeh money to go shoppin', right?" Hagrid asked me. I nodded, patting the money pouch in my pocket. Hagrid and I helped Harry pile some of it into a bag. "The gold ones are Galleons," Hagrid explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough." Harry didn't look convinced. "Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"

"One speed only," Griphook said.

As we got back into the cart I wondered if anyone had ever fallen from one of these. I quickly decided that I didn't want to know. We were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as we hurtled around tight corners. We went rattling over an underground ravine and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom. Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck. As we arrived at the vault Hagrid looked even worse.

Glancing up at the door I realized that vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole. "Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away. "If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.

Griphook turned back to Harry with a grin that made me sick to my stomach. "About once every ten years," Griphook said.

Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault. If Dumbledore wanted it, it had to be important. I had never seen something this important. The most important thing that we owned was a retired Snitch that was used in older Quidditch World Cup games. Harry and I leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least. There was nothing like that. There was only a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat.

I was dying to know what it was but I knew better than to ask. "Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid. Bile rose in my throat at the insinuation and I nodded softly. One wild cart ride later and we stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry looked like he was dying to spend all of the money that he had in his pockets. "Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions. "Listen, kids, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts."

He did still look a bit sick, but I could tell that Harry still looked nervous. So I smiled at Hagrid and nodded. "Go on, Hagrid. I know where we need to go to get everything. I'll take care of him. Meet up with you later," I told him. Hagrid nodded and walked off. As we walked into Madam Malkin's, Harry looked even more nervous than I had seen him before. "Don't worry, you're just getting fitted for school robes," I told him.

Harry didn't get a chance to respond before a woman walked up to us. Clearly Madam Malkin. She was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve. "Hogwarts, dears?" she asked, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another two young men being fitted up just now, in fact." She led us into the back of the store, pointing Harry to one end and myself to the other. "I'll be with you in just a moment, dear," she told me. I nodded and gave Harry a reassuring smile. "One of my girls will get you started."

I didn't bother saying anything else as I walked into the back of the store. There was already another boy in the back. Since the robes were just thrown on over our regular clothes it wasn't a big deal getting fitted with the opposite gender. Although to me it was a rather big deal that the boy that was already in the back of the shop was clearly older than me. If I was guessing I would say that he was probably going into his Fourth or Fifth Year. He didn't look as easy to talk to as Percy - a Fifth Year himself - had been.

The girl in the shop motioned for me to come forward. The boy that was standing on the other stool seemed to be waiting for Madam Malkin to do the finishing touches. His robes were already colored - yellow. The woman stood me on a stool next to her and slipped a long robe over my head, and began to pin it to the right length. She giggled slightly and when I looked in the mirror I realized just why she was laughing. I looked like I was drowning in the robes. The arms went well over a foot past my fingertips. It pooled pathetically around my feet. It must have been for someone that was at least four of me, wide. I assumed this was the size that everyone started with.

"First Year?" The woman asked me.

"Yes," I answered.

She giggled once more. "My goodness, for a moment there you didn't even look old enough to enter Hogwarts. I'll have to go get a pair of scissors. Quite a bit of work to be done here," she said. My cheeks burned with embarrassment as the older boy looked over at me. The woman had left into the back of the store once more.

"If it makes you feel any better," the boy started as I glanced over at him, "last year my father didn't want to buy me new robes. I looked like a giraffe," the boy told me. Despite wanting to remain angry and embarrassed, I laughed.

The boy that was standing on the pedestal next to me was embarrassingly handsome. I nearly smacked myself to remind myself that he was clearly a fair bit older than me. He wasn't just a Second Year. He had to be at least a Third Year. Probably actually a Fourth Year. He was probably a Quidditch player, given his build. He was tall and lean, a tiny bit of muscle on his frame. His hair was a slight amber color and it was in neatly combed waves over his head. It would probably be a little long if it was straight and down his back. His eyes were a rather pretty mix of blue and grey.

And I realized far too late that I had been staring at the boy for too long. Sarcasm! Sarcasm always saves awkward situations. "Well you can be the giraffe and I'll be the elephant," I teased lightly, hoping that I hadn't offended him.

To my absolute pleasure, I hadn't. The boy gave a soft laugh and I smiled. He has a nice laugh. Shut up, Tara! Once he had sobered he grinned at me. "That's an American accent you have there, isn't it?" He asked.

Smiling at him, I nodded. Most people didn't recognize where my accent was from. "Well spotted. Most people can't tell where it's from." But how did he know that it was American? Was there a chance that there were other American witches and wizards at Hogwarts. "Do you have any American friends at school?" I asked him.

The boy shook his head. "No. But my father has some friends in the Congress over there," he told me. I nodded absentmindedly. The witch that was fitting me walked back over and began to cut the oddly excessive material. I wasn't sure if the boy would continue talking now that the fitting witch was back, but I was glad when he did. "There aren't any Americans over in Hogwarts. Mostly all Irish, English, and a few Scott's," he said.

It made the balloon in my stomach deflate slightly. I had been hoping that I wouldn't be the odd one out. "Well I suppose I'll just be different," I said softly.

"Sometimes different is a good thing," the boy told me. Despite myself, I smiled.

We stood in silence for a moment and I watched the huge chunks of fabric be removed from my robes. The boy's robes looked like they needed to be taken in at the shoulders. "I moved here two years ago from the States. I live in Surrey now," I said, breaking the silence.

The boy looked back over at me and nodded. "Yeah, I think I've heard of Surrey." It was only about an hour from London and a reasonably large city. But I had no clue where the boy was from. He definitely sounded English. "My family move around a lot. But right now I live here in London," he told me and I smiled.

As much as I loved Harry I hated living in Surrey. It was too cold and there was nothing to do. Or maybe that was just Little Whinging. Even though London wasn't exactly warm it was warmer than Surrey. "I've always wanted to live in London. Do you like it here?" I asked the boy.

He nodded with a bright smile. "Love it. But I'd like to travel too." I nodded my head at him. I could understand that. Traveling was fun. My parents did a lot more traveling when we had lived in the States. "I actually live more near the country. But we're close enough that we travel into the city a lot. Pardon my asking, but why did you move to Surrey?" He asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. He was polite. Telling him why I had moved wasn't really a big deal. "Oh, it's not a problem. I'm actually from here. I lived in Godric's Hollow until I was two when we moved away," I told him.

He nodded with a little grin on his face. He probably thought that I would be going to Gryffindor. He was clearly from Hufflepuff. His robes were yellow. "I hear Godric's Hollow is pretty nice." I shrugged. I really didn't remember any of it. "That's a long way to move," he commented.

I nodded at him. There was a reason that we'd moved as far as we had. "Yeah, well it wasn't safe for my parents to be there anymore. They were picked out by Vol-" I stopped when I realized I didn't know this boy's stance on Voldemort. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You know, on his list of witches and wizards that opposed him that he wanted dead. They couldn't risk their safety and my own," I explained.

The boy - who was already pale - paled even more. He was so light that he looked like a piece of printer paper from Vermin's office. "Oh. I'm so sorry that I said anything," he said softly.

Even the witches that were working on our robes had grimaced and flinched slightly. But then again, they were all old enough to remember. "It's alright. I don't really remember much of my childhood. If my parents hadn't told me about Godric's Hollow I wouldn't even remember living there." The boy said nothing back to me. The air suddenly seemed thick and I swallowed harshly. I turned back to look at his packages. He had a rather large one from Quality Quidditch Supplies. "You're a Quidditch fan?" I asked him.

He looked up from his feet and nodded with a bright smile. "Yeah. Absolutely. I play at Hogwarts." I grinned brightly. "I'm the Seeker for Hufflepuff. Are you a player?" He asked me.

"Wicked," I said, rather embarrassingly. I was impressed that he was a Seeker. I was a lousy one. "Yeah. I better be. Not much of a Seeker though. Chaser." The boy nodded with a small smile. "My Dad would flip if I wasn't. He's actually a professional player. Or... he was. Until we moved. He played for the United States Stars. Marcus Nox. Head Chaser," I told him.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't proud that my father was a professional player. The boy's eyes widened. "I've heard of your father. That's pretty impressive," he told me and I smiled. "Always been a fan of Ireland myself."

My smile brightened as I looked over at the boy. As much as I loved my father and the Stars, Ireland was one of my favorite teams. They were extremely good and a blast to watch considering they almost never followed regulations. "Well don't say anything, but me too," I said under my breath. The boy laughed heartily and nodded.

"Your secret is safe with me," he promised and I nodded. "I'm Cedric, by the way. Cedric Diggory," he told me.

Smiling brightly at him, I extended my hand. The fitting witches moved away long enough to let us shake hands. "Tara Nox," I introduced.

Cedric smiled at me and I felt a little flutter in my chest. Get over yourself. You are way too young for him. "Well if you end up in Hufflepuff there's room for a new Chaser." I smiled softly. That wouldn't be half-bad. Although something in the back of my mind was still hoping for Gryffindor. "And something tells me if your father is Marcus Nox you're a pretty damn good flyer," he said.

A small grin spread over my face. "Absolutely! My Dad told me that if I managed to make the team of whatever house I'm in he'd buy me the new Nimbus 2000." Cedric gave an impressed laugh. "Of course now I realize that First Years can't have brooms of their own," I said sadly.

That new broom was going to have to wait another year. Maybe they'd have a better one out by then. "The school brooms aren't too bad. And don't let anyone know that I've told you this but if you manage to make the team in your First Year they'll actually let you have a broom," Cedric told me with a sly grin.

My eye brightened. "Really?"

Cedric nodded. "Yeah. Found it out when my friend made the team in our First Year. I made it in my Second Year," he told me.

Impressive. He'd made the team in his Second Year as a Seeker. Normally they didn't get Seeker's until they were in their Third or Fourth Year. "Well I don't know if I'll be in Hufflepuff. My parents were both in Gryffindor. Everyone I speak to seems to think that I'll be there too. Or Slytherin. I had someone tell me that one," I said, remembering Draco's words.

Cedric looked me over for a moment and I fought to keep the blush on my face down. "I'm going to go with Gryffindor." I smiled softly at him, glad that I had a chance to be put in my favored house. "Slytherin isn't as bad as some people say but you look more like a Gryffindor. And if both of your parents were there they'll probably put you there too. You nervous to go to school?" He asked me.

A small smile worked its way across my face as I shook my head. "No way. I'm super excited. I've been looking forward to this for forever it seems like." Cedric nodded something that looked like an agreement. "What year are you in?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Idiot! Cedric thankfully smiled. "Fourth Year." So I was right. He was a Fourth Year. He looked a tiny bit older than that but I wasn't going to say that. "You'll love Hogwarts, no matter where you end up," he told me.

"I don't doubt that. So you like it?" I asked.

Cedric nodded vigorously. "Love it. The classes are great, so are the people. Professor Dumbledore is a little odd but you'll grow to love him. The only one you'll have to watch out for is Professor Snape." I raised an eyebrow for Cedric to explain. "He hates everyone that isn't in Slytherin. He especially hates Gryffindor." I swallowed harshly. "He's the Potions teacher."

"At least he isn't Astronomy or Divination. I'm pretty good with everything else but I'm lousy at the two of them."

Cedric looked rather impressed. "I'm actually pretty good with Astronomy. I'm lousy with Arithmancy," he told me.

"Tell you what. You help me with Astronomy and I'll help you with Arithmancy," I told him with a small smile.

Cedric laughed. "You're Fourth-Year level good with Arithmancy?" He asked.

I gave him a small smile. "Ilvermorny - the American wizarding school - has this summer program that you can start going to when you're eight years old. When I was nine - before moving to Surrey - I was given another aptitude test. At the time I was on Third Year Arithmancy level. I'm good with numbers," I said abashedly.

Cedric was giving me a wide grin. "Then I will definitely take you up on the Arithmancy offer. Let me know if you ever need help with Astronomy. As for Divination, can't help you there. I'm lousy at it. Everyone is. Good thing is you won't have to do it until your Third Year. But anyways, we always have a new Defense professor. They say the job is cursed," he told me.

I rolled my eyes. "Good to hear about Divination. Once I get to O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. level classes I intend to drop Divination. And I don't believe in curses. And I've actually met the new Defense teacher," I told him.

Cedric had been smiling until I'd mentioned having met the new Defense teacher. He now looked curious. "Oh yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah. Earlier in the Leaky Cauldron. His name is Professor Quirrell. Younger guy. He seems nice enough but he's nervous as all get out. I've never seen someone quite as afraid as him. Stutters most of the time when he speaks. But he was polite and it seems that he holds a mild fascination with vampires," I said.

The fitting witch seemed to be finishing up with my robes and Cedric seemed to be getting close with mine as well. "I'm sure he'll be something. Can't be worse than the twit we had last year. Could barely do a Jelly-Legs Hex without falling over his own feet and accidentally doing a Leg-Bind on himself," Cedric recounted. I couldn't help it. I laughed loudly.

Even the fitting witches giggled softly. They were pretty easy spells for a fully-grown and taught wizard to do. "You're done, dear," the fitting witch at my feet told me. I nodded at her and smiled. "I'll have Madam Malkin give you one last look over," she said.

I nodded at her and glanced in the mirror. The robes were now fitting perfectly, laying at just a tiny bit below my ankles. And they just barely brushed past my wrists. It gave me some room to grow into them. By the time I was Cedric's age I'd have to get new ones. "I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express. And don't be too nervous at the Sorting Ceremony. Everyone always is and they always end up just fine," Cedric told me.

"As long as I don't throw up all over the floor I think I'll be good," I teased.

Cedric smiled at me as Madam Malkin walked into the room. She was giving me a good once over. "See you at Hogwarts, Elephant," Cedric called as he slipped the robes over his head.

My head shot over to him and I let out a small laugh. "Yes you will, Giraffe." He gave me back a small grin.

I was impressed that a guy like Cedric would even bother speaking to a First-Year. But I appreciated it all the same. "You look wonderful, dear," Madam Malkin said. I smiled softly at her. "Just make sure to grab your other clothes before you leave. Extra-small should do you right," she told me.

I nodded at her. "Thanks."

Slipping the robe over my head, I threw it over my arms and went to head up to the front to grab the rest of the clothes that I needed. The robes were the only thing that I needed fit. Everything else simply came in sizes. "Hey Tara!" Cedric yelled before I could make it too far. I turned back to him. "If you do end up getting that new Nimbus 2000, I'll race you," he said with a grin.

I laughed and shook my head. "You'll lose." Cedric's deep laugh echoed as I walked up to the front of the store. Harry was currently in the check-out process. As he got his robes I walked over and began to rummage around for the clothes that I needed.

The standard Hogwarts uniform was first. It was required but the amount were optional. Unfortunately I had to go with skirts first. Since they were what most First Year girls wore. I grabbed five. I did grab a pair of pants as well. I grabbed seven white button-downs. I also grabbed two black ties. They would change colors when I was sorted. I also managed to get two grey sweater-vests. The robe that had been fitted to me was already in my arms and two more were magically charmed to match the length. I grabbed a plain pointed hat as well as the smallest winter cloak I could. I figured that I would get the dragon-hide gloves elsewhere.

As I walked up to the counter I literally ran into a small figure. My clothes dropped from my hands and I groaned at myself. "Damn it. Couldn't have watched where you were going?" I snapped at the figure, despite that it had been half my fault. As I looked up I saw that it was a very furious looking Draco Malfoy. "Draco. Sorry about that," I said softly, not wanting to scare off friends.

"It's alright." He leaned over and grabbed some of my things that had fallen. I thanked him softly. "Gathering your Hogwarts things?" He asked me. I nodded. "Me too. Going to go have a look at the new brooms," he told me.

I smiled brightly. "If only First Years could have them. Perhaps next year. I intend to get on whichever Quidditch team for the house I'm in," I told him proudly.

"Perhaps we'll be playing together," he told me with a smirk.

"Perhaps," I responded, matching the coyness in his voice.

At the window Hagrid began to tap to gather my attention and I nodded, motioning to the counter and my clothing. He nodded at me and turned to speak with Harry, who was waiting outside. "I need to go," I told him.

He nodded at me and walked with me over to the counter. He helped me settle down my things and I watched as the witch behind the counter rang them up. I knew that this would be the most expensive place that I would be at. Besides perhaps a new owl. The witch finally bagged the last thing before turning to me. "Fifteen Galleons, nine Sickles, and two Knuts."

I nodded at her and began to rummage through my money purse. The Knuts came out first, followed by the Galleons. As I searched for the Sickles I frowned. My parents must have given me more Galleons than I had thought that they did. "Just a mo', can't find the other Sickles. I know that they're in here," I told her. I needed two more.

"Here," Draco said, putting the money on the counter.

"No. No, don't do that. I have the money," I told him.

He grinned at me. "So do I. But we'll be here all day if I have to wait for you to find the money," he told me with a teasing grin. I smiled back at him and grabbed the bags from the witch, who was smiling at us.

"I'll pay you back," I told him before turning to the door.

He nodded at me and held it for a moment while I made my way out of the building. "I'll hold you to it," he called to me as I exited the building. I laughed under my breath and met up with Harry and Hagrid, who were lingering near the window to the shop.

Outside Hagrid was with Harry and they were eating ice cream. Hagrid was holding two in his hands and I realized that one was for me. "Thank you," I told Hagrid with a smile. It was chocolate with chunks of peanut butter. Harry's was chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts. I assumed that Harry had ordered mine. He knew that I loved chocolate.

"Do you know that boy?" Harry asked me, motioning back to Madam Malkin's.

I cocked my eyebrow and nodded at Harry. "Yeah I met him a few weeks back when I visited Diagon Alley the first time. I was just saying hello to him. Why?" I asked him.

He shook his head at me. "No reason. I was just with him getting fitted for my robes," he told me.

I nodded, knowing that he was sad about something. He was never this quiet. And a place like Diagon Alley was enough of a shock that it should have made him thrilled. As we walked I motioned for Hagrid to say something to Harry. I had a feeling that my knowing Draco was not sitting well with Harry. "What's up?" Hagrid asked after a long silence.

Harry glanced up and smiled. I knew that he was going to lie through his teeth. "Nothing," Harry lied and I scowled at him. He grinned at me as we walked into Amanuensis Quills.

We dumped our ice cream tins as we walked inside. I found a package of simple single-feathered quills. Ten of them. I got it for writing during class. I also got a rather expensive quill that was from a Thunderbird. It reminded me of what could have been at Ilvermorny. Just to remind myself of where I came from. I also bought ink in every color along with ink that changed color depending on your mood. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. We promised to share with each other.

We passed Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop but Hagrid ushered us past it before we could. I groaned and promised Harry that one day we would go in. Our trip to Scribbulus Writing Instruments was fast. There were a ton of people in there. I got a large bought of parchment to do school assignments on and weatherproof parchment to write letters with. Hagrid also pushed us past Rosa Lee Teabag and Sugarplum's Sweet Shop, to our disappointment.

We also passed Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions. On my insistence we walked into the store. I picked up a vial of potion that would ensure I never got acne. I turned twelve soon. With my luck I would get acne and that was the last thing that I wanted. I also got a set of shampoo and conditioner that would ensure that my hair never knotted - something that it always did now. Especially when I played Quidditch. Harry and Hagrid looked like they'd rather be watching paint dry the Muggle way as I shopped.

In Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment we got a few of the other things that we needed. I got a pair of dragon-hide gloves that were from a Hungarian Horntail. I wasn't sure that I even wanted to know what they had gone through to get them. I got a new set of crystal phials and scales too. Harry and I both got a large gold telescope. My new scales were silver and ingrained with pretty red patterns. They were runes; protection it seemed like. Harry get a regular set but they were close to the ones that I had gotten. The more that we shopped the happier that Harry got. Although he still seemed to be slightly upset.

As we continued to walk I glanced around at the kids that were running through the Alley. Most appeared to be Hogwarts aged. Although they seemed to already have their things they still wanted to shop. My arms were just about falling off as we walked. I already had too many things and we weren't even done yet. In front of me I could hear Harry talking about Draco, "- and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in," Harry finished. I scowled. Had Draco really said that?

Hagrid sighed and shook his head. "Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"

Harry and I both couldn't help but to laugh at the comment of Horse-Face. "And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?" Harry asked. I smiled as Hagrid looked over at Harry in slight surprise.

"School Houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"

"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily.

"I happen to have met a very nice Hufflepuff boy today." Harry turned to look at me with an odd face but I shrugged.

Hagrid seemed a little thrown by the comment too. Was I suddenly not allowed to talk to boys? "Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

Once more I scowled. The one thing that I liked about Ilvermorny over Hogwarts was that we didn't have the House prejudices that Hogwarts did. "Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

I looked over at him and nodded. "Years an' years ago," Hagrid said. I wondered if Hagrid could remember Voldemort or if he had been before his time. I couldn't really tell how old Hagrid was and I thought that it would be rude to ask.

Once we had arrived at Flourish and Blotts we had been forced to fight through the crowd. There were Hogwarts students of all ages. The shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk, books full of ancient runes, and a few books with nothing in them at all. That threw me off. Both Harry and I bought the books that we needed. I needed less than he did. As we made our way out of the store I noticed Harry getting caught up with another book.

I smirked when I saw that Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian. As Hagrid lectured Harry about not using the book on Dudley because of the underage magic and use in front of Muggles rules I purchased the book, giving it to Harry.

Harry grinned madly at me when I handed it over to him with my hand put up to my lips. "Don't you dare use that in front of Muggles or attempt any of those until you know how," I warned him. "Although definitely leave it out for Ickle Diddykins to see," I teased.

Harry laughed and threw his arms around me. "Thanks, Tara!"

We walked into Potage's Cauldron Shop after that. Harry went straight for the most expensive cauldrons and I smirked as Hagrid followed him. I was mildly surprised that he was looking at the cauldrons and not the disgusting potions that were brewing in the ones up front. "Look! It's a solid gold cauldron," Harry said and I laughed.

That cauldron was over a hundred Galleons. You could melt down Galleons and make one yourself. But it wouldn't do you much good at actually making potions. "Pretty, but it's actually kind of useless. Just for show. Most potions will dissolve the gold," I told Harry.

He didn't look any less deterred. "She's right. Yeh don' need it. An' it says pewter on yer list," Hagrid said. I smiled as we bought two cauldrons. Mine was getting a little old. We left immediately afterwards.

As we exited we then turned to the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell; a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls. There were also bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry and myself, we examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes which were five Knuts a scoop.

My jaw nearly dropped. "Five Knuts? That's ridiculous. They were just three Knuts a few weeks ago. Mom will be furious." Harry looked more than a little confused at my ranting. He stayed silent as we walked outside of the Apothecary with our Hogwarts bundles in hand. Hagrid stopped us to check over Harry's list again.

He was mumbling to himself as he looked over the list. "Just yer wands left. Ah yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present," Hagrid said, facing Harry. I smiled as Harry went the same red as the Weasley's hair.

"You don't have to -"

"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'," Hagrid said. "Yer parents said that yeh were gonna get an owl, Tara?" Hagrid asked me.

I smiled and nodded at him. "Yeah! Hale is kinda cool but he's also kind of a jerk. And he's getting older. I don't know how he'd feel about taking the mail back and forth from Hogwarts to home all the time," I told Hagrid, who nodded.

"You have an owl?" Harry asked me.

I laughed and nodded at him, pointing into the window of Eeylop's Owl Emporium, towards a small barn owl. "One just like him. We always kept him hidden when you came over," I told Harry, who still looked shocked at the thought that we had a pet owl.

As we walked inside I saw that the store was dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. We walked around the shop for a while as I looked at all of the different types of owls. There were Barn owls, Barred owls, and Burrowing owls and everything in between. There were also Eagle, Elf, Great Grey, Great Horned, Long-Eared, Northern Hawk, Saw-Whet, Short-Eared, Snowy, Spectacled, Spotted, and Western Screech Owls. That was just to name a few. Harry settled on a pretty Snowy owl.

After much debating I decided on Great Horned Owl that was stunning. It was a male that was mostly black. In between the feathers were white and the edges of his wings were brown. I hadn't yet decided on a name. He had brilliant, yellow eyes that were almost terrifying to look at. He was huge, at almost two feet tall. I was glad to hear that they lived an average of thirteen years. This one in particular was just about to turn one. I decided that I would give him the same birthday as myself. October 21st.

"What are you going to name her?" I asked Harry.

He shook his head at me. "Haven't figured it out yet. What about you?" He asked.

"Not sure." I would figure it out before we left for Hogwarts.

We both bought our supplies for our owls before leaving the store. Harry's owl was fast asleep with her head under her wing. My owl was wide-awake and staring at Harry's. When he realized that she wouldn't wake up he turned to me, nipping at my fingers that were holding his cage affectionately. I smiled down at the bird. Harry couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.

"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursley's. Just Ollivander's left now - only place fer wands, Ollivander's, and yeh gotta have the best wand," Hagrid said.

Harry and I both grabbed onto each other's hand excitedly. This was the part that I had been looking forward to more than anything. This was what made going to Hogwarts a reality. The entrance to Ollivander's was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as we stepped inside. Unlike the last time that I was here, no one was in Ollivander's. I assumed that everyone already had their wands. It was typically the first thing that new witches and wizards went for.

It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Ollivander's was not what I was expecting. It was near silent and I felt like even my breathing was too loud. I could tell that Harry had questions but I shook my head at him. We both looked at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. Despite knowing that Ollivander was a good man and this was the best place to be, I was creeped out. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Good afternoon," called a soft voice. Harry and I both jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," Harry said awkwardly.

"Hi," I parroted stupidly, placing my bags down on the wall with Harry's.

The man nodded at us and walked forward. "Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon," he said, looking over to Harry. "Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work," he said. I smiled and stood back a bit. Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. "Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. "And that's where..." Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger. "I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..." He shook his head and then, turned to look at me. His mood brightened drastically.

"Tara Nox," he said with a fond smile. I nodded and shook his hand. "Your mother had a penchant for healing, am I correct?" He asked. I nodded. "Yes, a good, but rather weak wand. Yes. Birch wood and unicorn tail swishy. Eleven inches even. Your father had a good wand for defense. Cedar with dragon heartstring core. Strong. Nine and a quarter inches," he told me. I smiled and nodded.

"Right on all accounts."

Mr. Ollivander laughed softly and turned to face Hagrid. "Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again..." He seemed to be recalling Hagrid's wand. "Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

It was almost disbelief. I couldn't believe that after all of these years, Mr. Ollivander still remembered every wand that he had ever sold. "It was, sir, yes," Hagrid said.

Mr. Ollivander nodded. "Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" Mr. Ollivander asked, suddenly stern. Harry and I both seemed to be embarrassed enough for Hagrid.

I assumed that Mr. Ollivander spent a lot of time on these wands. Having them snapped probably didn't sit well with them. "Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.

"But you don't use them?" Mr. Ollivander asked sharply.

He blushed softly. "Oh, no, sir," Hagrid said quickly. I noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke. I had a feeling that some part of his wand was probably in the umbrella, seeing as he had used it to do magic earlier, but I chose not say anything. It wasn't my place and I liked Hagrid too much to make an enemy out of him.

"Hmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. He turned away to look back at Harry and I. "Well, now - Mr. Potter and Miss Nox. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?" He asked Harry.

Harry looked stunned at the question. "Er - well, I'm right-handed," Harry said.

Figuring that Harry didn't quite understand the question - and not wanting Mr. Ollivander to think that Harry was a fool - I stepped forward. "Harry and I both are right-handed wand users," I told Mr. Ollivander, who nodded at me.

Mr. Ollivander nodded at us and dropped the tape measure to the floor. "Hold out your arms. That's it." He measured Harry and I from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round our heads. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter and Miss Nox. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

I realized that Harry was probably paying no mind to Mr. Ollivander's words. He was watching the tape measure flit around on its own. It smacked me with the metal end - painfully - as I made a move to fix my sleeve. In the background Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. "That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave. And for Miss Nox. Alder wood and dragon heartstring. Very stiff. Ten and a half inches."

Harry took his wand and I took mine. I had never held a wand before. Like Harry I was sure, I felt completely foolish. At the moment I felt just like a Muggle-Born. We both waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of our hands almost at once, before we could even actually do anything with the wands. They went back in the boxes and levitated back to their spots on the shelf..

He looked over towards Harry first. "Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy." He then turned to me. "Ash and unicorn tail hair. Five and three quarter inches. Whippy as well." The wand was rather ugly but I took it anyways. "Try -" Mr. Ollivander encouraged.

Once more Harry and I both tried. Harry had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander. The wandmaker decided to let me actually give the wand a go. I raised it and thought as magical thoughts as I could. To my horror the wand worked. But not in the way that I wanted it to. A flower vase across the room exploded, shards of ceramic flying everywhere. We ducked and the wand was snatched back from me. "Sorry!" I called out to Mr. Ollivander.

"Not a worry, dear. If I could count how many flower vases I've lost over the years..." He then went back to the wands. "No, no... Here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy," to Harry. "Cedar wood, Phoenix tail feather, eleven inches, completely flexible," to me. "Go on, go on, try it out." We both did and for neither one of us the wands worked.

For nearly an hour we stood in the store and tried wand after wand. Mr. Ollivander only wanted to use one type of wood before moving on to the rest. Harry and I tried each wand that he handed us. And tried. I was sure that neither one of us had any idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become. It was like this was the highlight of his life.

Some part of me had thought that Harry might be hard to pick a wand for, but I hadn't expected myself to be hard. My mother had taken four wands. My father had taken two. I wasn't even sure how many I had tried yet. As many as Harry. I'd tried wands of all cores and all woods. I'd used Chestnut, Cypress, Dogwood - which had blown up an entire shelf - Ebony, Elm, Hazel, Hornbeam - which Mr. Ollivander's own wand was made from - Maple, Pine, Poplar, Red Wood, Rowan, Sycamore, Walnut, and Yew. Each one had failed.

Harry was trying more of the same woods but with different cores. The stack of wands on the chair that Hagrid had once been on was well over a hundred. "Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere." Mr. Ollivander walked back. For the first time he himself was looking through the wands. He stopped on one particular box and glanced back at Harry. "I wonder, now - yes, why not? Unusual combination - Holly and Phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple," he said as he brought the box forward to Harry.

"One moment." Mr. Ollivander disappeared through the back of the store and I watched as he walked into a room that I hadn't seen before. Even from here I could hear him muttering to himself. He came back through with a wand in a different-looking box. This one was wooden and extremely old. Or at least, it appeared that way. He handed me the wand without saying anything.

I stared at the wand for a minute. "What is this one?" I asked him.

He smiled the type of smile that I imagined my grandparents would once have given me before they had died. "Give it a wave," he told me. I wanted to question him more but instead I nodded.

Harry took the wand that he had been given at the same time that I had. A burning feeling shot up my arm. But it wasn't painful. It felt good. It almost tickled. Harry moved his wand first. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. I gave my wand a wave next. Boxes shot up from the chair and sailed back to their spots with flashes of green and yellow. I laughed as the boxes on the shelf righted itself. The lights from my wand went out with a loud bang and a whoosh of bright silver sparkles.

Once the lights had gone down I almost felt an odd sense of tiredness. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious... " He put Harry's wand back into its box and mine back in its box, wrapping them both in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..

I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. I had finally gotten my first wand. I couldn't wait to show everyone. "Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?" The air sudden;y turned stiff. Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar." Harry swallowed roughly and turned to stare at me. I could only stare back. I hadn't known that Voldemort's wand had a brother. "Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter... After all, He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great." Harry shivered.

Before we could leave the shop I turned to Mr. Ollivander. "Sir, you never told me what kind of wand this is," I said, motioning down to my bag.

Mr. Ollivander gave me a smile but I wasn't sure whether or not it was friendly. "Miss Nox have you ever heard the tale of the Elder Wand?" He asked me. I nodded. Of course. Every child knew the Tale of the Three Brothers. "Elder wands are real. Very, very, rare. But real. There is only one pure Elder Wand. Its master still owns it. Five successful copies were made. Two were destroyed in battle. One is buried with its previous master. The other of the duplicates rests in a museum," he told me.

I did a brief count in my head. "That still leaves one," I told him. Mr. Ollivander's eyes gave a little twinkle as he motioned down to the parcel that I was holding. This time my jaw hit the floor. I was not holding an Elder wand. They were some of the most powerful wands in the world.

"I was lucky enough to have that one. I've had it since well before I was born. It's one of the oldest wands in this shop. Elder is the rarest wand wood of all, and reputed to be deeply unlucky. The Elder wand is trickier to master than any other. It contains powerful magic, but scorns to remain with any owner who is not the superior of his or her company; it takes a remarkable wizard to keep the elder wand for any length of time."

"That explains the explosion at the end," I said under my breath. Mr. Ollivander smiled.

"The old superstition, 'wand of elder, never prosper,' has its basis in this fear of the wand, but in fact, the superstition is baseless, and those foolish wandmakers who refuse to work with elder do so more because they doubt they will be able to sell their products than from fear of working with this wood. The truth is that only a highly unusual person will find their perfect match in elder, and on the rare occasion when such a pairing occurs, I take it as certain that the witch or wizard in question is marked out for a special destiny," he told me with a piercing stare. The smile had long faded from his lips.

Despite wanting to thank him I couldn't think of another thing to say to Mr. Ollivander. So I walked weakly to the cash register with Harry and paid seven Galleons for my wand. The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry, Hagrid, and I made our way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, and back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry and I didn't speak at all as they walked down the road. I just barely noticed the strange looks we were receiving on the Underground, considering the funny-shaped packages we were carrying at the two owls, both still asleep. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station Hagrid tapped Harry and I on the shoulders.

We both glanced up at him, clearly having forgotten that he was with us. "Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said to us. We both nodded and let him but us lunch. He bought Harry a hamburger and myself a basket of chicken fingers and we sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. "You all right, Harry? Tara? Yer very quiet," Hagrid asked.

I decided to let Harry speak first. "Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander... but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry - I mean, the night my parents died," Harry said.

Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile. "Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact. And Miss Tara, don' be sad. That wand yeh got there is certainly summat special. Just shows what a special young lady yeh are."

Hagrid's words brought small smiles to both of our faces. He helped Harry and I on to the train that would take us back to Little Whinging, then handed him an envelope. "Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursley's, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yeh soon, Harry. Tara."

We both leaned over and gave Hagrid a small hug before walking through the train and taking our seats. The train pulled out of the station. Harry leaned up to see Hagrid one last time but he was already gone. So instead Harry looked over at me and I smiled, grabbing his hand. "You know, this really has been the best birthday ever," Harry told me under his breath.

I smiled and brought him in for a hug. "I'm glad. I wonder what I could do for you next year? Perhaps we'll have to work on that turning Dudley into a pig thing," I said with a laugh. Harry let out a louder laugh than I'd heard him give since we'd told him that he was a wizard.

"I can't wait to see Hogwarts," he told me as we rode.

Grinning back at him, I nodded. "Me either. I guess it's the one place where we're even. Neither one of us have ever actually seen Hogwarts before." As we rode through the woods I leaned up against Harry's shoulder, trying to rest until we got back to our homes. "Hey Harry?" He hummed his response back to me. His head was tucked on top of mine. "Promise me that we'll always be best friends."

Despite how excited I was to go to Hogwarts, I had an odd feeling that something was going to go wrong. "Promise," Harry said with determination laden thick in his voice.

It wasn't really that I was nervous that we would be placed into opposite Houses. I still had a feeling that we would both be in Gryffindor. And it wasn't really about anything that I could pinpoint. It wasn't me being afraid to leave home for the semester or the fear that Harry would have friends and I would be the loner. None of those things frightened me. I just had the strangest feeling that something was bound to go wrong this year. It would be near the end before I realized how right that feeling was.


	6. The Hogwarts Express

The morning of September 1st came as somewhat of a surprise. I almost believed that it would never come. Or perhaps it was that it still seemed like it was eons away. But it was finally here. The day that I would go to Hogwarts for the first time. The place where I would spend the next seven years. The place that I had been told would become my second home. I was sure that a few meters away Harry was as excited as I was. Perhaps even more so. At least he got away from the Dursley's until Christmas. If he was even going to come home.

As per usual, I had awoken before my alarm went off. I stood and began to purge through my room, ensuring that I hadn't forgotten anything. I was sure that I hadn't. I'd been up well into the night making sure that everything was packed. My father already had my trunk in the car. The only thing that I needed was myself and Dai - my newly named owl. I had named him because it was the Japanese name for great. It just seemed appropriate. Harry had named his owl Hedwig - named for Saint Hedwig of Andechs.

Dai squawked at me loudly as I rattled him awake accidentally. I mumbled an apology and tossed in some more food to try and make it up to him. I wanted nothing more than to change into my Hogwarts robes but I was not looking to attract any strange glances in the Muggle world. We would have to pass through there to actually make it to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Mom and Dad had explained to me how it worked and I had nearly laughed. How did Muggle-Born's know how to get through the platform?

Mom and Dad insisted that Dumbledore came to the platform while he was invisible just to laugh at the First Years. It was that moment that I realized that he would be my favorite person in Hogwarts. While Mom tried to argue that Dumbledore would not take any of my foolishness, Dad insisted that he would probably applaud me and offer me a lemon drop. It was apparently McGonagall - the head of Gryffindor House - that I would have to watch out for. Dad said that even she could have a sense of humor sometimes though.

Placing my pens and paper back into my dresser - not wanting to leave my parents a mess - I walked over to the dresser and pulled out one of the few outfits that were left. Most of my clothes were shoved into my trunk. My mother had made sure to point out that I didn't need nearly that many clothes. I had ignored her. I grabbed a blue tank top and threw a grey jacket over it. A pair of jeans that were ripped up went on next. I knew that my mother would groan at me for them. She hated when I wore torn-up clothes. She insisted that 'we have the money to buy you clothes without tears in them!'

Once my clothes were on and I had brushed my hair - tossing the toiletries that I would need into another bag - I walked back over to Dai's cage. He was awake now and squeaking at me. I smiled at my large owl. "I'm sorry Dai, I'll let you out once we get to Hogwarts. Here, have a treat in the meantime," I said softly, feeding him another treat. He nipped my finger affectionately before settling back into the corner and closing his eyes.

Grabbing the two extra bags that I had with me, I smiled and waved goodbye to my room. I would see it again but it didn't change the fact that it was slightly scary. I was going away to a school where I wouldn't be around my family for months. But at least I wasn't really alone. I had Harry definitely going with me. And Hagrid would be there. He had offered Harry and I to come for tea anytime in an owl I'd gotten last week. There would be Fred, George, and Percy - even though none of them were in my year. But there would also be Seamus and Draco, both of whom were in my year.

As I walked out of my room, shutting the door behind me, I walked down the stairs. I could smell breakfast being prepared. I walked straight past the living room and towards the door. My trunk and one other of my smaller trunks were over near the door. I set down my two other bags and set Dai's cage gently down as well, trying not to wake him up. I knew that my packages that I hadn't bothered opening from the trip to Diagon Alley were already in the trunk of the car. Once everything was pushed into the corner I walked back into the kitchen.

My father was reading The Daily Prophet - and grumbling to himself - while my mother was cooking. A definite rarity. She was even wearing an apron. I didn't even think that she owned one. I coughed slightly as I walked in and my parents turned back to me. My father gave me a little wink and motioned to the table. My mother gave me no such chance to take a seat.

She ran up to me and grabbed me around the shoulders, pulling me into her. "Oh my little girl is going to Hogwarts!" She shrieked, grabbing me much tighter than I had thought that she was capable of.

"Mom!" I groaned loudly, looking back to my father for help.

He was glancing over at us from over the top of the paper. He snorted and shook his head at the two of us. He looked back at the paper but spoke anyways. "Darling, let her be," he said slowly.

My mother turned back to my father and scowled at him. "Marcus it isn't every day that our little girl is going to be going to Hogwarts for the first time," she snapped at him. He pushed the paper up over his eyes and I groaned. I was on my own here. My mother turned back to me. "You simply must owl us tonight and tell us which House you were sorted into. Oh and if you've made any friends. And if you like your dorm mates. And how the food is. And how you like classes!" She smiled.

"Mom!" I howled again. "I can't owl you about classes, and professors, and the food, and my dorm mates only a few hours after being there," I told her. And it was the truth. Maybe the food, and I could tell them what House I was in, but certainly not everything else. "We have an agreement. Two owls a week," I told her.

The last thing that I wanted was to be the loser that had to owl her parents every day. I loved them but I didn't want to look like I had no friends so I had to talk to my parents all of the time. "Tara, our agreement was four owls a week," my father said, glancing up from the paper.

Whoops. I knew that. "That's what I meant," I said awkwardly.

My father finally put down the Prophet and walked over to the two of us. I smiled softly at him. "And Tara you know that you're going to have to keep your marks up," he told me. I rolled my eyes and nodded. I never had any issues with my marks. "Especially if you want to be an Auror," he said with a small smile.

I knew that they were proud of me for my ambitious goals. "When you have you ever known me to get a mark lower than an A?" I asked them. "And that's only in Divination, which I don't have to do until my Third Year. Guys, I promise that I'll be fine at Hogwarts," I told them.

I popped a piece of bacon into my mouth. I was too excited to eat anything else. Mom had told me that there was food on the Hogwarts Express to eat. "One more hug!" My mother chirped.

"Mom we haven't even left the house yet!" I yelled as she wrapped me into another hug.

Part of me had known that this would be hard for her - we were always close - but I hadn't thought that it would be that bad. Although the more that she hugged me the more it hurt that I really was leaving. But I would always be back. "She's right, dear. Tara do you have all of your things?" Dad asked.

So maybe I was still excited. "Yep!" I chirped, breaking away from my mother. "They're all in my trunk. And Dai is already in his cage and waiting to go. The stuff is up by the door," I told them.

Both my Mom and Dad looked heartbroken as they stared at me and I smiled. I loved them so much and I was sure that missing them would be horrible, but I couldn't wait to go. I needed to find out what kind of witch I was. "Well then I suppose we're ready to go. Yeah?" My mother asked me.

She was smiling down at me. I knew that this was hard for her but she also wanted to see me happy. And she knew that this was going to make me happy. "Absolutely!" I chirped brightly.

We all turned and walked into the car. I smiled as I hopped into the back seat. Dad made sure to lift the rest of my packages into the trunk as Mom plopped herself into the front. She turned back to me as we glanced over at Harry's house. The Dursley's car was still there. "Harry is sure that he doesn't need a ride to King's Cross?" Mom asked, clearly glancing at the car, as worried as I was.

He had told me already that the Dursley's were taking him. I was sure that even if they backed out of taking him, Dumbledore would either come or send Hagrid to get him. "He says that the Dursley's are going to take him to King's Cross and he'll meet us there at ten thirty. He still doesn't know how to get onto the platform. I don't think that Hagrid told him," I said.

If Mom and Dad hadn't told me about how to get onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters I would have never guessed. Running straight through a seemingly solid barrier? Definitely not the obvious solution. "Not a problem. We'll escort him through," Dad said. I knew that they were going to walk us all the way to the train.

We drove through the city and my knee bounced faster and faster the closer that we got to King's Cross Station. I could barely contain my excitement anymore. I was so excited to get over to Hogwarts. It was going to be the best time of my life. The entire thing was so cool. I'd always known that I was a witch but now I was going to actually get to use a wand and practice real magic. Before I knew it I would be an old pro, just like my Mom and Dad. Of course I would miss them too but I really wanted to go and make new friends.

As much as I loved Harry and loved spending time with him, I wanted to meet some other friends. Fred and George were pretty great. I loved the two of them. Even though I had only spoken to them a few times they were funny as all get-out. I knew that we would become good friends if we spent enough time together. Dean had been pretty nice too. Percy would probably make a good study partner. I would even say Cedric, but he was a Fifth Year. I doubted that he wanted to spend any time with me.

One of the things I knew that I was going to have to do was find some girl friends. I was always hanging out with boys. I knew that my Dad might really appreciate it if I found some female friends. "Alright, Tara," Dad said, drawing my attention back to him. "Shall we recite the rules?" He asked me.

I rolled my eyes as I dropped my head against the window. Not this again. "Oh Dad, not the rules," I groaned. This was the hundredth time that he had made me recite them.

My Dad nodded his head at me and I noticed that my Mom was trying to stifle a laugh. "Yes the rules. Rule number one," he said and I groaned. He had better not do this in front of the Hogwarts students. I would never make any friends. "What is the oldest you are allowed to speak to?" My father asked me.

I recited the answer like a robot. "There is no age restriction for girls, I'm not allowed to speak to boys over their Third Year," I told my Dad.

It probably wouldn't make much of a difference. No one over their Third Year was going to want to speak to me anyways. The only person that I even knew that was over their Third Year was Cedric. And I doubted that he would want his friends to know that he knew me. "Good. What happens if a boy wants you to come upstairs to his dorm?" Dad asked.

Once more I rolled my eyes. He had to be kidding. No boys were going to invite me up to their dorms. First of all, we were only First Years. Second of all, there was no way any boy in their right mind would want to risk hurting the daughter of a Professional Quidditch player. "Say no and give him a Jelly-Legs Hex," I groaned.

"Good girl. And what year are you allowed to start dating?" Dad asked.

This time I let a little smirk cross my face. It was the one rule of his that I actually thought was funny. "When you're dead," I told him.

Dad laughed with me and nodded. "Good girl. You'll be just fine there," Dad reassured me. I nodded weakly at him. As we arrived on the outskirts of London I felt myself getting slightly nervous. But I was still more excited than anything. "Just remember the rules and make sure that we don't have to send you any Howlers," Dad continued.

I laughed softly under my breath. I knew that people got Howlers at Hogwarts all the time. It happened at Ilvermorny too. They would end up getting laughed at for weeks. "Trust me, a Howler is the last thing that I want," I told my Dad honestly.

That meant that no bad pranks. I'd pulled lots of little ones back in Ilvermorny but never anything to get a Howler. Maybe that was because I had only been in Ilvermorny for about two months during the summer. I was sure that being at Hogwarts for about eight months was going to result in some pretty good detentions. I had gotten plenty of those in Ilvermorny. My Dad had warned me about a few Professors to avoid. The only one that I could remember was Professor McGonagall.

As we drove farther and farther into the city I found myself looking out the window and excitedly chatting about what was to come over the next few months. My parents told me all about the different classes that I would be taking. I was incredibly excited for both Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Flitwick was the Charms professor and he was apparently pretty great. Evidently there was a new Defense professor every year. That didn't bode well for the new professor.

After nearly an hour in the car I saw that we were arriving at the rather large parking lot for King's Cross Station. "Here we are. King's Cross Station," Mom called back to me.

The car had barely stopped before I launched myself out of it and dashed up to the entrance. My Mom and Dad were loading my things up onto one of the carriages as I searched for Harry. He had to be here somewhere. Dai was loaded on top of everyone else and I smiled as he began to hoot. The Muggles that were walking through the station were all staring at us with wide eyes. Of course most people never brought owls on trains. My parents finally began wheeling the carriage up to me as I spotted Harry.

His black hair was as messy as ever as he stood awkwardly in between Mr. and Mrs. Dursley. Dudley was looking around curiously. I dashed up to them, motioning my parents after me. "There's Harry! Harry!" I shouted. He turned over to look at me and his ashen face regained some color. I assumed that he'd been nervous before I arrived. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Dursley. Hey Dudley," I chirped.

Dudley greeted me but Vermin and Horse-Face stayed silent. "Best of luck finding Platform Nine and Three-Quarters," Vermin snarled at Harry.

My teeth ground together and I stepped forward to say something but before I could my Mom was actually the one to speak. "Oh thank you! It's been some time but we remember," she said with a smile. I noticed that nasty sneers almost immediately fall from their faces. "Have a safe trip back to Surrey," she continued.

They said nothing more. With a haughty huff the family of three turned on their heels and headed off into the throng of people going back to their cars. I turned to my Mom curiously. "Mom I don't think that they were saying that to exactly be friendly," I told her.

She turned back to me with a small smile. "Oh darling I know exactly what they were doing. How much trouble do you think we would get in for giving Vernon a Bat-Bogey Hex?" My Mom asked my Dad.

The two of us laughed loudly. Even Harry cracked a small smile. I hadn't heard my Mom say something about pranking ever. It was strange, but nice. "What was that? I don't think I've heard you suggest something like that since your own Hogwarts days," my Dad told her.

Mom waved her hands around her. "Must be something in the air," she said with a little chuckle. We all laughed with her.

The four of us stood together with small smiles on our faces. My legs were bouncing slightly as we all looked around us. I saw a few other kids that looked like they were probably going to Hogwarts but one red-headed family stood out to me the most. I recognized three of them off the bat. "- Packed with Muggles, of course -" the mother was jabbering on.

Mom immediately sprang to attention as she dashed over to the family, practically dragging my Dad with her. I grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him with us. "Oh my, it's Molly! We haven't seen her since -" Mom ranted before cutting herself off, "well, you know. Molly! Arthur!" She shouted all in one breath.

All - seven? - of the family members turned back and stared at us. The mother and father both grinned brightly and walked over towards us. "Oh if it isn't the Nox's! And Miss Tara," the woman said, throwing me a bright smile. I smiled back politely at her. "Dear, I haven't seen you since you were an infant. Are you excited to go to Hogwarts?" She asked me.

Smiling and nodding at her, I knitted my hands behind my back. "Yes, Ma'am," I told her, remembering the manners that my Mom and Dad had taught me to always use in new company.

The woman grinned at us once more before giving me a light hug. She wasn't that much taller than myself. "You've done an excellent job with her," she told my parents before turning back to me. "Just Mrs. Weasley," she said.

I nodded at her and went to asking her how she had known me, but before I could two loud voices shattered the reasonably calm air that had formed around us. "Tara!" Fred and George shouted. They both ran over to me and enveloped me in tight hugs.

Laughing softly, I wrapped my arms around the two of them. Not that they could really completely encircle them. "Fred! George! Good to see you boys!" I laughed as they finally let go of me. "Hi, Percy," I chirped lightly, turning to give him a little wave.

Percy smiled at me and gave me another small wave. "Hello, Tara. Excited to see Hogwarts for the first time?" He asked me.

I bounced in my spot excitedly for a moment. "You know it!" I chirped. "I can't wait. I could hardly sleep last night. I was up all night reading my school books because I just couldn't fall asleep. I had to settle with reading my Divination book just to put me to sleep," I said with a laugh.

For a moment I wanted to slap myself. I had no clue whether or not Percy was a fan of Divination. Thankfully it seemed that he wasn't. "Yes, isn't Divination useless?" He asked me. I nodded with a small smile. "There are Seers but they're so rare. And very rarely are their visions actually true. It would be much more proactive if we could do more Charms work or even more Herbology," he told me.

I raised an eyebrow. That definitely sounded like he wanted to be something like a Healer. Maybe he should speak with Mom. "Planning on becoming a Healer?" I asked him curiously.

Percy stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. "Oh no. I'd like to work in the Ministry," he told me. I raised my brow at him. Not many people really actually wanted to work for the Ministry. Not for fun anyways. "I simply think that Defense is a little too barbaric," he told me.

Once more I raised my brow at him. How could he think that it was barbaric? It was what kept us safe. "I've never thought of it that way. I've always just believed that the time will come that everyone needs to know how to defend themselves. Whether or not you like fighting. It's better to know how to fight and not need it, than to not know how to fight and need it," I told him.

Despite the fact that he probably didn't believe me he did smile at me. "You'll be at the top of your year in no time," he told me. I couldn't help but to smile brightly.

I loved having a prankster vibe about me but that didn't mean that I didn't want good marks. I needed good marks if I wanted to get into the Auror program. "Blah, blah, blah. Perce, who cares about schoolwork?" Fred asked Percy, stepping in between the two of us. We both laughed as I turned to stare at the twins. "We all know that the real point of Hogwarts is Quidditch. Tryouts are at the end of September. You gonna come?" He asked me.

I nodded excitedly. My father clapped me on the back before turning back to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "Of course! Someone's gotta help whip the teams into shape," I teased. Both boys laughed at me loudly. "I mean if I get into Gryffindor..." I said, trailing off nervously.

The youngest boy that was with the family took a step forward towards me. He seemed to be about my age. I remembered them telling me about him. "Nervous?" The boy asked me.

I gave him a small smile. "Would it be lame if I said a little?" I asked with a small chuckle.

The young boy shook his head at me. "Nah, not at all. I've been terrified for the Sorting for weeks. My entire family has been in Gryffindor for centuries. I can only imagine what would happen if I got Sorted into Hufflepuff, or worse, Slytherin," he told me.

Oh yeah. I knew that feeling. My Mom and Dad would kill me if I got Sorted into Slytherin. And they'd probably laugh if I ended up in Hufflepuff. "My entire family has been Gryffindor too. I mean I don't think my parents would flip if I wasn't in Gryffindor but I know that it's where they want me to go. But don't worry, I have faith in both of us. Gryffindor First-Years!" I told him with a laugh.

"You got it," the boy said. He extended his hand and we both shook hands. His were slightly sweaty. I assumed that he was extremely nervous. "Ron Weasley," he greeted.

So his name was Ron. I felt stupid for not being able to remember it. "Tara Nox," I chirped.

He grinned at me and I turned back to introduce Harry. He was standing back a few meters though. He seemed to be shifting around awkwardly. "I see that you've already met Fred, George, and Percy?" Ron asked me, breaking my thoughts away from Harry.

"I met them a few weeks ago on a trip to Diagon Alley."

Ron leaned into me and pulled me slightly away from them. Although the three siblings were still listening to us. "If you know what's good for you, you'll run," he told me.

The two of us laughed loudly as Ron rolled his eyes. The twins ran after us and George and Fred both grabbed their younger brother around the neck, pulling him from me. "Oi now Ronniekinns!" George shouted. I snorted under my breath at the nickname. They sounded like brothers. "You know that we're the best entertainment in Gryffindor House!" He continued.

Ron shoved his younger brother away from himself. "Get off of me!" He said as he stumbled back towards me. I laughed softly as they shoved at each other.

Despite the fact that Ron was two years younger than his brothers he was almost as tall as them. I stared at the three for a moment before reaching into my pocket and pulling out their three Sickles. "Oh, Fred and George. Here are your three Sickles for the Butterbeer's a few weeks ago. I have the money and I was going to pay. I left my money on the table. You shouldn't have paid. Here you are," I said, extending my hand to them.

Fred batted my hand away and stepped back from me. "Oh, Tara, don't worry about it. We don't need it. It's just three Sickles," Fred told me.

But something in the back of my mind told me that they did need it. They were a big family with not that much money. Three Sickles might make a difference. A big one. "Please, take it. My Dad is a professional Quidditch player. We have more money than I know what to do with. It would feel wrong if I made you three pay for the Butterbeer's. Here. Put it in your piggy bank," I told them.

Their parents glanced over at us and I saw the surprise on their faces. I just wanted them to have it back. I didn't need it. "You're sure?" George asked me after a moment.

"Absolutely."

The pair smiled at me as George grabbed the silver coins from my hand. "Thanks, Tara," George said with a small smile. I nodded at the pair as Mrs. Weasley spoke once more.

"Alright now, what's the platform number?" Mrs. Weasley called out.

All of the heads turned back to her. Perhaps the platform number changed. How could she not know? I assumed that she had been here quite a few times. "Nine and three-quarters!" Piped the youngest of the Weasley's. Like her siblings she was also red-headed. She looked like she was about to cry. "Mom, can't I go... "

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet," Mrs. Weasley snapped. She then turned back to her kids. "All right, Percy, you go first." And just like that Percy turned and ran through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. He disappeared and I watched as Harry turned to me in shock. I knew that my face was mirroring his. I hadn't known how to get through either. "Fred, you next," she said once Percy had disappeared.

"See you on the other side," Fred told me. I smiled and nodded at him. He turned to his mother will a small scowl. "I'm not Fred, I'm George. Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?" He said. I cocked an eyebrow.

There was no way that I had been calling them by the wrong names. I could see the differences in them. And they hadn't corrected me. "What is he doing?" I asked, leaning over to George. Fred?

George smirked at me. Oh yeah. It was George. "An age old prank. We've done it to Mum every year since coming to Hogwarts and she falls for it every year," he told me.

I laughed and shoved him gently. That was a terrible - albeit funny - thing to do to their mother. She had so many other things to think about. Mrs. Weasley sighed and shook her head. "Sorry, George, dear."

She actually looked rather guilty. Fred turned to her before careening through the barrier. "Only joking, I am Fred," he told her. Mrs. Weasley humphed as Fred went towards the barrier. "Hurry up, George!" He shouted as he ran through. A moment later George followed.

"See you on the train!" He yelled to me before he disappeared through the stone wall.

We watched them go through before I turned to Harry. Mom and Dad were still standing and talking to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Ron and Ginny were still yet to go. As I turned to Harry I noticed that he looked somewhat put out. "You alright?" I asked him softly.

Harry frowned at me and nodded. "You seem to fit in with them all so well," he said, motioning to the barrier where the Weasley boys had just disappeared.

I shook my head at him and grabbed onto his arm. I had always thought that he would be the popular one. Maybe it was going to be the other way around. "It's just because I already know Fred, George, and Percy. And Ron is their brother so we have something in common. Don't worry, Harry. You'll make friends. Just give it time. And you know, you'll always have me," I teased him.

He knocked into me and shook his head. "That's comforting," he said with a little groan.

I looked over at him and shook my head at him. "Shove off," I snarled. The two of us laughed as we nudged each other over towards the barrier. Even knowing that it wasn't solid I found myself nervous. I had never done something like this. "Come on. We'll go together. Mom and Dad will follow us," I told him, grabbing onto his hand.

He was shaking slightly as I dragged him over to the barrier. Harry looked slightly nervous. "Tara, are you sure? That barrier looks a little solid," he told me.

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head at Harry. "Of course it does. Do you think that they would put a large sign on it reading 'Attention All Muggles, Magical School This Way Through The Solid-Looking Barrier' would be a wise choice?" I asked him. Harry said nothing as he glared at me. "Just teasing. Come on," I told him before turning the two of us towards the barrier.

The beige stone stared us down in the face as we stared at it. Maybe this wasn't the best of the choices that we had. As we looked at the wall I had a sudden feeling that maybe this really was a bad idea. I turned back to my parents, both of whom nodded at us. Giving Harry's hand a tight nod the two of us dashed in a full sprint towards the barrier. Just as I thought that we might hit it, we instead sunk right through the wall and emerged on the other side of the train station. It was just as busy as the Muggle side.

People were dashing every which way and most of them had children with them. Some were First Years that were trying to meet friends. Others were Muggle-Born's that were trying to figure out what to do. Most of them were from the older years that were all trying to get back to their friends. A scarlet engine was in the background with Hogwarts written across the side. I smiled as we walked closer to the train. Harry's mouth was practically hanging open. It was so much better than the normal dark trains with red stripes that were on.

Leaning over to Harry I closed his mouth for him. I laughed softly at him as he stared at everything at least twice. "This... This is... incredible," he said softly.

A moment later I saw that both my Mom and Dad had come through the barrier. They walked over to where Harry and I were waiting to board the train. "You ready?" I asked him. After a second's hesitation Harry nodded at me. I turned back to my parents and smiled. "Bye Mom, bye Dad! Love you guys!" I shouted back to them.

My Mom walked over to me and grabbed me in a tight hug. I smiled back to her. "Be good, sweetheart. Owl us once you're settled in. And I want no letters concerning your behavior. Do you understand me?" My mother asked me.

I rolled my eyes at her and nodded. "Yes, yes," I groaned.

They really had no faith in me if they thought that they were going to get owls concerning my behavior that fast. Although they were probably right. "She's right you know. At least not in the first week," Dad told me with a little wink. I nodded and grabbed him into a hug. "See you in a few months, sweetheart. Best move on now. We're running out of time," Dad said.

The two of us nodded as we took a few steps forward towards the train. Harry and I both left our luggage for the attendants to grab as the two of us grabbed our trunks. "Goodbye, Harry. Owl us if you need anything, alright?" Mom offered.

Harry gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you," he told her softly.

"Good luck, Harry. You'll do wonderfully," Dad said. With that the two of us backed away and headed into the opening of the train. We lugged our trunks on weakly. They were both extremely heavy. We were standing at the entrance to the train, watching as my parents backed away. "Be good kids! We'll see you in a few months!" Dad shouted as they backed through the barrier once more.

Once they were gone I glanced around at the rest of the station. Smoke from the Hogwarts Express drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd. Cats - clearly pets - were darting everywhere. Owls - including Dai and Hedwig - hooted to one another. The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats.

Immediately Harry and I went searching for an empty compartment. My parents had told me that this was one of the hardest parts of the ride. A plump boy in front of us was running past a woman that was nearly three times his ago. "Gran, I've lost my toad again."

The woman, presumably his grandmother, sighed at him. "Oh, Neville," she said with the shake of her head.

The two of them passed and a moment later a boy with dreadlocks came into view. He was surrounded by a small crowd. "Give us a look, Lee, go on," a boy called. The boy - Lee - lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled. Harry and I backed off as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

I turned to Harry - who was slowly turning green. "Shall we find a compartment?" I asked him. He said nothing but nodded at me. He certainly looked like he might be sick at any moment.

I didn't bother pressing Harry to say anything else. He didn't look like he was much in the talking mood right now. He just looked nervous. Harry and I pressed on through the crowd for a few minutes until we found an empty compartment near the end of the train. Harry and I put Hedwig and Dai inside first and then started to shove our trunks inside. They were both far too heavy. Harry tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.

The second time that he dropped it I could tell that it had seriously hurt him. He was cradling his foot, that I was praying wasn't broken. I didn't know the spell to heal it. "You alright?" I asked him.

Harry never got a chance to answer. George and Fred appeared at the door of the compartment, George in front of his twin. I smiled at the both of them. "Want a hand?" He asked before turning to me. "Hey stranger," he told me with a small wink.

"I think you're following me," I teased the pair.

They both laughed. I noticed that both Ron and Percy had disappeared from their company. In fact, so had Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Ginny, and Ron. "Yes, please," Harry panted.

George turned back and shouted at Fred, who had since disappeared. "Oi, Fred! C'mere and help!" He shouted.

A moment later Fred appeared. Between the two of them they were easily able to lift Harry's trunk to the overhead storage areas. They made it look like it was no big deal. Fred then turned to me. "Tara, you need yours up there too?" He asked me.

I nodded at him. "Yes, please."

This time I stepped forward and helped the two of them. Not that it really did much help at all. The twins seemed to be almost twice my height. They didn't seem to mind as they pushed it in next to Harry's. The two of us brushed back our sweaty hair as the two twins grinned. "Thanks," Harry and I both said as we pushed our sweaty hair out of our eyes.

Their eyes went briefly over me before landing on Harry. I noticed that their eyes widened drastically as they stared at Harry's forehead. "What's that?" Fred asked, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.

George seemed to have finally noticed what Fred was staring at. "Blimey. Are you -" he said before being cut off by Fred.

"He is," he continued before turning to Harry. "Aren't you?" he asked.

Despite the fact that no one was looking at me I still glared at them. They were staring at him like he was an animal. Harry seemed oblivious to what they were both talking about. "What?" Harry finally asked.

"Harry Potter," Fred and George chorused.

Harry suddenly looked even more awkward than I had seen him before. "Oh, him," Harry said awkwardly. "I mean, yes, I am," he continued. It was still awkward.

Trying to save Harry from anything even more embarrassing I took a step forward and cleared my throat. "Have you boys ever been to the zoo before?" I asked the twins. They both nodded. "You know how people sit and gawk at the animals all day?" I asked them with a pointed nod of my head towards Harry.

Fred and George both nodded at me before turning sorry glances on Harry. "Sorry," they both muttered softly.

"It's alright."

For a few moments afterwards we all stared at each other. It looked like my comment had gone almost completely unnoticed by the others as they continued to gawk. Even from across the compartment I could see Harry turning red. Then, to both of our relief, Mrs. Weasley's voice came floating in through the train's open door. "Fred? George? Are you there?" She called.

The two turned around and called out of the window. "Coming, Mom. See you two later," they both chirped. I almost laughed. They were so similar. Even for twins. They gave us one last long look before turning out of the compartment and hopping off the train.

For a moment the two of us just stared at each other. Harry sat down on the right side of the compartment and I joined him, folding my legs under myself. "You alright?" I asked him.

"Yeah."

Of course we both knew that he wasn't alright. And I didn't blame him. I could only imagine how strange he felt. "Pretty soon people will get used to seeing you soon. It's just, after everything that happened in Godric's Hollow you went off the grid. It's a little weird for them to finally be seeing you back. I mean they consider you the savior of the Wizarding World," I told him.

"But I'm not," Harry argued with me. I shook my head at him. He was. He was the reason that Voldemort had been defeated. "Tara, I don't know a thing about the Wizarding World. The only things that I know are from you and Hagrid," he told me.

"Harry that's the whole point of Hogwarts. You're going to learn all sorts of new things. You'll get to know all about the Wizarding World," I argued with him. If the Muggle-Born's could do it, so could Harry. "Trust me, give people a few weeks to get used to you being here and this will be old news. Hogwarts is a big school but news travels fast. Just wait until a new couple pops up or something like that."

Harry smiled at me and nodded. I wasn't just telling him it to make him feel better. I was telling him it because it was the truth. He wouldn't always be this fascinating. "You always did know how to make me feel better," Harry told me with a small laugh.

I giggled too and nodded at him. "It's my job," I teased, nudging him gently. "Hey, just smile. We'll be at Hogwarts in a few hours and you won't have to think about the Dursley's and you'll be able to do magic and you'll get to see the world that your parents were from," I tried to tell him all of the positive things.

Harry opened his mouth to say something else but before he could Mrs. Weasley's voice drifted through the train once more. "Now, you two - this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've - you've blown up a toilet or -"

I snorted at the same time that Fred spoke. "Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."

Oh yeah. I was going to have to use them as my pranking partners. The ones that I pulled at Ilvermorny would be nothing compared to this. "Great idea though, thanks, Mom," George said.

Knowing that Mrs. Weasley was beside herself with worry and frustration I opened the window a smidgen and leaned out. "Don't worry Mrs. Weasley. I'll look after them!" I called out to her.

Mrs. Weasley turned to look at me and I smiled at her. "Thank you, Tara. Owl me immediately if there's any trouble with them," she told me and I laughed with a small nod. I wasn't sure where they lived but owls were funny. They seemed to always know where they were going. She then turning a furious gaze back on the twins, each of whom were laughing. "It's not funny. And look after Ron."

Fred wrapped his shoulder around his little brother - despite being almost the same size - and pulled him in tightly. "Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."

I snorted under my breath and noticed even the corner of Harry's lips turn up. "Shut up," Ron snapped.

Watching the Weasley's interact almost made me wish that I had a brother. Although I supposed that I did have a sibling. Harry was as good as my brother. "Hey, I wouldn't listen to that," I told Harry as I heard that the Weasley's begin speaking about Harry on the train. Once more he looked extremely awkward. "Like I said, Harry. Don't worry. They'll get used to you," I told him softly.

Harry sighed and began to fiddle with a Sickle that had been in his pocket. "I feel like that boa constrictor in the zoo," he told me. I laughed softly.

"On the bright side, you might get away with turning your homework in late. I mean, come on. Who wants to mess with the boy who saved the Wizarding World?" I asked him teasingly.

Harry looked over at me with a blank face. "You're useless."

The both of laughed as I leaned over and wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm just messing with you!" I told him with another small laugh.

The two of us sat together in silence for a while as we both watched kids of all ages jumping onto the train. Some seemed to be searching for last minute items, others for friends, some were getting yelled at by parents, and others looked like they just wanted to get onto the train unharmed. Many of them just looked like they wanted to get going already. I glanced up at the clock and saw that train would be departing in a few minutes.

Distracting me from my people watching, Harry finally spoke once more. "Hey Tara, do we take math and stuff like that at Hogwarts?" He asked me.

I chuckled softly and shook my head at him. It was why wizards really weren't good with stuff like math and science. "Nope. Only magical subjects." Harry still looked confused. "You'll have Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, and Herbology. Flying lessons on broomsticks are also compulsory for First Years," I tried to explain.

Although I knew that Harry would still be completely lost. He looked extremely confused. "And uh... What are they?" He asked me once more.

"Oh. Astronomy is a branch of magic that studies stars and the movement of planets," I told him. He nodded for me to continue. "Charms specializes in the teaching of charms. Basically how to uh - create things, I suppose. It's less of defensive and more - peaceful? I'm not helping, am I?" I asked stupidly.

I was trying my hardest but I knew that it wasn't helping. And I really didn't want to confuse him even more. Perhaps this was my first lesson that I really shouldn't be a teacher. "Not really, no," Harry said.

The two of us laughed softly as I tried to explain once more. "Well I'm not so good at explaining that one. I'll move on. In Defense students learn how to defend themselves against Dark Creatures, the Dark Arts, and other dark charms. You'll learn how to duel too. In Herbology students learn to care for and utilize plants, learn about their magical properties and what they are used for. History of Magic is self-explanatory. In Potions you'll learn how to brew potions correctly and what they're used for. Transfiguration teaches the art of changing the form and appearance of an object. And that's about it."

"Those are the all of the classes that we'll take?" Harry asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "For now. There are electives and classes that are added in Third Year. Plus you'll have your O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. level classes too in your later years." Harry's eyes went wide at my attempted explanation and I knew that I had gone too far. "You know what, don't worry about that for now. It'll make sense later," I promised him.

Harry looked like he might say something else but he never got the chance. A whistle sounded from the front of the train. "Hurry up!" I heard Mrs. Weasley call, and I watched as the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye as Ginny began to cry.

Fred grabbed his sister for a tight hug. "Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."

I smiled at the two of them. It was nice to see that the boys loved their only sister so much. "We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat," George said. Both Harry and I snorted loudly.

"George!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.

George leaned forward to his mother and gave her a little smile. "Only joking, Mom." Of course we all knew that it wasn't the truth. She had given them the toilet seat idea so now I knew that he would.

With a sudden lurch the train began to move. Harry and I watched as Mrs. Weasley and Ginny, half laughing, half crying, ran to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed. The pair then fell back and waved. The two of us watched the pair until we no longer could when the train rounded the first corner. Houses flashed past the window and I smiled at the Muggles, wondering if they could see the train or if it was enchanted. Probably enchanted.

Next to me I could feel Harry's leg bouncing up and down. But he seemed excited now, no longer nervous. I smiled over at him. "It still doesn't feel real," he told me, sounding louder and more confident this time.

"You know, right now I think I feel the same way," I told him with a small smile.

The two of us leaned against each other as we made ourselves comfortable in the rather small compartment. I was sure that Harry had a million questions but he didn't ask any of them. I appreciated the silence. The door of the compartment slid open a few minutes later and Ron walked in. "Hi Tara," he chirped at me.

I smiled at him and waved him into the compartment. I could tell that he was looking for somewhere to sit. "Hey Ron," I chirped back.

"Anyone sitting there?" Ron asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry and I. "Everywhere else is full." Harry and I shook our heads - I waited a moment to make sure that Harry was alright with it - and Ron sat down. He glanced at Harry - more like his scar - and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked.

The compartment went silent after that as we all shifted awkwardly. Everyone knew what the elephant in the room was but no one wanted to say anything. Finally two red mops popped in through the doorway, those mops being Fred and George. They both looked at Ron first before turning to me and giving me a wink. Everything that they did was in perfect synchronization and I laughed softly.

"Hey, Ron," Fred finally said before looking over to me. "Tara." I nodded at the two boys as they turned back to Ron. "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"We're allowed giant tarantulas?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Fred turned over to me with a wide smirk. "You're not scared of them. Are you?" He asked me.

Slowly I rolled my eyes at him. I should have figured that they were the types of boys that wanted to scare the girls by putting spiders on them or trying to get their hair wet. Neither one of those would bother me. "Planning on putting one in my hair while I sleep?" I asked him.

Both boys laughed as they glanced at each other. "She's got us figured out already, Fred," George said with a small groan as if I had ruined their entire plan.

"Just so you boys know, I'm not scared of spiders," I told them.

There were very few things that I was actually scared of. I loved spiders. The last time that I'd been at a zoo in the States I'd held a tarantula. "No worries. We were going to put it in Ron's," Fred told me with a small wink.

I smiled softly, figuring that Ron must have hated spiders. My thoughts were confirmed when Ron went stark white and shoved at his brothers to get them out of the compartment. "Bugger off!" He shouted at them. My face paled slightly. My parents would kill me if I spoke to them like that.

Of course with me being here now I would be able to say and do whatever I wanted. "Harry," Fred finally said, "did we introduce ourselves?" Harry shook his head at them. "Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

Harry nodded and shook hands with both Fred and George. He only nodded at Ron. "Bye," Harry, Ron, and myself all chirped at the twins. They nodded to us once more before leaving the compartment and letting the door slide shut behind them.

The cabin was once more plunged into a strange silence. "Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out. Both Harry and I looked over at him. After a moment Harry nodded. "Oh - well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes. And have you really got - you know..." He pointed at Harry's forehead.

Glancing over at Ron I narrowed my eyes. How could people really just speak to Harry like that? Perhaps it was just because I'd had to live without telling him who he was for so long. "Bluntness runs in the family?" I asked Ron before I could stop myself.

I needed to put duct tape on my mouth or something like that. It was going to get me into trouble. "Sorry," Ron said abashedly while looking at the ground.

Harry glanced over at me and placed a hand over mine. "Don't worry about it, Tara."

I nodded at him and watched with a grimace as Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared with wide eyes. I knew the feeling. I had probably stared too long at it the first time that I had seen him too. "So that's where You-Know-Who..." Ron trailed off.

"Yes," Harry said almost instantly, "but I can't remember it."

"Nothing?" Ron asked eagerly.

I could only imagine that he wanted to know everything about what Harry could remember all of that night. But he had barely been a year old. He wasn't going to remember anything. "Well - I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else," Harry said awkwardly.

"Wow," Ron breathed softly. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again. I snorted at the two bots as I glanced over at the window, watching as we passed through housing developments that were getting farther and farther spread out.

After a moment Harry spoke once more. "Are all your family wizards?" Harry asked Ron. I smiled at the two of them. Here's hoping that they would be in the same house and be roommates. I could see that a good friendship was forming. "You call them Purebloods, right, Tara?" Harry then asked me.

"Yeah."

We both turned back to look at Ron. "Er - Yes, I think so. I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him," he told us.

Harry and I both chuckled softly at that. I knew that Ron was a Pureblood. I knew that the Weasley's were part of the Sacred Twenty-Nine. "You're part of the Sacred Twenty-Nine, aren't you?" I asked him.

Ron looked over at me with wide eyes. "Oh yeah. I didn't know people knew about that," he said softly.

Harry looked as confused as the first time that Hagrid and I had told him that he was a wizard. "What's the Sacred Twenty-Nine?" He asked.

"They're the only truly Pureblood families left in the Wizarding World. The English Wizarding World, that is. That boy we saw looking for the toad?" I asked Harry to see if he remembered. Harry nodded at me. "Neville, I think his grandmother called him. He's a Longbottom. He's one of them. Malfoy, Ollivander, Weasley, and Nox. We're all part of them too," I told him.

There were plenty of other families that I was forgetting but I didn't want to have to go through them all. "So the kids in those families - you must know loads of magic already," Harry said to Ron.

Neither one of us said anything to him. We didn't want to have to admit that we did know more about magic than he did. We didn't want to make him feel worse. He was nervous as is. After a little pause Ron spoke up once more. "I heard you went to live with Muggles. What are they like?" Ron asked.

"Horrible -" Harry responded immediately and I stomped on his foot, "well, not all of them," he said at my pointed glare. "My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."

"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to." I smiled at Ron and encouraged him to keep speaking. He would be good in his own way. "Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch."

Suddenly it all made sense. Ron was afraid that he wouldn't live up to the legacy that the rest of his family had laid in front of him. "Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny." I nodded subconsciously. They were funny. Even Percy was funny when he wanted to be. "Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first," he said gloomily.

"You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes," which appeared to be far too short for him, "Charlie's old wand," which had bits of wood splintering, "and Percy's old rat." Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep. "His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff - I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Ron's ears went pink.

My chest gave a little twist. My parents had never had money problems. Mom was one of the best workers at the hospital and now she worked for the Ministry. She had always been paid well. And Dad was a professional Quidditch player. He made a ton of money. Plus they only had me to take care of. They didn't have any other children to take care of and pay for.

After a moment I glanced over to Ron and frowned. He clearly thought that he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window. Both Harry and I frowned over at Ron. I didn't care that he couldn't afford an owl. After all, the only reason that my parents let me have one was because my marks were so good. Plus Harry had never had money. The Dursley's had but there was no way that they were letting Harry touch a cent of it. After a while Harry began telling Ron all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.

We were halfway into a conversation about how Harry had found out that he was a wizard. "... and until Hagrid and Tara told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort." Ron gasped. "What?" Harry asked.

I glanced over at him and shook my head. "I told you, Harry. Most people won't say his name," I told him once more. No one ever said the name. It was almost considered bad luck.

Ron was seemingly oblivious to Harry and I's brief conversation. "You said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron shouted, sounding both shocked and impressed. I cringed, hoping that no one else had heard him. We could get in trouble for it. "I'd have thought you, of all people -"

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," Harry spoke over Ron, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet," he added, his voice dropping low, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

Both Ron and I moved forward to shake our heads at Harry. If nothing else I had a feeling that he was going to be one of the best. "You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough," Ron argued.

"Told you," I bit out to Harry, who nudged me softly. "And trust me. There's going to be people who aren't that great in our year but it certainly won't be you," I told him.

The three of us went back to speaking and each time we laughed it only got louder. I knew that we were all going to be good friends while we were here. As Harry and Ron went to talking about how Muggle phones worked I glanced out the window. We had already gotten out of London. Now we were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. Afterwards we were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past. Even with the door closed to the compartment I could hear the chattering and laughing in the compartments near us.

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor. We all looked out to see a smiling, dimpled woman who had slid back our door to say, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Harry immediately leaped to his feet. For the past few minutes I'd heard his stomach growling. Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry and I rose to our feet and went out into the corridor. I smiled as he looked over the cart for something to buy. He was probably looking for something like a Mars Bar. I snorted at him. There wasn't going to be anything like a Mars Bar. Not here in the Wizarding World. He would have to learn all about the food and drink that we had.

He didn't say anything but I knew that he was looking over everything at least twice. She had Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of all of the other candies from the Wizarding World. Harry slowly picked up everything on the table. He looked frightened at the prospect of some and excited at others.

"What is all of this?" Harry asked me.

I smirked at him and nodded my head to the cart. He was going to want to try everything but that was a lot of money. "I'll split it with you. You'll want to try everything," I told him. So I paid six Sickles and four Knuts while Harry paid five Sickles and three Knuts.

We walked back into the compartment and Harry and I tipped our armload of candy onto the empty seat beside Ron. He stared at us with wide eyes. "Hungry, are you two?" Ron asked with a little laugh. I could tell by his wandering eyes that he really wanted something.

"Starving," Harry answered as he took a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

His eyes lit up and I smiled at him. While Harry dug into the candy I watched Ron take out a lumpy package and unwrap it. There were four sandwiches inside. They looked horrible. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."

Gross. They looked terrible as Harry grabbed another pasty. I smiled as I bit into a sugar quill. "Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on -" Harry tried to offer before Ron spoke once more.

"You don't want this, it's all dry," Ron argued. I rolled my eyes. He didn't understand that Harry was saying it to be nice, not because he wanted one of the sandwiches. "She hasn't got much time," Ron added quickly, "you know, with five of us."

We sat together as Harry grabbed one of the pasty's. "Go on, have a pasty," Harry told Ron. We all ate together as we picked through the different pasties, cakes, and candies. Ron had given both Harry and I one of his sandwiches but we had long since forgotten about them.

They didn't look appetizing and despite the fact that we might be sick afterwards we were enjoying having all of the snacks that we wanted with no parents to tell us no. "Here," I said after a few minutes. "Have a Cauldron Cake. They make me sick if I eat too many of them," I told Ron as I handed one to him.

And it was the truth. I liked the Cauldron Cakes but they were huge. I could only have one at a time. The marshmallow and chocolate was too much for me. "Thanks," Ron said as he grabbed it and dug in.

"What are these?" Harry asked Ron and me, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He asked. He seemed extremely nervous at the sight of them.

Both Ron and I grinned at each other before I put on a completely serious face and turned over to look at Harry. "Yes. You'll have to make sure that you take the head off first," I told him completely seriously. Ron and I exchanged little grins as Harry went pale as a sheet. After a moment I finally laughed. "I'm just joking Harry. It's chocolate," I told him.

Harry grabbed me and shoved me roughly to the side. I laughed softly as Harry began to open the package. "Good one," Ron told me before turning to Harry. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."

"I've got an Agrippa. I'll bring it to you after the holidays if you like?" I told him.

I didn't collect them but I couldn't really bring myself to tossing them away so I did keep them. I was pretty sure that I had an Agrippa somewhere in my pile of cards. Many also from my father - who are far too much chocolate for a professional Quidditch player. "Absolutely!" Ron chirped.

"What?" Harry asked.

Ron and I both turned to him slightly surprised. I hadn't even remembered that Harry wouldn't know about the famous witches and wizards on all of the cards. "Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

"You have five hundred?" I asked Ron with wide eyes. He nodded at me. I had about two hundred and over half of them were probably from Dad. "Now Ptolemy I don't have," I added.

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and I leaned over as he picked up the card. He had gotten Dumbledore. I smiled at him. I had a few of Dumbledore. "So this is Dumbledore!" Harry shouted excitedly.

Slowly I nodded at him. Dumbledore looked the same as he had in the last picture that I had seen of him. "That's him. He's one of the most popular cards," I told Harry.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" Ron said. I shook my head at him. Harry would have no clue what Dumbledore was or who he was. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa," Ron said. Harry handed him one out of the pile. "Thanks."

Harry was looking over the card and I smiled as Dumbledore's face finally disappeared. I wondered if it was simply because he knew that Harry had seen his face. "He's gone!" Harry shouted.

Ron shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," Ron said. Harry looked shocked. I wondered how he would feel when he saw the moving portraits and pictures. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting." Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.

Harry nodded and I watched as Ron handed him over the card. "Help yourself," Harry said as we motioned to the pile of candy that was still mostly untouched. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos," Harry added.

"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!" Harry and I both chuckled slightly as the astonished look on Ron's face.

The three of us stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave us a small smile. I wasn't sure if he could see or not but I waved at the picture. After a moment I was sure that he winked back at me. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards. Harry was staring at each one intensely as I explained who they all were. We watched as he collected another Dumbledore and Morgana, but also Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He was looking over druidess Cliodna as he opened a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

This was what I was waiting for him to get. I knew each and every one by heart considering that Dad always liked to try and get me to eat the most disgusting ones. "You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once." I rolled my eyes. There were no booger flavored ones. Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner. Sprouts. "Ugh - see? Sprouts."

Once they had gone through a few normal ones I looked into the bag and searched for the multi-colored bean that I was looking for. After a few moments I found it and smirked. I put on a straight face before I handed it over to Harry. "Try this one. It's Tutti Fruitti," I said.

Harry grabbed it and thanked me softly. He popped it into his mouth and bit down on it quickly. A moment later he spit it out and howled in disgust. "Tara! This is vomit!" He shouted.

Ron leaned over to me and gave me a high-five as we all laughed loudly at Harry's attempt to try and get the flavor out of his mouth. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off of a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch. I knew that it was pepper before they ate it. They wouldn't try the brown one that I insisted was chocolate. They were smart not to. It was dirt. The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.

We had to be about halfway to Hogwarts. Maybe further. I was pretty sure that Hogwarts was in Scotland. Although I always could have been wrong. There was a knock on the door of their compartment and we all nodded for him to open the door. It was Neville, the boy that we had seen being shouted at by his grandmother on the platform. He looked tearful. I almost felt bad staring up at him.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" We all shook our heads. I hadn't thought that anyone would actually bring one. He then began to wail "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," Harry said.

Suddenly a wave of pity took over me. I would be devastated if I lost Dai. "If you have any toad food leave it out by the door of your compartment. He'll come hopping by eventually," I suggested to Neville.

"Yes," Neville agreed miserably. "Well, if you see him..." He said before trailing off and turning away from the door. He then left without another word.

We were all silent as we waited for the boy to get down the hallway a little ways. "Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk." The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap. "He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look... Unicorn hair's nearly poking out," he groaned about the wand.

If the unicorn hair was coming out of the top he really needed to get a new wand. This was ridiculous. Wands were only a few Galleons. Hell I'd pay for him to get a new one. "I think you need a new wand," I told Ron.

He turned to look over at me and nod. "Maybe one day when Mum can take me back to Diagon Alley," he muttered awkwardly. Money must have been a really big deal for them. "Anyway -"

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. Neville was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes. She was the only person that I'd already seen in them. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had an extremely bossy voice and I narrowed my eyes at her. She had lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

There were plenty of thoughts in my head about her but I pushed them all back. It wouldn't do to make enemies on the first day at Hogwarts. "We've already told him we haven't seen it," Ron said, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

I finally realized who she was. I had seen her leaving Diagon Alley with an armload of books a few weeks ago. "Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

Had she not realized that she'd just intruded on a rather private conversation? Not that we were saying anything important. But still, we might have been. "Er - all right," Ron said awkwardly. He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

I snorted at him. I was sure that it wasn't a real spell. It was a good try for a first spell though. "Are you sure that's a real spell?" The girl asked with a haughty laugh to her voice. "Well, it's not very good, is it?" She asked without waiting for an answer. "I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course. I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is I've heard. I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" She asked us all.

I was sure that she'd said it all in one breath. "I saw you in Diagon Alley a few weeks ago," I told the girl, breaking the silence. "You had more than just the required textbooks in your arms. You're a Muggle-Born, aren't you?" I asked her.

Her ramble had been slightly difficult to understand. I wasn't sure if she'd said that she was Muggle-Born or not. "Well - well yes. Does it make a difference to you?" She asked, looking slightly put out.

"Not the slightest," I answered Hermione immediately.

Hermione stared at me for a moment before nodding at me. "You're an American," she said. It wasn't a question but I nodded anyways. "Are there no American schools? You're the only one that I've heard on the train," she told me.

I figured that I would be the only American at the school. People might stare at me just as much as they would stare at Harry. "There are schools all over the world. I'm surprised that you don't know about them," I told her. "Perhaps I'll tell you about Ilvermorny - the American school that I almost went to - if we end up in the same House," I offered to her, almost immediately regretting it.

Thankfully she didn't react in a strange or irritating matter. She merely nodded at me with a smile. "I'd like that," she told me.

"Tara Nox," I greeted, extending my hand out to shake hers.

She shook it tightly before letting go. She then turned over to look at Ron and Harry who were watching the exchange with wide eyes. Of course even I had been stunned that a Muggle-Born knew all of the books by heart. "I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter," Harry added.

Hermione had looked less than thrilled to meet Ron. But she suddenly seemed thrilled to see Harry. "Are you really?" Hermione asked. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books. For background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" Harry asked, glancing over at me. I shrugged. I hadn't learned about him through a textbook, I'd learned about him through friends and family.

Hermione started suddenly. "Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me. Do any of you know what house you'll be in?" She didn't give us a chance to answer. "I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking Neville with her without another word. We all stared after her for a few minutes in shock. "Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," Ron said. He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell - George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

"What house are your brothers in?" Harry asked.

"Gryffindor," Ron said. He looked depressed again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

Unfortunately Ron and I were sharing the same fear. Neither one of us wanted to end up in Slytherin. We were going to die if we ended up in anything other than Gryffindor. "That's the house Vol-," Harry stopped himself when he saw the look on Ron's face. "I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

Ron and I stared at each other for a moment. "Yeah," Ron said.

I could tell that he was about as depressed about the whole thing as I was. "You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," Harry said. I knew that he was trying to take Ron's mind off houses. "So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?" Harry asked.

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringott's," Ron said. I noticed that he still looked thrown from the dragons comment. "Did you hear about Gringott's? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles - someone tried to rob a high security vault."

Harry and I both jumped slightly. No one ever tried to rob Gringott's. And no one ever succeeded. "Really? What happened to them?" Harry asked.

Ron shrugged his shoulders and I felt a strange knot forming in the pit of my stomach. "Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringott's, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

We were silent for a moment as we both processed the information. "Do you know what vault it was?" I asked him after a moment.

Unlike Harry and I, Ron didn't seem concerned. He shook his head at us. "Nah. No one said," Ron told us. We both nodded and sat in silence before Ron turned back to us. "What are your Quidditch teams?" Ron asked, probably trying to make us forget about the Gringott's break-in.

"The Stars," Harry answered almost automatically. I smiled at him. They were the only team that he knew.

"Stars," I repeated as Ron looked over at me.

He nodded as he began chewing on a sugar quill. "They're not half bad. You know there used to be a player on the Stars with the same last name as you. Nox," Ron told me.

I smirked as I glanced over at him and nodded. "Marcus Nox," I said. Ron nodded slowly. "That's my father."

Ron's head snapped up to look at me. He had wide eyes and I smiled at him. Quidditch fans were always excited when I told them who I was and who my father was. "Wicked! You have to tell me all about him," Ron told me.

I was about to tell him how he'd come around to playing Quidditch in the first place when the compartment door slid open yet again. This time it wasn't Neville Longbottom or Hermione Granger. Three boys entered, and immediately I noticed the boy in the middle was Draco Malfoy. I wasn't quite sure who the two at his side were but I was sure that they were supposed to be his lackeys. I stared at them curiously. In the meantime Draco was staring at Harry curiously.

It seemed that Draco had yet to realize that I was in here. "Is it true?" Draco asked. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?" He asked. He glanced over Ron before his eyes landed on me. He grinned softly. "Hello, Tara."

"Hello, Draco," I greeted with a small smile.

"Yes," Harry finally said. I noticed that he was looking at the two boys that were flanking Draco.

Draco seemed to notice that Harry was looking over at the lackeys. "Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle." I snorted at their names. They looked over at me with mean glares while Draco grinned at me. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Ron gave a snort similar to the one that I had given a moment before. Draco turned a glare on him. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasley's have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." He turned back to Harry and I. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

Where the hell had that come from? I had never known that Draco was a brat quite like that. Draco held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it. I was almost proud of him. I liked Draco just fine but I didn't like the way that he was acting. "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," Harry said coolly.

A soft pink tinge came onto Draco's cheeks as he dropped his hand. "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasley's and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."

A small gasp escaped my mouth. How could he be so cruel? How dare they be that cruel? A person's parent's deaths were not funny. Both Harry and Ron stood up. "Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.

I stared at the five of them with an angry glare over my face. They were all acting like immature little brats. Harry and Ron too for rising to the bait. "Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Draco sneered.

To my surprise it wasn't Ron that stepped in first. It was actually Harry. "Unless you get out now," Harry snapped. I was surprised that he dared to do something like that. It was a bad idea. Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron and would probably win in a fight.

Draco stepped forward and little further into the compartment. "But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some," he said, motioning down to the pile of candy.

This had gone on long enough. I jumped to my feet and stepped in between the pairs of boys. "Oh enough! How old are all of you? Old enough to be at Hogwarts but not old enough to settle things like gentlemen. Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, please leave. Harry, Ron, sit down," I snapped at the boys.

Harry and Ron both sat down slowly. Crabbe and Goyle turned to leave. Draco was the only one that stayed put. I placed my hand on his chest and pushed him back a step. He grabbed onto my wrist and I saw Harry tense behind me. "You're hanging around with people like them?" Draco asked me with a small snarl.

I motioned back angrily to where Crabbe and Goyle were waiting for Draco to rejoin them. "I could ask you the same thing," I snarled at him.

We were standing far closer than I wanted to be. "I do hope you make the right choice once we're at school, Nox," Draco snarled at me.

After a moment I shoved him backwards. He stumbled as I glared at him. "The same to you, Malfoy," I snarled at him. He glared after me for a moment before turning and leaving the compartment. I took a seat back near Harry and let out a breath.

The door never got a chance to fully close before Hermione Granger came running back into the compartment. "What has been going on?" She asked, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.

"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry and I as he looked closer at Scabbers. "No - I don't believe it - he's gone back to sleep. You've met Malfoy before?" Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley and I explained our two meetings. "I've heard of his family. They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Hermione, who was still standing in the doorway. "Can we help you with something?"

She scowled at his rude wording. "You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!" Hermione snapped.

Ron snorted and motioned over to me. "I think Tara was the one to settle things, not us," Ron said, scowling at her. She turned a shocked glance on me. "Would you mind leaving while we change?" Ron continued.

She turned a rather heated glare on Ron. "All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors." I rolled my eyes at her as she turned over to Ron. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?" Ron glared at her as she left. I glanced out the window and noticed that it was getting dark. Mountains and forests were forming under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

I turned over to the boys and nodded. "I suppose majority wins. I'll head to the bathrooms. Be right back," I told the boys. They both waved me off as I grabbed my bag and slipped my clothes out. I walked out of the compartment and closed the door behind me.

Walking down the hall I didn't see anyone that I knew. People were now running back and forth as they tried to find their friends and get changed into their robes. Most of the ones that seemed confused were First Years. It was strange to know that in a few weeks I would probably know most of them. There was a bathroom at the end of the train and I walked in. Girls were darting back and forth. The First Years were all trying to make sure that they were on the proper way and hadn't forgotten anything. The upperclassmen were all making sure that they looked good. For boyfriends or just in general, I wasn't sure.

Chuckling under my breath I turned and grabbed one of the empty stalls. Not that I really needed one. But I was still only eleven and I really didn't need to be looking at sixteen and seventeen year old girls with curves that I was silently hoping that I would have one day. I immediately pulled off my clothes and tossed them over the door to the stall before laying out the clothes that I was going to change into.

The plain white button-down shirt went on first. I buttoned it up white leaving two buttons undone at the top. I grabbed the black tie and left it loose around my neck so that the two undone buttons could still be seen. I couldn't behave too well just off the bat now, could I? I grabbed the grey knitted jumper and pulled it on over me, rolling my eyes. I really didn't like that part. Once that was on I slipped on the pleated skirt - definitely my least favorite part of the uniform - and zipped it up in the back. I grabbed my black shoes and grey socks before slipping my black robe over the top of it all.

In a matter of hours I knew that my House colors would be taking the place of some of the black pieces of the uniform. I left my black pointed hat off. It was only for use on special occasions. As I opened the door with the clothes in my hand I ran straight into Cho Chang. She stared at me with dark eyes and scoffed. "And I thought that the uniform couldn't possibly look worse on anyone else," she snarled.

Pansy Parkinson was standing next to her and laughed loudly. "Can't believe that they really let people who look like that into Hogwarts," she added.

I stared at the both of them with a friendly smile. They weren't going to get to me. Not when I was more excited to go to Hogwarts than I ever had been to do anything else. "I'm sorry. I thought that this was the women's bathroom. Nice haircuts," I told them both before turning and leaving the room.

I heard them both scoff loudly and shriek behind me. It wasn't my fault that they'd both decided to go for a bob that certainly didn't work for them. As I left to head back to the compartment I ran straight into someone else. "Oh! Watch where you're -" I cut myself off when I realized that it was Cedric. I smiled at him softly. "Oh. Hey, Giraffe," I told him with a little smirk

He chuckled at me and shook his head. "Elephant," he teased, despite the fact that the robes were now the correct length. "Good to see you again. We should be at Hogwarts soon. You ready?" He asked me.

Slowly I nodded at him. I was sure that I would never be ready to see whether or not I would be a real Gryffindor but I knew that I would have to find out eventually. "Nervous. But ready," I told him.

"Good. You'll be fine. Sorting goes faster than you think," he told me.

And that was a complete relief to hear. The one thing that I wanted was to get Sorting over with. And to not make a fool out of myself. And especially not to end up in the same place as Pansy Parkinson. "That's what I'm hoping for. You ready to go back to school?" I asked him.

A bright smile lit up his face. He pulled his robe that had been hanging off of one shoulder over onto the other one. I saw the light yellow color of his hood. Alright. Maybe Hufflepuff wouldn't be half-bad. "Always. I'm training so that I can be Quidditch Captain next year," he told me.

I smiled brightly. Perhaps one day I'd have to go to a game to see just how good he was. I was sure that as a First Year I wouldn't make it on the team. "Congratulations," I said.

Cedric grinned at me and nudged my shoulder. "Well that's nothing compared to having a professional player as a father," he told me.

I laughed softly as a boy in a blue robe - that I was pretty sure indicated Ravenclaw - brushed past us. He was chatting excitedly with his friends. They seemed to be around their Third or Fourth Year. "Did you hear? Harry Potter is on the train!" He shouted.

Cedric looked over at me and nodded. "Ah, news about that has been all over the train all day long. You wouldn't believe it. I'm not even sure if I believe it. He's supposed to be a First Year from what I heard," he told me with a bewildered stare.

"Yeah, he's in my compartment," I said. Cedric's eyes widened to the size of watermelons. "He's been my neighbor for two years," I continued.

He was looking at me like I was insane or maybe that I had grown a third arm. "I don't think I've ever heard someone as nonchalant as that," Cedric said to me. I laughed softly and shrugged my shoulder. "Although I suppose that you've just had more time to get used to him," he continued.

"He's just my best friend," I told Cedric.

Before Cedric could say anything else to me a voice echoed through the train. "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time." My heart gave a little lurch in my chest. We were really that close to the place that was going to be my home. "Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Of course. We were going to be going straight to the Sorting so they wouldn't want us to have anything with us. "Better be on your way. See you at the Sorting. Try not to be too sick. Only about half of the kids that go up vomit," Cedric told me with a little shrug of his shoulders.

"What?!" I shrieked.

Cedric laughed and grabbed my shoulder tightly. "Just kidding. See you soon, Tara," Cedric told me. I grinned at him and watched as he turned into a compartment not far from us. I could hear his friends chatting with him.

As I walked back into the compartment I saw that both Harry and Ron seemed like they were about ready to empty their stomachs. The boys were both in their uniforms and I smiled at them as I walked in. We all crammed our pockets with the last of the sweets and walked out of the compartment. There was nothing left in the compartment that we needed to take. All we needed was ourselves. I could tell that the three of us were all extremely nervous as we made sure that everything that we needed was in sight.

Once we were sure that everything was put away we went and joined the crowd thronging the corridor. We all stood for only a moment before the train slowed down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. It wasn't something that I had ever seen before. I would have thought that the Hogwarts platform would have been large and magnificent. I grabbed onto Harry as the night air blasted through the crowd. It was probably somewhere in the low fifties.

If I thought that Surrey was cold I was going to have a serious lesson to learn here in Scotland. We all stood in utter silence before a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students. I smiled as I heard a familiar voice. "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" Hagrid called out to Harry before turning over to me. "Hello, Tara," he called out.

"Hi, Hagrid!" I chirped.

A few people glanced over at me curiously. Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. "C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" Hagrid called to us.

He didn't bother to wait and see if we were going to catch up. He simply began to walk. All of the First Years began to slip and stumble as we followed Hagrid down to a steep and narrow path of rocks. Most people fell at least once. More people fell at least three times. Harry and I used each other for support on the walk. We never fell since Ron was standing behind us and spotting us. I felt terrible that he fell once.

The path was so dark on either side of them that I figured we must have been in the middle of the woods. There was no way that we were anywhere near civilized areas. Nobody spoke much. There were a few comments tossed here and there about where the school was and people thanking each other for helping them stay standing. The only thing that mattered was that we got there right now. We were all freezing. Neville sniffed once or twice, probably over his lost toad. I fell once more and this time Harry couldn't catch me. Instead, Draco did.

He was staring at me with a somewhat strange face as he helped me straighten up correctly. I was sure that I was about to fall again. We finally straightened up and he let go of me. "Thanks," I muttered softly.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." It was the first time that anyone had spoken at the normal level. We all jumped slightly.

We all walked around the last corner before spotting our first look of Hogwarts Castle. There was a loud "Oooooh!" From all of the students.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. I wouldn't have even begun to be able to guess how many floors that there were. Somewhere in there was going to be where I would live for most of the next seven years. All of my friends would be in there. Once upon a time my family had walked around in there. It seemed strange that I was more excited to see Hogwarts Castle then I had ever been to see Ilvermorny Castle. Maybe I was always supposed to be here.

Right as I was trying to make a mental map of the castle Hagrid called out once more. "No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry, Ron, and I jumped into our boat. We were followed by Hermione. Ron looked less than thrilled that she was in there. "Everyone in?" Hagrid shouted, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - Forward!"

We slunk through the black water as we neared the entrance to the castle. I dipped my hand in the water but immediately retracted it. The water was ice cold. "Have you heard about the Giant Squid in the lake?" I asked Ron.

Ron paled and for a moment I thought that he might pass out. "I always thought that it was just a joke that Fred and George made up!"

Whoops. Maybe no one really knew about the Giant Squid. I just knew because my parents had told me about it. "Oh - uh - it is. They told me to tell you that," I said softly.

We all decided to not say anything after that. Hermione was completely entranced watching the castle rise in the distance. The fleet of little boats continued moving all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over us was we sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood. I really couldn't tell whether or not I was nervous or excited. I could see Harry's leg bouncing up and down. Ron seemed about to be sick.

"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled as the first boats reached the cliff.

We all bent our heads down in sudden alarm. The little boats carried us through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. Hagrid was really the only one that needed to duck. We were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking us right underneath the castle. We finally reached a kind of underground harbor where the boats docked.

Once Hagrid had given the all-clear for us to jump out of the boats we did so. We all clambered out onto the rocks and pebbles. Most of us were still slipping. "Oi, you there! Is this your toad?" Hagrid called out, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" Neville cried blissfully, holding out his hands.

We all chuckled softly as Neville packed his toad into his pocket. Once everyone was out of the boats we were led up the passageway in the rock towards the castle. The only way that we could see where we were going was because we were following Hagrid's lamp. At last we came out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. The windows were sparkling with light and I smiled. We walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

Some kids were panting from the long and steep walk. Harry looked exhausted but excited. Ron still looked like he was going to be slightly sick. Hermione looked winded but ready to be let in. "Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid asked.

Neville nodded his head at Hagrid. Everyone else nodded slowly as we tried to prepare ourselves for whatever it was that was about to happen. I leaned into Harry. Ron was on my other side. "I suppose it's too late to turn around now?" I asked Harry softly.

He smiled at me and shook his head. For the first time since telling him that he was a wizard I saw some vain semblance of determination. "I don't think I want to," Harry told me. I smiled at him and turned back to the front of the crowd, watching as Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.


	7. The Sorting Hat

The small group of students seemed to be shaking with nerves as a collective unit. The air outside of the castle was frigid. It seemed to be dropping as the minutes passed. Not even five seconds after Hagrid had first knocked on the door it swung open. A few students jumped back in surprise. I was one of the few that were entranced with the tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes that stood there. She had a very stern face and I immediately knew that the majority of my detentions would be coming from her.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid called out, shattering the silence. We all stared at her and I nodded. This was the woman that my parents had warned me about.

The witch nodded at Hagrid. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." Hagrid nodded at her and turned away. He apparently lived somewhere on the grounds so I assumed that he was going to go back home. McGonagall pulled the door wide and I stared in.

The entrance hall was so big that my entire house could have fit in it. Maybe two of them, actually. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out - I assumed that it was well over ten stories beyond where we were standing - and a magnificent marble staircase facing us led to the upper floors. I glanced upwards and laughed as I saw that the staircases were actually moving. I couldn't help but wonder if they were hoping for someone to fall.

We weren't allowed to actually look around. Instead we had to follow Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Behind a large wooden doorway to the right sounded hundreds of voices. I had a feeling that it was the Great Hall. It made it painfully obvious that the rest of the school must have already arrived here. We weren't allowed into the hall right now though. Instead Professor McGonagall showed us into a small, empty chamber off the hall.

Our medium-sized group crowded in, standing rather close together. I would have liked to shove a few people away from me but I figured that right now would probably be the wrong time to injure someone. Especially someone that I would need to be around for seven years. We were all glancing around nervously. Ron was straight behind me and Harry was to my right. Hermione was on my left with a brunette girl next to her. Neville was in front of me and Draco was a few people over to my right. Crabbe and Goyle were still flanking him. Pansy was standing next to him.

I rolled my eyes at her and glanced over at Harry. He looked a little sick. "Think if I play sick they'll let me do the Sorting in private for fear if me throwing up on them?" I asked him.

Harry looked over at me and shook his head. "Of course not. Although if you do throw up make it on Malfoy, yeah?" He asked me.

The two of us chuckled softly to ensure that McGonagall didn't hear us. "I just can't believe that he was acting like that. I've met him a few times before and he never seemed rude like that," I said softly.

It was almost painful. I hated thinking that Draco wasn't the nice guy that I had thought that he was. "I met him in Diagon Alley when we were getting fitted for the robes. He didn't have a care in the world about who I was. Not until we got here and he found out who I was," Harry told me.

"Oh," I muttered dumbly.

Harry wrapped an arm around me. "Don't worry, Tara. We're going to find better friends than one Draco Malfoy," he told me and I nodded.

He wasn't the only guy in this school. I was going to manage to make friends with the likes of much better than Draco Malfoy. "I guess we have a head start. Already got two," I told him. I leaned back and nudged against Ron gently. He chuckled and nudged me back.

"Good luck guys," Ron muttered softly.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat to begin speaking. "Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be Sorted into your Houses." I noticed everyone take a deep breath at this. "The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear - making me snort softly - and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry was nervously trying to flatten his hair. I brushed my hair back over my shoulders. "I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

We were all shaking slightly at this point. Even those of us who knew where we were going were nervous. "Information overload," I muttered to Harry as Professor McGonagall left the hall.

I could see - and hear - Harry swallow. "How exactly do they sort us into Houses?" Harry asked Ron and I.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I knew how Probably something terrifying. Although Cedric said that it wasn't too bad," I told him.

"Cedric?" Harry asked curiously.

Slowly I nodded at him. "He's a Fourth-Year that I met while I was getting my robes fitted," I told him. Perhaps if I got nervous I'd look over at him. Although that might make me even more nervous.

"They Sort us with some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking," Ron said softly.

"Considering it was Fred I'd be willing to bet that he was only joking," I said.

That didn't stop the roll of nerves that shot through my stomach. What if it was a test that we were taking? And what if it was in front of the whole school? I knew the theory behind the magic and I had done a wandless spell once or twice - not that it had succeeded - but I wouldn't be able to do real magic. Not when I was nervous. It seemed that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione, who was whispering very fast with another girl

"What kind of spells do you think that we'll need? I learned all sorts of the summer but I haven't actually attempted any yet. Perhaps the Levitating Charm, the Color Change Charm, or even the Cheering Charm. There could even be the chance that it wouldn't be any Charms at all and maybe we'll have to -"

She had gone on long enough. "Hermione, zip it," I said, shattering the mostly silent air around us. "Everyone is nervous enough," I told her gently.

She glanced up at me and narrowed her eyes. "We should be prepared."

"For what?" I asked her with a little laugh. She couldn't expect them to be testing the Muggle-Born's too. They didn't know anything. "What the hell do you think that they're going to make us do? Fight a dragon or the Giant Squid in the lake?" I asked her.

Before she got the chance to speak to me again someone else piped up. "I'd certainly pay good money to watch that," Draco said with a little laugh.

Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, another girl with long brown hair, another boy with dark hair, and a black boy all laughed with him. "I'm sure that you would. And I'd pay good money to watch you get singed because you're too arrogant to realize that you know about as much practical magic as the rest of us," I snapped at him.

The people standing on my end of the hallway laughed softly, just the way that Draco's friends had laughed moments before. "I'd watch what you say, Nox. You might end up in Slytherin," Draco warned.

My jaws tightened as I glared at him. Slytherin would be bad enough and it would only be worse if it meant that I would spend the next seven years with Draco Malfoy. "Not if it means that I'm stuck with the likes of you."

"Blood traitor," Draco growled on me.

My chest gave a painful twist as Pansy let out an ugly laugh. There went the only remaining chance that I might ever be friends with Draco Malfoy. "What did you just say to me? How dare you, you -"

I was cut off by sudden screams from kids that were standing on the outside of the hall. Harry jumped slightly but I merely looked upward. I was too angry to scream or move. "What the -?" Harry asked. He was cut off by everything happening around us.

He suddenly gasped as did I. There were plenty of things about magic that never phased me. Ghosts had always been something that had. I just couldn't get over the fact that dead people were still wandering around. We weren't the only ones to gasp. So did the people around us. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glanced at us First Years. They all seemed to be arguing.

Any nerves that we'd had for the Sorting went out the window at the sight of the ghosts. There was a little fat monk that saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -" to another ghost.

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?" A ghost that was dressed like he belonged in a Shakespearean play replied to the monk. "He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost -" Shakespeare man finally looked over at us. "I say, what are you all doing here?" He asked.

The name Peeves did ring a bell. I leaned over to Harry and Ron. Although Ron probably knew from his brothers. "I've heard about Peeves before. Apparently he's a ghost that always plays pranks on the kids in Hogwarts. He's a disaster and no one can control him."

Harry looked over at me. "Sounds almost like you." Ron snorted as I raised my foot and stomped it down on Harry's. He made a face of pain but said nothing more on the matter.

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed us. After my comment we went silent. Nobody even moved. "New students!" Cried the Fat Friar, smiling at us. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people - myself included - nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know."

The school really must have been older than I thought that it was. "Move along now," I heard Professor McGonagall's sharp voice call. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall. "Now, form a line and follow me."

For a brief moment I grabbed onto Harry's hand. Even the moment of comfort made me feel better. He let me go as we began to walk and I took in a deep breath. It felt like someone had injected my legs with cement. I was standing towards the front of the line - much to my dismay - a boy with sandy hair was behind me, Harry behind him, and Ron behind him. Hermione was in front of me and I tried to hide behind her bushy hair.

We walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great parents had told me about the Great Hall time and time again. They had always made it sound like it was something straight out of a Muggle movie. They could have never told me quite how grand it really was.

It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. The wooden tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led us up towards the table where the First Years were sitting. As we walked I caught eyes with Cedric - who gave me an encouraging smile - Fred and George - who both made funny faces - and Percy - who gave me a short but polite nod.

The walk seemed to take hours before we finally came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind us. The hundreds of faces stared back at us and I felt my cheeks growing red. Even though I knew that they were looking over all of us it still felt like they were all looking at me. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone a misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, I glanced up and saw that the ceiling was spotted with sparkling stars. I smiled at it.

Harry came to stand next to me with Ron on his other side. Hermione was right behind me and I heard her whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History," to another girl.

It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens. I turned my gaze from the ceiling and watched as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of us. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. The hat was ugly and old, patched and frayed and extremely dirty. What were we supposed to do with a hat? I noticed that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, so I stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing. My jaw dropped.

Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!

I'd never heard of an enchanted hat before. The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song and I clapped as well. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became still again. "So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry and I. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

"Where would they have even had room to wrestle a troll?" I asked him suddenly.

Despite the vast size of the Great Hall I knew how large trolls were and I knew that there would be no room for students to wrestle one. Ron went slightly pink. "I - I -" he stuttered.

I smiled at him and reached around, placing my hand on his shoulder. "So I think you'll be good. There's no way that you're going to end up in Ravenclaw," I teased gently.

He gave me a weak smile. In the back of my mind I hoped that he hadn't been upset that my joke had also been slightly offensive. "Normally I'd yell at you for calling me stupid but right now I'm actually grateful. I just want to end up in Gryffindor," he told me.

"Me too," I said softly.

Harry smiled weakly. At least we weren't doing anything that crazy, but that didn't mean that I didn't wish we could have tried it on without everyone watching. What was I? Was I loyal? Sure. To the people I loved. Was I wise? I had good marks. But I was lazy too. Was I shrewd? Definitely. That sent a little pang through my chest. Was I brave? I liked to think so. Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. There was no backing out now.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be Sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!" A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down.

The Great Hall was completely silent as my stomach rolled. "Hufflepuff!" The hat shouted after a moment.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. I noticed Cedric giving her a small handshake. At least if I ended up there I would have someone that I knew. Not that a Fourth Year would want to hang out with a First Year. Suddenly I felt sick again. The Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

The hat was barely on her for a moment before it shouted out. "Hufflepuff!" Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"Ravenclaw!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaw's stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them. Mandy Brocklehurst went to Ravenclaw too. Their table seemed friendly enough although I did notice Cho Chang giving me a deep glare. I hoped for the life of me that I wasn't going to be going into Ravenclaw. I was sure that neither one of us would enjoy that experience.

Lavender Brown became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; I could see Fred and George catcalling. I rolled my eyes at the two boys. Millicent Bulstrode then became a Slytherin. They definitely looked like a rather unpleasant lot. Most of them didn't seem friendly in the slightest. A few looked like they might be tolerable. Gryffindor now seemed to be an even better choice.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"Hufflepuff!" The hat shouted immediately. Some people took only a few seconds while others took a matter of minutes.

"Finnigan, Seamus." The sandy-haired boy that had been behind me in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor. He seemed rather excited at this news.

"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. The Ravenclaw's were the only ones that seemed to be having an easy time not laughing at her.

She would be one for sure. I was utterly surprised when it turned out that she was not. "Gryffindor!" My eyebrows raised to my forehead. Ron and I both groaned as Harry nervously chuckled.

More and more names were called as time ticked on. I kept wondering when the names would ever run out. It wasn't like there were that many of us. There seemed to only be somewhere between fifty and sixty First Years that needed to be Sorted. But each one seemed to be taking longer than the last. It was probably because we were coming close to it being my turn. Neville Longbottom was called after a while, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville.

When it finally shouted, "Gryffindor," I could see people's jaws dropping. Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to Morag MacDougal.

"Malfoy, Draco."

My eyes narrowed as Malfoy swaggered forward. The entire Slytherin table was watching him with glee. The hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "Slytherin!" Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself. My teeth ground together as he turned back to me with a wicked grin.

I glanced at the group around me. There weren't many people left now. People by the name of Moon and Nott were both Sorted. Nott went to Slytherin, sitting with Malfoy. "Nox, Tara."

A lump formed in my throat. "Good luck," Harry muttered to me softly.

His hand was on my back as he nudged me up to the stool. I took a seat on it and allowed Professor McGonagall to slip it over my head. I was grateful that the edge of the hat was so low that I couldn't see the sea of eyes staring at me. After a few moments a voice spoke in my head. "Ah, another Nox." I jumped slightly. "It's been quite some time since I've seen your parents under my brim. Where do you think that you belong, Miss Nox?" The hat asked me.

Was that facetious? "Gryffindor," I answered softly.

The hat hummed in my ear. "Are you so sure?" It asked me.

"Yes."

The hat made something that sounded like a hum. "Perhaps we should think this one through. There is Hufflepuff," the hat suggested. I shook my head slowly. The last thing that I wanted was to end up anywhere but in Gryffindor. "The House of the loyal and the patient. I see a loyal girl in there - almost loyal to a fault - but I do not see patience. It's a virtue that you clearly lack," it told me.

Did that mean that it was taking Hufflepuff out of the running? "So not Hufflepuff?" I asked softly.

"Not Hufflepuff." One down and three to go. Sorry, Cedric. "What about Ravenclaw? The House of the wise. I can see all through your head. You're a smart girl. Good marks in all classes with the exception of Divination and Astronomy." I snorted softly. "You'd do well in Ravenclaw. But what about the procrastination? I see that as well. And Ravenclaw's do not procrastinate. Or have attitudes quite like you do," it told me.

I laughed softly under my breath. Despite the fact that I couldn't see anyone out in the crowd I knew that they were all staring and wondering what was taking so long. "So not Ravenclaw?"

"Not Ravenclaw." Two down, two to go. The ones that I was most nervous for. "We have Gryffindor too. The House of the brave. Daring, nerve, and chivalry. I see all of them in you. A brash girl that knows what to do when she needs to. You're an exemplary Gryffindor. You'd do well in Gryffindor," it told me.

A wide grin fell over my face. It was going to place me in Gryffindor. My parents were going to be so proud. "So you're placing me in Gryffindor?" I asked excitedly.

The Sorting Hat gave something like a little laugh. "We aren't done yet. We have yet to go through the last of the Houses. Slytherin." My stomach gave a painful lurch. "The House of the shrewd where you'll find yourself making real friends. There's something in you. A darkness and a fondness for power. It desires to find itself in Slytherin," it told me.

My stomach was roiling painfully. What did it mean that I had some darkness in me? Or a fondness for power? I certainly didn't. I was light. I enjoyed laughing and running around with my friends. Not lusting after power. "No. I don't want to be in Slytherin."

"You don't?"

"No," I answered immediately. "That's where the bad witches and wizards go. I'm not bad and there's nothing dark about me," I argued.

Even though the hat really didn't have a face I knew that it was grinning at me. I could feel the pleasure in the fabric. "Sure there is. It's coming to play right now," it told me with a teasing laugh. "You're sure that Slytherin isn't an option for you?" It asked me once more.

"Positive."

A small sigh blew a few strands of hair around my face. "I do take student's preferences and past family members into account. With that being said, it better be..." Please be Gryffindor. "Gryffindor!" It shouted. I could hear students cheering in the background. Before the hat was lifted off of me I heard the hat speak once more. "Make no mistake Miss Nox. I would have preferred placing you in Slytherin," it told me.

There was no chance for me to say anything back to it. Professor McGonagall lifted the hat off of my head and I saw that Fred and George were standing on top of the Gryffindor table. I laughed loudly and shook my head. They were good friends. The Gryffindor table was cheering loudly and I laughed softly. This was going to be a good family. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were clapping politely. Cedric seemed proud of me. The only table that wasn't cheering was Slytherin. Malfoy was sneering at me.

Giving him a dark glare back I hopped off of the stool and began to walk over to the Gryffindor table. There was a spot that was open next to Hermione. Seamus was sitting across from it and the twins weren't far from there. As I walked I saw that the inside of the robe was turning crimson. A Gryffindor lion appeared on my chest and my tie took to having gold and crimson stripes.

It was official. I was a real Gryffindor. "Yeah, Tara!" Fred and George shouted loudly. They were still standing on the table.

"Get down from there Mr's Weasley!" Professor McGonagall shouted from across the hall. The boys laughed and bowed to her before taking their seats once more. Percy was glaring at them.

At the sudden shout everyone started laughing. My Sorting was certainly the most eventful so far. The boys were still shouting with glee for me as I took my seat next to Hermione. "That took a while. The hat must have thought that you were worthy of more than one House," she told me.

I smiled softly at her. "Thanks. I'm sure that it had a problem deciding between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for you," I told her, attempting a friendship. There was a good chance that we would be roommates.

"It took some time but the hat seemed determined that I was going to be the best in Gryffindor," she told me.

Once more I nodded at her as Percy leaned forward and extended his hand to me. "Nice job, Tara," he told me. I shook it tightly before leaning back in my seat. The hall was quieting down but there was still some scattered laughter and cheers.

Across the hall I saw that Cedric was trying to get my attention. I turned back to him and smiled. "Told you that it'd work out for you," he shouted at me.

"Thanks!" I shouted back. I was sure that at some point or another we would be able to have an actual conversation about how nerve-wracking the Sorting was.

As the hall quieted back down and the next student went up to be Sorted I was called back to the table by Fred. "My, Tara, we thought that the hat was starting to eat you," he grinned at me teasingly. George and their friend - Lee, I thought - were both chuckling.

I knew that they were just kidding but I couldn't get the hat's comment about darkness inside of me out of my head. I managed to smile at them. "It really couldn't make up its mind or decide where it wanted me to go. I thought that it was eventually just going to roll a dice," I told them honestly.

They nodded. Actually I thought that the hat was going to put me in Slytherin. Seamus - the sandy haired boy across from me - leaned forward and extended his hand. "Seamus Finnegan, pleasure to meet ya," he told me.

The boy had a thick Irish accent. "Nice to meet you, Seamus."

And then we both turned back to the Sorting. Harry turned back to me for a moment and I gave him a reassuring smile. If I had been Sorted into Gryffindor there was no doubt in my mind that he would be too. And I really was hoping that he would be here. Slytherin would be awful for him, Hufflepuff would be too boring, and Harry was no fool but Ravenclaw was a little too bright for him. Gryffindor was really the one place that he actually belonged. Not just for the fact that his friends were here.

"Parkinson, Pansy," Professor McGonagall called out. My eyes narrowed at her. Anywhere but Gryffindor.

She wasn't under the hat for long. "Slytherin!"

I couldn't help the little scoff that escaped my mouth. Seamus leaned across the table with a little grin on his face. "Not a fan?" He asked me.

I shook my head. "Not in the slightest."

"My Mum taught me a spell to change someone's hair pink if you ever want to use it," he offered.

I gave a wicked grin. "How about red and gold?"

Fred and George had been listening to us at the end of the table. They laughed softly as the next few people were called out. It was a pair of twin girls. Parvati and Padma Patil. Padma was Sorted into Ravenclaw. I shook hands with Parvati as she was Sorted into Gryffindor. They looked a little depressed as Parvati took a seat next to Lavender Brown. There was Sally-Anne Perks and then, at last there was the other name that I was listening for.

"Potter, Harry!" Professor McGonagall called out. As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?" A boy over at the Ravenclaw table asked.

"The Harry Potter?" A Gryffindor girl asked. There were plenty of other whispers as Harry took a seat on the stool. I could see his hands shaking from here.

I gave him a little smile and he looked back over at me. We kept eye contact until the hat was dropped over his eyes. "Do you know him?" Seamus asked me curiously.

Giving a little glance over to him, breaking contact from the hat, I nodded at Seamus. "He's my best friend," I admitted. Once more whispers broke out all over the table.

"Wicked."

The hat was silent for a while. I was pretty sure that it wasn't as long as I had taken but Harry was certainly under there for a long time. I could see his face twisting and contorting. I was sure that once or twice I saw the word Slytherin form on his lips. A frown fell over my face. The last thing that I wanted was for Harry to wind up in Slytherin. He belonged in Gryffindor with me.

At long last the hat made its decision. "Gryffindor!" It shouted.

I was the first person to stand and begin cheering. "Go Harry!" I shouted. The rest of the crowd followed. It was the loudest applause that anyone had gotten yet. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were cheering. A few Slytherin's were clapping politely. All of Gryffindor House were on their feet. As he approached the table I noticed that most people were stopping him to shake hands with him. I could see from here that he was shaking as he walked up the aisle.

He was probably just grateful that he hadn't been put into Slytherin - all of whom looked slightly bitter. Every House had probably wanted him. He finally managed to get up to where I was sitting and take the open seat next to me. I wrapped my arms around him. "Oh I'm so happy that you got Gryffindor! Alright, I'm officially no longer nervous," I told him. Harry laughed softly.

It was the first time that he had looked genuinely comfortable since arriving. Percy got up and shook his hand vigorously and I snorted under my breath. Everyone looked so thrilled as Harry looked shocked. "We got Potter! We got Potter!" Fred and George were shouting.

The two of us laughed softly at their actions. I glanced back up into the crowd and saw that Ron was looking back at us with a bitter smile. I gave him a comforting nod. In a few minutes he would be a Gryffindor too. Nearly Headless Nick was floating next to Harry and I noticed that the ghost placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. The boy looked like he had jumped into the lake outside. I assumed that being touched by a ghost probably wasn't a pleasant experience.

After a beat I noticed that Harry was looking up at the High Table with the professors. I hadn't even bothered looking up at them since arriving at the Gryffindor table. I glanced up and looked over them. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, he caught Harry's eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. After a moment he turned back to me and gave me a little wink. I laughed softly and smiled.

In the center of the table was the man that my parents always spoke so highly of. He was in a large gold chair but didn't look like he realized it. It was like he was sitting in a plastic chair, sunbathing. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. His eyes were twinkling as he looked over at me. I grinned and looked away. Professor Quirrell was there too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He looked very peculiar in a large purple turban.

And now there were only three people left to be sorted. Dean Thomas was a black boy even taller than Ron; he joined Harry and I at the Gryffindor table, shaking everyone's hands. He gave me a bright smile as he seated himself next to Seamus. I remembered having a conversation with him about Quidditch in Diagon Alley a few weeks ago. He seemed to have gotten taller since then. Lisa Turpin became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was a pale green by now.

Harry seemed to be a bit nervous by now. I knew that he would want someone with him in the Boy's Dorm in the Gryffindor House. "He's gonna be a Gryffindor," I whispered to Harry.

I noticed that Harry had crossed his fingers under the table. The hat wasn't on his head for too long. I did notice that Ron jumped nearly a foot in the air. Presumably when the hat spoke to him for the first time. A second later the hat had shouted, "Gryffindor!"

Harry and I clapped loudly with the rest as Ron weakly collapsed into the chair next to him. Percy was smiling at his younger brother. "Well done, Ron, excellent," Percy said across from Harry.

I leaned over Harry and gave Ron a quick hug. "Good job! Told you that we'd both be Gryffindor's," I told him with a little smile. Ron laughed softly and nodded. Thankfully the green tinge was out of his face by now.

Blaise Zabini was the last person to be Sorted. He looked very much like Dean Thomas. Although, unlike Dean Thomas, Blaise was made a Slytherin. And suddenly there was no one else to be Sorted. We were all at the tables looking nervously around. For the First Years we had no clue what happened now. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

Slowly I glanced down at the empty gold plate. My stomach gave a painful rumble and I rolled my eyes at myself. The pumpkin pasties and candy had simply gotten my blood sugar up. But that was ages ago. And I had missed breakfast because I'd been late. By now I was starving. Although food was still nowhere to be seen. Hopefully soon enough - especially considering the fact that we were all Sorted by now - we would eat.

Harry nudged my shoulder and I glanced up to see that Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. "Welcome," he said softly. Somehow his voice still carried throughout the Great Hall. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat back down suddenly. I snorted under my breath. My parents had told me that Dumbledore was a little on the strange side, but that it made him no less incredible. Everybody clapped and cheered. "Is he a bit mad?" Harry asked Percy uncertainly.

Percy didn't seem to completely process the question. "Mad? He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Glancing over at Harry, I smiled and motioned him back to the table. Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore was chatting amicably. It was the first time that I had seen her smile since arriving at Hogwarts. "Albus Dumbledore is one of the greatest wizards to ever live. That being said, he's a little off his rocker. But it's in a good way," I told Harry.

He nodded at me before glancing back down at the table. Suddenly Harry's mouth fell open. My line of sight followed his and I laughed softly. The dishes in front of us were now piled with food. The table was now filled with all of the things I liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

My parents had always been good about putting whatever I wanted on the table but considering my father was a professional athlete my parents seemed to always like being on some strange diet. And that meant that if one of us was on a diet, we all were. Being here I could already feel my mouth watering. Finally no one was going to tell me that I couldn't eat something because it would throw off their serve. Everyone began to chow down as people spoke excitedly. Food was flying everywhere. Hermione looked appalled as I laughed.

Harry was already eating more than I had ever seen him eat. "That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry and I cut our steaks.

"Can't you -?" Harry began to ask.

"I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred years," said the ghost. I supposed that Harry didn't know that once you died there was no reason for food. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."

My parents had told me about Nearly Headless Nick. Apparently they used to be pretty good friends. "I know who you are! My brothers told me about you - you're Nearly Headless Nick!" Ron said loudly.

I grimaced. Mom and Dad had told me that his nickname was a rather sensitive topic with the ghost. "My Mom and Dad told me about you!" I shouted with him.

Nick turned to me first. A small smile spread across his face. "Yes, I do remember your parents. I was rather find of both your mother and father. Good kids, the both of them." I smiled softly and nodded at him. Maybe a lot of people would remember my parents. I wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing. He then turned to Ron. "I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy -" the ghost began stiffly, but Seamus interrupted.

"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"

Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if our little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted. "Like this," he said irritably before raising his hand.

He seized his left ear and pulled. At the same moment screams were exchanged throughout the hall. Mostly from the Gryffindor table but some Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's screamed too. Most of the Slytherin's laughed although a few First Year's screamed as well. His whole head had swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly.

At least we all knew now why he was Nearly Headless Nick. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on our faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So - new Gryffindor's! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryffindor's have never gone so long without winning. Slytherin's have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable - he's the Slytherin ghost."

Nick pointed back at the Slytherin table exasperatedly. Harry and I both followed his arm. I saw that over at the Slytherin table there was a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. I could immediately tell that he wasn't a ghost to mess with. Some part of me was curious to ask him how he had died. The Bloody Baron was right next to Malfoy who didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements. I couldn't say that I blamed him.

"How did he get covered in blood?" Seamus with great interest. I was almost grateful that he'd asked.

"I've never asked," Nearly Headless Nick said delicately. Was there a chance that ghosts could die again? I really didn't know that much about them.

After that Nearly Headless Nick took off in flight towards a female ghost that looked like she belonged in Pride and Prejudice. We all went back to eating and I grinned at the new kids that we were sitting around. Dean and I chatted softly about Quidditch - not that he really knew much. He seemed to think that he was a Muggle-Born although there was some evidence that his father might have been a wizard. It was a strange situation. I was hoping that one day he could find out.

A little while later I turned over to talk to some of the girls. I always had guy friends. I never had any female friends. I'd had two back in the States and none in Surrey - even after two years. So I started speaking with the girls at the table. I would have attempted with Hermione but she was deep in conversation with Percy. I spoke with Lavender and Parvati briefly, but both were far too chipper. Although I had taken up their offer to go shopping with them in London one day on break. They were both Pureblood's that had never been shopping in London before. Our conversation didn't last long after that. I didn't know much else to say to them.

Harry and Ron were mostly eating in silence, each of them stuffing their faces. I was about to try and get them to join the conversation when a roll came flying at me, knocking me in the head. I turned to glare at the two laughing Weasley boys. "Oi you two! Knock it off!" I shouted.

"Ah come on Tara, lighten up," Fred teased me. I glanced over at them and smiled. I grabbed the spoon off of my plate and loaded it with mashed potatoes.

I aimed it quickly at the boys before letting it lose so that it would fling straight towards them. They were smart enough to duck out of the way. Instead the mashed potatoes went straight forward and smacked Pansy Parkinson in the back of the head. Everyone at the Gryffindor table laughed loudly as Pansy shrieked my name. I spit a little bit of the water that I was drinking onto my plate at the look on her face. Even Malfoy was laughing.

The table was still chuckling - with the exception of Hermione and Percy - as we went back to our meals. I could hear Pansy shouting about me. "Making new friends already, I see," Fred teased me.

"That was your fault!" I shouted at him.

Fred merely gave me a bright grin. "Don't you blame me for your terrible aim," he said.

This time I was faster than they were. I grabbed a roll from the center of the table and tossed it at the twins. It smacked Fred in the face before bouncing off and hitting George. Both boys looked stunned. "What was what about my terrible aim?" I asked them with a grin as Lee hooted.

Once more the twins leaned forward. "Just you wait Miss Nox, you're going to regret ever getting into a contest with me," Fred told me with twinkling eyes.

I leaned forward to meet him halfway at the table. "I somehow really doubt that my fine friend."

Separating us from our little contest, Seamus spoke up once more. "Tara, that's an American accent you have, isn't it?" He asked me.

I looked away from Fred - who had gone back to something that looked like plotting with George and Lee - to look at Seamus. "Yes it is. Just like you have an Irish accent," I told him with a small smile.

Seamus nodded at me, looking impressed that I had picked it out. Not that it was hard. Irish accents were easy to detect. "But I don't understand. Hogwarts accepts students from the United Kingdom and Ireland. I've never heard of it accepting students from the United States," he told me.

It caught the attention of most of the people that were sitting around us. I sighed, knowing that I was going to have to tell the story eventually. "Well I was raised in the United States. Florida to be more precise. But I was born in the United Kingdom. We only moved back a few years ago. But I was always supposed to go to Hogwarts," I told them as simply as I could.

"Where do American's go to school?" Fred and George's friend, Lee, asked me.

I turned to him and smiled. "It's called Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's in Massachusetts." I imagined that none of them knew where that was. They were all staring at me sideways. "It's just like Hogwarts. All seven years and it accepts students from all fifty states and Canada."

"Cool," Dean said. I imagined that they weren't sure that there were other magical schools. "Did you like Florida?"

I smiled and nodded. The lake outside reminded me of the one near my house but I knew that I would get hypothermia in minutes if I jumped into this one. "Oh yeah. I loved it in Florida. It was a lot warmer than Surrey. And it was a lot warmer than Scotland," I said.

The kids at the table all laughed. They were all used to the cold. Even after two years here I still wasn't used to the cold. "Don't worry, you get used to the weather real fast," Seamus told me.

I nodded but I still wasn't sure that I would really get used to the weather here. I could already feel the cold seeping into my bones. Hopefully there was a fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room. If there was I would be spending lots of time there. I turned over to Harry and saw that he was staring at the food on the table with a funny look on his face. Somehow Ron was still shoveling food into his mouth.

"You alright?" I asked Harry.

Harry was still staring down at his steak. "I was half expecting to be eating eyeballs and livers to channel our magic," he told me.

I snorted loudly and smirked to myself. Ah Harry, you're too easy. "Oh they don't start feeding us liver until the second week," I told him seriously.

"And it's hearts the week after that," Fred added on, just as seriously.

"Then it's lungs," George added.

"And we just keep going and going until we devour the whole body," Fred finished.

The three of us were all giving him a completely serious look. Harry had gone as white as a sheet. His eyes were wide as he weakly dropped the fork. After a moment of silence at the table - in which I saw that Hermione also suddenly looked a little green - the entire table burst into laughter. The Muggle-Born's were the only ones that hadn't laughed. Of course they all thought that we were completely serious. Harry looked over at me and shoved me to the side roughly.

I was still chuckling as he shook his head at me. I straightened up and nudged Harry gently. "Come on, Harry you have to learn that we like messing with you," I told him.

The two of us stopped teasing each other and continued getting to know the other Gryffindor's. I met the Quidditch team and made sure to make friends with all of them. I also may have told them that my father was Marcus Nox of the United States Stars. On the Gryffindor team was Oliver Wood - who was the Keeper and Captain. He was extremely enthusiastic and seemed thrilled to have someone in Gryffindor with a professional Quidditch player as a parent.

Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson were the Chasers. They were all sweet and seemed fond of having me as a reserve. And that was fine by me. It meant that by my Fourth Year I would be a normal player. Fred and George were the Beaters so I had no problem getting on their good side. To their credit they actually helped me, vowing that I was a good player despite having never seen me play.

Almost an hour after dinner had started everyone seemed done eating. The remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding. It almost made me sick to look at. That didn't stop me from grabbing an eclair.

Once everyone had their food we then talk turned to our families. "I'm half-and-half," Seamus said. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him." The kids at the table laughed.

I couldn't imagine marrying a Muggle and not telling them who I was. Although if I told them the truth they might not believe me. "What about you, Neville?" Ron asked.

Neville's head shot up. "Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch but the family thought I was all Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me - he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned - but nothing happened until I was eight.

"Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced - all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy.

"And you should have seen their faces when I got in here - they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."

How could his family treat him like that? It was terrible that someone could do something like that to their own child. They shouldn't have cared whether or not he was a Muggle. Or Squib, more accurately. "Neville that's awful. They really did something like that to you?" I asked him.

Neville nodded at me. "Well yeah, but it's alright. They just wanted to make sure that I wasn't... you know," he said as he trailed off.

The Muggle-Born's looked lost and so did some of the Half-Blood's. But the Pureblood's all sighed softly. We knew what he was talking about. And it was mortifying for someone from one of the Sacred Twenty-Nine families. "I know. But hey! You're here and you're in the best House!" I cried loudly.

There were a few scoffs from the other tables that had overheard me. On my other side I heard that Percy and Hermione were discussing lessons. "I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult -"

She was cut off by Percy. She didn't seem upset. And he seemed to like her enthusiasm for school. "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing - "

This time I was the one that cut Percy off. "Hermione!" I shouted across the table. Everyone turned to look at me in shock. "How could you possibly want lessons to start already? Come on! This is the time to make new friends that we'll have for life. Not to already be thinking about lessons that start, tomorrow, by the way," I told her with a little groan.

With the exception of the two that actually wanted to start school, everyone else groaned. "You are aware that this is a school?" Hermione asked me.

I nodded at her. "This is a home. It just happens to function as a school as well. Try and have some fun while you're here for the next seven years. You might enjoy the times out of class more than you enjoy the times in class," I told her with a little nudge.

She didn't look the least bit convinced. "That is doubtful," she told me.

"You might just live to regret saying that. Just forget about the lessons for a while," I tried telling her.

She turned towards me and smiled a toothy smile. "Well are you interested in any of the lessons?" She asked me.

"Sure. Quidditch lessons. Oh, and dueling!" I shouted excitedly.

Hermione knitted her brows at me. "Barbaric."

It wasn't barbaric. And I also wanted to learn more about Charms and Defense. I just knew that telling her Quidditch and dueling were the only things that I was looking forward to. And she had given me the reaction just what I was waiting for. "A girl after our own hearts, George," Fred teased.

I turned towards him and gave a little wink. "You won't be dueling until your Second Year at the earliest and even then it will be simply disarming spells. Dueling is dangerous," Percy said. I scoffed softly. "Quidditch you'll start immediately."

And that was what made me perk up. The others that were sitting with us too. Although I did notice that Parvati, Lavender, and Hermione had paled. "We all have to go through Quidditch lessons?" Hermione asked.

This was the one answer that I knew about the classes. "Quidditch. Of course. Everyone has to learn how to fly on a broom," I told her. She once more paled and I thought that I detected a little hint of fear. "Scared that there might be a class that you might actually not pass?" I asked her teasingly.

She looked as if I had insulted her great ancestors. "Of course not!" Hermione guffawed loudly. I laughed softly and shook my head at her. She was going to be a miserable flyer. I could already tell. "I'll pass it with flying colors," she said.

A few people at the table giggled at her little joke. I did too. She was actually reasonably funny. "Cute. Here's a tip, flying isn't something that you can learn from a book," I told her.

She looked thrown by the fact that there was something that she had to learn that couldn't be learned from a book. She was going to have to learn how to do this on her own. There was no book learning from this one. I glanced up and saw that Harry was looking at one of the professors. I glanced back and saw that he was staring at a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. The professor turned and caught eyes with Harry.

All of a sudden Harry reared back and clapped his hand to his forehead. He looked like he was in excruciating pain. "Ouch!" He cried out.

"What is it?" Percy asked as he glanced over.

Harry suddenly looked extremely nervous. "N-nothing," Harry stuttered. His face had gone completely white and a small sweat had broken over his face.

I reached over and grabbed his hand. Thankfully everyone else was absorbed in their conversations. "Are you alright?" I asked him softly.

Nothing good came from a pain in a scar that was left by a Dark Curse. "Yeah," Harry said.

My eyes narrowed as I stared at Harry. "That pain was in your scar?" I asked him. After a moment he nodded at me. "Have you ever felt that before?" I asked.

Harry shook his head at me and once more I narrowed my eyes. That didn't bode well. "No but Tara, it's fine. It was just a passing migraine. I'll live. And I'll let you know if it keeps happening." I nodded at him after a moment. No need to cause a fuss out here. "Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked Percy after a beat of silence, motioning to the greasy-haired man.

Percy glanced over. "Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to - everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape." My stomach gave an odd lurch. I didn't like the look of Professor Snape.

At long last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent almost immediately. Despite his oddities he carried a tremendous amount of respect. "Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First Years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of Fred and George. A few Gryffindor's chuckled. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term." My chest soared. "Anyone interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death," Dumbledore warned.

Harry and I both laughed, but we were some of the very few who did. Even Fred and George were silent. Cedric turned to me from the the Hufflepuff table and grinned. "He's not serious?" Harry muttered to Percy.

"Must be," Percy said, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere - the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."

He fell silent and looked back at Dumbledore. I looked over at Harry and dropped my voice. "At least I laughed too," I told him softly. He nodded.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried.

Harry nudged me to look up to the teachers. I noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed. Clearly this was not something that people liked to do. Dumbledore gave his wand - that I noticed bore some similarities to mine - a little flick, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

My brows rose to my hairline. "Everyone pick their favorite tune," Dumbledore said (I couldn't help but wonder what he meant by no set tune), "and off we go!" And the school bellowed:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.

Everybody finished the song at different times. I had been trying to go with the flow of the school so that I didn't sound like an idiot. But we all did. I attempted to sing along to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. It left me finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack. I noticed that the Slytherin's were the first ones done. Most of them hadn't even bothered to sing at all. Only move their lips along with the words. The Ravenclaw's looked mortified. The Gryffindor's and Hufflepuff's seemed to have good spirits about it.

Of course no one was in better spirits about the song then Fred and George. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Most of the school was watching them with amusement. Dumbledore actually seemed to appreciates it as he conducted their last few lines with his wand. When they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

They sat down with small grins on their faces. "You two are morons," I told them.

George grinned at me and spread his arms wide. "Ah but we're your morons! Well done, Tara, you've only been at Hogwarts for a few minutes and you've already been adopted by two upperclassmen," George told me loudly.

I had a feeling that it was to ward off any other upperclassmen boys from speaking to me. I snorted under my breath and shook my head at the two boys. "How lucky of me," I told them.

"Ah, music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!" He chirped.

With that, everyone in the hall went standing up. The Second through Seventh Years stood first. I assumed that they wanted all of them to get out of the way first. I watched as they all disappeared through the crowd, leaving only the First Years from each House left.

Percy then nodded for all of the Gryffindor First Years to head away. We all began to walk out and through the halls. The entire school was incredible and as I looked around I wondered how I was ever going to be able to figure out how to get around here. Even with seven years here I was sure that I would never find my way around. Harry was next to me and Ron was on my other side. Neville and Hermione were right behind us with Dean and Seamus behind them. Parvati and Lavender were chatting excitedly behind them.

Our group of about twenty new students went walking through the hall. We followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Thankfully it was no longer moving. Probably for our sake. As we walked up the stairs I realized that the people in the portraits along the corridors were whispering and pointing as we passed.

Some seemed happy to see new students and others seemed to immediately realize that Harry Potter was with our group. I was trying to remember the way but it was getting hard considering that twice Percy led us through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. We climbed more staircases, and at this point we were all yawning and dragging our feet. My feet were to the point where I wanted to pull them off when we came to a sudden halt.

I glanced around to see if we were standing in front of the doorway that we would be walking through. Of course there was nothing of the sort. It wasn't anything close to a doorway. My eyebrows rose when I saw that it was a bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of us. What the hell? As Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.

Percy ducked out of the way, pushing us backwards. "Peeves," Percy whispered to us. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves - show yourself" A sound like someone making a fart with a balloon answered. "Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?" Percy warned.

That seemed to work. There was a pop and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks. "Oooooooh!" He said with a high-pitched cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!" He swooped suddenly at us. We all ducked, some with screams.

Percy snarled under his breath. "Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" Percy barked.

Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. He groaned and I leaned back to check and make sure he wasn't bleeding or anything of the sort. He had a small lump on his head but looked otherwise unharmed. We heard him zooming away a moment later, rattling coats of armor as he passed. The hall went quiet once more.

Percy brushed the hair off of his face and turned back to us. "You want to watch out for Peeves," Percy said as we set off for the Gryffindor common room again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."

Thankfully it was only another minute or so before we stopped once more. At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress. "Password?" She asked.

"Caput Draconis," Percy said, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall.

I was never going to remember that this was the place that I needed to be. Together we all scrambled through it - Neville needed a leg up - and found ourselves in the Gryffindor common room. It was rather large - which I assumed that it would be considering there were probably about a hundred students in Gryffindor - but somehow still managed to be a little cozy.

It was a round room full of squashy armchairs. In the corner was a fireplace, much to my delight. There were a few Gryffindor's hanging around. Most of them were older. I assumed that the younger ones had already gone upstairs. Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. It was where the bedrooms were. There were ten new girls and ten new boys. Five to each room - far too many for my liking - two rooms for each gender of each year.

"Goodnight, boys!" I called back to the others. Harry and Ron both gave me a hug before Neville gave me a little nod. Dean and Seamus both gave me hugs as well. I would see them in the morning.

After that I followed Hermione up to the top of a spiral staircase. We were obviously in one of the towers at the top of the school. I was glad that heights didn't make me sick. There were two doors that led to the two bedrooms. I saw my name on a door that also had Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Hermione Granger, and a girl named Fay Dunbar. At least I knew all but one of them.

The five of us pushed into the room. Everyone seemed happy as we found our beds at last. They were five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Our trunks had already been brought up. No one spoke yet as we all pulled on our pajamas. The dorms seemed warmer than any place that I'd been yet so I pulled on a pair of cloth shorts and a loose shirt. The others were changing too as we all walked into the bathroom and brushed our teeth as well. No one spoke much as we changed. Hermione walked around with a book in hand.

"Hey Hermione, when finals come around make sure that I'm studying with you," I told her.

She turned to me with a bright smile and I laughed softly. I knew that saying something like that would get to her. "Of course! We can devise a whole study plan and work together every day and -"

"Okay, hang on. We've still got a few months to go," I told her with a small laugh. She giggled too as we both climbed into our beds. She took the bed next to mine on the edge of the room. Lavender was in the bed next to me. Parvati was next to her and the other girl was on the other end.

Lavender broke the silence after Hermione and I finished laughing. "Lavender Brown. Good to meet you ladies," she said. She shook hands with Hermione and the other girl. They were the two that she hadn't spoken too yet.

Parvati was the next to move forward. "Parvati Patil," she said, shaking their hands. "Here's to a wonderful next seven years!" She chirped brightly.

The five of us laughed softly. "Hermione Granger. Good to meet you all. Oh I'm so excited for classes tomorrow I don't think that I can sleep!" She shouted. I turned to her and snorted.

"Just think, the faster that you fall asleep the sooner is will be before you wake up and can go to class," I told her with a little smirk. "Tara Nox. I warn you all. I sleep like a rock. So please, someone wake me up to make sure that I don't miss lessons."

The other girl laughed softly. Actually, we all laughed. "Fay Dunbar. I think we can manage that." She had bright green eyes and long, dark hair.

With the introductions done I knew that we were all too exhausted to keep working. The only thing that we wanted to do was go to sleep so that we were all ready for the lessons in the morning. I knew that the others girls were writing letters to their families. Parvati finished first and Lavender finished not long after her. Fay took longer to write and it seemed that Hermione was writing a novel. After a moment I pulled out a quill and parchment and began to write as well.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I just wanted to let you both know that I've settled into Hogwarts well so far. My roommates are nice and so are the others that I've met. A few cruel kids - mostly Slytherin - but nothing that I can't handle. Anyways, I know that there's one thing that you've been waiting to hear since I left this morning. Was it really this morning? It already feels like it's been forever!

The Sorting was this evening and I was placed in... Slytherin.

I'm also totally kidding. I would die if I got placed in Slytherin. Nope! You are writing to the newest Gryffindor! I hope that you two are proud. I'm so excited!

I've got a few friends already. Most of them are in Gryffindor. Fred, George, and Percy Weasley - whom you met on the platform - and their younger brother Ron - who is in my year - are all my friends. Ron has become fast friends with Harry. There is a boy named Cedric Diggory in Hufflepuff that is pretty nice. Some of Harry's roommates are Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan. I like the both of them. Neville Longbottom too. He's not the best with magic, seemingly, but he's nice.

I have my roommates too. There is Lavender Brown, who is way too chipper for me. But she seems nice enough. I think that I'll avoid her for the most part. Parvati Patil is a sweet girl. Her twin sister was Sorted into Ravenclaw. I think that she misses her already. I would too. Fay Dunbar is nice enough. She's quiet but she likes Quidditch. Not the Stars though. She's so wrong in that aspect. The other girl is Hermione Granger. She's nice but studies way too much. She has all of her books memorized already! She's a Muggle-Born. I know that she's excited for classes to start tomorrow.

The professors all seem nice too. Not that I know many of them. Dumbledore is just the way that I expected him to be. Crazy with a mix of brilliant. We have a Potions master called Professor Snape. He seems rather mean. And we have a new Defense teacher called Professor Quirrell. He stutters a lot but seems nice.

I'll write you all about classes tomorrow. I promise to stay in touch and I promise that I won't get detention. Not on the first day at least.

Just kidding! Please don't send a Howler.

I miss you guys already! Try not to have too much fun without me. I'll try not to have too much fun here. Just kidding. This place is awesome! I see why you both loved it here. Anyways, it's getting late and the other girls are going to bed now. Owl you in a few days once I get used to classes.

Love always,

Tara (Harry and Dai too).

I placed the quill down and rolled up the parchment, handing it off to Dai. He grabbed it in his beak and took off through the window. I closed it once more and curled myself into the bed. As I closed my eyes I thought all about the lessons tomorrow. This was what I had been waiting years for. And nothing was going to ruin it. Not Peeves the Poltergeist, Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape, or anything else.

Although as I shifted in the bed I couldn't help but let the Sorting Hat's words about darkness inside of me echo through my head. That night - for the first time - I had a dream about a pair of red eyes hovering over me and a strange voice, almost like a snake hissing.


	8. Starting Hogwarts

Early in the morning I felt someone shaking my leg. I kicked out to get the mystery figure away from me. All I heard was a little groan. Sighing at the fact that I'd managed to get the figure away from me, I rolled over and closed my eyes once more. I was exhausted. I hadn't slept well at all last night. Something with my dreams. Not that I could remember what it was now that I was awake.

But not for long. I was going back to bed. Until the figure began to shake my leg once more. When I still didn't respond they threw back the curtains. I groaned and rolled my head into the pillow as the light flooded the dorm. It was so dark from the night and now I was sure that the light was burning out my pupils. It wasn't just me that I could hear groaning. Lavender, Parvati, and Fay all seemed to be groaning.

And that meant that the mystery figure was the one and only Hermione. She came back over to begin shaking my leg once more. "Tara. Tara, it's time for lessons," she said.

For a brief moment I lifted my head off of the pillow. "What time is it?" I asked, barely able to support myself. I was not a morning person.

"Six-fifteen," Hermione said.

My head shot straight off of the pillows, as did Parvati's and Lavender's. What the hell was she doing waking us up two hours before lessons started? I only needed half an hour so I could get changed and eat something like a piece or two of bacon. The only person that was still asleep was Fay. Somehow she was managing to sleep through this entire thing. Lucky girl.

"Hermione! Lessons don't start until eight!" I howled at her.

Lavender and Parvati were weakly stumbling from their beds. Thankfully Lavender closed one of the curtains. It left enough light for us to get changed but not so much that it was blinding us. As I sat up slowly I saw that Hermione was standing at the foot of my bed with her arms crossed over her chest. She was already dressed in her Hogwarts robes - perfectly ready to go. Although her hair was still fuzzy.

Hermione was now tapping her foot against the stone floor. "If you want to have a productive day you should be waking up at least two hours early," she told me.

Knowing that she wasn't going to let me go back to sleep I stood and limped from the bed. Parvati and Lavender were stumbling into their skirts. I leaned over to them as Hermione hopped back onto her bed to read through some books. "If you keep the window open, I'll toss her out of it," I told them lowly.

Both girls smiled and laughed at me. "It's a deal," Lavender said.

Once more, Hermione snapped at us to get ready. So with that we all stood and began to get ready for the day. Fay was still asleep in her bed and I watched as Hermione began to pester the brunette. Walking into the bathroom, I brushed my teeth and washed my face with the Anti-Acne potion that I'd gotten from Madame Primpernelle's. Once I had I walked to my trunk and began to pull on my uniform. A white button-down, grey jumper, maroon and gold tie, grey skirt, and Hogwarts robes.

I walked back into the bathroom for a moment to brush through my hair and tie it up. If we were going to be doing magic today I didn't want to have my hair accidentally turned some other color. Once a friends spell had gone awry and my hair - being long and in the way - had taken the brunt of it. I'd lived with blue hair for two weeks.

My bag was next and I tossed my books and wand into it. As I walked back into the main room, I slipped on my shoes and turned over to Fay. She was still asleep. "Fay!" I shouted. She jumped up and knocked Hermione slightly off to the side. "If we have to be awake, so do you. Up and at 'em, kiddo!" I told her.

She rose, just about as happy to be awake as I was. "What time is it?" Fay asked me. I glanced down at my Muggle watch that I had brought to ensure that I wasn't too late for my lessons.

"Six-thirty," I told her.

Her previously blurry eyes widened all the way as she stared at me. "Lessons don't start until eight!" She shouted.

I turned a little glare on Hermione. She wore a little blush as she packed away her books. I was doing the same thing. "If you want to have a productive day you should be waking up at least two hours early," I told Fay with a condescending tone.

Fay weakly stood from the bed and began limping around the room to get changed. She was actually faster than the rest of us. Hermione turned a little scowl on me. "You're not very funny, you know," she said.

I rolled my eyes at her and threw my arm over her shoulder. "What are you talking about? I'm the most fun person you'll ever meet. Come on. We should get down there and see who else is stupid enough to be awake at this Merlin-awful hour," I groaned. Lavender, Parvati, and Fay all chuckled as Hermione sent me a pointed glare. "I mean, who else is proactive enough to wake up to get all of their work done," I told her with a smile.

"One day you'll thank me for this," she told me.

"That's the same day that I'll ask one of you to hex me until I agree that eight is the earliest humane time for someone to wake up," I told her.

She merely rolled her eyes at me as we stood and walked out of the room. A yawn took over me as I walked down the stairs. My eyes watered and I brushed them from my eyes so to ensure that I didn't go tumbling down them. That would make for an interesting first day. My stomach gave a small rumble and I rolled my eyes at myself. I was starving. Despite having a big dinner last night I was nervous for my first day of classes, and that made me hungry. As I walked into the Common Room I saw that a few people were already sitting in the chairs. They all looked tired as they flipped through books.

They were all in their upper years. No one seemed to be a First Year other than Hermione and the rest of us. "Tara!" I heard two very familiar voices call out. A moment later I was tackled to the floor. I attempted to catch myself but I couldn't. I fell to the ground and groaned at the pain in my tailbone.

Two red flashes were on top of me and I groaned at the Weasley twins. There went not embarrassing myself on my first day. "Well you were supposed to catch us, you fool," Fred told me with a little flick to my nose.

I turned over to them and snarled under my breath. The two boys were sitting on either side of me. "Oh, how silly of me. Yes, I should have expected that the first thing I should be doing on the first morning of classes would be catching two Third-Year boys that should still be asleep!" I shouted at them.

It was much louder than I'd meant to be. Anyone that wasn't awake before was probably awake now. "See?" Hermione asked me. "Even Fred and George are awake!" She told me.

"Of course. We're planning our next few pranks. Have to be up early before any of the Prefects -" George started before Fred cut in.

"Percy."

"- can come and spoil our fun," Fred finished. I laughed softly and shook my head at the two of them. Hermione had a small frown on her face as the rest of us laughed.

Leaning over, I grabbed the two of them into a tight hug. All was forgiven for the two of them knocking me over first thing in the morning. "I love you two," I told them with a little laugh.

Hermione was standing over us with her hands on her hips. She looked furious that no one was anticipating the classes as much as she was. "Is no one else taking classes seriously yet?" She asked all of us.

"No," everyone in the Common Room said together.

With the help of Lavender, I stood from the floor. Fred and George followed a moment later. Lavender, Parvati, Fay, and the girls from the other class sat around the fire. "Fred and George, the two of you, can you go and ensure that Harry and Ron are awake? I somehow don't trust that they'll wake up themselves," I told the pair.

They both merely stared at me. Fred plopped into an oversized chair by the fire with an exaggerated yawn. A moment later Fred fell onto one of the couches with the same yawn. "You have legs, go get them yourself," George said.

Groaning under my breath, I stood and rose from my spot on the edge of the couch. I walked over to the stairs before hearing a shout from Hermione. "That's the boys dorm!" She howled at me.

"We're eleven years old and it's only been a day. Plus, they're boys. What exactly do you think that I'll be walking in on?" I asked her with a bored look.

"She makes a fair point," Fred said. I nodded and turned to the stairs once more before being shouted after again. "Oi! Tara! What classes do you have first?" He asked me.

Had we already gotten our timetables? I hadn't seen them. Had I not stayed in the Great Hall long enough? Or maybe they had been talking about it at dinner last night and I had turned out. "Not sure. I don't think that we get our schedules until we go down to breakfast. I'll let you know when I get it though," I told them.

Hopefully I was right about that. Tardiness wasn't tolerated in Hogwarts and I was well on my way there already. "Here's hoping you don't have double Potions," Fred told me.

We could have double classes? What did that even mean? I assumed that it meant a period of a class that twice as long as usual. "I'll probably have triple," I moaned, dreading having to spend any time at all with Professor Snape.

They all laughed at me as I turned and dashed up the stairs. I'd heard that the staircases were enchanted if you went up the wrong side but nothing happened to me. Maybe that was just something that Dad had told me to keep me off of the staircases that led to the boys room. It would have worked. I certainly didn't want to make a fool of myself for a second time in the first hour of being awake on the first day. As I walked into the boys room I glanced around. It was a replica of ours. Harry and Ron were on the edge, sleeping soundly. Dean and Seamus were next to them and both were dead asleep. Neville was on the edge and seemed about ready to fall out of the bed.

Well there was no way to wake all of them up without startling at least one of them. So maybe I should just wake them all up at once. "Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville, wake up!" I shouted.

Each one of them jumped upright and some - Dean - even fell out of bed. "Ah!" A loud shout emanated from the room. Downstairs I could hear a soft chuckling.

Harry was the first one to recover. He pushed the hair out of his eyes. It was already extremely messy and the morning hair made it no better. "Oh, Tara. What are you doing up here?" Harry asked me.

Ron was groaning as he pushed his hair back into the pillow. "What time is it?" He asked.

I decided to walk over to Harry's bed and perch myself on the edge. "I needed someone to wake you guys up. Hermione is determined that everyone should be up at least two hours before class. She's already got me and the other girls up so I've decided that you boys should be up too. And it's almost seven," I told them.

"Classes don't start until eight!" Seamus howled at me.

Dean finally limped back into bed and pulled the covers over himself. "Tara, you can hide up here from Hermione, but for the love of Merlin, please let us go back to sleep," Dean pleaded with me.

It wasn't a bad idea. I actually thought about it for a moment. Maybe I could nap on the foot of Harry's bed for another hour or so. But I wasn't sure that I didn't trust that Hermione wouldn't come and wake me up herself if I never came back down. "Nope! I'm up and now you are too! Get up!" I shouted at them

No one moved. I rolled my eyes at the boys and walked over to Harry's bed. He didn't move as I nudged his shoulder so I grabbed the blanket and ripped it off of him. "Tara!" Harry shouted as he grabbed for the blanket.

I was smart enough to step back and toss the blanket onto the floor. "Get up!" I howled at them. Harry groaned at me but eventually stood anyways. Knowing that I at least had him awake, I walked over to Ron. Like Harry, I ripped the blanket off of him. He tried to grab it back from me but was too slow.

"Tara! Leave me be!" Ron snapped at me as he rolled over to face away from me.

Once more I leaned over and smacked him on the back. "Get out of bed, Ronald!" I howled at him. He groaned and rolled over to the edge of the bed. "Right now, before I send Fred and George up here," I threatened.

Ron looked over at me and grinned. "Go for it. I'm used to their spider jokes to get me out of bed in the morning," Ron told me.

And that was what I had been relying on. Oh well, I'd come back to Ron later. I walked over to Seamus and smacked him over the head. "Seamus, come on!" I shouted. He groaned softly. "Dean!" I shouted. He looked about ready to fall out of the bed once more. "Neville!" I shouted as I turned around. He was still fast asleep. "How in Merlin's name are you still asleep through all of this?" I asked him.

He didn't bother moving so I turned and threw a material shoe at him. He jumped but otherwise didn't move. "Tara, go back to bed!" Dean groaned with his face in the pillow.

Well, I was going to have to try another tactic. "Alright, fine. If you can't get up and get yourselves ready I could always call Hermione up here to recite Hogwarts: A History to you boy," I told them with a little smile.

And that was when I knew that I had them. All eyes in the room sprung open and a moment later the boys sprung from their beds. "We're up!" Harry chirped as he made a mad dash for his trunk.

"Getting ready!" Dean added on top. He nearly slid into the bathroom.

"Don't call Hermione!" Ron yelled as he dashed over to his trunk and nearly fell into it. I laughed under my breath at him. I knew that Hermione was one of his least favorite people in Hogwarts.

Seamus sat upright in his bed with a confused look on his face. "What's Hogwarts: A History?" Seamus asked.

Every head in the room snapped over to him. Seamus was a Half-Blood. He should know what it was! Although it seemed like his mother hadn't ever really told his father about the Wizarding World so maybe he didn't really know about the books. But didn't he get the list? "Seamus! It's one of the textbooks," Neville said.

Seamus's face went even whiter than usual. "Uh-oh," Seamus muttered.

I smiled softly at him and decided that my work was done. Laughing a little bit, I turned and walked over to the door of the room. "See you boys downstairs," I said before turning and dashing back down the stairs. Hermione was standing at the front of the little crowd of Gryffindor's. She had her hands on her hips. "They're on their way," I announced.

Fred and George both looked surprised at the news. "That actually didn't take them nearly as long as I thought that it would," Hermione said, piling books into her bag.

"Of course not," I said as I walked over to her, laying my hand on her shoulder. "You see Hermione, you'll come to find in the next seven years that I can be extremely persuasive when I want to be," I joked.

Hermione shook her head and walked away from me. Fred took her place a moment later and threw his arm over my shoulder. "So what'd you threaten them with?" Fred asked me.

I gave a small smile. Of course somehow he knew that I had threatened them with something. "I told them that I'd have Hermione come upstairs and recite Hogwarts: A History to them if they didn't get up and get ready," I told Fred.

He, George, their friend Lee - who had finally woken up - and the other girls from my dorm all began to laugh. Hermione scoffed indignantly. "I'll have you know that it's one of the most interesting books I've ever read. And Muggle-Born's really should appreciate the depth of the book. They can explore all about their past and learn a little bit about the school itself all while studying magic and the -" she ranted until I cut her off.

"Oh look! The boys are down!" I called. And it was the truth. Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville were all walking down the stairs. They were each yawning and looked irritated beyond belief that they were awake. "That means it's breakfast time. Come on, boys!" I called, dragging them away before Hermione could give a lecture.

As we walked out of the Common Room and through the portrait of the Fat Lady I smiled and began to walk through the halls. Like last night, kids were walking back and forth all over the place. Some seemed to be headed to breakfast, others to class, and the rest of them to the library. They were all chatting and carrying books and making strange maneuvers over the staircases. I assumed that there was some sort of trick to walking through Hogwarts that one day I would learn.

As of right now it was not easy. And Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville, Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, Fay, and myself got lost twice on the way to the Great Hall. We only found our way because Lee Jordan had spotted us and brought us the correct way. As we walked into the Great Hall I realized that more students were awake then I thought that there would be. We took our seats at the Gryffindor table where I was in between Harry and Hermione. I immediately piled my plate with eggs and bacon, seating a large mug of coffee in front of me.

Most everyone else seemed disgusted at the coffee. It was an American thing. I wondered if Dumbledore had left it on the table just for me. I couldn't spot coffee at any of the other three tables. "How are all of these people awake already?" Ron groaned.

I grinned and leaned over Harry, who was sitting in between Ron and I. "You know, some people in the real world actually wake up before the crack of noon on any given day," I teased him.

Ron rolled his eyes at me and snatched a piece of bacon off of my plate. "Shut up, Tara," he growled.

I laughed as we all went to eating. Some discussions about classes and schedules were being thrown around but I found myself not worrying about it. There really was no point. We were going to find out soon enough. I was just hoping that it was as wonderful here as my parents had told me. So far it seemed just as amazing as my parents had told me about. The castle was incredible, my friends were already better than any of the ones I'd had back in the States, and the teachers - for the most part - looked pretty swell.

The only thing that was marring me from my otherwise enjoyable morning was the comments about Harry that were being thrown back and forth as we prepared for our days. They came from students of all ages and genders in each of the Houses. I knew that Harry heard them but I also knew that he was pretending not to.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid with the red hair and the short girl with blonde hair."

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

We were all sure that the whispers would follow Harry from the moment he left the Gryffindor Common Room in the morning to the moment that he came back at night. But they would eventually get used to seeing him, just like I had promised. Or at least, I hoped that they would People staring and whispering whenever he passed would get old quickly. Plus we had better things to worry about, like where we would be going once breakfast was over and how exactly we were going to find our classrooms.

"So what have we got on our schedules this year?" I asked, drawing attention at the table onto myself. "And what Merlin-awful things do we have to do at this terrible hour?" I continued with a small smirk.

I was the only person smiling. Even Fred and George had gone stony-faced. I turned to ask why when I saw that it was Professor McGonagall. "These are the 'Merlin-awful' things that you will be doing today. Here are your timetables for classes. Ensure that you are on time for them all. Have a good and productive first day of classes," she said, before turning and walking on her heels away from us.

I let out a little breath, glad that it hadn't been any worse. Professor McGonagall had handed me the papers and I flipped open the first one. My mouth nearly dropped as I turned to look at Hermione. "Hermione!" I shouted.

She dropped the roll that she had been buttering. "What?" She asked with a little breath out.

"You said that classes start at eight!"

Her eyebrows knitted together as she looked at me. "Don't they?" She asked me.

My eyebrows knitted together, matching the look on her face. Not according to this schedule, they didn't. "Classes don't start until nine forty-five!: I howled at her.

Everyone's mouths dropped. "Oops," Hermione muttered.

She knew that she was public enemy number one right now. We were all glaring at her. She was the reason that we had woken up so early and we didn't even need to. "So what are our classes? Or are you ever going to hand them out?" Harry asked me.

I was still holding onto the schedules that should have been with everyone else. I jumped slightly and handed them over to Harry to pass out. "It looks like normally we'll have Potions first but not today. We have a break today. So we don't even have our first class until... eleven o'clock, Hermione!" I howled at her.

Once more everyone turned over to her with jaws down to nearly the table. She had woken us up four hours early. "Well then it will be a good time to go and study!" Hermione argued.

My eyebrows knitted together. "Before classes even have started?" I asked her dryly.

"Of course!" Hermione argued.

Shaking my head at her, I drank the rest of my coffee and ate the last bite of eggs that were on my plate. A moment later I sighed and stood from the table. "I'm going to the library to take a nap. Maybe no one will find me if I hide in the Restricted Section," I groaned under my breath, leaning over to pick up my books.

Still at the table, Ron, Harry, Lavender, Fay, Dean, and Seamus all leaned back onto the table to go back to sleep. Fred, George, and Lee stood to go to work - probably playing some type of prank. "It's the Restricted Section! We're not allowed in there," Hermione said.

She was the only one that seemed awake. Everyone else looked like they were about to fall asleep. "Exactly. That means that no one will find me in my napping spot. Goodbye, kids. I'll see you all in... History of Magic at eleven," I said as I looked down at my schedule, tucking it into my bag. "And Hermione... next time, do not wake me up this early," I said as I turned to her.

She was glaring at me as Ron glanced up from his arms. "I second that," he said.

"Third," Seamus added, without looking up.

"Fourth," Dean chirped.

"Fifth," Neville said as he nearly fell off of the bench and onto the stone floor.

Harry finally glanced up from his spot at the table. "Sixth," he added.

Lavender, Fay, and Parvati probably would have said something too but they were all already fast asleep on the wooden table. We were the only ones in the Great Hall from our year. Smirking at Hermione, who had gone to reading through her copy of Hogwarts: A History, I walked away and headed towards the library. Twice I found myself lost and once I managed to get stuck in a staircase that wouldn't let you pass unless you could tell it the difference between an Animagus and a Metamorphagus. It was later that I leaned that it was because I was getting too close to the Ravenclaw dorm.

Turning back, it took me nearly half an hour to find the library. Once I had it was nearing nine in the morning. Most students were in their first classes of the day. The library was filled with mostly upper years that had a their mornings off. There were a few First Years that were trying to read through books before their classes began. Madam Pince - the librarian - was sitting behind a desk and glaring at me as I took a seat as close to the Restricted Section as I could get. I grabbed a book from the closest shelf - Curses and Countercurses - and left it open in my lap. If Madam Pince came over here I wanted her to believe that I really was reading.

I leaned on my hand and turned away from her, closing my eyes slowly. My Muggle watch had an alarm on it for ten-thirty to make sure that I was up in time for class. The last thing that I wanted to do was be late on my first day of classes. It took me a while to finally fall asleep. Despite the fact that the library was nearly silent, I was nervous that Madam Pince would find out that I was really napping. But she never did. I merely closed my eyes and eventually slipped into a deep sleep.

It barely felt like I'd been asleep for ten minutes when a rather loud bang sounded from the other end of the table. I jumped harshly and glanced down at my watch. It was just past ten. Someone had slammed a book down on the table to wake me up. At first I thought that it might have been Madam Pince. So I prepared an awkward apology and glanced up at her. But it wasn't her... It was a he. One he that I really didn't want to see. It was Draco Malfoy in his Slytherin robes, looking very pleased with himself.

He was standing over me with his arms folded over his chest. He wore a small smirk on his face. "Good morning, Nox. I'm sorry, did I disturb you?" Malfoy asked.

My eyes narrowed at him as I stared up at him. "Your very presence bothers me, Malfoy. Leave me be," I snarled at him.

His eyes darkened at he stared at me. To my complete displeasure, Malfoy took a seat next to me at the table. "Well you'll have to learn to deal with it. I have studying to do," he told me.

"Before the first class?" I asked with narrowed eyes. Malfoy grinned at me as he opened his Herbology book. I snarled under my breath and rolled my eyes. "Do you not see that there are at least ten other completely empty tables? Why do you have to come over here and bother me at my table?" I asked.

He gave me a little grin. "Am I bothering you?"

"No. Do as you please," I snapped at Malfoy. I didn't want him to know that he was getting to me.

He pulled out his book and began to scratch down notes with his quill. I realized with a little hint of stupidity that it wasn't an Herbology book that he was reading over. It was a Potions book. Of course. Snape was head of Slytherin house so I couldn't be surprised that Malfoy was making sure that he would have good grades in there. He was looking at the Cure for Boils potion and I couldn't help but to lean over and read his notes. He had written down for five snake fangs and I shook my head.

"Six," I muttered.

"What?" Malfoy sneered as he looked up at me.

"Six," I repeated. "When I lived in the States we did a summer program at Ilvermorny. Potions was one of the few classes that we could really learn in since we didn't have wands yet. I always get O's. I'm good at it. I'm at a Third Year level right now. I know that for that potion you need six snake fangs," I explained.

Malfoy gave me a snotty sneer and looked away from me as he angrily scribbled out the five and replaced it with six. "Yes, well, not bad, Nox," he said begrudgingly.

I gave him a bright smile. "Thanks. You might find that I'm actually a rather good bit of help when it comes to studying," I told him proudly.

We had almost been friends. Maybe it was time for the two of us to make amends. "Yes. Although if your choice of friends is anything to say about your intelligence, I might pass on the opportunity to study with you."

My jaw dropped open and I had to refrain from grabbing my wand out of my pocket. "How dare you! You're one to speak to me about having a terrible choice in friends! What about you? Are they your body-guards or do you actually enjoy the stimulating talk about which type of candy will put you into a sugar coma first?" I sneered at him.

I opened my mouth to say something else - as did Malfoy - but we were interrupted by Madam Pince. The black-haired witch walked over to us. She snatched my library book from my hands and pressed it to her chest. A moment later she grabbed both Malfoy and I by the hands and walked us to the doors of the library. We both stumbled behind her, wanting nothing more than to shove her away from us. But we were smart enough to merely stumble with her. The other, older, students were laughing at us.

Madam Pince walked us over to the doors and shoved us away gently. "Get out of my library! Speak quietly and respect the books the next time that you're here," she barked at us before disappearing behind the doors and slamming them shut.

The two of us stood in stupid silence for a moment before I turned over to Malfoy and scowled at him. "Well done," I snapped before turning on my heel and leaving.

For a moment I heard his heels clicking behind us but he didn't bother to actually speak to me. I assumed that he had somewhere else to be. We wouldn't have at least History of Magic with the Slytherin's - which was to my immense pleasure. I walked through the halls and attempted to find my way to the classroom. Unlike my way to breakfast, I was lost three times. Once I accidentally walked into what I assumed was the Alchemy classroom. The other time I found myself in the Owlery. After saying a brief hello to Dai, I turned and walked away once more. The last time that I got lost I found myself in the Potions room. Thankfully no one was in there.

At least next time I would know where to go for Potions. Groaning under my breath, I turned and walked into a hallway that I had yet to be down. It was nearing eleven as I walked into the classroom, praying that it was History of Magic. And it was. I saw the subject written on the board. I laughed under my breath and walked in. A moment later Ron and Harry came through the door as well. Ron took a seat with Seamus as Harry took a seat next to me.

"Have a nice nap at breakfast?" I asked. Harry nodded. "You have bits of toast in your hair," I told Harry.

He laughed as I picked out a few crumbs from his black hair. "How was your nap in the library?" Harry asked me.

I let out a little groan. "Terrible. You know the black-haired witch that we saw at the feast yesterday night?" I asked. Harry nodded after a moment. "Her name is Madam Pince and she's the librarian. She's awful. Mind yourself around her. And Malfoy wouldn't leave me be. He made fun of me for being friends with you and Ron, the other Gryffindor's," I said angrily.

Harry wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I sighed. "Don't worry about Malfoy, he's a git. We're much better than him. Where do you think Professor Binns is?" Harry asked me.

His name was already on the board. We were both shocked when someone floated through the board and began to speak in a very low, and slow, droning voice. "Is he a -?" Harry asked before being cut off by myself.

"Ghost? Yeah."

It was easily the most boring class. Unfortunately it was simply the professor - of which there was only the one. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. He hadn't told us that. Neville had told us while Hermione had hushed us. She was the only one that seemed interested in what we were learning. The rest of us automatically listened as Binns droned on and on while we scribbled down names and dates; Binns also got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

Later I had told everyone the truth of who Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball were. It was what we had spent most of our lunch break at twelve talking about. The truth was that Emeric the Evil short-lived but exceptionally aggressive wizard. He was once the master of the Elder Wand - the true wand that my own was replicated from - and, with it, he terrorized the south of England in the early Middle Ages. He was slaughtered in a ferocious duel against Egbert the Egregious.

Once I'd ensured that everyone understood what I was talking about, I went to explaining Uric the Oddball. Hermione didn't like the idea of him. He was a medieval wizard, who became famous for his eccentric behavior, such as wearing a jellyfish as a hat, and sleeping in a room with fifty pet Augureys. He was considered to be one of the weirdest wizards in history, and, as such, was often the punchline of wizarding jokes. Ron was the only one that seemed to know much about him other than myself.

We finished explaining what Binns had gotten wrong in class before heading to our next class. Charms. It was taught by Professor Fillius Flitwick. He was a tiny little wizard that almost reminded me of the goblins in Gringotts. Much to our amusement was that he had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Overall he was a nice wizard that seemed to be well versed in Charms. For most of the class we had only gone over the theory of Charms. Although at the very end we'd been allowed to try something simple. We tried a Color Change Charm in the last few minutes of class. Hermione and I were the only ones that managed to make something happen that was correct. I changed my page completely red. Although it was supposed to be yellow. Hermione managed to change her page to yellow, but only halfway. We both got a round of applause from Professor Flitwick. Seamus, on the other hand, blew up his page. He had to be sent to the Infirmary.

Thankfully by the time that we were in Defense Against the Dark Arts at two thirty, Seamus was back. He looked a little less charred than he had the last time that we had seen him. Everyone was itching with excitement by the time that we walked into Professor Quirrell's room. He greeted both Harry and I, a stuttering mess, before introducing him to the class. Most people chuckled in amusement at the professor and I scowled. So he was a little nervous, that didn't necessarily make him a bad man. Or a bad professor.

In Defense I found myself sitting with Hermione. Ron and Harry had decided to sit together for this class. Probably for the best, considering I was always too tempted to talk to Ron or Harry. Unfortunately even on our first day Quirrell's lessons turned out to be hard to defend. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. Early on in the class - when Fay had asked where he'd gotten his turban - he'd told us that it had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie. None of us were really sure that we believed his story.

He was hard to believe. For one thing, when Seamus had asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather. He seemed to talk about the weather whenever we asked a question that he didn't want to answer. In another instance, we had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban. Later on that day Fred and George insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

After Defense we were allowed to leave the classroom and finish for the day. Normally on Thursdays we would be given a break until three forty-five, at which point we would make our way down to the Quidditch Pitch. It was when we would be given our flying lessons. Only First Years actually had to take them. And it was the one time that none of the teams would be practicing. They weren't allowed. Quidditch tryouts were in two weeks and I intended to give Madame Hooch a show before asking her whether or not I should even bother going out for the team. Of course I would only have one shot, since lessons didn't even start until next week.

Our first real night at Hogwarts had been spent doing homework. Professor Binns had given us a four-inch essay on Uric the Oddball and Emeric the Evil. It wasn't hard and rather short. That didn't mean that Harry and Ron hadn't complained for an hour that we'd already been given homework. Harry still completed it. Ron, I'd had to talk through the essay. We had stayed up until nearly one in the morning ensuring that his had been done correctly. In Charms we were simply to practice the Color Change Charm. Hermione was probably a little angry that she was going to be with red hair until we went back to Flitwick. I swear it was the spell rebounding... Thankfully we had no homework for Defense yet.

The next morning I was once more awoken by Hermione. This time I was grateful for her and made no argument. Especially since her hair was still red. Thankfully I was able to change it back. Although it did seem to be a little lighter. Harry, Ron, and I went down to breakfast together where the three of us went over the Color Change Charm. Harry still hadn't managed to get it right, although I was sure that his water goblet was a slightly lighter gold now. Ron had managed to melt his. Not that many other kids were doing much better.

We were still in the beginning. It would take time. At nine forty-five we ran off to Defense Against the Dark Arts again. This time we managed not to be late. Although we were on time by barely a minute. Hermione scolded me as I took a seat. I argued that I had only nearly been late because Ron had insisted that we go to the right instead of the left. He'd led us right to the staircase that spit students out near the kitchens. It was probably enchanted. That day we'd learned about how to defend against simple hexes.

At eleven we'd gone down to the Hogwarts greenhouses. We were out in greenhouse number four. It was rather warm in the greenhouse and I reveled in it. Although I was not a fan of the subject. It was Herbology, and it was taught by a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout. We learned how to take care of all the magical plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Harry had unfortunately been bitten by a Spiky Bush. Thankfully it wasn't poisonous and I'd merely helped him clean up his wound. It seemed that no one - not even Hermione - really liked Herbology. With the exception of Neville.

Once more we went to History of Magic. It was at one fifteen in the afternoon. Harry and I decided that we were going to take a nap. Although with some prodding from Hermione we had been forced to stay awake. So we'd made up a little competition in the room. Each one of us had pulled out our wands. With a little spark from me, I'd sent it to Harry, the next person. It had gone to Ron, Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Parvati, Justin and Susan - two Hufflepuff's, the house that we shared the class with - Fay, and finally Hermione. She had refused to catch it and had dropped the spark, thus ending our game. It had kept us through most of the class though.

At two thirty was our first Transfiguration class. We were all nervous as we took a seat at the benches. Harry was on my left and Ron was on my right. Hermione, Neville, and Lavender were in front of us. Seamus, Dean, and Parvati were behind us. We were all softly chatting when Professor McGonagall walked into the room. She looked as stern as I had ever seen her. The room went silent without her even having to do anything. No one wanted to be on her bad side.

She walked up to the board and turned to face the class. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned," she said in a soft but stern tone. It was like no one in the class was even breathing.

She gave no warning before she turned and changed her desk into a pig and back again. She received a long round of applause. I swore that for just a moment her face turned up in a smile. She clearly appreciated the appreciation for her craft. Although as she explained to us the principles and meaning behind Transfiguration, we realized that changing desks into animals would be out of our skill range for a long while. Of course, I already knew this. The first lesson at Ilvermorny was to turn a needle into straw.

We spent the first half of class taking a lot of complicated notes. By the end we were each given a match to try and turn it into a needle. I smiled and got to work. Immediately I transformed it. But not into a needle. Into straw. Professor McGonagall still seemed impressed. By the end of the lesson, I had managed to turn the match into a needle. Although it still had a slightly golden tint. The only other person to make a difference was - unsurprisingly - Hermione. Professor McGonagall showed ours to the class, claiming that they were both good starts. I saw how hers had gone all silver and pointy. Professor McGonagall gave Hermione and I a rare smile and two points to Gryffindor.

Wednesday passed in a similar fashion. In the morning we had Herbology, where Hermione managed to get a root from Devil's Snare caught in her hair. I couldn't help but to laugh. Of course I did try and help get it untangled. We once more had Transfiguration. In that lesson Hermione and I both managed to perfect our needles. That night we had tried to help the other Gryffindor's in the Common Room. History of Magic happened once more, and once more I used it as a nap time. Charms was afterwards and we were learning proper wand movements. Ron seemed completely useless with them.

It was the end of our day up until my Muggle alarm went off. I had dozed off doing an essay for McGonagall on the importance of using precaution with Transfiguration. At midnight the Gryffindor's - Ravenclaw's too - went up to the Astronomy tower. It was in one of the turrets near the Gryffindor Common Room. Thankfully the class was nearby and only once a week. Already a least favorite subject of mine, it exhausted me. Parvati seemed to enjoy it, if nothing else to see Padma. It was taught by Professor Sinistra. She made up for the terrible time and material of the course. She herself was a pleasant woman.

Thursday went by in much of a blur. Charms was in the morning. We learned the Wand-Lighting Charm, Lumos, for most of the class. I already knew it. It was how I used to turn the lights on at home without getting up. Professor Flitwick was so pleased with my work he gave me a point. By the end of class Hermione and Harry had mastered it as well. Parvati, Lavender, Dean, and Ron seemed and Transfiguration were full of long notes that I could barely remember taking. Of course there was a little issue early on in class.

We really weren't meaning to be late. It was Ron's fault actually. I knew that we were supposed to go down the left staircase. We had accidentally gone down the right and ended up in the dungeons. Now we were heading back for Transfiguration and we were very nearly late. Professor McGonagall was a different teacher. She certainly wasn't a teacher to cross. Even the Slytherin's didn't dare. Strict and clever, she gave us a talking-to every time we sat down in her class.

Harry, Ron, and I dashed through the halls and into the classroom. Everyone was silent and already at their desks. Hermione glanced up as we panted. "Made it!" Harry cried.

Hermione gave a little eye-roll as I leaned against the desk. "Can you imagine the look on old McGonagall's face if we were late?"Ron asked with a little laugh. I glanced upwards at the desk to see that a cat was sitting atop it, the tail flicking in an irritated pattern. Uh-oh.

I knew when I saw an Animagus. "I think that we're about to find out," I said softly.

Just as I said that, the cat jumped off of the desk. In mid-jump it transformed into Professor McGonagall and I groaned. Just what I thought. Ron and Harry were staring with open mouths as I blushed. "That was bloody brilliant!" Ron called. The class laughed and I had to resist stomping on his foot.

Professor McGonagall didn't seem amused. "Thank you for that assessment. Perhaps it'd be better if I transfigured Mr. Potter, Miss Nox and yourself into a watch. Then one of you might be on time," she told us.

"We got lost," Harry weakly defended.

"Then perhaps a map? I trust you don't need one to find your seats," she told us.

We went scrambling into our seats - myself receiving a silent scolding from Hermione - and went to work. I remained silent for the rest of class. No part of me needed another embarrassment like that again. In Defense Against the Dark Arts we learned more about vampires, seemingly not a favorite of Professor Quirrell. Normally we would have had flying lessons as well, but those were next week.

And so had gone my first weeks at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'd been so busy that I hadn't been able to write Mom and Dad much more. Homework kept myself and my friends up late into the night. Fred and George's little pranks - like using a Levitating Charm to move my bed into the Common Room - kept me on my toes. Hermione's incessant rants about studying kept my marks high and my stress even higher. Although I was still enjoying myself. That didn't mean that I wouldn't like to remove a few people. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson being at the top of that list.

As I walked to breakfast I groaned at the moving staircases. There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was all infuriating and confusing.

It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. I had a feeling that everything moved any time that they saw a First Year coming. Probably something of a joke. I'd managed to navigate a few areas of the castle, but not nearly enough. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other - always messing me up - and the coats of armor could walk. They probably changed position every morning. I hadn't seem them in the same place once.

The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindor's in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head - Neville - pull rugs from under your feet - Neville - pelt you with bits of chalk - Neville - or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, 'Got your conk!' - Neville. He seemed to have the worst luck with the ghosts.

Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry, Ron, and I managed to get on the wrong side of him on our very first morning. Filch found us trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. Peeves had sent us in the wrong direction. It was the day that we had learned not to trust him. Filtch wouldn't believe we were lost. He was sure that we were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock us in the dungeons when we were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.

As if Filch wasn't bad enough, he also owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone - expect Fred and George, who had yet to tell me how they knew them - and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

I'd gotten close, but hadn't managed yet. The classes on one hand were hard, but even harder was managing to find them. Once you did arrive at the class, it was all about trying to learn the material. The Muggle-Born's - and Harry - quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. In Astronomy we had to study the night skies through our telescopes and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Transfiguration was a ton of writing for homework and tough magic in class. Charms was easier, but there was a lot of memorization. Defense was a good class but Quirrell often found himself distracted during the lessons. Herbology was about as fun as it sounded, but it was nice to be outside. History of Magic was dreadfully boring and wordy. We had still yet to have Potions. That was later today.

As I sat with Harry at the breakfast table, going over one of McGonagall's essays, I thought about him. I knew that Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that pretty much no one had much of a head start. Mom and Dad had owled Harry a few times to make sure that he was doing alright. Each time they owled me there were more and more questions about whether or not I knew kids or teachers with certain surnames.

Friday was an important day for Harry, Ron, and I. We finally managed to find our way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once. My parents had sent me a map but even that didn't help much. Mostly considering if Peeves ever caught me with it he would try to light it on fire. I'd spent much of Tuesday in the Infirmary after Peeves had burned some of the skin off of my wrist. He was now officially my least favorite person - or thing - in Hogwarts.

My eyes were drooping closed after spending much of last night in the library with Hermione going over a Transfiguration assignment. "What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron and I as he poured sugar on his porridge.

Ron nudged my shoulder and I groaned softly. "Double Potions with the Slytherin's," Ron said. I groaned loudly and I gulped a coffee down. Double classes were awful. It was a period twice as long as normal. And to have it with Professor Snape and the Slytherin's? Dreadful. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them - we'll be able to see if it's true."

"Wish McGonagall favored us," Harry said. Professor McGonagall was the head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving us a huge pile of homework the day before.

Just then, the mail arrived. A hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, dropping letters and packages onto their laps. Dai dropped a small package into my lap and I opened it with a small laugh. In my last letter I told Mom that I had dark circles under my eyes from staying up all hours of the night. She'd sent me a package of concealer from Madam Primpernelle's that was supposed to adjust to the shadows of a room to ensure that your skin always looked glowing and awake. I tucked it into my bag and wrote back a quick note to her. Dai hung around a while to pick some food off of my plate before flying off.

Unlike myself, Harry hadn't had a visit from Hedwig. He had gotten a few things from Dai though. Hedwig sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the Owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, Hedwig fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:

Dear Harry and Tara,

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig. Sorry, Tara, Dai didn't seem to want to be bothered carrying anything else this morning..

Hagrid.

Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled:

Yes, please, Tara and I will see you later,

\- on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.

It was lucky that Harry and I had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to us so far. At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, we knew that he'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike Harry - he hated him. Although I was reasonably certain that I was in the same boat as him. We'd both had about the same amount of luck with Snape.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. We went through the roll and he hovered on my name for a moment. He gave me a sharp glare before continuing. I knew that it was because my Dad hadn't gotten on well with him. Thanks, Dad. He continued going through the names before he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity."

My eyes narrowed at him. That was uncalled for. Harry hadn't said a thing. Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but we caught every word. Like Professor McGonagall, Snape had you caught on every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. Although even she was nicer. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

His speech had actually been something rather nice and passionate. I had almost been impressed. I'd always been rather fond of Potions. Although my eyebrows knitted at the end of his speech. More silence followed this little speech. Harry, Ron, and exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. They were on one side of the table and I was with Hermione on the other end. She was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead. I stomped on her foot to get her to calm down. Snape wouldn't think that it was endearing.

"Potter!" Snape shouted suddenly. All Gryffindor's - and even a few Slytherin's - jumped. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.

Harry gave me a brief look and I glanced down. "Draught of Living Death," I muttered softly.

Snape never looked away from Harry. I knew that he was debating on taking my answer but he was smart not to. "I don't know, sir," said Harry. Hermione frowned at me giving away the answer.

Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored Hermione's hand and my answer. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"A goat's stomach," I once more answered softly.

Hermione glared at me before stretching her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat. I knew that Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He was trying desperately not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

"I don't know, sir."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"

I growled under my breath. I knew that he had looked through his books at the Dursley's, but did Snape really expect them to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi? Maybe it was because Snape hated James - Harry's father. Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"Same thing," I whispered.

At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling. "I don't know," Harry said quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, and clearly Tara does, why don't you try them?" Harry asked.

My jaw dropped as I giggled softly. A few other people laughed; Seamus winked at Harry. Many of the Gryffindor's were laughing and even some of the Slytherin's were trying desperately not to laugh. Snape, however, was not pleased. "Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "And you. Detention tonight. Eight o'clock," he told me.

Once more my jaw dropped. "Why?" I howled.

The room had gone silent. "For answering a question when it was not asked to you," he said before turning away. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter. Three more for each question that Miss Nox felt the need to answer with."

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindor's as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs - myself with Harry - and set us to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching us weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.

I knew that Harry and my potion was exactly correct. We had done this Potion before at Ilvermorny. I knew that I had gotten it right. We had done it quickly too. Harry had mostly sat in the background and watched me as I explained what I was doing. Snape didn't like that and ordered Harry to do the work without me. After that - when Harry had finished the potion correctly - he had accused us of cheating for finishing so fast and taken off another point with a threat to bring the cheating accusation to McGonagall.

He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs - not nearly as well as I had - when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. We all turned back to see that Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob. Their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. I was smart enough to jump onto the counter. The legs of the chair were slowly melting as well. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" Snape snarled, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. "Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and I, considering we had been working next to Neville. "You - Potter and Nox - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you?" He didn't give us a chance to answer. "That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."

Harry had managed to lose one point himself, I had managed three, and together we had managed another two. That was six between the two of us, just in this one class. This was so unfair that Harry and I both opened our mouths to argue, but Ron kicked us behind our cauldron. "Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty. And you don't need another detention."

Finally the time came for us to leave. I snatched up my bag so quickly that I knocked all of Malfoy's things to the side. He sneered at me but I moved away before he could say anything else. "Miss Nox, I expect you in this office at eight o'clock sharp," Snape said.

"Yes, sir," I said through gritted teeth.

As we climbed the steps out of the dungeon Harry spoke up. "I lost two points," he said glumly.

"If it makes you feel any better, I lost three. And I have a detention!" I shouted. A few people turned to me and began to laugh. A detention in the first week that wasn't purposeful was pretty pathetic. "My parents said no detentions or letters home in my first week. They're going to kill me," I groaned, dropping my head in my hands.

"Cheer up," Ron said, wrapping his arm around me, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you and Tara?" He asked.

Harry and I both nodded. I wanted to say that Fred and George getting detention from Snape made me feel a little better but it really didn't. They were trouble-makers and pranksters. They were supposed to get detentions. And half of the time that they were getting detentions, they deserved it. Normally I didn't care about detentions, but this time I did. This time I hadn't been trying to get detention. I'd merely been trying to help out Harry. It was utterly unfair that I'd been given a detention.

About ten minutes after arriving at the lunch table I turned to Fred and George. They were laughing with Lee and a few other older Gryffindor's that I didn't know. "Oi! Fred and George!" I called out to them. For a moment I felt a little stupid. They were upperclassmen. They wouldn't want to be seen talking to me. But they surprised me by looking at me with a smile. "Did you two get a detention this week?" I asked.

They both smirked and nodded at me. Percy rolled his eyes and stood, walking away from the table. "We did. We have a detention tonight as a matter of fact," Fred told me. I grinned brightly. At least someone would be with me.

"With who?" I asked.

"McGonagall," George answered.

My smile faded as they told me that. Damn it. They might have detention but they weren't going to have it with me. And I really wanted them to. I hated to be selfish but I was honestly a little nervous to have detention with Snape alone. "Why?" Fred asked.

I let out a little breath. "I have detention with Snape tonight," I said softly.

Both twins eyes widened and I heard a few other mutters from the Gryffindor table. Even with how much Snape hated us, apparently getting detention in the first week was uncommon. "You have detention with Snape tonight?" Fred asked me.

I nodded at the boys, a little embarrassed. "What happened?" George asked me.

Once more I let out a little breath. "I didn't mean to. He was being a jerk to Harry in class today, asking him all sorts of questions that no one would know." Fred and George both frowned and looked over at Harry. "Not at least anyone that had never read through the books or been to class. I lost some points for Gryffindor too," I said softly.

To my pleasure, both Fred and George leaned over and wrapped their arms around me. They had no clue how much better that made me. I leaned back and pressed my face into Fred's shoulder, smiling at him. At least they weren't angry about the points. "He was being a right git. Tara shouldn't have detention today," Seamus said.

I smiled at him and grabbed him in for a hug across the table. Ron and Harry had their hands on my legs under the table. "Sorry about that, Tara," Fred said and I shrugged my shoulders. "Snape can be a real arse." I gave a little snort. "Don't worry about him, I promise that you'll have more detentions with him," he told me.

Once more I raised my eyebrows at him. I wasn't sure that I really wanted more detentions with him. And I certainly didn't want to be in detentions with him, by myself. "Yeah, but I don't want to be in detention with him alone!" I snapped.

George shrugged his shoulders at me and began chewing on a piece of chicken. "Oh don't worry about that. He won't even be around for detention," George told me.

He wasn't going to be around for detention? What type of professor didn't show up for their own detention? "What?" I asked stupidly.

"He lets the students that get detention clean out and organize his potions cupboard. He goes and does whatever while the students do that. Don't worry about it. He'll tell you what to do, leave, and come back an hour later to make sure that you haven't destroyed anything," George explained to me.

A little smile came over my face. I could try and use magic to get everything done and I would at least be left alone with my own thoughts. "I suppose that's not too bad," I said hopefully.

This time it was Fred that burst my bubble. "Although he does take your wand so you have to do it the Muggle way," he said.

I gave a little groan and smacked my head on Harry's shoulder. "I take that back. This is still going to suck," I growled.

Harry wrapped an arm around my shoulder. As I looked up at him I realized that he wore a guilty face. "At least you know that you won't be with any Slytherin's. He likes them too much to give them detention," he said. I nodded. That was true. I could avoid Pansy and Malfoy that way. "I'm sorry Tara, I should be in there with you," Harry muttered.

I shook my head and grabbed Harry's face. "Oh, don't say that. I'm glad that you don't have to be there with me. Snape would probably make it worse if it were both of us in there," I told him.

Harry nodded, knowing that was the truth. We all sat and ate, joking around with each other - even Hermione, to my amazement - until a soft incantation filled the air. I'd been hearing it for a few minutes now. I turned back and looked up to see that Seamus was waving his wand around a goblet of water. "- Turn this water into rum. Eye of rabbit, harp string hum, turn this water, into rum," Seamus said.

He was waving his wand around in no intelligible pattern and I knew that it was messing up his spell. If it was even a real one. I'd never heard of it before. "What's Seamus trying to do to the water?" Harry asked.

"Turn it to rum," Ron explained as I rolled my eyes. The spell was a little self-explanatory, wasn't it? Dean was watching from his spot next to Seamus and Fred was currently scrutinizing over what looked like Transfiguration homework next to him. Oliver Wood - the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was on the other side. "Actually managed a weak tea yesterday, before -" Ron added when he was suddenly cut off.

The water that Seamus had been messing with had suddenly exploded. There was a flash of light and everyone at the Gryffindor table jumped back. Hermione looked terrified. When the flash went down we all saw that Seamus was still staring at the goblet with his wand raised, but he was now sporting char marks. Every single person at the Gryffindor table - and even some at the other tables - began to howl with laughter. As he began to smoke, Hermione brushed the smoke away from her nose, going back to her book.

It took a while but we all finally managed to calm down. I leaned across the table and brushed some of the dirt off of Seamus's eyes. "Oh Seamus, I'll have to use that spell one day," I told him.

Even up at the High Table I saw that some of the teachers were resisting the urge to laugh. The rest of lunch went mostly the same way. Going back to the Gryffindor Common Room, I saw that most of the kids went back to their homework. For the first time this week, I had none. That was thanks to Hermione getting me to stay up with her last night and do all of our homework early. So I went and wrote a letter to Mom and Dad detailing what had happened today. Might as well be honest. Hopefully they wouldn't be too angry. I took a quick trip to the Owlery and gave Dai a treat before sending him on his way.

At five to three, Ron, Harry, and I left the castle and made our way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It certainly didn't look like a place I would want to go. As we walked up I glanced around at the Forest and grimaced when I swore that I saw something scuttling around. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door. When Harry knocked we heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks.

A few moments passed before we heard Hagrid's voice ring out, saying, "Back, Fang - back." Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. "Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."

He let us in a moment later, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boar-hound. Hagrid let the dog - Fang - go a moment later and I was knocked to the ground as he began to lick me. I chuckled softly and began to pet Fang happily. He was incredibly cute. As Fang settled down, I looked around. There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

Hagrid grinned at the sight of Fang and I. "He likes yeh. Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid. Fang eventually stopped licking me and bounded over to Ron and started licking his ears. I took a seat in a large armchair, thought it was big enough to hold both Harry and myself. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.

"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.

My stomach churned at the sight of the rock cakes. Those couldn't be good. "Another Weasley, eh?" Hagrid asked, glancing at Ron's freckles. I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."

Both Ron and I smiled at Hagrid's words. The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke our teeth, but the three of us pretended to be enjoying them as we told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on mine and Harry's knees - since he was big enough to lay over the both of us - and drooled all over our robes. Not that either one of us minded. The three of us were more than delighted to hear Hagrid call Filtch 'that old git'.

"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her - Filtch puts her up to it."

Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry and I not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students. "He gave me detention for answering questions correctly! And he took points away. Not to mention that he also took a point away from us for not making sure that the other students were doing things correctly. And he was claiming that Malfoy's potion was the best when I know for a fact that the best was ours," I groaned.

Hagrid frowned slightly. "Sorry to hear about the detention, Tara. But he hates all the new students. 'Specially any new Gryffindor. He'll get used to yeh. And yeh'll get used to him. Jus' go to the detention and don' say nothin'. An' don' worry about the points. He's always takin' off points for the Gryffindor's for nothin'," Hagrid said. It didn't really make me feel better.

"But why does he hate me?" I asked.

"He hates everyone that ain't in Slytherin House. 'Specially when they know answers that ain't no one supposed to know. He don' like bein' showed up."

"But he seemed to really hate me," Harry added on gloomily.

That seemed to trigger something in Hagrid. "Rubbish!" Why should he?" I was absolutely sure that Hagrid wasn't look Harry in the eyes when he said that. He then looked over to Ron. "How's yer brother Charlie? I liked him a lot - great with animals."

There had to be a reason that he had changed the subject like that. My eyebrows knitted and I thought about writing to my parents to ask if James or Lily had a past with Snape. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry and I picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31st July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. "But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

My eyebrows knitted. That was the day that we had been there. "Hagrid!" Harry shouted suddenly, startling the rest of us, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"

There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time. He grunted and offered us another rock cake. Did he know something that he wasn't telling us? Did it have something to do with the grubby little package that we had taken from vault seven hundred and thirteen? I read back through the story but it said nothing about the vault number. Had that been what the thieves were looking for? It certainly seemed that it was important. At least, Hagrid had made it seem so.

As Harry, Ron, and I walked back to the castle for dinner, our pockets weighed down with rock cakes we'd been too polite to refuse, I thought about the package from Gringotts. What exactly was it? Even though we hadn't known what it was, it certainly seemed important. Maybe even important enough for a break-in if it had been important as Hagrid had made it seem. After all, Dumbledore had wanted it. And he wouldn't want something useless. It seemed that Harry was thinking the same thing. Ron was complaining about the rock cakes.

Dinner was a quieter affair. It seemed that most people were exhausted from the week that had passed in Hogwarts. The work had piled up but it seemed that everyone was still happy to be here. I knew that most people would be turning in early tonight. I would have been too, if I didn't have detention with Snape. Once dinner was over we went back to the Gryffindor Common Room - where I made a brief change into a pair of tighter jeans and a blue long-sleeved shirt. No one said anything about a dress code for detention. I went back downstairs and spent a few minutes explaining the movement of Jupiter to Dean - not that I was absolutely sure that I was correct.

At fifteen minutes to eight I stood from my spot by the fire and handed Hermione my books - trusting her to leave them on my bed. A few people looked up at me. "Well, time for me to serve my prison sentence. See you guys later," I groaned.

"Bye, Tara," they all chirped.

As I walked out of the portrait hole, I sighed. This was the last way that I wanted to be spending my Friday night. At detention with Snape. Fred and George were sitting with Lee and a few other upper years as they discussed what I was sure was a new prank idea. They both promised me that when they opened their joke shop I would be allowed to use their products on Snape. Harry had given me a hug and one last sorry. I told him that if he said sorry one more time I'd hex him into oblivion. Hermione had told me that I should keep my head down and work silently. Ron had given me advice to move things around and mix up potions. Dean and Seamus agreed that it was a good thing to do. Percy told me that I would deserve another detention if I did that.

So I walked through the halls - which were for the most part emptying - and down towards the dungeons. As I passed someone bumped into me and I flew back into a suit of armor. As I toppled over onto the ground the suit of armor began to shout at me, yelling about how I needed to mind my space. I groaned and stood, apologizing softly to the armor before turning back to my assailant with a little snarl on my face. My day was only getting better and better.

The suit of armor once more shouted at me to get out of its space. "Merlin! Why can't anyone watch where they're going? Like my day isn't bad enough without -" I ranted as I whirled around to see who had run into me. "Cedric," I said dumbly.

He was standing sheepishly on the other end of the hall with a bashful grin on his face. He was giving me a slightly sorry look as he walked up to me. He was still in his Hufflepuff robes and I weakly smiled. "My. I'd hate to be the person that got on your bad side today," Cedric teased gently. "What's going on, Tara?" He asked.

Besides a few of my friends in Gryffindor, he was the first person to make me smile since getting the detention earlier today. "First Friday in Hogwarts and I already have a detention," I said softly.

Cedric grinned at me and nodded. "Let me take a wild guess and say that it's with Professor Snape?" He asked.

"How'd you know?" I asked him. Was it that obvious? Or was I closer to the Potions room than I thought that I was?

"Because I have a detention with him tonight too," Cedric told me.

I decided to have a little fun with him for the time being. "The Hufflepuff Prefect managed to get himself a detention the first week of being back in school?" I teased. I wasn't a Prefect, I was allowed to say things like that.

He grinned at me and shook his head. "I have a good reason. Because while I was in Potions earlier he seemed more hostile than usual. All that culminated in my incorrectly brewing a Whit-Sharpening Potion and receiving a detention for asking 'an unnecessarily irritating question'," Cedric told me.

The smile dropped off of his face. He had been irritated because of Harry and I in his morning class. We were the reason that Cedric had a detention. "I'm sorry. That's probably Harry and I's fault," I said awkwardly.

Cedric's eyebrows knitted. "What happened?" He asked me as we began walking towards the Potions room.

We were only a few feet away from the entrance to the Potions room and I decided to wait to tell Cedric what had happened. It was somewhat of a long story. "I'll tell you once Snape leaves," I told Cedric, who nodded.

We walked into the room and I glanced up at the clock. We were right on time. Snape looked up at us with a little sneer on his lips. "How kind of you both to have managed to appear on time today. You will be organizing my storage closet in alphabetical order. You will do this without magic. Wands. Now." We both handed our wands over, much to my displeasure. "I'll return in one hour. No speaking to each other," he snapped.

The two of us walked into the room and began to organize. Cedric would hold them while I found the right spot. We worked in silence for almost half an hour. During that time, Snape sat in the other room grading papers. So much for leaving us to our own devices. He scratched away at the papers with a quill and I scoffed at all of the red ink that there was. There was more red ink on them than black, the black that the students had written the essays in. This was definitely going to be a tough class. Too bad, I had always enjoyed Potions. It was always one of my strongest subjects.

A moment later the door to the storage closet opened and Cedric and I jumped slightly. Snape glared at the two of us before nodding. "I'll be back before your hour is up. Keep working. No talking," he snapped before turning and swishing from the room, his black robes floating around him like the Grim Reaper.

Cedric and I were silent for nearly a minute after Snape had walked out of the room. Finally I turned over and grinned at Cedric. "He's an extremely pleasant man," I said softly.

Cedric gave me a small smile and laughed. "I'll say. So what happened earlier?" He asked me.

"He was just reading through the name list. I mean he paused on mine and gave me a little glare but kept reading. Then he got to Harry's. He started asking him all of these questions. Things that we won't know until the end of the year. I mean, I knew, so I was whispering the answers. Harry didn't use them though," I said.

Cedric's eyebrows raised as he looked at me. "He gave you the detention for answering questions?" He asked me.

I gave him a little nod. "Basically. For answering questions that weren't asked to me. Harry said that Hermione - a girl in my year - and I knew, so he should have asked us." Cedric gave a little snort. "Snape took off a point for his cheek. He took off three points for me - one for each question I'd answered." That time his jaw dropped. "We were doing a simple boil curing potion. I knew that one so I was doing it and explaining to Harry what I was doing as I worked. Snape stopped us and ordered Harry to do the rest," I told him.

Something akin to sorrow filled Cedric's face. He had already been here for three years, I was sure that all sorts of things had happened to him while here. "He did that to me in my Second Year," Cedric admitted.

"Well Harry finished it, with my assistance. It was perfect. Snape was insisting that it had to have been from a product of cheating. So he took another point from us and threatened to bring the cheating bit up to McGonagall." Once more Cedric looked shocked at the turn of events that had happened. "Then Neville burned Seamus's cauldron somehow," I added.

Now Cedric's face turned up in a small smile. "I was wondering what all of those black marks were from on the floor," Cedric said with a little laugh.

I gave a little smile as well. Now that I thought about it, it really was pretty funny. "Snape insisted that Harry and I should have been watching out for them and took another point from us for somehow sabotaging their potion to ensure that ours was better. He then went on to say that Malfoy's was the best," I told him.

The entire time it seemed that Cedric could almost not believe what had happened. I almost couldn't either. "My, oh, my, Miss Nox. I do believe that you've made an enemy of Professor Snape," Cedric told me.

I laughed and nudged into him. He was totally useless, although he was one of the people that had managed to make me smile today. "Yes, thank you, I'm aware of that," I said softly.

"Here," Cedric said as he opened his robes. "I've had enough of this. Step back," he told me. I did as told and watched as he produced what looked like a very cheap wand from his pocket.

"You have a second wand?" I asked him.

Cedric smiled at me and shook his head. "No. This is a trick wand. They sell them in Hogsmeade. Most of the upperclassmen have them for this reason. They can perform very basic spells. And we are going to use it to finish up quickly. Tergeo." I knew the spell. It was the spell to clean up objects. The vials and containers went zipping across the room until they had all settled into their spots. "And now, we have exactly eight minutes to sit and do nothing," he said with a smile.

"Mr. Perfect isn't quite so perfect," I teased gently. He was a Prefect but he had a spare wand for situations like that? I was sure that Percy didn't have a spare wand.

The two of us set an alarm for seven minutes and thirty seconds on my Muggle watch as we took a seat on the floor of the room and talked back and forth. We got to know a little bit more about each other. I told him about my father - who he seemed more than interested to know about - and my mother. I learned that his mother passed away when he was young. I had apologized but he had told me that it was fine, that he didn't even remember her. We talked about our first week - the two of us talking about how terrifying Professor McGonagall was. We both seemed to think that though she was nice, she was petrifying. Professor Sprout was the head of Hufflepuff so Cedric seemed to genuinely enjoy her.

The two of us laughed together as we talked about Oliver Wood - who apparently was extremely serious about Quidditch. I told him that I still wanted to try out for the team and he had encouraged me to do so. He seemed to think that I would make the alternate Chaser on the team. I told him that I really was nervous for the first flying lesson. He told me that it really wasn't that bad. We both laughed when he told me that his father was over-the-top about his skills as a Quidditch player. I had suggested that our parents meet each other one day. He seemed fond of that idea. He even told me what he was thinking about doing when he graduated. An Auror. I laughed and told him that it was what I wanted to do as well. We joked that we would be working together one day on the same team.

As my alarm went off the two of us stood and began fiddling with a few potions to look busy. The door snapped open at exactly nine o'clock and Snape walked in. He looked over every inch of the room before nodding at us. "It could be worse." I wanted to throttle him. "Here are your wands. See to it that you don't come back here again. Leave," he said shortly.

The two of us dashed from the room and out into the hallways. We sprinted up the staircase before stopping in front of the Great Hall. Once we were long clear of Snape's wrath we turned to each other and laughed. "I had a good time tonight, Tara. Perhaps we'll end up doing this again one day," Cedric told me.

I smiled and shook my head at him. "As much as I enjoyed our time here tonight," and I really had enjoyed our time together, "I'll have to say that I hope that we never do this again. Goodnight, Cedric," I said as I turned back, fighting the urge to blush.

Cedric grinned at me and I felt extremely stupid once more. He was a Fourth Year that was much more popular than I was. There was nothing good that could come of this crush. So I smiled as Cedric walked forward, giving me a small hug. "Goodnight, Tara," he told me.

The two of us separated and turned to leave, back to our respective Common Rooms. As I walked I let my mind wander. I was so enamored in my thoughts that I ignored Ms. Norris and Peeves. There was nothing that could have ruined this night. A detention from Snape had actually turned out to be something not so bad. So maybe my first week in Hogwarts hadn't been exactly what I was expecting. But that didn't mean that it was all bad. Even though there had been plenty.

I was certainly one of the best in my class but I was competing for the spot. With a Muggle-Born, no less. My friends were wonderful but they were all a little clueless. Some of my professors were scary, others boring, fascinating, irritating, or strict. They gave loads of homework that kept me up into the middle of the night. Professor Snape hated me. I had gotten detention on my first Friday and had three - technically five - points taken from Gryffindor. Gringotts had been broken into, and I might have seen what it was that the assailants had wanted. Not to mention that I had a pathetic crush on a guy three years older than me, and much more popular. But even with all of that, this had still been one of the best weeks of my life.


	9. First Flights

As per usual, my foot began to shake at Hermione's insistence that it was already time to get up. Glancing over at the Muggle alarm clock that sat on my dresser, I groaned and shoved my head into the pillows. Eight in the morning. That was terrible. Especially considering that we hadn't gotten to bed until around two in the morning. Hermione had been helping Neville with the Color Change Charm while I had been determined to get Ron to actually complete one of Professor McGonagall's essays. He was always barely completing them and leaving his thoughts incomplete and unfinished.

Once I finally sat upright, Hermione began to sputter out information that had been placed on the bulletin board downstairs. I held up a hand to stop her and weakly limped into the bathroom. My main rule was that I always needed either two cups of coffee or half an hour before I could listen to Hermione rant and rave.

Not that I didn't like her. Honestly, Hermione was one of the better friends that I had made in Hogwarts. Sure, I still had Harry, who would always be my best friend, and I had made plenty others. Dean and Seamus were absolutely wonderful. Dean was Muggle-Born so I always liked explaining to him that soccer was nothing compared to Quidditch. Seamus shared my sentiment but we would constantly argue who was better, the Cannons or the Stars. Ron was also a joy - although when it came to his classwork, half of the time I wanted to whack him over the head with a roll of parchment. Parvati, Lavender, and Fay were nice too, I simply didn't talk to them that much. Fred and George were always a blast to talk to, although they did spend most of their time with kids from their year. There were other friends that I had made too, but we were still only about two weeks in. There would be time for more.

And those were only my friends from Gryffindor. I had made a few others outside of Gryffindor. Cedric was one of them. I saw him from time to time out in the halls. But considering he was a Fourth Year, I really didn't get to talk to him all that often. There were a few other Hufflepuff's - Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, and Justin Finch-Fletchley were some of the others that I got along with. We had a few classes with them. Micheal Corner, Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin, and Terry Boot were some of the Ravenclaw's that I got along with. They were nice but I was always careful to never speak to them with Cho Chang around. She still hadn't forgiven me for the bathroom incident.

Then there came Slytherin. But we didn't have any classes with them and I was mostly able to avoid them. Other than the few times that Malfoy and his cronies would come and bother us in the Great Hall. Or if Pug-Face Parkinson wanted to shout some expletive at me in the halls. As I finished getting ready for the day, Hermione and I departed down the stairs and into the Common Room. Surprisingly the boys were already down and crowded around a notice on the bulletin board. I jumped in behind Harry. Flying lessons were going to be starting on Thursday. My heart soared and I smiled. Finally!

That was, until I noticed who we would be sharing flying lessons with. Slytherin. Joy oh joy. Another chance for Malfoy to try and prove himself to be so much better than the rest of us. Maybe Pug-Face would wind up falling flat on her face. Not that it could possibly do much more damage.

It clearly wasn't just me that didn't like the news. Everyone seemed to be groaning. "Typical," Harry said darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy." I patted him on the shoulder and wrapped my arm around him. I knew how excited he had been for flying.

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," Ron said, giving Harry a comforting smile. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

It was the truth. Malfoy was constantly talking about Quidditch. I wasn't sure whether or not he had practiced all that much back at home, or if it was something that he was only telling us to impress us. Of course he sometimes forgot that my father was a professional player. It was one of my favorite hobbies, correcting him every time that he told us something incorrect about flying. He usually hated it and would argue with me that he was right. Thankfully Oliver Wood - the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team - would step in to my defense. So would Fred, George, Angelina, Katie, and Alicia - the other players on the team.

Harry looked no less convinced that he would be a good flyer. I wrapped my arm over his shoulder. "Come on, Harry, I somehow doubt that you'll be that bad at flying. As a matter of fact, I actually think that you'll be rather good at it." He still didn't look convinced. "I think it's Hermione that needs to worry," I said.

Most of me had been hoping to turn Harry's nerves into a little bit of a joke. And most people liked my jokes about Hermione. Not that they were malicious. They were always just teasing. "Excuse you!" Hermione barked at me.

Softly I smiled at her and walked over, patting her gently on the shoulder. She was giving me a stern glare. "Oh, come on. Hermione, you could recite everything in Quidditch Through the Ages to me in your sleep but you've never actually gotten on a broom. Tell me, are you really ready to do something that you can't learn from a book?" I asked her.

Honestly I was extremely curious whether or not she would be much of a flyer. Probably not. She struck me as the type that liked to have two feet on the ground. "Well I know that you have to keep your weight centered while you're on the broom," she told me.

I rolled my eyes at her. There she went, sounding almost like Malfoy. She wouldn't move if she did that. "And where did you hear that load of codswallop?" Seamus snorted at me in the background. "If you keep all of your weight centered you'll never make it anywhere. You lean back to either gain altitude or slow down. Lean forward to either speed up or drop down," I explained as simply as possible.

"You'll fall off!" She argued.

You'd only fall off if you weren't being careful where your legs were positioned. "That's why you have to keep your thigh muscles tight around the handle," I told her.

She looked like she was trying to run through all possible ways to tighten her thigh muscles. I was half tempted to tell her to just superglue herself to the broom. Of course that would make for an interesting conversation as to why she couldn't get rid of the broom after lessons. "Well excuse us, not everyone can have a professional Quidditch player for a father," Dean teased.

I walked over to him and gave him a gentle shove. He laughed. "Common sense, kids," I told everyone. Maybe first flying lessons really would be a disaster. "Come on, guys! Flying is going to be great!" I cheered, as everyone else seemed nervous.

It seemed to cheer a few people up. But most of the Gryffindor First Years still looked like they'd rather spend an entire day alone with Snape than make fools out of themselves around the Slytherin's. "As long as I don't fall face-first off the broom I think that I'll be alright," Harry finally said back to me.

"Don't worry, even if you do fall off of the broom there isn't much there that you can mess up," I told him with a teasing grin.

That time it actually seemed to cheer him up. He laughed at me and shoved me to the side. The rest of our friends laughed as well as we took seats at the fluffy chairs that surrounded the fire. It had quickly become my favorite place. "You're so useless," Harry told me as we squashed in a chair together.

There weren't enough seats for us all to have seats to ourselves. Lavender and Parvati were crammed in a chair together too and Seamus took a seat on the floor. "So, Tara, are you going to go out for the Quidditch team?" Seamus asked me after a beat of silence.

Gradually, I shrugged my shoulders at him. As much as I really wanted to join the team, what were my chances of getting on the team? There would be kids that were older and better than me going out. "I'm thinking about it. The only thing is that they really only need a Seeker and I'm lousy at that. They do need an alternate Chaser though, and that's what I'm best with. But First Years never make the team," I said.

"And that's exactly why you should go out there and try!" Seamus said. A small smile broke over my face. "We'll all be cheering you on if you do," he added.

Well that certainly made me feel better. That was one of the main things that I wanted. To know that at least a few people believed in me and believed that I could make the team. "Really?" I asked him.

"Of course," Harry and Ron chirped together.

As always, Hermione was there to burst my bubble. "She won't make it," she chirped above the soft chatter in the Common Room.

Every head snapped over to her with small glares. We all knew that Hermione was realistic, but sometimes it was just ridiculous. "Thanks for that vote of confidence," I told her with a bored tone.

Hermione seemed to finally realize that she had said something offensive. "Not that you're a bad player, but there are kids that are more experienced. And having kids from their First Year on the team looks pathetic to the other teams," she said.

They were the exact same reasons that I almost didn't want to try out for the team. But I knew that being on the team was something that I really wanted. And maybe there was a chance that I actually would get on it. "That's exactly why they'd underestimate me. Plus I'd still only be an alternate. I wouldn't even get to play in every game," I said with a sigh.

I really wanted to be a full-time player but I knew that I would never make it as a Seeker. I really wasn't one. My vision wasn't quite good enough for it. At least you'd be on the team," Harry said, trying to cheer me up.

Honestly, he'd probably make a much better Seeker than me. When we tossed my baseball back and forth at the park he was always good about catching it. No matter how difficult the catch was. "I suppose that's true. Although I would have to use one of those lousy school brooms," I said with a small laugh.

Making me jump slightly, Fred and George popped around the edge of the chair. Fred took a seat on one of the armrests - the one that was on my side - and George stayed behind the couch, leaning over me. "And they're as terrible as they seem," Fred said.

"Way to make me feel better," I snapped.

"Flying lessons starting this Thursday?" He asked.

I nodded at him. "Yep," I said with a small smile. "Worried that you might have someone getting ready to take your place as Beaters?" I asked the two of them, giving Fred a small nudge.

They both scoffed as if I had insulted their pranking methods - which were rather ingenious. "Never! No one is as good as the Weasley twins," George boasted proudly to me.

"Of course not," I told the two boys with a little smile. I grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him out of the chair as my stomach gave a rather loud growl. "Now come on, I'm starving," I said, heading to the portrait hole. A moment later everyone else turned to follow me out - all the while talking about

That day - and the two that were following it - flew by quickly. We were pretty much still learning the basics of spells - Charms and the like. Some of them were hard but others were easy. It seemed that most people were still having problems but we were all slowly catching on. The only ones of us that didn't seem to be having issues with the class work were myself, Hermione, and to my absolute displeasure - Draco Malfoy.

No part of me could really believe that I had ever even considered being Draco Malfoy's friend. He was absolutely awful. The fact that he was a Slytherin and my parents hated his own should have been my first clue. Perhaps another problem with him was that he was always talking about how marvelous of a Quidditch player and flyer he was. But he really wasn't. Half of the things that he talked about were wrong. He usually complained loudly about First Years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.

One of my absolute least favorite things about Draco Malfoy was the fact that he was constantly insulting my father and the way that he played. If I heard one more comment about how he was fired from the team and didn't leave voluntarily when we moved, I was going to punch him as hard as possible. Screw magic, I was going for it the Muggle way.

But it wasn't Malfoy that was the only one, though. Kids from wizarding families were always talking about Quidditch. It seemed that it was constantly something on my mind and I knew that it was something that Harry was dying to give a try. But he wouldn't ever get the chance unless he made the team. Or we could maybe convince Dad to take us on a visit to the Stars pitch back in the States.

Seamus always told us that he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom - which really wasn't that hard. Of course I didn't want to crush his dreams of being a Quidditch player one day. Plus I'd always had Dad to teach me every time that a new move was invented or every time he thought that I was ready for a new move.

In the middle of lunch one day Ron had gotten into the middle of a rather loud argument with Dean about soccer. It was one of the more popular Muggle sports that always fascinated me. Not that I would enjoy it. Running was not a favorite of mine. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. The Muggle-Born's all found that rather funny. Apparently Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.

None of the Pureblood's seemed to understand that pictures didn't move in the Muggle world. Even Muggle-Born's were all thinking about Quidditch. Or the flying lessons. Neville was probably the only Pureblood that had never been on a broomstick before, because his grandmother had never let him near one. There was probably a good reason for this, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.

Hermione was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. Of course she was a Muggle-Born and that wasn't all that shocking. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book - not that she hadn't tried. We were currently nearing the end of our breakfast on Thursday morning and she had just bored us all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of Quidditch Through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later.

He was the only one. The rest of us were all attempting not to fall back asleep. No one had been that upset when the owls had swooped through the opening in the vaulted ceiling and interrupted her for the mail delivery. I'd noticed that Harry had only gotten one letter since Hagrid's invitation to tea. That one had been from my parents, asking him how he had settled. They owled him about once a week. Of course Malfoy had been quick to notice. His eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.

Dai dropped in besides to the two of us and nipped at Ron for a moment. He tried to shoo my owl away but only got bitten once more. I laughed as he stole a rather large chunk of sausage from Ron's plate before hopping over to Harry's. He grabbed a bite of toast before hopping over to me. Ron groaned as he had no more sausage and the food had already vanished from the plates. Dai then began to munch on the leftover eggs scattered over my plate.

"I hate your owl, Tara," Ron groaned. I laughed softly under my breath. Dai was always stealing food from Ron. I had a theory that it was because Dai knew that it bothered Ron.

Dai dropped the letter that he was carrying into my hands and I grabbed it, unfolding it. On the top of it was my own letter, underneath was a letter for Harry. I handed Dai a bite of fruit and he took it, rubbing against me before taking off once more, whopping Ron with his wing as he passed. "Got a letter?" Harry asked me.

I nodded at him. "Yeah. From Mom and Dad. Here you are, they sent you one too, making sure that you're settling in and everything," I told him, handing him the other one. Everyone began to unfold their letters and read them quietly. My Mom's neat cursive was the first thing that I saw.

Tara,

Good to hear from you again, darling! We miss you here at home. Your father has been working overtime at the Ministry and sometimes it gets a little lonely. Not to worry, when you get home I'm sure we'll have all sorts of time to blow up the kitchen.

Glad to hear about your classes. They'll get tougher as time goes on. But you're a good girl and I know that you know how to study for them. Just watch out for this Professor Snape. If we're being honest - and do not tell your father or Harry that I told you this - we went to school with him. He was in Slytherin - our year. Your father and his friends used to torment Severus. And it was always James - Harry's father - that took it out the worst on him. If that's anything to say about it, that's probably the reason that he's been taking it so much harder on the two of you.

I'll bring it up to Dumbledore if you'd really like me to, but I'm not sure that it will make much of a difference. He loves Severus and has always seen the good in him, even past all of the faults. Anyways, I must say that I do see why you were given detention. I know that you were trying to help Harry, but it was considered cheating. Just try not to do that again.

Per my own curiosity, you were saying in your last letter that you were in detention with one, Cedric Diggory. You seemed rather... fond of him. Thankfully your father is daft and can't read between the lines, but I can. This boy, you mentioned that he was a Fourth Year, correct? (I have enclosed a list of questions that I want answered about him! Do it, or I might just send you a Howler. Mothers love, darling.) Also, would his father happen to be named Amos? Just curious.

Anyways, how are the rest of your friends? Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Dean, Seamus, Hermione, Lavender, Fay, Lee, Neville, Parvati? We sent Harry a letter with yours, do us a favor and give it to him. Let us know how first flying lessons go!

Hale and Dad say hello, too.

Don't forget about my questions!

Love, Mom.

Well it certainly made sense as to why Snape hated Harry and I so much. Because our parents had been the ones that had ruined his years at Hogwarts. Part of me felt bad for him, but then again, why was he taking his anger out on us for something that our parents had done? Part of me wanted to hand the letter over to Harry and let him read it, but for whatever reason, I kept it to myself. Perhaps it was because I didn't want him to start asking questions about Cedric. As if my Mom asking questions wasn't bad enough. So I folded the letter and slipped it back into the envelope before opening the other one. Just as promised, there were questions written out on the page.

1) He is a Fourth Year, or did I get that wrong?

2) Is he a Quidditch player? (Your father wanted to know.)

3) What are his grades like?

4) Where did the two of you meet?

5) Which House is he in?

6) What did he do to get detention?

Under my breath I laughed as I rolled the piece of paper back up and pushed it back into the envelope. Harry was scribbling away with one of my spare quills back to my Mom and Dad. His letter was the generics - how are you, are you enjoying classes, making any other friends, etcetera. But he still seemed to appreciate it. At least he'd gotten a letter. Unsurprisingly, the Dursley's seemed to have forgotten completely about Harry while he was gone. I pulled out my calligraphy quill and began to scribble away.

Write me a normal letter and perhaps I'll respond to that one. Here are my answers to your questions:

I'M NOT GETTING MARRIED TO HIM NOR DO I HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM!

Love, Tara.

So perhaps it wasn't the nicest letting that I could have written back to Mom but I knew that it would give her a good laugh. She liked to do things like that to me. And she appreciated when I did the back and forth thing with her. Harry rolled up his letter at the same time that I did and we watched as Hedwig swooped in. Despite the fact that Harry never really got letters, Hedwig would come back and forth sometimes to say hi and grab something off of our plates.

She grabbed the remaining piece of bacon from my plate and I had to quickly move my coffee off to the side to make sure that she didn't get into that. We handed her the letters and I mumbled to her to bring them to my house. She knew the place. Plus we liked to give her the time to stretch her wings and give Dai a chance to rest. Hale could no longer make the long trips. Dai could, but she had already had four long back and forth trips. Hedwig would appreciate the opportunity.

As we all sat together and continued eating - Harry ensuring that I thanked my parents for checking up on him and telling me that they didn't have to (and receiving a rather large slap over the back of the head with the argument that they love him too) - another owl swooped in. It was later than the rest and I could see why. It was a rather small barn owl with a package that was really too big for it. It dropped the package at Neville's plate. Like everything else, it was from his grandmother.

He opened it excitedly and we all gathered around, curious to see what it was. As he opened it my jaws nearly dropped. To Harry it probably just looked like a ball the size of a large marble, full of white smoke. "It's a Remembrall!" Harry still seemed lost. "Gran knows I forget things - this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red - oh..." His face fell, and I couldn't help but to chuckle. The Remembrall was now glowing scarlet, "You've forgotten something..."

The Muggle-Born's seemed to finally catch onto what the Remembrall was. "Those are expensive and rare, Neville," I told Neville as we all dropped back into our seats.

Neville was talking back and forth with himself and the rest of us, trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand. Before I could say anything, Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. Immediately I grabbed onto their robes and yanked them back down. Not here. It was too crowded. Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.

"Sit down, you fools!" I hissed at them as they attempted to stand once more. I knew that they were looking for any reason to be able to fight Malfoy and his cronies.

"What's going on?" Professor McGonagall called out as she walked up to us. The ever-stern look was still present on her face.

For a moment I thought that no one would speak. But finally, and surprisingly enough, it was Neville. "Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor," Neville told her.

She turned a nasty snarl on Malfoy. Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table. "Just looking," he groaned softy before turning and stepping away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him. Of course, that was only until Professor McGonagall had gone. A moment later he was back at our sides. "Always going to be there to protect him?" Malfoy sneered at me.

My jaws ground together and I glanced up at him. Thank Merlin that I hadn't been placed in Slytherin. "From bullies such as yourself?" I asked as I stood. "Yes."

Malfoy scoffed and took a step closer to me. "I wasn't aware that you thought so highly of me, Nox," he said. As always, there was a teasing tone when he said my last name.

Not giving me a chance to say anything back to him, Harry stood and pushed me back to the table. "Get away from her, Malfoy," he snapped.

Malfoy looked the least bit impressed with Harry. He turned back to look at me. "You have to get your little boyfriend to protect you?" He asked me.

I made to stand once more, but before I could, Cedric popped up near us. He was ready for classes and wearing his Hufflepuff robes. On his chest was the Prefect badge. "Is there a problem here?" Cedric asked with a little growl. A small smile fell over my face. He was a Prefect and had all the authority to step in and separate fights as well as taking House points away.

"No, Diggory," Malfoy sneered. My jaw nearly dropped. No one dared to speak like that to an older Prefect. For the exact reason that the Prefect could turn back around to a Professor with higher authority.

Cedric didn't seem too thrilled with the way that Malfoy had spoken to him either. "Mind your mouth, Malfoy. Please return to the Slytherin table," he said. Malfoy turned around and I noticed that he was still holding the Remembrall. "Without Mr. Longbottom's Remembrall," Cedric added. Malfoy turned back and slammed the Remembrall back on the table. Hard enough that it nearly broke. "Thank you. And that will be one point from Slytherin, for the attitude," he added.

Everyone at the Gryffindor laughed and turned back to thank Cedric. I watched as the hour glasses that kept count of the House points let a single crystal fall from the Slytherin glass. Malfoy looked like he was going to explode. Even kids at the other tables were laughing. Slytherin looked like they might throw a fit.

Once everyone had stopped laughing I turned back to Cedric. He was standing behind me with a smile. "I could have handled that," I told him.

Cedric smiled at me. "I know. But the last thing that I wanted was to have to send three Slytherin's to the hospital wing because they got into it with a Gryffindor First Year," he told me. A small laugh escaped me as I shook my head at him. He was right about that, though. If Malfoy hadn't left, there was a very good chance that I would live up to hitting him.

"Thank you," I told him.

I knew that it was better that Cedric was the one to separate the fight. "You're welcome. Best of luck with flying lessons today," he said. I thanked him before he stalked off, back towards the Hufflepuff table.

Once he was out of earshot I noticed Fred leaning over Ron to speak to me. "I wasn't aware that you knew Pretty-Boy Diggory," he told me. My cheeks burned lightly as other students snickered at me. Well that's one way to embarrass myself without meaning to, I suppose.

"What did you just call him?" I asked Fred.

"It's our nickname for him," Fred said proudly. Very clever, kids.

I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head. They were such brats. "I think that the two of you are jealous," I told them with a smug smile, knowing that it would get to them.

They both suddenly looked put-out. "We are not!" George snapped.

Once more I grinned at the two of them. "Sure you aren't," I said before turning to the rest of the table. "He must take all of the cute girls," I told them. Fred and George both scowled as the rest of us laughed. "Come on guys, it's time for class," I told them. Charms was first for us today. We all stood to leave the table and as we walked I was lucky enough to get a bread roll tossed at the back of my head.

Our day was no different than usual. Seamus managed to blow himself - and a rather large candelabra - up within minutes of entering the classroom. Professor Flitwick gave Hermione and I two points for our demonstration of the Unlocking Charm - Alohomora. Ron lost us a point for calling Hermione a know-it-all when she instructed him that he was doing it wrong. Neville managed to lock his own bolt so tightly that no one - not even Professor Flitwick - could get it open.

We then moved on to Herbology. We were learning about Puffapods right now. They bloom instantly when they come into contact with any solid object. I wasn't paying attention when Professor Sprout told us what they were used for but Hermione said that we used them because trolls were allergic to them. Not that we would be meeting any trolls. Neville was actually rather good with them. Harry and Ron managed to accidentally make an entire pod bloom - earning vast disapproval from Professor Sprout.

Thankfully there were no other incidents by the time that we went to Transfiguration. As much as the class did amuse everyone, we all knew that it would probably be more fun without Professor McGonagall - not that I didn't like the old witch, she was just a bit of a stickler for the rules. She did seem to like Hermione and I - as we were the best pupils in her class. Although she clearly wished that I shared Hermione's attitude. We were attempting Avifors Spell. It creates a jet blue light from the tip of the wand and upon impacting on a solid object turns into a bird that the caster can control. I was the only student that managed to create the bird - many were able to create the light - although I couldn't manage to control it. I got a point for the bird, Hermione got one for her knowledge of Switching Spells.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was out last class of the day before we got to do down for flying lessons. By this point everyone was shaking. Whether it was with nerves or excitement, no one could really tell. We were learning about how to cure werewolf bites. No one seemed overly-thrilled with the idea of the subject. Of course Harry had asked me if there were really werewolves. He probably hadn't believed me before when I'd told him that they really were real.

Professor Quirrell had barely assigned us the work when we all jumped from our seats and tore from the room. The Gryffindor's and Slytherin's were all headed down towards the castle grounds quickly. As we walked, Fred and George popped up behind me. "Try not to fall off of that broom. Wouldn't want to damage that pretty face now, would we?" Fred teased.

I smiled at him and shook my head. "Of course not, then I'd have to look like you," I called back.

The twins, Lee, and their friends all laughed as I ran to catch up with Ron and Harry. I smiled at the day as we emerged into the sunlight. It was a clear, breezy day - perfect for learning to fly. We marched down the lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance. The Slytherin's were already there, and so were twenty or thirty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground.

I'd heard all sorts of people - Fred and George mostly - complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left. As I looked at the old and pathetic little things, I realized that they weren't lying. They were some of the worst brooms that I'd ever seen. Our teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived a moment after we did. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. It was almost unnerving.

Her eyes immediately tracked over us. They stopped on me for a moment longer than I would have liked. "Tara Nox," she called out. I wasn't sure if it was a question or not.

I blushed as all eyes shot to me. "Yes Ma'am."

She smiled. "Let's see if you're as good as your father." She then turned to the rest of the class. "Well, what are you all waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." We all dashed to our brooms. Even the Slytherin's looked nervous. "Stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'Up!"'

Harry, Ron, and I were in the second row. "Up!" Everyone shouted at once.

Some of the brooms gave immediate movements, others took a few seconds to move, some only made little rolls, and others didn't move at all. Harry's immediately sprung up into his hand. I could tell that he wasn't expecting it as he was knocked back slightly. Unfortunately Malfoy's did the same. Mine sprung upwards so fast that I took a step backwards. Madam Hooch was grinning at me. Hermione's rolled over slightly and I snorted under my breath. At least hers had moved. Neville's hadn't moved at all. Ron's was the best. The top of the handle moved upwards, but the bristles stayed on the ground. It whacked him hard across the nose.

Harry and I immediately started laughing as Dean, Seamus, Hermione, Crabbe, and Goyle managed to get their brooms upward. "Shut up Harry, Tara," Ron groaned.

"Like father, like daughter," Madam Hooch said.

I smiled at her and gave her a soft thanks. Neville was the longest to manage to get the broom in the air. Harry leaned over and asked me if brooms were like horses - if they could sense fear. Normally I would have laughed but it was actually a reasonable assumption. There was clearly a quaver in Neville's voice that said that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.

Once everyone had managed to get themselves onto their brooms, Madam Hooch showed us how to mount them. I had accidentally moved a little too fast, but to my absolute pleasure, she had complimented my stance on the brooms and given Gryffindor a point. That had earned cheers all around. She then went to walking up and down the rows, correcting stances. We had all laughed when she'd told Malfoy that he'd been doing it wrong for years.

Nearly ten minutes later and we were finally ready to fly. "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle - three - two -"

She never got the chance to get to one. Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground to be laughed at, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips. To our complete shock, he began to hover in the air. But it didn't stop there, annd it didn't seem that Neville knew how to stop either.

"Come back, boy!" Madam Hooch shouted. Neville simply kept rising - twelve feet - twenty feet. His face had gone completely white with fear as he looked down at the ground. He gasped, slipped sideways off the broom and landed with a thud and a nasty crack. Everyone was silent as Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch stood in shock for a moment. "Neville!" I shouted, hoping to rouse him. He didn't move but Madam Hooch did. She ran over to Neville and dropped next to his body, her face as white as his.

She looked him over for a moment. "Broken wrist. Come on, boy - it's all right, up you get." She turned to the rest of our class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

Neville weakly stood. His face was tear-streaked and he was clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner had they made it out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter. I turned a nasty glare on him. I'd taken hard falls off of brooms before and they hurt. They were nothing to laugh about. "Did you see his face, the great lump?" The other Slytherin's joined in.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Parvati snapped.

I was rather impressed with her. She never really stood up for anyone like that. "Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" Pansy sneered at her. My fists tightened. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."

"What the hell are your problems?" I snapped, hoping my language wouldn't be overheard by a passing professor. "Both of you! You think that acting like this makes you tough? It doesn't make you anything more than a big-headed, arrogant, ass! And take it from me, no one else in this school likes you. You're the laughing stock. But you're too caught up in yourselves to notice!" I ranted.

Pug-Face looked like she might say something to me, but Malfoy stepped in before she could. He walked up to me with a mean grin. "Look at you, growing a backbone." He took a step towards me, far too close that I was comfortable with. "Why don't you say that again?" He asked me.

The class had gone deathly silent. As I prepared to repeat my rant, Harry stepped in. "Get away from her."

It was the same warning that he had given Malfoy before. "A loyal dog," Malfoy said. He turned and ran after something that was laying in the grass. "Look! It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him." The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

He was so cruel that he would take something that an injured boy had dropped. "Give that here, Malfoy," Harry said quietly. Just like when I'd spoken, Malfoy smiled nastily.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find - how about - up a tree?"

"Give it here!" Harry yelled. He chased after but Malfoy had leaped onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. But not as well as me. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"

Unsurprisingly, Harry grabbed his broom. He had dealt with Dudley for long enough. He wouldn't deal with Malfoy too. "No!" Hermione shouted, stepping in front of him. "Madam Hooch told us not to move - you'll get us all into trouble."

For once I wasn't going to argue his point with Hermione. I grabbed my own broom and yanked Harry along with me. "You're not going up there alone. Come on!" I shouted.

Just like Malfoy had been able to do, I swung my leg over the broom and immediately launched off of the ground. The kids on the ground all made impressed noises but I ignored them. This was something that I'd been doing since before I could walk. I turned back to ensure that Harry was able to fly and not about to make a fool out of himself. I smiled when I saw him. Like his father, he was a natural. The girls were all gasping and screaming while the boys were whooping with joy.

Harry came to fly next to me as we turned our broomsticks sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned. He had been too busy playing with the Remembrall to notice us. "Give it here or I'll knock you off that broom!" Harry yelled.

"Oh, yeah?" Malfoy asked. He was trying to look tough but I knew that he was scared. He was outnumbered and none of his friends seemed to be in the mood to try and help him.

"No one's impressed, tough guy, let it drop," I warned.

To my surprise, it was Harry that acted first. I hung back and watched as he leaned forward and shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping. "No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.

I smiled at him and decided that I had been hanging back on the action for far too long. Without warning I rushed forward. It was probably faster than the brooms were designed to go as it was vibrating angrily at me. But that wasn't going to stop me. I rushed forward - ignoring the screams from below - and slammed into Malfoy. He groaned and nearly fell off of his own broom. The Remembrall fell from his grasp and I caught it just before it could. It's just a Quaffle. Get it to the other Chaser. Or maybe Seeker would be more appropriate. Harry was still waiting for me across the field.

He was way too far, but the Remembrall was much lighter than a Quaffle. I could make it. And Malfoy was right behind me. I had to do something. "Harry, grab it!" I shouted. And I threw the Remembrall as hard as I could. Maybe it was too hard.

The Remembrall went flying through the air. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as Malfoy caught up with me. Earning a hard kick from me he went tumbling to the ground. Not nearly as hard as Neville had. Harry leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down - just as I had told him to do earlier. He was gathering speed and racing into a dive. Like with me, people were screaming as they watched. Nervously, I sped up and flew after him. He stretched out his hand and a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight.

He toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist. I laughed loudly and zoomed over to him, launching myself off of the broom and tossing it to the ground. Harry stood and wrapped me tightly in his arms. It was definitely one of the more impressive moves I'd ever pulled off.

But why was no one else cheering? "Harry Potter! Tara Nox!"

My heart sank all the way into my stomach. Professor McGonagall was running toward us. "Never - in all my time at Hogwarts -" Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "- how dare you - might have broken your neck - Just because your father was a professional player -"

"It wasn't their fault, Professor -" Parvati tried to argue.

"Be quiet, Miss Patil."

"But Malfoy -"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, Nox, follow me, now."

We both turned to walk through the field. As we walked I turned back to see Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces. My legs felt like they might turn to jelly as we walked numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. We were going to be expelled. And there was nothing that we could say to argue our points. We had broken a rule and gotten caught. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking back at us; we had to jog to keep up. My parents said no letters in the first week. I wonder what their position on expulsion is?

Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to us. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry and I trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking us to Dumbledore. He seemed to always be on the reasonable side. Perhaps we could argue why we should stay with him. After all, he had liked Harry's parents and mine as well.

"My parents are going to kill me," I whispered.

Harry looked stunned that I was daring to speak. "I shouldn't have let you come up there with me," he told me.

I scoffed under my breath. "It was my choice, not yours. I should have kept you from coming up there," I told him.

"No talking," Professor McGonagall snapped as she spoke for the first time since leaving the fields. She sounded somewhat less angry.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to Harry.

We fell silent again after that. We walked back and forth through two more corridors and I wondered where we were going. We were heading towards the Defense classroom. Was she going to curse us? As we rounded a corner I saw Cedric. I dropped my eyes to the ground with Harry. As if this wasn't embarrassing enough. He seemed to be on the way to Quidditch practice with the rest of the Hufflepuff team. A team that I would never get to play.

They were all staring at us curiously. Probably wondering what two First Years had done to get themselves into such trouble. "Uh, Professor?" Cedric asked.

She didn't even slow down at his question. "No time, Diggory," she huffed before continuing on.

We finally stopped outside what looked like the Charms classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside. "Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?" She asked.

Oliver Wood - the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain - walked out of the room looking confused. "Follow me, you three." Together we marched on up the corridor, Oliver looking curiously at Harry and I. "In here." Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing curse words on the blackboard. "Out, Peeves!"

Peeves threw the chalk into a bin and he swooped out cursing. It was the nicest that I'd ever seen him. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face us. "Hello, Tara," Oliver said.

I nearly laughed. The situation seemed so wrong for formalities. "Potter, Nox, this is Oliver Wood. Although, Miss Nox, I see that you've already met him," she said. I nodded at her. "Wood - I've found you a Seeker. And a reserve Chaser."

My mouth nearly dropped to the ground. Was she serious? We hadn't even tried out! She'd only seen us fly once. She wasn't going to expel us for breaking the rules? Oliver's expression changed from puzzlement to delight. "Are you serious, Professor?"

"Absolutely. They are both naturals. I've never seen anything like it. And you, with your father being a professional Quidditch player, a Chaser no less, we should have figured that you would be a natural on the brooms. You must have played growing up?" Professor McGonagall asked me.

I nearly had to slap myself to force words to come out of my mouth. Words that weren't asking if I was expelled. "Yes. I used to go out and play with my Dad sometimes, in the pitch that the Stars play in. My Dad wanted me to like the game, whether or not I was ever on a team," I told her automatically.

She smiled brightly. "Wonderful. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?" Harry nodded silently. "He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive. Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it. And she snatched the thing from Draco Malfoy - who was holding it tightly in his hands - after smacking into him going nearly fifty-five kilometers an hour. You must have thrown it nearly thirty meters!" She exclaimed.

Well, it's not like a Remembrall is exactly as heavy as a Quaffle. Not that I was going to say that. Oliver was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once. "Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?"

"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.

I knew that, but Harry didn't. "He's just the build for a Seeker, too," Oliver said, now walking around Harry and I and staring at us. "Light and speedy. Same thing for her. Small - easily able to maneuver back and forth - but still strong. We'll have to get them both a decent broom, Professor - a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say. Do you have one, Tara?" Oliver asked me.

If a broom was what I was going to get for breaking school rules, my parents had better be prepared for a massive influx of letters. "No, but my Mom and Dad said that if I made the team they'd get me a Nimbus Two Thousand. But that was for my Second Year. We'll have to use the school brooms until then, right?" I asked.

Professor McGonagall and Oliver both seemed repulsed. "Those things are awful. We'll take a look into it. I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the First Year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks..." Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry and I. "I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, Nox, or I may change my mind about punishing you." Then she suddenly smiled.

We both smiled back at her, still barely able to speak from the fear of almost being expelled. "Yes, ma'am. We'll work harder than anyone else you've seen on the team," I told her.

"Brilliant. Your father will be thrilled to hear it," she told me before turning to Harry. "And your father would have been proud. He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."

Harry's eyes suddenly widened. "You're joking," he said to her.

She merely nodded with something akin to a smile. You'll begin training next week. Wood will let you know when. Keep this between yourselves for now. Don't want students thinking that rule-breaking is the way to get onto the House teams," she told us.

"Thank you, Professor," I said to her.

Oliver stepped forward and shook Harry's hand before moving over to give me a crushing hug. I breathed out weakly and squeaked in pain. I could see how he was a Quidditch player. He was extremely strong. "Impressive. We haven't had First Years on the team in almost a hundred years. Best of luck you two, I'll see you at training next week," he told us.

"Thanks, Oliver."

"See you then," Harry said.

"Get to dinner," Professor McGonagall ordered.

We both nodded at her and waited until she and Oliver had rounded the corner before turning to each other, laughing, and grabbing the other in for a tight hug. Our laughs were something almost like hysterics. Once we had finally calmed down and turned to head to dinner - to let everyone know that we weren't going to be expelled, I turned to Harry. "He was a Chaser, Harry. My Dad was one of the other ones. Didn't make the team himself until his Third Year, I think," I told him.

Harry raised an eyebrow at me. He probably hadn't been aware of just how close our parents had been. "How'd you know that?" Harry asked me curiously.

"Mom and Dad were friends with him," I told him. Harry smiled as he laid a hand over my shoulder. "They told me once before that you were going to be a great flyer because of him."

Harry walked with me in silence for a moment. "Do you know about my Mom?" Harry finally asked.

Had my parents ever said anything about Lily? Not that I could remember. She probably wasn't much of a flyer. "I'm not really sure. Mom said that she and Lily used to just watch the games from the stands. It was always James and my Dad that were out on the field, playing," I told Harry after a beat.

"I hope I make him proud," Harry told me softly.

I smiled and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. He was going to do wonderfully if he played anything like he'd showed us earlier. "You will. Quidditch can be a little dangerous but it's not anything too bad. And you'll love it. I promise you that. Doesn't take that long to learn either. It sounds harder than it is," I told him.

We walked into the Great Hall and all eyes turned towards us. They were all chattering softly. But one bright smile from Harry and I and the Gryffindor table burst into laughter. They knew that we weren't getting expelled. "I can't believe that we didn't get expelled," Harry told me.

"Honestly, neither can I."

We both took our seats at the table. Harry was on Ron's side and I was on Harry's other side, with Hermione next to me. She looked shocked that we were so calm. "You're still here?" She asked.

"Yeah. We didn't get kicked out!" I shouted at the table. Everyone laughed and brought us in for hugs and high-fives. We had all thought that Harry and I were done for.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

As much as I wanted to tell her the truth I knew that Professor McGonagall would kick us off of the team if we said anything. "Nothing. Professor McGonagall just ragged on us and told us that what we had done was dangerous and to not do it again. So we apologized and left. We just got lucky that we didn't get detention or anything," I said.

The rest of the table were staring at us curiously. It wasn't very believable. But we only needed to keep the lie up for a few more weeks. "I can't believe your luck," Hermione scoffed.

"Trust us, neither can we," I told Hermione, giving Harry a little wink.

The Gryffindor's went to eating their meals together, mostly in silence. Which was great, since I was starving. I did have a bright smile on my face as I thought about the fact that Harry and I were actually on the Quidditch team. While Harry relayed the story of what had happened to Ron - the one person that we had agreed would be alright to tell - I kept the others distracted. I turned back once Harry had dropped the bomb and grinned. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.

"Seeker?" He asked Harry - who nodded - before turning to me. "Alternate Chaser?" This time it was me that nodded. "But First Years never - you must be the youngest House players in about..."

"A century," Harry said, shoveling pie into his mouth. I groaned in disgust and took a small bite of pistachio ice cream. "Wood told me," Harry said. Ron was so amazed and impressed that he just sat and gaped at Harry and I. It was easy to tell that one day Ron wanted to be on the Quidditch team too. "We start training next week. Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

Fred and George turned through the doors and I watched as they walked into the Great Hall. They were smiling as they spotted us and hurried over. They must know. All of the Gryffindor team probably knew by now. "Well done! Wood told us. We're on the team too - Beaters. Well done, Tara!" George cheered.

I smiled at the two of them and wrapped them into hugs with me. "Thanks! Merlin I nearly fainted when McGonagall caught us. I was sure that we were going to get expelled," I told them.

Oliver had clearly informed them of the situation that had gotten us onto the team. "Not to worry, she'd never expel you after all of the things that we did," Fred told me. I laughed softly and shook my head. "Plus she wants to win the Quidditch Cup just as much as the rest of us. Maybe more. She hates losing to Slytherin."

There was no chance that we lost to Slytherin that often. Was there? They seemed awful. I hoped that they were awful at Quidditch too. "Do we lose to them a lot?" I asked the twins.

"Nearly every year. But I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch Cup for sure this year. We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us," Fred said before turning to me. "Tara, I'm sure that you're alright."

My eyes narrowed into slits as I stared at the two of them. "As always, you are both a genuine joy to be around," I told them.

The boys laughed at me before leaning over and stealing the last bits of my ice cream. I groaned. The food was gone now and I wouldn't be able to get more until next Thursday. It was the only had that we had pistachio. "We look forward to seeing you play," George told me with a mouth full of ice cream.

"I might just end up being a little bit better than the two of you," I challenged the two.

George shook his head at me. "Not a chance. Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school. See you two at training next week," George said.

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."

"How do you two manage to do that? Find all of these things?" I asked them.

A devious smile spread over their faces and I rolled my eyes. "You may never know," Fred said before stalking off. One day I would manage to figure out their tricks. It would help me out once they were gone.

Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up. It was Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Of course. I had to stop myself from rubbing the Quidditch reward in their faces. "Having a last meal, Potter? Nox? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles? Are you ready to be a disappointment?"

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," Harry said coolly. I smirked at him but wished that he wouldn't pick fights. There was nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.

They wouldn't even say anything. They never spoke to each other. "I'd take you on anytime on my own. Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only - no contact." Bad idea. "What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?" Malfoy asked when Harry made no indication that he'd understood.

"No, you hag," I hissed at Malfoy.

"Of course he has," Ron interrupted, ruining my case. "I'm his second, who's yours?"

"No one is, you fools. You're going to get yourselves killed seeing as you can't do any proper magic," I snapped.

"Speak for yourself, Nox." Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up. "Crabbe. Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."

Before they could move away I turned to glare at the Slytherin boys. "What spells could you possible know? I've seen you attempt to Color Change Charm. You can't even do that," I told Malfoy.

Other kids at the table began to laugh when they heard my insult. "Watch your mouth, Nox," he warned me, taking a step closer to me.

"Or what?"

"I'll shut it for you."

Just like before, this morning at breakfast, Ron stood up to defend me. Not that I needed it. "Get lost, Malfoy. Harry will get you back for that tonight," Ron said.

The five boys looked at each other for a moment before Malfoy finally seemed to decide that the rest of the fight could be handled tonight. When Malfoy had finally gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other. I groaned and shoved my head into my hands. "What is a wizard's duel? And what do you mean, you're my second?" Harry asked.

"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," Ron said casually, getting started at last on his cold pie. He seemed to notice the look of concern on Harry's face only when I stomped on his foot. "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy will be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?" Harry asked.

It was a good point. He'd been good with learning the theory but he hadn't done that well with practical magic yet. "Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested.

"I think I'll punch him for you," I said, stepping in. "Well since you're both absolutely useless when it comes to actually making magic happen, I suppose you'll need a third."

We all laughed for a moment before going back to our food. Well, the boys to their food, me to my now missing ice cream. "Excuse me," Hermione called. I turned back to her with a small grin. Of course she'd heard.

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron asked.

Hermione merely ignored him and spoke to Harry. "I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying -"

"Bet you could," Ron muttered.

"-and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

To my surprise, it wasn't Ron that bit out a bitter comment, it was Harry. "And it's really none of your business," he said.

Deciding to end the argument without one of us - or all of us - ending up in detention, I stepped in. "Alright, fine, would you care to join us in a wizard's duel that is against school rules and risk getting kicked out?" I asked her with a bored expression.

Her eyes widened. Probably because she couldn't believe that I would dare do something else against the rules in one day. Half of me couldn't believe it either. "Like you both haven't gotten in enough trouble today?" She asked Harry and I.

"Good-bye," Ron said, effectively ending the argument.

We finished eating all of our dinner without any more interruption. We eventually stood and left the Great Hall. But just as we exited the hall, we were called over. "Tara, Harry, might we speak to you for a moment?" Cedric called out. We nodded and stepped away from Ron and the others. He was standing with two others. An older Slytherin and an older Ravenclaw. "This is Roger Davies and Marcus Flint. They're the Captains of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams. We just wanted to let everyone know who the two new players are," he said.

So it must have been all of the Quidditch players from all of the teams that knew that Gryffindor had two new players. "You do that with every new player?" I teased Cedric. The two others shook our hands and greeted us before moving off.

"Just First Years. It's been a long time since there were First Years on the teams. It also serves as a warning to the others to be careful around the two of you," he told me. We both nodded and I noticed that Harry looked slightly uncomfortable. Probably because he didn't know Cedric. "So what, exactly, happened?" He asked.

"Tell you what, you get detention with Snape again and I'll tell you the whole story," I teased.

Cedric laughed and the two of us shook his hand before moving off back to the Common Room. We all sat in the chairs by the fire as we finished homework and whatnot. Ron and Harry were working on deciding which spells would be best for defense. Hermione was pretending to work on her assignments while really glaring at them. Everyone else seemed to be working on a rather tough essay that Professor McGonagall had given us earlier. I decided to inform Mom and Dad on the events of today.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I have absolutely the best news that you'll hear all day. Harry and I are on the Gryffindor Quidditch team! Don't ask how, I promise that you don't want to know. Just know that it wasn't from try-outs. And, no, Mom, I didn't get in trouble for it.

Anyways, Harry is the Seeker - so cool, right? - and I'm going to be the reserve Chaser. Not what I really would have wanted but there was no room for another regular. If I keep it up I should be a regular by my Fourth Year. That's when the team will need a new regular. Training starts next week. We aren't allowed to tell anyone yet, but they'll know soon enough. First game should be next month. Or maybe the month after. I'll let you know.

Love, your Gryffindor Chaser daughter, Tara. (Harry the Seeker and Dai too!)

Everyone stayed down in the Common Room until just a tad past eleven before finally going to bed. We were going to be leaving at eleven-thirty. Just over twenty minutes from now. I sat by the fire and attempted to finish up my essay for Professor McGonagall. I had thought about going to bed for a while but I didn't want to have to listen to the lecture from Hermione about what we were doing. Ron and Harry had been lucky enough to get to go to bed for at least a little while. Although I was sure that they were still awake.

I was sitting upside down in the oversized chair when I saw a bathrobe slip into my view. I flipped over to ask why Harry and Ron were down so early but it wasn't them. "Oh Hermione, what are you doing down here?" I asked her.

She gave me a pointed glare. "Stopping the three of you from doing something that's going to end up getting you all kicked out of Hogwarts. And losing more points for Gryffindor," she told me.

Of course. It wasn't just for our safety. It was all because we didn't have enough points to keep us on track for winning the House Cup. "Hermione, I love you, but you have to let us go out there and do this. It's something that we need to do. If we let Malfoy keep walking around on top of us, it's never going to stop," I tried to reason with her.

She rolled her eyes at me. "You're lucky that you didn't get expelled with the Remembrall incident earlier," she told me. I wanted to laugh at her. No. I'm lucky enough to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team now. "You definitely will if you get caught in a wizard's duel!" She shouted.

Some part of me was amazed that she even really understood what a wizard's duel was. "Well thankfully I'm not the one that's going to be dueling," I told her.

She rolled her eyes at me once more. It was a recurring theme in our friendship. "You're going to end up getting expelled," she told me in a bored tone.

"I don't think so. We're going to be careful, don't worry," I told her.

"I have to worry!" She shouted at me.

I cringed slightly. She was going to wake up half of the House and that wasn't something that we could have. We had to do this with as little interruption as possible. "Why's that? Worried that you might actually care about what happens to Ron, Harry and I?" I asked her teasingly.

She smacked me gently on the shoulder. "Don't be daft. I care about what happens to you. As much as we bicker back and forth... I've never had a better friend than you. You're my best friend," she told me. My teasing face fell. "Sure you make fun of my constant studying, but you're also the one that doesn't let anyone say anything bad about me. Other than yourself, of course."

That time I couldn't help but to smile. Although I really didn't know that she felt that way about our friendship. I was glad to hear it though. "Oh... I didn't know that you felt that way. I'm sorry, Hermione. You're my best friend too. Except for Harry, of course. But he's a boy. Girls need to have each other's backs too," I told her, giving her a gentle nod.

She smiled at me as we wrapped each other in a tight hug. "And no, I do not care for Ron and Harry," she snapped at me.

I laughed under my breath. Hermione was the type of person that cared for everyone, no matter what happened between them. "I somehow doubt that. You don't care for them at all?" I asked her.

She shook her head at me. "I'm not callous. Of course I care about their well-being. But I also don't want them to keep getting points taken away from Gryffindor. We want a chance at the House Cup!" She shouted.

Fred and George had told us that it had been years since Slytherin hadn't won the House Cup. Which really sucked for us. If Malfoy won I knew that I would hear about it for the next few years. And probably my entire life if we ended up working together. "I keep getting points taken from Gryffindor. Hello, Snape?" I asked her.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at me. "You really should call him, Professor." I scoffed. That was a term of respect and he had not earned any respect from me. "And to be completely honest, I probably should have gotten points taken away too. I don't know why he chose to only take points from you and Harry," she told me.

"I have an idea," I said.

Hermione's eyes widened. "You do?" She asked me.

Sure. Because my Dad and Harry's tortured Snape in their childhood so now he's exacting his revenge on their kids. But I wasn't going to tell him that. "Yeah. But it doesn't matter. There's really no way that I'm going to get you to back down from trying to stop us?" I asked her.

She shook her head at me. "Not a chance."

Alright. Then maybe I'll check and see if there is another way to get her to go back to bed. "Perfect. Then you get to come with us!" I told her with a bright smile.

"What?" Hermione asked me with a horrified gasp.

She was not a rule-breaker. Having to come with us to an illegal duel after bedtime was not something that was in her plans. "If you're not going to let us go, you'll just have to come with us. Besides, if anyone other than myself knows anything about Charms and Defense moves, it's you. Harry could use that," I tried to reason with her.

Hermione shook her head at me wildly. "I am not going to be party to the barbaric wizard's duel," she snapped.

"Fine. Then you can stand watch at the door."

I laughed under my breath but Hermione scowled at me. "You are so hardheaded," she snapped at me.

I rolled my eyes at her and smiled as I dropped back down into the oversized armchair, Hermione taking a place in the one next to me. "You're just now noticing this?" I asked her with a grin.

She rolled her eyes at me once more and pulled out two rolls of parchment. One was her almost finished Transfiguration essay and the other were my notes for making my essay. "I suppose you're right," she mumbled.

"In the meantime, come here and help me figure out how to word this Transfiguration essay. I've been working on it for days and I know what to say. It's just not coming out right," I told her. She nodded at me and we dropped to the floor, bent over one of the tables. We began to scratch our quills against the paper as I counted down the time until we were ready to leave.

It was just past eleven-thirty when I finally began to hear noise coming from upstairs. I knew that it was Ron and Harry getting ready to leave and come get me. When they finally came down I saw that they were dressed similarly to Hermione and I. They were in blue and black robes, Hermione in her pink one, and me in my purple one. They stared at the fireplace - where some embers were still burning - and caught my eye. I gave them a little nod and stood. Hermione was hidden by one of the chairs.

We stood and I went to follow them out of the portrait hole. "They really, actually, came," Hermione muttered. For a moment I thought that she would let us leave but she finally stood. "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry," she said as a lamp flickered on.

"You!" Ron shouted furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"Sorry, I was trying to get her to go back to bed. But she refuses to leave. So I have a new plan!" I said happily.

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy - he's a Prefect, he'd put a stop to this." No way. Percy would go straight to Dumbledore and then we really would end up getting thrown out.

Harry was staring on in disbelief. "Come on," he said to Ron and I. We stood and walked with him. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole. Ron and I followed.

Unfortunately, so did Hermione. As we walked she hissed at us like one of the geese from back in the States. "Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves? I don't want Slytherin to win the House Cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

"Go away," Ron barked.

Hermione stopped with the three of us right outside of the portrait hole. "All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so -"

"I thought you were going to come with us and guard the door?" I asked her.

Neither one of us ever got a chance to say anything back to the other. She never got a chance to tell me what we were and I never got an answer on whether or not she was going to come and guard the door. She turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside but found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit - as she usually did, except on nights that we had Astronomy - and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.

She looked absolutely furious with the three of us - as if this was somehow our fault. "Now what am I going to do?" She asked shrilly.

"You wanted to come," I told her.

She turned to me with a heated glare. "Because you wouldn't listen to reason!" Hermione barked at me.

Ron rolled his eyes at her and grabbed at mine and Harry's hands to drag us away. "That's your problem. We've got to go, we're going to be late," Ron snapped at her.

We began to walk out of the corridor but we didn't make it very far. Hermione - who had been stunned out of words - had stopped walking. She ran to caught up with us a moment later. "I'm coming with you," she said.

We all turned back with raised eyebrows. The last thing that I had thought was that she would actually want to come with us. "You are not," Ron huffed indignantly.

I turned back to the bickering pair and rolled my eyes. "She's coming, Ron. Like it or not. I've been arguing with her over it all night," I told him honestly.

He groaned and for a moment I thought that he was going to shove Hermione over the edge of one of the staircases. "D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all four of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up," she said haughtily.

My jaw nearly dropped to the floor. She was going to sell me out? Her 'best friend'? Perhaps my thoughts about friendship were different than hers. "I thought that we were on the same side!" I barked at her.

"You've got some nerve -" Ron said loudly before being cut off by Harry.

"Shut up, all of you!" Harry whisper-yelled sharply. We all silenced ourselves to listen for what Harry had heard. I could hear it myself. It was some type of scuttling sound. Almost like a crab from the lake back in Florida. "I heard something."

Without moving away from our spots, we began to look around. There had to be something around here somewhere. Maybe it was one of the ghosts trying to play a prank. Or a professor that was going to give us detention. "Mrs. Norris?" Ron asked, squinting through the dark.

We began to glance around. The four of us started walking and I shouted softly when I tripped over Mrs. Norris. Only it wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly at the impact. "Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed," Neville said as he scrambled up.

The four of us laughed softly and shook our heads. Of course Neville was the one person that ended up locked outside of the portrait. "You didn't think to knock on the portrait?" I asked him.

Even if no one was downstairs - which they had been - it was easy to hear loud noises. Someone would have woken up and gotten him. His face fell. "Oh. I never would have thought about that," he said softly.

Or he could have always gone to a professor. "Oh, Neville. One day we have to have a talk about how to work problems out for yourself," I told him with a little smile.

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere," Ron said.

"How's your arm?" Harry asked.

There was no wrapping on his arm but we couldn't be too sure that nothing had happened. Although mending bones was usually pretty easy. It was one of Mom's specialties. "Fine. Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute," Neville said.

The four of us nodded absentmindedly. "Good..." Harry muttered before trailing off. There were already four of us going to the wizard's duel. We didn't need five. "Well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later -"

"Don't leave me!" Neville yelled, scrambling after us, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already." Well in all honesty I wouldn't have wanted to be here either if the Bloody Baron floated past.

Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville. We had to be coming up on midnight soon. "If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you," Ron warned them.

"I know which book it's in," I said softly.

Ron gave a wicked grin as Hermione's mouth dropped open. Of course I know where it is. But I'll never tell. If Ron did it the stupid spell would probably backfire and hit me. "How do you know that? It's restricted!" Hermione snapped at me.

"That's exactly how I know what book it's in."

"Be quiet!" Harry snapped.

Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to either tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies or perhaps to tell me that getting into the restricted section was a bad idea, but she said neither. Instead she began to walk with Harry, Ron, and I, as we were beckoned down the hallway. We flitted along corridors as silently as possible. At every turn I was expecting to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but we were lucky. We bolted up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.

We walked in and I glanced around. Nothing was out of the ordinary yet. Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet, nor were any of his other minions. The crystal trophy cases glimmered, casting a pretty light in the room. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. We edged along the walls, keeping our eyes on the doors at either end of the room. The last thing that we needed was getting caught by Filch or Ms. Norris. I had just gotten on the Quidditch team and I was not getting kicked off on the same day.

Harry took out his wand a moment later. I grabbed for mine as well, just in case, but I couldn't find it. Damn it. I'd left it upstairs when I went to change. The minutes crept by. I sighed and leaned against the wall. "He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.

Perhaps Ron was right. Something about this really didn't feel quite right. "Maybe this was a set-up," I said softly. The others turned to face me. "Does this feel a little off? Normally you can hear Filch humming and talking to Mrs. Norris all over the castle at night. I haven't heard them once yet," I said.

"Tara makes a good point," Ron said. Even if Malfoy called us chicken, maybe being here was the wrong idea. "Maybe we should -"

Ron never got to finish his thought. A noise in the next room made us all jump. Harry had only just raised his wand to defend himself when we heard someone speak - and it wasn't Malfoy. "Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

Oh Merlin. It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. All of us in a sudden panic, began to shuffle around. Harry waved madly at the rest of us to follow him as quickly as possible; we scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.

For once we'd all managed to have perfect timing. I couldn't really believe it. Malfoy actually had set us up. "They're in here somewhere, probably hiding,"

"This way!" Harry mouthed to the rest of us.

Petrified, we began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. I had a bad feeling that one of them was going to start shrieking that students were out of bed. Behind us I could hear Filch getting nearer. I was right behind Harry with Hermione behind me. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run, a definite bad idea - he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor. The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

There was no point in being quiet anymore. We knew that Filch would be right behind us. "Run!" Harry yelled.

The five of us needed no more warning than that. We sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following. We knew that he was. We swung around the doorpost and tore down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead (probably a bad idea), without any idea where we were or where we were going. My hands ripped through a tapestry that I knew that Fred and George had once mentioned, and found ourselves in a hidden passageway. We ran along it and came out near the Charms classroom, which was miles from the trophy room.

Hopefully we had gotten far enough. Everyone bent over wheezing. I was standing straight up but breathing heavily. Dad had made me do workout routines way worse than that before when we trained. "I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead.

Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering. Hermione barely seemed able to stand. Ron looked about as put together as I was. Although I knew that he was terrified. "No way. He'll be here any minute now. The ghosts and portraits and suits of armor will be telling him where we are," I told them.

"I - told - you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I - told - you."

Just what we needed. Hermione telling us that she was right the whole time and we were wrong. "We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower, quickly as possible," Ron said.

Of course, just like always, Hermione had to step in and be right. "Malfoy tricked you. You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you - Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off," she said.

She was completely right but no one wanted to tell her that. She didn't need more reason to gloat to us. "I'm gonna hit him so hard he'll wish that he was a Muggle," I grumbled as we walked.

"Let's go," Harry said.

It wasn't going to be that simple. We hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of us. Of course. It was Peeves. He caught sight of us and gave a squeal of delight. Suddenly I wished that we could kill ghosts. "Shut up, Peeves - please - you'll get us thrown out," Harry said.

Peeves merely cackled. "Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please," Harry said.

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

There had to be something that he wanted. "What do you want, Peeves?" I asked him. Poltergeists always wanted something and I'd give him whatever he wanted if we could get away from here.

"Get out of the way," Ron snapped, taking a swipe at Peeves.

The others didn't but I knew that this was a big mistake. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "Idiot! You have to reason with poltergeists, not anger them!" I shouted at Ron, ignoring the consequences of speaking loudly.

"Students out of bed!" Peeves bellowed, proving my point. "Students out of bed down the Charms corridor!" Ducking under Peeves, we ran for our lives, right to the end of the corridor where we slammed into a door. I grabbed the knob and jiggled it. Of course. It was locked.

"This is it!" Ron moaned, as we pushed helplessly at the door. Nothing without magic was going to make the door budge. "We're done for! This is the end!" We could hear footsteps, Filch was running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts.

Maybe there was a chance that I really did have my wand with me. I began to pat all over my body, desperate to try and find it. I couldn't do wordless magic yet and I didn't want to risk wasting time with an attempt. "My wand, my wand, where's my wand?" I asked myself. "Harry, give me yours!" I shouted at him.

He began to dig through his pocket but he couldn't find it. "Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand - which was in his robe pocket - tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!" The lock clicked and the door swung open - we piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed our ears against it, listening.

Something about the whole thing was off to me though. I didn't like the fact that the door was locked. It didn't bode well for us. "Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."

"Say 'please."'

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right -please."

"Nothing! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" He screeched before seemingly leaving. We heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage. Thank Merlin. He wasn't going to bother checking in here. Of course he probably thought that the door was locked still.

Harry seemed to share my sentiment. "He thinks this door is locked. "I think we'll be okay - get off, Neville!" Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "What?" Harry snapped.

He turned around and I heard the air go out of his lungs. What was it that had gotten Harry and Neville to silence themselves? For a minute I was sure that I was still asleep in the Common Room. But even I hadn't imagined that this was a possibility. We weren't actually in a room. Perhaps we would have noticed that if we'd turned around. We were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now it was pretty obvious as to why it was forbidden.

Each one of us was looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in our direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging from yellowish fangs. It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at us. It had clearly been awoken when we'd barged in. And now I was sure that it was getting ready to eat us.

The dog - or whatever it was - was quickly getting over that. There was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant. The five of us screamed at the top of our lungs as we turned back to the door and the dog began to bark. Harry groped for the doorknob and once he had it open I shoved him out. We fell backward and Harry slammed the door shut. Together we flew more than ran down the corridor. Filch was clearly long gone. Not that it mattered to me. I just wanted to put as much distance between the dog and myself as possible. We didn't stop running until we reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.

She was staring at us as though she'd never seen us before. "Where on earth have you all been?" She asked.

We probably looked awful but that wasn't what mattered right now. "Never mind that - pig snout, pig snout," Harry panted. The portrait swung forward and we scrambled into the Common Room. As a group we collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.

A few minutes passed and we said nothing to each other. Neville looked as if he'd never speak again. "What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school? If any dog needs exercise, that one does," Ron finally said.

I turned to look at Ron and shook my head. "It wasn't there for no reason. You heard Percy at the Start of Term Feast. Dumbledore always says why something has been closed or marked out of bounds. Except for this year. That dog is in there for a reason, and it's not something that he wants to share," I told them.

Hermione finally turned to look at the rest of us. She had gone from stark white to bright red in less than a second. "Tara's right. You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?" She asked.

Was it standing on something? I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Then again I'd been busy looking at the three heads. "The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

Hermione shook her head at us. "No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." She stood up, glaring at us. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

It was probably for the best. We all needed to get to bed. It was well after one in the morning and there were still classes tomorrow. Ron stared after her, his mouth open. "No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"

I laughed softly at the three boys and waved them off. "Goodnight, boys."

They each mumbled a weak goodbye before I walked after Hermione and traipsed up the stairs with her. We whispered softly - as not to wake anyone else up. "Remind me to never go along with any of your plans, ever again," Hermione snapped at her.

I gave her a wicked smile and threw my arm over her shoulder as we walked into our dorm. "Something tells me that you're going to go along with my terrible plans - Ron's and Harry's too - for many years to come," I told her.

Whether or not they wanted to admit it, I knew that Hermione was actually rather fond of Ron and Harry. She just didn't know it yet. And neither did they. "I honestly hope that is not the case," Hermione told me.

"No you don't. Goodnight, Hermione," I said as we both crawled into our beds.

Thankfully the other girls were asleep and didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon. As I tried to fall asleep I found myself unable to. I was thinking about the dog and the trap door. The dog was guarding something... I didn't like that. What was it guarding? I kept repeating to myself what it was that Hagrid had said when we were in Gringotts for the first time. He had said that Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide - except perhaps Hogwarts. That must have been where Hagrid had taken the package. And that was what the three-headed dog was guarding. But one question still lingered. What would a dog that size be guarding that was so important? The answer couldn't be anything good.


	10. Halloween

The three-headed dog was certainly a good surprise, but nothing was better than seeing the look on Malfoy's face when Harry, Ron, and I had walked into the Great Hall the next morning. I made sure to make a few snide remarks about being smarter than he gave me credit for. He looked a little more than furious to see that we had gotten away from his - admittedly well laid out - plan.

He had jabbered back and forth angrily with his friends all throughout breakfast. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to have no clue what had happened that had meant that we were able to get away without reprimand. I'd noticed that Pug-Face simply wanted Malfoy to listen to her blabber on about Merlin knows what. It was almost funny to watch the two of them go back-and-forth. He would swat at her to leave him alone, she would pout, and he would go on to plotting with his two imbeciles once more.

They weren't the only ones that seemed angry. Filtch was now patrolling the castle even closer. He would shout at students to keep moving whenever they stopped in front of the trophy room. That included myself. And I had just been tying my shoes. He was also determined that someone had left behind footprints. He wanted to get every student in school's footprints to test. It was rather amusing watching Professor McGonagall try and talk him down at breakfast the next morning. Although I swore that I saw Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkle in my direction when Filtch went off on another rampage as he left the Great Hall.

As for Neville and Hermione, they seemed determined not to speak about the incident or the thing that the three-headed dog had been hiding. Hermione had reprimanded me more than once about laughing whenever Filtch made himself so angry that he started to turn red in the face. Neville seemed to avoid the topic altogether. He had wanted to steer clear of Harry, Ron, and I any time that wasn't in class. He seemed to think that we were going to accidentally get him caught in a room with a spider with fifty fangs.

Hermione had been the harder one to get over it. I'd asked her what she thought was under the dog's foot. Even though I already knew that it was the package from Gringotts. After a rather loud - and long - berating for breaking the rules, she had demanded that we never speak about the dog or the trap door ever again. Hermione had completely stopped speaking to Harry and Ron, but they liked it. She still spoke to me but refused to hang around me whenever the boys were around. And she also seemed to not want to be around me whenever it was after curfew unless we were in the Common Room with everyone else and doing homework.

Not surprising in the least bit, Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure. They seemed to want to meet another one. I was good to never see another one, but I wouldn't mind a good prank sometime soon. Or maybe the first Quidditch match. I was getting antsy without anything other than schoolwork to do.

Fred and George had played plenty of good pranks - including blowing up a Hogwarts toilet and indeed sending the seat home to Ginny. Fred, George, Harry, Ron, and I had all signed it. Percy had only agreed to be quiet when I'd threatened to tell the girl he had a crush on - unbeknownst to the other Weasley's - that he still wore a moo-moo at night. That had gotten him to be quiet quickly.

In the meantime, Harry filled Ron in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and the two of them spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy protection. I kept reading up on the object, but considering that we only knew its size and the fact that it wasn't heavy, it was rather difficult. Ron seemed to think that it was either really valuable or really dangerous. Harry seemed to think that it was both. All I knew was that someone wanted it protected. And that someone was Albus Dumbledore. And that couldn't mean anything good for the grubby little package.

With nothing more to go off of, Harry, Ron, and I had resorted to finding something to get back at Malfoy with. Little did we know that the Professor's were just the ones that were going to help us with it.

It was a week after the incident on the forbidden floor that we found exactly what it was that was going to help us get back at Malfoy. Or at least, the beginning. The owls were soaring back and forth over the ceiling, attempting to deliver everyone's packages. We were all waiting for the owls to clear out when twelve owls came screeching in. Six were carrying one long, thin, package, and another six were carrying another identical one.

All eyes went shooting up to the ceiling to see what was happening. We were all a little more than surprised to see the owls carrying two packages far larger than anything else that we'd seen delivered. We watched as the owls swooped over to the Gryffindor table and - to my surprise - dropped the packages in front of Harry and I. Our eyes widened drastically as they hit the table and sent food flying everywhere. I felt a little bad as Seamus's water goblet was knocked onto the floor, sending water spraying all over the place.

We all stared at the packages. Not just our friends, but the entire Gryffindor table and all of the other tables. A moment later Dai dropped a letter in front of me and Hedwig dropped a letter in front of Harry. People all over the place were still staring. Most of the upper years had looked away by now but the First Years were still focused on the table. I stared at the two packages blankly. I knew the shape. It was a broom. It had to be. My eyes brightened as I looked over at Harry. He would have no clue what this was.

"Letter or parcel?" Harry asked me.

There was a chance that we weren't supposed to be opening the packages just yet. I had a feeling that Professor McGonagall wasn't ready to bend the no broomstick for First Years rule yet. "Letter. Just in case," I finally told him.

He nodded at me and we both tore into the letter. It was only written on one piece of Hogwarts parchment. It was written in bright green ink in a hand that I had seen before. It was Professor McGonagall. There was another page behind mine - something that I noticed that Harry had as well - but I ignored it for now. Instead I ran over the first letter and realized immediately that it was a good thing that I'd opened the letter first.

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.

It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session.

Professor McGonagall.

"Good thinking," Harry told me.

I smiled and went to the second letter. It was written in a blue ink and I smiled at the hand. I immediately knew that it was my Dad's hand. But it seemed like he hadn't been able to sit still at the time. The writing was slightly jumbled in his hand and I smiled. He must have been so proud to have a child on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Especially as a First Year.

Tara,

Your mother and I are so proud of you! Professor McGonagall told us everything. I've never been so happy to hear that you were breaking the rules. Please don't ever do that again, but you're more than welcome to put that Malfoy boy in his place if he ever gets on the Slytherin team - it's not very hard. Anyways, we'll try to come to a game one day. If nothing else, this summer we'll play when we head back to the States for a few weeks, yeah? One day you might be better than your old man! Anyways, Mom says hello. Good luck at the first practice. And as promised, here's your broom. Treat it well! We've sent up your polishing kit as well. It'll be there in a few days.

Love and miss you,

Dad.

Perhaps I would write them back tomorrow once we had gone through the first training session. I wanted to be able to tell Dad all about the moves that Oliver used in the games. I showed Harry my letter before glancing over at his. Which he didn't seem to mind letting me read, considering that it was my parents that had sent him the letter in the first place.

Harry,

Well done! Professor McGonagall told us all about what happened. Don't tell Tara's mother, but good job on showing Malfoy what you Potter boys are made of! Not to worry, you'll be an excellent Seeker. Your father was a wonderful Chaser. Perhaps we can bring you to the States over to summer to let you and Tara train in a real professional Quidditch Pitch. We'll talk more when you get back. Good luck at practice and in your first game!

Good luck in school,

Marcus.

Harry finished reading over my letter before handing it back to me. I handed back his and tucked the folded-up letter into the pocket of my robes. "Your parents know that they don't have to write to me," Harry said.

I shook my head and whacked him with Dean's rolled-up parchment before handing it back. "They love you, Harry. Even if I told them not to write to you, they would anyways." Harry seemed to be in even better spirits once I told him that.

The commotion had died down since the owls had delivered the packages and letters. Nearly no one was watching us anymore. Hermione had her brow raised but said nothing. Fred and George were both grinning down at their plates. They knew what it was. So did the other girls on the team and Oliver. Most of the others were looking away, but waiting to see if Harry or myself would make a move. Finally Harry handed Ron over his letter and we watched as he began to scan over it.

He seemed to take forever to read the note before he finally looked up. He was grinning brightly at us. "A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Okay, no more! I need to see this for myself!"

So the two of us ate the rest of our food before standing and leaving without so much as another word to the others. Not for lack of their better efforts, a few people did try to ask what the parcels were. We simply shrugged and stood from the table. We dashed through the hall quickly, wanting to unwrap the broomsticks in private before their first class - unlucky enough, Double Potions - but halfway across the Great Hall we were cut off by Crabbe and Goyle.

Even for First Years, they blocked the exit. Malfoy seized the package from Harry and felt it. I whacked him over the hand with the handle of my broomstick. He hissed in pain but didn't drop Harry's. "That's a broomstick," he said, throwing it back to Harry with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. "You'll be in for it this time, Potter, Nox, First Years aren't allowed them."

"Jealous, Malfoy?" I asked.

It seemed like Ron couldn't resist it either. "It's not any old broomstick, it's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty? Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."

Malfoy did not appreciate that hit at himself. "What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle," Malfoy snapped back. I glared at him and debated on smashing him over the head with my broomstick. But Dad would kill me if I dented a brand new broom. "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig."

That time I wasn't going to let it go. I was fond of all of the Weasley's that I had met - even Percy. But before Ron or I could answer, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow. "Not arguing, I hope, kids?" he squeaked.

I was about to say no, determined to take care of this by myself, but Malfoy wanted to be the Teacher's Pet. "Potter and Nox have been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Malfoy quickly.

To all of our surprise, Professor Flitwick seemed to side with the three of us. Good thing that it wasn't Snape. "Yes, yes, that's right," Professor Flitwick said, beaming at Harry and I. I couldn't help but to smile. He was definitely the friendliest of the professors. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter, Nox. And what model is it?" he asked.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sit," Harry said, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face. So was I. I'd never seen him go quite so red. Thankfully Harry didn't stop there. "And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it," he added.

And that was the end of the conversation. Flitwick let us go with a bright smile and a chirped warning that we had better watch out for Ravenclaw during the first match-up of the season. We had smiled and promised that it would be a friendly but good game. That had left us standing with Malfoy - who seemed like he might explode - and Crabbe and Goyle - who hadn't seemed to understand what was going on with the change of plans.

We gathered our things once more - Harry snatching the broom back from Malfoy - and began to walk out of the Great Hall. "Thanks for that, Malfoy, it was just the entertainment I needed this morning," I told him.

To my utter surprise, he grabbed my arm as I walked by. I tried to yank my way away from him but he had a slightly stronger grip than I had been expecting. Not that I wanted to say anything. I closed my fists together and Harry and Ron began to walk back over to us. Not good. A fight in the Great Hall won't be good. "Watch what you say to me, Nox," Malfoy warned.

I opened my mouth to bite out a nasty retort to him, but I never got the chance. Another figure appeared at our sides and I nearly laughed. My hero. "Mr. Malfoy. Please release Miss Nox," Cedric said.

In the back of my mind I knew that Malfoy wasn't afraid of Cedric, but he might have been slightly intimidated. After all, Cedric was tall and built like a Quidditch player. He would be the wrong person to mess with. Malfoy snarled at me before giving my arm one, last, good wrench, and finally letting me go. I groaned in pain and shoved him away from me, batting my hair out of my eyes. Crabbe and Goyle left as I turned back to Cedric, who was watching Malfoy leave with dark eyes.

Tomorrow there would be a bruise on my arm from Malfoy's force, but I didn't want to pretend that he had gotten to me, even for a moment. "I had that handled," I told Cedric proudly.

To my surprise, he nodded at me with a small smile. "I know. But I would hate hated to take a point away from you or give you detention for sending Mr. Malfoy to Madam Pomfrey for a black eye," he said back to me.

I laughed softly, knowing that Harry and Ron were watching me closely. I knew that they didn't like 'Pretty Boy Diggory'. I could thank Fred and George for that nickname. "I wouldn't have given him a black eye. More like a broken nose," I told Cedric truthfully.

That was what I had been about to do. Cedric laughed heartily before glancing down at the broomstick that was still in my hand. He smiled softly at it. "What model is it?" he asked.

"Nimbus 2000."

He nodded at me. "Good broom. Still won't be good enough to beat me," he told me.

I laughed softly and raised my brow at him. I could beat him flying backwards, upside down, in the dark. "We'll see about that, Diggory," I challenged. It might be a while before we would actually get the chance to play together, but I would ensure that when that time came I would actually be able to out-fly him.

We were locked in a friendly staring contest for a moment before Harry and Ron seemed to get sick of waiting for me. "Come on, Tara!" Harry barked at me, from the edge of the Great Hall.

I turned back to Cedric and smiled. "See you around."

Cedric nodded at me and turned back to the Hufflepuff table. He barely made it two steps before turning back to look at me. "Try and stay out of trouble," Cedric warned me.

"Never," I told him with a little wink.

The two of us stared at each other and laughed for a moment before each turning to where we needed to be. He headed back to the Hufflepuff table and I walked over to where Harry and Ron stood, waiting. The two boys each had their arms crossed over their torsos. "You're extremely obvious, you know that?" Harry asked me as I walked up to them.

My face paled slightly as I shoved into Harry. The last thing that I needed them to think was that I had a stupid little crush on a guy that was years older than me. Even though it's true. "Shut up!" I shouted at Harry, shoving into him.

Thankfully they let the jokes about Cedric drop after that. Instead Harry, Ron, and I headed upstairs, smothering our laughter at Malfoy's obvious rage and confusion. "Well, it's true," Harry laughed as we reached the top of the marble staircase, "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall then we wouldn't be on the team."

And he was completely right. It was just chance that Professor McGonagall had seen us from out of her window. "So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" an angry voice from just behind us sneered.

It was one of the last people that I had been expecting, seeing as she had been desperately avoiding Harry and Ron for weeks. Hermione was stomping up the stairs, looking disapprovingly at the packages in Harry and I's hands. "I thought you weren't speaking to us?" Harry asked.

"Yes, don't stop now, it's doing us so much good," Ron added.

Well that's rude. Hermione marched away with her nose in the air. I turned back to the two boys with a disapproving shake of the head. Even I hadn't liked the way that they had just treated her. "That was a little rude," I snapped at both boys, continuing up the stairs.

Unfortunately by the time that we got back to the Common Room we didn't have time to unwrap the presents. We would have been late for class. And none of us were willing to end up being late. At least, not for Snape's class. Everyone knew that being late for Snape's class was worse than not showing up at all. So we went and I found myself barely able to pay attention. I just wanted to get my hands wrapped around the handle and zoom off. But I was still better about paying attention than Harry. He was so lost in his broom that more than once he had seemed like he was about ready to fall down the stairs face-first and break his nose.

All throughout the day I'd had to save him in class. He had nearly made a fool out of himself in Potions first. We were doing the Forgetfulness Potion and Harry had almost put in blueberries rather than mistletoe berries. That wouldn't have gone over well. In Charms we were working with the Mending Charm. More than once I laughed at Harry accidentally destroying the stitches that he was working with. And each time I had fixed his mess so that he wouldn't fail. Thankfully we had been done with classes after that.

But that meant that we had been stuck in the library doing our homework for the rest of the afternoon. I couldn't even pretend to be working on the latest Transfiguration essay that we had been assigned. So I sat and doodled new flying patterns that one day I might be able to work up the nerve to show Oliver. My old Cleansweep - and the Comet before that - would never be able to make those moves. But I had a feeling that the Nimbus would. Harry and I shoveled down dinner before finally darting back up into Harry and Ron's room, ensuring that everyone else would still be at dinner.

I had left my broom on Harry's bed and as we dashed up the stairs, Harry, Ron, and I immediately went tearing into the wrapping. It barely took us thirty seconds to have them opened. "Wow," Ron sighed, as the broomsticks rolled onto Harry's bedspread.

My grin widened to the point that I was sure that my face would break. It was sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand was written in gold near the top. I held it in my hands and smiled. It was perfectly balanced. We spent a while looking over the brooms but as seven o'clock drew nearer, I left to get changed into my Quidditch gear. Oliver had made mention a few days ago that we would be able to use the school equipment until we could get our own. Presumably over winter break.

Finally the clock rang out that it was seven and Harry and I left the castle. Together we set off toward the Quidditch field jabbering about how exciting this would be. Harry and I had never been inside the stadium before. I'd been in professional stadiums before, but I'd never been in a field that I would actually play in. My grin was brilliant as I walked in. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators would be high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. The field looked just like any normal Quidditch Pitch, but this was the one that I would finally be playing in.

"Shall we go up?" I asked Harry.

Oliver wasn't here yet and I wanted to take this opportunity to actually go out there and fly. Harry seemed to be a little too eager to speak to me. So instead he decided to fly up into the air. I laughed and smiled at him, following him up into the air. We would wait for Wood up here. The wind was wonderful through my hair that was down around my shoulders. The broom was incredible. It barely needed a touch to move. And it was fast enough to get from one end of the arena to the other in ten seconds. I could twist and turn, flip upside down, and plummet through the air only to shoot straight up once more. And it all barely took any effort.

My glee was unfortunately cut short when I heard someone yelling out for Harry - who seemed as happy to be up in the air as I was - and I to come down. "Hey, Potter, Nox, come down!" Oliver shouted from the ground.

Harry glanced over at me and I nodded at him. He dove to the ground first, making somewhat of an awkward landing. He would get better with that in time. I whizzed down from my spot nearly fifty feet in the air and jumped over the wooden handle once I was just a few feet from the ground. I landed with my broom in one hand, skidding into a steady walk. Harry - and Oliver too - looked impressed at my landing. It was something that Dad had taught me.

"Impressive, Nox," Oliver said. I smiled at him. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. I knew that it was carrying all of the Quidditch equipment, the balls and bats.

"Thank you," I said as Harry walked up beside him, "my Dad taught me."

Oliver smiled once more. "Very nice. Your father is a good player." I nodded my agreement. "I see what McGonagall meant... you two really are naturals," Oliver said before turning to Harry. "I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week. Tara, I suppose we'll just make this a refresher."

I gave him a wicked grin. "Perhaps I'll quiz you, Oliver," I teased.

Quidditch players were all the same, cocky and arrogant, but also with a good sense of humor. Harry would learn that soon enough. "I'm not sure which of us would do better," Oliver said.

I laughed and nodded at him. There was a chance that we would both know exactly the same amount. I'd been listening to my Dad's spiels about Quidditch since I was born. Harry and I both watched as Oliver leaned over and opened the crate. Inside were the four different-sized balls. Harry gave a quick glance over at me and I smiled. He would figure it out pretty fast. It really wasn't that hard to understand. There was one Quaffle in the center, two Bludgers on the side and the one Snitch that was hidden in a pocket in the center. The two Bludger bats were on the hood of the crate.

We waited for Oliver to back away and begin speaking to us. "Right. Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven - technically eight - players on each side. There is one alternate. The alternate usually stands in place of a Chaser, since they most often get injured. But they can take a place of any injured teammate. That's what you'll be doing, Tara," Oliver told me.

I nodded at him. It was good to hear that I would mainly be a Chaser - that was what I was best at. I was halfway decent as a Beater and I could manage as a Keeper. It was a Seeker that I was next to useless with. Hopefully Harry was never hurt. "Got it," I told Oliver.

"On the main team, three of them are called Chasers," Oliver said.

Harry was clearly making himself a mental list. "Three Chasers, one back-up," Harry repeated, as Oliver grabbed the Quaffle.

To Harry I knew that it would look like a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball with three indents in it, making it easier to throw and grab onto. Although more than once I had dropped it, especially when my hands were sweaty. The new gloves that I had gotten for Christmas should work though. While I was thinking to myself about ways to ensure that I wasn't going to drop the Quaffle, Harry was speaking softly to himself, seemingly with ways to remember the Quidditch rules.

"This ball's called the Quaffle. The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?" Oliver asked Harry.

"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Harry recited. "So, that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?" Harry asked.

Oliver was probably a Pureblood or at least a Half-Blood without a clue in the world as to what basketball was. "What's basketball?" Oliver asked curiously. Just as I thought.

"It's a Muggle sport," I explained to Oliver, who nodded at me. "Remember, Harry, that you're only attempting to score into the other teams' hoops. It's like in soccer, where you want to kick the ball into the other teams net," I explained.

I figured that one of the easiest ways to help Harry understand the game was to relay it to some type of Muggle sport that he understood. Harry nodded at me. "Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper. I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring," Oliver continued.

"Three Chasers, one back-up Chaser, one Keeper. And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?" Harry asked, pointing to the Bludgers. Oliver and I smiled. Harry would love those.

Oliver seemed slightly nervous. "I'll show you now. Take this. Both of you." He handed Harry and I the Bludger bats. "I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do. These two are the Bludgers. Stand back," Oliver warned Harry and I.

Harry only took a small step backwards. I shoved him back another three or four long paces. He would thank me later. Oliver bent down and freed one of the Bludgers. Just as expected, immediately the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Harry's face. He ducked out of the way the first time and I swung at it. The Bludger went straight at Oliver before coming back towards Harry. He swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking his nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air - it zoomed around our heads and then shot at Oliver. He seemed to have had enough as he dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.

Once the ball was back inside of the trunk, Oliver turned to us, sweat pouring down his face. I knew how hard pushing a Bludger back into the crate was. They fought you at every turn. "See? The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team - the Weasley twins are ours - it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So, think you've got all that?" Oliver asked Harry.

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry repeated.

Oliver smiled. "Very good."

Harry was still looking over at the case that had the Bludgers struggling to get back out. I noticed a thin veil of sweat on himself. He looked freaked out at the sight. "Er - have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked.

He was very clearly sounding like he was trying not to be concerned about the Bludger. He would eventually get hit. I had before. And it hurt. It had broken my arm, and using Skele-Gro sucked. "Never at Hogwarts," Oliver said, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Have they ever?" Harry continued.

Perhaps I shouldn't be completely honest with him, but I was going to anyways. "Sure," I said. Harry's eyes went wide and he looked like he might be sick all over his new broom. "They're designed to injure the players, Harry. Don't worry, it's usually the fall that kills them, not the impact of the Bludgers," I said, not that it made things any better.

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" Harry asked me.

The two of us stared at each other before laughing. Oliver smiled as well before continuing to explain the rules about Quidditch to Harry. "We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that." If a broken jaw was the worst thing that we had to worry about, it was no problem. "Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers unless they crack my head open.

"Don't worry, the Weasley's are more than a match for the Bludgers - I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves." Oliver reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. It was the Golden Snitch and it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings. "This is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it.

"You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages - I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep."

Harry was silent for a moment as he thought about what all of that meant. "So if the game goes too long, that's when Tara steps in?" Harry asked, once he gathered his thoughts.

Oliver shook his head. I somehow doubted that they ever let games go on for that long. We still had classes and other things to take care of. "No. She'll step more than likely only step in if we have an injury or sickness. Games at Hogwarts never go on for that long," Oliver said, confirming my thoughts.

"Do players get injured a lot?" I asked curiously.

Not that an injury really bothered me, but I really wasn't fond of having to regrow my entire hand. That had happened to me a few years ago when a stray Bludger had smacked into my outstretched hand. "Depends on who we're playing, the weather, things like that. On a game day with Slytherin, I guarantee you'll be playing." A small smile crossed my face. I was really hoping that Malfoy would somehow make it onto his team. "Hufflepuff too, to give them credit, they're pretty good."

And that meant that I might actually get a chance to play a game against Cedric. I'd like to see which one of us really was the better player. "Is Diggory any good?" I asked.

A sour look crossed Harry's face. For some reason, he really didn't seem to like Cedric. "Unfortunately... he's very good." Damn. "Well, that's it - any questions?" Oliver asked. Harry and I both shook our heads. "We won't practice with the Snitch yet, it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these. Tara, you mind helping?" he asked me.

I shook my head at him. "No problem," I said, walking over to him.

We shoved Harry back about ten to twenty feet. He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and Oliver and I both took a handful of the balls. Oliver got Harry and I to soar up into the air and I smiled. This would be great. It was practice on catching the small objects. Movement would come in later. Oliver and I were throwing the golf balls as hard as we could in every direction for Harry to catch. Oliver had a stronger arm, but I could manage more intricate throws, similar to the way that a real Snitch would move. Harry didn't miss a single one, and the three of us were all delighted. After half an hour, night had really fallen and we couldn't carry on.

So the three of us landed on the ground and laughed, each of us out of breath. "That Quidditch Cup will have our name on it this year," Oliver said happily as we trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons. And you, of course, Tara will be just like your father."

That had been the end of the discussion that night. We'd both gone straight to bed, too tired to manage to do anything else. The next month or so passed without incident and time seemed to fly by. Perhaps that was because I was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all of my homework. It was almost impossible but it was still fun. We loved playing Quidditch, Harry and I. We were constantly talking Quidditch strategies and we were allowed to play on the Pitch a few more times than the actual players.

The school seemed to think that it was fair that we got more practice, so that we were allowed to catch up to the rest of the players. And by now, most other people knew that we were players. It was too hard to keep the secret. I had been so busy with Quidditch, lessons, homework, friends, the occasional detentions - mostly from Snape. I could hardly believe it when I realized that I'd already been at Hogwarts two months. Time was flying. My parents were right. Hogwarts was quickly becoming my home. Lessons, thankfully, were finally getting more interesting now too. Things were getting harder, but it was nothing that Hermione and I couldn't handle.

Ten days before Halloween I rose out of my bed to see that everyone else was already gone. Where did they go? Normally I was an early riser. Even Hermione was gone, her homework left alone on the table. Well that's wrong. I rose to my feet and quickly threw on my clothes for the day. Being a weekend, I was allowed to be out of my robes. I grabbed a black, long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of shorts. Considering that we were sitting inside of the castle all day, I didn't have to worry about the slowly changing weather.

I walked down the stairs into the Common Room and jumped - nearly smacking into the couch - as everyone that I knew came jumping out of hidden spots. "Happy birthday, Tara!" they all shouted.

A large smile spread over my face as I grinned at them all. It was my birthday. Harry knew that I turned twelve today, but I wasn't aware that he had told everyone else. "Oh my Merlin! This is amazing," I said as I walked into the area. Harry was the first one to give me a hug, Ron and Hermione afterwards. And that was saying something, considering that Hermione hadn't so much as looked at Ron or Harry since the the Great Hall fiasco with Malfoy. "You guys, thanks!" I shouted gleefully.

Hermione grabbed me by the arm once I finished hugging everyone else in the room. "Happy birthday, come on, we're doing presents before we all go to breakfast," she told me, bringing me over into the corner.

The two of us smiled as we walked towards the small pile of presents in the corner. I assumed that most of them were either handmade or maybe they had gotten their parents to send them something for me. Fred and George had pooled their money and gotten me a Sneakoscope, since I had so many things in my dorm that were expensive. I immediately knew that I would have to get them something nice. Dean had given me one of his old soccer balls that we could use out in the courtyard. Seamus bought me a deck of Self-Shuffling Cards - seeing as I played so often.

Lavender and Parvati had gotten me had sprung to get me something like a Muggle gift card for Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions. I liked their things, but I would have to find something that didn't make me want to puke. Lee had bought me a pack of Dung Bombs, making me promise him that we would use them together. Percy had given me a new quill set that seemed rather nice. Oliver had given me some more cleaning fluid for my new Nimbus. Fay had also given a set of Gobstones - a wizarding game. Neville had gotten me some candies that his grandmother had sent him - all of my favorites, thankfully.

Hagrid had sent me a small wooden drum that could be played. It was very pretty, despite the fact that I couldn't really play it. Hermione had given me a set of books that I hadn't read yet. Looking back, she had asked me before if I'd read them. It was Merpeople: A Comprehensive Guide To Their Language and Customs. I was rather excited to read it. My parents had sent me some money for me and also a few new shirts. There had even been a new broomstick cleaning case, specifically for the Nimbus 2000. Ron had gotten me every kind of candy that he had stowed away and Flying With The Cannons - a book on the Chudley Cannons. It seemed to be more of a joke than anything else. Harry's must have been something that he'd gotten in Diagon Alley beforehand. It was a leather wallet that lit any intruder on fire.

I had thanked everyone with small laughs, thrilled that people were treating me so well. I hadn't asked for anything for my birthday, yet everyone had actually given me something. It didn't even matter what else would happen today. Malfoy could mess with me all day long if he wanted to, but that made no difference to me. This morning had been perfect. We headed down to breakfast, laughing and shouting with glee the whole time. We had made a promise that we would take the soccer ball out later and kick it around.

Three chocolate chip pancakes and two cups of coffee later and I was ready to take a trip to the bathroom. I was about halfway out of the Great Hall, not far from the bathroom, when I ran straight into another person. "Your friends seem very excitable this morning," Cedric told me as I smiled up at him.

I laughed and ran my fingers through my hair, which I had suddenly realized wasn't brushed. "Oh, um, I'm the first one of my friends to have a birthday here at Hogwarts, so, you know, they're kind of making a big deal about it," I said, waving him off.

It was obvious though that I had mentioned my birthday and that wasn't going away any time soon. "It's your birthday?" Cedric asked me.

Slowly, I nodded at him and smiled. Slowly I was catching up to him in age. Maybe it wouldn't be quite so weird to talk to him anymore. He would just be another fourteen year old. "Twelve years old today," I said proudly.

Cedric smiled at me and gave a soft laugh. It made me blush stupidly. He was the only person that I couldn't somehow speak to normally. "Funny. My birthday was just a few days ago," he told me. So much for being just another fourteen year old. Now he's fifteen. And I'm just some stupid twelve year old. Not that he would have ever wanted to speak to me anyways. He was just being polite.

"Really?" I asked him, knowing that I had been silent for too long. "You should have said something, I would have said happy birthday to you," I told him honestly. I must have missed it.

Of course he would have been with his friends on his birthday. He wouldn't have sought me out. "That's alright," he said before rolling up his sleeves and pulling off something that looked like a silver hair tie. "Here. Take this," he said.

I took a step backwards. I wasn't going to take something that he was giving me off of a whim. "What is it?" I asked.

Cedric smiled. "Your birthday present." It was something like a silver bracelet.

He was still holding it out to me and I shook my head. There was no way that I could take something like that. It was his personal... whatever it was. and there was no way that he could give me something like that. Not just because he wanted to give me something. "I can't take this. I don't even know what it is," I said, pushing it back to him.

Cedric once more smiled and shook his head at me. "Ah, you might not be as smart as you think that you are," he told me. I couldn't help but to laugh as he began pushing a button on the inside of the band. "It's a speedometer that they use for Quidditch. It's good for timing yourself. My broom is just another Cleansweep. Not that great. But that new Nimbus 2000... you might need that," he told me.

Those things had to be expensive. But I had a feeling that he was going to give it to me anyways. "Thank you," I said softly, taking the band and placing it over my right wrist. I stared at it for a minute before turning to Cedric and smiling. "You have to take it for a ride sometime. I can't take this without letting me give you something in return," I said.

There was my payment for missing his birthday and the chance to get something for him. "I will definitely take you up on that. Are you going home for the holidays?" he asked me after a beat.

And my heart skipped a beat. "Yes. Why?" I asked, not wanting to sound like a fool.

"How about we go and make up my missing your birthday one day? There's a nice area near my house that's good for playing Quidditch," he said and my smile brightened. I was sure that my parents wouldn't mind me being gone for just one day. "Just in case you don't play this go-round," he said, referring to the eventual Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match.

"I'd like that. Just owl me whenever you're free," I told him. We stood together for a moment before I gave a sly grin. "I think that you did this just to get a ride on the Nimbus," I told him.

Cedric laughed and nodded at me. "Of course. Have a wonderful birthday, Tara," he said, leaning in to give me a hug.

"Thanks, Cedric. I promise that I won't miss yours next year," I told him before leaving.

The rest of the day had been the first day that I'd seen during the year that everyone had blown off their work to do something else. Even Hermione hadn't done any reading. I'd been told by both Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey 'happy birthday' and even Professor Dumbledore had said it. Snape had completely ignored me. But I was fine with it that way. We had all simply enjoyed the day together, hanging out by the Black Lake and playing soccer, something that we had to teach the Pureblood's. Everyone still seemed to enjoy it. The House Elves down in the kitchen had even sent up a birthday cake during dinner.

But it was the night that was the best part. Fred and George came harassing me around nine o'clock at night, telling me that I had to come and head to the Astronomy tower. And we had. We'd gone up, only to see that there was a party in full swing. It wasn't much, Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer, and a few games. But people were standing around and talking. It was all of my friends, and a few other First Years from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. I noticed that Fred and George were quick to make note that they hadn't invited 'Pretty-Boy Diggory'.

Hermione had absolutely refused to come to the party until I'd told her that I would place something in the hallways that was hers - thereby getting her in trouble with Filtch for being out of bed after hours. She had come only under that guise, pretending to sulk the entire time, but I knew that every time I looked away she would actually start enjoying herself with Fay, Lavender, and Parvati. Padma too, we had invited her for Parvati's sake.

We had stayed late into the night, some people clearing out after only an hour, others staying until it was past midnight. Finally it came to be closing in on two in the morning. I had a feeling that most people just didn't want to face the next day of having to catch up on homework. Fred, George, Ron, Harry, and I were the last ones there. After spitting off of the tower and pretending that it was Snape below us, the five of us headed back to bed, laughing the entire way that we ran. Harry, Ron, and I had had enough close encounters with Filtch. I was sure that Fred and George had gone through even more. A kiss on the cheek from Fred and George, and huge hugs from Ron and Harry had been my departure for bed. The next day I hadn't been awake until it was almost dinnertime.

After my birthday, there really wasn't much exciting that happened to me. Or anyone. We were just attempting to make it through the next few weeks without failing any of McGonagall's horrible assignments. The next exciting thing that happened to us was on Halloween. It was a popular holiday in the Muggle world. But it was nothing compared to what it was in the Wizarding World. It was one of the best times of the year. And I was thrilled to have Harry see it. Mom and Dad had told me that Halloween at Hogwarts was amazing.

On Halloween morning we woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Everyone had flown out of the Common Rooms half-dressed with their slippers still on their feet, hair and teeth not brushed, and barely awake. It was rather comical watching people misstep on the stairs. I had a feeling that if the stairs weren't being careful not to let anyone fall, Hogwarts would have had a few more casualties that day.

Even better than the pastries at breakfast, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought that we were ready to start making objects fly, something we had all been dying to try since we'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom. I, for one, was excited to try it again. This time I would not be sending my lamp into my neighbor's house. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry was partnered with Seamus and I had been placed with Dean. Ron, however, was working with. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She still refused to speak to them.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing! Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest," Professor Flitwick squeaked.

Everyone immediately went to practicing. It seemed that no one was able to get it at first. Not even Hermione was able to make it work on her first attempt. Dean hadn't gotten so much as a little twitch out of the feather. I was certain that Seamus was about to light his on fire. Harry hadn't seemed to be able to make his move. Ron was on the verge of poking someone's eye out. I was the only one that had still yet to try. Maybe it was because I hadn't really had any problems in class yet. I didn't want this one to be the first.

But at Seamus did indeed set his feather on fire, I decided that I couldn't be worse than that. So I cleared my throat and aimed my wand. "Wingardium Leviosa," I said clearly.

The feather began to lift off of the desk a few inches and I smiled brightly. "How'd you do that?" Dean asked me, trying desperately to make his own feather move.

"I haven't the slightest," I said honestly. I wasn't sure what I was doing that was so much different than anyone else.

Professor Flitwick seemed to finally notice that my feather was now in the air. He grinned like a madman. "Well done Miss Nox! Everyone, look here. A point to Gryffindor for being my first successful student." I smiled at the thought that Malfoy - who had already done this - had yet to figure out the Levitation Charm.

After that, people became much more determined to make their feathers move. No one wanted to be the last to figure it out. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted from across the room, waving his arms around foolishly.

Dean was still attempting to replicate the spell. He'd even tried to use my wand, which had only shocked him when he'd attempted the spell. "You're saying it wrong," I heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long." She was also enunciating the o, making me smile. Ron wouldn't like that.

Just as expected, Ron looked over at her with a dark glare. "You do it, then, if you're so clever," he snarled.

Hermione was very indignant about the whole thing. With a nasty glare, she rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Her feather immediately lifted off of the ground and soar into the air. It went almost four feet before continuing to hover. I smiled at the feather, glad that someone else had managed the spell.

Ron shoved his head against the desk, clearly frustrated that she had managed it. "Oh, well done! Everyone see here, Miss Granger has also managed to do it!" Professor Flitwick shouted, clapping. A few other people in the class clapped as well.

By the end of class, Hermione and I were the only ones that had actually managed to float our feathers in the air, almost effortlessly. There were a few people that had actually managed to make the feathers vibrate or lift for a mere second before it dropped. Harry had made his feather lift about an inch for only a second before falling. Professor Flitwick had told us not to worry about it. He seemed convinced that in a matter of days we would all be able to do the spell without problem. We all left the class together, Harry and Ron walking at my sides.

"You got your feather to move slightly," I told Harry - who seemed to be a little disappointed that he hadn't made it fly. Ron, on the other hand, was in a very bad mood as we left. "Don't worry, Ron. You'll get it eventually," I told him.

He sighed. "It's not the fact that I couldn't make it fly. It's her!" Ron barked, obviously about Hermione.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Calm yourself. You challenged her, what did you think that she was going to do, just let you win? Of course she was going to try and make the feather fly," I argued.

"It's just the way that she does it! It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron said as we pushed into the hallway, "she's a nightmare, honestly." I turned an angry glare on Ron, but it was too late. Someone knocked into Harry and hurried past us. It was Hermione. Her face was blotchy and tears were running down her face.

She wasn't just some fact-spewing machine. She was an actual human being. And Ron had clearly just really hurt her feelings. For somewhat of a lie too. Hermione had friends. Just not really any like the rest of us had. I was probably her best friend here, but I still spent most of my time with Harry and Ron. I really only saw her at night in the dorms and the occasional class where we would sit together.

Both boys stood in an awkward silence after that. "I think she heard you," Harry said softly.

It wasn't just us now. A few others had gathered around as well. Seamus, Dean, and Neville were all standing around and wondering what had happened to Hermione. "So?" Ron asked, but I could tell that he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends," Ron continued.

And that was enough. "Ron!" I barked, startling the red-head. "You're such a prat. I know Hermione drives you nuts, but come on. How could you say something like that? I know that you don't like her, but that's cruel," I told him, angry that he could treat her like that.

"She'll be fine," Ron attempted to argue with me.

But it turned out that she was not alright. It was Thursday and that meant that it was our busiest day. But that didn't seem to stop Hermione from skipping all of her classes for the rest of the day. Something that shocked the rest of us. It was pretty obvious that Hermione was absolutely devastated from Ron's words. Not that she wanted anyone to know. She had been hiding all day. Before we'd been forced to go to Herbology, I'd checked all over the school. The Great Hall, the Common Room, our dorm, and a few of the bathrooms. But no matter where I looked for her, I couldn't find her.

Eventually we had run out of time and I'd been forced to go and head to class. Herbology had been strange. Hermione was always the person that liked to talk through the class, getting all of the answers right. I knew the answers - and to be fair, so did a lot of other people - but no one wanted to answer. Professor Sprout warned us that she would deduct a point from both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff if we didn't start answering her questions. It had somehow fallen to me afterwards to answer all of the questions. That was the first of the chattering about where Hermione had gone. I'd even asked Lavender and Parvati - some of Hermione's other friends - but they hadn't known where she'd gone either. Fay thought that she might have been in the bathroom, but I'd already checked.

Although if she was in the bathroom I had a feeling that it would be in one of the less crowded hallways. Hermione didn't show up for lunch either - something that made me extremely nervous. She never missed meals. Something about always wanting to be healthy and keeping a balanced diet. She had more than once attempted to hide my chocolate that my parents sent me. That had resulted in myself turning her bed inside-out for the night. She hadn't tried again. The table seemed to be a little on the quiet side as we all waited to see if Hermione would show up. She never did. And with each passing moment I saw that Ron was feeling more and more guilty.

To everyone's complete surprise, Hermione never showed up to Transfiguration either. It was her absolute favorite class, seeing as she absolutely loved Professor McGonagall. Upon entering, Professor McGonagall had immediately asked where Hermione was. She was the only person that was missing. Of course, no one wanted to tell her that Hermione hadn't been seen for most of the day, or wanted to rat out Ron for what he'd said earlier. So thankfully the entire class sided with me when I admitted that she had been feeling a little ill so she was laying down in the dorm. We were lucky that Professor McGonagall hadn't gone to check. I would have easily gotten ten points taken away and a week of detention for lying.

Unsurprisingly, Hermione didn't show up for Defense Against the Dark Arts either. Professor Quirrell - the bumbling, stuttering, mess that he was, didn't even notice that she was gone until the end of the lesson. By then, it didn't even matter. The clocks rang out that it was time to leave and everyone jumped out of their seats, dashing every which way, trying to confuse Quirrell.

Once we had left the room I'd given Ron a sharp glare. He seemed to be getting greener and greener by the hour. "Funny, for someone with no friends, Hermione seems to have a lot of people trying to ensure that she doesn't get in trouble," I snapped at him.

Clearly that had only made him feel worse. Not that I really cared. We went to flying lessons afterwards, somewhere that I took out my frustrations of the day. I really wanted Hermione to be friends with Ron and Harry. I hated having to split my time between them. Neville still hung around on the ground for most of the lessons. I assumed that he was never going to be on the Quidditch team. I'd be slightly surprised if he ever even managed to make it into a game. We were working on maneuvers today, something that I excelled at.

By the time that all of our lessons were over and we were making our way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast, we still hadn't actually found any sight of Hermione. As I walked back to the castle with Ron and Harry, Parvati came to stand at my side. "Tara, we found Hermione," she said softly.

Lavender was at her other side and I raised my eyebrows. Where the hell had she been hiding out all day? "Where is she?" I asked her.

"She's in the girls' bathroom just outside of the Great Hall," Parvati told me. I raised my brows but nodded anyways. I could have sworn that I hadn't seen her in there when I'd checked earlier. "She's been crying in there all day. She doesn't want anyone to come and bother her. We keep trying to get her to come out," Parvati told me.

I gave a quick glance over to Ron and saw that he was wearing a nice red tinge on his face that matched his hair. I turned back to the other two girls. "Thanks, Parvati. See you girls later," I said. She nodded at me before walking into the hall. I followed but also gave Ron a quick whack on the arm. "Well done, dingus!" I shouted at him.

It seemed that neither Ron nor Harry could find anything to say. Ron simply continued to look even more awkward after my snap, but a moment later as we entered the Great Hall, my mind finally dropped from Hermione. It was the first time all day. The place looked incredible. A thousand live bats were fluttering from the walls and ceiling. One swooped down and I handed it a small berry, watching with a smile on my face as it fluttered off. Each time they beat their wings they made the candles in the pumpkins stutter. We all took our seats, myself next to Harry with Seamus on my other side. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

For about ten minutes I ate in silence before grabbing a pumpkin pasty and standing from the table. Hermione was going to enjoy my company, one way or another. "Where are you going?" Harry asked me as I turned to walk out of the hall.

I stood towards them with a hand on my hips. "To check on Hermione," I said. Everyone at the table silenced themselves at my words. For hours, no one had dared to set foot near her. No one really knew what to say. "Something that neither one of you bothered to do. I'll see you boys later," I snapped before turning on my heels, my robes whipping behind me, and storming out of the Great Hall.

No one stopped me on the way out but a few of the people in the hall seemed to be a little on the confused side as they looked at me. I assumed that they could tell that I was furious. I definitely didn't look happy. And I really wasn't. Most of me was furious with the way that Ron was treating Hermione. I knew that he didn't like her, but it was far past unnecessary, what he had said to her. As I walked into the bathroom I immediately thought that I might have been in the wrong one. There were no feet that I could see and I couldn't hear anything either.

But after a few seconds I heard a little sniffle in the back stall. It took me a moment but I realized that someone was in there. And it was just the person that I was looking for. "Hermione?" I called out. The sniffling immediately stopped. "Is that you?"

"Go away!" Hermione's voice called out. It was highly nasally and I sighed. That meant that she had definitely been crying all day.

I walked down to the end of the row of stalls and knocked gently on the door. As expected, it was locked. "Yeah, like that ever really works. Open this door or I'll open it myself. I'm not the boys. I'm not useless with magic," I told her. Her sniffling stopped for a moment and I dug in my pocket for my wand. But the moment that I grabbed it I looked over and saw that the door had opened. Hermione - with her tear-streaked face and red nose - was standing in front of me. I dropped the wand to the ground. "Oh. Come here," I told her.

She sobbed gently into my shoulder as I grabbed her and gave her a tight hug. She sniffled into my robes for a moment and I held her tightly. We would stay here all night if we needed to. "How could he have said something like that to me?" she cried out.

Sighing softly, I grabbed her arms and pushed her away from me. Using the edge of my robes, I pushed away her tears and wiped under her nose before pushing her fluffy hair back off of her head. "'Mione, don't worry about it. Ron has the emotional range of a spoon," I growled. To my surprise, she cracked the tiniest grin. "You couldn't honestly be thinking that Ron was even meaning for you to hear what he said?" I asked her.

Maybe it wasn't what she wanted to hear and maybe it wasn't what she needed to hear, but it was something that I wanted to tell her. She had to know that Ron felt stupid, no matter that he wouldn't tell anyone. "It's the fact that he did say it," she cried, brushing away the stray tears once more. "People never said things like that back in England. Especially not to me. I mean, I've always known that people didn't like the way that I always know what we're talking about. But... I didn't think that they ever really said stuff like that about me," she said.

I somehow doubted that anyone ever told her things like that. Hermione was a bright girl. Like we had said before, she was one of the brightest people in our year. The only people that had any chance of getting near her grade-wise were myself and Malfoy - much to my displeasure. Hermione might have laid it on a little thick when it came to school, but it was just because she wanted to ensure that everyone was doing their best. I appreciated it. And maybe I would tell everyone else to tell her that they appreciated it too.

"No one does," I finally told her. "It's just Ron. He gets all angry whenever someone shows him up. And that's pretty often. Let's not forget about all of his siblings. He told Harry and I about it on the train." Hermione's eyebrows rose. "Bill was a Prefect and had great grades. Charlie was an incredible Quidditch player. Percy is a Prefect and on his way to being Head Boy. Fred and George get great marks and everyone loves them. Even most of the Slytherin's. That's an accomplishment. Ginny is the only girl in the family. And then... there's Ron," I trailed off.

It wasn't like Ron was useless. It wasn't like he was a moron or unpopular. But as of right now, there was nothing that really made him different than the rest of his siblings. It would come in time. But as of right now, there was nothing that made him special. "So that means that he has to take it out on me?" Hermione asked me.

Not where I meant to go with that. "Of course not. But I think that you remind him of the shortcomings that he has with the rest of his family. But don't worry about it. That's Ron's issue to work out. Not yours. He'll figure it out in time," I told her.

"So what do I do in the meantime?" she asked me. She dropped her head in her hands and I watched as she leaned against the door to the stall, sliding down it and sitting on the floor. I smiled at her and dropped with her. We sat together as I gathered her hands in mind and pulled her to sit against me.

"Wait for him to apologize," I told her. It wasn't the best solution but it was the only one that I had. "If I have to light his hair on fire while he sleeps, he's going to apologize to you." Another smile broke over her face and this time she actually laughed. "'Mione, you're a great girl and you're so smart. You have nothing bad on your record. You're the perfect student. I wish that I could be more like you," I said.

And it was the truth. I wished that I wasn't the troublemaker that always found herself in awkward situations. "Well I wish that I could be more like you," Hermione told me with a small smile.

That time it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. "Why's that?" I asked her.

She gave me a smile that was something that someone might give their sister. "Everyone loves you," she said and I scoffed. That wasn't true. Plenty of people didn't like me. "The boys, the girls, even some of the older class members. I just don't understand how you do it."

Was there really a way that I acted? Probably. I knew that I was one of the more outgoing people in the First Year class. "Because of how I act. Hermione, I love you, but I'm just as smart as you are," I told her honestly.

I really was. In fact, if I tried just as much as Hermione I knew that I would have better grades than her. "And you don't even need to study nearly as much!" she howled. It would have aggravated me too.

"Keep in mind that I'm also a Pureblood," I told her. She looked a little bit bitter at the fact. I chose not to comment on it. "I've been seeing this stuff and having fun with my parents and magic since I can remember. I know most of these things by heart. It will get harder as I get older and the magic gets more complicated. You're a Muggle-Born, and for you to be as advanced as you are, it's quite something," I told her.

She gave me a soft smile as the two of us leaned back against the walls of the stall. Not the nicest place to sit, but I didn't want to tell Hermione to move. Not the way that she was. "How do you make friends the way that you do?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

How did I explain how I made friends? That was almost impossible. There was nothing that I could say. "I - I don't know. I don't think that it's something that I can explain. I just do. Here's some advice," I told her. She nodded for me to continue. "Lay off with telling people what they're doing wrong. And when they are doing something wrong, try and correct it nicely. Trust me, it will work. And just... Don't always talk about school. It gets boring. Try talking about something else," I told her with a smile.

Hermione raised her brows and I smiled. She was all school and study. We were going to have to change that. She needed to learn how to have a conversation like a normal human. "Like what?" she finally asked.

"Well it depends on the conversation. Look... We'll start slow. Okay?" I asked her. She nodded at me after a moment. Like usual, I could tell that she was willing to learn. "You can be with me most of the time. You'll pick up on social skills really fast, I'll force you." we both laughed softly. "I don't care what Ron and Harry say. I like you and you're my friend. So you're going to be my friend too. And damn it, that means that you'll be their friend too," I declared proudly. This was going to work.

Hermione was watching me with somewhat of a smile. "Language," Hermione chastised me.

My smile dropped and I gave her a pointed glare. She was going to have to work on being the person that always wanted to follow the rules. "That's exactly what I meant," I told her.

She gave me a bashful smile, pushing her hair out of her face. "Sorry. But did anyone ever ask me whether or not I wanted to be a part of a friendship with Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley?" she asked me.

Doesn't matter, she was going to be their friend whether or not she wanted to. "No. And no one cares either," I told her.

The two of us stared at each other before Hermione let a little smile cross her face. "You are a charming girl," she told me. After a beat we both burst into laughter. We stayed that way for a moment before calming down. As I wiped the tears out of my eyes from our laughter, Hermione turned to me once more. "Can I ask you something?" she said.

"You just did," I told her smartly.

Once more we both laughed. "Like I said, your conversations just flow effortlessly," she told me. I laughed at her softly and shook my head. My conversations didn't flow naturally, I was just a smart ass. "No, I wanted to know what's going on between you and Cedric Diggory. The Fourth-Year Hufflepuff?" she asked.

My jaw nearly dropped at her words. Did everyone really think that something was going on? How embarrassing. "Actually, you know what I found out. Because of when he was born, he's only in his Third Year," I told her, attempting to divert the conversation.

Just a few days ago I had asked him how he was enjoying his Fourth Year classes as he prepared for the O.W.L.s next year, when he'd told me that he wasn't a Fourth Year. Unexpectedly, he was a Third Year. Like myself, his age put him as one of the oldest people in his class. It was why he looked like he belonged in the Fourth Year. Although, it did make me feel better, seeing that he was only two years older than myself.

Hermione seemed surprised at my words too. "Wow. He looks so much older," she told me.

I nodded at her. It was why I looked a little older than my friends too. "Well he is fourteen," I told her and we both giggled softly. We were in silence for a moment before I glanced over at her, unable to keep my big mouth shut. "What do you mean about something going on in between myself and Cedric Diggory?" I asked.

Hermione gave me a sharp glare and I blushed. Not good. "Don't be daft. I've seen you two together more than once." Oh good, here comes the Mom speech. "I've never seen him speaking with anyone else that wasn't in his year, other than you. And he seems to always be enjoying himself whenever the two of you talk. And that bracelet is new," she said, pointing down to my right wrist.

I hadn't removed the bracelet that Cedric had given me since he had given it to me a week and a half ago. I blushed and began pushing my bracelet around my wrist. "You're slightly more observant than I was hoping for. It was his birthday present to me the other week. It records how fast you're traveling on a broom. It's actually his. When I told him that it was my birthday he wanted to give me something. This seemed like it was the only thing that he had that he was able to give me. And we're just friends!" I snapped, knowing what her look meant.

She gave me a proud smile that told me that she clearly knew where my intentions lay with Cedric Diggory. "Like you said, I'm very smart. I see things. The boys might be a little too daft to see it, but I do. You've got a crush forming," Hermione said. Once more I blushed, wanting to punch myself in the face. "And I think that he might have one too," she teased.

My face had officially gone beet red. No magic needed! "There's no way. He's fourteen!" I yelped at her.

What had I done to the Hermione that liked books and studying and all of that? Maybe I didn't need someone to have girl talk with. "And you're twelve. It's not that weird. It's only two years," she told me.

But was I really ready to go on a date? No. I was way too young. And Dad would kill me if I came home with stories about sitting out by the Black Lake with some guy much older than me. "I'm not ready to date," I finally told Hermione.

Hermione gave me a sharp glare. She looked liked she was going to smack me over the head or shoot me with some kind of painful spell. "Who said anything about dating?" she asked me. My eyebrows rose at her in curiosity. "You don't have to date him. But you do have a crush on him. Promise me that you'll let me know how the whole thing works out," she told me.

Oh, come on. There's no way that anything would ever happen in between Cedric Diggory and myself. "There's nothing to work out, but on the off chance that something does, I'll let you know," I tried to appease her. She nodded at me and I smiled. She seemed to be on the the mend, so I stood and gave her my hand. "So? Come on. Let's go and show those boys how strong Hermione Granger really is," I told her with a small wink.

Hermione took my hand and let me pull her up. She moved forward and I smiled as we came together in a tight hug. She really was a good friend, the boys would learn that in time. "Thanks, Tara," Hermione said softly.

I pulled away from her and brushed away some dried tears that were on the bottom of her chin. "Anytime. Seriously. You know that you always have someone to come to if you ever need it. Shall we?" I asked her, motioning over towards the door. "I think that dessert is still out there and this pumpkin pasty probably isn't very good anymore," I told her, pulling out the squashed pumpkin pasty.

Hermione laughed softly and took it from me, tossing it into the toilet. We flushed it down the drain before Hermione pulled me from the stall. She was already looking ten times better. "Let's go," she said.

Before she could go over to the door, I pointed over to the sinks. Her eyes were still a little red and her face was puffy. "Here. Wash your face off first," I told her. She nodded at me and walked over to the middle faucet, letting her face run under the cold water. I smiled at her and turned towards the door, ready to finish the dinner that I'd left half-eaten.

But the moment that I turned over towards the door I thought that I was going to die. In fact, in a few moments I probably would die. It explained the awful stench that was in the air. I thought that it was just because of the fact that we were in the bathroom. Right in front of me, at the other end of the bathroom, was a mountain troll that hadn't noticed us yet. It was wearing a loin cloth along with a little vest. Both far too small to be covering his ugly green-tinged skin that had bumps and wrinkles all over its skin. The large ears were turning towards Hermione's running water and I knew that it was about to realize that it wasn't alone.

My heart gave a weak jump. What the hell was a mountain troll doing in Hogwarts? "H - H - Her - Hermione," I said as softly as possible, not taking my eyes off of the troll - just in case.

Hermione didn't look up from the faucet. She was washing her hands off and wiping away the remains of dried tears. "What are you stuttering about?" she asked me, far too loud for my liking.

She had finally noticed that something was happening. "T - There," I said weakly as the troll turned to stare at us.

After a few seconds, Hermione turned over and saw that the troll was looking over at us. "Merlin," she squeaked, even higher pitched than mine was. "What is that?" she asked, her voice quivering painfully.

"A troll..." I whispered back.

It was right then that I realized that the troll was armed. It was holding a rather large wooden bat that it was dragging against the ground. I knew that it would crush Hermione and I if we weren't careful. Slowly I backed away from the troll, knowing that I was backing myself into the corner. But I didn't know what else to do. "What do we do?" Hermione asked me.

My hand wrapped around hers as I came to stand at her side. "Run!" I shouted, pulling her with me.

We tried to run underneath the troll but there was no way that we were going to be able to get past the thing. It swung the bat down at us and let out a piercing yell. We ducked out of the way as I threw Hermione out of the way. She ducked under the last sink as I hid behind the wall of one of the stalls. "A spell! A spell! What do we do?" Hermione yelled at me.

It seemed that she didn't have her wand on her. Or maybe she did, and she was just too stunned to do anything. Wand, you dummy! You're a witch! "My wand!" I shouted as I patted myself down. Where the hell had it gone? "Where's my wand?" I called out to Hermione.

"It's by the stall!" she yelled back to me.

As I glanced over at the wall I saw that my wand was, indeed, right against the floor on the other end of the bathroom. Right next to where the troll was standing. There was no way that I was going to be able to get over there and get the wand without getting crushed by the bat that it was holding. The troll finally began walking over to us and I yelped loudly as it broke the first of the sinks against the wall, knocking it to the ground with the bat. Hermione and I both yelled loudly. I tried to jump after my wand but the troll swung the bat at me once more. I ducked out of the way just in time and watched as the tile right where I had been standing broke into pieces.

That definitely wasn't going to work and I didn't know enough wordless magic. And it probably wouldn't work. I was too freaked out. As I attempted to make a plan as the troll continued to advance on Hermione - breaking the sinks along the way - I saw the door to the bathroom open. Two figures that I had never been so happy to see ran in. "Ron! Harry! Help!" I shouted.

"What happened?!" Harry shouted at me.

"What does it look like? Do something!" I barked at him.

Slowly I tried to advance on Hermione to drag her out of the way as the troll became enamored with Ron and Harry. It didn't seem to be too out of it though. The moment that I got within a few feet of my wand the troll raised its bat once more. Ron and Harry both screamed as the bat came down over where I was kneeling. I let out a piercing shout before ducking into one of the stalls. I could have reached out and touched the bat with where it had landed. Just inches from my foot.

Unfortunately the debris of the stall getting knocked to the ground knocked my wand out of my grasp too. It clattered against the floor once more, skidding right over to the door. And the troll was still in my path. There was no way that I was getting to it without having my head taken off or becoming a human pancake. Hermione was essentially useless, stunned into fear. I was sure that she was about to faint, something that I really couldn't blame her for. The troll was back to advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.

Harry and Ron finally jumped into action. "Confuse it!" Harry yelled desperately to Ron. The troll was now within ten feet of Hermione. Harry seized a tap from the sink and threw it as hard as he could against the wall.

I could have strangled him. "Throw it at the troll, you dingus, not at the wall!" I barked at him.

The troll clearly did not appreciate my comment. It picked up one of the ceramic sinks and tossed it at me. I screamed and ducked out of the way, the water from the broken pipe sloshing across my body and I just barely got out of the way. If nothing else, my movement had deterred the troll from going after Hermione for the moment. It had stopped only a few feet away from her. It seemed that it was now back to trying to figure out what had made the noise. It gazed around the room before its eyes met Harry. It hesitated, then began walking after him, lifting its club as it went.

We didn't have time. His walk was like our run. "Oi, pea-brain!" Ron yelled from the other side of the chamber.

Somehow he'd managed to get a metal pipe. He had it grasped tightly in his hands and threw it as hard as he could. I rolled my eyes once more. We should have beaten the trolls ugly head in with it. Not that I knew how we would have managed that. Our efforts were making no difference. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder. But just as before, it heard the yell. Only a few feet from Harry it paused once more, turned toward Ron, and began advancing on him.

Ron looked petrified but it did give Harry time to run around it and get to Hermione. And with the troll now entranced with Ron, I dashed after Hermione as well. "Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door. To my horror, she wouldn't move. She was too terrified to move. She was flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror.

"Hermione for the love of Merlin, get up! The troll will be the last thing that you have to worry about if you don't get off of your ass!" I snapped at her, knowing that my parents would be appalled at my language.

Maybe I would be given a pass, considering the situation. But it did get Hermione to move. She finally stood on shaky legs. The shouting and echoes between the four of us seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron. He had managed to get cornered and now had no way away from the troll. There was nothing that we could do, seeing as no one seemed to know where their wands were. Except for Harry, who was holding his wand in his hand.

I shouted at him to do something with one of the spells that he'd learned. But of course, Harry never learned to listen to me. Or did anything that was mildly intelligent. Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid. Something that I was sure that I would hit him for later. He took a running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. I yelled out something that was probably very profane. I couldn't quite put words together. He was going to die, just because Hermione hadn't managed to move fast enough.

It didn't seem that the troll could feel Harry hanging there. Once more I barked at him to do something, give him the Stunning Spell - something that I knew he didn't know yet - but he didn't do anything that I had been thinking of. He raised his wand - making me whoop, thinking that he would shout a spell - but that wasn't at all what he had done. Instead, he took his wand, grasped it tightly in his hand, and shoved it straight up the trolls nose. If I'd eaten more at the feast, it probably would have been all over the floor.

The other three people in the room stopped and stared at the scene before us all. The troll was flailing all over the place and seemed to be angry. Of course, I would be too if someone had pushed their wand up my nose. The troll was howling in pain and throwing the club all over the place. I was sure that at any moment he was going to either whack Harry so hard that he would flatten him, or manage to throw Harry to the ground, crushing his insides. Either way, Harry was not going to be okay if we didn't do something fast.

My arm dropped as Hermione hit the ground. She had sunk to the floor once more in fright. She was going to be completely useless. And my wand was still on the other side of the room. "Ron! Help him!" I shouted desperately.

Thankfully, he decided to finally act. Ron pulled out his own wand and stood there for a moment. It was pretty obvious that he didn't know what to do. Just as I was about to shout out a spell to him, I heard Ron cry the one spell that I was going to whack him for later. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron howled.

Maybe I won't hit him. As the troll grabbed Harry and and the club in the other hand - ready to bludgeon Harry to death - the club swung out of his hand. All of a sudden the club flew out of the troll's hand and rose high up into the air. I suppose that's a good time for the spell to start working. The club turned over slowly so that the end of the bat was right over the head of the troll. Without warning it dropped onto the trolls head and let out a sickening crack as the troll stared stupidly. Harry immediately dropped off of the troll.

I let Hermione off of my arm and watched as she fell to the ground. I grabbed Harry under the arms and dragged him away from the troll. It began to sway on the spot and then fell flat on its face. The moment that the troll hit the ground I began to wobble as the ground shook with the weight of the troll. I was barely able to keep myself standing with Harry's help. We were all shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done.

Slowly I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him. That had gone much better than I was expecting. We all stood in silence for a few minutes. It was finally Hermione that spoke first. "Is it - dead?" she asked softly.

We both slowly walked over to where the troll lay. Hermione was shaking desperately and I thanked Harry as he handed me my wand. "I don't think so. I think it's just been knocked out," Harry said. He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in gray lumpy glue. Or at least, that's what I liked to pretend it was. "Ugh - troll boogers," he groaned.

He leaned over and wiped it off on the troll's trousers. A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the four of us look up. Not good. We had been so busy thinking that it was just the four of us working against the troll. In the meantime we had forgotten that, of course, some of the staff would have heard the noises that we were making. And a moment later, as Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, I realized that I was now in the hot seat for expulsion for a second time in just two months.

She was closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Even better. Now I'm definitely out of here. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Part of me wanted to go see if he was alright, but I knew that it was better that we stood in our spots. Snape bent over the troll and looked it over. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Harry. She was pissed. Her lips were white. We definitely weren't going to be hailed heroes.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall asked fury evident in her voice. Harry looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?" she asked. Had we been told to go back to the dormitories? Hermione looked as lost as I was. Clearly, we'd missed something.

Snape began to look over at us all. He gave Harry and I a piercing glare before looking away. I merely shuffled my feet for a while. I wanted someone to say something. I also wanted Ron to put his wand down. "Please, Professor McGonagall - they were looking for me. They were all looking for me," Hermione spoke up.

Her voice was no longer quivering. "Miss Granger!" Professor McGonagall shouted, looking absolutely stunned.

She was standing with her arms folded, looking ashamed. "I went looking for the troll because I - I thought I could deal with it on my own - you know, because I've read all about them. If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived," she said, blatantly lying.

As Professor McGonagall looked over at us, I tried to ensure that I didn't look too shocked. "Well - in that case... Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?" Professor McGonagall asked. Hermione hung her head. "Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this. I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses." Hermione left quickly, not looking at anyone. Professor McGonagall turned to look at the rest of us. "Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go," she said.

It was obvious that we didn't want to test our luck any farther. We simply wanted to get away from there before anything worse happened to us. I was sure that Snape was going to try and expel us if we didn't leave straight away. On shaking legs we hurried out of the chamber. No one said a thing. As we walked out I saw that no one was in the halls. Clearly everyone was back in their Common Rooms. We didn't speak at all until we had climbed two floors up, heading towards Gryffindor tower.

"We should have gotten more than ten points," Ron grumbled as we walked.

"Ten, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's," Harry said.

"We're lucky that we didn't get our heads taken off by the troll. We're lucky that nothing worse happened to us. For a minute I really thought that we were goners," I told them both snappily.

Facing a mountain troll was not something that I had been intending on happening today. "Good of her to get us out of trouble like that. Mind you, we did save her," Ron said. I noticed that he didn't involve me. He was probably smart not to. I was going to whack him over the head with my own club if he said something like that.

We continued to walk for a few more minutes. "She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Harry reminded him.

"You locked that thing in there with us?!" I howled at the two.

They both went as white as the Hogwarts ghost. "It was an accident, I swear," Harry said quickly, probably hoping that I wouldn't kill him. My fists balled together as I walked out of the hall and towards the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Pig snout," we all said as we entered.

The Common Room was packed and noisy as we walked in. No one spared us a second glance as we walked inside. Not that I was surprised. No one knew what had happened. No one knew that we had just faced off of a mountain troll. In the meantime everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. I tried to ignore all of the questions that people were asking me about how I had gotten so wet. Hermione was the only person that stood alone. She was by the door, waiting for us.

We walked over together and stood in silence. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of us looking at each other, we all said, "Thanks," and hurried off to get plates. I walked over and slowly ate my food, plopping down by Fred and George.

Thankfully they knew the spell to dry me off and they didn't light me on fire in the process. We all sat and ate together, laughing and throwing food at each other. It was just the way that I wanted my Halloween to be. Minus our fight with the troll earlier. So we all sat together and laughed, pretending that a stunned mountain troll wasn't a few floors below us. The night quickly went back to normal, but with one difference. Because from that moment on, Hermione Granger was not only my friend, but she was Ron and Harry's too.


	11. Gryffindor vs Slytherin

As per usual, my morning wake-up call was by Hermione. Typically we all ignored her for as long as we could. Not that we didn't like Hermione, it was simply because we were all exhausted in the mornings and Hermione had a thing about waking us up first thing in the morning. It was the worst. All I usually wanted to do was throw myself out of the window in our room. Especially when Hermione wanted to do her morning study sessions. But I was not doing those anymore. I'd done one and slept through most of it.

Our wake-up calls were always different. Hermione knew how to wake each and every one of us up. For Lavender it was running the water. She was the lightest sleeper in the dorm and the running water of the bathroom always woke her up. Parvati was usually easy to wake up as well. She simply didn't like the lights. And that was how we woke her up. Fay was usually up at that point. But sometimes it took a little whack from Hermione to wake her up. Or a call from her friend in the other First Year girls dorm.

I was definitely the hardest person to wake up. But Hermione had learned my weakness. It wasn't the water, or a smack to the back, or anything like that. And as Hermione ripped the blankets off of me, I groaned and rolled over. She had learned that I was susceptible to the cold after living together for a few weeks. Half of the problem right now wasn't even the fact that I was no longer wearing the blanket. It wasn't any kind of problem like that. The problem was that the weather no long held a semblance of being warm.

We had entered the first week of November and the weather had turned very cold. Far colder than anything that I had experienced before. In Florida or England. The mountains around the school had become icy gray as the fog fell over them as the lake had crystallized. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Some people weren't wearing their winter cloak yet, but I was. And frequently I was wearing Fred's too. I was convinced that he was impervious to the cold. He never seemed to mind giving me his.

Inside of the castle was slightly warmer, but I still felt like I was freezing from the inside out. I felt even worse for Hagrid - who was constantly outside. But the cold didn't seem to bother him that much. Anytime that I saw him, Hagrid was defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaver-skin boots. I knew that he was trying to tend to the gardens too but there really wasn't that much that could grow in the weather right now. It would be March before we could really start growing again.

As I pulled myself out of bed, I barely made it two steps before collapsing back onto my bed. I had at least made it over to the desk to grab the letter that had come in rather late last night. I let Dai fly back and forth whenever he liked, mostly because I knew that he didn't want to be cooped up in the Owlery. He had brought me a letter from my parents, wishing me luck with the Quidditch game this weekend - whether or not I played.

The Quidditch season had begun. Or at least, it was about to begin. We'd been training for a little over a month and a half. Oliver had ensured that Harry would be ready to play as a Seeker and he had ensured that I was ready to play and that I knew the moves - just in case. On Saturday, Harry and I would be playing in our first match after ensuring that we were able to play. It was actually the first game, period. It would be Gryffindor versus Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, we would move up into second place in the House Championship. The rankings were standing in place from the final rankings last year. Of which Gryffindor's apparently hadn't been that good.

This was our chance to really bring Gryffindor up. Well, maybe my chance. It really bothered me that I might not be playing. I wanted to play. But at the same time, I was terrified. Despite the fact that the game wasn't for another few days. I knew that Harry was even more nervous than I was. I grabbed the letter to read over it once more. It was the one thing that was keeping me calm these days.

Tara,

We're so proud of you, darling! You'll do splendidly at the game in a few days. We both wish that we could be there. I'm not thrilled about the way that you got on the team, but I'm proud nonetheless. Just take your time out there. Don't feel bad about being an alternate. There are plenty of people that start out as alternates and make their way up. And you're a First Year! Most First Years don't even make the team.

As far as the actual game goes, here's some advice from good old Dad. First of all, you're going to be playing Slytherin. They fought dirty when I was in school and I'm sure that they still do now. So be careful out there. They won't hesitate to send a rogue Bludger your way. Most of them are strong but they don't move fast. I taught you better than that. You know how to move back and forth. Save your strength until the end. Surprise them. You're strong for a girl your age. And make sure that the Weasley boys work with you. Beaters are better than just keeping the Bludgers away from you! Try to ignore the commentary. It distracts you. And number one, remember who you're doing it for! Remember why you love Quidditch.

Let us know how the game goes. No matter what, we're cheering for you back home! And tell Harry that he'll do just fine. We look forward to hearing all about how Gryffindor crushed Slytherin in the first game!

Love always,

Mom, Dad, and Hale.

I smiled softly and folded the letter back up, placing it on my table once more. I kept all of the letters that Mom and Dad sent me. Just when I wanted to remind myself that there were people beyond Hogwarts that were rooting for me. I smiled at the sight of my Quidditch robes - that I would wear during the game, no matter what. I had only been fitted last week for the first time. Like my robes for school, they'd had to be fitted and it had taken forever. The school had even learned that there would be no Quidditch trails for Gryffindor this year since we had found the other members. It was not something that had originally gone over well.

They didn't like the fact that we hadn't really tried out. At this point hardly anyone had seen Harry or I play. Oliver had decided that, as the teams secret weapon, Harry and I should be kept secret. But the news that he was playing Seeker and I was playing alternate Chaser had leaked out somehow. I was sure that Fred and George had been talking too loud one day. Things were bad for both Harry and I. On one hand, everyone told me that I was going to do just fine. I hated that they kept telling me that I was going to be just like my Dad. But what if I screwed things up? Some people seemed to be convinced that I would. Harry was in a similar position. Some people were telling him he'd be brilliant but other people were telling him that they'd be running around underneath him holding a mattress.

It was really lucky that Harry and Ron had now accepted Hermione into the fold as a friend. I really didn't want to go seven years with having to balance my time back and forth between the three of them. I also wasn't sure how either Harry or I would have gotten through all of our homework without her. We had recently gotten stuck with a ton of last-minute Quidditch practices that Oliver was making us do.

Hermione was also making Harry reread Quidditch Through the Ages. He took my present and spent hours reading it. By now I was sure that he knew it by heart. He constantly told me everything that happened in the book that he was worried about. One of them was that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them; that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.

Ron and I were constantly telling Harry that nothing that serious was going to happen to him. Maybe a broken bone or something, but there were spells to fix those. The worst that I'd experienced was a Bludger to the nose - resulting in a broken nose - when I was at the Stars stadium. The spell on it had gone rogue and I had been hit, walking around the pitch. I'd also had a few broken arms and legs from Bludgers while playing with my Dad. Even a cracked rib or two. But with Mom being a Healer, it was always a quick fix.

On the other hand, there was the fact that Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved us from the mountain troll. She seemed grateful that they had risked their own life to save hers, and she was much nicer for it. As the morning of the day before the first Quidditch match of the season passed, we went out to the courtyard on our morning break. Double Potions was first and we all wanted to avoid it for as long as possible.

Of course I really did wish that we could be anywhere other than the courtyard. It was one of the last places that I wanted to be. Of course, the Potions dungeons would have been worse. It was already snowing out and I was wearing Fred's cloak over mine - which for a moment I had been concerned that he might have put itching powder in it. I was shocked to see all of the snow. In England, it wouldn't be snowing yet. It would be freezing though. In Florida, it would have still been boiling hot. We would have still been in shorts and tank tops. While we stood outside, Hermione conjured up a bright blue fire that could be carried around in a jam jar.

The four of us were standing with our backs to it, getting warm and blocking the view from teachers, when Snape crossed the yard. He looked more peeved than usual. I noticed that Snape was limping. He didn't seem like the Quidditch type, so it wasn't a sports injury. We all scooted closer to avoid getting caught by Snape. It didn't work. He limped over to us with a nasty glare on his face. I muttered the spell to put out the fire under my breath. It worked but only halfway. He hadn't seen the fire, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell us off anyway.

Snape glanced straight down at Harry's book. "What's that you've got there, Potter?" Snape asked. Harry showed him the book. "Library books are not to be taken outside the school. Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor."

He took the book from Harry but I stepped forward. Mom and Dad always did say that my mouth acting far faster than my brain. "It's not a library book. I gave him that for his birthday!" I snapped.

Snape stared at me with his typical dark gaze and I knew that I should have kept my mouth shut. "Speaking back poorly to a teacher; detention, Nox," he snapped.

Damn it. That made for two detentions with Snape in the span of just barely a month. "But Professor!" I pleaded. Mom would kill me if I kept getting detentions. Even though Dad had apparently gotten lots when he went to school here.

"Shall we make it two nights?" Snape asked me.

The hope that I might get away with this one deflated in my chest. I sighed and shook my head at him. Don't make it any worse, Tara. "No, sir," I said as respectfully as possible. So Snape nodded curtly and walked away with Harry's book in hand.

Once he had gone, I turned back to my friends in disbelief. Ron looked at Snape with a gaze that could have set him on fire if he'd really tried. Harry was staring after Snape with a defeated - and somewhat guilty - look. Hermione looked like she wanted to slap me. She'd probably seen that one coming. She probably hated that I had said anything in the first place. I hated that she was right.

"What the hell did I do to him? I don't get it!" I snapped.

It seemed like Hermione was going to tell me that it was my fault for speaking so I was grateful that Harry spoke over her. "I'm sorry, Tara. I should have just said something so that you didn't get a detention," Harry said softly.

I shook my head at him. If Snape wanted to give me detention, he would have found a way. "Oh, it's alright, Harry. It had been a while since Snape's given me detention anyways. I can't say that I'm shocked," I told him.

And I really couldn't. Snape seemed to always be looking for a reason to give me detention. It was why whenever I saw him I tended to make my way to another professor that would argue against giving me a detention. He'd tried to give me a good detention or two more than once since my first one. Professor Sprout had saved me from a detention when I'd been late to his class one time. She'd told him that we were discussing a problem I'd had with the mandrake theory - which was true. Professor's Flitwick, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Hooch had all saved me at least once as well.

Out of anyone in Gryffindor, Snape seemed to have the biggest problem with Harry and I. "He's just made that rule up," Harry muttered angrily as Snape limped away. He was probably right. I'd seen plenty of people carrying around books from the library. "Wonder what's wrong with his leg?" Harry asked after a beat.

"Dunno, but I hope it's really hurting him," Ron said bitterly.

"I second that," I added.

Hermione didn't seem fond of us essentially attacking our teacher for being an ass. "Oh, stop it. It's not like you aren't constantly antagonizing him," she argued.

Turning towards her, I gave her a sharp glare. "I should have let that mountain troll attack you," I snapped, not really meaning it. "Come on you three, lets go before I end up getting another detention," I told them.

And with that we all made off towards our destination. Double Potions. My absolute least favorite class. Potions alone was bad enough. But Double Potions, and with the Slytherin's, was the worst thing that anyone could have dreamt up. Snape seemed determined to make me miserable today. I thanked my lucky stars that Mom had ensured that I was good at Potions.

Today we were working on the Herbicide Potion. It was used to kill or damage plants. We were using it in accordance with what we were learning in Herbology. It had an absolutely disgusting taste and was not for human consumption since it may affect the drinker's health. Snape seemed determined that I had put in three lionfish spines rather than four. We'd gotten in a long argument about that and I'd been forced to start over. In the end, I'd gotten the spell perfectly but Snape had given me an A due to 'wasting his time after restarting'.

Needless to say I practically sprinted from the Potions room once we were done. We worked on the mending charm for most of class - it was one of the more simple spells. It was probably a good thing too, considering that most people were too busy talking about the upcoming Quidditch match. The professors knew that we weren't that into class. Especially the First Years that had never seen a match before. Of course that meant that most people were messing up the spell. The hand movement wasn't that easy, so it was obvious that most people wouldn't figure it out. By the end of class I was able to mend a small tear in clothes. It was a start.

Once Charms was done, we all went on our breaks. I spent most of the break doing my homework so that I could manage to focus all of my energy on the game tomorrow. It was a little after six when Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I got down to the Great Hall for dinner. By now I found myself not really that nervous. It was probably because I had finally come to the realization that there was a good chance that I wouldn't even play. We spent most of our time at dinner chatting about the match. Everyone was excited by now. Even the Slytherin's were excited. But that was probably because they were hoping to maim Harry or myself. At least Malfoy wasn't on the team.

A little after seven, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I began to head back to the Common Room. We were halfway out of the hall when I was stopped by a familiar voice. "Tara!"

Before I turned back to the voice, I motioned for my friends to go. "You guys go ahead. I'll see you soon," I told them before turning back. I smiled at the person standing across from me. "Hey Cedric, what's going on?"

Cedric gave me a very familiar smile. "Just wanted to wish you luck in the game tomorrow. Everyone's excited for it," he said. I smiled softly. I hadn't even realized that Cedric would be there. And I really hadn't realized that Cedric would be cheering me on. "And I want to see if Tara Nox really lives up to her great father, Marcus Nox," he teased.

I laughed softly and shook my head. It would take me years to live up to Dad. "I certainly hope so. But there's a good chance that I won't even be playing. I'm just an alternate," I told him.

"Trust me, if you're playing against Slytherin you'll need to step in at least once," Cedric told me.

Suddenly dread seeped into my stomach. I had heard that Slytherin weren't fair players, but actually hearing it firsthand from another player, it didn't bode well. "Well that didn't at all make me nervous," I told Cedric, trying to play off my nerves like they were nothing. Cedric laughed. "Thanks for the pep talk," I teased.

He laughed at me once more and shook his head. "You'll do great. And I'll be watching you in the stands," he said with a small smile.

After a beat I smiled back at him. That was my motivation to do well. Make sure that I didn't embarrass myself. "So I'll just look at you if I get too nervous and need a good laugh," I said, playing off the faint pink tinge that was coloring my cheeks.

Cedric's grin faded into one of teasing irritation. I giggled softly and smiled at him. I had known beforehand that it would get to him. "Watch it, Nox, you'll eventually have to play against me," he warned playfully.

"And I'll win then too."

The both of us laughed, not really sure whether or not that was the truth. "Good luck out there tomorrow," Cedric said and I thanked him quickly. "Even though you're Gryffindor, I'll be cheering you on."

I had figured that he would cheer on Gryffindor. No one seemed to ever want to cheer for Slytherin other than Slytherin. Although from time to time, apparently Ravenclaw cheered for them. "Well you'd be cheering on Slytherin otherwise," I teased. We both laughed. "And I don't think that I'd ever be able to speak to you again if you cheer on Slytherin over Gryffindor," I told him.

"Well I definitely wouldn't want that," he said.

If I had known any better, I would have sworn that he'd winked at me. But that was a stupid thought. He was a Third Year. Why would he want to be seen with a First Year? "Ced, come on!" another Hufflepuff boy shouted from across the Great Hall.

Cedric glanced backwards and nodded at the boy before turning back to me. Maybe it was good that we were getting interrupted. I hadn't really known what else to say to Cedric. "I guess that's my cue. I'll see you tomorrow on the Quidditch Pitch, Tara. Good luck. You'll do great," he told me as he began to walk off.

"Thanks. See you tomorrow," I said.

He walked off and I smiled after him, trying to force myself to head back to the Common Room. Before I got to actually move my feet, two rather large shadows pounced on me and I shouted from the startle. I turned around to glare at the red-headed twins. "Ah so we're still talking to Pretty Boy Diggory?" Fred asked with a sly grin.

"What are you on about?" I snapped at him.

There was no way that they would pick that out. They're boys. Boys are clueless. "Be a little more obvious about how much you like him," Fred told me, his grin never once faltering.

"It's actually rather cute," George added with his brothers.

How the hell had they figured that out when no one else was bright enough? Other than Hermione, of course. But she seemed to figure out everything. Given time, that is. "I do not like him!" I barked at the boys.

"We could help you along there if you'd like?" George offered.

They'd end up making me sound either idiotic or desperate. And they'd end up laughing about it for the rest of our lives. "No!" I barked. "Because even if I did like him, the two of you would make it a nightmare. And I'll kill you both if you say anything about it. Not that there's anything to talk about," I said awkwardly, knowing that I had messed it up.

Neither one of them seemed to believe me. "Sure there's not," Fred said.

"There isn't!" I retaliated.

"You're a terrible liar," George told me.

I rolled my eyes at the twins. They really were some of the most annoying people that I had ever met. Of course, I probably had asked for it. "You're both terrible friends," I barked at them.

"Oi, I resent that," Fred said proudly. "Right George?" he asked his brother.

The way that they were looking at each other told me that nothing good was going through either one of their heads. "Right Fred," George said, giving his brother 'the look'. It was the look that they gave me when they were about to do something.

It was the look that they had given each other before they blew up the toilet and sent the seat to Ginny. It was the look that told me that I should have started running. Of course this all processed slightly too slow. Before I knew what they were doing, Fred and George had lifted me over their shoulders, holding the back of my knees so that there was no way that I could get off of them. Not for a lack of a better effort. More than once I tried to wrench myself off of their shoulders - but being Beaters, they were too strong.

As they walked me out of the Great Hall I barked all sorts of colorful remarks to get them to let me down. A few of the professors that saw us told the boys and I to keep the noise down, but none of them actually made anything happen. They completely ignored me as we walked around the castle. Even Percy couldn't get the boys to drop me. Of course, a warning for a detention did nothing. They were used to it. So instead they carried me all the way back to the Gryffindor Common Room. By the time that we walked into the Common Room, it was already packed. Barely anyone even noticed what was happening.

They were all entranced in their own conversations. Of course, after a few moments, Harry and Ron noticed what was happening. Not that any of them made a move to help. Useless. Fred and George walked us over to the few spots that were empty on the couch - near where the others were - and George took a seat. A moment later Fred dumped me on the ground - rather ungraciously - and took the other seat next to his brother. It was the only other spare seat in the Common Room. I groaned and stood slowly. Harry and Ron seemed to be having a hard time not laughing. Hermione had been so entranced by her book, she hadn't even noticed the commotion.

Whacking Harry and Ron in the heads quickly, I marched over to Fred and George with my hands on my hips. "Oi, you two, out of my seat," I snapped at them. The red chair that I was normally in was taken by Lavender. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all gathered around the couches, each doing their work. Fred and George were sitting next to them with everyone else gathered around.

"Sorry Tara, you should have gotten up here first," Fred told me with a bright grin on his face.

"You threw me on the ground!" I shouted.

Both of them looked rather amused at the change in events. "Ah, Tara, if only you had brothers. You would have known how to solve this," George told me.

Well, if they wouldn't move, I'd figure out something else. "Fine then. I know another way to solve this," I told them. They both looked completely unimpressed with my statement. So I took my own actions and leaped onto the couch, sprawling out over the two of them. They both looked surprised that I had bothered to do that. "I may not have brothers, but I've had plenty of male friends. Do your worst, boys, it won't work," I told them, leaning back and closing my eyes.

Fred flicked me on the forehead, making my eyes snap open to glare at him. "Now that's not a bet that you want to make," he told me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "No?" I asked.

"Not at all."

"Well I'm not scared," I said haughtily.

"You should be," George interjected.

I sat upright, slightly leaning into Fred's lap. "Alright, boys," I said, deciding that I very well might be sealing my fate. "You have until the end of the year to pull the best prank. Vice versa for me. Whoever has the best prank, based on what everyone else thinks, wins," I said.

By now, everyone in the Common Room was glancing over at us. They all seemed to be curious about what was going to happen. "You're going to get expelled," Hermione said, not even looking over the top of her book.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned over to Hermione, ensuring that Fred didn't tip me out of his lap and onto the floor. "If we didn't get expelled for the troll incident, we won't get expelled for a harmless prank. Come on, Mione, have some fun," I teased her, before looking over the rest of the Common Room. "Is everyone else willing to help out?" I called out.

"Yeah!" everyone called back.

A grin spread over my face. This could end up either really well or really terribly for me. "See?" I asked Hermione.

She didn't bother saying anything back to me. She huffed and went back to her work. As per usual, she ignored me when she knew that I wasn't going to listen to her. "You'll wish you hadn't done that," Fred told me.

"We'll see," I said.

Over the next hour or so everyone went back to their work, forgetting about the upcoming pranks. I forgot about it too. No use thinking about it until the end of the year. I'd figure something out. Plus I could barely think straight. Everyone was far too loud. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together next to the window, which I was looking out of. Every once in a while I would interject something into Fred and George's conversation with Lee. Mostly I was trying to make them forget about the prank that they would pull on me.

With our normal evening routine, Hermione began checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them. It was a nightly occurrence. They had more than once asked me to do it, but I refused. I was busy enough. Hermione was different. She would never let them copy her homework, but by asking her to read it through, they got the right answers anyway. On the far corner of the floor, I could see that Harry was getting restless. In the meantime, I kept batting Fred away from my hair. I had a feeling that he was trying to tie it in a knot.

On the floor, Ron tossed down his quill. He seemed to be at his wits end with the homework. "Why can't you just do it, Hermione? You look over it and correct it anyways," he told her.

She glanced over at him with narrowed eyes. "How would you ever learn?" she asked him for what must have been the fiftieth time in the last month. "Tara, did you ever finish the Charms homework?" Hermione asked me after a beat.

Glancing up from messing with a few loose strands on Fred's robes, I nodded at her. "I did it while we were in class. Once the assignment was done," I explained.

Ron looked up at me, wide-eyed. "How do you do it all so fast?" he asked me.

I barely looked up from my lap to speak to him. "Because I actually listen to Professor Flitwick rather than taking a nap while he tries to explain what we're going over," I said nonchalantly.

Ron's head snapped up. "I do not!" he shouted at me.

"Yes you do," Hermione and I chirped, neither one of us bothering to look up.

After our little comment, Ron went silent. He huffed and slunk down onto the floor once more. We were all silent for a while, myself simply staring off into the fire. I was thinking about the different moves that we had been practicing for the past few weeks. Every now and again, I would chime in on Fred and George's conversation. They were thinking about their next great prank. It didn't seem to be one that the Slytherin's were going to enjoy. They were usually the twins' favorite prank subjects.

The four of us sat together for nearly ten minutes before Harry stood from the ground. "I think I'm going to ask Snape if I can have Quidditch Through the Ages back," he said.

"Better you than me," Ron and Hermione both chirped together.

They didn't even bother looking up from what they were doing. Ron was currently trying to write over all of the red scribble marks that Hermione had written on his Charms essay. It seemed that she had found a tad bit wrong with it. Or maybe a lot. Hermione herself was doing schoolwork - as usual. She seemed to be trying to get ahead for the semester. Not that it really mattered. I had a feeling that even if she finished all of her work, she would find something else to do.

Harry stood from the ground and I stood with him. As much as I hated it, I knew that I had to go too. Snape hadn't really given me a time for detention, but if I went it would work out better for me than ignoring the order. "I guess I'll go with you. I have to serve detention anyways," I said, trying to shove myself off of Fred's lap.

The boys - as helpful as ever - shoved me off of their laps and I went tumbling to the floor. Thankfully Lee was fast enough to catch me. He grabbed me and I righted myself. As I walked out of the room I smacked Fred and George over the back of the head, meeting up with Harry at the edge of the Common Room. At least he'd be back here in a few minutes. Knowing Snape, I would be in detention for hours. He had certainly not seemed happy today, and that meant for a miserable day for me.

We walked down the hallway towards the dungeons when Harry glanced over at me and spoke. "Sorry for getting you detention," he muttered softly.

I shrugged my shoulders as we walked, nudging him in the chest. "It wasn't your fault," I told him with a small smile. "I have a feeling that Snape would have given me a detention no matter what. He hates me. Maybe one day he'll get over whatever problem he has with us," I said as we walked through the halls, arriving at the entrance to the dungeons quickly.

"I somehow doubt that," Harry said.

The two of us both laughed as we walked through the first rooms of the dungeons. The staff room was about halfway down. It was just before the Potions and storage room. We made our way to the front door of the staff room and I watched as Harry knocked gently. There was no answer. My eyebrows rose. There was almost always someone in the staff room. Especially right now. It was just past eight. It wasn't that late. Harry glanced over at me and I motioned to the door again. He waited a moment before knocking again.

Just as expected, there was nothing. No answer and no sign that anyone was inside. Maybe Snape had forgotten about the detention that he'd given me. Maybe it had just been in the heat of the moment. I was about ready to turn around and leave, but Harry seemed determined to get the book back. Too bad that I didn't bring my copy of it to school with me. Harry glanced over at me and after a moment, I nodded. Maybe he'd be the one to get in trouble. He pushed the door ajar and peered inside. I slapped my hand over my mouth to keep from gasping. Snape and Filch were inside, the only two in there. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs was bloody and mangled.

Whatever had gotten to him, had gotten to him good. Filch was handing Snape bandages. The two were sitting together with Snape grumbling obscenities under his breath. "Come on. We shouldn't be here," I whispered to Harry, pulling him away from the scene.

Of course, neither one of us really wanted to turn away. We were both curious as to what was happening. "Blasted thing. How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?" Snape muttered. My heart jumped into my throat. He had seen the three-headed dog. Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but it didn't work. "Potter! Nox!"

Snape's face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. My entire face drained of color. Okay, Tara, do not make this worse. "Sorry, Professor. We - We were just here to try and get the book back and still I have my detention to serve," I said awkwardly.

"I just wondered if I could have my book back," Harry added.

The two of us were standing and backing away slowly. "Get out! Out!" Snape bellowed.

The two of us both turned on our heels and slipped on the stone floors, getting ready to run for our lives. We cleared the dungeons quickly and I found myself unsure of whether I was more afraid of Snape taking more points from Gryffindor or having him kill us. Either way, it would not have ended well for us. So Harry and I sprinted through the castle, not bothering to stop. As I ran I noticed that some kids were still walking around, all looking at Harry and I like we had lost our marbles.

As the two of us hit the staircases, we continued to run. But Harry and I glanced at each other as we ran, wheezing and out of breath. "What the hell was that about?" I panted.

"You saw his leg?" Harry asked me, breathlessly.

"How the hell could I miss it?" I snapped at Harry as we dashed up the last staircase.

The Gryffindor Common Room was just a little bit ahead of us. Harry and I had stopped running, but we were still walking quickly. "And Filtch was helping him fix it. And you heard him talking about the three-headed dog. Do you think that he was trying to steal the thing that was under the trap door?" Harry asked me as we walked.

"Maybe," I muttered. We had no clue what was going on, but it started with figuring out what was under that trap door that was so important. "But what is it? And why would Snape want it? It doesn't make any sense," I said.

Couldn't he just ask Dumbledore about whatever was in the trap door? Why would Snape have to be so secretive to get it? "Lets talk to Ron and Hermione. Maybe they'll know," Harry said as we walked.

Ron was probably going to be useless. But maybe Hermione might know something. Unfortunately, she was a stickler for the rules. It wasn't going to be easy to get her to help. "Hermione might know but you know her. She'll try to brush it off. She doesn't want us getting involved in things that we shouldn't be involved with. She's going to brush it off," I told him.

"Won't hurt to try," Harry said.

Before we walked into the Common Room, Harry and I brushed down our hair, rearranged our clothes, and took a moment to steady our breathing before walking back in. Most of the people were gone that had been in the Common Room earlier. Only a few of our friends still remained. "Did you get it?" Ron asked as Harry and I walked over to him and Hermione.

Hermione glanced up when she saw that I was still with Harry. "What happened to your detention?" she asked me.

"Screw detention," I said breathlessly. Hermione's jaw dropped and a wicked grin spread over Ron's face. Thankfully no one else heard. "And to hell with the book," I added after a moment.

By now it seemed that Ron had caught on that something was wrong and I wasn't just being stubborn. He grabbed my hand and forced me to come sit on the ground next to him. "What's the matter?" Ron asked.

In a low whisper, Harry told Ron and Hermione what the two of us had seen. The entire time Ron had looked stunned and Hermione seemed to be trying to reason things out. "You know what this means? He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him - he's after whatever it's guarding! And I'd bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to make a diversion!" Harry whisper-yelled.

Ron seemed to be on Harry's side that something was wrong. Hermione clearly wasn't. I wasn't sure what I believed yet. It wasn't something that I could rationalize in a night. "No - he wouldn't. I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe," Hermione reasoned.

"Told you," I said to Harry.

Every part of me knew that Hermione wasn't going to believe that something was up with Snape. "Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," Ron snapped at her. "I'm with Harry. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?"

No one spoke at that point. Mostly because we had no good reason to think that Snape was actually doing something malicious. Being a jerk didn't really mean anything. "I don't know. But we can't go back there and figure out what it's guarding. And we can't just ask someone. Maybe it's something that we can research. Take a trip to the library sometime," I said.

"For what?" Hermione asked me. My jaw nearly dropped. Was she really turning down an offer to go to the library? That was not in the Hermione spirit of things. "You don't know what's in there," she added.

Maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt just to give it a look. Maybe we could find something in a book about Hogwarts. Or in the Restricted Section. "We could try. Hermione, you could read all of the books in the library before the end of the year," I told her. If we had any chance of figuring this out, it would be from her. "Maybe we can figure something out."

"Figure what out?" Fred asked in my ear.

I jumped back and glanced over at him. Gently, I nudged him back into the seat and took a spot in front of him, distracting him from the conversation that I had previously been in. No one needed to know what we were talking about. "Nothing. Mind your own business," I snapped at him.

Fred was not going to let it go. Not that I had been expecting him to. "Weren't you supposed to be in detention?" he asked me curiously.

Damn it. I had completely forgotten that I had actually said that. "No. Why would you ever think that?" I asked him.

Hopefully I could manage to convince himself that nothing had happened that was out of the ordinary. "Because you said that you were going to go and serve your detention," he said curiously.

"No I didn't," I immediately retaliated, hoping that Fred wouldn't be smart enough to ask someone else if I had said it. "Honestly, Freddie, you need to clean out your ears," I told him with a teasing grin.

"That can't be the worst that you've got," he said, returning the same grin that I was giving him.

Once more, I smiled at him. "Of course not." One of these days I would pull the perfect prank on the twins, it would just take me a long while to actually figure it out. They were the prank kings, doing something simple wouldn't work.

Of course that might mean that I had gotten in a little too much over my head. But that wouldn't be the first time for me. "That prank that we're going to play on you, you'll wish that you'd never brought it up," Fred told me.

Turning over to him, I extended my hand. "Bring it on, Weasley."

Fred took my hand in his and shook it tightly. "You got it, Nox."

The two of us exchanged a small grin before I stood and turned towards the staircase. It was just after ten - still early enough - but I was ready to get to sleep. "As thrilling as this whole time has been, I'm leaving. It's getting late and I'm exhausted. Goodnight everyone. See you all in the morning." Before leaving, I turned towards Harry. He had once more adopted a green tinge. "Harry, you should get to bed soon. It's going to be a long day with the game tomorrow," I said.

He nodded at me but said nothing. He seemed to be thinking about the game once more, and I knew that it was making him sick. "Goodnight, Tara," our friends that remained down in the Common Room called back to me.

"I'll come with you," Hermione said, placing her book down on the table and standing.

The two of us skipped up the stairs and I watched as Hermione jumped straight into bed. She must have gotten ready while Harry and I went downstairs and pressed our luck. "Night, Mione," I called softly to her.

Fay was already in bed and seemed to be trying to sleep. "Goodnight, Tara," Hermione called back.

As Lavender and Parvati piled into the room and went to their respective beds, I started getting ready. The entire time that I ran about the room, grabbing my things and changing, I couldn't help but to think about what had happened downstairs. As much as I wanted to think about the games tomorrow, or maybe the prank war with Fred and George, I couldn't. The only thing that I could think about was Snape. The way that his leg was mangled, the face that he'd been wearing when he'd realized that he had been caught; it was all too much. It was nearing sunrise when I finally fell asleep, and the Quidditch match in a few hours was the last thing that I was thinking of.

When the next morning arrived - not long after I had fallen asleep - I was barely able to stand from the bed. My entire being was exhausted. I had a feeling that even my eyelashes were tired. The sun was streaming through the windows and I groaned, burying my head back into the pillow. The lack of sleep and stress from everything was getting to be too much.

The air that was seeping into the room was cold too. It meant that the Quidditch pitch would be freezing today. And flying through the air, that would only make things worse. As I woke, I went straight into the bathroom. Lavender, Parvati, Fay, and Hermione got changed outside of the bathroom. They knew that I had to wear the new clothes. The robes that Oliver had given Harry and I. They consisted of a black undershirt and black pants along with high brown boots. We would get our pads and actual team jersey when we were in the locker rooms before the match.

After tying my hair up and lacing the boots as tight as they would go, I marched out into the main room. The girls all chirped that I looked great, but I assumed that they were taking out the green tinge. That definitely didn't match well with the all black and brown outfit. Soon to be scarlet. We walked down into the Great Hall and I felt bile rise in my throat. The Great Hall was full of the smell of fried sausages and the cheerful chatter of everyone looking forward to a good Quidditch match.

By the time that we arrived at the table, everyone else was already there. Harry was there as well, in the same getup that I was. He looked the same tinge of green as well. "I think I'm gonna be sick," I told Hermione as I took the other seat next to Harry.

The smell was going to make me puke everywhere. I had never really played a game before. This was incredibly nerve-wracking. "Tara, your father is a professional Quidditch player. You grew up watching him play and you played with him. You know all of these moves. Even though you're an alternate, you're better than most of the people on the team. You might not even have to play," she told me.

It was reasonable. But it also wasn't the truth. Cedric was a player and he knew what he was talking about when it came to the other teams. "I was talking to Cedric yesterday and he told me that whenever they play the Slytherin team they always have to step in at least once," I told her.

"You'll be fine. Come on, lets get you breakfast," she told me.

Hermione grabbed the plate that was in front of me and began loading it. By the time that she was done there were eggs, sausage, bacon, fruit, and some other things. I immediately pushed the plate away from myself. Instead I grabbed the water goblet, weakly nursing it. As Hermione began chatting with me about the chances that I would actually play, I thought about the games. There would be six throughout the entire year. This was the first. Everyone was always thrilled when it came to the games, since they were so sparse. It was the only times that the teachers would lose their normally cool demeanor's and start to show House bias.

The first match is always Gryffindor versus Slytherin. It happened during the first weekend in November. Which was exactly on schedule with where we were now. The second match is always Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw. It usually happened in the third weekend in November. It was my first chance to see Cedric play. The third match was always Ravenclaw versus Slytherin. It happened in the third weekend in Hufflepuff. It was because they had to wait until after winter break to actually start competing again.

The fourth match would be the next one that we'd play. It was Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. Usually played during the first weekend in March. I was somewhat excited that we would be playing Hufflepuff. I looked forward to seeing just how good Cedric really was. The fifth match would be Hufflepuff versus Slytherin. It was the first weekend in May normally. The last match would be the last one that we would play. It was Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. It was the third weekend in May. It would be what determined who won the House Cup.

Trying desperately to get my mind off of the game, I nudged Harry gently. He seemed appreciative for me trying to distract him. "Look at you. We look like actual Quidditch players," I weakly teased.

Harry looked over at me and smiled. "You're not nervous, are you?" he asked.

It was easy to see that he was embarrassed to ask me that. "Of course I am," I told Harry, who looked very surprised at my admission. "Harry, I've played this game forever. I grew up playing this game. But its always been for fun and goofing around. This is the first time that I've ever actually played. I'm terrified. I don't want to let someone down," I told him.

"Neither do I," Harry said softly.

Hermione seemed fed up with the fact that we were so nervous about what was to come. "And you won't. Neither one of you. You'll be fine. But eat something," she said, pushing my plate towards me once more.

The smell of grease hit my nose and for a moment I swore that I was actually hungover. It seemed like this was what it would feel like. "If I eat something, I'm going to throw it up," I told her.

"You will not."

"I will too."

Ron - who had been near silent the whole time - finally glanced over at us. His had been stuffing his face with food the entire morning. It was just like he usually did. Ron was the one person that could eat the entire feast on the table. "Well if you do throw something up, Malfoy is right over there," Ron told me.

A small laugh escaped my mouth and I shook my head. Malfoy was indeed sitting at the Slytherin table. I had a feeling that he was chatting with his friends about the potential ways that we were going to end up dying in the game. Hell, he was probably telling the Slytherin players to try and kick Harry's head off of his shoulders. Maybe they were saying something about trying to kill me. Either way, I knew that they weren't discussing the eggs or how lovely the weather was.

Suddenly the sick feeling had managed to seep back into my stomach. "I don't think I'd even make it that far," I told Ron, covering my mouth for a moment before washing the bile down with some water.

"You'll be fine. Now eat. You've got to eat some breakfast," Hermione told us.

Harry was the first one to speak. "I don't want anything."

"Just a bit of toast," Hermione continued to try and pry.

"I'm not hungry," Harry insisted.

Once more she pushed my plate of food at me and I immediately pushed it away. My dinner from the night before was going to end up on my plate it she kept doing that. "Okay, Hermione, I'm going to throw up on you now," I told her.

Her hand dropped from the plate and she pushed it back over the table. "Please don't," she said.

As we all sat at the table, I glanced upward and saw the clock hanging over the entrance to the Great Hall. In just over an hour we would be ready to start the game. Oliver would probably come harassing us any moment now to come with him. "Harry, you need your strength. Seekers are always the ones who get clobbered by the other team," Seamus said from across the table.

"Thanks, Seamus," Harry said, watching Seamus pile ketchup on his sausages.

"Well said, Seamus," I told him.

The boys in Gryffindor never really seemed to know when enough was enough. Maybe they meant to freak us out, and maybe they didn't. "You might not even play this time, Tara," Dean tried to reassure me.

Once more, it was Seamus to the rescue. "Are you kidding? It's Slytherin!" he barked. Some of the Slytherin table glanced over at us and we all ducked our heads, speaking in low whispers. "They're going to injure them as fast as they possibly can so that Tara has to step in. And then they'll probably try to kill her," he continued.

"Thanks, Seamus," I said, feeling sick to my stomach.

He seemed to have finally realized that he had said something wrong. He glanced over at me and smiled. "You'll do just fine though."

We looked down to the table and I began to push around the food on my plate. Barely ten minutes passed before Oliver showed up behind Harry and I. He was dressed just like we were. He - unlike Harry and I - looked thrilled for the day. "Harry, Tara, we're ready to get everyone together to get ready for the game. The two of you ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes," Harry and I said, standing from the table.

Oliver waited for us to stand before pushing us ahead of him. "Have you two eaten anything?" he asked us.

"No," Hermione chirped back from the table.

Oliver looked over at her and nodded before turning back to us. "Probably for the best. I think that you'd end up throwing it up if you do," he said, making Harry and I both grin.

"Told you!" I barked back at Hermione.

She rolled her eyes at me as I walked out of the Great Hall with Oliver. It seemed like Fred, George, Alicia, Katie, and Angelina had already headed down towards the Quidditch Pitch. We would be given about an hour to get ourselves ready down in the locker rooms. One for us and the other for Slytherin. As we neared eleven o'clock I noticed that most of the school was out in the stands. Only the people that had still been eating weren't out yet. Everyone else seemed to be holding spots for their friends.

Most of the students up in the stands had binoculars. Despite the stands being raised almost fifty feet into the air, it was incredibly hard to see the players zipping back and forth sometimes. Particularly when the Snitch was out and about. The whole thing was so small that it became almost impossible to see. The only reason that the Seekers could see it was that they were right in front of it. The Quaffle was much easier to see but sometimes it was hard to tell who was holding it or when someone made a goal. The Bludgers were always particularly easy to see. You just had to watch for the players that jerked around wildly and nearly slipped off of the broom.

While everyone got themselves seated and ready for the game, Oliver gathered everyone in the locker rooms so that we could get changed. Harry and the other boys were on one side while I was on the other with the girls. I finished lacing up my brown boots the rest of the way and gathered my scarlet robes, tossing them over my black shirt. Slytherin's would be green, so we didn't confuse members of our teams. The jersey with our logo went on first, and the bright red robes went over that. With Katie's help, considering I was shaking so bad, I got my arm and shin guards on as well.

As I tied up my hair we walked back into the main area. Thankfully the boys were already done. Angelina handed me my pair of gloves and I slipped them on, tightening them to the point where if I got the Quaffle, I wouldn't drop it. Angelina and I tossed the fake Quaffle - it was slightly lighter than the actual one we would be playing with - back and forth to each other. She was good at aiming exactly where she wanted it. I was good with throwing the Quaffle hard enough to startle the other players. Oliver had told me during practice to hide my strength until I needed to use it on a shot.

I only had one chance to make it work. About five minutes before the start of the game, Oliver cleared his throat for silence. "Okay, men," he said.

"And women," Angelina almost immediately cut over him. I smiled softly and placed my legs up on the benches, trying to do some last minute stretching that I wouldn't be able to do on the Pitch.

"And women," Oliver agreed. "This is it."

"The big one," Fred said, adopting a teasing tone.

I assumed that this was a speech that Oliver gave before every game. Perhaps they got sick of it. Or perhaps they just wanted to mess with Oliver. "The one we've all been waiting for," George added from what his brother had said.

This time it was Fred that glanced over at me. "We know Oliver's speech by heart, we were on the team last year," he said. I assumed that the last part was more for Harry than me. I knew that they were on the team the year prior.

"Shut up, you two," Oliver said. We all looked at the twins and grinned before looking back at Oliver. "This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it." After the look of pride had faded from his face, he glared at the rest of the team. It was almost like he was trying to say, 'Or else'.

I had a feeling that he would kill us all if we actually lost this game. Especially if it was to Slytherin. And especially because it was the first game of the season. "When is the last time that Gryffindor won the House Cup?" I asked curiously.

Oliver seemed a little bitter. I had a feeling that he didn't like that it had been a while since we had won the House Cup. "When Charlie Weasley was on the team," he growled bitterly. "But now that we have Harry as a Seeker and Tara in reserve, we're going to beat the other team into the ground!" he shouted gleefully, picking up his broom.

"Good speech, Oliver," I told him as I grabbed my broom from George, who snatched it out of the way a few times.

Once I had stomped down on his foot he finally had returned it to me. He grabbed the spare Beater bat and broom from Fred. "Right. It's time. Good luck, all of you. Harry, keep out of the way until you catch sight of the Snitch. We don't want you attacked before you have to be," he told Harry.

"Got it."

The team all gathered our things before walking to the doors of the locker room. We were right underneath one of the raised stands where the teachers would be. Oliver and Harry were right up in the front. Fred, George, and I were behind them. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia were in the back row. We could hear the cheers from the outside. "Scared, Harry?" Oliver asked.

Glancing up in front of them, I could see that Harry was wide-eyed. He'd never even been to see a game before. This had to be terrifying for him. "A little," Harry admitted.

"It's all right. I felt the same way before my first game," Oliver said.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

I tuned into the conversation, curious as to what had happened to Oliver, the first time that he had ever played. "I don't really remember," he said. Both Harry and I stared at each other curiously. What did he mean by that? Probably nothing good. "I took a Bludger to the head two minutes in. Woke up in hospital a week later."

Now I was definitely going to be sick. I held a hand over my mouth, trying desperately to not puke my guts up all over the Pitch. I had a feeling that no one would appreciate that. "Well if I didn't feel sick beforehand, I do now," I told everyone.

Oliver turned over to me and smiled. It was the friendliest that I had seen him so far. "You remember the moves that we practiced on the chance that you were going to come into the game?" he asked me. I nodded immediately. I'd committed them all to memory. "That's all that we need. You're a great player, Tara. Just don't let your nerves get the better of you," he said.

As we stood at the edge of the wooden doors, I felt the twins come up behind me, each of them draping their arms over me. "Don't worry, Tara. We won't let the Bludgers get you," Fred said.

"That bad!" George added a moment later.

I turned to them with what I hoped wasn't a too nervous face. "I hate you both," I snapped.

A moment later - after the twins had had their laugh - the wooden doors opened. Immediately the cheers from the kids in the stand filled our ears. On weak and shaky knees, Harry, myself, and the rest of the team made our way out onto the field. My hands were shaking slightly and I clasped them together to try and block out the cold. Madam Hooch was refereeing this game, as she normally did. She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.

By the time that we had stood in front of her, the cheers had died slightly so that everyone could hear her. "Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she barked loudly. She didn't need a megaphone. She was loud enough.

My eyes followed where she was glancing at and I realized that she wasn't really looking at the Gryffindor team. She was looking over at the Slytherin team. More specifically, their Captain, Marcus Flint, a Sixth Year. He was definitely not the nicest looking guy that I had ever seen. And I did not like the way that he was smiling at me. It made me feel like he was going to either kill me right here or use one of the sleeves on his robes to strangle me. He seemed to have some type of troll blood in him. His large teeth and beady eyes reminded me of the troll from the bathroom on Halloween.

The teams began to take their places and I glanced around. Off to the side were the stands that held the professors. They all looked excited. I noticed that even Lee was up there. That seemed to be where the scorekeeper and announcement stand were. Right behind us was the Slytherin House. They were all cheering loudly for their own team, jeering at the Gryffindor team. The Ravenclaw's were next to them. They were all cheering loudly, just happy to see a match. Hufflepuff was next to them, acting very similarly. I tried to seek out Cedric, but without being in the air he was too hard to pick out. Gryffindor was directly behind us. I glanced back and smiled when I saw what they had done.

There was a fluttering banner high above, flashing Potter for President and Nox Rocks over the crowd. When had they managed to do that? It was very impressive. And it was nice to know that someone had faith in me. He felt braver. The whole thing seemed to be painted on a sheet that Scabbers had ruined a few weeks ago. Someone had done a large Gryffindor lion underneath the writing. Probably Dean. He was pretty good at drawing. It appeared that Hermione had performed a charm so that the paint flashed different colors.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle once and the stadium silenced itself. "Alternates, step off to the side. You'll be called in if needed. The rest of you, mount your brooms, please," she called out.

"Good luck everyone," I called out before stepping away to where Harry was. "Be careful out there. You'll do great," I said as I walked away.

"Thanks, Tara," he told me with a small grin.

He seemed to have gotten a little more confident since seeing the banner. Harry clambered onto his Nimbus Two Thousand. Everyone else jumped onto their brooms. Myself and the Slytherin alternate stepped off to the side and took a seat near the benches. Madam Hooch stood off slightly to the side, just in case someone had to come in for an emergency landing. She waited for a moment as the stadium held their breath. The whistle finally gave a shrill squeak. The game had started. Fifteen brooms rose up into the air and hovered for a moment. Then they were off.

Madam Hooch tossed the Quaffle into the air and I smiled as Gryffindor immediately gained possession. "And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor - what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too -"

"Jordan!" Professor McGonagall howled. I smiled slightly as I continued to watch the players zip back and forth.

"Sorry, Professor," Lee said. He had apparently been doing the commentary for the match since he had started here. But considering that he was House biased and that he picked his favorites, he was always closely watched by Professor McGonagall.

The game continued on as the players rocketed back and forth. Lee continued to comment, making the match easier to follow. "And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve - of which Tara Nox has now taken her place - back to Johnson and - no, the Slytherin's have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes - Flint flying like an eagle up there - he's going to sc- no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindor's take the Quaffle - that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and - OUCH - that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger."

"Katie!" I howled. Katie went plummeting down to the ground and I cringed as she came into contact with the sand on the Pitch. Madam Hooch helped her up as the game continued to be played.

Madam Hooch pulled Katie over to the benches before glancing over at me. "Get ready, Nox. After this score, you'll be in the game. Mount your broom and get ready to take off. You'll have no time to prepare so do it now," she told me as she placed Katie on the bench next to me.

Once more I paled but mounted the broom anyways. "Oh, Merlin," I whispered softly. Katie gave me a quick good luck as I mounted the broom and waited for the time to come for me to jump into the game.

"At the end of this score Bell is going to be taken out of play to the hospital wing, replaced by Tara Nox. Quaffle taken by the Slytherin's - that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger - sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which - nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she's really flying - dodges a speeding Bludger - the goal posts are ahead - come on, now, Angelina - Keeper Bletchley dives - misses - Gryffindor's score!"

"Go Angelina!" I hooted.

The game was momentarily placed on hold as Madam Hooch blew her whistle. Everyone hovered in the air and waited for me to fly upward. "Nox, get in here!" Madam Hooch howled at me. As Katie sat on the bench, I could tell that she would need to be taken to the hospital wing after this. She definitely looked a little dazed. As people were still reeling from the last score I noticed that the place had gone wild. Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherin's.

My broom rocketed me straight up into the air and I grinned, heading straight into the thick of the game. Everyone was waiting for the next whistle to be blown. "Good luck, Tara," Harry called out as I flew past him.

"Thanks, keep a close eye out," I warned him.

Harry floated away on his broom, keeping just out of reach of the rest of was pretty high too, higher than the rest of us. That was part of his and Oliver's game plan. He had to stay out of the way to make things easier for the rest of us. And he could see the whole stadium. If the Snitch was out there, he would spot it. Now he was back to staring around for the Snitch. As I found myself in the center of the game, I ducked out of the way of a Bludger. Instead of coming back to me, the Bludger decided to go rocketing towards Harry.

Harry dodged it and Fred came chasing after it. "All right there, Harry?" Fred asked. Just in time, he smashed the bat over to the Bludger and knocked it towards Marcus Flint.

"Slytherin in possession. Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasley's, and Chaser Spinnet, and speeds toward the - wait a moment - was that the Snitch?"

Everyone glanced up to see whether or not it really was the Snitch. It was just enough time for Pucey - one of the Slytherin Chasers - to get distracted. I sped up behind him, ignoring the ideas about the Snitch, considering that wasn't my job, and kicked out at the Quaffle. He had barely had a grip on it and I snorted as it went flying from his hands. Angelina caught it from down below and yelled out to me. The two of us went rocketing through the area and I whooped as we approached the goalpost. They wouldn't be able to get us both.

But just as we approached the goalpost, two Bludgers came flying at us. One headed straight for Angelina and she tossed the Quaffle to me. I caught it and narrowly avoided the second Bludger. I just barely ducked out of the way of George's Beater bat as I chucked the Quaffle to the furthest right goalpost. The Slytherin Keeper caught it just in time and I groaned as he tossed it back into the game. It went back to Adrian Pucey and I groaned. But it didn't really seem to matter. He dropped it a moment later. It turned out that the Snitch had been spotted.

All of the players almost immediately ceased what they were doing. In the stands, a murmur ran through the crowd. Thankfully Adrian Pucey dropped the Quaffle, too busy looking over his shoulder at the flash of gold that had passed his left ear. No one bothered to chase after it. Everyone was curious to see what was about to happen. In a great rush of excitement Harry dived downward after the streak of gold. Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it, too. Neck and neck they hurtled toward the Snitch.

On the Nimbus Two Thousand, Harry was faster than Higgs. I was hanging near where they were racing for the Snitch and I glanced down to see what was happening. Just ahead of them was the little round ball, wings fluttering, darting around. I could tell that he was putting on an extra spurt of speed. He was only inches away when a sudden force knocked into Harry, steering him straight off course from the Snitch. A roar of rage echoed from the Gryffindor's team - myself included. Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose, and Harry's broom spun off course, Harry holding on for dear life.

After a moment, Harry was barely able to pull himself back up onto the broom. "Foul!" the Gryffindor's were all screaming.

Down on the ground, a few people were talking. Oliver seemed to be petitioning for it to be counted as a foul - which it was. Marcus Flint was down there too. He was grinning at himself, seemingly very proud of the move that he had just made. Madam Hooch spoke angrily to Flint for a while. He didn't seem the slightest bit bothered. After a few minutes she ordered a free shot at the goal posts for Gryffindor. During all of the confusion and pause of the game, the Golden Snitch had disappeared from sight again.

Oliver floated back up into the air and gathered the Gryffindor team. "Free shot, who takes it?" he asked.

It was between myself, Alicia, and Angelina. They were both looking at me so I flew forward slightly. "I will." Madam Hooch tossed me the Snitch and I went flying up in front of the largest goalpost. I was about twenty feet back when I pulled my arm back and launched the ball through. The score bell dinged softly as the score went up to twenty - zero in Gryffindor's favor.

There were a few people cheering for the shot that I had made, but most everyone else was still angry with Flint's foul. "Send him off, ref! Red card!" Dean had been howling since the entire thing happened.

Most of the Pureblood's and even some of the Half-Blood's seemed a little confused at what Dean was yelling. "Not soccer, Dean!" I shouted as the game was set into motion once more.

Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides. "So - after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating -"

"Jordan!" Professor McGonagall snapped at him.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul -"

"Jordan, I'm warning you -"

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Nox, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession." Everyone was laughing at Lee's commenting. Of course, the Slytherin's looked less than thrilled that they were now twenty points under.

With the Quaffle back in play, we all went shooting after it. Once it had gone through my goal, Slytherin had taken possession of it. Completely unsurprising. But we were now fighting to get it back. As I zoomed around the Pitch, getting Bludgers knocked my way by the Slytherin Beaters more than once, I realized that Cedric was right. Slytherin's were nasty and they were tough to play against. They did just about anything so that they could win. It got them penalties, but they were also injuring our players and making goals in the meantime.

As we continued to play, Lee was still commentating. "Slytherin in possession - Flint with the Quaffle - passes Spinnet - passes Nox - hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose - only joking, Professor - Slytherin's score. Oh no..."

The Quaffle went through the goal - which Oliver had just barely missed. I groaned as the Quaffle went flying back towards the ground. Everyone was. The Slytherin's were cheering loudly, despite the fact that their Captain now had a bloody nose. He once more had the Quaffle in his hands and I flew like a bullet towards him. He was not going to get another point. I slammed into him, similarly to the way that he had done to Harry earlier. He was nearly knocked off of his broom but one of his Beaters saved him at the last moment. It didn't matter though. The Quaffle slipped out of his hands during the struggle and went down towards the ground.

The Gryffindor team went flying off in all directions, ready to start playing again. The Quaffle - which was extremely close to the ground - was caught by Angelina and I whooped, glad that my plan, that hadn't really been a plan, had went well. She carried it up from the ground and tossed it back to me. My hands were shaking slightly as I caught it. I knew that she was giving me the chance to make the score and I didn't want to mess it up. I headed straight for the middle goal, knowing that Slytherin's Keeper would follow me. Just as I went to throw for the middle goal, I faked it out - which the Slytherin Keeper fell for - zoomed around the goalpost, the Keeper following closely behind me. I made a sudden turn backwards, the Keeper unable to stop in time, and tossed the Quaffle straight into the far left goal.

"Gryffindor scores! Nice job, Nox!" Lee shouted.

As I flew around the Pitch, watching as Alicia and Angelina passed the Quaffle back and forth, I flew right over the Hufflepuff section. "Go, Tara!" I heard a familiar voice. I glanced down to see that it was Cedric.

I could hear the score machine ding as it went up from thirty to forty. The Slytherin's were jeering angrily. Not that it mattered. I had made the goal fair and square. But it was as I made another loop around the Pitch, trying to spot the Quaffle, that I noticed something extremely wrong. Harry wasn't anywhere near the match. He was flying around on his broom, that seemed to be desperately trying to buck him off. I halted in my place and floated slightly, watching him for a moment.

A Bludger went careening towards Harry, and he ducked out of the way at the last minute. It had just barely avoided whacking him in the head. His broom gave a very sudden jolt at the movement and I let out a soft scream as the broom jerked upwards. He was clearly gripping on tightly with his hands and his knees as he tried desperately not to get thrown off. What the hell was happening to him? No one else seemed to notice that anything was wrong as I stopped and stared at Harry, debating on whether or not he needed help.

Something was wrong. And it wasn't from the broom. Whatever was happening to the broom was someone doing something to it. And it wasn't from one of the students. This was someone that was well-versed in magic. But a professor? That made no sense. They were here to help teach us, not kill us. Harry appeared to be trying to do something, but it didn't seem like the broom wanted to cooperate. It was acting with a mind of its own, zigzagging through the air, and every now and then making violent swishing movements that almost unseated him. It was carrying- him slowly higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as it went.

Suddenly, everyone seemed to notice what was happening. People were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. My broom pushed forward as I attempted to grab onto Harry. He was swinging far too wildly for me to try and grab him. I was going to get hit if I tried. We watched in horror for a moment as Harry's broom gave a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand.

"Harry!" I screamed in horror. Fred flew up to my side and stared at me with wide eyes. Clearly we were both trying to figure out what to do. "Come on, we have to help him!" I shouted.

Fred nodded at me and flew up to Harry with me at his side. "Grab on, Harry," Fred called out.

"Grab my hand!" I called to him.

But it was useless. Every time that we tried to grab him, the broom would give a violent jerk and he'd nearly be thrown. Everyone was shocked, screaming at the tops of their lungs. The professors seemed to be thinking about what to do. The whole crowd was on its feet, watching, terrified, as the Weasley twins and myself flew up to try and pull Harry safely onto one of our brooms. The violent jerks were getting worse. We were going to end up killing him. Not helping him. The broom was now getting higher with every passing second. We had resorted to flying below him, ready to catch him in case he fell. As per usual, the Slytherin's didn't care about a Gryffindor.

Marcus Flint seized the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing. No one seemed to care. Mostly everyone else was worried about Harry's safety. It was very surprising, but Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom. He glanced back at the goals and shouted at me. "Tara, the Quaffle!" he barked.

"Yes!" I gasped in surprise. The score had gone to forty-sixty, with Slytherin now in the lead.

On the other end of the Pitch, Marcus Flint was still holding the Quaffle. I launched after him at top speed to try and grab the Quaffle from him. Harry went back to searching for the Snitch as the rest of the players went back to doing what their jobs consisted of. I rocketed beneath Marcus, shouting for Alicia to distract Marcus. She did so - missing a grab - as I shot up from underneath him. Using my leg, I kicked the Quaffle out of his arms and up into the air. The Quaffle came barreling back towards the ground and I caught it in my right arm. The crowds were cheering loudly as I headed straight for the goals and tossed the Quaffle as hard as possible. It hit the Keeper roughly in the chest and knocked him - and the Quaffle back through the goalpost. We all laughed loudly, hooting and howling as the Keeper was knocked to the ground.

I hadn't broken any rules so the score was counted, much to everyone's delight. Grinning down into the stands, I saw that the Hufflepuff's and Gryffindor's were celebrating loudly. Cedric and his friends were laughing loudly and pointing to the rather impressive throw. I guessed that I had proven myself a worthy opponent. All of Harry and I's friends were seemingly about to fall over with excitement. The Ravenclaw's were cheering politely and Slytherin's were booing. The teachers seemed excited, but it was Professor McGonagall that seemed the most thrilled. Perhaps because she was on her way to beating Snape.

"Gryffindor scores again! Nox is really showing off the family name!" Lee shouted from the stands. The score jumped up to fifty-sixty in Slytherin's favor. But the Snitch would end things.

And just as I thought that, Harry seemed to spot the golden ball. Harry was speeding toward the ground with the Snitch about ten feet in front of him. We all hovered in the air, the Quaffle forgotten about. It was pretty obvious that the game was about to be over. Harry was barely ten feet off of the ground - making me cringe at the thought that he might not slow down in time - when I saw him clap his hand to his mouth like he was about to be sick. He hit the field on all fours and went tumbling forward before landing in a weak sprawl. He climbed up onto his knees and coughed.

Heart thumping in my chest, I went careening to the ground, sprinting off of my broom. The stands had gone silent as the other players came to land next to us. "Harry!" I shouted as I ran up to him.

He coughed once more and I watched as the Golden Snitch came out of his throat. I laughed softly, staring sideways at him. Well that's one way to make your first impressive Quidditch move. Harry glanced up at me and I nodded happily. We'd won. "I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head.

It was probably the first game that had ended like this. Everyone was completely confused and the cheers came up around the stadium slowly. No one seemed to have really caught on to what was happening. Lee was one of the first to catch on. "Gryffindor wins, final score, one hundred and ninety points to sixty!" he cheered into the megaphone loudly.

Oliver landed next to Harry and I a moment later, pulling the two of us in for hugs. "Good job! Well done to both of you!" he cheered.

"We did it!" I chirped, pulling Harry into me.

Fred and George were the next to come and hug us. They lifted Harry and I up on our shoulders as Angelina and Alicia cheered on with a still slightly dazed Katie. She seemed a little better but would still need a trip to the hospital wing. "I can't believe that I actually caught it. I can't believe that you actually made three goals," Harry told me.

I raised my eyebrows and punched Harry in the shoulder as Fred and George placed us back on the ground. "Thanks, Harry," I told him flatly.

We all stood down in the Pitch and celebrated with the rest of the stands. They seemed to be slowly clearing out. Glancing upwards I could see that Dean and Seamus were bringing the banner that they had made back into the Common Room. It seemed that Hermione and Ron were trying to stay behind. Not that I was shocked. They would want to talk to us after the game. But Harry and I would have to shower with the rest of the team. Despite the fact that it was freezing out, I was drenched in sweat. It was almost twenty minutes later when the commotion finally died down and people started to head off to begin their real weekend plans.

Of course, Slytherin was still not taking the loss well. Most of their people were still hanging around. Especially the team. "He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Marcus Flint continued to howl. It made no difference. Harry hadn't broken any rules and all of the goals - even mine - had been totally legal Quidditch moves.

Madam Hooch finally sent Flint off and he and the rest of his team went marching away angrily. Oliver walked over to us, a large smile still on his face. "Alright, everyone, go shower and head back to the Common Room. You've earned it after that game," he told us.

The Gryffindor team went walking away with bright smiles and loud laughs. Oliver was telling us that it was the best game that had been played since Charlie Weasley was on the team. It didn't really go over that well with Fred and George. They seemed to think that they carried the team. Which they sort of did. We would all be pancakes without them. Shaking off the silly argument, I happily climbed into the girls section of the showers. I still couldn't really believe that I had managed to score three goals - even being an alternate. It didn't make sense. It was incredible. It was more than anyone else scored. Flint didn't really count. The game had gone incredibly well. But there was still one question. What had happened to Harry's broom?

Another fifteen minutes later, I climbed out of the showers with my new clothes on and my hair tied up. Harry was standing at the entrance to the locker rooms, his wet hair pushed back over his head. "You ready to go?" he asked me. I nodded and moved towards him, packing away my broom and robes. "I already saw Hermione and Ron. They want to go down to Hagrid's hut. He invited us for a cup of tea after everything that happened."

A small smile fell over my face. I hadn't really had a chance to sit and talk to Hagrid since the beginning of the semester. "Great," I said as we walked out. I barely made it ten steps before glancing over at Harry. "Hey, what happened out there? With the broom?" I asked.

Harry looked rather concerned. I assumed that by now he hadn't managed to figure out what had happened with his broom. The high from winning the game had probably been in his mind since. "I don't know. It was just like all of a sudden it was possessed. It was like the broom was doing anything in its power to throw me off," he said.

There was one thing that it reminded me of. But that meant that someone wanted Harry seriously hurt. And for way more than a Quidditch game. Someone wanted him maimed. Or maybe killed. "Almost like it was jinxed?" I asked, wanting to see if I was right.

Harry nodded at me with wide eyes. We hadn't learned about jinxes yet. He was probably curious as to what I was talking about. "Yeah. Would the Slytherin's do that?" he asked me.

They were cruel, but there was no way that they would be willing to risk something like that. "No way. That's grounds for expulsion," I told him. No matter how bad the Slytherin's were, they weren't going to risk seriously hurting Harry. "They'll try to knock you off of your broom and send a Bludger right at your face, but no way would they be willing to jinx your broom," I told him.

The two of us had gone silent after that. Despite the happy air from the win of the game, Harry and I were now busy thinking about what had happened with his broom. It was nothing good, whatever it was. But we tried to put on a happy face for Ron and Hermione as we caught up to them. It was quick to be wiped off of our faces though, when they told us what had happened at the game. Everything from seeing Snape muttering without blinking, to Hermione setting his robes on fire (something that had made me laugh like a loon), and knocking him to the ground, breaking the spell. Harry and I had gone almost silent upon arriving in Hagrid's hut.

After a quick congratulations on the game, Ron and Hermione launched into the same story of what had happened. They seemed to think that Hagrid would believe them. The four of us all were drinking our tea as Ron came to the end of the story. "It was Snape. Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

They had me somewhat convinced that it had been him. But I still didn't want to think it. Snape was mean, but was he cruel? The signs were all pointing that way. "Rubbish. Why would Snape do somethin' like that?" Hagrid asked.

It was right then that the four of us all exchanged looks with each other. The question hung in the air on whether or not we should tell Hagrid what had happened a few weeks ago. Finally Harry decided on the truth. "I found out something about him. He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding," he admitted.

Hagrid dropped the teapot and I jumped in surprise as it smashed into a million pieces on the ground. What had we said that was that shocking? "How do you know about Fluffy?" he asked.

It was almost comedic the way that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and my own jaws dropped at once. Hagrid knew what that damn thing was. And he had named it. Not good. "Fluffy?" Harry finally managed to ask.

"You know what it is?" I asked, wide-eyed.

Hagrid nodded at us as he took a seat in one of the chairs that were opposite us. "Yeah - he's mine - bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year - I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the -"

"Yes?" Harry asked eagerly. We were on the verge of getting him to admit something. He knew what was down in the trap door underneath the three-headed dog. Fluffy. Whatever. We just had to get him to admit it.

"Now, don't ask me anymore. That's top secret, that is," Hagrid snapped at us.

"But Snape's trying to steal it," Harry shouted.

I wasn't so sure that I still believed that he was really trying to get whatever was down there, but I knew that all of the evidence was pointing towards it. He wasn't a good man. We had already determined that. But was he really that bad? Maybe. "Rubbish. Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort," Hagrid tried to reason with us once more.

Surprisingly, it was Hermione that helped the argument. "So why did he just try and kill Harry?" Hermione howled angrily. No one seemed to have any answer to that. Everyone knew that when Hermione was speaking out against a teacher, things had to be bad. "I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

Hagrid seemed to have had enough. "I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong! I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all three of yeh - yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel-"

Hagrid immediately stopped speaking as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I all exchanged glances with each other. "Aha! So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?" Harry asked. Hagrid looked furious with himself. We had finally made some headway as to what it was that Fluffy was guarding.


	12. A Hogwarts Christmas

Hogwarts was always an excitable place to be. During the beginning of the year, students were thrilled to have some time away from their parents and to see their friends after so long apart. Once classes started, everyone was excited to start learning new magic. Halloween was incredible - especially when ten foot mountain trolls managed to get loose in the castle. Thanksgiving had so much food that practically everyone had been forced to roll back to their dormitories.

But Hogwarts was never better than it was in December. Christmas was coming. It was just a few weeks away. I would be back home by the time that Christmas actually rolled around, but it didn't matter. Most of the school celebrated their own Christmas's early - so that we could have a holiday with friends and another with family.

Despite being in the Christmas spirit, there were a lot of storms recently. The weather certainly had been hard for everyone to deal with. Especially those few people - like myself - that preferred the warm weather. The storms had even been a problem for the owls. The few owls that somehow managed to battle their way through the stormy skies to deliver mail - Dai and Hedwig were some of the few that seemed unfazed by the cold - had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.

So far everyone had been getting into the Christmas spirit. None more so than the Weasley twins. Of course, their spirit wasn't quite average. We were in mid-December before Hogwarts finally woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. Everyone - myself included, despite the fact that I didn't enjoy the cold - was thrilled. The lake had frozen solid and the students took the new weather in stride. Just a few days ago, the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Professor Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. And - of course - they'd managed to get me in trouble too.

I was walking with myself tucked into my coat. I'd been heading towards the greenhouses for Herbology when I stopped in my tracks. Fred and George were well-hidden, but the bright red hair stuck out desperately against the pure white snow. They were hunched over as Professor Quirrell seemed to be searching for something in his own coat. They were chuckling with each other as they waved their wands over the snow. I folded my arms and walked over to them. I'd be a little late for Herbology. This seemed too good to miss.

"Playing a Christmas prank, boys?" I asked.

Both Fred and George jumped. They clearly had thought that no one would be out here. No one was supposed to be out here. Classes were going on. They must have been skipping something. "Never," they both told me with matching grins.

"Planning something for me, then?" I asked, remembering the bet that we'd made for the best prank on each other by the end of the year.

"Of course," they both chirped.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that they weren't going to prank me until the very end of the year. I crossed my arms and followed Fred's line of sight. He was grinning at Professor Quirrell. I sighed and dropped between them. "Why Professor Quirrell?"

"Why not?" Fred asked me. "You know what a stuttering mess he is. Imagine, he won't be able to teach the last class of the year! We'll be able to think about your prank, and not have to worry about classwork," he reasoned.

Once more I rolled my eyes. If the two of them put half of the work into their schoolwork as they did into pranking, they would have higher grades than Hermione. "You two are idiots. You're going to get caught," I told them.

"You're such a little novice," George teased.

"How dare you insult my pranking skills!" I barked at him.

Fred yanked me down as Professor Quirrell glanced over at us. Once he had turned back, the twins slowly leaned back up. "Watch and learn, Nox," he said.

Both he and George mumbled a soft spell - something that I'd never heard before - and I watched as five snowballs formed. They hovered in the air, just ahead of us, and I watched as the first one went pelting into the back of Professor Quirrell's turban. He shouted as the force of the snowball knocked him into the snow. But the turban remained tightly in place. The other four followed - and more after them. Each one whacked Quirrell right in the back of the head, and the twins and I laughed loudly as he scrambled away from them.

Finally, Professor Quirrell gained his bearings and whipped his head back to us - getting smacked in the face by a snowball. I grinned, despite knowing that we were caught. "Weasley's! Nox!" he shouted, following us.

"Run!" I yelled.

Of course, we hadn't managed to get away with it unscathed. We'd been cornered by Professor Quirrell at dinner - shaking, and for once, not from the ticks that plagued him. He'd begun shouting as us, the three of us trying desperately not to laugh. Professor Dumbledore had walked over and asked what had happened. It was the only time that I'd actually spoken to him. It was the only time I'd seen him directly interact with one of the students. When we'd told him, he'd smiled and asked how the boys had done it. After being barked at by Professor Quirrell to do something, he'd begrudgingly given us a night of detention, cleaning the trophies.

It didn't matter. It was one of the best detentions I'd ever had. And now that it was over, we were so close to the holidays. Today was our last day of classes. One last Double Potions class before we finally got to go home. The trains were coming tomorrow so that the students could go home for the two weeks that the holidays spanned.

No one could wait for the holidays to start. Myself particularly. I loved it here at Hogwarts, but I really did miss my family. Mom and Dad were some of my best friends, and while the letters were great, they didn't come fast enough. I wanted to get more of a chance to speak to them. Plus, holidays at home were great. Mom made her cookies - all done by magic - and Dad decorated the house. When we lived in the States we would always go outside and play a round of Quidditch, since it was always still shorts and tank top weather around the holidays.

But some part of me liked the snow and ice here in Scotland. Almost. Because while the Gryffindor Common Room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and nearly unbearable. A bitter wind always seemed to rattle the windows in the classrooms. Particularly anything up in the turrets. Half of the time, the greenhouse doors were frozen solid. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where we could actually see our breath rise. Everyone kept as close as possible to the hot cauldrons.

Even the Slytherin's seemed uncomfortable. But it didn't matter. Spirits were high as we finished our class. We were a mere twenty hours away from Christmas break. It felt like there was nothing that could happen that would kill my spirits. Everything was perfect. I'd even managed to go a full week without detention! Somewhat of a rarity.

Of course, there was always one person that could manage to deflate my spirits. "I do feel so sorry for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home," Malfoy said loudly.

It was pretty obvious that he was speaking to Harry. My head snapped over to him as the class went near silent. Everyone knew that Malfoy and I had somewhat of a nasty rivalry. "You'd think that you'd feel even sorrier for the people that go home, despite the fact that their families would much rather them stay here," I snapped back.

The class all chuckled at my comment as the tips of Malfoy's ears went pink. In all honesty, I felt somewhat bad for him. His parents hadn't seemed like the most pleasant people when I'd met them back in Diagon Alley all of those months ago. Actually, his mother didn't seem half-bad, but his father seemed like a horrid man. And that was what I meant. And Malfoy knew it, judging by the way that he was looking at me. It was a low blow, considering we both knew that I knew enough about Lucius Malfoy to know that I was telling the truth.

It didn't matter. I grinned over at him wickedly as the class chuckled, thinking that it was just a joke. Unfortunately, I didn't get away with my comment. Naturally, Snape seemed to hear me and not Malfoy. "Two points from Gryffindor for that unwelcome comment, Miss Nox," Snape called out, without looking up from the desk.

Malfoy and his cronies snickered as my jaw dropped. "And what about him?" I asked, motioning over to Malfoy.

"Another for disrespecting authority," Snape added, still not bothering to look up.

I ground my teeth together and looked back down at the desk. I glanced over to my other Gryffindor friends, all staring at Snape as if they wished to set him on fire. Harry looked at me with a guilty face. I knew that he felt bad. Malfoy's comment about Harry was the only reason that I'd spoken up, after all. I didn't really care that I'd gotten reprimanded, I just felt bad that I'd managed to lose three points before the break.

"Sorry, guys," I muttered under my breath.

Everyone shrugged. "Worth it," Seamus told me.

I smiled as I went back to working over my cauldron. Snape could take points from me, but he was not going to give me a poor grade. A small sicker from across the room made me look up. It was Malfoy, mimicking me and pointing over to Harry. Crabbe and Goyle were laughing along with him. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them. He had been doing much better than I had been doing. I was furious, each time I heard them make another joke.

It had gotten much worse over the past few weeks. Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. He had been even more beside himself then the Slytherin team members. Disgusted that the Slytherin's had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next. To my absolute pleasure, no one had found this funny. Mostly because they were all so impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick. So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry about having no proper family.

And unfortunately, my family didn't count. It was entirely true that Harry wasn't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. Much to my displeasure. I would have liked to have him over for a magical Christmas. In years past that he'd come over, we'd had to do it the Muggle way. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up at once.

My parents had offered to let him come home with us and celebrate the holidays with us, but he had felt that he would be intruding, despite the fact that we had all told him that we wouldn't be. Some part of me had a feeling that he wanted to be at Hogwarts for Christmas anyways. Ron and his brothers were all staying, too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie. The only other Weasley going with them would be Ginny, their sister. Bill would be working and the rest would be staying here.

The rest of the lesson went without incident. At the end, Snape had wished the Slytherin's a Happy Christmas, grunting at the Gryffindor's when we'd all stayed behind. As we left the dungeons at the end of Potions, we found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. A small smile fell over my face. It would be one of the many Christmas trees that would be in the Great Hall. Two enormous feet were sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told us that Hagrid was behind it.

He popped his head around the corner and smiled at us. "Beautiful tree, Hagrid. Good choice," I told him.

"Thank yeh, Tara."

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.

As he pulled his head back out, I laughed. Branches had managed to get caught in his hair and Hermione and I helped pick them out. "Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron," Hagrid said.

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" Malfoy's cold drawl interrupted the happy air. He turned on Ron quickly. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose - that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

There must have been steam coming out of my ears. I was so sick of the way that he treated Ron and Harry. "He's ten times the person that you'll ever be," I snapped at him.

Malfoy whirled around to face me. He wore a rather unattractive snarl. "What would you know, Nox?" he growled. My eyebrows rose as I folded my arms over my chest. "Your family are the biggest bunch of blood traitors that there are. But at least you don't have to share one pair of underwear. Pity, money well wasted, if you ask me," he said.

My blood was boiling in my veins. It wasn't common to call someone a blood traitor. It was almost as bad as someone calling Hermione and Mudblood. So - without thinking of the consequences - I decided to go the Muggle route. I reared back my arm and punched Malfoy straight in the nose. And I made sure to use my Quaffle throwing arm. He stumbled back, letting out a muffled cry. As I glanced over at him once more I realized that he had blood pouring out of his nose.

"Tara!" Hagrid shouted at me. I could tell that he wasn't angry that I had hit him, he was more upset at the fact that if someone saw me, I was going to get in a lot of trouble.

"Good thing no one asked you," I snarled at Malfoy, panting slightly.

Malfoy seemed to have finally gotten over the pain. He pulled his arm away from his nose and began to advance on me. "Why you filthy little -" he growled as Ron and Harry dove in front of me.

Hermione had been smart enough to yank me backwards. Ron dove at Malfoy and grabbed onto his robes. But before he could do anything, Snape spun around the corner. "Weasley! Potter! Nox!"

Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes. Malfoy himself immediately turned and Snape's eyes narrowed when he saw the blood that was coating his face. "They were provoked, Professor Snape," Hagrid said, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' their families," he said.

I sighed, knowing that whatever Hagrid said, wouldn't matter. It was Snape, and he would always side with Malfoy. "Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," Snape said, not even raising his voice or looking at us.

"Is bullying as well? Or is that looked over?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Hermione stomped down on my foot and I groaned in pain. "Ten points from Gryffindor, Weasley, Potter," he said. My jaw dropped. That was way more than he normally took. "Fifteen for your continued disrespect, Nox." And that time, I nearly fell. Fifteen points from one person? "Be grateful it isn't more. And, Nox, detention, tomorrow night."

I would have been smart to stay silent, but tomorrow night didn't work. The trains left in the morning. "Tomorrow night I'll be gone for the holidays. Make it tonight. Or after the break," I said.

"It will be when I say it is," Snape barked at me.

The wind felt like it had been knocked out of me. There was no way that he could keep me here that late. How was I going to get home? Walk? No way. Floo? Maybe. Apparate? I couldn't yet. And I certainly wouldn't be staying here over break. Mom and Dad would come and get me themselves. "How will I get back home? I'll miss the train if I'm at your detention," I said.

Snape didn't seem the least bit concerned. "There's another train leaving two mornings from now. The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Quidditch players have a meeting the evening before. Those that are returning home afterwards will be on that train," he told me.

At least I'd be able to get home. But I'd be a day late. And Mom and Dad would be furious with me. Or maybe Snape. "It can't just be tonight?" I asked desperately.

"No. But I'll give you an additional one tonight if you keep speaking," he said. I could see Malfoy smiling brightly behind him. "Move along, all of you. To the hospital wing, Malfoy," he ordered.

Malfoy gave me one last smile before turning and leaving, playing it up as Snape asked if he was alright. Everyone that remained were all staring at me. Most of the Gryffindor's had been in the hallway during the altercation, and they were staring at me with wide eyes. But one glare from me and they all moved along. I had half a mind to run after Malfoy and hit him again. Perhaps this time it would be someone much more sensitive. He would certainly deserve it.

Once I was sure that they were gone, I kicked the stone floor. "Merlin, I hate him! My parents are going to kill me," I groaned.

Hagrid, who had been stunned into silence over the past few minutes, seemed to finally shake himself from his stupor. "Don' worry about yer Mum and Dad, Tara. I'll write 'em a letter," he told me.

"Thank you, Hagrid," I said earnestly.

"Sorry you'll have to stay for another day, Tara," Harry said softly.

It didn't really matter. At least I'd get to stay with Harry and the Weasley boys for one more day. We could explore some of the castle that I'd yet to see. I had a feeling that Fred and George knew this castle backwards and forwards. "It's fine," I insisted, not wanting Harry or Ron to feel guilty. "He'll get his, one of these days, he'll get his," I said.

"I'll get him," Ron said, grinding his teeth at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's retreating backs, "one of these days, I'll get him -"

He was ranting until Harry cut him off, speaking over him. "I hate them both," Harry said. He was going almost the same red as Ron's hair. "Malfoy and Snape."

I'd noticed that Hermione wasn't speaking. She probably didn't approve of the hit, but she knew that he had deserved it. "Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," Hagrid said, probably wanting to distract us. We were all pissed, and it was miserable, considering how close we were to the holidays. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the three of us followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall. Harry wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I sighed, letting him pull me with him. I wanted nothing more than to drop to the ground and pretend like the last ten minutes hadn't happened. But when we finally made our way into the Great Hall, I straightened up and forgot my worries. Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations, not even noticing the four students.

Professor Flitwick seemed to finally notice us. More, he noticed Hagrid. "Ah, Hagrid, the last tree - put it in the far corner, would you?" he asked.

The Great Hall looked spectacular. Hagrid walked over and placed the last of the trees. Professor Flitwick waved his hand and I watched as tinsel, ornaments, and popcorn strands filled the tree. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls and I smiled. The older students would have a ball with those tonight. There were an entire twelve towering Christmas trees that were standing around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. The one that Hagrid had put up was the only one that was decorated traditionally.

Hagrid turned to us, smiling at our astonished faces. "How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," Hermione said.

A bitter stare fell over my face. "Two," I growled under my breath.

Hermione seemed to want to distract me from my thoughts over the detention. She grabbed my arm and began to shuffle me out of the hall. I glanced over at her with a raised eyebrow. "And that reminds me - Harry, Ron, Tara, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library," she said.

I groaned and rolled my eyes. Not again. "Oh yeah, you're right," Ron said, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

Neat. "The library?" Hagrid asked, following us out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?" he asked with a small smile.

Of course. He thought that we were going to study. In truth, it was far from that. "Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is," he admitted.

My eyes bulged and I stomped down on Harry's foot. "Idiot!" I howled at him.

Hagrid seemed as surprised at his admonition as I was at the fact that he had said it. "You what?" Hagrid asked, probably ensuring that he had heard Harry correctly. "Listen here - I've told yeh - drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'," he warned the four of us.

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," Hermione said.

But that was an utter lie and we all knew it. I couldn't really care less who he was. I wanted to know what he had to do with what Fluffy was guarding. "Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere - just give us a hint - I know I've read his name somewhere."

There was no way that Hagrid was telling us anything. If we wanted to know anything about him, we'd have to find out for ourselves. "I'm sayin' nothin," Hagrid said gruffly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," Ron said, and we dashed off, leaving Hagrid looking disgruntled.

It wasn't even close to a lie. We had spent a long time trying to find out what we could about Nicholas Flamel. At first it had been up to Ron and myself, considering we were the Pureblood's. But neither one of us knew him. I was confident that I'd read his name somewhere before but I couldn't think of where. Ron seemed to have no clue who he was. We just knew that we needed to figure out who he was, and what he was related to, because it was the only way that we were going to figure out what Snape was trying to steal.

The trouble was that it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry.

It made no sense to me. Hagrid had said that it was between Dumbledore and Flamel, whatever it was that Fluffy was guarding. That meant that it had to have been relatively recent. I knew that Dumbledore was around a hundred and fifty years old. That meant that it was relatively recent. Eve if Flamel was the same age, this had to have been something done in the last century or so. But was that modern? Maybe not. Maybe that was our mistake. Maybe he was in a somewhat recent book.

Wizards really need to get on this whole Internet thing. The Muggles know what they're doing every now and again.

But it didn't matter. We needed to find him in a book. But it was easier said than done. Part of the problem was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows. There were well over a million books in the library and it would take us all seven years of schooling to skim them all. Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random.

Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. I thought about going with him for a moment, but it would be hard enough to get one person in there. He'd been wondering since nearly the beginning of our search if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and we knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

I decided to try the Herbology section. Hermione seemed to think that he was more a man of Charms, but I wanted to give everything a try. I had barely turned down the row when my name was called. "Tara!" I turned back and smiled at Cedric, jumping when Madam Pince popped out from around the corner and shushed him. "Sorry, Madam Pince." Once she had gone, Cedric walked over to me, keeping his voice down. "I hear you'll be on the train with us in two days," he said, looking confused.

My face fell into a little snarl. "Thank Snape," I snapped.

"What happened?"

I sighed and walked with Cedric towards the back of the row. "Malfoy was making fun of Ron's family, you know, a money thing," I said softly. Cedric cringed slightly. I knew that he, like myself, came from money. "I stepped in and he called my family the biggest bunch of blood traitors that there were. He was awful about it. So I punched him. I think I broke his nose," I said.

It had seemed like his nose was turned to the right slightly when he'd looked back at me. I wasn't surprised that I had broken it. I had a strong arm. I always had. It was one of the reasons that I made a good Chaser. And a halfway decent Beater. Cedric stared at me, wide-eyed, and I wondered for a moment if I shouldn't have told the truth. It wasn't exactly something that a proper lady did. But after a moment, his lips turned upwards in a smile, and he began to laugh loudly.

I followed a moment later, and once more Madam Pince popped around the edge of the bookshelf, snapping at us to keep it down. "Sorry, Madam Pince," we whispered, giggling as she faded back out of sight.

Once we were sure that she had gone, Cedric spoke up once more, much softer this time. "You really are one of the best people in this place," he said.

My face began to burn and I wished that I could have slapped myself. He doesn't like you, you idiot! He just thinks that hitting Malfoy is funny. "That's awful kind, but I'm just too stupid to walk away from a fight," I said, trying to play off my embarrassment. "I got eighteen points deducted from Gryffindor today alone. Harry and Ron got another ten," I said.

Cedric's jaw dropped. It was the most points that I'd ever heard of getting taken away at one time. "Professor Snape can be a jerk, but don't worry about him. The way that I hear it, you'll get those points back between the other professors and in Quidditch games in no time, Cedric said.

I smiled at him. "Thanks. So you are going to be on the late train then?" I asked.

I had a feeling that he was going home for the holidays, plus, I was reasonably certain that he had just said that he was. Cedric nodded. "Sure am. You're more than welcome to sit with us. I'd hate or you to be alone," he said.

"Thanks. I think I'll take you up on that."

It definitely would have been better than sitting alone. "See you in two days then," Cedric said before turning and moving to walk away.

Suddenly, a thought hit me. Maybe Cedric would know who he was. He was a little older than us, and he'd been through these classes before. Maybe his name had popped up. "Hey, Cedric!" I called out, running up to him. "Before you leave, can I ask you something?" He nodded at me to continue. "I need to know if you've heard a name somewhere. Does Nicholas Flamel sound familiar to you?"

He seemed to search his mind for a moment, but by the way that his nose crinkled in thought, I could tell that he hadn't. "Can't say I've heard of him, sorry." Damn. "Doing a project?" he asked.

Didn't bother to think about that. "Uh - yeah. History of Magic," I said awkwardly, mostly hoping that Cedric wouldn't question why he had never done anything like that. "But I can't find this guy anywhere."

Cedric hummed and seemed to think for a few minutes. "If you're going to Diagon Alley at any point over the break, try one of the bookstores there. If anyone will have anything about him, without Madam Pince breathing down your neck, it'll be there," he told me.

It was definitely the best advice that Ron, Harry, Hermione, or I had gotten since starting the hunt for Nicholas Flamel. "Thanks, I'll give that a shot," I told him with a small smile.

We were grinning at each other for a few moments and I knew that he was about to say something, but he never got the chance. Madam Pince stuck her head around the corner once more, this time looking extremely fed up with the two of us. "Either quit loitering, or get out!" she barked at the two of us.

The two of us whirred on our feet, sprinting towards the exit. "Bye, Cedric!" I called. He was dashing off quickly. Neither one of us wanted to get in trouble with Madam Pince. She might have been worse with punishments than Snape.

Leaning up against the wall on the exit of the library, Harry walked over, asking what had happened. I groaned and told him everything, that I had been in the Herbology section and had gotten chased out by Madam Pince - who seemed determined that I wasn't really there to do work. I made it a point to not tell him that Cedric had been there as well. It was mostly because he, and all of my other friends, seemed to know that I was harboring a bit of a crush - something that I didn't want to face if I didn't have to.

It turned out that Harry had been through something similar. After Madam Pince had shouted at Cedric and I to get out of the library, she'd gone over and harassed Harry. He hadn't been able to come up with an excuse on why he was in the Restricted Section in time. We had thought about asking Madam Pince about Nicholas Flamel, but we'd quickly decided that on the off chance he was a dark wizard, it would be best to find out on our own and not sound suspicious. We also couldn't risk Snape hearing what we were up to.

Harry and I waited outside in the corridor chatting about what we were planning to do over our breaks. He wanted to explore the castle. I wanted to go see Diagon Alley at Christmas. We eventually came round circle to talking about whether or not Ron and Hermione would find anything about Flamel. We had been looking for two weeks but as we only had odd moments between lessons, we hadn't found anything. Nothing to even indicate that he was a real person. And we always had Madam Pince breathing down our necks.

Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined us, shaking their heads. We all sighed and headed off to lunch. We were halfway through the meals when I broke off a conversation with Dean to talk to the others. "I'm gonna try the bookstores in Diagon Alley while I'm home. Maybe I'll ask Mom and Dad too," I said.

"Good idea," Ron put in.

Hermione nodded as we finished off our meals. "You will keep looking while we're away, won't you? And send us an owl if you find anything," Hermione said. We would both be going home. Hermione was vacationing with her parents in Switzerland, or something like that.

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is too. It'd be safe to ask them," Ron said.

I rolled my eyes at him. I could have sworn that he knew that she was a Muggle-Born. Maybe he hadn't been listening that day on the train. "Very safe, as they're both dentists," Hermione said flatly. Both Harry and I laughed as the tips of Ron's ears went pink.

The rest of our night was spent around the fireplace in the Common Room. Everyone was sitting around and laughing, having a good time before departing in the morning. It would be the first time in months that we would be apart for more than a few hours at a time. It seemed almost weird that I wouldn't see anyone for two weeks. Most people were handing out their addresses, for friends that would be sending each other presents on Christmas, or letters.

By the time that everyone was headed off to bed, we said our goodbyes. The train was leaving at seven in the morning and I didn't intend to be up that early to say goodbye. So I said goodbye to Dean, Seamus, and Neville, hugging them each and promising that I would send their presents on Christmas - and getting the same responses. I had made the same promise to Lavender, Fay, and Parvati. They had all promised to be quiet in the morning when they were getting ready to leave. Hermione had promised to write and we'd stayed locked together in a hug, right before going to bed.

The next day I woke up at a little after nine in the morning, only because of the loud shouts from Fred, George, Ron, and Harry. It sounded like Percy was asleep. I gathered my clothes and changed, tucking everything else into my trunk for the trip tomorrow morning, and headed downstairs once I had completely gotten ready.

It was a rather nice day, considering the castle was almost empty. There were the fourteen players from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch teams, and about thirty students that had decided to stay over the break. Out of the nearly one thousand students in Hogwarts, only a handful usually stayed. Even the Weasley's normally went home. It was just because their parents were going to visit Charlie in Romania that they hadn't been able to go home this year.

We spent most of the day outside. The weather was certainly nippy, but it was nice. Hagrid came over midday, telling me that my parents had gotten my letter and would be on the platform tomorrow to pick me up. Apparently they were much more upset with Snape then they were with me. Percy spent most of the day in the library and hanging around his few friends that had actually stayed. No one else wanted to spend their one free day inside the library - so we had politely declined his offer to join them.

Instead, Fred, George, Ron, Harry, and I had all gone outside to have fun. We'd spent the day building snowmen - that Fred and George made dance - and sending them chasing the birds that still lingered in the weather. We'd played a few rounds of a snowball fight, Fred and George against Harry, Ron, and myself. None of us really ever won, we just played until we couldn't move anymore. I had gotten a good kick out of dumping snow down Fred's pants, laughing as he sprinted around the yard, trying to get it out.

Once the sun had begun to set, we all moved inside of the castle. Dinner was reasonably tasty, the few of us that remained all eating together. At the end of the day we all moved into the Gryffindor Common Room, Percy finally joining us. We all laughed and joked together, the boys saying goodbye to me before having to serve my detention sentence. I promised Harry and Ron that I would write, and I promised everyone else that they would get their presents in a week or so.

At nine o'clock - since Snape had been an ass and decided to make my detention that late - I'd finally gone down to the dungeons. As expected, I had to clean out the storage room without using magic. Not only that, but I also had to check to see what was out of date and get rid of it properly. Needless to say, I cursed to myself all night long and kicked the walls until my feet felt like they were broken. It took me nearly three hours before I was finally able to leave (and also three checks from Snape, who seemed to think that I was simply trying to get out of having to stay there).

As I walked back to the Gryffindor tower - in the near blackness of the castle - I grumbled to myself, digging my feet into the carpet. "Stupid Snape. Stupid detention. Stupid storage closet. Stupid no magic rule."

"I wasn't aware that my school had so many stupid things about it," a calm voice called out through the darkness.

I jumped nearly a foot in the air, completely unaware that someone had been with me. A wave of the hand later, and Professor Dumbledore had lit the hallways with a soft golden glow. My jaw nearly dropped when I saw him. I was mortified to have been complaining about his staff and his school with him only feet away from me. He smiled at me, his eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. My stomach lodged itself in my throat as I stared at him. I'd never spoken to him directly before.

"Professor Dumbledore!" I called awkwardly, as he walked up to me. "I'm - I'm so sorry, sir. I was just frustrated and ranting. I didn't think anyone was around to listen to me," I said stupidly.

Dumbledore smiled once more, walking forward to me, standing just a few feet away. "Don't apologize, Tara. I find that sometimes the only reasonable person to speak with in my vicinity is myself. I think that I make a good conversationalist." I smiled at his wording, giggling slightly, but I was unsure what to respond with. Thankfully, he saved me the pain of trying to force something out. "You'll be going home tomorrow, correct?" he asked me.

"Yes sir," I said respectfully.

Dumbledore nodded at me and paced slightly, smiling at one of the paintings that bowed at him. "Please tell your parents hello for me," he said after a beat of silence.

"I will."

Despite being nervous to stand in a room alone with Albus Dumbledore, he seemed none the wiser. Or maybe he did know, and was respectfully saying nothing. "How are you adjusting to life at Hogwarts?" Dumbledore finally asked, turning to me.

"Pretty well," I said honestly. Hogwarts was one of the best places that I'd ever been. "I've really enjoyed my time here. Honestly, I was so looking forward to going to Ilvermorny and I was devastated when I found out that I would be coming to Hogwarts instead. But this has become a home to me."

Dumbledore smiled at me. I assumed that he always wanted his students to be happy, he just watched them from afar. I wondered how much he really knew about me. "I'm very pleased to hear that. I've noticed that you've taken to your Gryffindor housemates well. Particularly Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, and Mr.'s Weasley," he said.

So he had been watching me closer than I had thought. "Yes. Harry and I got on well before coming here. Hermione is my dorm mate so we've become close. And Ron... he's Ron. I have no better way to describe him." To my surprise, Dumbledore smiled, almost laughing. I loved Ron, but I couldn't explain why. "Fred and George are a joy. To me, anyways. They must be horrible to have around though, with all of the damage that they cause."

Dumbledore shook his head as he walked up to another painting, his blue robes flowing behind him. "Quite the contrary, I'm afraid, I do enjoy seeing their newest ideas." I almost laughed. I couldn't believe that Dumbledore liked the trouble they caused. "They'll make good partners in business. They remind me of someone I used to know."

"Who?" I asked curiously.

"Myself, of course," Dumbledore said proudly. I laughed as he crossed his arms behind his back. He looked like a hundred year old child. Part of me wanted to ask what he had done in his days, but I hadn't. "I've also noticed that you've become rather taken with Mr. Diggory."

My face went bright red. Well that's embarrassing. I guess I was so obvious about it that even the Headmaster of the school had noticed. I was pretty sure that I'd never felt so stupid in my life. Even Dumbledore knew. "I -uh - yeah. We - uh - we met in Diagon Alley. Before the year. We were both getting fitted for robes," I said awkwardly.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled once more behind his spectacles. In fact, I was reasonably certain that they always did. "I mean not to embarrass you, only an old man's curiosity. Mr. Diggory is a good student; smart, well-adept, and kind beyond a fault. He's a suitable choice," Dumbledore said, smiling softly at me.

A heavy blush rose over my face and I desperately wanted to go dashing through the halls. But I knew that it was rude. And Dumbledore was probably enjoying knowing that I was embarrassed. "Yes, I suppose he is," I said awkwardly.

We stood in silence for a few minutes before Dumbledore turned to me and motioned me towards the Gryffindor tower. "You should scamper off to bed, Tara. Have a good holiday," he told me.

He seemed to be enjoying an evening stroll. I couldn't help but to wonder if he did this every evening or if other people had ever run into him. "Thank you, sir, you too," I said, turning to leave. But before I could, I decided to speak up. Dumbledore seemed to enjoy curiosity, and maybe he wouldn't get suspicious. "Professor? Might I ask you a question?" I asked. He turned to me and nodded slowly. "I recently heard the name Nicholas Flamel. Would that mean anything to you?" I asked, before I could lose my nerve.

For a brief moment, I thought that I saw the corners of his lips turn upwards. Almost like he knew why I was asking him. Could he? "In fact, it would. He's a very old friend of mine," Dumbledore said. My jaw nearly dropped. Had he actually admitted that he knew who Nicholas Flamel was? If he did, that meant that he had to be somewhere around a hundred years old. Meaning he should be in those books. Dumbledore seemed to realize my internal battle. "Remember, when all else fails, go in the other direction."

What the hell does that mean? "Right," I said, unable to think of anything else to say. "Goodnight, Professor," I said, turning to leave.

"Goodnight, Miss Nox."

The entire night I thought back and forth over what Dumbledore had told me. Going in the other direction. What did that mean? Did that make any sense? No, of course not. It made absolutely no sense. Go in the other direction. But what direction were we going with? Thinking that he was a person. Of course he was. It wouldn't make any sense to think of him as anything but a person. He had a name. Looking in books? No. That didn't make sense either. There was no other way to look for him. Wizards didn't have the Internet. So what did he mean?

As I laid in my dorm all by myself - something that was incredibly creepy, and I found myself halfway tempted to use one of the spare beds in either Ron and Harry's or Fred and George's rooms - I thought about Dumbledore's words. He was one of the best sorcerers in the world. He hadn't said it for no reason. So what was that reason?

The next morning I rose from bed and shouted upstairs for the boys to come and say goodbye. I knew that it was early but I wanted to see them one last time. Fred and George both whacked me over the head for waking them up early, gave me bone-crushing hugs, and told me that their presents better be good before heading back upstairs. Percy gave me a quick hug and wished me a happy holiday before heading back upstairs. Harry and Ron lingered a little longer. I relayed my conversation with Dumbledore - bypassing the Cedric comments - and told them to think about what he meant. They promised that they would during the break.

Finally I headed out towards the carriages that would bring me out to the train. Professor Flitwick loaded me in one by myself and wished me a Merry Christmas that I returned. The ride to the train was silent and once I got there, I was almost unnerved at how silent the station was. I climbed on, thanking Hagrid for handling my trunk. The train was nearly silent and I saw that most of the cabins were empty. It was unlike the first time that I'd been on the train - unable to find a spot.

I sighed as I walked up and down through the halls. I spent nearly ten minutes trying to find where Cedric and the rest of the Hufflepuff team were sitting. I had passed the Ravenclaw team in the front of the train once - and been invited to sit with them by one of their Chasers, Roger Davies - but I had declined politely due to the scathing glares being sent my way by Cho Chang. I continued to search the halls for the Hufflepuff team, but I knew that I would only have another two minutes before I had to find somewhere to sit and I'd be stuck sitting by myself for a few hours with nothing to keep myself amused.

Maybe a nap wouldn't be that bad. "Tara!" a familiar voice shouted. I turned back and smiled when I saw Cedric standing on the other end of the car that I was in. "In here!" he called out.

Smiling at him, I nodded and walked over to where he was waiting for me. Once I walked in, I glanced around. It wasn't like any cabin that I had ever seen before. Maybe it was because I was never up in this front section. The cabins up here weren't really cabins. They were actually open air sections of the trains where tables were all placed every few feet - each holding up to ten people. It was the section normally reserved for Prefects, I realized. But with no one else around, it would work. Cedric nudged me inside and I smiled at the group of six that were sitting at the table, silencing their conversations as we walked up.

Cedric began to motion me to the players. "These are our Beaters, Maxine O'Flaherty and Anthony Rickett. These are our Chasers, Malcolm Preece, Heidi Macavoy, and Tasmin Applebee. And this is our Keeper, Herbert Fleet." Each player nodded as Cedric introduced them. "Everyone, this is the Gryffindor alternate, Tara Nox."

I blushed softly as they all smiled at me. "Hello," they chirped in unison.

"Hi everyone. Nice to meet you all," I said as Cedric pushed me into the seat next to him.

As I took my seat, I glanced around at the rest of the people sitting in the cabin. Maxine O'Flaherty had short brown hair and soft blue eyes. She looked to be about the same age as Cedric. Anthony Rickett was so pale that I was almost shocked that he managed to play Quidditch in the sun. He had a friendly smile though. Malcolm Preece had short brown hair and even though I had a feeling that he was in his Third Year with Cedric, he could have passed for a First Year. Heidi Macavoy had long brown hair and bright green eyes. Tasmin Applebee had soft brown hair and a fierce smile. Herbert Fleet had short brown hair and a confident smile.

Overall, they all seemed rather friendly. I sat in the middle of the table and let each one of them introduce themselves to me and tell me a little bit about themselves. I did the same as we left the Hogwarts station, headed back to King's Cross. I was extremely grateful that I wasn't just awkwardly sitting there, the Quidditch players made me feel welcomed into their conversation. And any time that the conversation dulled, or I felt like I didn't know what to say, Cedric would somehow manage to drag me back into it.

We talked about everything that I could possibly imagine under the sun. They asked me how I enjoyed being at Hogwarts for my First Year - which I was more than willing to talk about. They asked me what I thought about the classes and the professors - laughing when I made a rather large stink about hating Snape. It seemed that everyone thought the same thing about him. I was glad that they didn't think that I was being whiny. And everyone loved the fact that I had punched Malfoy in the nose. Apparently he was overly rude to the Hufflepuff Prefects the few times that he had been caught by them, out of bed after hours.

The trolley witch had strolled by after we'd been on our way for about an hour. The ride was six hours so we needed to do something to pass the time. WE had all split our money, each one of us pooling to buy something. Between the small group of us we bought nearly everything. For the next hour we all traded with each other, laughing as we spent nearly another hour trying to decipher Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Cedric was unlucky enough to get vomit. I had been unlucky enough to get pepper. We each swore that the other had it easier.

Thankfully Malcolm had something else to pass the time. Exploding Snap - one of my least favorite card games. Not because it wasn't fun - it was - but because I always managed to get hurt. We played nearly ten games, everyone winning at least once. Malcolm won three times. But we'd all suffered injuries. Mostly everyone had gotten their eyebrows singed. I'd managed to avoid it, but I had gotten the bottom of my hair burned. It was now about an inch shorter. Cedric had gotten a rather nasty burn over his right hand when three cards - one of which he'd been trying to tap - had exploded. I was glad that he had gotten to it before I could.

We were about halfway through the ride when everyone began to disperse slightly around the cabin. No one wanted to see another injury from Exploding Snap. Maybe in another hour or so. Maxine was involved in a Muggle book, called Pride and Prejudice, Anthony was doing some work that Professor Sinistra had assigned him after breaking a telescope, Malcolm was attempting to find a potion that would regrow his eyebrows, Heidi was reading some Muggle fashion magazine, Tasmin was napping in the corner of the booth, and Herbert - the Captain of the team - seemed to be thinking up new moves for the remainder of the season.

Cedric and I were seated on the floor - having not moved from the games of Exploding Snap - helping each other with our work. I was next to useless at Astronomy. It turned out that Cedric was rather good with it. He helped me map my charts that I was supposed to be doing while I was at home. In return, I helped him with his Arithmancy. In Hogwarts we wouldn't get the chance to take the class until our Third Year. At Ilvermorny it had been one of the core classes. So, with a knack for numbers naturally, and some practice, I'd become very good at it. Even though it was on a Third Year level, looking over Cedric's books, I managed to help him complete it.

Time ticked by slowly, but I was enjoying myself. We were now sitting back-to-back, leaning on each other as I looked through his books, making the occasional comment or question to him. "Nox, I think I've heard that name before," Anthony spoke up, startling me.

We had gone over my family but I hadn't mentioned my father's name. I'd merely said that he now worked for the Ministry - which was true. "My father, Marcus Nox, was one of the Chasers on the United States Stars up until a few years ago when we moved," I said.

Cedric moved from me and we sat next to each other on the floor, each one of us cross-legged. "Ah, a professional!" Heidi chirped, placing her magazine down on the table. "We better be careful, boys. The daughter of a professional Quidditch player, and Harry Potter himself on one Quidditch team, might be a tough season," she said, aiming a wink at me.

I smiled at her. The new topic seemed to have drawn everyone away from what they were doing to head back over to the table. "Can't speak for the other teams, but I know that we won't be easy to beat," I told them confidently.

Everyone smiled at my comment. They all knew that we had won our match against Slytherin, but they had won their match against Ravenclaw too. "We'll see about that," Cedric said, nudging me gently.

I saw a brief flash of emotion - maybe something like amusement - through Tasmin's eyes, but it was gone as soon as it had been there. "So did your parents teach you to play, Tara?" she asked me.

"My Dad did, my Mom likes to watch but she's not much of a player herself. I used to go and play with the American team sometimes during their practices," I said.

"Wicked!" Malcolm chirped.

It seemed that everyone was fascinated by the fact that I'd practiced with real Quidditch players. "That's amazing," Maxine said. I smiled at her and nodded. "So you're from the States?" she asked after a beat of silence.

After a moment of deliberating, I shook my head at her. I could have lied and said that I was born there, but it wasn't really the truth. "I was born in Godric's Hollow. But we moved after..." I trailed off. I had no problem saying Voldemort's name - my parents had always taught me not to fear it - but I didn't know how the others would react.

The group went stone-cold silent and wide eyed. Some of the people in here probably remembered that night. At least, hearing about it. "Your parents fought against You-Know-Who?" Anthony finally asked.

I nodded at him. "Yes, It wasn't safe for us to stay after Harry's parents were killed - we were next-door neighbors - so we moved to America. I was raised there until I was nine. We moved to Surrey about three years ago. I was always on the list to go to Hogwarts. I just didn't know," I said, hoping not to draw sympathy.

Harry had been the one that had lost something, not me. Thankfully, they all seemed to notice my discomfort with the subject. "So that explains the lack of the British accent," Tasmin said.

Smiling at her, I nodded. "It certainly draws a lot of funny looks," I said.

A few giggles were exchanged. "I like it. It's different," Maxine said.

There was just under an hour left on the ride. It would be nearing three in the afternoon by the time that we got back. We enjoyed the rest of the ride together, everyone finding a spot to lounge around in. I plopped myself against the couch, stretching out and laying my legs over Cedric's. He was sitting almost under the table. We were all chatting back and forth - excited now that the ride was nearly over. As we approached King's Cross, the conversation turned to a friendly rivalry between the Houses.

Currently I was attempting to make my point that Gryffindor was the superior House. "What are you talking about?" Anthony barked at me. "The Hufflepuff Common Room is by the kitchens! That automatically makes us better!"

A small smile broke across my face. The Common Rooms were supposed to be a secret. Anyone that were in the outside Houses weren't supposed to know where they were. The others seemed shocked that he had accidentally let it slip. "Ant!" Maxine shouted. His face paled even more as he realized what he had said. "We aren't supposed to tell people that!"

"Your secret is safe with me," I promised them. I had no interest in where the Hufflepuff Common Room was, it was simply funny that he had made the mistake.

Everyone took their turns smacking Anthony before quieting down, watching as we pulled into the station. As we all stood and gathered our things, Cedric nudged me. "So do we get to know where the Gryffindor Common Room is now?"

"Yeah, right," I scoffed.

"We're home, everyone!" Herbert called out. Smiles fell over everyone's face as we all stood and gathered our trunks. Herbert helped me with my trunk and pulled it off of the train for me. "It was nice to meet you, Tara," he told me.

I smiled and waved everyone off. "Nice to meet you all too," I called out to them.

As we all left the station - heading back into the Muggle side - I said goodbye to each of the Hufflepuff's that I had met. Maxine and Tasmin left me with a promise that they would love to take me shopping some time. I had told them that if they were ever around London to give me a ring. Either over the Muggle phones or owl. The boys all told me that one day I should come by and show them some American Quidditch moves. I'd told them that maybe I would, once the season was over.

That had earned a wild bought of laughter. Slowly, and one-by-one, everyone had left the station. I'd briefly met their parents and introduced myself. But eventually, they'd all gone. I was still waiting for my parents. They - just like me - had a tendency to be late. I didn't mind, it was nice to simply stand in the station. Although, I wasn't alone. Ten minutes after we had wandered into the station, Cedric was still hanging around me. I wasn't sure if his parents were here or not yet, but he hadn't made a move to look for them.

Finally I had to say something. I didn't want him to think that he had to babysit me. "You don't have to look for them with me, I think that I can manage," I told him softly.

Cedric glanced down at me with a bright smile. "I don't care about you, I want to meet your father," he said with a serious face.

I stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. He followed a moment later as I shoved him roughly, wishing that we were allowed to do magic outside of school. "Tare?" I heard a familiar voice call out.

My head whipped back and I smiled at the sight of my parents. They looked no different than normal, but they both looked thrilled to see me. Momentarily forgotten about Cedric, I launched forward and after my parents. "Mom! Dad!" I shouted as I jumped into their arms. "Oh I've missed you both so much!" I mumbled into their shoulders.

We stayed together for a moment before Mom finally released me, stepping back to take a look at me. "We've missed you too, Tiger," she said, once she had determined that I was still in one piece.

"You've gotten taller," Dad said.

Wouldn't that be a nice surprise? Perhaps that could be my Christmas present this year. "Or perhaps you've gotten shorter," I teased, giving Dad a quick punch to the arm.

He looked affronted by the thought. "I certainly hope not. You're the only one in this family that's allowed to have the short gene," he told me.

My grin fell off of my face and my eyebrows knitted. "I should have stayed at school," I said dryly.

Mom turned a glare on Dad before she reared back and punched him in the stomach. She could be a spitfire when she wanted to be. "Be quiet, Marcus!" she snapped before coming back to fawn over me. "Oh my darling, you look wonderful!" she chirped, fussing over my hair. I pushed her hand away, not wanting her to see the singed ends. "And I've learned how to use those fancy cooking machines that Muggles use. I'll have to show you them."

A small smile fell over my face as I shook my head free of the fond memories of our many disasters with the Muggle cooking machines. "Great. We can destroy the house all over again." Both of my parents laughed as I stepped to the side, remembering that Cedric was still standing with me. "Mom, Dad, I want you both to meet a friend of mine. This is Cedric Diggory, Cedric, these are my parents. He's a player on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team," I said.

Mom moved forward first, wrapping Cedric in a very motherly hug. "Good to meet you, sweetheart," she hummed softly.

He smiled brightly at her. "You as well, ma'am," he said politely.

Dad was smiling at him. I knew that he liked that Cedric was a Quidditch player, and I was hoping that he would ignore the fact that Cedric was older than me, because of it. "Good man," he said, moving forward to shake Cedric's hand. "What position?"

"Seeker, sir."

Dad's face brightened and I rolled my eyes. But I said nothing. Let boys be boys. Mom had always told me that. "Very good man!" Dad clapped Cedric on the back. "You any good?"

Any worry that I'd had that the two wouldn't get along went out the window. "I've won a few games at Hogwarts. I've played five, so far. I started in my Second Year. We've won three. Lost two games last year, we had our first game of the year just a few weeks ago," he said.

I listened curiously, wanting to know whether or not the Hufflepuff team was better than they made it out to be. "Should have been against Ravenclaw, if I remember correctly," Dad said.

My jaw nearly dropped. I couldn't fathom how he still remembered that. "Yes, sir."

"Excited to play against Tara?" Dad asked.

My jaw dropped and my face lit up a brilliant red. "Dad!" I barked.

Cedric smiled at my discomfort and patted me on the shoulder. I noticed Dad's eyes following his hand closely and I rolled my eyes. "Yes, sir. Excited to see if she's just as good as she says she is," he said.

"She is," Dad deadpanned.

The last thing that he wanted was me to lose a game. Mom seemed to finally notice my discomfort and she stepped forward, pushing Dad back gently. "Marcus. It's been lovely to meet you, Cedric. Are your parents around?" she asked.

"My father, ma'am." My eyebrows knitted. Had something happened to his mother? Would he have told me anyways? No. He barely knows you. You're just acquaintances. "He's around somewhere, I expect."

I wondered if my parents would leave without knowing that Cedric would be getting home alright. "You said Diggory, correct?" Dad asked after a beat. Cedric nodded. "Amos Diggory your father, by any chance?" he asked.

They must have gone to school together. "Yes, sir. Did you know him?" Cedric asked curiously.

Dad nodded at him. "We did. He was a few years older than us in school." That definitely explained the looks on their faces when I'd said Cedric's name. They knew his father. "Came to our wedding. You tell him the Nox's say hello."

"I will, sir."

"Would you like us to stay and wait with you, Cedric? Or perhaps we can offer you a lift home?" Mom offered.

Cedric shook his head and stepped back politely. I knew that he wouldn't hug me. Not with my parents right here. "I appreciate the offer, but I'll be fine. Dad's probably out in the parking lot. Or by the fireplaces. Anyways, it was nice to meet you both. Tara speaks very highly of you. See you in a few weeks, Tara," Cedric said, waving me off.

I sighed, knowing that he wouldn't hug me. But at least we'd gotten a good chance to sit and talk earlier today. "Bye, Cedric," I said, giving him a short wave. At least I'd see him in a few weeks.

Once he had gone, my parents placed their hands on my back and began pushing me from the station. I found myself eager to go home. As much as I loved Hogwarts, I really had missed them. "What a handsome boy," Mom commented softly as we walked off of the platform and into the main station.

It was crowded, but I was still able to shout over it. "Mom!"

"Julia!" Dad barked.

The both of us were staring at her with wide eyes. Myself because I was embarrassed. Dad because he would flip if I dared admit that I had a crush on someone when I was only twelve years old. "I'm only saying," she defended, holding her hands up. "He does look quite like Amos did during his school years."

Dad stopped short, his face draining of color before he rounded a glare on Mom. "What does that mean?" he asked her.

"Nothing," she airily blew off the question.

Dad glared at her for a moment longer as we walked out of the building. I yawned and smiled at my parents as we walked through the throng of people. Finally, Dad looked over at me and asked the question I was waiting for. "How old is he?"

"Oh, you must stop!" I shouted.

It was so natural that I hadn't been back for ten minutes before my parents had decided that it was time to embarrass me. "What were the rules, Tara?" Dad asked.

I had been hoping that he would forget about the rules. "How I've missed you both," I said dryly, trying to wiggle my way out of their arms locked around me.

Dad snorted as we stopped at a booth, letting me buy a Coke. I loved wizarding food, but nothing was better than a Coke after months of not having one. "Evidently not that much, or else you would have been with us, and not off gallivanting with Severus Snape last night," Dad said, nearly making me spit it out.

As we walked off once more, I realized that we were heading to the fireplaces. They hadn't driven. Good. I was sick of sitting. "I hate him. What did you do that makes him hate me that much?" I asked my Dad with a sharp glare.

His mouth dropped open and he made a sound that was something like a scoff. "You automatically assume that I'm the reason he hates you?" Dad asked. I nodded. It had to be something that he had done. After all, he had hated me before he'd ever even heard me speak. "Perhaps you're really just that unpleasant," Dad offered.

"I'm a joy to be around."

Mom sighed and pushed the two of us apart. "Enough, the both of you. What, exactly, did happen?" Mom asked. A soft blush filled over my face. I thought that they had already known. "The letter from Severus only said that you had been involved in a fight."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a fight. There was only one punch thrown. Malfoy was insulting Ron's family because of their money issues and I stepped in, politely telling him to knock it off," I lied. The look on my parents' faces told me that they didn't believe me. So I coughed and continued my story, "Anyways, he attacked our family, calling us the biggest bunch of blood traitors he'd ever seen. So I punched him. I think I broke his nose," I said.

Mom had her eyebrows knitted. She was probably debating on a proper punishment for me. But Dad smiled and laughed, clapping me on the back. "That's my girl!" he called out.

"Marcus!" Mom shouted. I imagined that she was proud of me too, but she would never outright say it. "I don't know why I ever allowed you to have a child. You're still one yourself," she told Dad.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around them both, walking over to the fireplaces. "I've missed you both so much," I said, chuckling softly.

They both smiled at me as we walked into the fireplace, making sure that none of the Muggles were paying attention to us. "We've missed you too, darling. I wouldn't recommend that you get into another fight, but on the off chance that you do, try and make it somewhere a little less open," she told me, before shouting our address and flinging us back home.

The vacation turned out to be the best that I could have imagined it to be. When we'd gotten back home, Dai had flown around for well over an hour, hooting and pecking at everything. He seemed thrilled to not have the other school owls pecking at him. And I imagined that he was more than happy to be somewhere quiet. Plus, the food was better here. Hale had flown over and chirped at Dai, the two of them flying around for a while. Hale had finally noticed me and landed on my arm, giving me a rough peck, before flying off. One of these days, I really was going to cook Hale. Or lock him out. Maybe I'd set Marge Dursley's dog on him. Of course, Hale would probably win that fight.

It had been wonderful to be back in my bed for the first time. As much as I loved my roommates back in Hogwarts, I loved having the bedroom to myself again. Plus a door was a good treat. And it was nice not having Hermione try and drag me out of the bed at the crack of dawn every morning. Plus, I was able to use my bathroom without having to wait on Parvati or Lavender.

Perhaps the best part was that there was no more school. No classes and no homework. I'd managed to get the homework that I had been assigned done on the train - with Cedric's help - so I had been enjoying my break. I had written down a few questions from my Herbology and Potions homework and brought them up with Mom during a chat about her Healing career. She probably knew what I was doing, but she had let me run with it anyways. I appreciated it.

Over the past week I'd exchanged a few letters back and forth with my friends. Hermione was having a blast with her parents and seemed to love telling them everything about the wizarding world. She had asked if I'd found out anything about Nicholas Flamel - which I hadn't. Ron and Harry had both sent me letters, Harry telling me all about how magical Christmas's were in the wizarding world. Ron begged me to give him a spell to shut Percy's mouth. He evidently wanted to spend the break working on their homework.

Fred and George had sent me my favorite letter. I'd opened it in the living room and it had exploded. I'd realized too late that it was a color bomb. They were impractical magic, but still made for a funny joke. They were bombs that were made of something like colored chalk. When the intended recipient opens the letter - and it only explodes when they do - a certain color pops out and dyes that person's face and hair. It had dyed me green and silver for three days. Thankfully Mom had finally managed to get it out.

It only made me more determined to get them back at the end of the semester. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do to them yet, but I knew that it was going to be something horrible. Because that would make my year. To embarrass the two that were supposed to be the prank masters. I couldn't imagine anything better. Except for passing my classes, but I already knew that I would manage that.

It was now Christmas Eve and I was lying in bed waiting to leave. I had been enjoying the past few days at home but I felt like I had been too cooped up. I loved being back home, but I also loved the freedom that came with being in Hogwarts. We were allowed to do whatever we wanted, pretty much whenever we wanted. And we were always around our friends. Now I was stuck at home with my parents. Not that it was a bad thing. We had had some pretty good days.

True enough, Mom had managed to learn how to use the Muggle blender. But we had quickly figured out that we needed a food processor and not a blender to make cookies. They turned out tasting like a smoothie. Not as good as it might sound. We had gone to get a Christmas tree and Dad had made it grow from seven feet to twelve, taking up the entire living room. We had spent the first day decorating and enjoying swapping stories with what had happened to us over the past few months.

Turned out that Dad was enjoying his new job. He particularly enjoyed getting to sneak out of the office sometimes to Apparate over to the States and play with the Stars for a few minutes. Something that I had sworn that I wouldn't tell Mom. And speaking of her, she'd decided to take on a few hours at St. Mungo's, something that she seemed extremely happy to be doing. I had told them all about Hogwarts and I could see the nostalgia in their eyes. Clearly they missed it there. I couldn't blame them. It was wonderful.

Over the past few days I'd even gone over to say hello to the Dursley's. Not that I'd wanted to. Mom and Dad had ordered me to go and at least say hello. Plus Harry had wanted to know how happy they were to have a Christmas without him. They seemed to be thrilled, I told him that they were weeping into their soup. Dudley had seemed happy to see me but when I'd told them that Harry was learning all kinds of hexes and potions used to poison people, his parents had quickly chased me off.

It was all so worth it. But I'd been so busy with getting back into a routine and enjoying my time to myself that I'd completely forgotten one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I hadn't gone Christmas shopping. And we were just a few hours away from when the stores closed. I knew that I would have to leave soon if I wanted to get the chance to go. It would also be my chance to check out the bookstores and see if any of them had anything on Nicholas Flamel. Apparently Ron and Harry hadn't found anything.

As I slipped on my black coat over my blue wool sweater and white jeans, a small pecking started at my window. I walked over and smiled at Dai, opening it and letting him hop in. He tossed the letter carelessly on the table and flew off, probably to go defrost in front of the fireplace. I sighed at the moody bird and closed my window, brushing away the few flakes of snow that had drifted into the room. I took a seat at the table in my room and smiled when I saw that the letter was from Harry.

Tara,

We miss you here! Ron says hello. He also says that he'll trade you Errol for Dai. We haven't been thinking much about Flamel, sorry about that. Have you found anything?

Almost no one is here for the holidays. But it's nice. We get the good armchairs by the fireplace. We keep plotting ways to get Malfoy expelled. Hopefully one of them will work.

Ron's been teaching me Wizard's Chess. I like it! I'm alright but Ron's great. We use his grandfather's set that Ron has now. Seamus let me borrow his chessmen to play with. Did you know that the pieces try and speak to you to help you? Sometimes it's really helpful but either times it's really confusing.

Anyways, how's your break been? I can't wait for you to get back.

Attached is your present. It's not Christmas yet but I didn't want it to be late. Sorry I couldn't get you anything more. Tell your parents Merry Christmas for me.

Love, Harry.

My smile was bright as I dug through my dresser for a pen. We were required to write with a quill and inkwell at Hogwarts, so I took the advantage of being able to use a pen while I was at home. I pulled out a piece of parchment and thought for a moment before beginning to write my response to Harry.

Harry,

Isn't Errol Percy's? Or was he another one of the Weasley hand-me-downs? Poor owl, I'm not sure how much longer the thing will last. Although he seems to have survived quite a few disasters. Perhaps he's like a cat. Nine lives. More like nine hundred.

I'm going to send your present along with Ron's, Fred's, and George's. Maybe I'll even get something for Percy. I haven't decided yet. Perhaps a book. As always, I've waited until the last moment to go Christmas shopping. I'll be going in just a few moments to Diagon Alley. I haven't even gotten anything for Mom and Dad! They have presents for you, but I'll send them with mine.

Do me a favor, if you're going to get Malfoy expelled, wait until I'm back to see it.

I'm going to ask Mom and Dad about Nicholas Flamel soon. I wanted to give them some time to calm down after I had to stay late for my detention. If anyone knows, it will be them.

I'm next to miserable at Wizard's Chess. Mom is good at it but I inherited my skills from Dad. We're both horrible. I have a nice set that I never use. You can have it if you decide that you like it. Yes, I did know that the pieces speak to you. I think mine belonged to a crass older woman - the pieces like their profanity.

Anyways, I need to leave before the shops close tonight. I'll write again in the morning. Have a nice day! Try and get something useful done at the end of the break. Until then, I'll try and get something done here. Tell Ron I say Merry Christmas. And write Hermione! She'd like to hear from you both. Maybe try and insist that you've done some work.

Love, Tara.

Rereading the letter to ensure that it was appropriate enough to send, I folded it up, tucked it inside an envelope with the Hogwarts shield and handed it off to Dai. He gave a soft shriek - one that I assumed meant that he didn't want to go out into the weather - but grabbed the letter anyways. He gave me a soft nip before spreading his wings and flying out of the window. Not without two treats for enticement. I rolled my eyes and smiled, closing the window behind him.

In the meantime I got ready for my expedition for the day. It was only forty degrees out and I was ensuring that I wouldn't freeze during the day. It was about the same weather in Scotland, and for a moment I wished that I was there. They didn't have the icy wind that we did right now. I slipped leg warmers under my jeans and a pair of brown boots over them. Before I headed out into the living room I tucked on a black hat, black gloves, and a black scarf. I knew that if I didn't wear them, Mom would order me to put them on.

Once I had everything on properly, I headed downstairs and into the living room. Dad looked up from Quidditch Weekly and Mom glanced up from her knitting. "You look like you're going out," she commented.

I nodded at her. "I'm heading to Diagon Alley."

"Have you asked?"

"May I go to Diagon Alley?"

This time it was Dad's turn to speak. "On Christmas Eve?" he asked, sounding disbelieving.

I shuffled my feet awkwardly. I always liked to pretend that I was on top of everything, but I had terrible time management. It was why I hadn't bought any presents yet. "Well... yes," I mumbled.

Mom smiled at me. "I see that you've inherited your father's terrible timing on when to buy presents," she said. Dad turned a glare on her as I smiled. "Go for it, dear. Just be back in time for dinner. Don't be late," she told me.

"I won't!" I chirped as I ran over to the fireplace. "Thanks, guys. See you later!" I grabbed a handful of Floo powder but before I threw it down, I stuck my head out of the fireplace. "Oh wait! What do you want for Christmas?" I called out to them.

They didn't even both glancing up. "Your health," Mom said at the same time that Dad said, "The new Nimbus Two Thousand and One!"

Mom turned her heated glare on Dad and I smiled as the blood drained from his face. He cleared his throat and turned back over to me. "Your health, too," he said bashfully before turning back to Mom. "But, come on, Jules, you can't buy health."

Grinning at the two of them, I stepped back into the fireplace. "I'll keep that in mind. Want to give me any more than one hundred Galleons?" It was what they always gave me to get my Christmas presents and it was always more than enough. But I was buying for a lot of people this year. "I'll be more than happy to buy you a new broom."

"A hundred Galleons had better be enough to buy all of your friends presents!" Mom snapped.

Knowing that I had pressed my luck a little too far, I blushed and stepped back against the wall of the fireplace. "Right, then, I'm off. Diagon Alley!" I shouted, throwing the Floo powder down into the grate.

I was sucked through the air with my eyes closed before being spit out into the entry and Flourish and Blotts. A young woman greeted me sweetly as I brushed myself off and walked in, checking in the mirror to ensure that I hadn't gotten too much soot on my pants. I wished the workers a Merry Christmas before beginning my walk around. I'd look for presents first. And maybe I'd ask the workers later - when I'd return - if they knew where I could find anything on Nicholas Flamel.

But for now, I settled on finding something for everyone. I pulled out my list of people to shop for and settled on finding something for Percy first. Since I was in Flourish and Blotts, I figured that I would go with him. I didn't really know Percy that well, but he'd been kind to me and gotten me out of the odd detention or two. So I figured that meant I'd give him a good present. And I knew that Percy was a reader. It took me nearly twenty minutes to find the book that I was looking for. Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes by E. Limus. Percy loved anything old-fashioned. Most of these charms he'd never be able to replicate, but they were fun to read about.

Afterwards, I headed down the list and figured I'd continue on the Weasley trend. So I settled on finding something for Fred and George. I looked for Fred first. They might have been twins, but they were two different people, and that meant two different presents. But I knew where to go for both. Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. I knew immediately what to get for Fred. He liked to call Percy a prat, so I bought him a Nose Biting Teacup, for the instances in which he was being just that.

It was clever and he wouldn't get in trouble for using underage magic, since jokes were nearly untraceable and not considered against the law, considering most wizarding children used them at some point before turning eleven. I then went to looking for something for George. After a few minutes of deliberation, I picked him up a package of Dungbombs - something that I would probably live to regret.

For a moment I thought about getting something for Ron, but I bypassed him for now. I hadn't settled on what I wanted to get him yet. Either candy or something Quidditch related. So I went to shopping for Seamus. He was easy. I got him two Chocolate Frogs, almost buying him a third. For his parents' sake, I settled on two. He was always telling me how much he loved them, but that he was never able to get them.

After that I went to getting something for Dean. He was easy to shop for, but it took me nearly an hour to get what I was looking for. The complete set of Loony Nonby Vs. Cornish Pixie. He had mentioned before that it was one of his favorite things to read. It was a wizarding comic book that my Dad had tried to get me into when I was younger. I'd never liked it, always feeling that it was a little creepy. He insisted that it was a boy thing. As I read through it waiting to check out, I realized that he hadn't been lying.

Then it was time to turn to the girls. I went to Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions for them. Honestly, if I hadn't known them as well as I did - only because I roomed with them - I wouldn't have gotten them anything. But Lavender and Parvati had said that they were getting something for everything, so I figured that I would too. Lavender and Parvati both got the same thing. A package of colorful makeup that changed with the time. They were both getting into makeup lately, so I figured that it would be nice.

It took me a little while longer to find something for Fay. Unlike Parvati and Lavender, she didn't wear makeup. It was something that I appreciated. It was also why the two of us - and Hermione - always tried to get into the bathroom first. We took a lot less time. But I finally settled on something. Something that Fay had once mentioned to me. I grabbed her a potion that was designed to get rid of tangles, since she was constantly complaining about how her hair got tangled within minutes of brushing it.

Once I had gotten things for the girls, I moved on to getting something for my parents. I already knew what I wanted for both of them. I had seen an advertisement stating that Phyllida Spore had been selling autographed books last week. So I walked back into Flourish and Blotts and asked sweetly if they had any. Thankfully, there was one left. It was a copy of Healing at Home with Herbs by Phyllida Spore. Mom already had a copy, but this one was signed. And I knew that Spore was one of her favorite authors. She would flip.

Then I moved onto Dad. I'd seen this in the Daily Prophet the other day. It was one of the only times that they'd ever done something useful. It was a Snitch signed by Gwenog Jones. She was one of Dad's favorite players. She had built the all-female team, the Holyhead Harpies. It - by far - ate up most of my money. I didn't mind. I always spent most of my money on things for Mom and Dad. They were the ones that gave me the one hundred Galleons anyways - a good lump of money.

Swallowing the guilt in my throat - knowing that a lot of other people could barely afford presents for their family - I headed to find something for Neville. It took me a while, but I settled on some candy. It was a large basket. I loved Neville, but I really didn't know enough about him to know what he wanted. So I got him enough candy to last him the rest of the year. It would be good for me to be able to keep him awake during our late-night study sessions.

Batting the idea back and forth for a while, I decided that I was going to get something for Hagrid. After all, he had been a good friend to me and a good friend to my parents. I decided to go for a book. I knew that Hagrid loved animals, so I knew just where to go. I searched for twenty minutes before spotting it. Beastiarium Magicum. It was a medieval book about magical creatures, one of Newt Scamander's personal favorites. And I knew Hagrid had always wanted it.

Finally I came to the issue of what to get Ron, Harry, and Hermione. I instantly scratched books off for Harry and Ron. If I got them anything, I knew that they wouldn't read them. So I decided to get Hermione's presents first. She was easy. I just had to remember which books she already had. I decided to get her one book from every subject. They were New Theory of Numerology, Magical Creatures, Ingredient Encyclopedia, Extreme Incantations, The Dark Arts Outsmarted, Transformation Through the Ages, and Rune Dictionary. There were hundreds of others that I could have gotten her, but I figured that those were enough to keep her busy.

She'd probably flip when she saw all of those books. Maybe it would get her to leave the boys alone for a while about doing their homework. I walked into the Quidditch store for something for Ron. I knew exactly what to get him. I headed to the jersey section and picked up a jersey for the Bulgaria Quidditch team. They were his favorite. I also picked up a new pair of Quidditch gloves and a new set of Quidditch balls. The Weasley's desperately needed new ones to play with, and this was the best way to make it not look like a charity case. I knew that all of the Weasley's would end up using the last present.

And finally I was down to one. Harry. After debating back and forth for a while about what to get him, I decided that I would get him a little bit of everything. I got him a few candies from the different stores, a jersey for the Stars, and a picture frame. It was a wizarding one that I knew he would love. What I was asking for wasn't cheap, but I wanted him to have it. The owner of the framing store asked what I wanted, and listened intently as I told him. He nodded at me and placed his wand at my temple, and with a little tickling sensation, extracted the memories. I watched as the side-by-side frames filled with the memories.

One was of the day that Harry and I met, shaking hands with bright smiles, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. On the other frame was a rather funny picture. It was of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I all together at the Gryffindor table. We were laughing at Ron's face, covered in pie. Fred had just shoved his face into it. Hermione was trying not to laugh, but failing. Harry was wiping it off of Ron's nose and trying himself. The twins, Dean, Seamus, Lee, Parvati, Lavender, Fay, and a few others could be seen laughing in the background - Fred and George giving each other a high-five, and Percy rolling his eyes. The bottom of the frame was slowly engraved with: Merry Christmas Harry, Love Tara.

Nearly all of my money was gone. I had six Galleons left to do something with. At least, the money that my parents had given me. I had another fifteen myself. Thankfully I had been having all of my gifts sent back to the house. I couldn't imagine carrying everything that I had bought. As I walked back towards Flourish and Blotts - I was sure that the owners were getting sick of seeing me - I thought about how to go about asking for Nicholas Flamel. I still wasn't sure what kind of person he was.

Was there a chance that he was evil? That would make things awkward. But as I passed the Quality Quidditch Supplies store, my thoughts were interrupted by the Hufflepuff Quidditch team robes. I realized that there was one person that I hadn't thought of shopping for. But I had a feeling that I really should. Cedric. He had given me a present on my birthday. I still wore the bracelet around my ankle (mostly to hide it from my friends so they wouldn't question it). During practices and games I would wear it normally. I had never gotten a chance to give him something for his. So I should probably get something for him for Christmas.

But what did I get for someone like him? As I walked around, glancing into the stores, I bumped straight into someone. They dropped a parcel and I slipped slightly on the snow-covered ground. "Oh! Sorry. I wasn't paying attention," I apologized.

People had been clearing out all day - finally finished with their shopping for the holidays - and it left the two of us as some of the last people in Diagon Alley. "That makes two of us, Elephant," a familiar voice called as I picked up their fallen package.

A smile played on my lips as I straightened up. Of course. "Giraffe. I think you're following me," I teased as I handed him back his package.

"Or perhaps you're following me," he shot back.

I smiled and glanced down at his parcel. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

Cedric laughed and pushed a hand back through his hair, messing it up slightly. "Trying to pretend that I didn't push off doing all of my Christmas shopping until last minute," he said.

I laughed softly as I glanced down at his parcel. So that explained what he was carrying. And why he seemed to be in a hurry. We were both running out of time. "Well that makes two of us," I joked. We both laughed at that one. It was nice to know that we weren't the sole procrastinators. "Are you almost done with your shopping?" I asked after a beat.

He nodded his head. "Almost. I just have one person left to shop for."

"Who's that?" I asked, not-so-subtly asking if he was shopping for a significant other.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice. Maybe he was trying to be polite or maybe I had been a little more discreet than I'd thought I was. Cedric seemed to blush. "You, as a matter of fact," he admitted.

Don't act like an idiot, don't act like an idiot, don't act like an idiot! I smiled and tried to play it off coolly. That answered whether or not I was going to get something for him. "What a coincidence. I was shopping for something for you too. You provide as someone that's harder to shop for than you'd think," I teased.

Cedric looked affronted. "I am not!" he laughed.

"You are too!" I quipped back. He really was. I hadn't the slightest idea of what to get for him. "So, what does Cedric Diggory want for Christmas?" I asked.

It was always much easier when people just told you what they wanted. "Now where's the fun in that?" he asked me. I groaned, knowing that I would have to go out on a limb here. "I'll buy you something - without asking what you want - and you do the same thing for me. Meet me back here in an hour. Deal?" he asked.

After debating on it for a moment - not wanting to look like a fool - I nodded. "Deal," I said, reaching out to shake his hand. "May the best present win," I teased.

"Not a competition," Cedric called back as I walked away. For a moment I felt a little ashamed for what I had said. "But if it was," he continued, causing me to look back, "I'd win."

The two of us both laughed as we walked in opposite directions. For the good part of the hour I popped in and out of shops. Every time I asked one of the shop owners what to get a fourteen-year-old boy, they all pointed me to something that I figured he either already had, or was something that he wouldn't want. I thought about doing something like I'd done for Harry, but those were expensive, and it might seem a little odd to Cedric that I was spending so much money on something for him.

Plus I had no idea how much money he had to spend. I wanted to keep it cheaper, but not something that looked like I didn't care. I'd walked through almost all of the shops and I still hadn't found anything. And we were five minutes away from the deadline. As I was poking around Twilfitt and Tatting's, I spotted it. The perfect present, tucked into the far corner of the shop. I grabbed it and let the woman ring it up for me, having her wrap it tightly. It took up the rest of my money, but that was alright.

Once I had it back in my hand, I dashed over to Flourish and Blotts. We were meeting there so that I could leave once we'd exchanged our presents. I had taken the entire hour. Cedric was already there with his package tucked under his arm. It was as small as mine and I took in a sharp breath. I hoped that I hadn't made a mistake in what I'd bought. He smiled at me as I walked up to him.

The two of us stood together for a moment, no one making the first move. "So? Who goes first?" I finally asked.

"I suppose I will," Cedric said, handing me the present from under his arm. I smiled and took it gently. "Merry Christmas, Tara," he nearly whispered to me as I opened the present.

It took me just under a minute to pull off all of the wrappings - fearing damaging whatever was under them. Finally I managed to pull them off. My smile widened and I laughed as I glanced down at it. It was a necklace in the shape of an elephant. It was mostly a nice type of silver - something that wouldn't fade - and had intricate patterns carved on its small body.

But the eyes were what drew me in. I would know that gem everywhere. For all of the money that we had, Mom was very sparing about using it. And even more sparing about showing that we had it. But she had one vice. Jewels. Always small, but always expensive. I knew just about every jewel in the Muggle and Wizarding World. To the untrained eye, I knew that these would look like rubies. But I knew what it was.

Red Beryl. One of the rarest stones in the world. Perhaps Cedric came from money too. Because this was no cheap jewel. It was only found in the Wah Wah Mountains of Utah. Some had been found in New Mexico, but barely anything. I wondered if that was partially why he had bought it for me. Because it was one of the only things here that was from the United States. My home. I smiled softly and grabbed it from the box. This had to be one of the most expensive gifts he'd bought. But I said nothing about the price, because it wasn't the jewels that meant anything to me. It was the elephant.

He could have gone with something easy. Makeup. A book. Something Quidditch related. But he'd gone with something that wasn't quite so obvious. Something that meant nothing to anyone besides the two of us. I tried not to read too much into it. Cedric was still watching me as I looked back up at him with a bright smile.

"I love it," I said softly, opening the clasp of it. "Put it on, will you?" I asked, turning my back to him.

"Of course." He hooked the necklace on and I smiled as he let it gently drop onto my neck. It ended up hanging just below my collarbone and I smiled as I turned back to him, handing over my package.

"Merry Christmas, Cedric," I said with a smile.

Perhaps he'd find it funny how similar we really were. As he opened it and his eyes scanned over it, he laughed. He definitely thought that it was funny. While he had bought me a necklace with an elephant on it, I'd bought him a necklace with a giraffe on it. It was made of a strong steel - enforced with magic to always keep it shiny - and it was slightly larger than the elephant pendant that hung around my neck. Like the one I wore, his necklace had eyes that were made out of stones too. The eyes were made out of Jadeite - a deep green gem that didn't shine to make it look more masculine. Like the one he'd bought, it was expensive.

He was grinning as he opened the clasp and hooked it on himself. It fell just below his throat and I laughed softly. "I suppose great minds think alike," I teased.

Cedric moved forward and wrapped me in a tight hug. I pulled away slightly, wanting to slap myself for the butterflies that were hammering at my chest. "Thank you, Tara. It's wonderful," he said.

"You're welcome," I said softly. We stared at each other and I knew that before I did or said something that I would regret, I would need to leave. So I took a step back and cleared my throat. "I suppose I should be getting home. My parents will want me back for dinner," I said, looking up at the clock hanging over the large opening.

It was just about to be five o'clock. Cedric nodded at me. "So will my Dad. I'll see you back at school. Happy Holidays," Cedric said. He leaned in and once more, the butterflies began to beat against my chest. He pressed his lips gently to my cheek, and I felt the skin tingle when he pulled away. I tried to glance in the other direction.

"You too," I said softly before giving him one last smile, and walking into Flourish and Blotts.

My entire body felt like it was on fire as I walked back through the store and underneath the mantle of the fireplace. Never, in a million years, had I even thought about the guys at Hogwarts. Before I'd gone, that is. It hadn't meant a thing to me. I'd been more concerned about making friends. But it seemed that making friends actually came naturally to me. And as I shouted my address, I wondered if something a little more serious would come easily to me too. Probably not, considering that I couldn't even have Cedric say two sweet things to me without me acting like some stupid kid. Which is exactly what you are.

He didn't have the slightest interest in me. He just liked that I was also into Quidditch. He liked that my father was a professional player. He liked that I had the wit to keep up with him. He liked that I happened to be good in a subject that he was rather poor in. He probably liked that I was from another House; it made for an interesting change in conversation. All of that made sense. We were just friends. So why did I keep getting the feeling that the necklace he had gotten me didn't just stop at friendly?

Stepping out of the fireplace, I glanced in the mirror to make sure that the red tinge had gone from my face - the last thing that I needed was questions - and walked into the kitchen. "I'm home!" I called out.

As I turned the corner I saw that both Mom and Dad were there. Mom was preparing something that looked like a turkey - probably for tomorrow - and Dad was reading the Daily Prophet. "Find everything? We heard packages popping into your room all day. Were you really shopping for that many people?" Mom asked, without looking up.

"I'm very popular," I teased as I walked to stand next to Mom.

She glanced up to smile at me and - unsurprisingly - her eyes automatically darted down to the necklace. I was tempted to hide it, but I figured that it would make it worse. She grinned widely at me. "That's a pretty necklace. Where'd you get that?" she asked.

Tread lightly, Tara. "It was a Christmas present," I answered, figuring that vague honesty was my best bet.

It seemed that the conversation had finally caught Dad's attention. Wonderful. "From who?" he asked, folding the paper so that he could look at me and get a good view of the jewelry.

"Harry," I answered automatically.

The lie went past Dad, who chirped that it was nice of Harry to get me something like that. The lie did not so easily get past Mom. She could recite every precious gem in the world, and she knew that whoever had gotten me the gem was not someone like Harry. She knew that whoever had gotten me this had spent a lot of money, and that they had to be special. I was grateful that she said nothing. The glint in her eyes told me that she knew the truth, though. I figured that it was just a matter of time until she confronted me about it.

But it was Christmas, and no family wanted to spend it talking about some stupid crush that wasn't destined to go anywhere. So we finished making our dinner - well, Mom made it, Dad and I stood and watched. But we still enjoyed each other's company, laughing and chatting for most of the night. It was nights like this that I missed. The simplicity of eating with my family and talking with them. As much as I loved my friends, sometimes I needed to talk to my parents.

And if I wasn't so petrified of Mom bringing it up, I would ask her what to do about my little crush on Cedric. But that was not a conversation that I knew how to start, and I would hate to see what would happen if Dad found out. He liked Cedric now, but only because he was a Quidditch player. He would hate him if he knew that I liked him. Finally, just after ten, I decided that it was time for me to get to bed. Well, not to bed, per-say. I had things to do. So I said goodnight and headed upstairs.

It turned out that I spent most of the night wrapping presents by hand. In the morning, my parents would Apparate everything to my friends so that I didn't get in trouble for doing anything. We would Apparate the rest to the package center just outside of Hogwarts - for the Weasley's and Harry - since we couldn't Apparate anything on Hogwarts grounds. Once I was finally done and had stacked all of my presents on the living room floor for my parents to send out when they woke up, it was well past two in the morning.

Barely able to keep my eyes open, I trudged up the stairs weakly and dropped into bed with a grunt. In the next room I could hear my parents shuffling around. They were probably getting ready to set out the presents. I smiled and tucked myself under my sheets, not bothering to take off what was guaranteed to be my best present of the year. It didn't dawn on me until I was almost asleep that I hadn't even bothered to ask about Nicholas Flamel, and for once, I couldn't have cared less.

When I awoke the next morning, my alarm read that it was just after eight. I smiled as I glanced outside of my window. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground and I laughed. It already felt like the perfect morning. And I knew that it would be. I leaped out of bed and bypassed my normal routine. Christmas was no day for decencies. As I headed out I heard a rather obnoxious laugh from the Dursley household. It was probably better that Harry wasn't there. He always hated Christmas for the sole reason that he never really had one. At least at Hogwarts, he would. But I did miss him. We normally had breakfast together on Christmas.

Shaking off those feelings - and being very grateful that he did have the Weasley's - I sprinted down the stairs and immediately spotted my parents in the mess of what had once been our living room. "Merry Christmas, Tara!" my parents cheered together.

I laughed softly, glancing around the room. "Merry Christmas to you both! Oh wow, it's beautiful down here," I said softly.

And it really was. They had gone through everything to make this perfect. The tree reached up to the ceiling with twinkling lights. Miniature stars, I realized after a moment. Fake snow was falling from the enchanted ceiling - just like at Hogwarts - and Christmas music was playing over the Muggle stereo. Mistletoe was hung up all over and the house smelled like gingerbread. A toy train was enchanted to fly around the house and I saw the massive stack of presents sitting all around the tree. There wasn't enough room under it.

Once more, I laughed. "We wanted everything to be perfect," Mom said, distracting me from my thoughts. "With you away at school, we don't get that often to actually sit and chat and enjoy the day together as a family. So we went slightly overboard." She flushed.

"Slightly?" Dad asked her.

"Be quiet," Mom snapped.

The three of us all laughed before I was motioned downstairs and Mom handed me a glass of hot cocoa. "So? Shall we open presents?" Dad asked me, reminding me of when I was younger.

"Absolutely!" I chirped.

Okay, I couldn't help it. Christmas with my family and friends was the best, but the presents were nice too. The three of us went to opening presents, each one of us thanking the other when we got to one of theirs. As expected, Mom and Dad both loved their presents. They both had ranted for twenty minutes about the people that had autographed their gifts. I was pretty sure that neither one of them was listening to the other, but it was rather cute to watch.

The first that I opened was from Percy. He had given me a book that I'd never heard of. Rise of the American Wizarding World. I smiled and vowed that I would read it soon. Fred had gotten me a card that had blown up in my face. Once I'd gotten past that, I saw that he'd actually gotten me a nice pair of adhesives for my Chaser gloves. I'd have to thank him. Besides the exploding card - that my parents were still laughing at - it was rather nice. George had given me a joke set. But they weren't from Gambol and Japes. They simply said, Weasley. A note came with the package: Wait til you're with us to use these. Merry Christmas - G.

Sighing, I placed them to the side carefully. Can't be too cautious with the twins. I opened Seamus's present next. He had gotten me a large bundle of the candy from stores that seemed to be native to Scotland. I'd never heard of any of the brands. I had fun trying them throughout the day. Dean had given me a book on every Quidditch move ever used. He had asked me to give me a hand learning them in a note with it. I laughed and shook my head. There were literally millions of moves. I wrote back to him, promising that I would only teach him the fun ones.

The girls came next, something that I was mildly ashamed to admit that I was excited for. I wanted to see what they thought that I wanted. It turned out that we'd all shopped in the same place for each other. I recognized the wrappings. Lavender bought me a hair dyeing kit. It only changed the color for an hour, in case you got bored. Parvati got me a set of lipstick that apparently changed colors to appear more appealing to the person that you were speaking with. I blushed when I thought about Cedric. Fay had given me a potion that helped hair grow faster. I grinned wickedly to myself. Mom would flip if I kept letting my hair grow.

Mom had bought me two things. The first had been a new encyclopedia set - which I'd smiled at - that I had been asking for. The other thing had been new dress robes and a few new clothing items from both Muggle and wizarding shops. I smiled and thanked her. They were all pretty, I just wasn't sure where I would wear them. Dad had given me a new Quaffle. This one predicted movements based on how you played. It forced you to think up new routines and practice changing up plans quickly. I just about wet myself when I saw it. It was incredible.

The next two gifts that I opened up were from Neville and Hagrid. Neville had gotten me a rather cute gift from the Quidditch store. It was a Quaffle - smaller than regulation size and a little softer - with my name carved into it. I made a point to give him a huge hug once I got back to Hogwarts. Hagrid had given me a hand-carved mirror. I smiled at it and placed it gently off to the side. I figured that it had taken him a long time to make and I didn't want to accidentally damage it.

The last three gifts were the ones that I had been saving. I opened Ron's present first. He had gotten me a large poster of moving Quidditch players. I smiled and looked a little closer. As I did, I realized that the players all greatly resembled the Gryffindor team. Harry and I stood out in the front. I laughed softly and tucked it away. Hermione had - like myself to her - given me a large stack of books. As I read them over, I realized that they were her favorite Muggle books. Don Quixote, The Odyssey, War and Peace, Moby Dick, The Divine Comedy, The Great Gatsby, and Catch-22 were among them. I had read some of them already, but I loved it all the same.

Finally I came to Harry's present. It appeared that he had spent nearly as much money on my gift as I had on his. I wasn't quite sure when he'd managed to get this. (I realized later that he must have asked someone to get it for him and given them the money.) It was a photo album. A magical one. I smiled, realizing that we had bought each other very similar gifts.

The first few were Muggle pictures. Some of our trips to the zoo, a day at the park, and even the day that we had snuck him into a theme park - telling the Dursley's that we were just taking him to the library. The next was of our first day in Hogwarts. We were both smiling and laughing at the dinner table. There were ones of me with all of my new friends and some of us at the Quidditch match. There was even one of me knocking the Slytherin Keeper through the goalpost. The entire book was one wonderful memory after another. There were nearly twenty pictures in the book. And there was plenty more room for me to add them as time went on. On the last page was his writing.

Tara, I wanted you to know that Ron and Hermione are both wonderful. They're better than anything that I could have asked for when you first told me that I was coming here. But they will never be you. You will always be my best friend - nothing can ever change that. Thank you for always being there for me. And just know that no matter what, you're always who I think of first. Merry Christmas. Love, Harry.

My eyes were watering slightly. "Oi, Tara, what's this?" Dad asked me, distracting me from my thoughts. I glanced up from Harry's gift and saw that he was holding something that resembled a greeting card. So apparently I did miss a gift. I glanced down at it and read it.

Dear Elephant,

Merry Christmas. Hope it's a good one. See you at school.

Love, Giraffe.

It was only fifteen words, but each one made me smile. "Just a joke from a friend," I said, touching the pendant at my neck. The slight movement flew over Dad's head, but Mom turned towards me, grinned to herself, and went back to opening her presents.

As I stood up to hand Mom and Dad their remaining presents and help open them, I realized that one was still marked for me. It sat in a black box and I raised a brow. Black wasn't exactly a festive color. And who else could have been giving me a gift? I didn't know anyone else well enough. And that was everyone that I had gotten a gift from. Would I owe someone a present after this? I looked all over the box for a letter or indication of who it was from, but there was nothing. Only my first name on a black card, written in neat, white, script.

The hair on the back of my neck stood as I weakly opened the top. Please don't explode. But as I opened it, I realized that it wouldn't explode. This was no prank. Not from the twins at least. It was a necklace on a black chain. There was a small red diamond that hung from the chain. It looked like a ruby, but I knew that it wasn't. I had no clue what it was. The strangest thing was that there was a number engraved on the back clasp as I observed the necklace closer. I almost missed it. 83. What did 83 mean?

As I turned the necklace over, feeling a strange tingling in my arm, Mom's voice brought me back to reality. "What's that, Tara?" she asked, looking at me from the other side of the room.

Some part of me thought that I should say something. Ask who had given me the present, ask why I had gotten this extra present, or ask if my parents knew who the handwriting was from. I certainly didn't know. But I said none of those things. Instead, a fiercely protective state took over my body and I stuffed the present deep into my pockets. I wasn't sure what it was that came over me, but the last thing that I wanted was for my parents to see it. They would just try and take it.

"Nothing. Just another present," I said, trying to shove a smile onto my face. I placed the empty box underneath the rest of my presents, hoping that I could shake the strange feeling that had seeped into my bones. "So many this year," I teased.

Mom and Dad burst out in laughter and I let out a little breath, taking my hands out of my pockets and feeling much better now that the box was away from me. "Yes, there were. But it was lovely. And we love having you home for this," Mom said.

"Me too. Merry Christmas, everyone," I said, leaning in for a hug, getting squashed in between my parents.

They both smiled at me and placed kisses on opposite sides of my head. For a brief moment I forgot about the strange necklace. "Merry Christmas, love," they said together.

It certainly wasn't Christmas in Florida, where everyone was on the beaches in their swimsuits as the rest of the country drowned in the snow. It wasn't Ilvermorny, with its beautiful decorations and carols bouncing off of the walls. And it wasn't Hogwarts, with an air of magic and my best friend. It wasn't any of those things. But it was the best Christmas that I could imagine. And I smiled, sitting with my cocoa contentedly, realizing that there would be plenty more to come.

But my smile faltered slightly - only plastering it back on when Mom and Dad would look my way. My hands were tucked in my pockets, gripping the odd necklace. I didn't want to wear it. Something about it felt wrong. After all, whoever had sent it had left me with nothing more than a card with my name on it. But no part of me wanted to part with it. And I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.


	13. Nicholas Flamel

Hermione and I arrived back to Hogwarts the day before the new term started. We were immediately bombarded by all of our friends telling us everything that had happened to them over the winter holiday. For the duration of the ride on the Hogwarts Express we had sat with Parvati, Fay, Lavender, Dean, Seamus, and Neville; each of us chatting back and forth about the break and thanking each other for the presents that we had gotten. The entire time I was gently fingering the necklace that the stranger had given me. I knew that I should have left it at home, but some part of me didn't want to part with it.

By the time that we'd gotten to the castle, the excitement had worn down. We'd gotten dinner with everyone and said a brief hello to the Weasley's. Fred and George both asked how I liked my presents and I admonished that I did love them. Even the exploding powder bomb. I had been right in thinking that it was Fred's idea. Percy had asked how I liked the book that he had gotten me. I hadn't read it yet, but I'd made a promise to him that I would read it over the summer break.

It was nighttime when we finally got the chance to speak with Ron and Harry about what had happened to them over the break. I'd told them that my parents didn't know who Nicholas Flamel was - mostly because I didn't want to admit that I had forgotten about him when Cedric had given me my Christmas present. They hadn't found anything either. But they had made another startling discovery. Harry had gotten an invisibility cloak. They were rare. He said that it came with a note. Use it well. There hadn't been a signature. I'd asked him to see it, curious if it had been the same sender. It wasn't. The writing wasn't the same.

There went the little bubble of hope that had been forming in my chest. Whoever had sent us the presents had been two different people. I didn't tell them about the necklace though. Part of me just wanted to keep it a secret. The boys did tell us about a discovery that they had made while telling us about them using the invisibility cloak three nights in a row. Hermione had panicked, distraught that they could have been caught. It had taken me whacking her on the arm with a book to get her to shut up so that they could tell us what it was.

"But if Filtch had caught them!" she howled.

"Shut up! What did you find down there?" I asked Harry, leaning in.

The boys exchanged a look before looking back at us. "It was a mirror. I think it showed you what you wanted most. Dumbledore caught me down there one night. He told me not to waste my life staring at it. It showed me with my parents," Harry said.

Hermione's eyes went wide. My brow furrowed. I knew what this thing was. "It showed me as Head Boy and that I had just won the House Cup," Ron added dreamily.

"And Dumbledore is right! That mirror is called the Mirror of Erised. It's been moved from home to home for years. There's a reason that people hate it. You could waste your life seeing the one thing that you could never have. Harry, why do you think that it's called the Mirror of Erised?" I asked him.

"It was the creator's name?" he asked carefully.

"No, you dingus! Erised. It's desire backwards." Hermione looked shocked that she hadn't managed to put that together. "We desire things, and that's dangerous. Dumbledore is right to tell you to not go down there," I told him.

Of course they'd asked me how I knew that and I'd had to tell them that my parents had once taught me about it. I had also told them about Dumbledore's cryptic warning the night before I had left for home. Hermione thought that it might mean that we were looking in the wrong types of books. Ron thought that maybe he wasn't in a book at all. It didn't seem like Harry had any good thoughts. I could tell that he was still too caught up in the mirror.

The morning that term started up, I went on the hunt for the only two people that I could have thought might have sent me the necklace. I still hadn't told Harry, Ron, or Hermione about it. While they were hunting for Flamel, my focus was mostly on who had given me the mystery present. My thoughts had led me to two people. Cedric - who I wasn't really sure would have given me another present - or Malfoy - who I thought would rather eat his own foot than send me a present.

Munching on my breakfast for a while, trying to ignore the bickering back and forth between Ron and Hermione over being prepared for a test in Transfiguration next week, I finally stood. If I was going to speak to them both I would have to do it now. Harry asked me where I was going (Ron and Hermione were still too busy fighting to realize that I had stood) and I told him awkwardly that I needed to do some research for my homework before class. I knew that he didn't believe me, but he let me leave anyways.

Maybe one day I would explain to him about the necklace. In the meantime I walked out of the Great Hall, bypassing Malfoy for now. He was sitting at the Slytherin table with his friends and if I was going to speak to him I didn't want to have to do it in front of everyone. I had checked the Great Hall already for Cedric and he wasn't there. I assumed that my next best bets were either the Hufflepuff Common Room - which I wouldn't be able to get into - or the library. So I went there.

For a few minutes I paced back and forth along the aisles to see if I could find him. Finally I did. He was at a table in the back of the library with an Arithmancy book opened in front of him. He looked confused beyond belief. I smiled and walked up behind him silently. He seemed to be reciting the magical properties of the number seven. He was tapping a very well-used quill against the parchment as he clearly was thinking about what to write. I smiled and moved off to the side. I knew this one.

"You could write that children's magical powers are believed to appear by the age of seven," I said.

Cedric jumped at my voice and turned back to me. He laughed when he realized who it was and scribbled my answer down underneath his previous answer. "Not bad, Nox," he told me once he had finished writing.

"You would have been sitting here all day if I hadn't come and told you," I teased.

He didn't even bother to dispute the fact. "That is probably true." Cedric glanced up at the clock and I followed his gaze, groaning when I saw the time. I was supposed to be in class. I'd spent too long looking for him. "Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" he asked.

An awkward grin fell over my face. "Well... yes." He grinned at me and shook his head. "But I actually needed to come looking for you."

"That sounds like I'm in trouble," Cedric told me. We both smiled at each other.

"No. Not really," I said. The two of us smiled once more. "I just - I needed to ask you something." He nodded for me to continue. "On Christmas I got an unexpected package. Thank you for the letter by the way. It made me laugh." He smiled and nodded. "Anyways, it didn't have a signature on it. Just my name. There was a necklace inside. You didn't send that to me by any chance, did you?" I asked.

The longer that I spoke the more that I knew that he didn't send it. His eyebrows knitted and he shook his head at me. "No, I'm sorry Tara, it wasn't me." And now we're down to one. "Perhaps you have a secret admirer," he said. I could tell that he meant for it to be teasing, but there was something strange in his voice. Almost like he wished that he hadn't said it.

I had thought about whether or not it was from a secret admirer, but it seemed a little too ominous to be from someone that liked me. And I didn't know anyone that could get a hold of something like that. "I don't think so. It didn't really feel right. The necklace, I mean."

Cedric sighed, scratching the back of his head as I took the seat across from him. "Did you ask your parents about it?"

My heart skipped a beat. "Yeah. They didn't know who would have sent it to me either," I lied, unsure of why I lied in the first place. It was just like I'd done with my parents. I wasn't sure why I couldn't tell anyone, but something had me extremely protective of the necklace. "Anyways, sorry for bothering you, I just wanted to know if it was you," I said.

"Sorry that I couldn't be of more help," Cedric told me guiltily.

I shook my head at him. He had nothing to be sorry for. "Don't worry about it. Since I've already missed class and no one in their right mind would dare walk into Professor Snape's lessons late," I said with a small laugh that he returned, "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Cedric smiled at me and cleared the things from in front of me. "Sure thing." He stopped clearing his things a moment later. "Actually, I've been here all morning. Do you want to go on a walk or something?" he offered.

My heart fluttered slightly. Going on a walk around the grounds was definitely something that I wanted. But I stopped myself from saying yes when I realized the flaw in my plan. "Probably not smart for me to be walking around the grounds when I'm supposed to be in class," I admitted.

Cedric grinned at me and nodded for me to stand anyways. I grabbed my bag and stood with him, trusting that he wouldn't get us into trouble. "Don't worry, I have an idea," he said.

We laughed and walked from the library together. Madam Pince gave me a little glare and I blushed, hoping that she wouldn't call on any of the professors to let them know that we weren't in class. But I also knew that she didn't care. The only thing she cared about was the books in the library and that we weren't disrespecting them. The two of us chatted back and forth amicably as we walked up the staircases towards one of the top turrets in the castle. I realized with a little smile that we were in the Astronomy tower.

Once I was inside, Cedric shut the door and dropped his bag. I dropped mine as well and followed him over to the bars that held us back from the long plunge to the ground. "What are we doing up here? We could get caught," I said.

Cedric turned a grin on me. "Are you honestly worried about getting caught out of class? I thought that you were supposed to be the tough girl," he teased.

"Shut up," I laughed.

Glancing out at the rising sun glittering on the lake and snow, I spotted fluttering wings out in the distance. The owl came closer and closer until it swooped in and landed on the bars. I smiled when I realized that it was Dai. He must have either spotted me or smelled me. He didn't have a letter in his beak and I hadn't called him. He stared at Cedric - who was smiling at us - before turning his bright yellow eyes on me. It was very obvious what he wanted. I sighed and stroked his feather lightly, smiling when he placed his head against my hand.

Dai let me pet him for a few moments before he straightened up and glared at Cedric. It was almost like he was telling the older student to stay away from me. "Pretty owl. Is he yours?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. This is Dai."

"He almost doesn't look real."

It was what I had thought when I first saw him. "I know. I adopted him because I thought that he was so beautiful. He was funny too. Plus he's much better than my parent's owl. Hale. He's a jerk. He always bites me and ruins my things." Cedric laughed as Dai hopped over to him and stared. I nodded for him to pet the owl and smiled when Dai nipped at him, urging him to stroke the feathers on his back. He had clearly gotten over whatever his problem was a moment ago. "I think he likes you," I said with a small smile.

Cedric smiled and allowed Dai to hop onto his forearm. "I like him too. Almost as much as I like his owner," he said, sending me a smile. My cheeks burned with embarrassment and I was very glad when Dai nipped at his fingers, drawing his attention away from me. "Are you ready for the Quidditch match?" Cedric asked after a few moments.

I was extremely grateful that he had changed the subject. "Are you ready to lose?" I teased.

Cedric laughed, startling Dai. The owl squawked loudly in protest and flew off, whacking Cedric in the head with his wing. I laughed at the sight of his hair now all messed up. "Getting cocky, are we?" he asked once he had recovered.

"Oh come on, tell me that you want to lose to me," I said.

Cedric shook his head at me. "Of course not, but if there's one person that I'm going to lose to, I don't think I'd mind if it were you." Once more I smiled, trying to remind myself that he was just being friendly since we were spending time together. "Mind you, I still won't lose. We're determined to win the House Cup this year," he said.

"And so are we," I teased. I cleared my throat and took a seat, resting my head against the bars. Cedric followed me a moment later. "Honestly I think Oliver will kill me - and the rest of us - if we lose the Cup this year. Dad too," I added with a little laugh.

"He's got nowhere to talk. He didn't make the team in his First Year." I blushed and smiled. He was right. Dad - a professional player - hadn't even made the Gryffindor team until he was in his Second Year. "Yes, Wood does seem a little intense when it comes to Quidditch," Cedric said carefully. He seemed unsure of how fond I was of Oliver.

I smiled. I love Oliver but I knew how insane he was when it came to Quidditch. "You can say it. We all know that he goes nuts when it comes to anything having to do with Quidditch. Especially if it means that we somehow lose the House Cup again," I said.

"I think as long as it's not Slytherin again, I don't mind."

I'd much rather see Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw win the House Cup than Slytherin. I was sure that the other two Houses felt the same way. "That's true. I can't imagine having to deal with Malfoy rubbing it in our faces. Even if he isn't on the team I know that he'll somehow manage to make it his win," I growled under my breath.

"He is rather unpleasant. I'm sorry that you have to deal with him," he said.

I shrugged my shoulders. There were probably kids in his year that he wasn't overly fond of. "I'm not concerned with Malfoy. Broke his nose already. Maybe I'll go for his jaw next," I said with a small smile.

Cedric laughed and shook his head at me. "Just do me a favor and make sure that I don't see it so I don't have to give you a detention."

"Oh, you'd give your favorite underclassman a detention?" I asked teasingly, hoping that I wasn't pushing it with him.

He's fourteen, you're twelve, don't be stupid. "Unfortunately I'd have to, no matter how much Malfoy would deserve it or how much I do like you," he told me.

Of course, I understood. He'd be in a ton of trouble for letting something like that slide. We sat in silence for a moment before I glanced over at him. I didn't know the Third Year schedule but I did know that Fred and George were in class right now. So shouldn't he be in class too? "Shouldn't you be in class?" I asked.

He turned his gaze over to me with a smile. "Probably. But I never miss class and I'm having much more fun up here."

I smiled as I leaned back towards my bag and grabbed my things, scattering them around me. Cedric followed, ding the same with his. Even if I was going to miss class, I knew what we were doing today. That meant that I could at least get the work done. I knew that Hermione would go a little easier on me if she thought that I had actually been doing work all day. One day I'd tell her about what was going on between Cedric and I - not that it was anything - but I'd have to get away from Ron and Harry first.

We had been working in silence for about ten minutes before Cedric looked over at me. "I think that you're a bad influence on me," he said.

Grinning softly, I shook my head at him. "Why do you say that?"

"Because I never missed class before I met you."

It didn't sound good, but judging by the smile on his face, I assumed that he didn't mind. "Stick with me, kid. You'll be doing all sorts of new things," I teased, nudging him softly.

The two of us laughed as we went back to doing our work. We would go back and forth between working in silence, helping each other, and ignoring our work to laugh at each other. It was one of the best days that I'd had in a while. There was no Ron, constantly harassing Hermione and I to do the work for him. No Hermione, trying to get me to do all of my work for the rest of the semester and not goof off. I did miss Harry, but I liked being with Cedric. As much as I loved Harry, Cedric was different. He didn't give me the brotherly feelings that I had when I was with Harry. I glanced down at my clock as I finished my Transfiguration homework and sighed.

Defense would be just ending. I gathered my things and stood, knowing that I had to leave now if I wanted to get Malfoy away from my friends and his. I need to go. Cedric stood with me. "Thanks for today, Cedric. I really did have fun," I said.

He smiled at me and handed me my Charms book that had been pushed to the side. "Thank you. I would have been cooped up in the library all day if it wasn't for you. If any of the professors give you a hard time, asking where you were today, send them to me. I'll let them know that you were assisting me," he said.

"I can handle another detention," I said with a shrug.

I'd broken the rules. If I was going to get a detention, I'd accept and deserve it. "Might as well try and pretend that you have a sense of right and wrong," he said. We both laughed as we headed out of the Astronomy tower. "I'll see you at the game in a few weeks."

"See you then," I said with a small wave.

We departed from each other on the tenth floor. He walked off towards some of his friends when he found them and I continued walking down the stairs. I caught sight of Hermione's bushy hair and I ducked out of the way quickly. I couldn't have any of them asking what I was up to. I dashed down the Transfiguration hallway - where I was reasonably certain that the First Year Slytherin students were - and hung outside of the door. I was only there for thirty seconds when a barrage of Ravenclaw and Slytherin students walked out. Padma Patil gave me a strange look before passing. Malfoy was one of the last students out with Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise Zabini.

They didn't even notice me as they walked past. I sighed and called out, "Malfoy!"

The group of five turned back to me. Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise simply stared at me. Pansy's face set into a hard line. Malfoy gave me a bored - but slightly surprised - stare. "Nox," he greeted. "What do you want? Shouldn't you be babysitting Potter and Weasley?"

My jaws ground together as I turned to his groupies. "Leave. Now. I need to speak to him," I snapped at them.

Crabbe and Goyle both stared at Malfoy for confirmation and Blaise rolled his eyes, walking up to another Slytherin student. Pansy glared at me. "How dare you! Thinking that Draco would want to speak with the likes of you?" she asked.

I rolled my eyes at her. I'd much rather not be here. "I know that he wants to speak to me about as much as I want to speak to him. Now get lost," I snapped at her. Draco was watched with a fixed smile. I slipped my wand out of my robes and twirled it in her direction. "Or we can see which one of us pays better attention in Defense," I offered.

Her eyes widened but before I could do anything, Malfoy stepped in between us. "Go get our spots for dinner," he ordered. Crabbe and Goyle stalked off immediately, but Pansy glared at me for a good five seconds. A cough from Malfoy later and she scoffed, turning on her heels and storming away from us.

Once they had gone, I turned back to Malfoy. "Fascinating, the way that they all obey you like dogs," I muttered.

And it was the truth. They obeyed his every order. What had he done that made them so loyal to him? "What do you want, Nox? Finally come to admit that you made the wrong choice in friends when you came here?" I scoffed at him and crossed my arms over my chest. "I might just find it in me to forgive your lapse of judgement."

"Get over yourself," I snapped. "You're a prat and I'd like absolutely nothing to with to you. But I do need to ask you something."

He looked intrigued but I knew that he would continue to pretend like I was wasting these precious moments of his life. "Perhaps why you've bothered to waste my time?" he offered.

I bit back a scathing comment, knowing that the sooner that I asked him about the necklace the sooner that I could leave. "I somehow doubt that you did, since we both clearly hate each other, but did you send me something on Christmas?" His eyebrows rose. "It came in an unmarked package. It just had my name signed neatly on it," I explained.

He stared at me with a blank face before a grin broke and he began to laugh. My eyes narrowed. So there goes my two best bets. Of course, he couldn't have just said no. "You honestly think that I would send you something? Blood traitor," he snarled.

My jaw dropped. A simple no wouldn't have worked? "Asshole. It was a question!" I howled. A few people that were in the hallway stopped to watch. "You wonder why you haven't got any real friends. The ones that pretend to be your friends are only there because they know that you'll make their lives miserable if they stand up to you," I hissed.

There were a few upperclassmen in the hall and they were all watching me with little grins. Malfoy took a step towards me. "You're going to regret ever saying no to me, Nox. Mark my words," he said.

I shoved him back from me roughly and wiped my hair from my eyes, trying to calm my racing heart. "Charmer you are, can't believe I ever wondered why Pug-Face has a crush on you. You two honestly belong together," I snapped. I could see his face fade from its stark white to a slight green at the thought. So he doesn't like her. He's using her.

Despite how much I hated Pug-Face, I scoffed at him. He could have at least told her rather than let her think that she had a chance. He seemed to be searching for something to say, but I wanted nothing to do with him anymore. I turned on my heel and stormed off, leaving him standing in the middle of the hallway. My feet carried me off to the Great Hall and I headed over to the Gryffindor table. I saw all of the shocked looks on my friends faces as I seated myself next to Harry, across from Ron and Hermione. They seemed to be waiting for me to say something. Of course. No one had seen me since breakfast.

Knowing that I wasn't going to say anything, Hermione finally spoke. "Where were you today? No one saw you during Potions, History of Magic, Charms, or Defense. You weren't even here for lunch!" she barked at me.

"I had things to take care of," I answered simply.

Ron and Harry both laughed at my nonchalant answer, but Hermione didn't seem to like it. "Like what? You had lessons!"

Grinning over at her, I reached and took a muffin from the center of the table before Fred could. He tossed a piece of bread at me in return. "And I have you to take notes. Care to hand them over?" I asked her.

She scowled at me but handed over her sheets of notes anyways. "You'll be lucky if you get detention for a week for skipping out on the lessons today," she said with a sigh.

"I wouldn't be too worried. I have someone looking out for me."

Distracting me from my chat with Hermione, George prodded at me and I turned over to him with a scowl. His smile made my scowl fade quickly. I knew that look. They knew something that I didn't want them to know. "We noticed that Pretty-Boy Diggory wasn't in classes today either." Oh Merlin, I forgot about that. "Would you happen to be the reason for that?" George asked.

Play dumb! "I don't know what you're talking about," I snapped.

Fred leaned over to me and tugged at my hair. I slapped him away but he didn't seem deterred. "Sure you do. Come on now, you can trust us," Fred insisted.

"We're here to help," George added.

My eyebrows knitted together. They would help me over a cliff before they made me look good in front of 'Pretty-Boy Diggory.' "You really think that I'm that dense? I know that you two will make me look like a fool!" I hissed.

Fred looked affronted. "You have no faith in us."

I shook my head at them. They would do great things, I was sure of that. But my romantic interests was not something that I had faith in them to help with. ""I have plenty of faith in you two, just not when it comes to something that could definitely embarrass me."

Percy glanced up from his conversation with a girl at the end of the table. "You're right not to trust them," he told me before turning back to his conversation.

I smiled as Fred and George both whacked their older brother. "Oi now, we resent that!" Fred barked.

As the three of them argued about whether or not they were trustworthy, and Ron and Hermione argued over the Charms homework that we had been assigned, Harry leaned over to me. He was keeping his voice down so that no one heard us speaking. "Where were you anyways?" he asked.

I sighed. I should have known that he was going to ask me. "I was in the library to see if I could find anything on Nicholas Flamel. I lost track of time and by the moment that I remembered about classes it was too late and I didn't want to use my very pathetic excuse that time got away from me," I told him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Harry glanced back to make sure that the others weren't listening before looking at me again. "Because I just heard Cedric Diggory telling Professor McGonagall that he needed you to speak with the Hufflepuff Quidditch team today and that was why you weren't in class today," Harry told me with a searing look, letting me know that I wasn't getting out of this one with a lie.

A blush settled over my face as I realized that Cedric really had come to my rescue. But I had something else to deal with in the meantime. "So I'm caught, huh?" I asked with an awkward laugh.

Harry smiled at me and nodded. "I won't repeat it to them," he said, motioning over to Ron and Hermione.

"Thank you."

"- if you tell me what was going on," he finished.

A scowl fell over my face. "Useless," I snapped at him. He was my best friend, I should have known that he'd want to know the truth about the strange relationship between myself and Cedric. "Nothing. I saw him in the library this morning and time got away from us. We were just talking," I muttered under my breath.

Harry sighed and laid a hand gently on my leg. "You can tell me, Tara. We're best friends," he said.

My gaze slowly crept back up to him and I gave him a weak smile. He knew the truth. He knew that I had a crush on Cedric. He just wanted me to tell him. "Am I pathetic for it?" I asked.

Harry immediately shook his head. I knew that he wouldn't make fun of me. I hadn't made fun of him when he'd had a crush on a girl named Carla at St. Grogory's. "No. I'm rooting for you. He seems to really like you." I smiled softly. "And I'm not really concerned with him hurting you. I imagine that you'll manage yourself just fine if anything happens."

He was smiling at me. "Damn straight," I announced. We both laughed and clinked our goblets together.

"But just know I'll still go after him if anything does happen," Harry said after a beat. I laughed at him and nodded. He was like my brother. Even though Cedric could probably flatten him, Harry would attack him the moment that he hurt me. "And keep away from him for a few more years," Harry added after a moment.

I smiled and wrapped an arm around him. "Yes, Dad," I teased. I knew that if something did ever happen between us, it would be a few years from now.

Harry and I chatted back and forth all night. It was the first time in a long time that we had talked just the two of us. Hermione and Ron had spent most of the night shouting at each other for everything under the sun. Harry and I decided to make a bet on how long it would be before they got together. Harry was betting on Fifth Year. I was betting on Seventh. We'd gone to bed laughing, both Hermione and Ron asking what we were laughing about. We had patted them both on the shoulder and told them that they'd understand soon enough. Hermione looked absolutely furious that she couldn't figure out what I was talking about.

It was now over a week later and I still hadn't found anything on what the necklace was. I'd looked through books and even written to my friends in the States. They all claimed that they hadn't sent it. Without any new information I turned back to the hunt for Nicholas Flamel. For a while I had thought that we were going to give up the hunt on Nicholas Flamel. But I shouldn't have figured that. We were still looking, but things were getting more difficult. We had looked through more and more books, to the point that I was sure that we had gone through half of the books in the library.

Once term had started, we were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during our breaks. Not that it really was ever enough time. Harry and I had even less time than Ron and Hermione, because Quidditch practice had started again. We had to be down in the Pitch on weekends and most nights. And sometimes during breaks Oliver came to speak with Harry and I to discuss a new move or ask me if I could write to Dad about a new technique. He'd quickly become our away counselor.

It wasn't even the time off of the Pitch that was tough. Oliver was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. I hadn't known that it rained that much in Scotland. But now it seemed that it would never end. Forty days and forty nights, more like four hundred days and four hundred nights. Fred and George complained that Oliver was becoming a fanatic, but Harry and I were on Oliver's side. Although I did wish that he would take it a little easier on us. If we won our next match, against Hufflepuff, we would overtake Slytherin in the House Championship for the first time in seven years.

And I liked being at training all hours of the night. It kept me from thinking about the necklace. During one particularly wet and muddy practice session - myself bleeding pretty badly after a collision with Angelina during a diving throw - Oliver gave the team a bit of bad news. He was angry with Fred and George, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms. He was also angry with himself for the accident. Alicia was fixing my arm up perfectly well, but it had interrupted our practice.

Oliver was also convinced that if Fred and George had been paying attention they could have warned Angelina and I that we were too close to each other. It was tough for us to see in the rain and concentrate on keeping the Quaffle in play. It didn't help that it was dark already and the whipping winds made it tough to hold onto the Quaffle. My hands were shaking slightly as Alicia closed the wounds on my arm and Katie handed me some water, Angelina apologizing over and over again. She had been the one that was off-center. I kept telling her that it was no big deal. I hadn't been able to see her either.

Fred and George - once they had known that I was alright - had gone back to dive-bombing each other. Harry was sitting at my side. "Will you stop messing around!" Oliver yelled, startling the rest of us. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

"What?" I asked, thinking that I might have lost too much blood and been hallucinating.

George finally did fall off his broom at Oliver's words. I must not have been hallucinating. "Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

"Why is Snape refereeing?" I asked Oliver, once Fred and George had settled on the ground.

Oliver shrugged his shoulders as he checked to make sure that I was doing okay. "I don't know," he told me, handing me a wrap for my arm.

"Actually I don't know why I bothered to ask. He's afraid that we're going to overtake Slytherin in the championship," I announced to everyone else. We should have known what was going on. But how had he managed to referee when we had Madam Hooch? "He's going to dock points and award penalties left and right to Gryffindor."

The rest of the team all came over to stand with us. It didn't take long for everyone to start complaining. "It's not my fault," Oliver snapped. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

"He'll do it anyways," I put in.

Oliver paced back and forth for a little while before he suddenly seemed to get an idea. "Tara," he said turning to face me, "you're friends with Diggory, aren't you?"

My face drained of color as a grin fell over Fred and George's faces. Harry stiffened next to me. "Tara is very good friends with Diggory," George said slowly.

"Shut up," I snapped, punching him with my uninjured arm. Oliver seemed oblivious to what the twins were referring to. "We speak from time to time," I muttered, ignoring the grins from Angelina, Katie, and Alicia.

"Think that you could ask him to watch the penalties during the game?" Oliver asked. My eyebrows rose. I didn't want Cedric to think that we were going to chicken out. "I know that they want to win too, but it's Hufflepuff, they want to win fairly. They aren't Slytherin."

He was right about that. "I know their whole team. I'll do what I can," I said.

That seemed to surprise Oliver. "You know the whole team?" he asked.

I nodded at the other members of the team. "I met them on the trip home over the holidays. Snape made me stay an extra night and they were on the train with me," I said.

"Good, good. See what you can do."

Honestly it probably wouldn't do anything. If Snape wanted to take points from us or give us penalties, he would. But if the Hufflepuff's could debate it if they weren't fair, it might work. It wasn't just that I wanted to be able to win, but I also wanted Snape nowhere near Harry during a Quidditch match. We didn't need another rogue broom incident. What happened if he couldn't hang on this time?

The rest of the team hung back to talk to one another as usual at the end of practice, but Harry and I headed straight back to the Gryffindor Common Room. We normally stayed back and talked to each other as well but we were ready to go today. Plus, I wanted to lay down for a while. My arm had been fixed up just fine but I had lost some blood. And I definitely needed to take a shower. Harry and I placed our brooms away and ran through the rain back up to the castle.

Once we were inside I sighed and took off my raincoat that I'd brought down to the Pitch. "He's going to try and do anything in his power to get points taken away from us," Harry told me, referring to Snape.

"I know. That's why we're going to end the game as fast as we can," I said. Typically we wanted to extend the game to get as many points as possible, but with Snape refereeing and Slytherin's spot in jeopardy, we needed to get the game over with. "Everyone is going to keep an eye out for the Snitch and let you know the second that we've found it. Since I'm the alternate when I'm down on the ground I'll search for it."

It was our plan so far. Not a good one, but two people searching for the Snitch was better than one. "I can't believe that he's going to be refereeing," Harry groaned as we walked.

"Dad says that Snape hates Quidditch. It has to be the only reason that he's actually decided to referee," I said.

Apparently Snape wasn't that great of a flier either. It must have been because he wanted to keep Slytherin in the lead. "Wonder what happened to Madam Hooch? She usually referees," Harry said.

"Don't know. But it can't be good. We need to get the game over with as fast as possible. That's what Oliver was saying today and he's right. The longer that we linger the longer that we'll get penalties," I said.

"You'll talk to Diggory?" Harry asked.

"Honestly I'm not sure what I can say, but I'll give it a try."

Harry nodded at me as we both chirped the password to the Fat Lady. "We should tell Ron and Hermione," Harry said as we jumped through the large portrait hole.

"Think she'll set him on fire again?" I asked.

The two of us both laughed as we spotted Ron and Hermione near the fireplace, playing chess. Chess was the one thing that Hermione lost at, which was probably good for her. They didn't even look as Harry and I sat next to them. "Don't talk to me for a moment," Ron said, "I need to concen -" He looked up at us and lost his train of thought. "What's the matter with you two? You look terrible."

"Thank you, Ron," I snapped at him. I glanced over at Hermione, who was staring intensely at the board. "Are you losing?" I asked.

"No!" Hermione shouted at the same time that Ron said, "Yes."

Both Harry and I exchanged a small smile with each other before telling them to clear the board game. They did so and we waited so that we could tell them what had happened. Once the game was put away we checked to make sure that no one else was around. Considering that it was a weekend, most people were in the library getting their work done. Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Harry told the other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.

It took them a moment to realize that we weren't joking. "Don't play," Hermione said at once.

"Say you're ill," Ron said.

"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.

"Really break your leg," Ron offered.

Harry shook his head at them. "I can't. There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all."

Ron and Hermione both immediately looked over at me and I shook my head at them. "What about Tara?" Ron asked.

The last thing that I wanted to do was admit that I wasn't good at something having to do with Quidditch but I had to be honest. "I'm a good Quidditch player. I'm a great Chaser, decent Beater and Keeper when need be, but I'm a lousy Seeker. My eyesight isn't good enough but I'm not nearly blind enough to need glasses. We stand a better chance with Harry in there. And what happens if someone else is injured? I need to be able to step in," I explained.

Hermione, always the one to try and find the light in situations, stepped in. "But you're playing Hufflepuff? Do you think that someone will be injured?" she asked me.

"Honestly? Probably," I told her. They wouldn't be attempting to kill us, but they did want players out of the game. It made it easier on them. "The Bludgers are still in play. And even though Hufflepuff is nicer than Slytherin, they still want to win. They won't seriously try to hurt anyone, but knocking players out is a part of the game," I told her.

"But Diggory likes you," Ron said. My cheeks burned even though I knew that he meant as a friend. "Won't he take it easier on you?"

I shrugged my shoulders at him. "It's for the exact reason that we're friends that he'll take it harder on us," I said.

We all sat in silence for a while, myself curled up against the chair as I let the fire warm me up from the cold practice. Hermione finally seemed to notice the bloody wrap that was over my arm. "Tara, why is your arm wrapped up?" she asked me.

Her eyes went wide as I shrugged at her. "Collision on the field with Angelina. I'm fine, Alicia fixed me up. You wouldn't happen to have Pumpkin Juice or something, would you?" I asked her, feeling a little shaky.

She nodded at me and reached over the side of the chair, handing me a half-empty bottle of Pumpkin Juice. "Yes. Here you are."

Just as I finished the bottle off Neville toppled into the Common Room. I glanced up at my eyes immediately widened. How the hell had he even managed to climb through the portrait hole? His legs had been stuck together with the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop all the way up to Gryffindor tower. He fell to the ground the moment that he hit the fireplace. Everyone - including myself - fell over laughing except Hermione, who leapt up and performed the countercurse. Neville's legs sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling.

I silenced my laughter when I realized that he really was embarrassed at the accident. "What happened?" Hermione asked him, leading him over to sit with us.

"Malfoy," Neville answered shakily. "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

How cruel could one person get? "Go to Professor McGonagall! Report him!" Hermione urged.

Cracking my knuckles, I started to stand, determined to go hunt Malfoy down. "Okay, I broke his nose, now I'm gonna break his jaw," I snarled, moving to leave the Common Room.

Hermione, ever the fun-sucker, grabbed my arm and forced me down. "Sit down!" she barked at me.

"Do it!" Harry and Ron urged.

Shaking Hermione off of me, I turned to her with a small glare. "Oh, come on, Hermione, look at what he's done. He terrorizes everyone, he disrespects all of the Prefects, and he calls all of us the worst kind of names. He'd deserve it," I told her.

She opened her mouth - probably to tell me why even though he deserved it, it would be a bad idea - but Neville spoke over her as he shook his head. "Don't, Tara. I don't want more trouble and you're always getting detentions," he mumbled.

He was right about that. And I couldn't risk getting taken out of the Quidditch game, which was a punishment that could be given to me. "You've got to stand up to him, Neville! He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier. Tara's right, we should let her break his jaw," Ron said.

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that," Neville choked out.

Feeling guilt seep into my stomach, I leaned over to Neville and grabbed his hand. "You are brave, Neville. The Sorting Hat wouldn't have put you here if it didn't think that you were brave," I told him.

Harry grabbed in the pocket of his robes and pulled out a Chocolate Frog. He gave it to Neville, who looked as though he might cry. "You're worth twelve of Malfoy. Tara's right. The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin," Harry comforted Neville.

Neville's lips twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the frog. "Thanks, Harry, Tara... I think I'll go to bed... D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

Neville handed Harry the card and walked away. Harry looked at the Famous Wizard card. "Dumbledore again. He was the first one I ever-" He gasped as he stared at the back of the card. Then he looked up at us. We were all waiting for him to explain what he'd found. "I've found him! I've found Flamel!" I bounded over and read over Harry's shoulder. "I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here - listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'!"

Alchemy. My Christmas present to Hermione flashed through my mind. "The books, Hermione!" I barked at her.

Hermione jumped to her feet. She hadn't looked so excited since we'd gotten back the marks for our very first piece of homework. "Yes! Stay there!" she yelled, and she sprinted up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Harry and Ron looked at me but I didn't get a chance to explain before she was dashing back, with one of my Christmas presents in her arms. "I never thought to look in here! It was one of my Christmas presents from Tara for a bit of light reading."

"Light?" Ron asked sarcastically, as the book was quite large, but Hermione told him to be quiet. She started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself. "You bought her books?" Ron asked me.

I nodded at him. "I thought that it would keep her off of our backs about schoolwork. And shut up!" I barked at him. "That book is the only reason that we're about to find out who Nicholas Flamel really is."

At last she found what she was looking for. "I knew it! I knew it!" she said excitedly.

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" Ron asked grumpily. Hermione ignored him.

Hermione dropped her voice before speaking. "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!" she said. My jaw dropped. That was real? It didn't have quite the effect she'd expected on Harry and Ron.

"The what?" Harry and Ron asked.

I rolled my eyes at the both of them. Not necessarily Harry - who had been raised as essentially a Muggle-Born - but at Ron - who I thought might have at least heard of it. "I thought that was a myth," I muttered.

"Oh, honestly, don't you two read?" Hermione snapped before looking over at me. "Lots of people do. So did I. Look - read that, there." She pushed the book toward us, and I read:

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

Once Ron looked up - the slowest reader - Hermione spoke again. "See? The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying! No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it," Harry said.

"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?" Ron added.

Suddenly I realized what Dumbledore had been talking about the night before I'd gone back home before the holidays. "Merlin. I'm such an idiot! Remember Dumbledore's advice? Look in the other direction. He meant stop looking in recent books! He meant to look at old developments," I muttered, finally understanding the cryptic advice.

Harry's head snapped up. "That must meant that Dumbledore knows what we're looking at. He must know that we know about the Sorcerer's Stone. So why hasn't he said anything?" he asked.

He was right about that. Dumbledore knew what we were wondering about. So why had he not said anything? "Is he not concerned about the Stone?" I asked, knowing that that wasn't the reason.

"He trusts Snape. He must not think that he's going to do anything," Hermione said.

I shook my head at her, twisting my hair around my finger. "But that doesn't make any sense. He must know that we're not after the Stone out of mere curiosity. He must know that we're looking into it for a good reason. Doesn't he want to know?" I asked, mostly to myself.

"I have no idea. Hermione?" Harry asked.

She looked more than a little bothered that she didn't know. "Honestly, I'm not sure," she said.

"We'll figure it out," I said.

Hermione glanced up at me and for a moment I thought that she had figured something out to do with the stone. It turned out that I was very wrong. "Tara, that reminds me. We haven't done that Transfiguration essay yet!" I groaned at her. How did she always come back to schoolwork? "Come on, we should go to the library."

"How did that remind you of the essay?" I groaned at her.

"Have fun!" Harry called after us with a wicked grin.

Alright, if that's how you want to play it. Hermione was dragging on my arm and I tugged back, motioning to Ron and Harry. "Oi, Hermione, Harry and Ron haven't done those Charms notes yet!" I ratted them out.

"Tara!" Ron howled at me.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she walked over to the boys and grabbed their arms, tugging them upwards and forcing them out of the portrait hole with us. "Oh you all must get on your work. What will you do when finals come up? And they're coming up faster than you think. Come on, we need to get our work done," she said.

We ended up spending the entire night in the library - much to our chagrin. The last thing that I wanted to do was hang around in the library, but we didn't really have a choice. Hermione was holding us hostage so that we couldn't leave. Although I did spend about an hour in the Arithmancy section sleeping where I thought that she couldn't find me. I was wrong though. She had found me and woken me up by slamming a book down in front of me. I shouted in surprise and wound up getting a point taken from Gryffindor from Madam Pince for disturbing the books. Whatever that meant.

I had made sure to blame Hermione for that point deduction. She had taken the blame and we'd learned that dropping a book on a sleeping person was not a good idea. The next day - after only sleeping in the dorms for about an hour - we had woken up and dragged ourselves down to Defense. Hermione had gone to breakfast but Ron, Harry, and I had all slept through it. I'd even tried to sleep through Defense but Hermione had come and dragged me out of bed.

Thankfully Professor Quirrell didn't seem up to speaking today. He had merely gotten us to do notes for the day. We spent the class copying down different ways of treating werewolf bites, but Hermione was really the only one that was actually focusing on the notes. Everyone else was talking. Harry and Ron were still discussing what they'd do with a Sorcerer's Stone if they had one.

"I'd shove it in Dudley's face," Harry said.

"Exactly why you don't need one," I countered.

Hermione - without looking up from her notes - spoke. "For once I'm actually on Tara's side." I grinned brightly, she never agreed that my ideas were smart. "Having the Sorcerer's Stone is a terrible idea. No one should live that long."

"I'd buy my own Quidditch team," Ron said distractedly.

"I'm going to play," Harry told us. I smiled at him. I knew that he wouldn't back out. "If I don't, all the Slytherin's will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them... it'll really wipe the smiles off their faces if we win."

"Just as long as we're not wiping you off the field," Hermione said.

"Do me a favor, do not make me step in as the alternate Seeker."

"I'll do my best."

The next two weeks passed without incident. I could tell that Harry was becoming more and more nervous, despite what he had told Ron, Hermione, and I. The rest of the team wasn't too calm, either. The idea of overtaking Slytherin in the House Championship was wonderful, no one had done it for seven years, but would we actually be allowed to, with such a biased referee? Probably not, but we were perfecting our moves and being so careful to ensure that none of our moves would get us a penalty.

It seemed that recently I was running into Snape wherever I went. It made me slightly nervous, always wondering if he was trying to deduct points or give me a detention. Potions lessons were also turning into a sort of weekly torture. Snape was now even more horrible to Harry and I - particularly Harry. Could Snape possibly know that we'd found out about the Sorcerer's Stone? I didn't see how he could - yet I sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.

The next morning - the morning of the match - I said an early goodbye to Ron and Hermione. I'd meet Harry down at the Pitch. First I had to speak to Cedric, who I hadn't seen around much over the past few weeks. Ron and Hermione both wished me luck but I knew that they were wondering whether they'd ever see me alive again. It wasn't exactly comforting. But I was wondering if I would ever see them again. Snape had seemed determined to get me in trouble recently, and I had a feeling that he wanted me to smash my head into the ground after I'd corrected him about what a student had done wrong during Potions yesterday.

It was now early March and we were coming to a close on both the school year and the coldest weather. The weather had changed again. It was no longer snowing but it was still freezing. It was around forty-five degrees out today but I knew that as we played it would heat up fast. And the Quidditch robes were thick so that playing in the cold winds wasn't so bad. I left the Gryffindor Common Room and headed down towards the kitchens, where Anthony said that their Common Room was. I wasn't exactly sure where it was but I had a feeling that if I hung down here long enough I'd find him. It took almost twenty minutes before he finally did.

He was already in his robes. Thankfully no one was with him. He hadn't noticed me yet as he turned to leave. "Hey stranger," I called out softly.

Cedric whipped his head around and smiled when he saw me. "Gotta smack Anthony for telling you where the Common Room is," he said.

I laughed as I walked up to him. "Relax. I told you that your secret is safe with me and it still is. I wouldn't be down here but I did need to speak with you before the match today," I told him.

Cedric grinned at me. "Come to surrender already?" he teased.

I shook my head at him with a little smile. "Actually I'm here on behalf of the entire team. I have a rather strange request." He nodded at me to continue. "Can you end the match as fast as possible today?" I asked awkwardly.

Cedric stared at me blankly for a moment before his lips twitched upwards. "Getting scared?" he asked.

"No. Snape is refereeing the match today. Did you hear?"

"I did. What about it?"

Now he seemed curious. "He hates Harry and I for whatever reason and we both know that he's going to award Hufflepuff penalty shots at every chance that he gets. I'm not asking you to lose the match but I know - we all know - that if Hufflepuff wins, they want to do it honestly. So lets end the match fast today. Maybe next year we'll get to play a real game," I said with a smile.

Cedric seemed to think on it for a moment before he nodded at me. "You're right about wanting to win fairly. We'll manage the game. No one wants to win because Snape is biased. We'll watch the plays and counter them if we need to," he promised me.

"Thank you. Good luck today," I told him.

"You too." I turned to walk away but before I got too far, Cedric called back to me. "Hey, Nox!" I turned back to him. "Just know that even without Severus Snape refereeing the match, you'd still lose," he said.

My lips twitched. "That a bet?" I called.

Cedric shrugged. "If you want to call it that."

"You'll lose."

"We'll see."

The both of us smiled for a moment before I gave him a little wink and turned to leave from the kitchen. I could hear him laughing as I dashed up the staircases and left through the entrance hall. The cold air cut through me as I walked out to the Pitch. Thankfully even though it was a cold day it was also sunny. I headed down towards the Quidditch Pitch - which already had students filing into it - and I walked into the locker rooms. I quickly gathered my things and walked out into the main waiting area.

I took a seat next to Harry as we helped each other with the knee pads. "You ready?" I asked once we had gathered ourselves.

Harry nodded at me with a little sigh. "Let's get this over with," he said.

We both laughed as we stood and fixed the last few pieces of our uniforms. I tied my hair up as tightly as I could as Oliver began his speech. It started the same as every other speech that I'd ever heard so I turned out. My thoughts were a little too preoccupied with the impending game and Snape. I was curious if he would actually be reasonably fair or if he would hold his grudge against me. I also wondered if he would have been easier on us if Harry and I weren't on the team. Oliver continued to speak but I tuned him out as I picked up my Nimbus Two Thousand and handed him over his.

The whistle to warn players that there was only a minute left blew and Oliver pulled Harry and I aside. "Don't want to pressure you, Potter, but if we ever need an early capture of the Snitch it's now. Finish the game before Snape can favor Hufflepuff too much. Did you talk to Diggory, Tara?" he asked.

"I did. He said that he'll watch the plays and counter them if he needs to. They agreed to play the match fairly but try to end it as fast as possible. He said that we'd get a fair game next year," I told him.

"Well done!" he said, patting me on the back. "Think that you can make friends with the Ravenclaw and Slytherin teams too?"

I laughed and grabbed his arm. "One step at a time, big guy," I teased.

Fred's voice distracted us from our conversation. "The whole school's out there!" Fred called loudly, peering out of the door. "Even - blimey - Dumbledore's come to watch!" he added.

My heart did a somersault. "Dumbledore?" Harry asked, dashing to the door to make sure.

We all began to shove at each other to get a chance to look out and see if he really was here. Dumbledore never came to games. We all knew that he heard about them, but he rarely actually showed up. It turned out that Fred was right. There was no mistaking that silver beard. Harry and I exchanged a smile. We were safe. There was no way that Snape would dare to try to hurt us if Dumbledore was watching. Perhaps that was why Snape was looking so angry as we marched onto the field.

Snape glared at us all. "Players mount your brooms. Alternates, to the side," he snarled. I took a step back and watched as everyone lined up to begin the game. Angelina was facing off Tasmin for the Quaffle.

Snape had barely waited for the teams to get themselves together before blowing the whistle. He tossed the Quaffle up in the air and I scowled when I saw that he had very purposely thrown the Quaffle towards Tasmin. She caught the Quaffle and began to rush back and forth through the stands. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia were doing a good job at keeping the Quaffle in play. Hufflepuff took four shots at the Gryffindor goalposts in the first two minutes but missed both. Alicia had taken a shot at theirs as well but had missed the goals by a few inches. Angelina threw the Quaffle straight to the center goal but Herbert caught it.

He tossed the Quaffle back into play and I sighed as the Bludgers began to block my view of the game. They seemed a little more violent this game then they usually were. They also seemed to be favoring Hufflepuff slightly. I'd seen at least three attempt to smash into Harry. I'd only seen one go towards Cedric. I couldn't help but to wonder if Snape had done something to them to ensure that the Gryffindor players would get hurt. A grin fell over my face when I saw George whack a Bludger away from Katie and towards Snape.

I could tell by the way that he had hit it he'd had no idea that Snape was behind him, but it didn't matter. Snape seemed determined that he had done it on purpose and no one was able to fight the penalty that he awarded Hufflepuff. They took the shot and I prayed that they would miss. It didn't matter. They made the goal without problem. The game resumed with Angelina in possession of the Quaffle. She was rocketing back over towards the goalposts as I knitted my fingers together, hoping that we could even the score. Harry was still circling the Pitch, searching for the Snitch like a hawk.

My gaze momentarily turned back towards Angelina - who was still holding the Quaffle - and I gasped. She wasn't going to see it in time. A Bludger was headed straight towards her. She wasn't looking though. She would never know. Fred was attempting to race over to her but he was too slow. He had just clipped the Bludger with the tip of his bat, but it wasn't enough. The Bludger was slowed down and knocked slightly off course, but it still hit Angelina in the edge of the stomach. Her name escaped my mouth in a sudden panic as she collapsed on her broom and flew weakly to the ground, collapsing when she hit the sand. Oliver immediately called a time-out.

The Gryffindor team rushed over to her as the Hufflepuff's stood back, watching to see if she was alright. Angelina was doubled over as I got to her first. She was breathing heavily and clutching her stomach. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Can you play?" Oliver asked.

Angelina was still breathing heavily. Nothing seemed to be broken but she was definitely winded. "I - I need a few minutes," she panted.

"We only have thirty seconds," I said.

Angelina groaned for a few seconds before batting us away. "Have Tara step in for this round. I just need a few minutes," she said.

We all nodded and I watched as Fred and George helped her over to lay down on the bench. Oliver looked over at me as Snape shouted at us to get ready to get back in play. "You good?" Oliver asked me.

I nodded at him, glaring at Snape. "Got it. Let's go," I said. As I flew up to the Hufflepuff players I caught sight of Cedric. He smiled at me and gave me a challenging glare.

The whistle blew and the Quaffle was thrown up into the air. It was aimed straight back towards Heidi but I managed to zip out in front of her. The good thing about the Nimbus Two Thousand was that no one else could out fly me. The Quaffle stuck in my hands as I flew back and forth around the Pitch, weaving in and out of the Hufflepuff Chasers. More than once I went over the stands, smiling at the Gryffindor's cheering for me. Malcolm smacked into me at one point as I flew through the middle of the Pitch but Katie swooped under me and I dropped the Quaffle down to her. In response Malcolm flew down and just as he got to Katie's side she tossed it back up to me. I caught it, flying towards our own goals, much to the shock of Oliver. I heard him calling my name, probably wondering what the hell I was doing.

But I had a plan. The Hufflepuff Chasers were staying a little behind me as I suddenly made a ninety degree climb into the air. Heidi and Tasmin tried to follow me into the air but their grips weren't strong enough for them to hang on. Dad had taught me this move a few years ago and it had taken me months to get right. I flipped over myself, my grip on the Quaffle and broom tight, before making a nose dive to the ground - still facing our goals - straightening myself out, and turning back and launching the Quaffle through the air. It went howling through the air and Herbert - who was unable to track my movements - missed it. The Quaffle went through the far left goal and the crowd (professors included) erupted in cheers. I thought Professor McGonagall might explode from happiness.

Even the Hufflepuff's couldn't debate that it was a good goal. It seemed that Snape was trying to figure out how to give me a foul, but he couldn't. He did try to argue that my move was illegal - which it wasn't - but to my surprise, Dumbledore defended me by saying that it was reminiscent of Dad's days at Hogwarts. I couldn't remember seeing Snape ever look so angry.

As I celebrated the impressive goal, giving Cedric a bright grin that he returned, I saw that Alicia had caught the Quaffle. Together we rocketed back towards the Hufflepuff's goalposts and she tossed the Quaffle over to me. I easily caught it and smirked as I reared back, throwing the Quaffle towards the far right goal. Unfortunately this time Herbert was a little faster. He caught the Quaffle and wavered on his broom for a moment before straightening himself out. He was about to throw the Quaffle to Heidi when Snape's voice cut through the air.

"Penalty on Nox - Gryffindor," he said.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to see what the penalty had been for. Not the last goal, he'd already been told that he couldn't. So for this one. What had I done that was illegal? "For what?" I asked.

"Excessive force," Snape explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Cedric flew over to us, along with the rest of the Hufflepuff team. "Professor, it wasn't a problem, she was just trying to make the goal," he tried to insist.

Even Herbert didn't think that I deserved the penalty. "It didn't hurt," he said.

Snape wouldn't hear a word of it. "Penalty shot," he demanded.

Tasmin took the Quaffle with a guilty look towards me but I shook my head. If she was going to take the shot she might as well do it for real. So Oliver flew out of the way and she made the goal with ease. The score went up from twenty to thirty against ten in Hufflepuff's favor. My goal suddenly meant nothing. Although I was still impressed with myself. I wished that my parents could have seen it. The Quaffle went back and forth between Tasmin and Malcolm for a few moments before I shot straight towards the ground - timing their throws carefully - before shooting straight back up.

When I came up in between their brooms I'd managed to time it just right so that they were in the middle of a throw. I caught the Quaffle awkwardly, earning a loud bought of cheers, and tossed it over to Alicia, trying to get the Quaffle away from the Hufflepuff Chasers - all of whom were following me. She attempted to make a shot but Herbert blocked it, just barely scraping the Quaffle with his fingertips, but enough to knock it off of the path that it was going towards.

I groaned under my breath and shot after it, catching the Quaffle just inches from the ground. I made a quick loop around the Pitch as I formed a plan in my head. At the moment I was just trying to gain speed and confuse the player. On one hand, it was working. No one seemed to know what I was doing. But on another hand, everyone was now following me closely. Snape gave Hufflepuff a penalty point by claiming that I was holding the Quaffle - something that was illegal but I was not doing. We tried to fight it, but Snape wouldn't hear it. So I rolled my eyes and tossed the Quaffle over to Katie, following closely behind her.

As I flew over the Gryffindor section I heard Malfoy's loud voice. He must have come over there to bother Neville. "You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team? It's people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasley's, who've got no money, and Nox, who's got no talent - you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

My jaws ground together as I found myself determined to prove him wrong. I called for Katie to follow me as we swung back around. She went one way - towards the Hufflepuff section - as I went another - towards the Ravenclaw section. The Chasers didn't seem to know what to do. Malcolm followed me as Heidi and Tasmin followed Katie. Just what I figured that they'd do. Off to the side I saw Harry go into a sudden dive and, figuring that he had spotted the Snitch, I flew past Cedric effectively cutting him off. He shouted at me in surprise and I laughed as I went into a dive myself, knowing that he would have no chance to catch up to Harry now. The Snitch was ours and the game was over. Almost.

I still had Malfoy to prove wrong. I shot back up and shouted for Katie. She dropped the Quaffle and I shot back up to the same level as the goalposts. I caught the Quaffle and flew up to Herbert as fast as I could. He was trying to follow it as I glanced at the far left goal. I threw towards the right, distracting Herbert, before actually releasing when I was over the middle goal. The plan had worked like a charm as the Quaffle went straight through the goal and was caught by Tasmin.

The crowd roared again as I floated in the air, turning back to see what was happening to Harry. He seemed to have lost the Snitch for a moment while I'd made my goal but he had clearly found it once more, on the other side of the stadium. He went into a spectacular dive, which drew gasps and cheers from the crowd. Harry streaked toward the ground like a bullet as I watched on. Malfoy must have said something else because as I glanced past Harry I saw that Ron was on top of him, wrestling him to the ground. Neville hesitated for a moment, then clambered over the back of his seat to help.

I figured I'd find out what that was about later. "Come on, Harry!" Hermione screamed from the crowd.

Up in the air, just a little bit above where I was, Snape turned on his broomstick just in time to see Harry shoot past him, missing him by inches. He was probably trying to figure out how to give us a penalty for that too. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that Cedric was just a foot from overtaking Harry to grab the Snitch. Hell no. I would never hear the end of it if they won. I flew up in front of Cedric, cutting him off from the Snitch. He gave me a playful scowl as he flew around me.

Knowing that the game was over, I hovered in the air to watch. "Go, Harry!" I yelled, watching as Cedric tried to gain speed to stop Harry from grabbing the Snitch.

The next second, Harry had pulled out of the dive, his arm raised in triumph, the Snitch clasped in his hand. The stands erupted; it had to be a record, I'd never heard of the Snitch being caught so quickly. My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe it. Harry had done it - the game was over; it had barely lasted five minutes. As Gryffindor's came spilling onto the field, I saw Snape land nearby, white-faced and tight-lipped. Harry was flying around the Pitch for a victory lap as I flew next to him, smiling the entire time. I was just below him when I flew up beside him to congratulate him. We were side by side when I heard the shout.

"Tara, look out!" Cedric called.

My head snapped back towards him but another call turned my attention elsewhere. "Move!" Fred and George both called.

They were hurtling towards me and I suddenly realized that a Bludger must have been coming towards me. That would have been the only reason that they were coming towards me so fast. I gasped as tried to fly out of the way but I was too slow. And I wasn't really sure where the Bludger was either. The crowd screamed in shock as the rogue Bludger slammed into me. It slipped right in between my arms and whacked my ribs at top speed. I could feel two of them snap and I knew that the Bludger had at least broken those. I cried out in agony and attempted to right myself on the broom to slowly come down.

But I couldn't. My entire torso was on fire. "Tara!" I heard Harry howl.

His hands briefly grabbed onto my robes but he wasn't fast or strong enough to keep me upright. My legs slipped from around the handle and I went crashing towards the ground. I was nearly fifty feet up and I knew that a fall from this high would break way more than my ribs. But I couldn't stop myself. I'd been falling for half a second when I felt something wrap around my torso, slowing my fall. My ribs screamed in protest but I said nothing. We crashed into the ground in a pile of limbs. Whoever had caught me had hit the ground with me on top of them. As we spun I rolled underneath them, groaning in pain.

My entire body felt like it was on fire as I let out a soft scream. I wanted my damn ribs fixed. Merlin that hurt. I was panting softly when I looked up and managed to open my previously squinted eyes. It turned out that it was Cedric that had caught me to slow my fall. He had a hand pressed against my face, forcing me to look at him. There were people all around me trying to speak to me but the world seemed to be on mute. Sweat was beading on my forehead as my head lolled back and forth. I was definitely dazed. And in a lot of pain. The fall definitely would have been a lot worse if he hadn't caught me.

His mouth was moving but I couldn't hear him. It took me a few minutes before I finally heard what he said. "You alright?" he asked.

His chest brushed my ribs and I pushed him away from me. "My ribs are broken. Get off of me," I muttered.

"Merlin," Cedric muttered, jumping off of me but staying kneeling next to me.

Hermione came running up and collapsed above my head. I saw that Ron was next to her with Neville next to him. All of the Gryffindor's were crowded around, staring at me in horror. "Tara! Is she okay?" Hermione asked.

My head turned weakly towards Cedric. "My hero," I said, groaning in pain.

He laughed, brushing the hair off of my face. "Eventful game, Elephant. Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'll live. Can you mend ribs?" I asked him.

He opened his mouth to answer when a hand fell on his shoulder. I glanced up to see that it was Professor Dumbledore. My heart skipped a beat as Cedric stepped back and Dumbledore came to lean down next to me. "I think I can help." He pressed his hand gently against my ribs, myself groaning in pain, and spoke, "Costa Emendo." I could feel the warmth spread through my torso and after a second, the searing pain went down to a dull throb. "How do you feel?"

"Much better. Thank you, sir," I said as he helped me to stand.

Dumbledore smiled at me before walking over to Harry and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Well done. Nice to see you haven't been brooding about that mirror... been keeping busy... excellent..." he muttered so softly that only we could hear.

I was halfway curious to see if he would say anything else but I never got the chance. Gryffindor's came running to lift him onto their shoulders. I waved them off for a moment, wanting to get my bearings before being lifted up. Ron and Hermione were in the distance, jumping up and down, Ron cheering through a heavy nosebleed. I smiled at the sight of Hogwarts, with its windows glowing red in the setting sun. All seemed right. Gryffindor in the lead for the House Championship.

"That was awesome, Tara!" Dean cheered, giving me a tight hug.

I laughed and thanked him. "Did you really break your ribs?" Seamus asked.

"Sure as hell felt like it."

Cedric came up behind me and I turned to smile at him. He didn't seem bothered by the loss. In fact, he seemed almost happy that we had won. "Good job. Game well played," he told me.

"Thank you," I said with a smile, running my hands through my hair. "And thank you for breaking the fall. It would have been a lot worse if you weren't there to catch me," I said softly.

He gave me a hug, keeping it gentle just in case. "I'll always catch you." My heart fluttered slightly as he stepped back and turned to go off with his teammates. "I'll let you celebrate with your friends. See you around," he said.

I waved him off as I felt hands around my waist, squeaking in surprise when Oliver lifted me off of the ground to join with Harry in the celebration. "You doing alright?" he called up to me. I could hear the smile in his voice. I knew that he was happy that I had managed to cut Cedric off from catching the Snitch.

I nodded at him. "I'll be okay. I'm better now that Dumbledore mended my ribs," I said honestly. It didn't even feel like a Bludger had just used me for target practice. I spotted Fred and George off in the distance walking over towards us. "Let me down for a moment, will you?" I asked Oliver, who did as I asked.

Before I could walk off, he grabbed my arm. "Don't kill them, we still need them," he told me.

I smiled at him and moved off to Fred and George. They both looked slightly guilty as they grabbed me in a hug. I still stood with my arms folded over my chest. "Where were the two of you?" I snapped.

"Sorry, Tara," Fred said abashedly. "A Bludger had just gone towards Harry and we were cutting it off. Since the game was about to end we thought that the Bludgers would stop. I've never seen one keep going like that."

"We did tell you to move though," George, unhelpfully, added.

My gaze on them narrowed. They were such brats. Of course, they would have felt a lot worse had I genuinely been injured. "Yes, that was very helpful when the two of you didn't say where the stupid thing was!" I barked.

"You'll get us back, I'm sure," Fred said.

I rolled my eyes at them as we moved back over towards the celebration. "Well I definitely will now that the two of you have cost me two ribs," I said.

"You big baby, quit whining," George told me. I turned and punched him in the ribs as hard as I could. I heard the wind go out of him as I stomped away, smirking when I heard Fred laughing at his twin's misfortune.

Gathering my thoughts, I walked over to where Ron was standing with the others. "I'll probably regret asking, but what happened to your nose?"

"Malfoy," he snarled.

"Of course," I sighed.

Hermione walked over to me and pressed a hand against my stomach. She was probably checking to make sure that nothing had happened to my ribs. "You're alright?" she asked.

I nodded at her, giving her a gentle nudge away from me. "I'm fine. I am going to get changed though. We'll meet you guys back in the Common Room in a little while," I said, waving them off and heading towards the locker room.

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Snape spit bitterly on the ground. I smirked, wondering for a moment if he had been hoping that the Bludger had killed me. A lump formed in my throat as I walked off towards the locker room, thanking everyone that told me what a good job I'd done during the game. I quickly showered and groaned when I saw the bruise that the Bludger had left. My ribs may have been in tact but there was nothing that could be done about the mark. I grabbed my coat, pants, and boots, pulling them on and leaving the locker room to go find Harry, who would be waiting for me by the broom shed as normal.

With my Nimbus Two Thousand in hand, I walked off to the broom shed. Despite the slight pain in my chest, I couldn't remember ever feeling happier. I just wished that Mom and Dad had been around to see what had happened in the game today. It was something that most people only saw during professional games. Hopefully someone had taken a picture for me. Dad would have loved to see what all of our time spent practicing had really paid off. I walked over the damp grass, heading straight towards Harry.

He met me at the edge of the broom shed. "You -" he started before I cut him off.

He was going to ask me if I was okay. He'd asked me at least ten times in the locker room. "If you ask me if I'm feeling alright one more time I'll break your ribs myself," I warned. "I'm fine, Harry. Doesn't even feel like anything happened. Dumbledore fixed me up."

Harry smiled and wrapped at arm around my shoulder. "Well I think you earned a Chocolate Frog," he said.

"I think I've earned about six."

His face suddenly turned a light shade of green and I raised my eyebrows at him. "Oh no, the last time that you ate too much chocolate you threw up all over me," he said.

"That was a year ago!" I argued.

It had been his last birthday and we'd gone to get a chocolate cake. I'd eaten far more than I should have and accidentally had thrown it up all over him. We'd laughed about it after I'd paid for a new shirt for him and sworn never to tell anyone else. I was about to argue that it was his fault that he'd dared me to eat the piece that had pushed me over the edge when something caught my eyes. I grabbed Harry's arm and, motioning for him to be quiet, pointed over at the woods.

Not far from us a hooded figure came swiftly down the front steps of the castle. We stared at each other, moving back to hide behind the shed. The figure clearly didn't want to be seen, as it walked as fast as possible toward the Forbidden Forest. Suddenly the match and our past chocolate caper flew from my mind. Only one person walked like that. Snape. He was sneaking into the forest while everyone else was at dinner. That didn't bode well for anyone.

"Is that Snape?" I asked softly, hoping not to alert Snape that we were still here.

"Yeah. You good to get back on?" he asked me.

I groaned but I should have known that he would want to follow Snape. So I nodded with a sigh at him, mounting the broom. "If no Bludgers are around I think I'll manage. Come on and be quiet," I said.

The two of us jumped back on our Nimbus Two Thousand's and took off. Gliding silently over the castle grounds I watched as Snape entered the forest at a run. Floating above the trees, we followed. Even though they provided us cover, the trees were so thick that we couldn't see where Snape had gone. For a few minutes we flew in circles, lower and lower, brushing the top branches of trees until we heard voices.

So Snape wasn't in here alone. We glided toward them and landed noiselessly in a towering beech tree. Harry grabbed onto me tightly, ensuring that we could hang on the branch together. I stayed attached to the trunk while Harry climbed carefully along one of the branches, holding tight to his broomstick, trying to see through the leaves. I moved just a few steps out just to see what was happening. Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape and Quirrell. I couldn't make out the look on his face, but he was stuttering worse than ever.

I strained to catch what they were saying. "... d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..."

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private. Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all." Harry and I exchanged a look as we leaned forward. Quirrell was mumbling something that I couldn't understand. Snape interrupted him. "Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

Not good. Was Snape trying to figure out how to get past Fluffy? Quirrell: "B-b-but Severus, I -"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," Snape said, taking a step toward him.

"I-I don't know what you -"

"You know perfectly well what I mean." An owl hooted loudly, and Harry nearly fell out of the tree. I leaned over and grabbed him towards the trunk, hoping that we hadn't given ourselves away. I could only imagine how many detentions we would get if we were caught. The accident had distracted me and I only turned back in to hear Snape say, "- your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."

I turned a glare on Harry for making us miss what he'd said. "B-but I d-d-don't -"

"Very well. We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."

Snape threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. It was almost dark now, but I could see Quirrell, standing quite still as though he was petrified. Harry motioned for me to jump onto my broom and I did, the two of us shooting out of the tree. The leaves rustled and I saw Quirrell glance up at the trees. Thankfully we were gone before he realized that we weren't just birds. We flew into the broom shed, pushing our brooms into their places before dashing back out.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

My heart was still thumping loudly. "I don't know but I think that Snape is trying to threaten Quirrell into telling him what's happening with Fluffy and the Stone. We need to tell someone," I said.

"Should we tell Dumbledore?"

Begrudgingly I shook my head at him. "And say what? We flew into the Forbidden Forest after hours and broke school rules? No way. I'm not getting expelled. Besides, we don't have proof," I muttered.

Dumbledore seemed to like us well enough, but I didn't want to do something to jeopardize that. "What do we do?" Harry muttered.

For once in my life, I didn't have any answers. "I - I don't know. Give me some time."

"Why is it always us?" Harry moaned.

My head snapped over towards him. "Us? It's you!" I barked at him. He glared at me. "Somehow I just manage to get myself dragged into all of your stupid things," I teased, whacking him on the back.

He smiled and shook his head at me. "I make your life more interesting," he said.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You make my life so much harder," I teased.

We both laughed at each other as we broke into a run towards the castle. We looked back and forth as we entered the castle, wondering if Snape was anywhere near the entrance. I didn't want to see him for fear that he might know that we had overheard what had just gone down between himself and Quirrell. Ron and Hermione were standing not far from the entrance hall, probably waiting to see what had happened. We'd been gone for a long time. They looked shocked to finally see us heading inside. All around us people were running back and forth. It seemed like they wanted to do some type of celebration.

"Harry, Tara, where have you been?" Hermione squeaked.

Ron didn't seem to gather that something was wrong. "We won! You won! We won!" Ron shouted, thumping Harry on the back. "And I gave Malfoy a black eye, and Neville tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle single-handed! He's still out cold but Madam Pomfrey says he'll be all right - talk about showing Slytherin! Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens."

"Never mind that now. Let's find an empty room, you wait 'til you hear this," Harry said.

We dragged them off into one of the rooms that used to be used for Dueling classes - ignoring Hermione telling us that we shouldn't be in there - and locked the door behind us. We took a long time to make sure that Peeves wasn't inside before laughing into the whole story about what we had seen and heard. Ron and Hermione both looked shocked as Harry tried to explain everything that we had found out over the past few months and put it into a story that made some semblance of sense.

"So we were right, it is the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy - and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus - I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through -"

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" Hermione interrupted in alarm.

Harry and I exchanged a quick look. "That's what we're thinking," I said.

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," Ron said.

Unfortunately Ron was very right. And there was nothing that we could do for now. We would just have to keep an eye out until we could figure out something to do about the Stone and Snape. As we headed to the party - knowing that we couldn't just avoid something that had been thrown in our honor - my thoughts were consumed by everything that had happened today. Not even just about what we had overheard with Snape, although that was near the top of my list. We knew that he was after the Stone and that Quirrell was trying to protect it, as terrifying as that thought was.

But my thoughts were also on the Bludgers. Harry had had his hand around the Snitch when it had come towards me. The game was supposed to end once it was caught. All of the balls were supposed to return to the trunk. So why had it come pelting towards me in the very end? And why was I almost convinced that it hadn't been aimed at me, but at the person that I had been in front of? Harry.


	14. Norbert The Norwegian Ridgeback

As it turned out, Professor Quirrell was braver than we'd thought. The Stone must have still been down under Fluffy's protection. Snape still seemed bitter about everything under the rising sun - including Gryffindor taking over Slytherin in the House Championship - but he didn't seem any deadlier than usual. Although I did avoid him at all costs just in case he happened to be hiding a spare Bludger in his robes. I still hadn't gotten over the fact that the Bludger should not have hit me. Everyone else seemed to think that it was a freak accident, but Harry and I were both convinced that it was something more nefarious. It was the main reason that I now barely spoke in Potions.

If nothing else came from my sudden silence, Hermione was proud that I hadn't gotten a detention from Snape in three weeks. That was exactly how long it had been since Harry and I overheard the conversation between Professor Quirrell and Snape in the Forbidden Forest. In the weeks that followed the tense conversation, Professor Quirrell did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet. I did notice that his stuttering had also increased ten-fold.

Every time that we passed the third-floor corridor, three of us would keep watch while the other would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. We couldn't be sure, but it seemed like the three-headed dog was still keeping watch over the Stone. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which we assumed meant that the Stone was still safe. It also helped that nothing seemed to have changed at Hogwarts. There didn't seem to be anything different about any of the Professors.

Although I did wish that some of them might realize what was happening to the Stone right under their noses. It felt a little silly that four kids were attempting to protect something that should have been left to the adults. But we knew that if we told anyone about what was happening, we would be expelled for even being in the corridor in the first place, and Hagrid could very well be fired for telling us anything. In the meantime, whenever Harry passed Professor Quirrell he would give him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Professor Quirrell's stutter.

I'd spent the classes attempting to steer our lectures towards dueling - just in case. Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer's Stone. While she was still concerned about what was happening with the Stone and Snape, she was still the perfect student that she always had been. She had started drawing up study schedules and color-coding all her notes. Normally I wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging me to do the same. And after I'd told her no for the tenth time, she'd done it anyways and left the schedule on my table. It didn't help that she'd stolen everything from me that normally kept my attention.

It meant that now I was forced to do my schoolwork. I'd been attempting to find where Hermione had hidden my things for the past few days, but I was still coming up short. I had a feeling that she had given them to Percy to keep away from me. One day soon I would have to ask Fred and George to go sift through his things. They liked to bother him anyways, ruining his room shouldn't be any problem for them.

Currently we were sitting by the fireplace in the Common Room, going over notes and old exams. I had out a Transfiguration exam from early on in the year. Harry and Ron were both complaining. "Hermione, the exams are ages away," Harry argued.

I glanced up at him and rolled my eyes, shoving his old Potions essay into his lap. He'd gotten a dreadful. "As much as I love you, Harry, you are not going to start studying until the exams are ten hours away. I've known you for two years." Hermione grinned haughtily and I turned over towards her. "Hermione's right, but lay off the Red Bull, huh?" I asked her.

Ron's eyebrows knitted. "What?" he asked, referring to the Red Bull.

Hermione clearly knew what it was, being a Muggle-Born, and Harry knew well enough that it was what Dudley and his friends would drink before going Harry-hunting. "Muggle drink, don't worry about it," I told him.

"But the exams aren't that far away! Ten weeks. That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel," Hermione said.

I rolled my eyes at her, splaying my things over my outstretched legs. "But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it all."

"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the Second Year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me..."

Rolling my eyes at her again, I leaned over and grabbed some of her notes, taking them away. She was working on far too many things at once. "You're going to be fine, Hermione. No one's going to score higher than you on the exams. Bar myself, of course," I teased.

"How? You haven't even started studying yet!" she barked at me.

In all actuality, I had started studying. I just studied in a different way than she did. And I also hated studying around Hermione. Mostly because she made me nervous and constantly told me that I was studying incorrectly. "Now that's not true, I have been studying. I just don't study when you're around because -"

"Tara!" Fred's voice interrupted.

I turned back to see the twins walking up to me. "What?" I asked.

"Here's your book back," Fred said, dropping a book at my feet.

Leaning in front of myself, I picked up the old leather bound book. I glanced down at the title and knitted my eyebrows. Fascinating Facts About Dark Creatures and How to Control Them. My gaze turned back up to them. My things must have been with Percy. That must have been where they'd gotten them. "When did you get this?" I asked them quickly.

They both turned a stark white, knowing that I was angry. "We took it from your bag the other morning. It had some of the answers that the required textbooks didn't have," George said. I rolled my eyes at them. That would be because it's restricted from having it at Hogwarts. It was a book on Dark Creatures that was used for Dark Arts. I didn't care for the Dark Arts, but I'd always thought that Dark Creatures were cool.

"And you didn't even think to ask?" I deadpanned.

"Would you have?" Fred asked.

The three of us stared at each other before I shrugged and waved them off. "Carry on," I called back.

The twins both laughed before messing my hair as they walked by me. I smacked them both on the legs, watching as they took their places on the other side of the Common Room with Lee. Hermione glanced over at the book. "What do you have a Care of Magical Creatures book for?" she asked me.

"I like animals," I said simply. I flipped open the book, curious as to what they were trying to read up on. Immediately I saw that the pages had been dog-eared. "Oi, you two!" I barked, the entire Common Room falling silent. "Which one of you folded down the pages while you were using it?"

Fred and George stared at each other before pointing. "He did!" they both shouted before running off, heading upstairs before I could even manage to rise from my place.

"I'm going to put itching powder in their underwear," I muttered mostly to myself.

They had been looking at the dog-like creatures section. The page on the Grim was folded over. I rolled my eyes and neatly unfolded it, flipping to the next page. It wasn't folded over, but my jaw dropped when I realized what it was. It was the Cerberus. The three-headed dog. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that it was the same creature that Fluffy was. Slowly I skimmed over the page. I'd never read this page before considering that I had always known the legend of Hercules and Hades. I'd also read Inferno and a few other books featuring the animal. Before Fluffy, I hadn't even known that they were real. Finally I spotted it.

"- should know this! We went over it last week!" I heard Hermione shout at Ron when I finished reading over it.

Not good. Definitely not good. "No we didn't!" Ron barked back at her.

"We did too. Tara, weren't we discussing the Knockback Jinx in Defense the other..." She trailed off when she realized that my gaze was firmly locked on the book. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.

I shook my head at her. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I've found out how to get past Fluffy," I muttered.

"What?" Ron, Harry, and Hermione asked, jumping to seat themselves next to me.

"Look here. The ancient beast called Cerberus has but only one true weakness. Music will temporarily lull the beast to sleep." So that was how Snape would be able to get past Fluffy. He must not have known it yet. "This is a forbidden book here at Hogwarts. We can't get caught with it. But chances are that it's in the Restricted Section and that means that Snape is going to find out sooner or later," I muttered.

"Music..." Harry muttered.

Ron was the first one to speak as we were all lost in our own minds. "We know how to get past the thing!" he shouted. I jumped slightly, having been lost in my own thoughts. "We should go and get the Stone and bring it back to Dumbledore. It'll be safer with him," he offered.

Immediately I shook my head at him. That was a terrible idea. "We'll be expelled if we do something like that! No matter what, we can't just go and grab the Stone. We have to be careful about the whole thing. We have to take our time. And we can't just grab it, you nitwit!" I barked at him. We knew very little about the Stone, but other than that, we would never be able to explain how we knew about it or how we'd gotten to it. "How will we explain how we got past Fluffy?" I asked.

"The book!" Ron asked, pointing down to my lap.

Hermione rolled her eyes and looked over at Ron. "The forbidden book?" she asked dryly. She then turned her gaze on me. "Honestly, Tara, what were you even thinking of doing bringing that thing here?"

My eyes narrowed at her. "Shut up," I barked. "Which one of you found out how to get past Fluffy?" I asked rhetorically. "Besides, that can't be the only thing guarding the Stone. Whatever else is down there, Fluffy is probably the easiest of it," I said.

"She's right," Hermione said. I glanced over at her with raised eyebrows. Hermione never agreed with me. "Dumbledore wouldn't have just put one barrier between someone and the Sorcerer's Stone." The question had turned from how to get past Fluffy to wondering what the other obstacles were. "Come on. We need to get back to studying," she said.

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. Over the next few weeks they piled so much homework on us that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. We didn't even get the chance to go home. Well, we did, but most people chose to stay at school and study - not that anyone wanted to. It didn't mean that Ron, Harry, and I didn't try to enjoy some time without classes to worry about.

It ended up not mattering. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. I'd attempted to lock her out of the dorms, play pranks on her, and just ignore her. But she was not letting me out of using some of my time over the holidays to do work. No matter how many times I turned her hair pink or attempted to scatter her books throughout the Gryffindor tower. So, moaning and yawning, Harry, Ron, and I spent most of our free time in the library with her, trying to get through all of our extra work. It was the first time that I could remember never being able to catch up.

It seemed like every time we got something done we got something else assigned to us. Snape had given us reading on more than ten different Potions. McGonagall had given us at least three essays this week. Flitwick wanted us to learn four new spells by the time that finals came around. Binns seemed to want us to know the entire history of the Wizarding World by the time that finals came around. Quirrell hadn't assigned too much extra work, but with himself being as nervous as he was, he wasn't being much of a teacher. It meant that we had to learn most of the lessons on our own. Sprout was the only one that wasn't assigning more work than usual. But she was being tougher with marks.

Ron's moaning distracted me from staring at a blank piece of parchment that would eventually become my Transfiguration essay. "I'll never remember this," he said, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window.

"Perhaps you'll pay a little more attention next year," I said as I began to scratch out the process of turning a thistle into a needle.

"Shut up, Tara," Ron said, tossing a crumpled up piece of parchment at me.

We both laughed and I grabbed at the paper to throw it back at him, but Hermione snatched it from my hand and hid it from the two of us. "She's not wrong. Honestly, Ron, you spend most of your time in class sleeping," she said.

"I do not!" Ron barked.

"Do too," Hermione and I both said.

We want back to our work a moment later. I thought about going back in the shelves and hiding to take a nap, but Hermione knew all of my hiding spots. I'd have to find some new ones. In the meantime I glanced out of the window and imagined what it would be like to be out on the Quidditch Pitch right now. The sun was up high in the sky and I sighed. It was the first really fine day we'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming. I wanted nothing more than to be flying through the air, rather than be trapped in the library with Hermione snapping at me to get my work done.

"I wish that we were playing Quidditch," I muttered.

"You broke your ribs in the last match," Hermione said, glancing up from reviewing her last Charms exam.

Breaking my ribs is a hell of a lot less painful than this. I gave her a little shrug. "I'd rather break my skull than be trapped in here all day," I told her, flicking my quill across my chin.

Hermione scoffed at me and whacked me in the arm with her book. "It is not that bad!"

Scowling at her, I threw my arm out towards the window but waited for Madam Pince - who was probably waiting to shout at one of us - to pass before speaking again. "Look at the weather out there, Hermione. It's perfect flying conditions. And we're trapped inside the castle doing nothing," I growled.

"Studying is not nothing," Hermione argued with me.

I opened my mouth to tell her that it was worse than studying when Ron's voice interrupted our little arguments. "Hagrid!" Hagrid? What was he doing here? "What are you doing in the library?" Ron asked.

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat. We all glanced over at him, curious as to why he was here. "Jus' lookin'," he said. It definitely didn't sound like he was just looking. "An' what're you lot up ter?" he asked, sounding suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron said impressively. I rolled my eyes. They had no clue how to keep their mouths shut. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St -"

"Ron!" I barked.

No one needed to know that we knew about the Stone. "Shhhh!" Hagrid hissed. He looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. Once he was sure that nobody had heard us, he turned back. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," Harry said, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy -"

"Shhh!" Hagrid hissed again. I rolled my eyes. Clearly they thought that the library was a perfectly fine place to have this conversation. It really wasn't. "Listen - come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh -"

"See you later, then," Harry said, leaving no room for argument. Hagrid stared at us with narrowed eyes for a moment before shuffling off.

I waited until he was gone to look over at Harry. "Think he'll actually tell us anything?" I asked.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. He seemed to have forgotten that he was looking up what Dittany was. "Maybe, if he thinks it'll get us to be quiet about the Stone and Fluffy," he said.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked. It was probably a book that he didn't want us to see. He must have been doing something illegal. "Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" she continued.

He had come from the wrong section if he was looking for something on the Stone. I shook my head at her. "No, he was over in the Care of Magical Creatures section," I said.

Ron suddenly stood from the table. "I'm going to see what section he was in." He walked off and I went back to my work. Two minutes later he came back with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table. I jumped slightly but leaned over to see what he had been reading about. "Dragons!" Ron whispered. Not good. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."

My heart nearly stopped. Dragons were fascinating animals but they were extremely dangerous. "Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him. Remember that?" Harry asked me.

I nodded numbly. "Yeah but I never would have thought that he'd actually get one. Having dragons is illegal. They aren't exactly the easiest animals to take care of or train," I muttered.

"She's right. It's against our laws," Ron said. I assumed that out of anyone, Ron would know the most about dragons because of Charlie. Too bad we weren't in Care of Magical Creatures yet. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

My gaze turned over to him in shock. "So you can remember that, but not the twelve uses of dragon's blood?" I asked.

The tips of his ears turned pink and he opened his mouth to argue with me, but he was cut off by Harry. "But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" Harry asked.

"Of course there are. Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget," Ron said.

And they weren't the only ones. "Don't forget about the nastier ones. The Hungarian Horntails, Norwegian Ridgebacks, and Peruvian Vipertooths," I said.

Knowing Hagrid, if he had somehow managed to get his hands on a dragon, it was probably one of the nastier breeds. And he would probably treat it like it was a kitten. Hungarian Horntails were native to Hungary - obviously - and considered to be one of the most dangerous dragon breeds. They also had a taste for human flesh. Norwegian Ridgebacks lived mostly in the mountains of Norway. As far as I'd heard, they were venomous, one of the few dragons that were. Peruvian Vipertooths were the smallest and fastest dragons, but they were also particularly venomous with a desire to consume human flesh.

None of them were particularly friendly. As interesting as dragons were, I'd never been particularly inclined to meet one. "Those are all of the breeds?" Hermione asked me, distracting me from my thoughts about the animals.

I shook my head at her. "No. There are many more than that. Those are just some of the more dangerous ones. Like Ron said, the Common Welsh Greens are some of the less dangerous ones. Dragons are all over the place," I told her.

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" Hermione asked.

"I wonder if maybe he found one," I muttered.

"Are there any around here?" Harry asked.

Could there be? Maybe. But how would he have even managed to catch it? "I wouldn't think so. But knowing Hagrid, I have a feeling that he somehow managed to find one. Or maybe he bought one," I said slowly. There were black market dealers. He definitely could have found someone to sell him one.

Harry seemed shocked at the fact that you could buy a dragon. "Bought one?" he asked.

I nodded at him. "The wizards have their black market too. Come on, I'm sick of studying and I want dinner before we go find out what Hagrid's up to now," I said.

Even Hermione, who wanted to study more, decided that we should get food and then go find out what Hagrid was trying to do. We went down to dinner where it turned out that no one was particularly having fun studying for the final exams. Everyone looked like they were about to fall asleep into their plates. Even the Slytherin's - who really didn't have to try in Potions - seemed to be having a hard time. Worst of all were the Seventh Years. They looked like they were about to fling themselves from the Astronomy tower. I couldn't imagine what it was going to be like when we were their age.

Finally we finished dinner and ran down to Hagrid's hut. We knew that we were going to have to be fast to see what Hagrid was up to. We couldn't risk being caught down here. Getting so close to the end of the year meant that the House Championship was coming up. And that meant that no one wanted to lose points to see if their House could win it. We arrived down at Hagrid's hut just as the sun was starting to set. When we knocked on the door, I was surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid normally liked having the curtains open so that he could work in the sunlight and see the kids running back and forth on the grounds.

"Who is it?" Hagrid called gruffly.

We all rolled our eyes before Harry yelled that it was just us. He unlocked the door and I stared at him curiously as he opened it. He had locked the door too? He never locked the door. He ushered us in as quickly as possible and the moment that my robes were inside he shut the door behind us. It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. I began to fan myself, pulling my robes from my body to keep cool. Hagrid made us tea and offered stoat sandwiches, which we refused.

He knew why we were here. But he still seemed distracted. "Merlin it's hot in here," I groaned after a few minutes.

I was from Florida and it was still brutally hot in the hut. "Sorry, Tara. So - yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

Harry cleared his throat and moved forward. "Yes," Harry said. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."

My eyebrows rose. I hadn't thought that he would be that direct about it. Hagrid frowned at him. "O' course I cant. Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts - I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Trust me when I say that you don't want to know," I said.

"I know that I don'."

To my surprise, it was Hermione that began to urge him to tell us what was beyond Fluffy. "Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," Hermione said in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and I could tell he was smiling. Perhaps it did pay to be the teacher's pet. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Hagrid's chest swelled with pride at the last words. Harry, Ron, and I beamed at Hermione. I hadn't thought that she had it in her to lie to a professor. "Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout - Professor Flitwick - Professor McGonagall -" he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell - an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" Harry asked worriedly.

Hagrid's eyes narrowed at us. I knew that he wanted us to knock it off with the whole Snape thing. "Yeah - yer not still on abou' that, are yeh?" None of us bothered to answer him. "Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

I knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were thinking the same that I was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He'd planned this out well from the first day. It seemed that he had been thinking about this from the moment that we had started school. Probably even beforehand. By now he probably knew everything - except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy. At least we knew one of them.

Of course, there was always a chance that music might not work on Fluffy. We would have to ask Hagrid to know for sure. I nudged Harry to say something. "You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy. Aren't you, Hagrid? And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?" Harry asked carefully.

The two of us exchanged a little smile. If Hagrid would keep the secret of how to get past Fluffy, the Stone might be safe for a while longer until we could figure out a plan. "Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," Hagrid said proudly.

I could tell that he was happy to be sharing a secret with Dumbledore. "Well, that's something," Harry muttered to us before turning back to Hagrid. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."

Hagrid gave Harry the same answer that he had given me. "Can't, Harry, sorry," Hagrid said. I noticed him glance at the fire so I turned my gaze. At the same time, the others did, too.

"Hagrid - what's that?" Harry asked.

My heart skipped a beat. That was definitely not good. We were right in thinking that Hagrid was doing something that he shouldn't have been doing. I knew that even though Harry had asked what it was, we all already knew. And not just because we'd seen one before. Except for maybe Ron, none of the rest of us would have seen one. It didn't matter. I knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg. And it was not a chicken egg.

Hagrid seemed to know what we were all thinking and he knew that he had been caught. "Ah." He fiddled nervously with his beard, "That's er..."

"Oh please tell me that is not what I think it is," I muttered.

Ron stood from his chair and walked over. "Where did you get it, Hagrid?" he asked, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune." Dragon eggs were incredibly expensive, and without meaning offense to Hagrid, he was a gamekeeper. He couldn't have made enough money to buy something like this.

"Won it," Hagrid said. That made much more sense. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest." I wonder why that could be?

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid said, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library - Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit - it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here - how ter recognize diff'rent eggs - what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

My jaw nearly dropped. There was no way that he could keep something like that. "Hagrid," I started slowly, trying to not offend him, "they're some of the most violent dragons. And if that's a female, it'll be even worse. I know that dragons are cool and the babies can be cute, but it won't be a baby for very long. What happens when it gets out of control?" I asked him, trying to put it into perspective.

Hagrid didn't seem bothered. "I'll teach it," he said.

"You can't tame dragons. People have tried," I said softly.

Hermione decided to help me convince Hagrid that having a dragon was wrong. Hagrid looked very pleased with himself as he looked over the fire. "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said.

But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire. We spent the next hour trying to convince him that having a dragon was a terrible idea but he wouldn't hear a word of it. So we'd gone back up to the castle, batting ideas back and forth about what to do about the dragon problem. As awful as it might have sounded, I was almost hoping that the egg was a fake and wouldn't hatch. We couldn't handle this much, now having something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

Unfortunately there was only so much that we could do about the dragon. We had plenty of other problems. One of them being the question of what else was keeping the Sorcerer's Stone safe. We had been thinking for the past few weeks over what it could possibly be. None of our answers were for certain, but we figured that it would be better to try then go in blind. Because somehow we'd all come to the conclusion that we would end up going after the Stone eventually.

We had figured that Professor Sprout had done something with a particularly nasty plant. Hermione had been looking up possibilities. Professor Flitwick was probably doing something with a complicated char - either performing one or beating one that he had placed. Professor McGonagall's was a mystery to us. We figured that it would be something with logic. Professor Quirrell's we figured would have something to do with proving that you could master a skill in Defense. We figured that Snape's could be difficult, something that only he could figure out. As for Dumbledore's, we had no idea what to think about that. Obviously Hagrid had placed Fluffy at the beginning.

Outside of our issues with Hagrid and his dragon and guarding the Sorcerer's Stone, we were extremely busy with the homework that we had been getting. It wasn't just the homework, it was also the exams that were coming closer and closer. We had closed in on the two-month mark a while ago and now it felt like our time for everything was running short. I'd been harassing Hermione for weeks to help me with Astronomy - something that she was thrilled with. She loved that I was actually doing something with school.

In the meantime I'd been managing to stay out of trouble. Mostly because Oliver needed us out of detention as much as possible. With all of the studying that we were all doing, he had to rearrange the Quidditch practices. That meant that anyone who got detention normally ended up missing practice. I'd only gotten one detention over the past month. No one had really minded. I'd said something to Malfoy about his fat head and Snape had overheard me and given me a detention for it. Fred and George had gotten detention that night too, thankfully. Although Oliver had made us all pay for it by making us do ten laps around the Pitch during the next practice.

Even with everything that was keeping me busy, I did manage to keep my marks high. Something that pleased my parents each time I sent them something about my marks. Hermione was shocked that we were still competing for the top spot at the end of the semester among the First Years. I understood, I studied about half as much as she did and goofed off during classes. I knew that it bothered her. The truth was that my time in Ilvermorny helped and so did the fact that I was a Pureblood.

As it turned out, our homework and study schedules kept us so busy that we really didn't have any time to do anything else. I barely had time to go to Quidditch practices, and half of the time that I did, I was thinking about my work while I flew back and forth over the Pitch. It had resulted in a few accidents. It also meant that we'd spent very little time thinking about the Stone and I had spent almost no time thinking of the mystery necklace. Although it was tucked in the top drawer of my dresser, hidden underneath some papers and wrapped in a scarf. There was still no word on who the gift could have been from. I was starting to think that it really was a joke from Malfoy to make me paranoid.

Evening after evening we struggled through all the extra homework we were getting. The air of the castle had gotten thick with nerves as students taking their O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams paced back and forth through the halls looking as though they might drop dead. It certainly didn't ease the nerves of the First Years. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Harry and Ron, too. It was driving them nuts. She hadn't given one to me because I'd been making my own to ensure that she wouldn't bother me.

We were in the library looking over our last homework from Professor Sprout when Ron's moaning shattered the tense silent. "Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," he sighed.

"I somehow doubt that any of us will ever know what that feels like," I muttered.

And I honestly meant it. Being best friends with Harry Potter did not come with a peaceful life. Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. He had written only two words: It's hatching. My heart nearly stopped. It had been so long that we'd almost been thinking the egg was a dud. But now we knew that it was real. Ron wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. Hermione wouldn't hear of it. Harry and I remained silent.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" Ron asked her as we walked towards class.

Hermione scowled at him in response. "We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing -"

"Shut up!" Harry snapped.

I glanced over his shoulder to see that Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead in his tracks to listen. I sent him a little scowl before pulling the others to walk away from him. I knew that we were all thinking the same thing. How much had he heard? I didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all. He must have heard what we were talking about, and now he had the perfect blackmail. Ron and Hermione argued all the way to Herbology and in the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with us during morning break.

We had finished class only a second before the four of us went dashing out of the greenhouse. Ron and Hermione argued with each other as Harry leaned over to me. "Do you think Malfoy heard?" he asked me.

I did, but I didn't want to make anyone even more paranoid. "Maybe. But I know that if he thinks that he heard anything, he'll try to figure it out. Especially if it means that we'll somehow get in trouble for it," I said.

"How could we get in trouble?" Harry asked.

The list went on and on. Especially with Snape being around. "Being out after hours, not telling anyone that there was a dragon on campus, honestly, Harry, we could get in trouble for anything with you around," I told him.

Harry glared at me. "Thanks, Tara," he muttered.

Smiling at him, I wrapped an arm over his shoulder and shoved him forward. I could hear the bell back at the castle warning students that they had fifteen minutes to get to their next classes. Hermione began dragging us forward so that we wouldn't be late. We hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid was standing at the edge of the hut with oven mitts over his hands. He gave us a quick greeting, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out," he breathed.

He ushered us inside without another word. The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. My heart lodged itself in my throat as I pushed myself forward. Something was moving inside and a funny clicking noise was coming from it. Hagrid motioned us all to come forward. We all grabbed chairs from around the room and drew them up to the table and watched with baited breath. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open.

It hadn't been as slow as I was expecting. The baby dragon flopped onto the table and I stared at it. It wasn't exactly pretty but it was rather interesting. I thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes. The dragon stared at us and I tried to figure out whether it was a male or female. But I didn't really know enough about them. It turned away and sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

Hagrid seemed absolutely smitten. "You know it won't stay that small for very long, right, Hagrid?" I asked.

He completely ignored me. "Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. "Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" Hagrid chirped.

I exchanged a worried look with Hermione. "Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" she asked. Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face - he leapt to his feet and ran to the window. "What's the matter?" Hermione prodded.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains - it's a kid - he's runnin' back up ter the school."

Harry bolted to the door and looked out. I followed him a moment later. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him. Malfoy had seen the dragon. I tried to corner him in the next coming days - to threaten him or plead my case I wasn't sure - but I was unable. He always had his cronies around him. He knew that I was trying to get him alone. And he knew that I wouldn't dare say anything about the dragon with anyone else around. I couldn't risk it. Finally, he knew that he had won. The smile lurking on Malfoy's face during the next week made us very nervous. He was waiting for his moment. We couldn't wait for ours.

We spent most of our free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him. "Just let him go," Harry urged. "Set him free."

"I can't. He's too little. He'd die," Hagrid said.

And he was right. He needed his mother. Other than that, there was the problem that we couldn't have a dragon wandering around here. We weren't really that far from the Muggle population and the dragon would grow. Eventually it might come back to Hogwarts and I didn't want Malfoy telling everyone that we'd known about the dragon all along.

Hagrid was trying to get the dragon his food while Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I kept a close eye on him. I wasn't so sure that I trusted it not to cause damage to the hut, no matter how young he was. We all looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," Hagrid said, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mommy?" Hagrid called.

The dragon began to spit spark at him. I cringed and looked away. "He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered in Harry's ear.

"We have to get rid of that thing," I whispered.

"Hagrid," Harry said loudly to get Hagrid's attention back on us, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."

Hagrid bit his lip. "I - I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

Harry suddenly turned to Ron. "Charlie," he said.

My eyes widened. I couldn't believe that we hadn't thought of it before. Charlie was the perfect way to solve all of our problems. "You're right," I said, grabbing Harry by the shoulders.

Ron was staring at us with wide eyes. "You're both losing it, too. I'm Ron, remember?"

"Idiot," I muttered.

Harry was nicer about it. Perhaps I was just frustrated with everything that was happening. "No - Charlie - your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!" Harry said.

Ron suddenly realized the brilliance of the plan. "Brilliant! How about it, Hagrid?" he asked.

At first Hagrid was hesitant to send Norbert off anywhere that he couldn't keep an eye on him. But we had managed to talk him into the realization that Norbert would be better off being with his own kind and people that could give him all of the care that he needed. We also reminded him of the looming threat of Malfoy and the reminder that Hagrid still had his own job - one that he was still slacking on. In the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him. We were praying that he would be able to take Norbert.

A few days had passed when I finally got the chance to go out to the library and do some research. I had always liked dragons, but most of my reading up on them had been for fun. I had left most of my books upstairs so I grabbed one of the library's many copies of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and turned to the dragon section. I must have read over the Norwegian Ridgeback section at least twenty times. I was determined to know it word for word just to prove to Hagrid how much he was underestimating Norbert.

"What have you and your friends done this time?" a voice behind me asked. I turned back and sighed when I saw that it was Cedric. I'd been hoping that no one would see me back here. "Raising a dragon in secret?" he teased.

Yes. I decided to go for sarcasm. "Don't be stupid, we're learning how to fight one."

Cedric laughed and took the seat next to me. "Honestly, I don't think that I'd be surprised," he told me. We both smiled at each other as I shut the book and pushed it off to the side. "How is studying for your exams coming along?"

"Debating on letting another Bludger come after me," I joked.

He smiled at me and nodded. I assumed that with his extra classes this year he probably felt the same. "Yes, I think I feel the same. Maybe I added one too many extra classes this year," he muttered.

"You're more than welcome to bask in the misery of exam preparation with me," I teased. He chuckled and took me up on my offer.

The following week dragged by with nothing amusing happening. We were all exhausted from exams and Norbert was making things much worse. Wednesday night Hermione, Harry, and I were sitting alone in the Common Room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. We were doing work and waiting for Ron to return. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. He did not look pleased. He had been down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"It bit me!" he said, showing us his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. My eyes widened. We needed to get rid of Norbert. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby."

Hagrid was getting more and more attached to Norbert. We had to get Charlie out here before it got to the point that he wouldn't let us take him. Suddenly I remembered something that I had read earlier. "Hey, Ron, aren't Norwegian Ridgebacks venomous?" I asked.

He went pale as a sheet. "Are they?" Hermione asked me.

There was a tap on the dark window that distracted us from the unsettling thought. "It's Hedwig!" Harry yelled, hurrying to let her in. We all ran over to the table, knowing what was about to come. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"

Once he walked back over, we all crowded around the small note. Charlie had much nicer handwriting than Ron did. I wondered if one day we might actually meet him. Or Bill. They were the two Weasley's that we had yet to meet. Shaking off those thoughts, I put my head together with the other three to read the note.

Dear Ron,

How are you? Thanks for the letter - I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon. Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.

Send me an answer as soon as possible.

Love,  
Charlie

At least we knew that now we had the chance to get rid of Norbert. But it wouldn't be easy. How were we going to get around Filtch while carrying a dragon up to the top tower in the school? "Can we even do that without getting caught?" I finally asked the question on everyone's mind.

We all exchanged a look with one another. "We've got the invisibility cloak," Harry said. It would help but I wasn't sure if we would be able to get all of us and Norbert under there. "It shouldn't be too difficult - I think the cloak's big enough to cover two of us and Norbert. Maybe three if you and Hermione can stay close together," Harry said, motioning between myself and Hermione.

"We can manage," I said determinedly.

The rest of the night was spent trying to figure out how we were going to get Norbert out of the castle. We had figured that Hagrid would have some way to disguise the dragon so that we could carry him without worrying that something was going to happen to us or him. Maybe he would give us a cage, but that didn't stop me from wondering if we would get set on fire. Norwegian Ridgebacks were well-known for how hot their fire breath could get. I was not prepared to be burned alive. Not yet at least.

It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that we all agreed to risk our standing at school to go out there and get Norbert somewhere safe. It wasn't even about getting him away from the school and getting back to focusing on our studies - though those were the main reasons - it was also because we wanted Norbert to have a good life. He would never be able to have a good life in that little cottage. He would not do well somewhere that small. It was also a big deal that we got rid of Malfoy.

So far the plan was good enough. We had the invisibility cloak that not even the ghosts could see under. As long as Norbert was reasonably quiet and nothing happened to the cloak, we would be fine. Of course, nothing ever stayed good for that long when it came to us. There was a hitch in our well laid-out plan. By the next morning, Ron's bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. It was currently a bright red and oozing pus. It looked like it was in the early stages of infection. I debated sending Dai to Mom asking her what to do, but I really didn't want to have to explain and there was no way that we would get a letter back in time.

Ron was drenched in sweat and his eyes had bags underneath them. "That looks terrible, Ron. You might have to go to Madam Pomfrey," I told him as we walked from the Common Room to get breakfast.

"Won't she notice a dragon bite?" Ron asked me.

There was a chance that she would, but we also didn't want Ron to lose his hand. "Maybe not. Mom was a Healer and I don't think that she ever cured a dragon bite. She knew how, of course, but she never saw one," I told him. That didn't seem to be much of a reassurance. "And Madam Pomfrey just cares that we're safe."

Ron still didn't want to go to the hospital wing. "Maybe I can wait it out," he said.

"For future reference, I did tell you that they were venomous," I muttered to him.

Ron looked like he might have shoved me had he had the energy. But he settled for cursing quietly at me. "Shut up, Tara," he muttered to me as Hermione chirped in, telling him that he really should have been more careful.

We had been hoping that the effects of the venom would be gone before the end of the day. But they weren't. As the hours and minutes passed, Ron got progressively worse and worse. He looked like he might drop dead at any given moment. Still, we tried to push him through the day. By the afternoon, though, we had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green and was now oozing yellow pus. I was right. Norbert's fangs were poisonous and there was nothing that we could do.

Harry, Hermione, and I had agreed that we would go and see Ron at the end of the day. They were on their way to class while I ran back up to the Gryffindor tower. I was heading to grab a book that I had forgotten. I dashed through the portrait and grabbed the book off of my shelf, turning to head back to class. I was almost back to the portrait hole when I was cut off by Fred and George. My throat closed slightly. They did not look happy. Actually, they looked almost far too happy. Something that set me on edge.

"Tara," they greeted together.

They knew. They had to know something was going on. "Fred. George," I greeted back, heading to move past them. "Pardon me. I was grabbing a book for class," I said softly, hoping that they would let me by.

Of course, it was never that simple. Fred and George stepped together to form a chain that was almost impossible for me to get by. I stared at them both with a bored face. "Would you happen to know what happened to our dear brother?" George asked me.

Humor. Go with humor. Make them laugh! "Percy?" I asked them. They both grinned but didn't move away from me. Okay, work at them a little more. "Oh, dear boys, I don't think anyone will ever be able to tell you what happened with him. Perhaps a brief stay in St. Mungo's? They do have a psychological unit. If you'll excuse me -" I said, trying to make a break for it.

Fred knew what I was doing. He caught me and shoved me backwards. I stumbled slightly and glared at him. They were both smiling with their arms crossed over their chests. "You are very funny, Tara," Fred said.

"What happened to Ron?" George asked me.

I had been hoping that no one had seen him when we'd brought him to the hospital wing. I let out a little breath. Try something else. "Don't tell me that you genuinely care. You'd only care unless there was something seriously wrong with him. He'll be fine in a few days," I said, unsure of the result that I was looking for.

They exchanged a look before laughing. "Of course we don't care!" George said.

"We want to know what you slipped him," Fred added.

My jaw nearly dropped. Their brother had been poisoned and they thought that I had done it? I wasn't that cruel. "You automatically think that I did it?" I asked them.

"Of course," George said.

I shook my head at them. "I didn't," I told them honestly.

Fred glanced over at his brother. "She's right, George," he began. I crossed my arms. They couldn't be going anywhere good with this. They were far smarter than people gave them credit for. "We do know that it wasn't her. We know that it wasn't a poison or a prank at all," he continued.

"Absolutely," George chimed in. "You see, we were in the library the other week and overheard you having the most fascinating conversation with Pretty-Boy Diggory." Uh oh. "And we grabbed the book that you left there. Open," he said.

"To the dragon section," Fred added.

Stay calm, don't say anything to give away what you were doing. "So I like dragons," I shrugged carelessly.

My argument proved useless against the twins. "And suddenly Ron shows up with a wound that looks very similar to the effects of the Norwegian Ridgeback venom?" Fred asked me.

My heart skipped a beat. They knew. They knew that we had somehow gotten hold of a dragon. They were so much smarter than anyone gave them credit for. I sighed, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to win this argument. "What's it going to take to keep you both quiet?" I asked, knowing that there was nothing else to say.

"Nothing," Fred said.

"Not yet anyways," George added.

"We'll think about it."

Well that didn't bode well. "Lucky me," I growled. But I realized before I could turn away that they must have cornered me first. Harry, Ron, and Hermione hadn't said anything about the twins figuring out what we were up to. "Why have you not tormented Harry, Hermione, or Ron about it yet?" I asked suspiciously.

There had to be a good reason. "Because -" Fred started.

"- Dear Tara -" George interjected.

"- you're our favorite!" Fred finished.

My eyebrows narrowed at the two of them. "I've never been so upset to be someone's favorite," I muttered. The twins looked happier with themselves than I'd ever seen from anyone else. Before I left, I turned back to them with a pleading look. "Keep your mouths shut about this, please? It's not what it sounds like," I said softly.

They seemed to know that I really didn't want this getting out. They both nodded at me. "You have our word," Fred promised.

"And you're late for class," George said.

I scoffed at the two of them and darted over to the door. "Thanks for that!" I barked at them before dashing from the room.

Thankfully I ended up in class about ten seconds before it was time to start. No detentions for me today. We went through class barely paying attention, and when the bell rang we dashed from the classroom. We ran past Malfoy and I could tell that he wanted to know what we were doing. But we didn't stop to chat. We flew by him and ran up the stairs, more than once we nearly tripped over each other. Finally we came to the top of the stairs and ran into the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey stared at us for a second before nodding at us, probably wanting us to make it fast. Ron was in a terrible state in bed.

Thankfully he was the only person here. We could sit at his bedside and talk between us. I pushed back the hair on his head and felt his face burning up. He was looking way worse than he had earlier. "How are you feeling?" I asked him.

He kept his voice down as he spoke. "It's not just my hand, although that feels like it's about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me." I scowled. That was why he had looked like he wanted to follow us earlier. "He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me. I've told her it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me. I shouldn't have hit him at the Quidditch match, that's why he's doing this."

"He'd do it anyways. That's just what a prat he is," I tried to reason with him.

And I honestly believed that. It seemed to be Malfoy's goal in life to get us expelled. And doing things like this would definitely get us expelled. "It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," Hermione said.

We expected it to calm Ron down, but it didn't work quite the way that we were expecting. On the contrary, he sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat. I moved forward to ask him what was wrong but he spoke over me. "Midnight on Saturday! Oh no oh no - I've just remembered - Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert," he said.

My face drained of color. Attempting to get Norbert out of Hogwarts had just gotten a lot harder. "Why didn't you hide it?" I snapped at Ron, debating on whacking his hand with my book.

We never got the chance. Harry and Hermione never got a chance to ask if there was any chance that Malfoy hadn't really gotten the book. Madam Pomfrey came over right then and made us leave, saying Ron needed sleep. We all stared after him but left anyways. We were smart enough to not say anything and not argue with Madam Pomfrey. We walked from the hospital wing and headed out into the hallway away from prying eyes to figure out what we were going to do.

We stood together nervously. "It's too late to change the plan now," Harry said. He was right about that. "We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl, and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that," he said.

Suddenly a thought settled over me. We had to do something to distract Malfoy. Even with the cloak, it would be hard to get around him. Norbert had gotten a little louder over the past few weeks. But I had just the idea on what could possibly stop Malfoy dead in his tracks. There was only one thing that I could think of that would never back down to Malfoy. And I knew just what to do to make sure that it would be in his way when he tried to come after us on Saturday night.

"Give me an hour," I said, drawing their attention to me. "I've got an idea, something that'll keep Malfoy too busy to notice what we're doing."

Hermione didn't look convinced but Harry nodded. He knew that if I had an idea that I was risking a detention for, it was worth it. "Please don't get yourself another detention," Hermione begged me.

A wicked grin fell over my face. "Oh trust me, if I get a detention for this, it'll be so worth it," I told her.

Before I could leave, Harry caught me around the wrist. "You're sure you've got a plan?" he asked me.

"Yeah. No worries."

Harry nodded and released me. "Meet us down at Hagrid's in an hour," he said.

Not that I knew why we were going down there, but it would be fine. I nodded at them and walked through the halls of Hogwarts. I was heading down to the library and I knew exactly what I needed. It was a rather uncommon book but I had seen it once before when I was perusing the shelves of the Hogwarts library when we first got here. Now I was glad that I had found it. Walking into the library - looking away from Madam Pince's evil stare - and headed straight towards the smallest section. Writing. I grabbed the smallest of the books, teaching someone to write in script.

Once before I'd seen Malfoy's handwriting. We had to check each other's work earlier in the semester. I'd been forced to do so by Snape after we'd had a few vicious fights. He actually had good handwriting. He'd probably taken lessons when he was younger. Mine was too narrow and loopy. I needed to copy his writing as closely as possible if this was going to work. I was almost done with the letter - just working on forging his name - when a book slammed down beside me on the table.

I jumped, holding my hand over my pounding heart, as I glanced up. Cedric was standing behind me with a little grin on his face. "Merlin, you scared me," I breathed out, trying to steady my thumping heart.

Cedric smiled and took a seat next to me. "Jumpy, are we?" he asked. I grinned bashfully but didn't answer. I also didn't bother hiding the note that I was working on. That would only look worse. He looked over at it and I saw his eyebrows knit in confusion. "What are you doing? Playing a prank?" he asked.

That was somewhat the reason that I'd done it, but it was mostly to keep him away from us on Saturday night. "I swear this really isn't what it looks like." Cedric didn't look like he believed me. I could tell that he wanted me to further explain. I sighed. Might as well. "I need to distract Malfoy a few nights from now, and Parkinson will be just the person to do it," I answered.

He didn't seem like the type of person that would sell me out. He seemed to actually enjoy the strange things that my friends and I did. He laughed at me and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're going to get yourself expelled one day," he said.

"Probably," I shrugged it off. At least I'd save the Sorcerer's Stone beforehand. "Why is it always you whenever I'm doing something that could get myself into trouble?" I asked with a little laugh as I began to scribble on the note again, trying to match Malfoy's writing as closely as I could.

She had to believe that this was real. "I have a knack for timing," Cedric said, leaning over to watch what I was doing.

We sat in silence for a few minutes as I scratched out the numbers. They were easier than the actual letters. "So what are the chances that you won't repeat this?" I asked after a few beats.

"Those chances are very good," he said. He moved closer to me and grabbed the quill from my hand. "Your writing is too feminine. I've seen his. It's good but it doesn't look like that. Give it," he said.

I moved to the side slightly and shoved the ink bottle towards him. He dipped it in and moved the parchment closer to himself. I watched as he looked over the book for a few seconds before starting to write. His movements were slow and deliberate. He was clearly a lot more patient than I was. He rewrote the note completely, leaning halfway over him. My face turned a slight red as he leaned behind me, his breath fanning over my neck. I picked the wrong damn day to wear my hair up.

Finally he finished and handed it over to me. It looked much more like Malfoy's writing now. I forced the pink tinge out of my face as I grabbed the parchment and placed it in the envelope that I had. One that I'd gotten from Mom and Dad the other day. Cedric helped me clean off my quill and pack away the ink bottle before walking back towards the shelves and tucking the book into its place. We walked over to the entrance of the library and stood together for a few moments.

"Thanks for that," I whispered.

Cedric smiled at me. "See? You are a bad influence on me," he said.

I laughed softly and shrugged my shoulders. I was a bad influence, but sometimes people who were bad had the most fun. "But I'm fun," I teased, giving him a gentle nudge.

Cedric laughed and wrapped an arm over my shoulder for a moment. "That is true," he said. We both smiled as he let go of me and we walked out of the hall. "I do enjoy being around you," he added. It sounded almost bashful. But he was still grinning normally. I blushed and pulled my hair down, letting it fall over my face. "What are the chances that you're going to tell me what you and your friends are up to?"

Would I tell him? Probably. There was no harm in telling him once we were done with the plan. Cedric liked Hagrid, he wouldn't do anything to hurt his position at school. I didn't know what he thought about Ron and Hermione, but I had a feeling that he didn't really know them. He might have known Ron by name. He knew Harry but he really had never spoken to him. He liked me though, he wouldn't do anything to get me into trouble. Once Norbert was out of the castle, I wouldn't mind telling him.

I gave him a sly smile - one that he returned. "Those chances are pretty good; once we get away with it, that is," I said softly.

He laughed at me and nodded as we went down the stairs of the main entrance. "I look forward to it. Do try your best to not get detention, or get expelled. I'd miss you," he teased.

I laughed softly and gave him a little wave as we stopped at the entrance hall. "And I would miss being able to get in trouble all of the time and have you save me," I said, remembering that he was the reason that Professor McGonagall hadn't gotten me for skipping class last month.

"Best of luck with your plan," he called to me.

"Thanks for helping. I have to go but I'll see you around," I said.

We waved each other off as I turned and searched through the entrance hall. She wasn't there. I checked the Great Hall next. She wasn't there either. She hadn't been in the library. I prayed that she wasn't in the Slytherin Common Room. I wouldn't be able to get in there and I couldn't wait - we were coming up on my time limit that I was supposed to meet Harry and Hermione. I couldn't even try to find the Slytherin Common Room, I didn't even know where it was.

My only hope was that she would be out in the courtyard. I'd seen Parkinson out there with her friends a few times before. It was a nice day out. I wouldn't have been surprised if she was there. So I walked out to feed her the lie that Malfoy had a crush on her. It was obvious enough that she had a crush on him. The forged letter and her ego would do all of the work. As I walked out into the courtyard, I spotted her. She was standing with some of her friends. Thankfully Malfoy was nowhere to be found.

I put on the most irritated face that I could - not that it was difficult - as I walked up to her and her little gaggle of followers. "Parkinson," I barked loudly enough for her to hear me.

Parkinson whipped her head around and her gaze narrowed at me when she saw who I was. "You!" she spat at me angrily. I rolled my eyes at her as I stomped up, the letter slightly crumpled in my hands like I could care less about it. "What do you want?" she barked.

"Your friend left this in my book on accident. I guess he thought that it was yours. Here," I said, taking the letter and shoving it into her chest. She stumbled back, looking furious that I had dared to touch her, but took the letter anyways.

She glanced down at it and scowled. "It's opened," she commented.

I shrugged my shoulders. I had forgotten to seal it before coming out here. "So I'm curious. Sue me," I said carelessly. She was too stupid to realize that this was a little too convenient.

She opened the note and I held my breath as her eyes scanned over it. It seemed like she was taking forever and I wanted to shout at her to learn to read faster. She was straight faced for a few moments before her lips turned upwards in a full-blown smile. I had to suppress a grin. She fell for it. Thank you, Cedric. I knew that I owed him something for the way that he had helped me earlier. He could have just as easily sold me out. I wouldn't have blamed him if he had. Forgery was against the rules.

"I knew it!" she finally squealed. Her friends were all trying to get a look at the letter. "I knew that he had feelings for me!" she chirped. That only made her friends even more curious to read it as they giggled at her.

"Let's see it, Pansy!" another Slytherin First Year, Millicent Bulstrode, chirped at her.

Pansy handed over the letter before turning over to me with a haughty face. Just as I thought, her ego would do most of the work for me. I just had to hope that she wouldn't say anything to Malfoy beforehand. "Are you jealous, Nox?" she sneered at me. "He wants to go out with me Saturday night. He says to meet me in the Common Room at eleven forty-five on Saturday night," she said.

"You are aware that I've already read the note?" I couldn't help but to snap at her. I rolled my eyes at her, unable to tolerate this conversation for too much longer. "Yeah. I'm really jealous. If only I could be with someone as misogynistic as him," I commented dryly.

Her eyebrows knitted in confusion and I scoffed at her. "What?" she asked.

I couldn't believe that someone could be as stupid and as arrogant as she was. At least Malfoy was intelligent. "Nothing. It means attractive," I said, waving her off.

Parkinson grinned to herself, taking the note back, clearly thinking that she had thought of the cleverest joke in the world. "Don't worry, Nox. I'm sure one day Potter might be willing," she said. I cringed to myself and turned to walk away. As much as I loved Harry, that thought was horrible. "Or maybe Diggory?" she added, stopping me dead in my tracks. I whipped my head back to her. "We've all seen that pathetic little crush that you have on him. It's cute, the way that he patronizes you by speaking to you."

That was the last straw that I'd had with her. I knew that my crush on him was pathetic. I didn't need anyone else telling me that. So, as fast as I could, I whipped out my wand and shouted the one spell that Dad had taught me. "Locomotor Wibbly!"

It was the Jelly-Legs Curse. It was a little tough for a First Year to manage, but Dad had taught it to me when I had first gotten my wand so that I could ward off unruly boys. I assumed that Parkinson was close enough. She fell to the ground face-first and I laughed as she took in a mouthful of dirt. The other people standing around us laughed too. She was trying desperately to stand up but she couldn't. Her legs would be like rubber for a while now. The other Slytherin girls were attempting to do something. I turned to leave when I spotted Percy walking up to me. I groaned, knowing that he was going to give me a detention.

He stopped a few inches away from me. "A point from Gryffindor." That was less than I was expecting. "Go, before I have to give you a detention too," he warned me quietly.

My eyes shot open. "Really?" I asked.

He nodded at me with a little grin, something that I had only seen from his brothers before today. "Even the Prefects have a few people that we can't stand," he told me.

I couldn't help myself. I flung my arms around his neck. "Thanks, Percy!" I chirped.

He laughed and motioned me off. I walked off a few steps, turning back and giving Parkinson a wink. She was still attempting to stand from the ground. She could barely make it halfway up when the curse would take over and she'd hit the ground once more. "Nox!" she shouted after me. I laughed as she called for her friends. "Millicent, do something!"

The crowd in the courtyard - many of them were people that I'd never seen before - were all laughing and clapping me on the back. No one liked Slytherin, so everyone enjoyed when one of their own were put into their place. I smiled and dashed out of the courtyard, running over the grounds, past the Quidditch Pitch, and down towards Hagrid's hut. As I walked up to the hut I saw that Harry and Hermione were already waiting for me. They were standing out front and staring curiously at me. They were probably wondering what I had been doing over the last hour - and why I had left without reason.

"What did you do?" Harry asked me the moment that I walked up to them.

Giving him a little smile, I motioned them to walk with me the rest of the way. "Gave Malfoy a little roadblock. He won't be there, but we will have to hurry up. I'm not sure how long my diversion will work for." They both nodded as I let a little grin fall over my face. "And Parkinson might have some walking problems for a while."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at me but asked the more important question first. "What is the diversion?"

"I forged a note from Malfoy telling Parkinson that he wants to go out with her on Saturday night. It told her to meet him in the Slytherin Common Room at eleven forty-five on Saturday night." Harry laughed as Hermione gave a thoughtful look. "It might not actually hold him at all, but can you imagine the look on his face when he sees her down there?" I chuckled.

For a moment I thought that Hermione was going to yell at me, but the corners of her lips twitched upwards. I knew that she hated Parkinson about as much as I did. "That's... actually not a half-bad idea," she said slowly.

Harry patted me on the back. "Good one," he said through a laugh.

Everyone knew that Parkinson had a crush on Malfoy, one that he didn't return. I figured that it would make a good distraction and it would make me laugh. "It won't hold him forever though. Malfoy doesn't have a hard time letting people down. We might stall him for a few minutes, but not forever," I told them.

They both nodded at me. If nothing else, it would make for a good laugh at the two of them. We were almost to the door of Hagrid's when Hermione turned to me. "Wait, what happened to Pansy Parkinson?" she asked.

My lips twitched upwards. "Jelly-Legs Curse. Percy caught me but he only took a point away from Gryffindor. He hates her. He told me to leave before he had to give me a detention for it," I explained.

Hermione looked shocked, but not because I had done something like that to Parkinson. "You can perform a Jelly-Legs Curse?" she asked me curiously.

I nodded at her. "Dad taught me."

Hermione laughed under her breath and shook her head at me. "Go Mr. Nox," she muttered under her breath. We all laughed as we walked up to Hagrid's hut.

Something already looked wrong. The hut looked almost like it was smoking. It could have been from something in the fireplace but we all knew better. Hagrid must have just taught Norbert a new trick. Or perhaps Norbert was getting a little angry. We could hear Norbert shrieking inside and I could hear Hagrid banging and crashing through plates. It sounded like a small war was going on inside. I noticed that right out on the mat, looking extraordinarily irritated, was Fang, Hagrid's boar hound. He had a bandage around his tail.

Gasping softly, I dropped down beside the dog. He looked up at me, growled deeply in his throat as if to beg me to get rid of the dragon that had taken over his home, gave me a quick lick on the face, and dropped his head back into his arms. I ran my fingers over his head and gently gave him a little tug on the ears, something that had always made him happy before.

"Oh, Fang, what happened?" I asked softly. I assumed that Norbert had probably given him a nip.

As I made sure that the dog was alright, Harry and Hermione knocked on the window. Hagrid yelled for us to go to the window and we did. He was leaning out, looking extremely weary. "I won't let you in. Norbert's at a tricky stage - nothin' I can't handle," he argued.

"Hagrid, he's a dragon, he's always going to be at a tricky age," I said sharply. No more of this.

It seemed that Harry and Hermione agreed with me. Norbert had gotten far too large and dangerous. It was time for him to leave. So we took in a deep breath and told him the one thing that was for the best, but still wasn't the news that he wanted to hear. We told him all about Charlie's letter and the fact that we were going to get him to a much better home. His eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg.

"Aargh!" Hagrid yelled. I gasped, remembering that Norbert was venomous. Hagrid smiled a pained smile at us. "It's all right, he only got my boot - jus' playin' - he's only a baby, after all," Hagrid said.

The 'baby' banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle. Hagrid gave us quick instructions to return Saturday night and slammed the window in our faces. We sighed before heading back to the castle. Finally we had managed to convince Hagrid that it was for Norbert's safety - and definitely our own - that he was gone. I knew that we all had the same feeling. Saturday couldn't come quickly enough. We would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say goodbye to Norbert, but honestly, we couldn't. For the most part we were concerned with how to get a dragon up to the Astronomy tower in the dead of night, even with the invisibility cloak.

The next few days passed mostly without incident. One morning we had all woken up to char marks across the grounds near the Forbidden Forest. Cedric had been outside with the rest of us and had given me a long look, knowing that somehow I had something to do with this. I gave him a bashful smile and thanked Charlie silently that Norbert would be out of our hands in a few hours. The char marks were taken away by Professor Sprout, who looked more than a little confused at what they were there for or how they had gotten there.

We spent most of Saturday trying to get work done to distract ourselves from the reasonably complicated task that we were taking care of today. I'd spent some time in the library, unable to stay too long because of the looks that Parkinson kept giving me. It wasn't even that I was irritated with her, I just thought that I was going to laugh and give it away. We'd gone to visit Ron after a while. He looked much better but his hand was still a deep purple. Apparently the bite wouldn't have been nearly as bad has it been treated right away. During dinner and for a while afterwards we'd gone over the plan trying to make sure that nothing went wrong tonight.

Of course, we all knew that it would. Hanging around the Common Room at night, we waited for it to clear out. As the clock approached midnight, Harry, Hermione, and I got ready to leave. "Ready to go?" I asked the other two.

Sighs were the only responses that I got as we threw the cloak over ourselves. "Ready as I'll ever be," Harry said.

"Let's go."

Thankfully the cloak covered the three of us without a problem. It would be harder once we got Norbert underneath too, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it. In the meantime we snuck out of the Common Room carefully, praying that no one else would be around. Some of the professors would be wandering the halls to ensure that no students were out of bed but no one could see under the invisibility cloak. As long as we were quiet, there would be no problem. Not even the ghosts could see us.

We were about half way out of the castle when I put my arms out in front of the other two, stopping them. "Stop. Peeves," I whispered, pointing to the end of the hallway.

He was being quieter than normal. Probably because he didn't want the Bloody Baron or Professor McGonagall to come after him. Peeves was down at the end of the hallway, floating around and playing a rather loud round of tennis against the wall. I shoved the other two back against the wall and fished in my pocket for the roll of gum that I had brought just in case. I pulled my hand free of the cloak and tossed the package as far as I could. It clattered against a wall and Peeves immediately stopped playing. A wicked grin sped over his face and he tossed the tennis racket and ball, floating away after the noise.

Harry and Hermione started dragging me down the hall. We were approaching the entrance hall when Hermione leaned over to me and whispered, "Good thinking."

"Thanks," I muttered.

We moved as fast as we could from the castle. Thankfully we didn't pass anyone else on our way out. I had a feeling that the professors normally had the ghosts patrolling the corridors that would wake them up if something happened or if they caught someone out of bed. Filtch was the only person that normally walked all over the castle at all hours of the night. Probably Snape too, but I actually would have rather come across Filtch than Snape right about now.

It seemed like it was over an hour later that we finally made it onto the grounds. We sped up and didn't worry so much about how loud we were being. No one patrolled the grounds at night. It was very dark, and a cloudy night, something that set my teeth on edge. We should have given Hagrid the cloak and made him do this. By the time we got to Hagrid's hut we were a bit late. It didn't seem to bother Hagrid. He'd been saying goodbye to Norbert. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate that I couldn't quite figure out how we were going to carry.

"Alright, let's get this over with," I said as we walked inside.

Hagrid looked like he had been crying as he looked over to us. "He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," Hagrid said in a muffled voice.

My eyebrows shot to my forehead. "Brandy?" I asked.

Hagrid ignored me. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely." From inside the crate - that was sealed so that we couldn't see Norbert - came ripping noises that sounded to me as though the teddy was having his head torn off. "Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry, Hermione, and I covered the crate with the invisibility cloak. We awkwardly had to position ourselves underneath it. Our feet would be slightly visible as we moved, but hopefully the darkness of the castle would conceal us. "Mommy will never forget you!"

Together, Hermione and I on one side and Harry on the other, we lifted Norbert's crate. Almost immediately we dropped it. "Merlin, Hagrid, how heavy is he?" I panted.

It didn't seem that Hagrid knew. He opened the door to the hut and let us out. We pushed Norbert's crate over the grass so that we could save our energy for the stairs inside of the castle. We wouldn't be able to push or pull it on the stone floors. It would be too loud. We would have to somehow figure out how to carry it. I thought about using the levitating spell but Hermione and I both agreed that the unstable floating from the spell might upset Norbert and make him irritable. The last thing that we needed was for him to start spitting fire and howling loudly, drawing everyone over to us. So we had to settle with carrying the crate.

I wasn't sure how heavy Norbert was - and I had a feeling that I probably didn't want to know - but by the time that we got to the castle I was already convinced that he weighed over a hundred pounds. At that would have been at the absolute least. Some part of me thought that he might be getting close to two hundred pounds. Way too much for us to carry and worry about being quiet and keeping the invisibility cloak over us all at the same time. We were all sweating, but mostly because we were nervous.

How we managed to get the crate back up to the castle, we never knew. Finally we had to pick up the crate and move it. I wanted to drop it the moment that we had, but we knew that the more that we stopped, the harder it would be to pick it back up and move on. So we couldn't. We tightened our grips on the cage and moved slowly, barely able to lift our legs. Well, Dad, I found the perfect way to train Quidditch players for arm strength. Carry a two-hundred pound dragon in a cage up twenty-five flights of stairs. One day - long after I graduated Hogwarts - I would have to tell my parents about tonight. They'd probably laugh.

Midnight ticked nearer as we heaved Norbert up the marble staircases towards the towers. We waddled along the dark corridors, glad that we didn't pass Peeves again. He must have still been hunting for the owner of the gum package. Or maybe he'd found another place to play tennis. We went up another staircase, then another - so many that I'd lost track. We'd taken one shortcut that Harry knew and another one that Fred and George had once told me about. But even those didn't make the work much easier.

"Nearly there!" Harry panted as we reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower.

Wiping sweat off of my forehead with my shoulder, I let out a few deep breaths as Norbert shoved his nose against the cage, rattling it. "We should have dropped this cage on Hagrid's foot before we left," I groaned.

Both Harry and Hermione laughed. I had a feeling that she was about to have a heart attack. She was reasonably sedentary. She probably wasn't used to this kind of work. I was and it was killing me. Then a sudden movement ahead of us made us almost drop the crate. Forgetting that we were already invisible, we shrank into the shadows, barely able to keep Norbert's cage steady. This would have been a terrible time to rattle him. We stared at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared and I very nearly laughed. Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

She looked absolutely furious. "Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you -"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming - he's got a dragon!"

Professor McGonagall looked affronted that he would dare tell her something like that. "What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on - I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

They disappeared through the shadows and Harry, Hermione, and I waited a few minutes before moving again. "He must have gotten by Pansy," Harry said as we lugged the cage once more.

"I had a feeling that it wouldn't stop him for that long. But can you imagine the look on his face when she was there waiting for him? He must have been horrified!" I chuckled softly.

"Be quiet and pull! We can laugh later," Hermione said.

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Of course, it was still pretty awful. Mostly because of the angle. We got stuck a few times, but it didn't matter. Malfoy had gotten detention and we were home free. Just a few minutes from now Charlie's friends would get Norbert and we would be able to put this in the past. Not until we'd stepped out into the cold night air did we throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again.

Hermione did a sort of jig. I laughed and collapsed onto the ground. "Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!" she chirped.

"Don't," Harry advised her.

We were all laughing and smiling as we leaned back against the cold stone floor. "Now we just need to get out of here and we're home-free! I can't believe that this really worked," I laughed softly.

"One of our finer moments, I'd say," Harry said.

"Agreed."

Chuckling about Malfoy, we waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate. Even I could feel that the crate was getting warmer. He was clearly pissed about being in there. Thankfully we weren't waiting that much longer. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness. Charlie's friends were a cheery lot that we'd all enjoyed speaking to.

They were also rather cute. I knew that Hermione felt the same way. They were far too old for us but that didn't mean that we didn't enjoy speaking to them. They were a little hard to understand with their accents but we enjoyed speaking with them anyways. They showed us the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. We'd asked them how they managed it but apparently this was a common tactic to transport dragons. They also explained to us that Norbert was going to get much bigger in a few weeks so it was good that we were getting him out of here now.

They seemed the most entertained that we were risking a lot to be out here. Apparently they had gone to Durmstrang, but they knew just how much we were risking being out here. So they'd decided to do us a favor and move things along. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then we shook hands with the others and thanked them very much. They told us that if we were ever in Romania we were more than welcome to say hello to them and give Norbert a visit. We said that we would, of course I had a feeling that this was the last time that we would ever see Norbert. At least, I hoped that it was.

At last, Norbert was gone. We watched Charlie's friends fly off with him until we couldn't anymore. With a little laugh exchanged between the three of us, we turned and left. We slipped back down the spiral staircase feeling better than we had in weeks now that Norbert was off of our hands. No more dragon - Malfoy in detention - what could possibly be wrong? The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As we stepped into the corridor, Filtch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness. My heart lodged in my throat when I realized that he could see us.

"Well, well, well, we are in trouble," Filtch whispered to us with a wicked grin.

My heart skipped a beat when I realized that there was one thing that had kept us from getting caught before. And we'd left it at the top of the tower. "The cloak," I muttered, knowing that our well thought-out plan had quickly become a disaster.


	15. The Forbidden Forest

I'd gotten in trouble for plenty of things before. Mostly from Ilvermorny. But they were little things. I'd gotten in trouble for setting off fireworks in the hall once, I'd gotten in trouble for sending a friend of mine a color bomb, and I'd gotten in trouble for skipping class. But I had never been in trouble for something like this. Everyone knew that at magical schools one of the worst things that you could do was be caught out of bed after hours. Things couldn't have been worse.

I knew that we had to do something. So I stepped past Harry - who looked like a ghost - and Hermione - who looked like she might pass out. "Mr. Filtch, please, if we could just explain -" I started before being cut off.

"You can explain to Professor McGonagall what you were all doing awake," he said.

No. No, she'd have us out of Hogwarts in an hour. "We don't have to go that far. Please, if you'll just let us tell you what we were doing out of bed, we can keep it between the four of us. We really weren't doing anything bad!" I tried to argue.

He didn't seem to care. "Zip it!" he barked. My mouth closed and I knew that it was better off for me to stay silent. I didn't want to make things worse. "You can explain it to Professor McGonagall."

There was nothing more that we could do. So we walked with our heads hung. Filch took us down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor - my heart pounding in my chest - where we sat and waited without saying a word to each other. We were all smart enough not to say anything. I wasn't even sure what we would say to each other even if we could speak. We could try and figure out something to say or something to do, but nothing would work. Not even the truth. Hermione was trembling next to me. She looked close to tears.

On my other side Harry seemed a little more confident. But, he too, seemed to be thinking of what we would do once Professor McGonagall came in. We couldn't give away Hagrid. What we had done was against the rules but what he had done was illegal. Excuses, alibis, and wild cover-up stories chased each other around my brain, but nothing made sense. I couldn't see how we were going to get out of trouble this time. We were cornered. How could we have been so stupid as to forget the cloak? We wouldn't have been caught if we'd been a little more careful. And now we were going to be expelled.

Mom and Dad were going to kill me. There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept us being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes. I'd been lucky to have never been caught up there. I knew that I was risking a lot every time that I creeped up there. Add Norbert and the invisibility cloak, and we might as well be packing our bags already. The only thing that I could think to do was plead our case to stay at Hogwarts.

With everything that Dad had done during his time at Hogwarts, I imagined that McGonagall might have been expecting this. But, then again, I knew that Dad had never been caught out of bed after hours. He probably had snuck around the castle at night but he'd never been stupid enough to get caught. As the door opened I realized that things were not as bad as they could have been. Things had just gotten worse. Professor McGonagall appeared and she was leading Neville.

She looked furious and he looked terrified. "Harry!" Neville burst out, the moment he saw us. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag-"

Harry shook his head violently to shut Neville up, but Professor McGonagall had seen. We were in a ton of trouble. Because now, not only was it the three of us, Malfoy had also been caught, and now so hard Neville. We had a lot of explaining to do. As I looked at Professor McGonagall I realized that she was more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them.

She finally managed to gather her thoughts. "I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves," she snarled. It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue.

I debated on staying silent, but I sighed, knowing that if there was ever a good time to be selfless, it was now. Hermione had too good of grades to be kicked out. And there was no way that I was letting Harry go back to his miserable life with the Dursley's. Mom and Dad would have to learn to forgive me, because I was about to be expelled.

"They were trying to help me," I said.

Harry and Hermione both looked up, seemingly about ready to stop me from whatever I was going to say. Professor McGonagall turned her gaze on me and nodded. "Continue, Miss Nox," she said.

Taking a deep breath I prepared to be sent back home. "You see, I'm a terrible sleepwalker," I said. It was a lie. I'd never sleepwalked in my entire life. "It takes a lot to wake me up. I've had problems with it since I was born. Hermione normally hears me when I get out of bed but she didn't tonight. I got out of the Common Room and walked. I suppose I ended up in the Astronomy tower. Hermione was just trying to make sure that I didn't injure myself," I said.

Hermione was clearly trying not to give away the lie. But Professor McGonagall didn't look over at her. Instead she turned a glare on Harry. "And why was Mr. Potter with you as well?" she asked.

Luckily I was born with the innate ability to come up with a lie on the spot. So, it seemed, was Harry. "I was down in the Common Room studying when I saw her leave. I knew that something was wrong when she didn't answer me about where she was going. When Hermione came down to get her we decided to go after her together," he said.

Professor McGonagall ran the story over in her mind before nodding. She then turned to Hermione. "Is this true, Miss Granger?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Hermione said, softer than I'd ever heard her.

Were we really going to get away with this? I would have been okay with points being taken away, even a detention; we would have deserved it. But were we really going to get away without a punishment? Professor McGonagall put down my hopes of getting away unscathed almost immediately. "I somehow find all of this very difficult to believe. While I do appreciate you attempting to take the fall for your friends' actions, Miss Nox, I do not appreciate lies. Five points from Gryffindor," she said.

I did not mean to make things even worse. "Professor, please -"

"Enough," she said, effectively ending my argument. "I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on. It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?" she asked.

Oh no. She thought that she had the entire story when it turned out that even Malfoy was more correct about the entire thing than she was. But we wouldn't dare tell her that. For once Harry, Hermione, Neville, and I were all shocked into silence. Harry caught Neville's eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn't true, because Neville was looking stunned and hurt. I felt terrible. We'd gotten him in trouble for trying to find us to warn us what Malfoy was planning.

Professor McGonagall was clearly waiting for an explanation. She did not like that she didn't get one. "I'm disgusted. Five students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. Miss Nox, I see you are following in your father's footsteps. But even he wouldn't have gone this far. I'll be writing to your parents," she said.

Ouch. That seriously hurt. I knew that despite what she said, she was fond of my father. It seemed that right now, she hated me more than she hated losing to Snape at Quidditch. "We weren't trying to do anything wrong," I said softly.

Professor McGonagall did not appreciate my attempt at humility. "Breaking the rules? I deem that wrong," she snarled at me. "All four of you will receive detentions - yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous - and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

I said nothing. We deserved it. "Fifty?" Harry gasped. I wanted to slap him. It would be bad. We would lose the lead, the lead we'd won in the last Quidditch match. But it could have been much worse.

"Fifty points each," Professor McGonagall clarified, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose.

Now that time I had something to say about it. "Professor please -" Hermione started.

"You can't -" Harry added.

Professor McGonagall held up a hand. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students," she said.

Everyone began to stand, but before they could leave I shouted out, "Wait!" All movement stopped as the eyes in the room turned to me. "It was me. The idea was all mine. I've held a grudge against Draco Malfoy since the first day that I met him. It's an old family feud. I thought that it would be funny to tell him that we were delivering an illegal dragon tonight to get him in trouble. You're right. We were waiting up in the Astronomy tower and hiding to laugh at him. I thought that my plan had failed when he didn't show up. We were leaving to go back to the Common Room when Mr. Filtch caught us. Harry and Hermione were trying to convince me that what I'd done was wrong. I didn't listen to them. Neville was trying to stop us. If you want to punish someone, it should be me," I said softly.

I'd always been the troublemaker. It shouldn't be shocking coming from me. And if everyone needed someone to hate, it might as well be me. Professor McGonagall stared at me for a few moments. "I do admire someone who is willing to take the fall for a plan like this. But it doesn't change things." Damn it. "However, if you still feel the need to split the blame more appropriately... One hundred and fifty points will be taken from you, Miss Nox." My eyes bulged but I said nothing. I'd asked for this. "Twenty each from Mr. Potter and Miss Granger. You both should have come straight to me. Ten from you as well, Mr. Longbottom. Sometimes it's best to let others handle their own mistakes. You will all still be serving detentions. And I will be relaying this story to your family Miss Nox," she said.

I nodded, having already been expecting that. Honestly, I'd been thinking that she would have immediately expelled me from Hogwarts or at least sent me to Dumbledore. "Yes, ma'am," I said, hanging my head.

"Go back to bed," she snapped, leaving no room for argument.

We all got up and left the office without saying a word to each other. What, really, was there to say? Two hundred and five points lost. One hundred and fifty-five of them were my fault. Of course, I'd essentially asked for it to be that way. It wasn't even the loss of the points that bothered me, or the detention. It was the fact that the point loss put Gryffindor in last place. In one night, we'd ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the House Cup. I felt like I was going to vomit all over the floor. How could we ever make up for this?

The four of us weren't far from the Fat Lady portrait when Hermione finally asked me the question that I knew she'd been dying to ask since we'd left. "Why did you do that?"

I shrugged at her. "Because everyone expects me to do something like that. At least you've all only lost fifty points altogether. If they're gonna hate someone, it might as well be me. We didn't all have to take the fall," I told her.

"We say that it was split evenly," Harry said fiercely. "I'll write a letter to your parents telling them that it was my fault and that you took the fall -" he began before I cut him off.

They were my parents. I'd deal with them myself. "You won't. I did what I did to save you the trouble," I snapped at him. I glanced over at Neville, who looked like he might cry. "I'm so sorry Neville," I said.

He didn't answer me. He merely sniffled and ran past us. "We'll take the blame evenly, Tara," Harry insisted.

There was nothing more to say. We got back to the Common Room and went straight to bed. Harry said nothing to us and as Hermione and I got back to the dorms we said nothing to each other. We merely climbed into bed and I stared at the ceiling all night long. It was already almost two and I couldn't find it in myself to be tired. It didn't help that I could hear Hermione sniffling. I couldn't think of anything to say to comfort her. This was her first detention. And I knew that she, like myself, was dreading the dawn. What would happen when the rest of Gryffindor found out what we'd done?

The next morning Harry, Hermione, and I went down to the Great Hall for breakfast in silence. Ron was still in the hospital wing. My stomach was churning when I looked over at the giant hourglasses that recorded the House points. At first, Gryffindor's passing them thought there'd been a mistake. How could they suddenly have two hundred and five points fewer than yesterday? We sat in silence as we stared at the embarrassingly staggering difference between ours and everyone else's. Eventually the truth about what had happened - and who was the one who'd lost the points - was going to be revealed.

I was only sitting in silence by myself for so long before Malfoy came storming over to the Gryffindor table, standing right behind me and speaking loudly. "Thought your little prank was funny, did you?" he barked at me.

I'd almost forgotten about the note that I'd given Parkinson. I hadn't even thought about it. I couldn't help but to smile at him. At least something was funny. "I don't know what you're talking about," I said with a small shrug.

"The note to Parkinson? I know that it was your doing," he snarled.

By now all of the Gryffindor table was watching us. It was very rare that a Slytherin came over to speak with a Gryffindor. "Glad that you liked it," I said.

"You deserved to get caught last night," he snarled.

Whispers broke out around the table and suddenly the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables began to listen. Thankfully he still wasn't speaking that loudly. This was not the moment that I wanted the truth to come out. "Whatever. I've got better things to do than patronize you," I said.

"You're right!" he shouted. Barely any professors were there so he was allowed to speak as loudly as he wanted. And right now the entire Great Hall could hear him. Everyone stopped speaking to listen. "You've got to earn back one hundred and fifty-five points! Because that's how many you lost last night, didn't you?" Gasps and soft chatter erupted. "And your friends, Potter, Granger, and Longbottom lost themselves another fifty on top. Well done," he said.

My jaw was hanging limply. Of all the awful things that he had done... "You lost two hundred points in one night?" Angelina asked me from across the table.

It seemed that people were finally gathering their thoughts. "What did you do?" Alicia asked in disbelief.

Oliver began turning back and forth as if expecting someone to jump out and begin laughing at them all for falling for it. "This is a joke, right?" he asked, looking back at Harry and I.

Neville and Hermione seemed to be on the verge of tears. Malfoy leaned into me. "Payback," he whispered before backing off. "And thanks for the help. Because of you, Slytherin is in the lead for the House Championship," he said.

As if things couldn't get any worse, Pansy Parkinson came running into the Great Hall with tears running down her face. My heart nearly stopped as she stood in front of me, throwing the note that Cedric had helped me write into my lap. I didn't particularly feel bad for her, more for myself. As if losing one hundred and fifty points wasn't bad enough, now I was about to look heartless.

The Great Hall had once more gone silent. "You think you're funny, do you? The little note?" she howled before running off with Malfoy's arm around her. The hall erupted in chatter as she turned back to me and gave me a wicked grin. If I could have lit her on fire I would have. She wasn't upset with me, she was just working with Malfoy to make me look bad.

Harry and I glanced around the Great Hall to see that everyone was pointing and whispering about us. No one seemed happy. And it didn't take long for most of the Gryffindor's to move away from us. I glanced over to the Hufflepuff table and saw that even Cedric was glaring at me. Of course, I'd told him that my note wasn't what it sounded like. And she'd made it sound like that was exactly what it was about. And he'd helped me do it. I'd accidentally dragged him into something horrible.

Even the upperclassmen - kids that I didn't even think knew my name - were suddenly talking about me. Of course, nothing made me sound very good. The full story started to spread very soon after that: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, and the impressive alternate Tara Nox, their heroes of two Quidditch matches, had lost them all those points, them and a couple of other stupid First Years.

And, of course, there was also the added bonus that I was now considering a 'heartless bitch.' That was one of the nicest insults that I'd seen be thrown my way. From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated. Of course, I was right up there with him. Considering my good sense of humor, I'd always been liked by most of the kids in school. Now most of them wanted to pitch me off of the Astronomy tower themselves. I wasn't so sure that I would ever be able to come back to my previous status after losing one hundred and fifty-five points in one sitting.

An older Ravenclaw had been very polite in telling me that it was the most points someone had ever lost in one sitting. It was something to be said that even Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's turned on us. It was mostly because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the House Cup. Cho Chang seemed to be leading the Ravenclaw's in their newfound hatred of me. She seemed more than a little pleased at my misery. Everywhere Harry and I went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted us.

The Slytherin's were reacting differently. The girls all hated me even more than they had before. None of them seemed to know that Parkinson was lying about what had happened between herself and Malfoy. She would burst into tears every time that she saw me, only making the rumors about my personal integrity even worse. The boys were a little different. They all laughed and some of them even cheered me on. It almost would have made me laugh, if I didn't see how disgusted it made the other students, who somehow seemed to think that I was enjoying the attention from the Slytherin males.

For the most part, they clapped as we walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, Nox, we owe you one!"

It didn't take long for everyone to completely stop speaking to us. The Gryffindor's didn't seem particularly bothered by what had happened to Parkinson - considering that they all hated her too - but they were not happy with the point loss. Dean, Seamus, and Neville completely ignored me. They refused to partner with me anymore. Parvati, Lavender, and Fay all avoided the room whenever possible. I could have sworn that they were purposely trying to make me late for class by locking me out some mornings.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were the only ones that could work with each other these days. No one else would dare to sit with us. Hermione and I worked together for the most part and Harry and Ron worked together. I'd tried to work with Harry one day and it had only earned us even worse insults.

The thing that burned the most wasn't even the nasty remarks. I'd been expecting those. It was that Cedric was ignoring me for the most part. We hadn't spoken since the day in the library when he'd forged the note for me. I knew that he was furious with himself for helping me with something like that. He must have hated that he believed my lie. Well, he thought that it was a lie, and honestly I couldn't blame him. He'd given me a few looks in passing over the past few days but he almost always walked off with his friends before I could get the chance to speak to him. I wanted to apologize and explain what had happened.

In the end, the only person that hadn't been involved that stood by us was Ron. He was also the only one that could really bring it upon themselves to speak between our friends. Hermione and Neville had been almost silent and Harry and I were both too upset to find anything to talk about. "They'll all forget this in a few weeks," Ron said one night in the Common Room, trying to cheer us up. "Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them."

Even Fred and George hadn't been speaking to us lately. The only positive thing that I had to say was that they weren't joining in on the insults. "They've never lost a hundred and fifty points in one go, though, have they?" Harry asked miserably.

"Well - no," Ron admitted.

It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Harry and I were attempting to do anything to keep from losing even more points or getting ourselves in trouble. I'd gotten a rather nasty note from Mom and Dad telling me to keep my nose to myself and not to date take another step out of line or they'd bring me home themselves. It nearly made me cry when the letter said that they had never been so disappointed in me. So I swore to myself not to meddle in things that weren't my business from now on. I'd had it with sneaking around and spying.

The next few days passed without too many incidents. I had a few Potions spilled on myself by other students, one or two rogue spells, and some of my food tasted more like cayenne pepper than anything else. The passing comments and whispers had gotten no worse. The one good thing was that - to avoid people thinking that they were okay with me losing all of the points - most students stayed far away from me. It meant that I had the Common Room mostly to myself. I was sitting over by the fireplace reading a Muggle book Hermione had lent me. Harry and Ron were playing cards up in their room while Hermione was studying in the library. I spotted Fred and George leaving their room with Lee in tow and I smiled, heading to stand with them.

They hadn't said much to me so I figured that they might actually be willing to spend a little bit of time with me. I was getting sick of the somber air around Harry and Hermione. "Fred. George." They both glanced over at me. "Do you guys want to go downstairs by the lake? Kick around the soccer ball? Or maybe you can show me how to use those Christmas presents that sent me? It's a beautiful day," I tried.

"Go on, Lee. We'll meet you there," Fred said to Lee. He nodded and walked away. With a very guilty look, Fred shook his head at me. "Sorry, Tara, we're busy," Fred told me.

No. They were just too nice to tell me that they didn't want to be around me. "Right," I said awkwardly.

George stepped in a moment later. "Where are Harry and Hermione? Or Ron?" he asked.

I scowled at the twins. "Harry and Ron are hiding upstairs. Hermione is in the library. She doesn't want to see anyone right now. You know, we're kind of the villains of the school right now," I said.

Fred laughed at me. "Well, you did lose two hundred and five points between the three of you. And Neville," he added as a last thought.

Once more I scowled. I knew that it would be a big deal but I really hadn't thought that things would be this bad. "Come on, you guys have lost tons of points before," I nearly shouted at them.

"But never two hundred in one sitting. Not even one hundred. And never this close to the House Championship," George told me like it would justify the way that they were ignoring me. "There's no way that anyone other than Slytherin will win. No one exactly wanted to see that happen," he said.

"We didn't either," I muttered.

Fred nodded at me and walked forward. It looked like he was debating on laying a hand on my shoulder but thought better of it. "We know. We still love you, Tara, but people are upset. They'll get over it eventually," he tried.

"And until then you'll ignore me like everyone else," I said.

"Tara -" Fred started.

"It's fine. I get it," I said, waving them off. I didn't mean to be rude, but I was a little sick of being treated like I'd killed someone. It was an accident. They happened. Even my parents were treating me like dirt. "I don't blame you guys. Enjoy whatever you're up to, I'll figure something else out," I said, leaving before they could say anything else.

Scoffing at the twins, I left the Common Room angrily. It wasn't really that I was even angry with them. They had every right to tell me to get lost. I wouldn't want to be seen with myself right now either. But I guessed that I thought that after a week people would have started getting over what had happened. Evidently not. My good standing at Hogwarts was gone and now I was counting down the days until I could leave and go back home. Not that I really wanted to be at home either. My parents weren't really my biggest fans right now.

I headed towards the library to sit with Hermione - completely forgetting that I didn't even have my books with me. I could always borrow something of hers or just flip through some of the library books. I wasn't even sure that I wanted to work. I just wanted to sit somewhere that everyone had to be quiet and no one could bother me. It was that exact reason that I chose not to hunt out Hermione and sit by myself. I'd just found a table in the back of the library when an unwanted figure appeared at my side. Malfoy was standing on the other end of my table with a smug look on his face.

My jaws ground together as I stared at him. "What the hell do you want, Malfoy? I've got better things to do," I snapped.

That wasn't really the truth. No one was speaking to me and I wasn't really in the right mind to study right now. "Continue being hated by everyone at school?" he suggested.

"What do you want?" I snapped again.

Malfoy sighed and took a seat across from me. I had to resist kicking him in the jewels. "I've come to apologize about the incident in the Great Hall," he said. My gaze narrowed at him. I was sure that he would have rather shot himself. "No, I'm just kidding. Actually, I'm here to thank you. Slytherin is going to win the House Championship now because of you," he said.

Of course. "You know, you are right about one thing. I've gotten about as low as I can go. I've got almost no friends left that I can lose, I've lost so many points for Gryffindor that it's almost pointless to be afraid to lose more, and I've already gotten a detention," I said. He looked at me curiously wondering where I was going with this. I leaned forward and dropped my voice. "If you don't get lost, I'm going to live up to my promise on breaking your jaw."

Malfoy merely grinned at me. "Aren't you angry?" he teased. "Don't worry, I only came to check on you. You're exactly how I figured you would be." He turned to get up from the chair but stopped himself at the last moment. "Oh. And I also wanted to thank you for sending Parkinson towards me. Not very interesting or amusing, but she's not a half-bad snog," he said.

"You're despicable. You two deserve each other," I snarled.

He looked like he might have wanted to say something else to me, but I didn't stick around to hear it. It was a nice day outside and, if nothing else, I was at least going to enjoy the weather. So I shed the sweater that I was wearing and headed down to the Black Lake. It seemed that other students had shared my sentiment. There were lots of other students there. However, the moment that I arrived and took my place by the water, they all began to disperse. Not without giving me a glare before leaving.

I wasn't alone for long before Harry came over to sit next to me. "Hey," he muttered awkwardly.

I could tell that he was about as uncomfortable as I was. "Still getting a glare wherever you go?" I asked.

He nodded at me. "Oh yeah. I imagine that we're getting it the worst."

"Definitely. You're the Boy-Who-Lived and I'm the idiot who lost one hundred and fifty-five points for Gryffindor. If people didn't know who I am before, they do now," I sighed. This was not the way that I'd meant to make a name for myself. "I wish that I didn't even know Cedric. So many upperclassmen know who I am because of him and now I'm not just a nameless face to hate. They actually know me. Or at least, it feels like they do. Feels like I've lost almost all of my friends," I sighed.

Ron was the only person that was speaking to us. Neville seemed to blame the entire thing on us, as he had every right to do, and Hermione was so upset that she'd essentially stopped speaking. "I know how you feel," Harry said. We splashed our feet in the water for a few minutes before he spoke again. "Have you spoken to Diggory lately?"

My head fell slightly and I shook it. "No. He won't even look at me," I muttered.

Harry laid a hand on my knee. "I'm sorry, Tara."

"It's alright."

We sat in silence but I almost reveled in it. At least no one was calling me awful names. Finally Harry stood from my side. "I'm going to go and offer to withdraw from the Quidditch team." My jaw dropped. "Feels like we're making things worse just being around. Maybe that'll make things a little better," he said.

As much as I loved playing Quidditch, he was right. And the whole school loved matches. Not that they could love them anymore. Not if it meant having to cheer on Harry and I. "As much as I don't want to, you're right. I'll go with you," I said.

Mom and Dad had written me telling me that I was damn lucky not to be kicked off of the team. Maybe this would start making things right. I had never felt so ashamed of myself. Even though we were trying to do something for a friend, everything had gone wrong. Hagrid had apologized to us over and over again but it really wasn't his fault. We were the idiots who had left the cloak in the tower. We walked over towards the Pitch and I sighed at everyone who was crowded around. Weekends that were not reserved for practices were the only time that non-players could come out and fly around. These days were rare so when people got the chance they took it.

Harry and I walked into the locker room and saw that Oliver was there, working on a new move. We immediately offered to resign from the team. "Resign?" Oliver thundered. I would have thought that he'd be happy that he didn't have to kick us off himself. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?" he asked.

It was needless to say that we were shocked that he was allowing us - and even desperate for us - to stay on the team. At first I thought that things might get better if the other students saw that even Oliver Wood was keeping us involved and part of the Quidditch team. Maybe they'd realize that if we won our last game against Ravenclaw we would be able to gain back all of the points that we had lost. It turned out that I was dead wrong when practices started up again.

I'd never thought that I would think it, but even Quidditch had lost its fun. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to Harry or I during practice. He, at least, had it slightly better than me. If they had to speak about him, they called him 'the Seeker.' They had come to completely ignoring me. Since I was the alternate, there wasn't really any need to speak to me anyways. I mostly just sat in silence and watched since no one wanted to actually explain to me what was happening. I could tell that Fred and George felt bad, but because no one else was speaking to me, they wouldn't either. They had tried to apologize to me after practice one day but I'd stormed off before they could. If they weren't going to be my friends they would have to commit to it.

I knew that being bitter wasn't helpful - it was my fault that I'd been caught - but I couldn't help it. The entire school was acting like we'd killed someone. Even the professors weren't speaking to me. They didn't dare take any more points away from Gryffindor but the few times that I spoke in class I was ignored, or embarrassingly corrected, even if my answer was right. Professor McGonagall may have been the worst. She was still so furious with me that she made sure to ask me questions that not even a Fifth-Year would know. It would usually be followed up by some kind of quip that I might have known the answers had I spent my nights studying rather than gallivanting through the castle.

That certainly didn't make things better for me. Hermione and Neville were suffering, too. They didn't have as bad a time as Harry or I, because they weren't as well-known and didn't lose as many points, but nobody would speak to them, either. Hermione had stopped drawing attention to herself in class, keeping her head down and working in silence.

I'd found myself almost glad that the exams weren't far away. All the studying I had to do kept my mind off of my misery. Not that it would work for very long. I'd usually be reminded of what had happened by someone scowling at me or making a rude comment. Ron, Harry, Hermione, and I kept to ourselves, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients of complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions and so on. The problem was that I'd had nothing to do lately and I already knew all of the answers.

Then, about a week before the exams were due to start, my new resolution not to interfere in anything that didn't concern me was put to an unexpected test. Harry and I had been in the library because I was trying to relay to him what we had learned in the beginning of History of Magic. It was one of his worst subjects. We were walking back from the library one afternoon when we heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. Harry and I motioned to each other and walked up closer to the door. Professor Quirrell's voice was quivering.

"No - no - not again, please -" It sounded as though someone was threatening him. Harry and I moved closer. "All right - all right -" I heard Quirrell sob. I didn't hear anyone else speaking.

A moment later, Professor Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight and whipped down the hallway; I didn't think Professor Quirrell had even noticed us. We waited until Quirrell's footsteps had disappeared, then peered into the classroom. It was empty, but a door stood ajar at the other end. Harry was halfway toward it before I grabbed his arm and yanked him back towards me.

"Harry, we swore that we were done with this," I said.

He gave me a sad sigh before nodding. "I know."

"Come on. We should head back and get our work done."

We walked back to the Common Room in silence. Even as I tried to focus on the Goblin Rebellions I couldn't help but to wonder what had happened. I'd be willing to bet twelve Sorcerer's Stones that Snape had just left the room. It was pretty obvious that Quirrell had given in at last. Harry dragged me away from the path to the Common Room at the last second and went back to the library instead, where Hermione was testing Ron on Astronomy. Harry told them what we'd just heard.

I rolled my eyes. We had sworn that we were done with this and here we were chatting about it. "Snape's done it, then!" Ron exclaimed loudly. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell -"

"There's still Fluffy, though," Hermione interjected.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," Ron offered, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them. "We already know how to get past Fluffy. And if Tara had the book, I'd be willing to bet that Snape will be able to find it soon enough. So what do we do, Harry?" Ron asked.

The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron's eyes, but Hermione answered before Harry could. "Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure," she said.

And she certainly wasn't wrong. "But we've got no proof!" Harry said loudly. I shushed him, knowing that Madam Pince was looking for a reason to throw us out. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor. Who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

Hermione looked convinced, but Ron didn't. "If we just do a bit of poking around -"

"No," Harry said flatly, "we've done enough poking around."

Ron turned his gaze to me, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, and I shook my head. "He's right. No more. Every time that we try and help someone or do something good we end up making things even worse. I'm sick of it. We came here to learn magic, not worry about things that aren't any of our business to be involved in," I muttered.

I pulled a map of Jupiter toward myself and started to learn the names of its moons. Astronomy was still my weakest subject. That night the four of us were down in the Common Room doing our work. Most of the other students were scowling at us as they went to bed. The insults were dying down and now we were just getting dirty looks. No one wanted to be around the four kids that had lost two hundred and five points from Gryffindor in one night. Finally it was only Harry and I. I put away my map of the stars and glanced over at Harry.

"Hey. Can we talk?" I asked.

He closed his Herbology book. "What's up?"

"I know that you don't want to meddle anymore. For a while I didn't want to either. But, Harry, I think that we have to," I said.

He shook his head at me. "You're losing your mind," he said.

"I'm not," I immediately snapped. "Things are bad, Harry. I know that you can feel it. You're the Boy Who Lived. You aren't ever going to have a normal life. And I mean... look around you. No one else knows anything about what's happening. It's not good. Someone is going to have to save the Stone. It's not going to be anyone else. It's gotta be us," I told him.

Maybe we'd get the points back if we managed to get the Stone to safety. If nothing else, we could at least get Snape fired. "It's not our job," Harry argued with me.

"But it's going to be our problem if that Stone falls into the wrong hands. It's going to be everyone's problem," I said.

Harry sighed and shoved his books away from him. "Things would have been a lot easier if I'd gone to Stonewall High," he told me.

"Maybe. But you would have had to deal with Dudley and his Smelting Stick," I teased. We both laughed as we sunk into the couches, forgetting about the work that we should have been doing.

We ended up spending most of the night talking about the two years that we'd been together when Harry hadn't known that he was a wizard. Maybe they weren't as fun, but they certainly were easier. In the end we never made it upstairs to go to bed. The two of us fell asleep together. The next morning Hermione shook our shoulders and I peeled myself off of Harry. Quickly rearranging myself, I got ready and headed downstairs with the others to get breakfast. We weren't there long before owls delivered notes to Harry, Hermione, Neville, and I at the breakfast table. They were all the same:

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.

Professor McGonagall

Honestly I'd completely forgotten about detention. It had seemed irrelevant compared to losing all of those points and the newfound hatred towards me. I sighed and placed the note in my bag. I half expected Hermione to complain that this was a whole night of studying lost, but she didn't say a word. Like Harry and I, she felt like we deserved what we'd gotten. It didn't help that Neville whined softly. I knew that he wasn't happy that we were serving detention that late and with Filtch.

That day Harry went down to the Quidditch Pitch to do his work in the sun. I thought about going with him but decided against it. I knew that Fred and George would be down there and I was a little hurt by them lately. Hermione went to the library but I decided not to go with her. I wasn't really in the mood to study with her. I liked when she was harassing me to work more, not sulking in silence. Ron did decide to go with her and I waved him off, letting him know that I would see them later.

After a while I decided to go to the Astronomy tower. I knew that it was against the rules to be up there when it wasn't class time, but I couldn't bring myself to care. What more could they really do to me? So I walked upstairs and ensured that no one had followed me before darting inside and sitting over by the railing. I spread out my books and got to work. At least if I got caught I wasn't doing anything against the rules. I was just studying. I just wanted to be away from everyone.

But I wasn't alone long. The door opened and I tensed. Here we go. But it wasn't a professor or Filtch. It wasn't even Malfoy or Parkinson coming to rub their win in my face. "I thought that I might find you up here," Cedric said.

My back was pressed against the railing and I sighed as I looked out over the edge, my gaze settling on the Black Late out in the distance. "You shouldn't be here," I said softly.

"And you should?" Cedric asked, coming to sit next to me. "Can you really afford losing any more points?"

My gaze snapped over at him. He'd been avoiding me for two weeks. I couldn't believe that he was finally coming to speak with me just to give me a little lecture on what I should and shouldn't do. "Does it really even matter anymore? I've lost so many that I don't think losing more will make much of a difference," I growled.

"I suppose that's a fair point."

"So why are you up here?" I asked a little more harshly than I'd meant to. I tried to calm myself down a little. "You might want to leave before someone spots you speaking to me. Being associated with me is not too wise of a move right about now." We sat in silence for a few moments. "Or you might be here to throw a rock at me," I joked weakly.

Cedric smiled at me. "What do you know, I left my rock in my room," he said. Despite everything, I laughed softly. It felt good to hear someone joke about something that wasn't at my expense. "I'm not worried."

"Because no one is around?" I asked dryly.

That was what Fred and George were doing. They were still my friends, but they didn't want to be seen with me in the light of day. "Because I don't care. I want to know what happened," he told me.

My eyes raised to him as he sat on the other side of me, our feet barely grazing together as we stretched out our legs. "You do?" I asked dumbly. He nodded. "You haven't really seemed to interested in speaking to me over the past few days," I muttered.

He looked a little abashed as he cleared his throat. "I'll admit that I was angry at first." I nodded, knowing that he had every right to be angry for thinking that I'd sold him out and used him. "But, come on, Tara, you did the one thing that you told me that you weren't going to do. I asked you and you lied to me," he said.

My gaze narrowed at him once more. No one was even giving us a chance to explain ourselves. "I didn't," I snapped, before realizing that it wasn't completely true. "Alright, yeah, I might have done it partially because I was angry with her."

"Why were you angry with her?" Cedric asked me.

I shrugged weakly at him as I picked at a thread on my robes. "It's Parkinson. Everyone hates her, it's not just me," I said.

"You were the first person to act on it," he pointed out.

"Yeah. So?"

Cedric tried another tactic to get me to explain my actions towards her. "What did she say to you that made you hate her so much?" he asked me carefully.

She called out my pathetic crush on you. "It doesn't matter. I needed a reason to keep Malfoy away from us for a few minutes so I left the note for her. I thought that she might be able to stall him. Apparently the only thing that I did was push them together," I said bitterly.

Cedric didn't look convinced. "She came into the Great Hall crying," he said.

I couldn't help it. I snapped. "Maybe if you'd stopped for one second to actually look at her you would have seen that she was sneering at me behind my back. She only did it to gain sympathy. Look, even if she'd been upset at me, if he'd said whatever to her, it wouldn't matter. They're both horrible people!" I shouted, knowing that I was taking out my anger on the one person that was willing to listen. "I can't even count the times that they've called my family blood traitors," I snarled.

Cedric leaned towards me and laid a hand on my knee. "You're not. You're better than both of them," he told me.

"You might be the only person that thinks that right now."

He shook his head at me again. "You might not want to hear this right now, but look at what happens when you stoop down to their level. You end up just as hated - if not more - than they are," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because people expected more from you. I did," he said.

Ouch. That hurt. "No one even bothered to ask why we were up in the Astronomy tower in the first place," I muttered.

"We all heard the stories. First you lied and said that you're a sleepwalker and when Professor McGonagall called you out on it you changed over to another story. You fed Malfoy some story about a dragon to get him caught and while you were laughing about it the three of you managed to get caught." I couldn't help it, I started to laugh. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Stories," I scoffed.

He didn't understand why I found that so funny. "Pardon me?" Cedric asked.

"Stories, Cedric. I thought that you were smarter than that," I told him.

He still didn't understand what I was getting at. "What do you mean?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "They're stories. Stories that I told to try and keep everyone out of trouble. I didn't care if I was going to get in trouble. Because of Dad, people just expect it. But Hermione, she's got the best marks of the year and no detentions before tonight. Harry... he's the Boy Who Lived. It seemed wrong for him to get in trouble. And Neville, he was just there because he was trying to warn us. I felt like I was the only person who really didn't have anything to lose," I said softly.

We were silent for a few moments as Cedric processed my words. "I think you found out that you had a lot to lose," he said softly, probably so not to irritate me.

"Our friendship?" I asked awkwardly.

I really did want to know if this was something that we could move past or if he really didn't care to continue being my friend. If this was all just for closure... But his smile told me that it was just a little bump in the road. "Our friendship means a lot more to me than a few points -"

"A few?" I interrupted dryly.

Cedric smiled bashfully at me. "Okay, a lot of points... And the House Championship." Dig in the knife a little deeper, buddy. "It still means more to me than that," he told me.

I tried not to let my blush be that obvious. But I was sure that it was. "Well I'm glad to hear that," I said, downplaying my feelings. "It didn't feel great to have you ignoring me the past few days."

I could tell that he felt guilty. He leaned forward to sit next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "I'm sorry about that. I guess you aren't the only one that has their childish moments," he told me with an embarrassed laugh.

I shrugged my shoulders. "You really thought that I did it just to get a good laugh at everyone's expense?" I asked.

He sighed at me and nodded. "I didn't want to think so but it was hard to figure out another reason that you did." At least he was honest.

"I hoped that you thought more of me."

"I think the world of you," he said.

My head shot up towards him. "Yeah?" I asked softly.

He nodded at me, giving me a grin that told me that everything was going to be okay. With everything. "Of course. You're one of the heroes of two Quidditch matches, you've got the best marks in your year, and you're one of the funniest people I've ever met. Quick witted and good for a laugh too," he added, only making me feel better.

Deciding to try and play off my very embarrassing feelings, I pretended to fan away tears. He was laughing and rolling his eyes at me. "I might just cry. That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard," I teased.

"Did I mention sarcasm?" he asked.

We sat together in silence and I smiled, leaning back against the stone wall. "This is nice," I said, breaking the peaceful air.

"Sitting up here?" he asked.

I shook my head at him with a little smile. "Actually talking to someone," I explained. "No one in my year will talk to me, my roommates keep trying to lock me out of the dorm, the professors won't speak to me, none of my older friends will dare be spotted with me, my parents are ashamed of me, Hermione is too ashamed of herself to speak to anyone, Harry is more solemn then I've ever seen him, and Neville refuses to speak to us. Ron is the only one who talks to us and he just awkwardly tries to make us feel better. This is nice."

He grinned at me and passed me a licorice wand. I laughed and took it with a little thanks. "Glad to be of assistance. You won't be shamed for the rest of your life. Give it time," he said.

"Thanks."

We munched on our candy for a little while before he glanced over at me. "You said something about stories, what really happened the other night?" he asked.

I had promised him that one day I would tell him the entire thing. "It's a long story," I said.

"I have time."

There was no way that he was letting me get out of this. So I took a deep breath and launched into the entire explanation of everything that had happened over the past few months. I told him all about how I knew Hagrid and we frequently visited him. I told him about spotting the dragon egg for the first time months prior. I told him about how Hagrid had told us about the game and how he'd won the egg. He listened as I explained that we had begged Hagrid to get rid of it and been there for the hatching. He seemed fascinated when we'd told him all about raising the baby dragon while still trying to convince him to get rid of Norbert.

He seemed extremely grateful when I said that Hagrid had finally caved and allowed us to write the letter to Charlie asking him to take Norbert off of our hands. I told him all about how we'd agreed to meet Charlie's friends at the top of the Astronomy tower to get rid of Norbert. I left out the fact that we were unnerved about the stranger and the invisibility cloak. I told him all about my letter to Parkinson about Malfoy's fake crush on her to distract him after he'd found out what we were planning to do. I even mentioned that we'd seen Professor McGonagall catch him first. I told him all about our pathetic excuses and how horrified we had been when we'd been caught by Filtch after dropping Norbert off. I finished by letting him know that we wouldn't dare sell out Hagrid.

He stayed silent through my entire explanation, never once speaking or moving. "So?" I asked when he was silent for what seemed like slightly too long. I hoped that I didn't make a mistake telling him that.

A few minutes passed before he looked over at me and grinned. "You would have made a good Hufflepuff, Tara. You're loyal. Almost to a fault. But brave among anything else. You knew that you could have been caught," he said.

I gave a little shrug. "We knew. But we couldn't let Hagrid get caught. It's illegal to raise or breed dragons," I said.

"That's a nice thing that you did."

"Please keep it to yourself," I begged.

He gave me a little nod. I would have trusted him to keep it between us anyways. He was a good friend, no matter what. "Anything that you tell me stays between us," he said.

"Thank you."

"Of course." We sat together before he glanced over at me with a small smile. "So are you looking for company today or are you wanting to mourn in silence for a little longer?" he asked.

I laughed softly. "I'd like some company. Not afraid of getting caught?" I teased.

He grinned back at me. "You're not the only one that likes to live on the edge." I laughed at him and shook my head. He wasn't that adventurous. "You're still my friend, Tara, and I'm impressed that you did all of that for your friend."

"Thank you."

"Although next time you might not want to get caught," he said.

My gaze narrowed at him and I laughed as I gave him a rough shove. "Shut up."

We ended up spending most of the day together and it was the nicest day that I'd had in a long time. It felt better to know that this wasn't going to be forever. He might have been a little upset with me but we'd managed to move past it. My friends might not love me right now, but they'd get over it too. My parents might not have been overly happy with me but eventually they would realize that it was a mistake that wasn't the end of the world. Like anything else, this would pass.

To pass the day Cedric ended up helping me study and point out things that would be on the exams and things that I didn't need to remember. I reminded myself to pass those on to Hermione. He was letting me check over his Charms essay as I realized that I had to head back downstairs to serve my detention. A tight hug with a promise that I would try to keep myself out of trouble later, I found myself back down in the Common Room. It seemed like the others wanted to ask what had happened to me all day, but after seeing my smile they decided to just let it go and try and be positive for the coming detention.

At eleven o'clock that night, we said goodbye to Ron in the Common Room and went down to the entrance hall with Neville. I tried to apologize to Neville once more about detention, but he was shaking too much to answer me. We didn't speak to each other after that. I knew that everyone just wanted to get this over with. When we arrived Filch was already there - and so was Malfoy. I had forgotten that Malfoy had gotten a detention, too. I supposed that if nothing else went right about my plan, it was funny that Malfoy had gotten in trouble too.

"Follow me," Filch said, lighting a lamp and leading them outside. "I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh? Oh yes... hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me. It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out... hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well-oiled in case they're ever needed." Everyone blanched at the desire in his voice. "Right, off we go, and don't think of running off, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."

No one was even thinking about moving. I could tell. We marched off across the dark grounds in silence. Neville kept sniffing. I felt terrible for dragging him into this. I wondered what our punishment was going to be. I'd done plenty of annoying things, cleaning out the trophy room, cleaning Snape's storage, reorganizing Professor McGonagall's classroom, tidying up the Great Hall, cleaning the bathroom, and writing lines. But this must have been something really horrible, or Filch wouldn't sound so delighted. The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing us into darkness.

Ahead, I could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. Then we heard a distant shout. "Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started," Hagrid called.

My heart lifted. Hagrid! We would be serving a detention with Hagrid. It wouldn't be bad at all. Harry looked as relieved as I did. Filch definitely noticed, because he said, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, kids - it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece," he snarled.

The Forbidden Forest? I wasn't even aware that we were allowed in there. Neville let out a little moan and Malfoy stopped dead in his tracks. "The forest?" he repeated, and he didn't sound quite as cool as usual. "We can't go in there at night - there's all sorts of things in there - werewolves, I heard."

Neville clutched the sleeve of Harry's robe and made a choking noise. "That's your problem, isn't it?" Filch asked, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

Hagrid came striding toward us out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder. "Abou' time," he said. Fang ran over and I smiled as the boarhound placed his nose underneath my hand, forcing me to pet him. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Tara, Hermione?" he asked us.

I opened my mouth to tell him that we'd been better when Filtch spoke over me. "I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," he said coldly, "they're here to be punished, after all."

"That's why yer late, is it?" Hagrid asked, frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."

Filtch looked incredibly bothered that Hagrid had dare said anything like that to him. "I'll be back at dawn," Filch snarled, looking around at us, "for what's left of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness. We all exchanged an irritated stare. How the hell did Filtch manage to get a job here?

We weren't left in silence for long. Malfoy now turned to Hagrid. "I'm not going in that forest," he said, and I knew that we were all pleased to hear the note of panic in his voice.

"Scared, Malfoy?" I asked.

He turned a nasty glare on me before opening his mouth to speak. But Hagrid spoke over him. I assumed that he didn't want me to end up getting in even more trouble. "Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," Hagrid said fiercely. I smiled at him. He could be more than just the gentle giant. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yehve got ter pay fer it."

"But this is servant stuff, it's not for students to do." I scowled at him. Hagrid was not a servant. "I thought we'd be copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this, he'd -"

"- tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts," Hagrid growled. I grinned as Malfoy paled. "Copyin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer father'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on." Malfoy didn't move. He looked at Hagrid furiously, but then dropped his gaze. "Right then. Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

We walked with him, Harry on one side and Hermione on my other. We were directly behind Hagrid. Neville was very close behind me and I gave his hand a quick squeeze. He seemed to not hate us so much anymore. Malfoy was in the back growling to himself. Hagrid led us to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding path that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted my hair as I looked into the forest. I'd always liked the woods, I was from Florida, but there was something about these woods that was much more ominous. Perhaps because they were forbidden.

How the hell did Fred and George manage to get up the nerve to come here? "Look there," Hagrid said, distracting me from my thoughts, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff?" I nodded at him. It looked like silver glue. "That's unicorn blood." My stomach twisted at the thought of a dead unicorn somewhere. "There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

The worst part was the fact that I hadn't thought that anything ever hunted unicorns. They were sacred creatures. To everyone. "I didn't think that unicorns had any natural predators," I said softly.

"They don'," Hagrid answered grimly.

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Malfoy asked, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," Hagrid said. I somehow wasn't completely convinced about that, but I kept my doubts to myself. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."

"I want Fang," Malfoy said quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth. I rolled my eyes as Fang nudged up against my leg again. He was the definition of a gentle giant. He might look scary, but he was a big baby.

Hagrid rolled his eyes. "All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward. So me, Harry, Tara, an' Hermione'll go one way an' Draco, Neville, an' Fang'll go the other." I grinned, grateful that Hagrid was keeping us with him. But I felt terrible for Neville. "Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now - that's it - an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh - so, be careful - let's go."

We weren't walking for that long. The forest was black and silent as we walked. I wished that we had a flashlight. I was tempted to use Lumos but I knew that Hagrid wouldn't want us to draw attention to ourselves like that. So I walked in silence and took a deep breath, trying to steady the little hint of fear that had seeped into my stomach. I had the worst feeling that something terrible was around here. Nothing that I knew of hunted unicorns. They only died of natural causes - age or sickness. That's how we got the hair and horns.

A little way into the forest we reached a fork in the path. Harry, Hermione, Hagrid, and I took the left path while Malfoy, Neville, and Fang took the right. I gave Neville a reassuring nod. Hopefully we wouldn't be out here for that long. We mostly walked in silence, our eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. I wondered if something had tried to kill the unicorn and failed. It was obvious that Hagrid looked very worried.

"Could a werewolf be killing the unicorns?" Harry asked, shattering the silence.

"Not fast enough," Hagrid said.

My eyebrows rose. I had heard a rumor that werewolves really weren't that fast unless they were in the middle of a hunt. And I had a feeling that they wouldn't seek out a unicorn. "Aren't werewolves not that fast?" I asked.

"They are, but only when they're huntin'. They wouldn't hunt a unicorn. It's not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before," Hagrid said.

That couldn't have meant anything good. I did not want to be out here. I would have much rather been cleaning the trophy room with a toothbrush. We walked past a mossy tree stump that I very nearly tripped over. Hagrid grabbed me and I thanked him as I shakily continued to walk. I could tell that Hermione was almost as nervous as I was. Not far from us I could hear running water; there must have been a stream somewhere close by. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path.

"You all right, Hermione?" Hagrid whispered as she let out a little whimper. "Don' worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt, an' then we'll be able ter - Get behind that tree!"

Hagrid seized the three of us and hoisted us off the path behind a towering oak. Harry had Hermione and I pressed behind him. We glanced out to see that Hagrid had pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to fire. The three of us listened as Hagrid's eyes scanned the woods. Something was slithering over dead leaves nearby: it sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground. Hagrid was squinting up the dark path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away.

My heart was pounding in my chest. Was someone else in the forest? "I knew it," Hagrid murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."

"A werewolf?" Harry suggested.

Hagrid shook his head as we stepped out from behind the tree. "That wasn' no werewolf an' it wasn' no unicorn, neither," Hagrid said grimly. "Right, follow me, but careful, now."

My breaths were shaky. Of all of the detentions that Dad had ever had, I bet that he'd never had to do something as awful as this. This was much worse than anything that I could think to make us do. And all because we'd been caught out of bed after hours. I wondered how Neville and Malfoy were handling things on the other side of the forest. We continued to walk more slowly, ears straining for the faintest sound. It only made each hoot of an owl worse.

Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something definitely moved. "Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself - I'm armed!"

And into the clearing came - was it a man, or a horse? I smiled softly to myself. I knew what a centaur was when I saw one. But I didn't think that they lived here. I'd thought that they would have been somewhere even more remote than Hogwarts. We really weren't that far from Muggle's. I looked over the new addition. To the waist he was a man, with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Harry and Hermione's jaws dropped. They must not have known about them.

"A centaur. I didn't know they lived in the Forbidden Forest," I whispered.

His head turned over to me. "They do," he said, in a much lower voice than I was expecting.

The color drained from my face. "I'm sorry."

Hagrid seemed oblivious to the very tense introduction. "Oh, it's you, Ronan," Hagrid said in relief. "How are yeh?" He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand.

"Good evening to you, Hagrid," Ronan said. He hadn't cheered up any since speaking to me. He spoke in a very deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you going to shoot me?" he asked.

My throat nearly closed. Centaurs were peaceful unless provoked. "Can't be too careful, Ronan," Hagrid said, patting his crossbow. "There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Harry Potter, Tara Nox, an' Hermione Granger, by the way. Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan, you two. As Tara said, he's a centaur."

"We'd noticed," Hermione said faintly.

Ronan looked over to us and gave a polite bow. "Good evening. Students, are you?" he asked. We all nodded, not ready to say anything else. "And do you learn much, up at the school?"

"Erm -" Harry awkwardly muttered.

"A bit," Hermione said timidly.

I knew that I should have said something else but I couldn't bring myself to speak. I was still a little embarrassed by my accidental slip of the tongue earlier. Ronan nodded at us. "A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan sighed. He flung back his head and stared at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight," he mumbled, almost to himself.

I'd never met a centaur before but I knew that they spoke like that. "Yeah," Hagrid said, glancing up, too. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt - you seen anythin'?"

Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upward, then sighed again. I knew as well as anyone else that centaurs never really answered questions directly. They didn't like to get involved in our affairs. "Always the innocent are the first victims. So it has been for ages past, so it is now," Ronan said slowly.

Victims? Of what? "Yeah," Hagrid said, "but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' unusual?"

"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated, while Hagrid watched him impatiently. "Unusually bright."

Hermione and Harry stood awkwardly and watched. I assumed that they didn't know much about them. "Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home," Hagrid said. "So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?"

Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. I almost thought that Hagrid was going to shoot Ronan just for annoying him. At last, Ronan said, "The forest hides many secrets." That really didn't sound good.

Centaurs were a little crazy but they really were bright creatures. And if they didn't think that something was right, I believed them. A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again, but it was only a second centaur, black-haired and bodied and wilder-looking than Ronan. He didn't look happy. "Hullo, Bane," Hagrid said. "All right?"

"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?" Bane asked.

Maybe he was a little nicer than I thought. They probably didn't like being bothered out here. "Well enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin' Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? There's a unicorn bin injured - would yeh know anythin' about it?" Hagrid asked.

Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward. "Mars is bright tonight," he said simply.

I couldn't help it. I smiled. "We've heard," Hagrid said grumpily. "Well, if either of you do see anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be off, then." We followed him out of the clearing, staring over our shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked out view. "Never try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon," Hagrid said irritably.

"Are there many of them in here?" Hermione asked.

Hagrid shrugged. "Oh, a fair few... Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs... they know things... jus' don' let on much."

"Centaurs are gifted in Divination," I said, looking over to Harry and Hermione. "Everything they say has some type of hidden meaning," I further explained.

"The Mars comment too?" Harry asked me.

"Yeah."

"What do you think?" Hermione asked.

I was rather surprised that she asked me and didn't bother to think it out for herself. I wasn't really sure - I didn't get Divination - but I could give it my best guess. "Mars. Roman God of War. I can't be certain - I'm not a centaur and I'm rather lousy at Divination - but I can only guess that they're anticipating some kind of fight," I told her.

Hagrid scoffed at us. "They're nutters," he said dryly.

"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" Harry asked.

"Did that sound like hooves to you?" No one answered the very obvious question. "Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's bin killin' the unicorns - never heard anythin' like it before."

With nothing else to say we walked on through the dense, dark trees. I'd felt a little better after seeing the centaurs but now I felt the dread creeping back into my stomach. If the centaurs were wary about something it probably meant that we should have been wary about something too. I kept looking nervously over my shoulder. I'd been feeling like I was being watched for two weeks back at school, students whispering and pointing to us, but this was a different kind of feeling. I knew that we were all very glad we had Hagrid and his crossbow with us.

We had just passed a bend in the path when Hermione grabbed Hagrid's arm. "Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!" Hermione whispered worriedly.

I glanced up and saw that she was right. Red sparks were slowly beginning to disappear. "You three wait here!" Hagrid shouted. "Stay on the path, I'll come back for yeh!" he said.

He didn't take a moment more to run off. I slipped my wand out of my robes and twirled it nervously in my hand. I could heard him crashing away through the undergrowth as he ran after Neville and Malfoy. We were left together in an awkward silence, unsure of what to say to try and make the others feel better. We stood looking at each other, very scared, until we couldn't hear anything but the rustling of leaves around us. The sparks had been a little ways off.

"You don't think they've been hurt, do you?" Hermione whispered.

"I hope Malfoy's dead," I snarled.

Harry seemed to share my sentiment. "I don't care if Malfoy has, but if something's got Neville... it's our fault he's here in the first place."

The minutes dragged by as we stood back-to-back, waiting to see them come back. Everything that I heard made me jump. Every sigh of the wind and every cracking twig. What was going on? Where were the others? At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrid's return. We all whipped back to see them. Malfoy, Neville, and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming. Malfoy, it seemed, had sneaked up behind Neville and grabbed him as a joke. Neville had panicked and sent up the sparks.

I debated on smashing in Malfoy's perfect teeth with a rock. "We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you two were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups - Neville, you stay with me an' Hermione - Harry, Tara, you go with Fang an' this idiot. I'm sorry," Hagrid added in a whisper to Harry and I, "but he'll have a harder time frightenin' you two, an' we've gotta get this done."

I sighed but nodded and walked off with him anyways. Harry stood at my side and I shoved Malfoy as we walked by him. Almost immediately Fang came up to my side. "You're an ass," I barked at Malfoy.

"Thank you," he grinned.

Harry was trying to pull me along to get me to drop the argument, but I'd had it with Malfoy treating people the way that he did. "Do you think it's funny tormenting people?" I snarled.

Malfoy walked up to me, standing barely a foot away. Harry walked over and tried to step between us. I shoved him backwards, determined to finish this myself. "I think it's funny how much I get to you, Nox. Maybe you like me a little more than you'd like to admit," he said.

Had I eaten more at dinner tonight it would have been all over the ground. "The only reason that your name and like would be in the same sentence coming out of my mouth would be if I was saying that I'd like to shove you off of a cliff," I said.

Harry grabbed my arm and yanked me with him before I could say anything else. He kept whispering to me to calm down and not let Malfoy get to me. He was right, of course, it was wrong of me to let Malfoy get to me the way that he did. But he wound me up. I couldn't help how upset I got with him. It just wasn't fair that people like him were around. It was even less fair that the school hated me more than they hated him because I'd accidentally made it now that he was winning.

Growling to myself, I set off into the heart of the forest with Malfoy and Fang behind me and Harry at my side. We walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick. The unicorn must have been close because the blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain. It had to be here somewhere.

I glanced off into the distance and I saw a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak. Was something out there? "Look -" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop us.

Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. We slowly inched closer, not wanting to spook anything that might be out here. I also didn't want to invite whatever had attacked the unicorn to attack us. As we looked closer I realized that it was the unicorn all right, and it was just about dead. My heart broke for it. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves. I could hear it breathing unevenly.

"The poor thing. Come on," I said, motioning the boys forward.

To my surprise, it wasn't Harry that grabbed me to stop me, it was Malfoy. His hand was wrapped tightly around my wrist. "What are you doing, Nox?" he asked.

"I want to ease its mind," I said, ripping my arm away from him. "There's no way that we can save it but I want to at least try and calm it down before Hagrid has to take care of it."

"You're mad," he said.

"You're heartless!" I shouted. Nothing deserved to die alone. Certainly not a creature like that. "The poor thing is dying. Get over yourself and pretend that you have a shred of decency," I snarled before heading over towards it. I was about fifteen feet from the unicorn when I heard a scuttling sound behind me. "Knock it off, Malfoy! You don't scare -"

I stopped speaking when I turned back. Harry had taken one step toward the unicorn - and me - when a slithering sound made us both freeze where we stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered and my heart thumped loudly in my chest. I knew that I should run but I couldn't. Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. It wasn't even five feet away from me when it stalked past but it didn't seem bothered to glance over at me. Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted - so did Fang. Brave, boys. Harry was just as transfixed as I was. We were both staring in horror at the hooded figure. It was still leaning over the unicorn - who let out a strangled cry and fell still. It was dead. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Harry and I - unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward me. It was barely ten feet away and I couldn't move for fear.

I was going to die. Then a pain like I'd never felt before erupted through my entire being. It was the worst in my hand. I thought that I might rip it off of my arm it hurt so badly. My entire body felt like it had erupted in flames. I could hear Harry behind me screaming. Then, something completely petrifying happened. As the hooded figure came within five feet of me I collapsed onto my hands and knees and threw up blood. Not just a little bit, enough that it completely soaked over my robes and onto the ground. My hands were already covered in it as I tried to close my mouth and back off. I could just barely see the silver lips of the figure that was right in front of me, turned upwards in a smile.

Desperately I staggered backward. Blood had coated my feet and I slipped on the leaves. I coughed up blood once more, feeling it drip down my chin. I was weak from the blood loss. I heard hooves behind me, galloping, and something jumped clean over me, charging at the figure. I couldn't see what happened as I fought to get back my breathing and force the pain down. I continued coughing up the remnants of the blood, trying to clear my airways. When I finally looked up, the figure had gone. My breaths were coming in desperate pants as I staggered to stand, almost immediately falling back.

A centaur was standing over us, not Ronan or Bane; this one looked younger; he had white-blond hair and a palomino body. "Are you all right?" said the centaur, pulling Harry to his feet first.

"Yes. Thank you. Tara. Tara!" Harry yelled, falling beside me.

His hands were pushing back the hair on my face. The centaur came to stand next to me, warning Harry back. "Stand back. Calm down, my dear. Take a deep breath. It is gone. Are you alright?" he asked me.

He handed me his arm and I took it barely able to get myself up. "I - I can't... stand," I said, spitting out blood.

Harry grabbed me from the centaur and kept most of my weight on himself. "I've got you. I've got you. Look at me," he said, moving my head so that I was looking at him. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'll manage," I said.

Harry grabbed the excess material of his sleeves and handed them over to me. He was wiping off my chin and cheeks, wiping down my chest and getting as much off of my clothes as he possibly could. "Come here," he said, trying to help me. He got the extra blood off of my hands and out of my hair too. I was still weak as he let me attempt to stand. I could, but it wasn't easy. All of my energy was gone. "What happened to you?" Harry asked me.

"I don't know. I just saw that thing and... It just happened. It felt like my insides were going through a meat grinder," I told him. "What happened to you?" I asked once I had gathered myself.

"My scar," Harry said softly.

We stared at each other in horror for a moment before I turned back to the centaur that was still watching us closely. "Thank you for helping us," I said softly.

"You are welcome," he said, bowing.

"What was that?" Harry asked breathlessly.

The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Harry, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out, livid, on Harry's forehead. His gaze turned to me next. He gave me a little longer look. I noticed that his eyes trailed down to my hand - the one that I'd wanted to rip off earlier - before nodding at me.

"You are the Potter boy," he said. "Miss Nox."

Harry was easy to know because of the scar. But how did he know me? "Do you know me?" I asked him.

"We all know you," he said.

What the hell did that mean? "Excuse me?" I asked.

As I should have seen coming, the centaur did not answer me. "You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time - especially for either one of you. Can you ride?" he asked. Harry and I both nodded. "It will be quicker this way. My name is Firenze," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Harry and I could clamber onto his back.

He got on first and handed me his arm. I was barely strong enough to get myself to walk. He took me around the waist and lifted me up mostly by himself. Once I was on, he moved back so that I could sit in front of him. His arms were around me, ensuring that I wouldn't fall - as I grabbed weakly to Firenze's shoulders. There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. My heart skipped a beat, but it was not the cloaked figure. Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.

"Firenze!" Bane thundered. My heart skipped a beat anyways. "What are you doing? You have two humans on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?" he snarled.

Well that didn't sound good. I'd thought that Bane was nice. But centaurs were proud creatures. "Do you realize who these two are?" Firenze asked. "This is the Potter boy. And this is the Nox girl. The quicker they leave this forest, the better."

"What have you been telling them?" Bane growled. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"

Ronan pawed the ground nervously. I wondered if he was the youngest of the three, despite the appearances that Firenze was. "I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best," he said in his gloomy voice.

Bane kicked his back legs in anger. "For the best! What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"

Firenze suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that I had to grab onto his shoulders and Harry had to grab onto my hips to stay on. I suddenly felt much more awake. Although I definitely felt weak. "Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed at Bane. "Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."

And Firenze whisked around without another word; Harry and I were clutching on as best that we could. I didn't want to offend him and make him think that we really were treating him like a common mule. Plus I had just narrowly escaped death by suffocation, I wasn't really fond of being trampled to death either. We plunged off into the trees, leaving Ronan and Bane behind us. Just like myself, I knew that Harry didn't have a clue what was going on. I wasn't really sure that I wanted to know what was going on.

"Why's Bane so angry?" Harry finally asked. "What was that thing you saved us from, anyway?"

Firenze slowed to a walk, warning Harry and I to keep our heads bowed in case of low-hanging branches, but did not answer Harry's question. We stayed low and I leaned back against Harry, trying to keep my breath steady. We made our way through the trees in silence for so long that I was pretty sure that Firenze was angry that he had even bothered to save us. Either that or he really didn't want to talk to us anymore. We were passing through a particularly dense patch of trees, however, when Firenze suddenly stopped.

Firenze turned slightly so that Harry and I could see his face. "Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?" he asked.

Unsurprisingly, Harry shook his head. "No," Harry said. "We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions."

Firenze then turned to me. "Do you, Tara Nox?" he asked.

I shook my head at him. "No. I know that they're sacred creatures. To hurt one is a crime."

Firenze nodded at me. "Yes. That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price." Merlin. That thing was trying to stay alive, even at the cost. "You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

Both Harry and I sat in silence for a long while. But I finally managed to work up the courage to speak to Firenze. "But wouldn't it take someone inhumanly strong to kill one?" I asked softly.

"Not necessarily. It would take someone desperate," Firenze answered me.

"Someone who's past humanity?" I asked.

"Yes."

But who would be willing to have their humanity stripped from themselves and live a half-life? Was that even worth it? "Are there even people that desperate? There are other ways to extend the life. Less dangerous ways," I said, thinking of the Sorcerer's Stone.

"Unicorn blood will not only prolong the life, it will also make the consumer stronger. In every way," Firenze explained.

"But it curses them?" I asked after a beat.

Firenze nodded at me. "Yes. A life from drinking the blood of such an innocent creature is no such life," he said.

I turned back and exchanged a glance with Harry. "But who'd be that desperate?" Harry wondered aloud. "If you're going to be cursed forever, death's better, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"It is," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else - something that will bring you back to full strength and power - something that will mean you can never die. Mr. Potter, Miss Nox, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?" he asked us.

We both nodded, but Harry was the one to speak. "The Sorcerer's Stone! Of course - the Elixir of Life! But I don't understand who -"

Firenze spoke over him. "Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?" he asked us.

It felt like someone really had ripped my hand off. And then stuffed it down my throat and hit me in the stomach with a Bludger again. Broken ribs were nothing compared to this revelation. I'd always been hoping that he was gone. I knew that it was foolish to think that Voldemort was dead, but I'd held out hope. But no... I could hear Hagrid saying it the night that he had met Harry: "Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die."

He was back. And Harry and I had just met him. "Do you mean," Harry croaked, "that was Vol-"

"Harry! Tara!" Hermione called. For once I wanted to curse her to the heavens. I needed Firenze to answer Harry. I needed to know if he was really back and this close to us. "Are you both all right?" she asked.

Hermione was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind her. "I'm fine," Harry said. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing back there."

I was about to say something but I couldn't bring it upon myself to speak. "This is where I leave you," Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now." Harry slid off his back and caught me as I fell. "Good luck, Harry Potter, Tara Nox. The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times."

He turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest, leaving Harry and I shivering behind him. Hermione panicked as we walked off back towards Hagrid's hut where Malfoy and Neville were waiting. She saw my robes and I had to tell her that we would explain everything later. I just kept telling her that I was alright. When Neville saw me I thought that he would pass out. I'd insisted to him and Malfoy that we had found a dead wolf and I'd taken care of it. Malfoy clearly knew the truth - but if I wouldn't tell anyone that he'd screamed like a baby and ran, he wouldn't tell anyone what we'd really seen.

We waited for Hagrid to come back and we relayed the story that we'd also found a dead wolf and that was why I was covered in blood. I could tell that Hagrid didn't believe me but he let me leave anyways. Filtch came and got us later to bring us back to the castle and we walked in silence. He looked shocked to see that I might have really been injured with blood all over me, but he said nothing. And I was grateful for it. I didn't want to speak about what had just happened until it was only Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I.

Once we got back Hermione instantly ran to get me pumpkin juice and candy. Harry went to grab some chocolate from Ron. Neville had given me his spare blanket to drape over myself. I thanked him as he went to bed. Ron had fallen asleep in the dark Common Room, waiting for us to return. He shouted something about Quidditch fouls when Harry roughly shook him awake. His jaw dropped when he saw me and he ran over to grab me. I shook him off and changed from my robes into my pajamas. Hermione promised that she would find a spell to get them back to normal in the meantime.

We settled into our chairs and spoke with each other in hushed tones. In a matter of seconds, Ron and Hermione were shocked by what we had been through. I sipped on the pumpkin juice and barely managed to eat, even though I was starving. Ron and Hermione quickly went wide-eyed as Harry began to tell them what had happened in the forest once we had gone off with Malfoy. Harry couldn't sit down. He paced up and down in front of the fire. He was still shaking. I was in between Ron and Hermione, their arms around me.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich," Harry trailed off.

"Stop saying the name!" Ron said in a terrified whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them.

"Shut up, Ron!" I barked.

Harry wasn't listening. "Firenze saved us, but he shouldn't have done so. Bane was furious. He was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen. They must show that Voldemort's coming back. Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me. I suppose that's written in the stars as well," he muttered.

"Will you stop saying the name!" Ron hissed.

"Shut up, Ron!" I barked. "Being afraid of the name is only making us more paranoid."

Harry shifted awkwardly as he took his spot next to me and wrapped me tightly in his arms. "So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone," Harry went on feverishly, "then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off... Well, I suppose Bane'll be happy."

Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort. "Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

But that didn't convince me. I was completely bothered by what had happened. Maybe that wasn't Voldemort out there. But it certainly wasn't anyone good. And whoever it was... the way that Harry's scar and my entire body seized up in pain... Not only that but the way that I had thrown up blood, that wasn't anything good. So we talked back and forth about what had happened and what we could possibly do. I didn't like anything. The sky had turned light before we stopped talking. I knew that the others were exhausted and their throats were sore. But I couldn't sleep. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to sleep again.

Hermione and I were walking up the stairs after saying goodnight to Ron and Harry when she pulled me off to the side. "Tara, are you alright?" she asked.

I'd barely spoken tonight. "I don't think Snape's after the Stone," I said softly.

"You don't?" she asked.

"No. That was Voldemort out there in the Forbidden Forest. I know that it was. Harry does too." Her hand flew over her mouth. "We didn't say anything because Harry doesn't want to worry you. We couldn't even look at him without doubling over in excruciating pain. He's getting stronger. Maybe Snape is trying to figure out how to get past the barriers to the Stone, but it's going to be Voldemort that goes and gets it," I told her shakily.

I wasn't sure how I knew. But I knew. "Maybe not. He might not be strong enough," she told me.

I shook my head at her. "Maybe. But if we're wrong about who's going to be down in that chamber... everyone will pay the price." We walked upstairs and slunk into our beds, Hermione falling asleep almost immediately.

But I didn't go to my bed. I had something else waiting for me. Dai was sitting on my bedside table looking slightly dazed. I petted the soft owl over the feathers, hoping to startle him from whatever his problem was. He turned his head towards me and nudged my hand. I noticed that he was shaking. He squawked softly, motioning his beak over towards a box sitting on my desk. He nuzzled against my hand for a moment more before fluttering off. My eyebrows knitted together. I thought about bringing him to Hagrid tomorrow. I'd never seen him act like that.

Once I was sure that there was nothing that I could do for Dai - since Harry didn't have the invisibility cloak and I wasn't willing to get another detention and another fifty points taken from Gryffindor - I walked over to my desk. My heart immediately leaped into my throat. My hands were weakly shaking as I looked over the neatly wrapped black box. It was identical to the one that had been delivered to me on Christmas by the mystery sender. My hands shakily pulled apart the bow and pulled off the lid.

Sitting inside was a note that I pushed aside for a moment. Underneath was a red jewel. My hand flew to my mouth when I realized that it was the exact same jewel that was on the first necklace that I'd gotten. And just like the first one, there was an 83 engraved into the stone. I grabbed the note that was in the box and read it slowly. This time there was more than just my name. But not by much. Do you remember? My heart was hammering in my throat as I tore the box apart, shoved the red jewel and note into my dresser and laid down in bed.

Who the hell was sending me these things? Why? What had I done that made me the recipient of these mystery notes? There was no evidence that anyone else was receiving anything like this. I would have thought that Harry would have gotten something like this. But no. For whatever reason, it was me. Was Snape sending me this? No. He couldn't have been. I'd been looking at his writing for months. It wasn't his. So who was it? Voldemort? Please, no. As I closed my eyes and drifted into a fitful sleep I could only see two bright red eyes staring back at me.


	16. Preparing For The End

The place didn't look familiar. Of course, I hadn't been to many graveyards before. It must have been somewhere south of Scotland. It was warmer here. But it didn't feel like it. The air that surrounded me chilled me straight to the bone. Where was I? I looked around, desperate to know where I'd wound up, but nothing gave this new spot away. All I could see were the headstones that surrounded me. There was one unnerving statue not far from me - something akin to the Grim Reaper.

Stepping back a few paces, I looked around, desperate to find a way out of here. But I was trapped. There was nowhere for me to run. And suddenly, I was no longer alone. A man whose features I couldn't quite make out from here was standing near a crypt. He stood over a boiling cauldron and began to stir it. My heart was beating so loudly in my chest that I was sure that the man could hear it. He seemed to be short and on the round side. The colors were so distorted that I couldn't make out his hair or skin. Not even the clothes that he was wearing.

When he spoke, I briefly thought that he was speaking to me. "She knows, My Lord. She knows that you're after her," he muttered.

My Lord? "Good," a voice called back.

Everything in me told me to run for my life, to get as far away from this place as I could, but I couldn't bring myself to run. I didn't even know where I could run. Because I knew that voice. I wasn't sure how. But I knew it. And it was close. The body was nowhere that I could see, but he wasn't far. The voice was cold and high-pitched. It almost sounded like a spirit speaking directly to me, but I knew that it wasn't. The man glanced down into the cauldron and spoke back to it.

"Shall we end her? She is within our grasp. We could have ended her the other night," he said.

I knew it. I knew that the figure that had been there in the Forbidden Forest was Voldemort. "Silence!" he hissed, his voice growing louder and stronger. "We will not lay a hand on her. Remember, Miss Nox."

The figure finally appeared, but I never got the chance to really see him. The black robes briefly swished in front of me but it was the red eyes that really drew me in. I collapsed to my knees as blood began to bubble in my throat. As I leaned over to cough it up I saw something moving in front of me. A snake. A huge snake. It coiled in front of me and gave a soft hiss before springing towards me with its jaws open. I barely had time to scream before the jaws clamped around my throat.

I sat up with a scream in bed, drenched in sweat and dry-heaving. Lavender was sitting at her desk and scowling at me. She still hadn't forgiven me for the points. "Could you be quiet? Some of us are trying to study," she said.

"Go to the damn library then," I snarled.

She looked affronted that I would dare speak to her like that. She scoffed and gathered her things in her bag before tossing it over her shoulder and leaving. She made a point to 'accidentally' knock my books over. Parvati followed her out and gave me a little glare before heading downstairs. Fay gave me a sad stare before leaving as well, leaving Hermione and I as the only two left. Hermione walked out of the bathroom, towel-drying her hair. She gave me a sad stare and came to sit next to me on the bed.

"Tara, are you alright?" she asked.

I waved her off carelessly. "Yeah. Yeah. Weird dream," I muttered.

But in reality it wasn't that weird of a dream. I'd been having dreams like that ever since the detention in the Forbidden Forest. They came to me every single night. Some nights were worse than others. But they were the reason that I hadn't slept more than a few hours in weeks. The dreams kept me on edge and meaner than I normally was. Thankfully the rude comments directed at Harry and I had faded in the past few weeks because I'd run out of patience. I wasn't upset with what had happened, I was scared out of my mind.

The dream tonight had been a recurring one. Not necessarily what had happened, but the fact that I had been in that damn graveyard. It showed up in over half of my dreams. I wasn't sure if it was real or just something that I was dreaming up but it was incredibly realistic if it was just something out of a dream. The small man popped up in my dreams sometimes too. He always seemed to grovel. Voldemort had now been in my dreams for weeks. I'd never really seen him, per say, but I knew the essence of what he looked like. The black robes and the glowing red eyes. I could only pray that it wasn't the truth, if it was just something that my cruel mind was imagining.

But it all seemed too realistic. I knew that Voldemort was still gone, but was this a foreshadowing of something that was to come? Would I be there? Would that snake really attack me? I could only hope that it wasn't real. Chances were that it wasn't. That was the only thing that I could tell myself to convince me to even get a wick of sleep. I knew that I wasn't the only one that was having an issue. Harry couldn't sleep either. And it was affecting us both. Without being able to sleep, the stress from exams was only getting worse. It felt like I could barely focus, and each time I turned the corner I could swear that Voldemort was there. I was miserable.

Still though, I tried to convince Hermione and Ron that I was fine. I tried telling them that I was just worried about exams. Ron shrugged me off and told me that I already knew everything and Hermione took it on herself to help me study all of the time. I sighed as I began to pull on my robes. Hermione had tried to wash the blood out of my old ones but she'd only managed to get it to a light pink before the blood seemingly caking itself into the robes. So I'd had to toss them. I still thanked her for trying.

Once I had my robes on I brushed my hair out and tucked it in front of my face. The less like a skeleton I looked, the better it would be. My face has lost its tan and my eyes were starting to look a little on the dead side. My cheeks had sunken in and the dark circles were clear under my eyes. I thought about using some of my makeup to cover it up, but I didn't. No one looked particularly good right now. But that was for different reasons. Today was the first day of exams. Not just for myself, for everyone.

Slipping on my shoes, I nodded at Hermione, who was already ready. "Are you ready?" she asked me.

"I suppose."

We headed down into the Common Room where everyone was already seated. Books were scattered around and I had to be very careful not to step on anyone's papers. Old exams and tests were scattered everywhere - some marks were impressive and others were painful to look at. Wands were rolling back and forth and simple spells were being cast around the room. The sounds of quills scratching echoed throughout the room and I could hear a few students quizzing each other. It was the most serious I'd ever seen everyone.

Harry and Ron were in the corner of the Common Room pouring over a Herbology book. They were crushed together considering there was almost no room for anyone to sit. We walked over to them and took a seat. Harry seemed to be trying to figure out what Aconite was. I rolled my eyes and muttered to him to remember Snape's first Potions class when he'd mentioned that wolfsbane and monkshood were the same thing that also went by the name Aconite.

We weren't together for long before Ron looked up at me and his eyes widened. "You look horrible," he said.

"Thanks, Ron," I said dryly. He looked a little ashamed of himself but I waved him off. I was well-aware of how horrible I looked. "Come on, I'm starving," I said, pulling the other three with me.

As it turned out, I really didn't eat anything at breakfast. The moment that I picked up a muffin I thought that I would throw up. So I placed it back down and went back to looking over my books for some last-minute studying. I wasn't the only one that was studying. It seemed that almost everyone was. I'd never heard the Great Hall as silent as it was. No one was actually talking just to have a conversation with each other. Everyone was getting in as much studying as they could before the exams started. Even the Slytherin table was silent. I rejoiced in not being able to hear them laughing about how we were the reason that they would be winning the House Championship. I flipped through my Astronomy charts with my legs tucked up underneath me.

Harry's voice startled me slightly. "Are you wearing two different shoes?" he asked.

Am I? Glancing down at my feet, I realized that he was right. I had a black trainer on one foot and a black Chuck Taylor on the other. I rolled my eyes at myself and stood. "Damn it. I'll be right back," I said, heading away from the table.

Heading back up to the Common Room I dragged my feet behind me, staggering slightly. A little quiver went through my hand and I grabbed it, massaging the strange feeling away. I'd been getting little tingles through my hand lately and I kept trying to tell myself that it was all in my head. But I knew that it wasn't. The way that it had felt in the forest that night... It had felt like I was going to die. I'd wanted to rip it off it had hurt so badly. And now I couldn't forget the pain.

Walking up through the turrets of the school I walked in through the portrait and dashed upstairs. Everyone was already gone and at breakfast but the Common Room was still a mess. Papers were scattered and some books had been left behind. I couldn't help but to wonder if every other Common Room looked this way. I grabbed my spare Chuck Taylor and dashed back down the stairs trying to think of the exams. I knew that I was prepared. I'd done everything in my power to try and forget what had happened to us in the forest and that had meant that I'd spent all of my energy studying.

Just barely a hundred feet from the Great Hall I smacked into someone. Or maybe they smacked into me. It didn't really matter. My bag that was on my shoulder fell and my things scattered everywhere. I sighed and leaned over, grabbing everything and shoving them back into my bag. I didn't bother speaking to the other person, figuring that they were just another person that couldn't stand me. Maybe not. My wand had gone flying and they went to grab it, handing it back to me.

"Thanks, I muttered as I stuffed my wand away.

"Tara," I heard Cedric call. I glanced up and gave a weak smile as I shoved the rest of my things away. He gave me a hand and I took it to help myself stand up. "Are you alright?" he asked, concern obvious in his voice.

"Oh, Cedric..." I muttered awkwardly. I didn't like seeing him when I looked like I was about to keel over and die. I laughed and ran a hand through my hair. "I've been better," I said.

Cedric smiled and motioned me to stand off on the side of the hall. "Stress of the exams getting to you?" he asked me. I gave a little shrug, I supposed on some level I was nervous about the exams. "Don't worry, you'll do fine. We've been studying for weeks. I somehow doubt that you'll get anything below an E," he said.

He was right about that. After our talk in the Astronomy tower the day before my detention we had decided that it would be best to study together to spend some time together. He had all of his friends - an astonishing amount really - and I had lost most of mine. I knew that he felt bad that I'd essentially gotten myself down to three friends so he took a few hours out of his week to come and sit with me. Either doing our work or just laughing together, it was always a nice difference from the solemn and tense air around Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"It's the exams but I've also been having some trouble sleeping," I admitted.

He was one of the few people that I'd actually told I was having problems sleeping. Hermione was the only other person that knew. I had a feeling that Ron and Harry suspected it. "Bad dreams?" Cedric asked me.

Had he really just managed to figure that? "Yeah. How did you know?" I asked.

Cedric walked forward and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. I backed away, knowing that I barely looked like a human right now. "Don't take this the wrong way but you've looked terrible for weeks, Tara," he told me.

My jaw set and I stared harshly at the ground. Hearing it from Ron was bad enough, but hearing it from Cedric actually hurt. Still, I tried to play it off like it was no big deal. "Thanks. So I've heard," I muttered.

Cedric sighed and looked like he was trying to do anything to undo what he had just said. "I really didn't mean it that way," he said. I nodded, knowing that he only said it to try and be helpful, the same as Ron. "But I can tell that you haven't been sleeping at all. How much sleep have you actually been getting over the past few weeks?" he asked.

I gave a little shrug. I really wasn't sure how much I was sleeping. Way less than was acceptable. "A few hours a night. Three. Maybe four," I said carelessly.

Cedric stared at me for a moment before grabbing my hand. "Come with me."

"I can't be late," I argued.

"You won't be."

As stupid as it was, as many other things that I had to worry about, I felt a little better with him hanging onto my hand. Perhaps it reminded me that I was only twelve and saving the world wasn't something that I should be worried about. I should be worried about my marks and my stupid crush. Not the Sorcerer's Stone and the most dangerous Dark Wizard in history. I always had had a strange sense of importance. Cedric dragged me with him as we walked downstairs and stopped near the kitchens.

I knew where we were. The Hufflepuff Common Room wasn't far from here. We stopped at the end of the hallway, not far from where Professor Sprout's office was. Cedric stopped me and glanced around the hall for a few seconds. I assumed that he would get in trouble for bringing someone that wasn't a Hufflepuff student down here. He pressed me back against the wall where someone passing wouldn't see me unless they were really looking.

Once he was sure that it was just us, he held up a hand to me. "Wait here for a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay."

He disappeared after that and I slunk against the floor. I had almost wanted to go with him. I was curious what the Hufflepuff Common Room looked like. But I knew that it was against the rules. We were only supposed to know about our Common Room. My feet were tapping against the floor as I fiddled with my laces. The lack of sleep really was affecting me. For a moment I thought that I saw the hallway changing shape. After about five minutes Cedric walked back towards me.

He gave me a hand and helped me stand back up. "Here you are," he said. He handed me over a vial full of purple liquid. It looked almost like the Muggle medicine that parents gave their children when they were sick.

"What is this?" I asked.

Cedric tucked it into my pocket when he saw that I was hesitant to take it. "When I was a kid I would get these awful nightmares. I don't really remember what they were about." I had a feeling that he did remember what they were about, but if he hadn't asked me about my dreams I wouldn't ask him about his. "But Dad got worried about me so we went to this Healer. She said that taking this would put me into a dreamless sleep. I haven't had a nightmare in years," he told me.

I opened my mouth to thank him before realizing something. If he gave me the vial, what was going to happen with his nightmares? "But don't you need this?" I asked, digging it back out.

He placed his hand over mine and forced me to release it. "I don't take it anymore but I have it just in case. I think right now you need it more than I do. So go ahead. Take it. You'll need your strength for that last Quidditch match," he said with a small smile.

"Oh. I almost forgot about that," I muttered truthfully.

The last Quidditch match of the season - our only chance to gain back the points that we had lost and potentially win the Championship - was two days after our last exam. It was kind of like the final blast for the students to have together before the end-of-term feast. It didn't help that the rest of the team had essentially been ignoring me during practices. I had almost forgotten that I was on the team. They never wanted me up on the broom and when I was they didn't speak to me. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to find another alternate next year.

Cedric gave me a little smile. He seemed to know that Quidditch was not my favorite thing right now. "Bad timing, being right after exams." I nodded absentmindedly. "But you're playing against Ravenclaw, I guarantee you that they haven't been practicing at all with the exams," he told me.

I smiled a little bit at the thought. "Maybe we'll be able to gain some of those points back," I said.

"See?" he offered playfully. "I told you. They won't hate you forever. Just give them time." I nodded at him, hoping that he was right. "You have your first exams today?" he asked.

"Yeah. I think I know my textbooks word for word. I'm ready," I said.

He grinned at me. "Good. You remember everything we talked about from Astronomy?" he asked.

Once more I nodded at him. Most of the time that we were studying he was helping me with Astronomy. I was confident that I would do reasonably well. "I do. Thanks for helping me with that, by the way. I know that spending your nights with me studying for something you did two years ago can't be that much fun," I said.

"On the contrary, there's no one that I would have rather been with," he told me.

A soft blush filled my pale face but before I got the chance to say anything, one of Cedric's friends - a Hufflepuff boy - called out for him. "Ced, come on! We gotta go," he yelled. He finally realized that Cedric was standing with me and his eyes widened. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked rudely.

Cedric looked like he was going to shout back at his friend but I didn't want to be the reason for a fight. So I grabbed his arm and smiled at him. "Go. I'll see you around," I said.

He nodded at me. "Good luck on your exams."

"You too," I said as I waved him off.

The two of us gave each other a little smile as I walked off and headed back out towards the Great Hall. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked curious as to where I had gone for so long but they didn't question me on it. We waited for the exams to begin while letting Hermione give us some last-minute quizzing. She claimed that it was good for her too. I could tell that she was reciting everything that we had learned throughout the year to herself. Ron looked like he very well might hurl and Harry looked just as exhausted as I did.

It would be years before I could look back and remember how I had managed to get through my exams when I half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment. The twinges in my hand weren't helping and the fear from the nightmares were only making things worse. It didn't help that everyone else seemed so excited for the end of the year. I almost couldn't understand how they were so happy when something so terrible was about to happen. Yet in the days that had led up to the exams we'd been checking, and there was be no doubt that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.

That was our only solace as we had to stop thinking about the Stone and Snape and focus on the exams. It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their written papers. The sun was baking the castle and it was horrible underneath the thick robes. I could tell that most people wanted to take the exams outside. At least there was a nice breeze out there. For our theory exams we been given special, new quill, which had been bewitched with an AntiCheating spell. I saw the look of horror on Parkinson's face before we started and I smirked, praying that she would fail and get kicked out. I was still bitter about her scene in the Great Hall.

We waited in silence at the desks that were spread out through the giant classroom. Hermione was right next to me and Harry was on my other side. Ron was right behind him and Malfoy was right behind me. I sighed, thinking that he was going to start throwing things at me. But no one was stupid enough to start messing around during exam time. Even the students that didn't mind detention - Fred and George - had turned slightly serious with the impending exams.

Thankfully I wasn't too worried about the actual material. I was more worried about falling asleep in the middle of the exam. I knew all of the books forwards and backwards. Without being able to sleep and without having my friends to distract me from my work I'd been spending most of my time studying. Not only during the day but also long into the night. The horrible thought was that I might have been spending even more time than Hermione studying. I knew that I would ace all of my exams without a problem.

The written exams ended up not being as terrible as I'd thought that they would be. Transfiguration was first and I was glad for it. Besides Astronomy, that was the one that I was nervous for. We had to explain how the Afivor's spell worked, a jet of blue light from the wand that - upon impact - would turn into a solid bird. Thankfully she didn't make us perform it, it was a complicated spell. She also had us explain the Transfiguration formula and how it is influenced by body weight, viciousness, wand power, concentration, and other unknown variables.

That same day we had to do the practical Potions exam. It was rather unnerving having to sit in the room and write as Snape traipsed across the raised platform in the room. I kept thinking about how he was biding his time until he could go and steal the Stone. His exam was one of the hardest that we took, but I managed. We had to give the uses for dragon's blood, dittany, asphodel, aconite, flobberworm mucus, and infusion of wormwood. The most complicated thing was a step-by-step description of the Wide-Eye potion.

It was needless to say that the moment that we had all finished we went running from the room. We had lunch together before heading to the Defense exam. No one was speaking much yet. It seemed that everyone wanted to finish the exams before chatting with each other. We had to explain how to cure werewolf bites, explain what Gnomes, Doxies, Imps, Bowtruckles, and Gargoyles were. We also had to describe how to perform the Curse of the Bogies and where it would be appropriate. It was one of the longest exams that we had, but by no means was it the hardest one that we had to take.

That night was the Astronomy exam. As much as I hated Astronomy, I almost enjoyed having the exam for the sole reason that it gave me an excuse not to have to pretend or try to sleep. We had to show the typical movement of the planets throughout the year and also show Jupiter's movement on that particular day. Thankfully I did know the names of all of the stars. Cedric had made me study with him until two in the morning once because I couldn't remember them for the life of me.

We had a full day of rest after the Astronomy exam - since it wasn't fair to give a nine o'clock exam after we'd just taken an exam at midnight the day before - to take the Herbology exam. It wasn't that bad, probably one of the easier ones that we'd taken. We explained what the purposes were of the Bouncing Bulb, Puffapod, Dried Nettle, Wormwood, Mandrake Root, and Devil's Snare. Neville ended up being one of the first ones done and I smiled at him, knowing that even if he didn't do well in the other subjects his Herbology score would make up for it.

Charms was the last written exam that we had to take. I was in the middle of explaining the Fire-Making Spell when panic settled into my chest. I very nearly toppled out of my seat when I saw it. Blood was completely coating my hand and I could see the skin that was torn and broken around my wrist. It was cut down to the bone. I dropped my quill and blinked quickly, trying to get the sight out of my head. When I looked back the blood was gone and my hand was intact. The only thing that I'd done was pour ink over my exam. I sighed and wiped it off, going back to explaining the proper wand movements.

In the days that followed it was revealed that we would have practical exams as well. But I'd already known that. Cedric had told me to be prepared to demonstrate that I actually knew how to perform the spells rather than just explain them. Professor Flitwick called us one by one into his class to see if we could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. Mine had done a rather impressive jig and had taken a bow at the end when Professor Flitwick had clapped for it. I smiled, being a showman like Dad helped sometimes.

Transfiguration was a little more intimidating. Mostly because we had to do it in front of the entire class. Professor McGonagall watched us turn a mouse into a snuffbox - points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Most peoples were reasonably simply but I decided to go all-out. I figured that I needed to after what had happened the other week. So mine was a bright gold that was about the size of my palm. It had diamonds and intricate patterns that swirled around it with my initials carved into a mirror on the front of the box. It even had a small lock on the opening. I could have sworn that Professor McGonagall smiled at me.

Despite my good work in Transfiguration and Charms, I did not feel so confident walking into the Potions practical exam. But it wasn't just me. It looked like everyone was terrified. Snape made us all nervous, breathing down our necks while we tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion. I knew at the end that I had done it properly. Snape wouldn't be able to take off points just because he didn't like me, the potion was done properly. I'd made sure of it.

We performed very basic Defense movements with Professor Quirrell watching and instructing. I had a feeling that everyone would manage to pass - even Neville. It was very obvious that Quirrell was more afraid that Snape was going to come in and kill him than he was focused on ensuring that we had learned everything possible. Not that it bothered me. The exam was probably the easiest that we'd had it since starting them a week prior.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I did the best that we could. Hermione was practically tearing her hair out. Ron seemed to be on the verge of passing out from stress most of the time. Harry was trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead, which had been bothering him ever since the trip into the forest. I'd been attempting to blink away the horrible imaginary images that popped up at random times. My bloodied and mangled hand, Voldemort standing near, or a giant snake waiting to pounce. The tremors in my writing hand didn't help either.

Maybe it was because they hadn't seen what Harry and I had seen in the forest, or because they didn't have scars burning on their foreheads or nightmares keeping them awake at all hours of the night or visions terrorizing them in the middle of the day, but Ron and Hermione didn't seem as worried about the Stone as Harry and I. The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn't keep visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their studying they didn't have much time to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to. It didn't mean that Harry and I didn't exchange worried looks with each other frequently.

The days passed as we got closer and closer to the end of the exams - and the end of the year. We were about two weeks out from the time that we would be back on the platform and ready to head back to King's Cross. My daytime imaginary visions were getting worse but thankfully the potion that Cedric had given me was working. While I was jumpy through the day, afraid that anywhere I turned Voldemort would be waiting for me, my nights were getting easier. The nightmares had slowly been fading. I still had them but they were nowhere near as bad as they once were. I wondered if I'd traded the nighttime terrors for the daytime ones.

It didn't matter. By the time that exams were about to end I looked much more alive than I had a week ago. My eyes were brighter and my cheeks were no longer sunken. Although I was sure that people could see the panic in my eyes if they looked at me. On the very last day of exam we strode towards the door of the classroom. We did not have practical exams for History of Magic, Herbology, or Astronomy.

And that meant that our very last exam was History of Magic. It was definitely not my favorite exam. I'd had to spend a lot of time studying for it since I'd used so many of our classes as time to take a nap. We spent one hour answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and all sorts of things that were common these days. Once we were done we'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until the exam results came out. The air was thick with excitement to be done. I was getting towards the end of the exam when the first question that I didn't know the answer to popped up:

24) What year was the Gargoyle Strike using wildcat tactics?

Damn it. I didn't remember. I tapped my quill against the side of my jaw, fanning out my hand when a little quiver shot through it. I could see Hermione furiously scribbling away and Ron staring desperately at the parchment as if to ask it to help him. Harry was writing an answer - albeit very slowly. Malfoy was scrawling away looking as bored as ever and Crabbe looked like he was attempting to read something in a language that he didn't understand. I tried to think back, but I couldn't remember for the life of me ever talking about this.

Suddenly, a voice rang out in my head. You do. I nearly screamed as a memory jogged back in my head. Professor Binns had been droning on about the Gargoyle Strike when something had happened that had taken away the advantage from the strikers. Harry had accidentally interrupted Binns, who had completely forgotten what he was saying and had never come back to the topic. But I glanced up at the board and saw it. 1911. The memory came to a sudden halt and I jotted it down on the paper before I forgot. The voice came back once again, sounding very pleased with itself. Good, it whispered.

Uh... Thank you! My heart was thumping as I continued down the page. Maybe that was what Ron was looking at the page for. Maybe if you asked it for help it would remind you of the class that you had learned it during. But I hadn't asked for help. I'd just been trying to remember. Goosebumps rose on my arms - despite how hot it was in the classroom - as I finished up the exam.

When the ghost of Professor Binns finally told us to put down our quills and roll up our parchment, I couldn't help cheering with the rest. We were finally done. Despite the odd voice that had come to me in the middle of the test - which somehow hadn't alerted my AntiCheating quill - I was thrilled that the exams were over and I knew that I'd done my best. My Astronomy exam score might not be the highest in the school, but I knew without a doubt that I had passed everything. Maybe Mom and Dad would be proud of me again.

As everyone flooded out of the room I could tell that something had lifted over the school. Everyone had seemed too petrified and tense over the past few weeks with the impending exams. But things were already better. And the warm air and sweet wind that swept through the halls made me smile. I already felt better. Hermione was smiling to herself and while Ron and Harry still looked afraid of whether or not they had failed their exams, they seemed happier too. It didn't take me long to forget about the helpful voice in my head.

"That was far easier than I thought it would be," Hermione said as we joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."

"I told you that you didn't, you fool." Cedric had gone through all of my books with me one night and pointed out the things that I needed to remember and the things that I didn't. I'd made sure to tell Ron, Harry, and Hermione the same. Although Hermione still thought that we needed to know everything in the books.

"Well, what if exams have changed since he was in his First Year?" she asked me.

I gave her a bored stare. "Two years ago?" I deadpanned. They wouldn't rewrite the exams every year. Especially not in a class like History of Magic. "Hermione the exams have been the same for hundreds of years. The only time they change is when something extreme happens in the world," I told her.

As we walked out towards the ground, Hermione chattered away about how the exam could have been completely different and I wouldn't have known anything. I shut her up by offering to go through the exam papers afterward. We decided that we would do that one alone. Ron said that it made him feel ill so we wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. Fred and George and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows. I smiled and wished more than anything that I could go over with them. I'd always wanted to play with the giant squid.

Hermione seemed to know that I wanted to be there. "Why don't you go join them?" she asked.

I sighed at her and shook my head, dropping back against the grass so that I could try and get some sun back onto my face. "Because - as much as they insist that I'm still their friend - they don't want me near them. Not while everyone else can see them," I muttered.

"It'll pass. Things are already getting better," Hermione said.

I scoffed and shook my head at her, barely peeking out of one of my eyes. "No, they've stopped saying rude things to us. You've got to notice that no one speaks to us. At all," I told her. She stared for a moment before nodding at me. She might have been used to mostly speaking to just Harry, Ron, and I, but I missed speaking freely to Dean, Seamus, Neville, Parvati, Lavender, Fay, Cedric, Fred, George, Lee, and so many others. "Whatever, the year is almost over and I can't wait to go back home. Maybe by next year they'll have forgotten all about it."

"Here's hoping," Harry said, startling me slightly. I had thought that he was lost in his own thoughts. "And maybe it'll be less eventful," he added hopefully.

I stared at him for a moment before shaking my head. "Doubtful."

Harry grinned at me happily as Ron spoke. He had been seemingly off in his own little world. "No more studying," Ron sighed happily, stretching out on the grass. I smiled at him as he used my long hair for a pillow, pressing against me. "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."

I leaned up slightly but was tugged back down by his weight. I whacked him roughly on the chest before glaring at him. "You've been studying for weeks, how bad do you genuinely think that you did?" I asked.

He never got the chance to answer me. Harry was rubbing his forehead. "I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. The other three of us jumped suddenly and I hushed him as terse gazes turned over towards us. "My scar keeps hurting - it's happened before, but never as often as this," he said.

My stomach tied itself into a knot. If his scar was hurting, we knew that was a bad thing. His scar was from a curse. But why was my hand still hurting after these past few weeks? Was I just imaging things or was there really a reason that we were both in pain? Why was my hand even hurting in the first place? They were questions that were now starting to plague me since the exams had ended. But there was still my top question: Who sent me the necklace and the stone?

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

I shook my head at her. The only thing that would do would end up getting Harry a trip to the psych ward at St. Mungo's. "I'm not ill. I think it's a warning... it means danger's coming," he said.

That was probably the truth. But Ron and Hermione couldn't get themselves worked up. They seemed to think that it was too hot. I relished in this weather. It was still cold compared to a summer in Florida. "Harry, relax, Hermione's right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down," Ron said.

Giving Ron a smack to the back of the head for teasing Neville, I leaned up on my forearms. "Actually, Harry is right." All three heads snapped over to me. "Reading those forbidden books comes in handy from time to time," I teased Hermione, who was glaring at me. "That mark on his forehead is from a Dark Curse. When a mark like that is left, it usually proves as something of a link between the owner and the person who put it there in the first place," I said, mostly to Harry.

He really needed to read more often. We would solve things a hell of a lot faster if Harry and Ron would. Harry looked shocked at my news. "You mean that this is a link between me and -"

"Don't say his name!"

"Shut up, Ron!" I howled at him. I was so sick of him being so petrified of saying Voldemort's name. I was going to embroider it on a pillow soon enough. "Yes. I do," I said, turning back to Harry.

Hermione finally sat upright, nearly colliding heads with me. "Oh, enough!" she shouted, surprising my slightly. "You read those awful forbidden books that delve deep into dark magic and illegal spells. You shouldn't be reading them in the first place. He is gone." I scowled. He was not gone. I just saw him. "Whatever you saw in the forest was some kind of Dark Creature."

Glaring darkly at her, I could see Ron and Harry watching us with wide eyes. They were the biggest babies. They were terrified of us when Hermione or I got upset. "Then why did Harry's scar start hurting all of a sudden? Why did I feel like my insides were being put through a meat grinder? Why did I throw up blood all over myself?" I snarled at her.

I loved Hermione to death, but she had to understand that something happened out there. Something was happening. "There are Dark Creatures that can do that," she said. Her voice was softer and less confident now.

"Name one," I challenged.

Hermione didn't seem to be happy that I'd challenged her with a question that she didn't have the answer to. "Well I don't read about them but I'm sure that there is one," she finally said.

"There is," I told her. She looked proud that her guess had been correct. Think again. "But it's not a Dark Creature, it's Voldemort." She sighed at me once more. "Hermione, I know what I saw out there," I said softer this time, trying to avoid a fight.

We were staring at each other sadly before Ron's voice interrupted the two of us. "What is it with you and saying the name?" he asked me.

"Shut up, Ron!" I barked.

He slunk away from me and awkwardly went back to watching us in silence. "Did you even see the face?" Hermione asked me.

"No!" I shouted, knowing that I wasn't helping my case. "It wore a cloak over itself. But it... it smiled at me!" She looked horrified. I hadn't told her that before. I hadn't told any of them that before. I hadn't wanted to freak them out. "When it saw me the way that I was. What the hell would have smiled at me like that?" I asked her.

"Anything that knew that it was getting to you!" she shouted exasperatedly.

No way. That thing didn't just know that it was getting to me, it was like it was glad that I was about to die. Harry's thoughtful voice called me out of my memory. "But it's like I forgot to do something, something important," he muttered.

Hermione and I both looked over at him and scowled. He was staring down at his lap and twisting his fingers together. "Were you even listening to our conversation?" I asked him.

Harry glanced up at me quickly and looked in between Hermione and I. "You two were talking?" he finally asked.

I rolled my eyes as Ron laughed at us. "That's just the exams," Hermione said. I rolled my eyes, knowing that they were trying to avoid the creature that we had seen in the forest. "I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one," she continued.

I turned my glare on her. "Hermione, you were doing that at the beginning of the year," I said.

Ron laughed and was quickly one to agree with me. They immediately sank into an argument and I rolled my eyes, leaning back against the grass once more. I closed my eyes and tried to think about anything other than what we had seen in the forest or my exam scores. But I couldn't. Those seemed to be the only things that were on my mind. Way more than what should have been on the mind of a First Year. It shouldn't be on the mind of any student, but it was.

More than anything I wanted to be like any of the other students. I glanced around and saw them all laughing and smiling, trying not to think about their exam scores that were now out of their hands. Fred and George were still poking at the giant squid and I smiled as it grabbed Lee, trying to drag him towards the water. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie ran to help. Oliver was probably writing down new Quidditch moves but he, too, was laughing. Cedric was with his friends tossing a Quaffle back and forth. Dean and Seamus were kicking back and forth a soccer ball as Neville watched. Malfoy and Parkinson were sitting together and grinning with their friends. Everyone just seemed so happy and so calm. It felt like it had been forever since I'd felt like that too.

My mind flitted to everything that I was worried about. I supposed that I was a little nervous for my Astronomy grade. But I couldn't even find myself worried about that. I was afraid of what had happened out in the woods. Was it really Voldemort? I was so convinced that it was. But what if it wasn't? What if Firenze was wrong? If that was the case, than what was it? It was something that had to cause Harry's scar unfathomable pain and made my insides feel like they were being torn apart. Not only that, but it had also made me throw up blood. I was worried about the Stone and whether or not Snape was going to be able to steal it.

Now it didn't even end at all of that. Things had only gotten worse over the past few weeks. I was worried about the necklace and stone that I had gotten. Both with the number eighty-three engraved on them. What the hell did that mean? And the notes... What did the notes mean? Who was sending me them? Certainly not the same person that had sent Harry the cloak both times. No. Whoever had done that was a friend. My question was whether the person that was sending me the gifts in the black boxes was a friend or a foe.

And it didn't even stop at that now. I was seeing Voldemort everywhere. Was it paranoia or was it justified? My nightmares were getting worse, what did those mean? Where was the graveyard and was I really seeing something happening? Hopefully it was my mind playing nasty tricks on me. As if that all wasn't bad enough, I now had something new to worry about. The voice that had spoken to me during the History of Magic exam. Who was it? I'd never heard the voice before. I was absolutely positive of that.

I was quite sure the unsettled feeling didn't have anything to do with work. And I knew that Harry agreed with me. I opened my eyes and watched an owl flutter toward the school across the bright blue sky, a note clamped in its mouth. It almost looked like Dai. Maybe Mom and Dad had sent me a letter. They hadn't really been communicating with me much. I assumed that they were still angry with me and were waiting to see me on the platform to really lay into me. My eyes sprung open when Harry suddenly jumped to his feet.

"Harry?" I asked as Ron and Hermione sat upright too.

Harry didn't answer us as he began to march off to wherever he'd gotten in his mind that he wanted to go. I jumped up and dragged Ron and Hermione with me. "Where're you going?" Ron asked sleepily.

I assumed that he had been taking a nap. "I've just thought of something," Harry said. He had turned white and he was straining his legs as he marched across the yard. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."

"Why?" Hermione panted, hurrying to keep up.

Rolling my eyes at her, I leaned back and yanked her along with me. She was stumbling as she latched onto me. "Don't you think it's a bit odd," he said as we stumbled up the grassy hill, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?" Harry asked himself more than he asked us.

It was kind of strange, but there were dragon traders. It wasn't the most uncommon thing in the world. And Hagrid had never really been quiet about wanting one. "I mean, it happens, there are plenty of illegal dragon breeders around. And think, Hagrid doesn't really look past the law. He wouldn't have cared," I reasoned.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked, but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn't answer. We now had to start running to try and keep up with him.

But suddenly a very important detail that had escaped my mind before settled into the back of my brain. "Oh my..." I muttered, slowing down. "You're right, Harry," I said, stopping him in his tracks.

"I am?" he asked, looking surprised that I was agreeing with him.

"Yes!" I shouted. "Hagrid was at a pub. A bar. He was drinking. He must have been drunk," I said. I'd seen Mom and Dad drunk before. I knew that things slipped out sometimes when people had had too much to drink. "If the stranger kept buying him drinks, kept his hood on the entire time so that Hagrid couldn't see him... He wouldn't have known. And Hagrid, he doesn't exactly keep things to himself, does he? The other teachers, they must have known that he wanted one," I said.

There was no doubt in my mind that Snape could have figured out that Hagrid wanted a dragon. And his character easily fit under the whole 'creepy guy in a dark cloak and scary pub' idea. "And if Snape is on Voldemort's side..." Harry trailed off.

"He would have been easily able to get a dragon egg -" I added before being cut off.

"And how to get past Fluffy," Harry finished.

The panic settled into my chest. "We need to move. Now!" I barked.

No sooner had I said that that we ran off once more. Thankfully Harry was already determined as he sprinted across the grounds. Ron was at his heels a moment later. Hermione, who clearly had never done a bit of exercise in her life, was having a hard time keeping up. So I yanked on her robes and shoved her after me. She clearly didn't like it, but didn't argue with the tense realization that we'd missed a glaringly obvious clue. We reached Hagrid's hut in no time. Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.

He glanced up and gave us a friendly smile. "Hullo. Finished yer exams?" We nodded breathlessly. "Got time fer a drink?"

Ron gave both Harry and I a glare for making him run like that and nodded at Hagrid. "Yes, please," Ron said, but Harry cut him off.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert?" Hagrid looked lost but nodded anyways. "What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

That clearly was not the question that he had been expecting. "Dunno," Hagrid said casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off." Harry and I exchanged a desperate look and Hagrid raised his eyebrows at us. "It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head - that's the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."

"Did you hear him speak?" I asked.

Perhaps he could tell us if he had the same dark and droning voice that Snape had. It was hard to mistake. "'Course. He had a funny voice," he told me.

I was about to ask if he had a deep voice when Harry spoke. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?" he asked. He had sank down next to the bowl of peas.

"Mighta come up," Hagrid said, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here. He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon. An' then... I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks. Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home. So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy."

My heart felt like it might have fallen out of my butt. By accident, Hagrid had told Snape about Fluffy weeks ago. "So you told him about Fluffy?" I asked breathlessly.

Hagrid nodded at me, looking confused. "Yeah. Not illegal, havin' somethin' like tha' for protection," he told me suspiciously.

He didn't understand that it wasn't the fact that he owned Fluffy that I was worried about. "And did he - did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

Hagrid looked at us like we had lost our minds. "Well, yeah, how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep -" Hagrid suddenly looked horrified. "I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it!" I was right. The book was right. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I exchanged a look before standing and bolting. "Hey - where're yeh goin'?" Hagrid called after us.

Part of me knew that we should have said something or at least called back goodbye but I couldn't bring myself to. So we sprinted back up to the castle. Not good. Not good at all. Snape knew that the way to get Fluffy to go to sleep was with music. And he presumably knew how the other teachers had made their traps. Hermione didn't need to be pulled along this time. She seemed to have realized the urgency of the moment. We didn't speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds. I arrived first and Harry not long after me. Ron and Hermione dragged up the rear, huffing and puffing.

We all took in a few deep breaths before I spoke. "We know now. My book, it was right. That's exactly how you keep Fluffy asleep to get past him. And now Snape knows. He's known for weeks, but why's he been waiting?" I asked.

"There has to be a reason," Hermione breathed, her face redder than Ron's hair.

That was when it hit me. Like everything else, the answer was staring us right in the face the entire time. How did I have such high marks? I was an idiot. "Dumbledore," I answered, earning a strange look from the others. "If Voldemort - I'll hex you into oblivion if you if you say anything about the name, Ron - was scared of Dumbledore, you've got to imagine that Snape is scared of him too. He knows not to make a move while Dumbledore is here and watching. That's why Dumbledore hasn't been worried about the Stone before," I rationalized.

It was a wonder that we hadn't realized it before. "You're right. You've got to be right," Hermione said as if there was no other answer. And there couldn't have been. It had to be the only the explanation.

The four of us stood in silence for a while. "So what do we do?" Ron finally asked.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," Harry said and we all nodded. He was the only one that could fix things right now. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak - it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?" Harry asked more to himself.

My jaw nearly dropped. How had I never thought about that? Where was Dumbledore's office? They had never told us where his office was. I thought back to the Welcoming Feast but of the many things that had been said, where Dumbledore's office was, was not one of the things. We looked around, hoping to see a sign pointing us in the right direction. I was pretty sure that no one knew where it was. We'd never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor did they know anyone who had been sent to see him.

We turned back and forth before Harry stopped and looked over at me. I raised my eyebrows, wondering what he wanted. "Didn't you speak with him that night before holidays, Tara?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, but I ran into him out in the hallway, I've never been to his office before. I could ask Fred or George if they know where it is. I'll bet you if anyone knows, it's them," I said.

That was the truth. If anyone had ever been sent to Dumbledore, it was Fred and George. Maybe Cedric would know but I wasn't sure if I could ask him that in front of everyone out on the grounds. "We don't have time!" Ron bellowed.

"We'll just have to -" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you four doing inside?" I turned back with a little cringe. There were very few people that I would have liked less to meet right now. It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books. I turned back to her and gave her a bashful grin, hoping that she would let us go without question.

But Hermione immediately silenced my thoughts. "We want to see Professor Dumbledore," she said rather bravely. I exchanged an impressed smile with Harry and Ron. Maybe she was growing a backbone.

Professor McGonagall glared at us. "See Professor Dumbledore?" she repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. We all stared at her impatiently. "Why?" she finally asked.

"It's important," I said.

"How important?" she asked.

I swallowed awkwardly. Now what? What could we tell her that wouldn't sound like we were trying to do something incredibly illegal and against the rules? Which was exactly what we were doing. "It's sort of secret," Harry said. I rolled my eyes. Of all of the things that he could save said... Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.

Uh-oh. "Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once," she snapped. My mind went back to the owl that I'd seen flying over the grounds. That was the one that had delivered the bad news. We were too late.

The four of us went into a sudden panic. If he was gone there was nothing stopping Snape from going after the Stone. "He's gone?" Harry asked frantically. "Now?"

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time -"

"But this is important," Harry interrupted.

I didn't bother mentioning that the note that was sent to Dumbledore was probably a fake. It was probably sent by Snape to get him out of the castle so that he could get the Stone before the year ended and the Stone found a new home. "Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter," Professor McGonagall snarled.

I knew that he wouldn't say anything, so I did. "Actually, yes, it is," I told her.

She did not look thrilled that I was putting myself as more important than the Ministry. "Look Professor - it's about the Sorcerer's Stone," Harry said, throwing caution to the wind. I almost wanted to shout at him, but I knew that he was right to tell her. She would have never taken us seriously had we danced around the topic.

Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up. I cringed softly, knowing that we were really pushing our luck. "How do you know -?" she spluttered.

"Professor, I think - I know - that Sn-" I stomped on his foot to get him to shut up about Snape, "that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore." She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion. The only reason that I didn't want him to say Snape's name was just in case she decided that we were lying to get him in trouble.

Finally she regained her composure to speak again. "Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow. I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected," she said.

That was way too late. The Stone, and Snape, would be gone by tomorrow. "But Professor -"

"Potter, I know what I'm talking about," she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine," she snapped before storming off.

How did this always happen? Adults thought that they were so smart but they never listened to children, even when we knew more than they did. I wanted to chase her down and tell her that she was making a huge mistake but I didn't. I also wanted to go lay down back in the sun but I didn't. I was no fool. There had to be something that we could do. The four of us stood and looked back and forth between each other as we tried to figure out what to do. We were going to have no help.

Finally I gathered my voice and spoke. "This is just what he was waiting for. He wanted Dumbledore to leave and now he's got it. There's no one in the castle to stop him from stealing it. No one will listen to us about the Stone," I muttered quickly.

Harry shared my sentiment. "It's tonight." I wanted to debate him and tell him that maybe we still had time, but I knew that he was right. Snape only had a limited amount of time before Dumbledore was right. We had to move before Snape did. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up," Harry continued.

"Maybe we can send him an owl, head him off?" I asked.

I knew that it wouldn't work, it was too slow, but I was desperate. "But would it get to him -" Hermione gasped. Harry, Ron, and I wheeled around. My stomach twisted. Snape was standing right there.

I could only pray that he hadn't overheard what we were talking about. "Good afternoon," he said smoothly. We stared at him, praying that he would leave. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile.

He knew. He had to know. I'd never seen him smiling like that before. "We were..." Harry began before trailing off.

Snape saved us the trouble of searching for something to say. "You want to be more careful. Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something." I hated the way that he enunciated every word. "And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?" Harry and I flushed. We turned to go outside, but Snape called us back. "Be warned, Potter, Nox - any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

Whatever grudge match he had with our Dad's, it had to be bad considering that it had lasted three decades. He could have just said Harry, but he mentioned me, too. What had our parents done that was that awful to him? It didn't matter. He was gone for now and we had a very limited amount of time to solve this problem. Snape strode off in the direction of the staffroom. Out on the stone steps, we waited until he was gone before turning to each other and speaking.

"He knows. He knows that we know," I muttered.

The three of us turned to look at Harry. I was trusting him to make the right choice right now. "Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape - wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, you'd better do that," he said.

She looked horrified that he dare volunteer her for that. "Why me?" Hermione asked desperately.

"It's obvious," Ron said, surprising my. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." He put on a high voice that very weakly imitated Hermione's, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong.'" I couldn't help it, I laughed. Even Harry cracked a smile.

Hermione did not seem to find it funny. "Oh, shut up," she snapped at Ron. She let out a sigh before nodding. "Alright, I'll watch out for him," she eventually caved.

"Be careful," I told her.

She nodded at me before turning and sweeping off down the hallway. She had barely gone when Harry turned to Ron and I. "And we'd better stay outside the third-floor corridor. Come on," he said, dragging us with him.

"You really think that we're going to be able to stop him?" I asked.

"No," Harry immediately said. It didn't take a genius to know that Snape was clearly the better wizard out of the three of us. "But at least we'll know if he heads this way," he continued.

I supposed that he was right about that. We dashed over to the third-floor corridor together. A few students that were hanging around were all glaring at us. They seemed to think that we were going to get even more points taken from Gryffindor. They were very likely to be correct about that. But a few points were nothing compared to Voldemort returning to the Wizarding World. It had been bad enough the first time. Unfortunately that part of our plan didn't work. No sooner had we reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again and this time, she lost her temper.

Our faces drained of color. Crossing Professor McGonagall once was dangerous, twice was suicidal. "I suppose you think you're harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" she shouted. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from Gryffindor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house!"

We didn't need to let her say anything else. We ran out of the hallway and dashed through the corridors. No one was around. Almost everyone was outside enjoying the nice day. But that was also because no one knew what was hidden in the school right now. They didn't know that one of their teachers was evil - genuinely evil, not just a jerk that everyone thought that he was - and they didn't know that Voldemort was lingering right outside of these walls, ready to come back to power. For a moment I was jealous of them. I almost wished that I didn't know what was going on. I wished that I was just thinking about our exam scores.

Harry, Ron, and I went back to the Common Room without speaking to each other. When we got back there was no one there. But they would be back soon. "We have time. We have time to figure this out," I said to them softly.

We took a place by the fireplace and breathed out deeply. "We have no time," Ron moaned.

"No. We do. We know that Snape can't go right this moment. He's going to have to wait until the school is asleep. We have until at least ten. If he's smart and waits, we might have until around midnight. And we have someone watching him," I tried to reason.

We weren't completely hopeless. We had a few things going for us. "But if he already knows..." Ron trailed off.

"He has to. But we just have to hope that we can head him off," I said.

Together the three of us spread out over the chairs. A few students came back but went up to their rooms. No one wanted to speak to us. And that was fine by me right now. Ron and Harry played a game of Exploding Snap but I could tell that they couldn't really focus. I read one of my Muggle books but I ended up having to read the same page over ten times because I couldn't concentrate. Eventually Ron settled on relaying everything that he knew about chess to Harry and I merely thumbed at the pages of my book.

About half an hour passed that we all sat together in despair. "At least Hermione's on Snape's tail," Harry said. It had barely made its way out of his mouth when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Hermione came in. The three of us all dropped what we were doing and stared at her. She looked heartbroken.

Not good. "I'm sorry, Harry!" she wailed. Hermione ran over to me and I grabbed her arms, giving her a hug. I didn't know what had happened but at least she'd tried. "Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I've only just got away, I don't know where Snape went."

The Common Room was plunged into silence for a few moments. "Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said darkly. We stared at him curiously. He was pale and his eyes were glittering. "I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first," he said.

Well who didn't see that one coming? I nodded at him. "You aren't doing it alone," I said, grabbing his hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze and gave me a grateful smile.

"You two are mad!" Ron barked.

"You can't! After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll both be expelled!" Hermione cried.

"So what?" Harry shouted. The three of us jumped at the sudden increase in volume. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the House Cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursley's and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember? Had he gotten a little luckier, he would have killed Tara's too."

I cringed at the thought of my parents being dead and moved forward to step between Harry and the other two. I placed my hand gently on Hermione's shoulder. "You two don't understand what's going to happen if he comes back. Most of the school will be dead. Voldemort believes that Muggle-Born's are unworthy of learning magic. They'll be the first ones that he goes after. Hermione... I can't watch that happen to you. And your parents... He'll wage a war on Muggles. The entire world will fall apart. Not just ours. Theirs too. It won't be about points or detentions or expulsions or anything like that anymore. It's a small price to pay for doing the right thing," I said.

Harry was still glaring at Ron and Hermione. They were silent for a long while. If they said that we should do it they were telling us to risk a lot. But we had to. "You're both right," Hermione finally said in a small voice.

Harry nodded at them and turned to me. "You don't have to come," he said.

Grabbing the book that I had been holding earlier, I whacked him across the arm with it. He looked shocked that I had done that. "Are you daft? And let you have all of the fun?" I teased. Harry opened his mouth to talk but I spoke over him. "Harry, I've got a bone to pick with him too. He ruined my best set of robes," I said.

Despite himself, Harry laughed at me. He grabbed me in a hug before nodding and adopting his serious tone again. "Okay. We'll use the invisibility cloak. It's just lucky I got it back," he said.

I was so upset. He got the cool invisibility cloak and I got the scary note without a signature. "But will it cover all four of us?" Ron asked.

Harry and I exchanged a shocked look. "All - all four of us?" he asked.

Ron scoffed at us. "Oh, come off it, you don't think we'd let you two go alone?"

"Of course not," Hermione said briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? You two are smart, but you need help. I'd better go and look through my books, there might be something useful..."

"But if we get caught, you two will be expelled, too," Harry said.

"Not if I can help it," Hermione said grimly. I was sure that she would rather die than let herself get expelled. She had told us as much the first time that we had seen Fluffy. "Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They're not throwing me out after that," she said impressively.

I raised my eyebrows at her. She was good but I didn't know that she was that good. "You got a hundred and twelve?" I asked.

Hermione nodded at me proudly. "Yes. Only one person scored higher."

Someone had managed to score even higher than a one hundred and twelve? "Who possibly could score higher than that?" Ron asked.

"Tara."

"Me?" I asked.

For once in my life I was shocked that my grade was so high. Harry and Ron both stared at me blankly. "Yes. He liked that little charm that you put on the drawing of him so much in the corner of the parchment that he gave you five extra points. You had a one hundred and fifteen percent," she told me darkly.

I patted her on the back, knowing that she was upset that I had scored higher. We had been waiting for everyone to finish when I'd gotten bored and drawn a little cartoon of Professor Flitwick in the corner on my paper to keep myself busy. Thinking that it might make him smile I'd given it a little charm to make it dance. It was something that Mom had taught me once when I was a kid. She used to do it to my Muggle drawings from class when I was sad. Thank you, Mom.

"Ha!" I laughed loudly at Hermione, who looked as though she might smash my book over my head. "At least in one exam, I beat Hermione Granger," I told her proudly.

"Not really though!" she said.

We spent most of the afternoon trying to see which one of us had scored higher on the other exams. It was good to keep us distracted from what was going to happen for a while. It ended up that we really couldn't tell who had scored higher. We would have to wait. The four of us went down to dinner together but didn't really eat. I had gotten down a few pieces of fruit and a chunk of bread before pushing my plate to the side and leaving. I had a feeling that I would throw up if I ate anything else. I wasn't the only one. Harry, Hermione, and Ron - who normally ate more than humanly possible - barely ate anything.

After dinner the four of us sat nervously apart in the Common Room. We were on the edge and I was picking at my nails. Nobody bothered us; none of the Gryffindor's had anything to say to us any more, after all. This was the first night in weeks that I hadn't been upset by it. I was rather grateful. I might have spilled the beans if someone tried to speak to me. Hermione was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments that we were about to try to break. Harry and Ron didn't talk much. Both of them were thinking about what they were about to do.

For a few hours I went back and forth. A few times I marched around the Common Room, I once tried to get a little bit of sleep, I tried to read, and I even tried to help Hermione read through her notes. Nothing was working. So I settled on just sitting and waiting. The entire time I kept wondering if Snape was already downstairs and moving towards the Stone. Perhaps he had already taken the Stone and we were wasting our time. I wondered if the Stone was just sitting on the floor in the final room or if we would have to do something to get it.

I also thought of the one thing that I hadn't thought of before this. What would happen if we met Snape down there? What would happen if he was waiting for us? Or even worse, what would happen if no one was down there? Would we go through with it and get the Stone or would we leave? If we got the Stone I couldn't imagine what we would tell everyone else. We couldn't even begin explaining everything that had happened that had led us to learning about the Stone nevertheless actually going after it. We wouldn't just get ourselves in trouble, but Hagrid, too. Probably someone else that I was missing.

Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed. Nervously, I kept checking my watch. The longer that we lingered, the more of a chance that Snape had to get a head start on us. We needed to get down there as soon as possible. But we couldn't leave until we were absolutely positive that no one would see us. Fred and George walked off and I wondered what they would think if they knew what we were about to do. They didn't even look in Ron's direction. Would they have if they knew what their brother was going to do? Finally Lee Jordan was the only one left, and he, too, left. He was stretching and yawning and ignoring us.

We waited two full minutes before looking at each other. "Better get the cloak," Ron muttered.

Harry was the first one to move. Hermione, Ron, and I sat together and said nothing. She did grab my hand and I tightened it around her. She was shaking. I laid a hand on her leg to try and calm her down. Harry came back down a few minutes later with the invisibility cloak draped over his shoulder. We all nodded at him as he briefly showed us the wooden flute that Hagrid had apparently given him for Christmas. We all nodded at him. It would be better than singing.

Harry held the cloak out to us. "We'd better put the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all four of us. If Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own -"

"What are you doing?" a voice called out from the corner of the room. The four of us all snapped around to see that it was Neville. He had appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," Harry said, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

Neville stared at our guilty faces and I groaned. He was no idiot. He knew what we were about to go and do. "You're going out again," he said accusingly.

"No, no, no. No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?" Hermione offered.

Like he'd actually go to bed after we said something like that. He was no fool. We might as well have had guilty stamped across our foreheads. And after everything that had happened before that had wound up with us in the Forbidden Forest, I didn't blame him for wanting to stop us. Harry and I looked at the grandfather clock by the door. I groaned. We couldn't afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep. We were already past midnight.

"You can't go out, you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble," Neville said.

"You don't understand, this is important," Harry said.

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate. "I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. I groaned as he raised his fists in something akin to a fighting style. If we really wanted to, one hit to forehead would knock him out. He'd never even see it coming. But I wouldn't hurt him. "I'll - I'll fight you!"

"Neville, get away from that hole and don't be an idiot -" Ron barked.

"Don't you call me an idiot!" Neville yelled. I widened my eyes at him and smiled. It was nice to see him growing a backbone. Although this was really the wrong time for that to be happening. "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!" he said to Ron.

"Yes, but not to us," said Ron in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."

Carefully I moved forward. "You aren't an idiot, Neville, but you need to let us go. Trust me when I say that it's way more important than a few more points," I said.

He took a step forward, towards me, and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight. "I can't let you go. We can't lose any more points. So go on then, try and hit me!" said Neville, raising his fists. "I'm ready!"

Harry turned to Hermione. "Do something," he said desperately.

Hermione stepped forward and gently pushed me out of the way. I nodded at her and moved off to the side. "Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this." She raised her wand and I gasped. What the hell was she thinking? "Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville.

Go Hermione. Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board. I groaned at the fall that probably hurt quite a bit. Hermione ran to turn him over and I helped her. He was definitely heavier than he looked. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror. He was going to remember this. Damn it.

"What've you done to him?" Harry whispered.

"It's the full Body-Bind," Hermione said miserably. "Oh, Neville, I'm so sorry."

"We had to, Neville, no time to explain," Harry said.

"You'll understand later, Neville," Ron said as we stepped over him and pulled on the invisibility cloak.

"Hang on," I said, stepping out from under the cloak for a moment. I leaned over Neville and raised my wand. "Obliviate." His eyes went fuzzy for a moment before they slipped closed. I ducked back under the cloak. "It's a complicated charm. Memory erasing. I'm not very good with it. But it should be able to wipe at least the last few seconds. He won't have the awful memory of Hermione jinxing him. If we're lucky he won't remember even overhearing us getting ready to leave," I told them.

Hermione looked impressed. "Well done," she complimented.

I didn't thank her. Leaving Neville lying motionless on the floor didn't feel like a very good omen. I definitely didn't feel very good about the fact that we'd probably just traumatized him. I'd be shocked if Neville ever spoke to us again. We moved out of the portrait - ignoring the wondering call from the Fat Lady - and moved towards the third floor. In our nervous state, every statue's shadow looked like Filch, and every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them. My heart was hammering in my chest as Hermione grabbed my hand. I could feel the sweat coming off of her. At the foot of the first set of stairs, we spotted Mrs. Norris skulking near the top.

Ron leaned into Harry's ear. "Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Ron whispered, but Harry shook his head.

As funny as that might have been, we had much more important things to go. We had another six years to kick her. "We don't have time for this. Come on," I whispered, dragging a slightly upset Ron with me.

As we climbed carefully around her, Mrs. Norris turned her lamp-like eyes on us, but didn't do anything. For a moment I really thought that she could see us. The thought made me sick to my stomach. Our trip was met mostly in silence. No one spoke, we couldn't hear anyone breathing, and no one else seemed to be patrolling the corridors. My heart was still thumping loudly in my chest. I had a feeling that it was echoing throughout the entire castle.

At every turn I was so convinced that someone would jump out and see us, even with the invisibility cloak. It didn't help that Hermione was quivering behind me and each little rattle of the suits of armor were making her gasp. She was going to give me a heart attack before we even got to the third floor. We didn't meet anyone else until we reached the staircase up to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip. I rolled my eyes at the stupid poltergeist.

Peeves always did seem to have a sixth sense. He stopped moving and glanced up. "Who's there?" he asked suddenly as we climbed toward him. The four of us stopped moving immediately. Peeves narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?" He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at us. "Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."

Harry leaned as closely as he could so that there was no way that Peeves could hear him. "You don't happen to have gum on you?" he asked, so low that I could barely hear him.

Why did I not think of that? I shook my head at him. "Not this time," I whispered.

Harry nodded at me and motioned for the three of us to be quiet. "Peeves," Harry said, in a hoarse whisper. Peeves straightened up as my spine curled. He damn well better know what the hell he was doing. If not we were dead before this even started. "The Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible," he continued.

Now I smiled. Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs. Ron and Hermione were smiling too. "So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, Sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake - I didn't see you - of course I didn't, you're invisible - forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."

"I have business here, Peeves. Stay away from this place tonight," Harry croaked.

"I will, sir, I most certainly will," Peeves said, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you." And he scooted off without another word. We all waited in silence for a few minutes, not moving and barely breathing.

Finally we were sure that no one was coming back. "Brilliant, Harry!" Ron whispered.

"Nice one," I whispered, smacking him gently on the back.

We continued to move in silence. Hermione's hands were on my back and I gave her a reassuring nod as we walked. The walk shouldn't have taken more than two minutes, but with everything that happened and how slow we had to move, we took a little over ten. A few seconds later, they we were. We were right outside the third-floor corridor - and the door was already ajar. Snape had already gotten here. We were too late. But he might not have the Stone yet. We had to keep moving. We had come this far. Leaving wouldn't do anything.

"Well, there you are. Snape's already got past Fluffy," Harry whispered.

Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon us all of what was facing us. We weren't just doing an exam or facing a mountain troll. We didn't know what we were facing. And the chances were that we were facing something extremely dangerous. Snape didn't have to be a teacher now. He didn't have to settle with backhanded insults. No, right here he could show us how genuinely dangerous he was. Underneath the cloak, Harry turned to us.

"If you want to go back, I won't blame you," he said. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."

I gave him a gentle shove. We had come this far. There was no way that we were turning back now. "And let you have all of the fun?" I asked with a teasing grin, despite how nervous I was.

"Don't be stupid," Ron said.

"We're coming," Hermione said.

The four of us exchanged one last look with each other and we all nodded. Once we did this there was no turning back. I reached out for Harry's hand, gave it a tight squeeze, and nodded for him to do it before I could convince myself otherwise. Harry pushed the door open.


	17. Through The Trapdoor

For a moment I was expecting Fluffy to jump out and rip off our heads. One of us might be able to run. After all, Fluffy had three heads and there were four of us. But I shook off that thought as the door slowly creaked open. There was a low, rumbling growl that immediately met my ears. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in our direction, even though it couldn't see us. We stepped in and closed the door behind us. The room was plunged back into darkness as Fluffy began to stand and search us out.

Desperately I began to hum, too afraid to actually sing. Fluffy's eyes began to droop closed and he slowly slipped back to the ground. It shook the entire ground. He wasn't quite asleep, he was still trying to move towards my voice, and I knew that I wasn't being loud enough. But I couldn't force my voice to go any louder without the fear that Filtch would walk by and hear us, effectively ruining our plan. There was a harp that was laying a little ways away from us. Snape must have managed to get that up here when Fluffy had nearly torn his head off. Maybe it had been waiting here since. Humming softly, I stopped just long enough to nudge Harry to get out the wooden flute.

"Do it. Do it now," I muttered.

Harry began to frantically search through his pockets but the cloak was getting in his way. I rolled my eyes and snatched the edges of the cloak, keeping it away from him. "What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.

"Looks like a harp. Snape must have left it there," Ron said.

Fluffy was beginning to wake up again and I watched as he slowly got back to his feet, searching out the people that were making all of the noise. "Play, damn it, it's about to realize that we're here," I hissed at Harry.

"It must wake up the moment you stop playing. Well, here goes," Harry said.

He put Hagrid's flute to his lips and blew. Immediately I cringed, fearing that Fluffy would hate the sound that it gave. It wasn't really a tune but more of a high-pitched shriek. Thankfully it didn't really seem to matter. The only thing that mattered was that some type of music came out. From the first note Fluffy's eyes began to droop. Harry took the flute away from his mouth for a moment to draw a breath. Fluffy's eyes sprung open and I stomped down on Harry's foot. He immediately started to blow again. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased - it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep. The ground was shaking slightly as it laid down.

"Keep playing," Ron warned Harry.

We all slowly slipped out of the cloak and crept toward the trapdoor. Harry continued to play the flute as I walked past Fluffy. I could feel the dog's hot, smelly breath on my as we approached the giant heads. For whatever stupid reason I glanced down and saw the fangs of the creature. It briefly opened its mouth and blew out a puff of air. The fangs were dripping saliva and I gulped. I knew what that meant. It was hungry. And four perfectly good meals were right next to it.

Ron's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "I think we'll be able to pull the door open," Ron said, peering over the dog's back. "Want to go first, Hermione?" he offered.

"No, I don't!" she howled.

I cringed, half-expecting Fluffy to wake up and eat us. I knew how loud we were being but it seemed like as long as Harry kept playing, Fluffy would continue sleeping. The moment that I was sure that Fluffy wasn't going to get up and kill me I turned a nasty glare on Ron. This was the wrong time for the two of them to be going at it with each other.

"Honestly?" I snapped at him.

Ron shrugged at me with a little smile. I wanted to whack him over the head with the harp. "Come on, haven't you ever heard of ladies first?" he asked me.

Rolling my eyes at him, I shoved him towards Fluffy. "Exactly why you should be going first," I mumbled.

Hermione whipped around to the two of us. "Is now the right time for this?" she asked.

"All right," Ron said.

The four of us all walked as close to Fluffy as we could. The trapdoor was on the other side of the dog. We would have to walk over him. Ron gritted his teeth and went first. He stepped carefully over the dog's legs and motioned for us to stay where we were. I grabbed onto Hermione nervously as we watched Ron inspect the trapdoor. Harry continued to play the flute. I noticed that his blows had gotten a little higher pitched and faster. He was nervous. Ron bent and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open. I let out a little breath. At least Snape hadn't locked the trapdoor behind him.

"What can you see?" Hermione asked anxiously.

Ron still peered around. "Nothing - just black - there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."

Drop? We had no clue of how far down it was or if there was a soft landing. The fall could kill us if we weren't careful. "Do you smell anything? Or hear anything?" I asked him.

"No. Nothing. I can't see anything either. Something seems a little shiny but I can't tell. It doesn't make any sense," he called back to me.

"Someone had to get down here to put the Stone here and they'll have to come back down to get it out. Whatever it is, it's not going to kill us," I said, not completely confident in my deduction. There could very well be something down there that would kill us. But we'd come this far. We were not going to turn back. "Either go or I will," I finally said.

Ron nodded for me to come over and I did. I stepped over Fluffy's leg, cringing when he made a little growl and moved slightly. Ron grabbed onto my arm and yanked me over to him. We stumbled together, barely catching ourselves before we went tumbling down into the trapdoor. I leaned over it when I realized that Harry, who was still playing the flute, was waving at Ron and I to get our attention. We glanced back and nodded. He was pointing at himself.

Why hadn't I seen that one coming? "You want to go first?" Ron asked. Harry nodded at us. "Are you sure?" Harry nodded again. "I don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep," Ron said.

Harry handed the flute over. I gasped as Fluffy began to move again. In the few seconds' silence, the dog growled and twitched, but the moment Hermione began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep. Some part of me felt bad for leaving her over there, but she didn't seem that bothered. I could see her shaking slightly though. Harry climbed over Fluffy and grabbed onto me to steady himself. He moved past me and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bottom as I glanced with him. He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips.

A sudden panic settled into my chest. "Hang on," I said. Harry nodded at me as I took out my wand. "Lumos," I whispered softly.

The tip of my wand lit and Harry looked away as I leaned as far into the trapdoor opening as I could. Ron was hanging onto me tightly as I looked everywhere that I could. Unfortunately I couldn't see anything. There was no bottom, no walls, no door, and nothing that I could see that would break the fall. Maybe there was a charm to stop us from falling. I couldn't even see the bottom. I let out a high-pitched whistle to see if I could startle anything that on the bottom. Once more, nothing happened. There was no movement and no sound. Maybe there was a chance that the Stone wasn't down there. Maybe it was a trap.

Glancing over at Harry, I whispered the spell to put out the light on my wand and tucked it back into my pocket. "Maybe you shouldn't," I told Harry nervously, twisting my hair around my fingers.

I knew that if Harry hadn't been holding on for dear life he would have grabbed my hand. "We can't just leave. I'll be fine," he told me. I nodded at him and stepped back. He nodded at me and looked up at Ron. "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the Owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?" he instructed.

Ron swallowed a lump in his throat. "Right," he said.

"Harry -" I quipped before he could fall.

He spoke over me. "It'll be alright, okay?" he asked me. I nodded weakly. When I wanted adventure from Hogwarts, this was not what I meant. "You're going to come down after me and we'll figure this all out. Right?" he asked.

"Right."

"Good. See you in a minute, I hope..." he trailed off.

He hung for a moment before letting go. I heard him gasp and then I heard nothing at all. I cringed as I waited for him to call up to us and tell us that he was alright. I couldn't imagine the look on Mom and Dad's face if I came back to King's Cross without Harry. They'd kill me. He was like their son. He had been silent for far too long. Was the fall really that long or was he dead? No. He's not dead. He's just recovering from the impact and taking in a few breaths before speaking.

Nervously I turned to Ron. He was grabbing my hand reassuringly. I wasn't sure how long he'd been holding my hand but I appreciated it. "He really didn't have to say that," I told him.

"He'll be fine," Ron said. I could hear the doubt in his voice.

Thankfully, Harry called up to us a moment later. "It's okay!" he called up to us. He sounded extremely far away and I jumped as I leaned over the opening. I couldn't see him down there but he was alive. It must have been a long fall, he sounded a long way away. "It's a soft landing, you can jump!" he yelled up.

Ron turned to me. "You wanna go?" he asked me.

Taking in a deep breath, I nodded at him. "Yeah. You two be careful," I warned them. He nodded at me and I glanced over at Hermione, who was still playing the flute. "Hermione, when you stop playing, jump. Don't hesitate. It won't take Fluffy long to get his bearings," I told her. She nodded at me.

Moving over towards the trapdoor and sitting over it so that my legs were swinging over the opening, I motioned Hermione forward. Her tunes were wavering as she stood and climbed awkwardly over Fluffy. Ron grabbed onto her and pulled her with him. I nodded at the two of them before staring down the opening. Don't think, just jump. And so I took a deep breath and pushed off. I didn't scream but I did suck in a deep breath. Cold, damp air rushed past me as I continued falling. It felt like it would never end. But finally it did.

What felt like five minutes after I'd pushed off, I saw it. Something like black cords. I gasped as I smacked into the black cords. The muffled thump echoed as I rolled onto my back and sucked in a few breaths. Just as I'd expecting, even with the soft landing, it knocked the wind out of you. As my breath came back to me, Harry scooted over and grabbed me, making sure that I was alright. It was so dark in here that I could barely see anything. I could see Harry since he was so close. I glanced up at the opening and realized that it looked as small as a postage stamp from down here.

Feeling around underneath me, I realized that we were sitting on some type of plant. This must have been Professor Sprout's obstacle. But what were we supposed to do? "You alright?" Harry asked me.

I nodded at him and continued to try and find a way out of this place. "Yeah. I've made it through all of those crazy roller coaster rides that you made me go on, I can manage a little drop onto something soft," I teased. When we'd went to the amusement park near London, Harry had forced me to go on all of the rides. I loved them, but I'd lost my voice from screaming.

"At least the roller coasters don't try to kill you," he commented.

"Fair point," I muttered as I began to poke at the plant that we were sitting on. Were we supposed to drop through it somehow? Or was there a door somewhere that I couldn't see? "What the hell is this? It feels like rope," I said, grabbing onto it tightly.

Ron followed the moment that I had rolled out of the way. It was a good thing too. He would have squashed me. He landed, sprawled next to Harry. "What's this stuff?" he asked the moment that he realized what we were sitting on.

"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall," Harry said.

I shook my head at him. "Professor Sprout. This is her obstacle," I said.

"You think that it's an obstacle?" Harry asked me.

I nodded at him. Nothing was going to be here just to help. "Yeah. I don't think that anything is here just to make it easier on us. I think that the point of this is to try and find our way out of it," I told them, still searching for a way out.

Harry nodded at me before glancing up to the trapdoor. "Come on, Hermione!" Harry shouted.

We shushed each other so we could wait for her. The distant music stopped and I gulped as we waited to see her. There was a loud bark from Fluffy and I cringed, thinking that he might have gotten to her, but it didn't matter. Hermione had already jumped. She let out a soft scream as she fell through the air. She wasn't falling long before she hit the ground. Just like myself, she'd gotten the air knocked out of her. She landed on Harry's other side. The three of them were lined up while I faced them from the other side.

Even from here I could hear Fluffy growling about us. Hermione dug in her pocket and handed Harry back the wooden flute. "We must be miles under the school," she said after a beat.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," Ron said.

"I don't think this is lucky," I said, getting a bad feeling from the ominous-looking plant.

"Lucky! Look at you three!" Hermione shouted.

Just as she said, we were anything but lucky right now. She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. The plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. It didn't take long to tighten and drag her to the ground. She fell and screamed out, trying to get it away from her. But it wasn't working. The tendrils began to tighten to the point that her skin was beginning to turn purple. As for Harry and Ron, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without any of us even noticing.

Two were wrapped around my ankles and one was currently wrapped around my waist. I panicked and jumped so that I could run but it only began to tighten around me. There was no way that I was moving. Thankfully Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she watched in horror as the other three of us fought to pull the plant off of ourselves, but the more that we strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around us.

To my absolute horror, one of the plant tendrils wound up over my torso and wrapped itself over my neck. I calmed down and stopped moving, knowing that it was the only way that it would release me. But it didn't. Even as I stopped panicking it wound itself around my throat and tightened to the point that I couldn't breathe. Harry, Ron, and Hermione started shouting my name. I tried to stay calm and not move, but it wasn't working. The plant released me everywhere except for my throat. I tried to wrench it away from me, tear the vines, anything, but it didn't work. And it clearly didn't like that I was fighting back against it.

The plant lifted me up effortlessly and dangled me by my throat. My vision was spotting as Hermione tried to rush over to me. But the moment that she moved towards me, the plant tried to wrap itself around her. I motioned her back away from me. If I was going to die in here, I didn't want to take her with me. I tried reaching for my wand and I just barely wrapped a hand around it as I tried to raise it up to the plant. But I didn't know what to do with it.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered us. I glared at her. Staying still wasn't doing anything for me. "I know what this is - it's Devil's Snare!" she called out.

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," Ron snarled at her. I looked back and saw that he was leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck. At least he was managing to avoid it.

But he was wrong. Knowing the name did help me. "Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" Hermione shouted in horror.

Even as I stopped moving the Devil's Snare continued to wrap around my throat, tightening it to the point that I thought that my head would pop free of my shoulders. "Li-i-gh-t-t," I tried to gasp to Hermione.

She glanced over at me and nodded, trying to figure out what I meant by light. I tried to speak again but I couldn't. I could feel it crushing my windpipe. "Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest. I snarled at him, knowing that if anyone was having a problem breathing, it was me. Harry seemed to finally realize that I was clearly having the worst time with the plant. His eyes went wide in horror. "Tara!" he screamed. "Do something, Hermione! It's going to kill her!"

"You're not helping," Hermione said desperately. "Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare... what did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp," she said. "Light, Tara, what light?" she asked me.

I coughed and tried to force out the spell, but I couldn't. She looked like she was about to cry. "So light a fire!" Harry choked.

No, no you idiots. "Yes - of course - but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

"Have you gone mad? Are you a witch or not?" Ron bellowed.

"Oh, right!" Hermione yelled.

Not wanting to wait for her to figure it out herself, I raised my wand and choked out the spell, praying that it would work. "Lu-u-u-mo-s-s," I gasped.

Thankfully the light exploded from my wand. I assumed that it was because it was one of the spells that I could manage even before coming to Hogwarts. The light blinded me and I cringed as the Devil's Snare tightened for a moment before retreating from me. The plant uncoiled itself from around me and I sucked in a huge breath as it released me and I went falling back to the ground. The plant was retreating back into the ground as the light went out from my wand and I released it, gasping on my hands and knees.

As I recovered from my previous encounter with the Devil's Snare I saw that Hermione was trying to free the boys. She whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered something, and sent a jet of the same bluebell flames she had used on Snape during our first Quidditch match. In a matter of seconds, the Devil's Snare loosened its grip around them and cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free.

They both jumped to their feet and Harry bounded over to me. He was grabbing me and pulling me to my feet. I stumbled as Ron and Hermione held me up. "Tara, Tara, are you alright?" Harry asked me.

I nodded weakly at him, pressing the two of them away from me. I would be fine, I just had to gather my breath. "I'm gonna kill Professor Sprout for that," I snarled mostly to myself. Ron nodded his agreement at me. "I had damn well better get a one hundred and twenty on her exam," I said, shaking off the feeling of the bruises forming around my throat.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," Harry said as we all walked to join her by the wall. I wiped the sweat away that was forming at my hairline.

"Excuse you!" I barked at him. He backed away from me with wide eyes. "Who said light?"

Hermione stepped in to save me from murdering Harry. "Tara's right, I knew what it was but she remembered. We make a good team," she told me, wrapping an arm around me.

I growled at her darkly. "Yeah. You tell me that again when a Devil's Snare has its... tentacles," I said awkwardly, not really knowing what to say about the plant, "wrapped around your throat." I turned back to Harry with a little glare. "Harry, if we make it out of this alive, I'm going to kill you myself," I told him, shoving past him.

He laughed at me and patted me on the back as Ron came to stand next to me. "Yeah, I'm with you there, Tara," Ron said before looking back over at Harry. "And lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis - 'there's no wood,' honestly," he scoffed at Hermione.

"This way," Harry said, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

For a brief moment I wondered if there was any way that we could get out of here other than going forward. We had come far enough that I wouldn't dare turn back but... What if something happened? What if we got trapped down here? Or even worse, and something that I had been thinking about since diner, what would happen to us if we got stuck on one of the obstacles? We had very nearly been killed by the Devil's Snare. We had known coming down here that something could kill us. Snape had clearly managed to make it through unharmed, but he was a fully-taught wizard, we were kids. There was a good chance that we would get killed.

We had known that coming into this, though. Nothing that was happening to us should have come as a shock. And, to be fair, things could have been much worse. We'd managed pretty well so far. Fluffy hadn't really been a problem. We'd come with the flute, and with the invisibility cloak it hadn't been a problem. The Devil's Snare was awful, but we'd managed to get out of there alright. Between Hermione and myself, we'd gotten out mostly unscathed. The bruises would fade but I'd have nightmares about that forever.

Of course we'd only made it through two of the obstacles so far. We still had a lot more to go through. As we walked I figured that we were going even deeper below the castle. The pathway that we were walking on was something of a slope. We went through the halls in silence. No one wanted to jinx the relative peace. The only thing that I could hear apart from our footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. For a minute I wondered if we weren't even underneath the castle anymore. This looked more like Gringott's than anything that I'd seen in Hogwarts. What were we coming up on? Probably nothing good. I'd already had the life choked out of me. And it would probably only get worse. To think that I'd always thought that Professor Sprout was nice and sweet...

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered. We stopped moving to listen. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead. Probably something that would try to kill us.

"Do you think it's a ghost?" Harry asked.

"No," I said quickly.

I couldn't even imagine which one of the professors would do something with ghosts. Maybe Dumbledore, but his would be at the very end. I already knew that much. "I don't know... sounds like wings to me," Ron said.

"There's light ahead - I can see something moving," Harry whispered.

They were walking in the front of the hallway together and Hermione and I were together in the back. I glanced past them and saw a little glinting light shooting back and forth. "I can see a lot of somethings moving. What the hell is that?" I asked.

No one answered, not that I had been expecting them to. We really couldn't see anything. But finally we reached the end of the passageway and walked into an open room. The four of us stepped in and stood side-by-side. Before us was a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above us. Maybe we were still in Hogwarts. It was starting to look like the classrooms again. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

We were just supposed to walk across? That seemed a little stupid. Obviously someone would be able to get past that. "Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Ron asked.

No. If they were going to attack they would have done it already. They'd already spotted us. "Probably. They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once... well, there's no other choice... I'll run," Harry offered.

He was suicidal. He really was. But this was not dangerous. This was a trick. I grabbed him before he could move. "No, no! Look," I said, pointing upwards at them. "This is Professor Flitwick's trap. They're Charmed," I whispered.

I wasn't sure how I knew, but I knew that this wasn't anyone else's trap. We had already been through Hagrid's and Professor Sprout's. It wasn't Dumbledore's trap. I had a feeling that his would be a battle of wits and it would be the last thing that we went through. Professor Quirrell would be something to do with Defense. And he almost always taught us about larger creatures. He seemed rather fond of trolls. Whatever he would put here would be much more menacing. Professor McGonagall wouldn't do something dangerous, she would do something that involved reasoning. That wasn't this. Snape's would be something to do with Potions, something complicated if I knew him. That only left Professor Flitwick.

He didn't seem like a dangerous man, but then again, neither had Professor Sprout. No matter what we came across, we would have to be careful. "For what?" Hermione asked me, distracting me from my thoughts.

"I don't know," I told her honestly.

The four of us were silent for a while. We were all debating how to go about this. "Do you think they're vicious?" Harry finally asked me.

I shrugged at him. "Wouldn't hurt to be safe," I said.

We didn't have time to stand around and wait. Snape could very well already be at the last obstacle. And if he was, the Stone would be within his grasp at this very moment. So Harry nodded at us and took a deep breath. Hermione and I drew our wands, ready to perform a charm - although I wouldn't have known what to do - if the birds attacked him. Harry covered his face with his arms and sprinted across the room. I was slightly afraid that they would actually attack him, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled on the handle, but it was clearly locked. With a nod, Hermione, Ron, and I followed him. The three of us took turns tugging and heaving at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried the Alohomora charm.

"Now what?" Ron asked.

I remembered every charm that I'd been taught. Mom and Dad had told me plenty and I'd seen plenty. Maybe I wouldn't be able to perform them, but it was better than just standing here. "Move. Let me try. Aberto." Nothing. "Aparecium." Nothing. "Deletrius." Nothing. "Deprimo." Nothing. "Evanesco." Nothing. Sorry, guys," I muttered.

"You tried, that's all that matters. I think those charms are too complicated for a First Year," Hermione said. I nodded at her. Even she couldn't do them. "And this door is charmed. We're not getting through it with a spell." She turned her gaze towards the ceiling. "These birds... they can't be here just for decoration."

She was right about that. The three of us all watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering - glittering? Well that doesn't make sense. "They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly. "Tara's right. They're charmed. They're keys! Winged keys - look carefully." I glanced up and nodded at him. They were old fashioned keys with wings on them that looked like birds from a distance. "So that must mean -" He looked around the chamber and so did I. We spotted it at the same time. "Yes - look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

There was no way that we could catch and try all of them. There were too many. We'd be here for weeks. "But there are hundreds of them!" Ron exclaimed. He turned and examined the lock on the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one - probably silver, like the handle."

I shook my head at him. "That's what most of them are. This will take forever," I said.

Harry shook his head and walked over towards the broomsticks. "We can't just stand here. We have to do something," he said.

We all nodded at each other and walked over to seize a broomstick. We easily kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. Harry and I were the fastest, Ron trailing not far behind, and Hermione flying lower and slower than the rest of us. We tried to grab and snatch at the keys, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one. We spent a few minutes simply searching, desperate to try and catch at least one of them.

The only good thing that we had going for us was that Harry was the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. We would find the key eventually. Besides that, I'd always been good at finding the little hints and clues in things. And as we flew back and forth, I realized something. Snape would have probably already known which key it was. That meant that all he'd had to do was spot it. If he wasn't here, he'd already gotten through. And if he'd already gotten through, he would have already grabbed the key. And Snape wasn't exactly a gentle soul.

Suddenly I knew exactly which key we were looking for. "Snape has already been down here," I called out to the other three, who stopped their hunt to look at me. "Look for one that's desperately trying to avoid us. It might have some damage after being put through the keyhole. It'll be slower than the others," I told them.

Nods were exchanged between the other three. I knew that we would be able to find it with Harry in our midst. I glanced back and forth and sighed. Even on the outskirts of the room, none of the keys looked damaged. But I knew that one of them was. It had to be. After a few minutes of weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers and keys, I spotted Harry slow down. I followed his line of sight and spotted it. On the other side of the chamber was a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole. There were no other ones like it. That had to be it.

Harry exchanged a look with me and I nodded. "That one!" he called to the others. "That big one - there - no, there," he corrected when Ron and Hermione continued to look in the wrong places, "with bright blue wings - the feathers are all crumpled on one side. You were right," Harry said, not looking away from the key but speaking to me.

We needed to move now, before the key realized that we had spotted it and sped off. Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing and I followed. He clearly didn't see the key, though. He was only trying to take a guess. I called out for him to stop but he couldn't. These brooms were even worse than the school ones. For a moment I wished that I would have brought the Nimbus Two Thousand with us. Ron crashed into the ceiling and nearly fell off his broom as he floated awkwardly back down towards the floor.

"We've got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. "Ron, you come at it from above - Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down - Tara, try and cut it off, and I'll try and catch it," he said. We all nodded and took our places. "Right, now!" Harry shouted.

Some of the keys were startled by the sudden noise and flitted off. The key that we were looking for started and turned towards us. It didn't take it more than a second to realize that we had all finally spotted it and now were going after it. It turned to fly off but it was too late. Ron took a quick dive, and I was almost impressed by how fast he was. Hermione rocketed upward and I saw her waver slightly. The key dodged them both, I headed straight in front of it, cutting it off. The key shrieked to a stop before turning back. Harry streaked after it; the key was trapped.

Still, it was desperate to get away from us. It sped toward the wall, myself and Ron blocking it from turning towards the side. Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Ron, Hermione, and I cheered for the impressive catch. The cheers echoed around the high chamber. Together we all landed and dropped the brooms carelessly. Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned - it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.

"Sorry," I muttered to it.

Ron scoffed at me. "It doesn't have feelings," he said.

I turned over to him and scowled. It was still a real creature with real feelings. "How would you feel if we grabbed you and stuffed you into a lock?" I snapped at him.

"Are you two kidding? Be quiet!" Hermione hissed at us.

Growling at her, I moved forward to stand next to Harry. I leaned into him, keeping my voice low. "Well so far this hasn't been too bad. Honestly I thought that it would be much worse," I said.

He turned a nervous face to me. "Don't say that. Ready?" Harry asked us, his hand on the door handle.

We nodded, unable to say anything. I didn't want to speak and ruin the happy feeling that we'd had for the catch. Unfortunately, it was already fading. We still had three four more obstacles to pass before we could get the Stone. Harry pulled the door open. The next chamber was so dark we couldn't see anything at all. I was half expecting something to jump out and attack us. Hermione grabbed my hand and I gave hers a reassuring squeeze before tugging her forward. As we stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

Definitely not what I was expecting. We were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than even Ron was and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing us, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. We all shivered slightly at the sight - the towering white chessmen had no faces. They simply stood like they were waiting for us to do something. They were a little dirty and looked very old. My heart hammered in my chest. I didn't like the look of this. Mostly because I couldn't really figure out exactly what we were supposed to do right now. And if we had to play... At least we had Ron.

"Professor McGonagall's. They're Transfigured," I said softly.

Hermione nodded at me. "Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

I went to take a step forward but Harry held me back. The chess pieces were even more ominous than Fluffy. "Do we tell them how to play? The black pieces against the white," I said softly.

"Maybe two of us have to be on the black side and two of us have to be on the white side," Hermione suggested.

I shook my head at her. "That means half of us lose though. We need all four of us to go through," I said desperately. If we stood any chance against Snape, we had to have all of us. "I don't think that we're supposed to tell them how to play. Chess is sort of dignified. Maybe we can just cross?" I asked.

No one said anything so I decided that I would at least make an attempt. Harry grabbed my arm once more to get me to stop but I shrugged him off. He couldn't always watch out for me, and we had to figure out how to get across the board. So I walked forward slowly and to the edge of the board. My foot had just barely grazed a black marble tile when the queen whipped back around to me. The sword that she was holding was thrust out towards me and I hit the floor, scrambling backwards as the blade very nearly took my head off. Harry and Ron ran over to pull me backwards as the queen continued to glare at me. Or, what I imagined was a glare.

"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry," I whispered to it. The queen nodded and turned back, holding the sword out in front of her once more. We walked back over to Hermione, who pulled me into her. "So, we definitely can't just cross," I mumbled.

Harry grabbed onto my shoulders. "You alright?" he asked me.

I nodded weakly at him. "Startled, but fine," I said.

Once they were sure that I was alright, we turned back to the board. "It's obvious, isn't it?" Ron asked. Clearly not that obvious. "We've got to play our way across the room."

Behind the white pieces was another door that would take us to the next room. "How?" Hermione asked nervously. "We already figured out that we don't just order them around."

"I think we're going to have to be chessmen," Ron said slowly.

"But all of the spots are taken," I argued.

"Come on," Harry said, dragging us forward.

We walked up to a black knight and I cringed as Ron put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and I stepped back as the marble floor began to shake slightly. Hermione and I stood back as Ron and Harry stood close to the knight. I wasn't exactly fond of standing this close to the queen who had just almost taken my head off. The knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron. For the first time since entering the room, Ron looked nervous.

"Do we - er - have to join you to get across?" The black knight nodded. Ron turned to us. "This needs thinking about. I suppose we've got to take the place of four of the black pieces." Harry, Hermione, and I stayed quiet, watching Ron think. This one was all his. Hermione and I were miserable at chess and Harry was only starting to learn. Our only hope of getting across was Ron. Finally he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but none of you are that good at chess -"

"We're not offended," Harry said quickly. "Just tell us what to do."

Ron glanced at both Hermione and I, probably thinking that we were going to argue that we were good at it too. We both shook our heads. "This is yours, Ron. Get us across the board, and please don't kill us," I said.

"Thanks for that," Ron said nervously. "Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you go next to him instead of that castle. Tara, you take over the rook at the end," he said.

We all nodded. "What about you?" Harry asked

"I'm going to be a knight," Ron said.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because as soon as Ron finished speaking a knight, a bishop, a rook, and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board. The horse from the knight stayed behind and I figured that Ron would have to climb onto it. The board now had the four empty squares that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I took. Harry, Hermione, and I walked onto our squares as Ron used a small step to get up onto the horse's back.

"White always plays first in chess," Ron said, peering across the board. "Yes, look..."

We all glanced off to see that a white pawn had moved forward two squares. The chess board had never seemed so small before. The door seemed so far away, but the other pieces seemed so close to us. It didn't help that each time something moved I found myself getting nervous all over again. Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. My knees were trembling as we watched the game play out. What was going to happen if we lost?

I leaned over to Harry, keeping my voice low so not to disturb the game that was still going on around us. "What do you think happens if we lose?" I asked him softly.

He shook his head at me. "We won't lose," he said.

"Harry - move diagonally four squares to the right," Ron called out.

He made the move and I was effectively silenced as I stayed in my place in the corner. It took well over ten minutes of play before Ron finally moved me out of my place. Pawns were being kicked off of the board left and right. But I knew that they were some of the first ones to go. I learned that rooks didn't have a limit of how many spaces that they could move, so Ron was very careful with my movements. He had me going horizontally and vertically forever, it seemed.

About halfway through the game, Ron had me do a move called castling with the king - something that made me very nervous. It apparently got the king out of the center of the board into safety and me into the center of the board where I could be more active. Ron did eventually move me back into safety to use the actual stone rook when he realized just how nervous I was. It was also because we couldn't risk me being taken since we didn't know what would happen or if I would be able to continue on.

Our first real shock came when our other knight was taken. It was the first time that a piece hadn't simply walked off of the board. The white queen smashed him to the floor with her sword and dragged him off the board before returning. Hermione had screamed, Harry and I had gasped, and for a moment I had been sure that Ron would pass out. The knight now lay quite still, facedown. Could chess pieces die? We managed to piece together that the pawns simply walked off of the board, but everything else would be destroyed. It meant that we couldn't let any of the four of us be taken. Ron turned pale when he realized just how important his role had become.

"Had to let that happen," Ron muttered, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."

She moved forward and did exactly as Ron said. Since it was just Hermione taking it, the bishop merely moved off. "Are they gonna do that to us if one of us has to get taken?" I asked Ron softly.

Ron gulped and shook his head at me. "I don't think you want to know the answer to that," he said.

Every time that one of our men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. They destroyed the pieces and smashed them against the board. It didn't take long for Ron, Harry, Hermione, and I to be covered in dust from the scattered pieces. I had a few cuts on my arms and legs from where flying pieces of stone had cut me. It didn't take long for there to be a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Every time that our players took one of the white pieces they were no more merciful. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry and Hermione were in danger. He'd been pretty good with keeping me out of danger. Although I was right in the middle of the board, somewhere that I didn't want to be. He darted around the board with me, taking almost as many white pieces as we had lost black ones.

I swore to myself that if we got out of this I would learn how to play chess. "We're nearly there," Ron muttered suddenly. We looked over to him to see what the next move would be. Ron was two over from me. "Let me think let me think." The white queen turned her blank face toward him. "Yes. It's the only way... I've got to be taken."

"No!" Harry, Hermione, and I shouted.

There was no way that we were going to let something like that happen to him. There was no way that he was going to die for this. Not before we got to Snape. "Ron, there has to be another way. There has to be another move," I begged him. "Keep looking. You'll find something."

Ron glanced around the board once more but upon another inspection, he still didn't find anything. "There's no other moves to make. If I save myself we might end up losing the game in the end. This is the only way," he said.

"We are not going to let you do this. You've seen what happens when they take a piece. You'll be killed!" I shouted. The white pieces seemed to be watching us in amusement. "What if we run? If we're fast enough we can make the door," I offered.

There was a chance that we could make it. We weren't that far. And I wasn't sure how fast the other pieces were. Harry and Hermione were about to say yes when Ron spoke over us. "And what if we're killed trying?" Ron asked. I groaned, knowing that he was right. It was the only way. "This is honest. It will work. You three can go on and stop Snape."

"We're not going to risk your life to do it!" I barked.

"That's chess!" Ron snapped at me. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me - that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"

"But -"

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?" Ron snapped at Harry.

"Ron -"

Ron shook his head at us. "Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" he shouted. We exchanged a glance with each other and nodded. There was no alternative option.

Before Ron could make the move, I spoke. "We'll come back for you when it's over."

Ron nodded at me. I could see beads of sweat nodding on his forehead. He was nervous. And I didn't blame him in the slightest. "I know. Just keep moving and get the Stone. Ready?" Ron called, his face pale but determined. "Here I go - now, don't hang around once you've won."

Taking one last deep breath, he stepped forward. He was right in front of me when it happened. The white queen didn't wait before she pounced. She drew her sword and stabbed the stone horse that Ron was riding on. He barely got a chance to scream as the horse exploded and he was thrown off. He crashed to the floor with a hard thump, a few chunks of stone hitting him over the head. I leaned over and shielded myself from all of the stone bits as they cut into me. Hermione and I both screamed but managed to stay on our squares.

Ron was still on the marble floor. Harry was pale as could be as we all watched him. He wasn't moving and I couldn't quite tell if he was breathing or not. Looking very victorious, the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out. Even from here I could tell that Harry was shaking. Still, he moved three spaces to the left. The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. It cracked and I let out a deep breath. We had won. I could only pray that we hadn't lost Ron in the meantime. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. Harry and Hermione went to move but I stayed still.

"We should -" I said as I walked off to the side, towards him.

"No!" Harry yelled, stopping me dead in my tracks. "Don't. They won't let us pass to get him. He'll be fine. We'll come get him and bring him to the hospital wing when this is all over."

My feet were still frozen on the stone that I was standing on. The white queen looked over at me and I knew the warning in her stance. Leave before we change our minds. So I did, slowly walking over towards where Harry and Hermione were waiting for me. Before leaving the room we glanced back at Ron. He was still lying motionless on the stone floor. I could only pray that he was just knocked out. With a guilty look between the three of us, we charged through the door and up the next passageway.

The three of us were shaking as we walked. "What if he's -?" Hermione started.

"He'll be all right," Harry said. It was easy to see that he was trying to convince himself. "What do you reckon's next?"

Hermione and I glanced at each other. "We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Like Tara said, Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's," she said.

"Quirrell's will be a fight - something to do with Defense, and knowing Snape, he'll have made it as hard as humanly possible," I commented.

We walked up through the passage without saying anything else. Normally I loved talking to them. It made me feel better. Hermione was good for talking you through something, Harry was always good to vent to, and Ron was always good for a laugh. Ron... Who might be dead in the previous chamber. What had we done? I shook my head free of those thoughts. He was fine. He would be fine. He'd have a bad headache but he'd be fine. We finally reached another door.

"All right?" Harry whispered to us.

I nodded. "Go on," Hermione said.

We stood together in silence for a few moments. We gathered our strength before Harry pushed it open. The door was barely cracked open before a disgusting smell filled our nostrils. It didn't take long for the three of us to pull our robes up over our noses. Merlin that's awful. What could that smell have possibly been? The moment that I saw it, the breath left me. Eyes watering, we saw, flat on the floor in front of us, a troll even larger than the one that we had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

Was it dead? Some part of me hoped not. "I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as we stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. Clearly this was Quirrell's. "Come on, I can't breathe."

The closer I moved, though, the more similar that it did look to the one from Halloween. Was there a chance that it had just been fed and grown? "Hang - Hang on. Is this the troll from Halloween?" I asked.

"Is it?" Hermione said.

"If it isn't, it looks startlingly similar," I said.

Harry shook his head at me and motioned me forward. "We can worry about that later, come on," he said.

As we walked I spoke, sort of to myself and sort of to them. "Someone's been hiding that thing in here. If it's Snape, he set that thing as a diversion on Halloween and left it here in the meantime... Wouldn't Dumbledore have known all along that he was trying to get to the Stone?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I was confusing myself or actually managing to work things out.

"None of this makes sense, Tara," Harry said.

"What really doesn't make sense is that the troll must be Quirrell's. That's a Defense obstacle," I commented lowly. There was no way that Quirrell had let it out on Halloween, what purpose would that have? But he did like to talk about trolls. It was even in the biography about him. Although he was scared of them, he knew how to take care of them.

The other two seemed to finally understand what I was getting at. Hermione snapped her head over towards me. "You aren't suggestion that Professor Quirrell let the troll out on Halloween?" she asked.

I gave a little shrug. "Maybe there's a good reason. Maybe he knew that Snape was trying to come for the Stone. Maybe he let out the troll to try and stop him. But if he did, that's risking a lot of lives," I muttered.

Every time that I thought that I was getting somewhere, suddenly things got confusing again. Harry finally got fed-up. He grabbed us and dragged us with him. "We don't have time for this, come on," he said.

We moved completely past the troll towards the next door. Snape must have been here for a while. The troll's blood wasn't fresh. Harry pulled open the next door. It took me a moment to gather up the strength to see what Snape had laid out for us. To my absolute surprise there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line. I could tell that Harry and Hermione were thrown off by the strange obstacle.

"Snape's. What do we have to do?" Harry asked.

We both gave a little shrug and moved into the room. We stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind us in the doorway. Hermione and I jumped as Harry pushed us farther into the room, out of danger. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. We were trapped. It seemed that the Potions would do something, hopefully allow us to pass through the doorway onwards.

"Damn it," I muttered.

There was no way around the flames either. We'd have to figure something out unless we wanted to be trapped in here forever. "Look!" Hermione shouted. We ran over to the table and seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry and I looked over her shoulder to read it:

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, which ever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

Of course. Snape liked logic. That was half of what he relied on in class. Hermione let out a sigh as well. We were both relieved that it was something like this. Clearly Harry did not enjoy the new obstacle. This wasn't his type of thing. But just like Ron was good with chess, Hermione and I were good with logic. We were lucky that it wasn't Ron and Harry in here alone. They'd be stuck forever.

"Brilliant," Hermione finally said. "This isn't magic - it's logic - a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever," she said.

"This is good," I added.

"But so will we, won't we?" Harry asked, referring to her comment that we would be stuck in here forever.

We both shook our heads at him. "Of course not. Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple," Hermione said.

"But how do we know which to drink?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded at him. "Give me a minute. Tara, you do it too. Make sure I have the right one," she told me.

"On it."

It took me several reads to understand. I knew that Harry was impatient but he was going to give us time. He wouldn't dare mess us up while we were thinking. My thoughts were racing through my head. Since the giant bottle is not poison and it is a twin to the second from the left, I knew these two are were the nettle wine. The second and sixth were safe to drink. That meant that two of the poisons were each to the left of those. The first and fifth would kill us. The ones at each end were different and since I knew that the left end was poison, both nettle wines had been found, and it would not help you move onward, the rightmost bottle would send us back. The seventh. That left two bottles and I knew the dwarf was not poison, so it must have been the one to move ahead. I made sure to remember the third one. It left the remaining fourth bottle to be the other poison.

Hermione and I had been walking back and forth and blabbering to ourselves as we attempted to figure out the solution. About five minutes afterwards I nodded. Hermione thought for another minute before clapping her hands together. "Got it. The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire - toward the Stone. You get that one?" she asked me.

I nodded at her, motioning to the same bottle. "Yeah. Those three are the poison bottles, those two are the wine, that one's for the purple fire, and that one's for the black," I said.

Hermione looked impressed. "Not bad," she said.

It figured that the smallest one would let us through. "There's only enough there for two of us," Harry said. My heart nearly stopped. He was right. One of us would have to turn back. "That's hardly one swallow. We might be able to stretch it so that two of us can use it." We looked at each other. "You're sure that one will get you back through the purple flames?" Harry asked me.

I nodded at him. Hermione moved forward. "I'll double-check," she said. She mumbled to herself for a moment before nodding. "She's right. That one." Hermione pointed at the rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"You drink that," Harry told her. My stomach knotted. I knew it would be me. Hermione opened her mouth to argue when Harry spoke over her. "No, listen, get back and get Ron. Grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy - go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. We might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but we're no match for him, really. You're okay with this?" he asked me.

Taking in a deep breath, I smiled at him and nodded. If we were going to do this, we might as well go all-out. "What fun is life if there's no danger?" I teasingly asked him.

He gave me a weak smile. I was sure that he appreciated my humor, but I knew that we were both petrified. "But Harry - what if You-Know-Who's with him? You both barely got away in the forest," Hermione said desperately.

"Well - I was lucky once, wasn't I?" Harry asked, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again." Hermione's lip trembled, and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him. "Hermione!" he yelled, staggering back.

Hermione hugged him tightly for a moment before letting go. I smiled at them. "Harry - you're a great wizard, you know."

Harry shrugged at her. "I'm not as good as you," Harry said, very embarrassed, as she let go of him.

Hermione laughed at him and shook her head. "Me!" Hermione laughed. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship and bravery and - oh Harry - be careful!" she cried. She whirled around to me and we caught each other in a tight embrace. I could tell that she was on the verge of tears. "Both of you! Don't you dare die in there. I need someone to make fun of me."

"You'll always have Ron," I told her with a smile.

She laughed and wiped her eyes. "I need a best girlfriend too," she said softly.

Moving into her, I brought her into a tight hug first. "You have me, alright? We'll be back up in time for breakfast," I promised her. My stomach gave a little twinge, a surefire sign that I was lying.

I could only hope that I wasn't. "You drink first," Harry told her once she'd released me. She nodded and grabbed the potion. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?" he asked her before she could drink.

"Positive," Hermione said. I nodded the affirmative when Harry double-checked with me. She took a long drink from the round bottle at the end, and shuddered.

"It's not poison?" Harry asked anxiously.

"No - but it's like ice."

"Great," I muttered.

We waved her off towards the black flame. We needed all of the time that we could get. I wasn't sure how long Harry and I could hold off Snape. "Quick, go, before it wears off," Harry warned her.

"Good luck. Take care."

"Go!" Harry shouted at her.

Hermione turned and walked through the purple fire and I sucked in a breath. There were no screams so I assumed that she was fine. Hopefully the chessmen would leave her be so that she could get Ron and drag her off. My heart stopped as I realized that we now had no option. We had to move forward and face Snape. That was the only potion that would get us forward. I supposed that we could drink the wine to make us feel a little better, but we needed to be clear. There was no way that I was stooping to the poison.

Finally Harry grabbed the bottle and handed it off to me. "Are you ready?" he asked.

No. "Yes."

"We drink at the same time. One right after the other," he told me. I nodded at him. "You come through right behind me, okay?"

"Okay. I can go first, you know. If you're scared," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

Harry laughed at me and gave me a gentle shove, moving as close to the flames as we could possibly get without being burned. He held the potion up to us. "Shut up. And remember, nothing can be scarier than the time that you saw Dudley in his underwear," he told me, reminding me of the horrible memory seared into my brain.

That was not something that I wanted to remember. I laughed and shoved him. "Go. Before I lose my nerve," I said.

Harry took a deep breath and picked the smallest bottle up to his face. We turned to face the black flames. He drained half of the little bottle in one gulp. I assumed that it barely felt like he'd taken a sip. He handed it off to me and I drained it. It was indeed as though ice was flooding through my body. I shivered and nodded for him to move. He put the bottle down and walked forward; I waited a moment before following. I braced myself and walked through them. I saw the black flames licking my body, but couldn't feel them - for a moment I could see nothing but dark fire - then I was on the other side, in the last chamber.

Here we were in Dumbledore's obstacle. I glanced around and spotted it in the center of the room. There was already someone there - but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.

It was Quirrell.

"Oh my God," I said, slapping my hand over my mouth.

"You!" Harry gasped.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all as he looked over us. He looked nothing like the terrified young man that we'd seen outside of Gringott's, even though he was wearing the same clothes. "Me," he said calmly. No sign of tics. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter. I'm impressed, Nox, that you came here, too."

"Why?" I asked.

Quirrell smiled again. I'd never been so unnerved by anyone before. I found myself grateful that Ron and Hermione weren't here. Things had just taken a strange twist. "You didn't seem fond of me when we met in the forest."

My body wavered and I took a step backwards. It was him. He was the one that had nearly killed me. "Y - You? That was you?" I panted.

"That was me."

"You've been lying to us. The students, everyone, for this entire time. There's nothing wrong with you, well, I mean there's a lot wrong with you, but no stutter. Nothing," I whispered.

My voice echoed off of the walls, despite how low it was. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with me. I'm right where I want to be. With the two people that I wanted to be here with," he said with a smile.

"Get behind me," Harry ordered, pushing me back. I stumbled and hid behind him, just barely peeking out so that I could see Quirrell. "But I thought - Snape -"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat." Had the situation been less serious I would have laughed. "Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

We were such fools. He'd played us the entire time and he'd played his part well. I would have never thought that he was anything other than our stuttering Defense professor. I couldn't take it in. This couldn't be true, it couldn't. How had this happened? We'd defended him! "But Snape tried to kill me!" Harry shouted.

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you."

Oh my... The entire thing had been staring us right in the face the entire time. Just because we'd been so prejudiced against Snape, we'd blamed him. We were trying to fit the crime to the person, not the person to the crime. "Snape was trying to save me?" I could have punched him. That was not the problem here.

"Of course," Quirrell said coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really... he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular... and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight. I would have succeeded that match anyways if you hadn't made that stupid move," he said, looking over to me.

What the hell had I done? "Me?" I asked stupidly.

Quirrell nodded, his hands knitted behind him. "You flew up right in front of my rogue Bludger." I knew it! I knew that there was something wrong with that Bludger. "It would have been easy to blame. Accidents happen all of the time. But when you interrupted it it hit you instead. It would have been a pity for you to die," he said.

What? So he wanted Harry to die, but he wanted me to live? "So you'd be upset if I died?" I asked.

Quirrell shook his head at me. "Not me. I could care less if you lived or died," he said.

Oh, come on. Why the hell could no one answer a proper question? "What do you mean?" I asked him.

He merely grinned at me. I knew almost immediately that Quirrell would not answer me. He knew that he had gotten my attention and it seemed that right now that was what he wanted. Not to give me answers. Quirrell snapped his fingers. To my surprise ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry and I. He was pinned to the floor but the ropes that hit me lifted me up. Not again. One wrapped around my waist and lifted me up. Another hit my pocket and my wand went flying. Damn it!

Harry and I were struggling against them, but they wouldn't budge. These were even worse than the Devil's Snare. "No! Let us out!" I howled at Quirrell, who was still watching calmly.

"You're too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

"You let the troll in?" Harry asked. Of course he did. We should have known with all of the assignments that he had given us on trolls. It didn't fit with the way that he'd been so scared of the troll after we'd beaten it on Halloween. Harry turned over to me. "You were right, Tara."

"Yes, Nox is usually right, as a matter of fact. Such a shame that people don't listen to her," Quirrell teased.

"I'll say," I muttered under my breath.

"Certainly. It was me. I have a special gift with trolls - you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off - and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly. Now, wait quietly, Potter. Nox. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

Mirror? There was something in here? I had thought that we were standing in a room with nothing more than the torches that were lighting it. I followed Harry's gaze and saw it. There was indeed a mirror in the room. It was right behind where Quirrell was standing, gazing into it. It was an intricate mirror. What the hell was that for? But that was when I saw it. The writing that was across the top. I knew what this was. And evidently Harry did too. After all, he'd seen it a few months ago. It was the Mirror of Erised.

"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this. But he's in London. I'll be far away by the time he gets back..."

Glancing over at Harry, I saw that he was looking after Quirrell just as desperately as I was. We were terrified. And rightly so. We had to figure out something to do. Harry gave me a quick look and I mouthed to him the only thing that I could think to do that would keep Quirrell distracted. We have to keep him talking, I mouthed to him.

Harry nodded at me and looked over at Quirrell. "I saw you and Snape in the forest -" Harry blurted out. I rolled my eyes at him. It would keep him distracted but that wasn't what I had meant by distracting him.

"Yes," Quirrell said idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me - as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side."

So Voldemort was involved in this somehow. "Why is Voldemort on your side?" I asked him.

Quirrell's head turned up so that he could look at me. He was grinning as he took a few steps towards me. I was glad that he didn't walk all of the way towards me. "You aren't afraid to speak the name," he commented.

I nodded. "Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself."

"Fitting." Quirrell turned away from me and walked back over to the mirror, staring hungrily into "I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master... but where is it?" he asked to himself.

Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they didn't give. I tried too. I even tried reciting Accio in my head over and over again. Anything to get my wand back over to me. But it didn't budge. It was almost like the ropes knew, because they gave a tight squeeze. I groaned and immediately stopped thinking about it. Instead I glanced back over to Harry and gave him a desperate nod. We had to keep Quirrell from giving his whole attention to the mirror.

"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much," Harry said.

"Oh, he does," Quirrell said casually, "heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead."

Harry knew that his father was at Hogwarts with Snape, but he still looked surprised. "But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing - I thought Snape was threatening you."

Suddenly it hit me. I knew that Voldemort was one of the most talented Legilimens in history. HE would have been able to speak to Voldemort. That was who he was speaking to. "No. That's why no one else came out behind you. You weren't talking to Snape. You were talking to your master. Voldemort. Right? That's who you serve?" I asked him.

Quirrell briefly looked up at me and I let out a breath. Thank you, don't look at the mirror. "I've heard your friends say that Miss Granger is the brightest witch of your age, but I disagree, Nox. I think it's you. But you doubt yourself," he said. For the first time since we had entered, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face. "Sometimes I find it hard to follow my master's instructions - he is a great wizard and I am weak -"

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped.

"He is with me wherever I go," Quirrell said quietly. "I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it. Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringott's, he was most displeased. He punished me, decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me."

Quirrell's voice trailed away. If my hands were free I would have slapped myself. Again, the facts were right there, and we had completely ignored them. I thought back to our trip to Diagon Alley before the year had started. How could we have been so stupid? We'd seen Quirrell there that very day, shaken hands with him in the Leaky Cauldron. Harry and I exchanged a loop. We both felt like fools having ignored the obvious signs the entire time. Quirrell cursed under his breath.

"I don't understand... is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?" Quirrell asked himself.

Was that possible? Was the Stone inside the mirror? No. Dumbledore was much smarter than that. And he knew that whoever was worthy of taking the Stone was someone that was deserving to have it. He wouldn't let just anyone go in and get it. My mind was racing as I tried to figure it out. The mirror gave what someone wanted more than anything. What did I want right now? To find the Stone and get it to safety before Quirrell did. Also not to die. That would be good. It seemed that Harry was coming to the same conclusion. Harry motioned to me to distract Quirrell and I nodded. There were answers that I needed anyways.

Speaking loudly so that Quirrell could hear me, I said, "So you want me dead?"

Quirrell looked up at me long enough got Harry to make a slight movement. The ropes didn't tighten around him but I could tell that he was trying to move and it wasn't easy. "I could care less if you live or die," Quirrell told me.

"Your master, then," I clarified.

Quirrell gave me something akin to a smile. "He cares very much." Not good. Why the hell did Voldemort care about me? "He would never want you dead. No... You mean a great deal to him," he said.

"Why does he want me alive?" I asked. I couldn't keep the wavering out of my voice.

Quirrell shrugged his shoulders at me. "I am not worthy of everything that my master has to tell me. I do not know why he wants you alive, Nox, all I know is that he has you right where he wants you," he said.

Useless. "How's that?" I asked.

Unfortunately it seemed that Quirrell was done talking to me for now. He tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing while I spoke to him, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over. I was about to shout at him but Quirrell ignored him. It didn't seem that he cared what we were doing. So I watched as Harry tried to get back to his feet. I almost laughed at the rather amusing sight. In the meantime Quirrell was still talking to himself.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!" Quirrell shouted.

Clearly he was not using Legilimency. Because I could hear it too. To my absolute horror - Harry's too, it seemed - a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself. "Use the boy. Use the boy," it hissed.

I couldn't help it. I asked, "Who the hell is that?"

Quirrell seemed thrilled with the turn of events. "My master," he told me simply. Quirrell rounded on Harry. "Yes - Potter - come here." He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding Harry fell off. Harry got slowly to his feet. I was still trapped in the air. "Come here," Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."

Harry walked toward him. He stood in front of the mirror and Quirrell moved close behind him. From across the room I could smell the funny scent that had always seemed to come from Quirrell's turban. He closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again. All I could see was his reflection, pale and scared-looking at first. Harry was watching intensely. Something had to be happening, but Harry was the only person that could see. Suddenly I saw it. It was barely noticeable, but something had happened. Something large and lumpy had dropped into his pocket. And I would have been willing to bet my kidney on what it was. Somehow - incredibly - he'd gotten the Stone. If Quirrell had been less focused on staring at Harry's reflection, he would have seen it too.

"Well?" Quirrell asked impatiently. "What do you see?"

"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore," he invented. "I - I've won the House Cup for Gryffindor." I smiled at him, knowing that he was lying, and in doing so, saving us.

Quirrell cursed again. "Get out of the way," he said.

As Harry moved aside, I saw the Sorcerer's Stone moving against his leg. He gave me a desperate look. I knew what he was asking. Dare he make a break for it? Taking a deep breath and forcing myself to remember that the safety of the Stone was more important than my own, I nodded at him. He gave me a heartbroken look and I shook my head. He had to do it. It was our only chance to get out of here. He gave me a nod that said that he would come back for me. I nodded at him and motioned my head towards the door. But he hadn't walked five paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn't moving his lips.

"He lies. He lies," the voice from before said.

Quirrell whirled around on Harry, who had stopped moving. "Potter, come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?"

The high voice spoke again. "Let me speak to him. Face-to-face..."

"Master, you are not strong enough!" Quirrell said nervously.

"I have strength enough... for this... Let her go..."

Before anything else could happen, the ropes that had been binding me dropped. I fell to the ground and cringed at the crunching in my knee. I shouted in pain and forced myself to stand. Harry ran over to me and helped me up. I knew that we should run, but I couldn't bring myself to move. Harry handed me my wand and I tucked it away, just in case. It felt like Devil's Snare was rooting me to the spot. I couldn't move a muscle. Petrified, we watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but that certainly wasn't it. I would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, and it was easily the most terrible face I had ever seen. I'd seen pictures and drawings of Voldemort, but nothing could have done him justice. His face was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake. My insides began to churn and suddenly the horrible feeling from when I'd seen the cloaked figure came back. I leaned over and threw up blood. My insides felt like they were being shredded and I curled in on myself.

Harry leaned over to me, but one wave of the hand and he was frozen in place. "Harry Potter..." Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move. "See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapor... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now... why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?" it asked.

So he knew. My coughing was getting worse and I felt sure that at any moment I was going to cough up a lung. Blood was pouring all over the floor and I was dazed as I attempted to stand. The pain went through my stomach once more and I collapsed back to the ground. But I was desperate. I needed to get out of here. I stumbled backwards, away from the advancing Voldemort. As blood poured out of my mouth, it soaked Quirrell's shoes. I could feel in dripping from my tear ducks and down my nostrils too. I was going to die. I would have cried, but I couldn't. The pain was too much to even let out tears.

I collapsed back to the ground, letting out a piercing scream. "Tara, my dear... Enough," Voldemort said, the most confident I'd heard him. The blood stopped pouring from my mouth and I leaned over, coughing the rest of it up. I could see my reflection in the mirror and it was coated in blood. "Do you see how I can help you? Or hurt you?" Voldemort asked.

Another wave of agonizing pain rushed over me. I screamed so loudly that it physically pained me. As I looked down, barely able to see through the blood on my face, I saw it. Large tears were beginning through my shirt. The skin was tearing open underneath. Blood began to seep out of the wound as I fell onto my back, crying out and sliding across the floor, desperate to stop the pain. Everything hurt. It felt like my heart was being torn out of my chest. Voldemort was watching me with something akin to a sad stare.

"I would have liked not to do that..." he muttered.

"Tara!" Harry screamed.

Voldemort waved his hand once more. The pain subsided and the wound stitched itself together once more. Tears were leaking out as he waved another hand and I stood weakly. "Rise, girl." My legs were shaking as I spit out blood, staggering in my place. I nearly fell as he motioned me over to the mirror. "Look in the Mirror, and tell me what you see..." he hissed slowly.

Cringing in pain, I staggered over to the mirror and gazed in. At first I didn't see anything different. I was just myself. Blood was coating me and my eyes were puffy from crying. I looked like a monster. Voldemort was watching me. But then the scene shifted. I was standing in a dark forest. No. A graveyard... The one from my nightmare. A fully-regenerated Voldemort was standing next to me. His black robes were whipping around him and he was smiling. A large snake was curled around our feet. I stood next to Voldemort, looking happy and healthy, with a cruel stare in my eyes. I looked older. Maybe around sixteen or seventeen. There was only one difference about myself. My eyes were no longer their typical brown with flecks of blue. No. They were red... Just like his.

The Sorting Hat's words came back to me. You have a darkness in you. Make no mistake, Miss Nox, I would have preferred to place you in Slytherin. Was this why? Was this what I wanted? Was I related to him? Did I want to be? No. Never. I would have never wanted anything like that. I stumbled back from the mirror in shock. That wasn't what I wanted. That would never be what I wanted.

But I was still bothered by the sight of myself with the red eyes. "Am... Am I related to you?" I asked softly. Harry was staring at me with wide eyes. He was clearly wondering what I'd just seen.

Voldemort seemed pleased with what I'd seen. "No... Not in that way," he hissed.

"In what way?" I asked.

He didn't answer me. "What did you see?"

For a moment I thought about answering him. But I knew that wasn't what I could do. I couldn't give him the satisfaction. So I remembered the memory of the Weasley twins and myself at Christmas, throwing snowballs at the back of Quirrell's turban. "I see myself throwing snowballs at your head again," I said.

The corner of Voldemort's lips twitched upwards in a way that told me that he wasn't amused. "Funny girl. Just like your parents. Perhaps I should have killed them first," he snarled.

Quirrell waved his hand and I was thrown off of my feet. I didn't get a chance to scream before I hit a column and crumpled to the ground. I could hear Harry shouting my name as I tried to force myself to get back to my feet. But it was a moment later that the blood began to pour from my mouth again. I leaned over and coughed it up, unable to scream as the searing pain erupted in my hand. The skin almost seemed like it was bubbling. What was happening to me?

Voldemort walked backwards towards me. "But you lie... Tell me the truth of what you see... I know..." he hissed.

Quirrell was leaning back towards me. The one good thing about the blood was that it was covering what I was doing. With my wand in hand, I leaned back up quickly and shouted the first spell that came to mind. "Repello Inimicum!"

Nothing happened, he waved his hand and the spell rebounded. A piece of a column fell off but nothing else happened. He seemed amused with my weak attempt at hurting him. "Now, now. Be civil..." Voldemort walked over to me and leaned down in front of me. The pain increased as I fought to get away from him. "Do you remember me?" he snarled at me.

His face was inches from mine when Harry shouted, "Get off of her! Tara!" he yelled for me.

Voldemort shot up and turned his gaze on Harry, almost as if he'd forgotten that Harry was here. "Don't be a fool," he snarled. "Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents. They died begging me for mercy."

"Liar!" Harry shouted suddenly.

Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling. "How touching. I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

"Never!"

Harry sprang toward the flame door, but Voldemort screamed, "Seize him!" Harry's arms wrapped around me and he dragged me to my feet, wrenching me after him.

We were staggering towards the door together but it wasn't for long. The next second, Quirrell's hand closed on Harry's wrist. His other hand threw out some kind of spells and I dropped down to my knees. A horrible wrenching feeling was shooting through my chest and up to my throat. It was so tight that I was gasping for air. It felt like the Devil's Snare was around me again, but nothing was. The tightening feeling increased more and more as I tried to gasp, but I couldn't take in any air. It took me a while to realize that it wasn't just my throat closing, blood was blocking the airway so that I couldn't breathe. I hit the ground on all fours, trying to get away.

Harry was yelling in pain next to me. My entire face was turning purple as I fought for breath. I could see Harry struggling with all his might, and to my surprise, Quirrell released him. And suddenly I was released too. The blood loosened in my throat and began to spill out of my mouth as I coughed it up. When I was finally able to look up through bloodied eyes, I saw that Quirrell was hunched over in pain, looking at his fingers - they were blistering before his eyes.

"Seize him! Seize him!" Voldemort shrieked again.

Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet and landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck. I screamed out for Harry and desperately searched for my wand. I crawled over to it, slipping on the bloodied floor. Harry was still screaming in pain. The pain had slowed significantly now that Quirrell was distracted, but it was still almost impossible to see through the blood. Quirrell was howling in agony. I assumed that Harry had gotten a hold of him again.

I turned back to see that Quirrell was choking the life out of Harry. "No! Flipendo! Verdimillious!" I screamed in between bouts of the blood. They hit Quirrell but it didn't seem necessary. Quirrell was crumbling apart. Something was happening to him. He couldn't touch Harry. I spit up more blood, knowing that I was about to pass out.

"Master, I cannot hold him - my hands - my hands!"

And Quirrell, though still pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms. Through the blood I could see that they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny. It wasn't long before they changed color into something more of a gray. They looked like stone. And suddenly, they began to crumble. Quirrell was screaming in fear as I nodded for Harry to do something, myself collapsing against the Stone floor, heaving blood into my lap.

"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" Voldemort screamed.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, and I screamed for Harry. He nodded and reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face. It began blistering, too. Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering worse than his hands, and then Harry seemed to finally realize: Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain. He looked back at me in concern but I motioned him towards Quirrell. We had not done this for nothing. He had to do something.

It was obvious that he wanted to help me, but he knew that this was his only chance. He had to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse. Dumbledore would be here soon. Hermione had to have gotten to him. She had to. Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off. I could tell that he was in terrible pain because the blood began to pour out of my mouth and I crumpled to the ground, screaming in agony.

"Kill him! Kill him!" Voldemort continued to scream desperately.

There were other voices too, maybe they were all voice in my head. I couldn't tell. The blood had stopped pouring out of my mouth but I was still crumpled over as the pain began to fade and exhaustion took over. I was about to pass out. "Harry! Tara!" a strange voice called.

"Harry!" I cried out desperately.

I felt a figure drop down next to me and grab my arm. "Tara!" Harry yelled as he wrapped himself over me.

His body was shaken off to the side as Quirrell's arm wrenched from his grasp. We both screamed as I grabbed onto him, trying to drag him towards the door. A flash of bright light shot through my head, and then nothing at all. There was a muffled voice and a scream - maybe my own - and that was it. I fell into blackness, knowing that I had done everything that I could.


	18. A Year Gone

When I came to, I immediately expected pain. I expected to feel like my entire body was on fire, I expected to feel the wound on my stomach opening even wider, or I might have been expecting to lean over and throw up more blood. If I even had any more blood to give. But no pain settled into me. There was a definite soreness - to the point that I felt like I wouldn't be able to move ever again - but there was no pain. I could see something gold glinting just above me. I tried to blink the fuzzy feeling in my head away. It felt like someone had stuffed cotton into my skull. I blinked again. The gold tone was a pair of glasses. What? I blinked again. The smiling face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above me. Am I not dead? That's surprising.

Every part of me had thought that I'd died down in the dungeon. I'd been ready to die. "Good afternoon, Harry, Tara," Dumbledore said.

Harry. Not answering Dumbledore, I leaned over and saw that Harry was lying in a bed right next to me. We were in the hospital wing. Our beds were pushed almost together. There was barely a foot separating them. "Harry..." I muttered.

He seemed to still be waking up. His head lolled towards me and his blurry eyes widened. "Tara. You're alright," he whispered.

I nodded at him. "I'm okay, I think," I said.

Harry and I stared at each other. We were trying to ensure that the other was okay. Neither one of us had thought that we were making it out of the dungeon. And then he clearly remembered something. "Sir!" he shouted, startling me.

It was then that I remembered. The whole point that we had been down there in the first place. What had happened? Where was the Stone? Where was Quirrell? Where was Voldemort? "The Stone!" I shouted, as we went back and forth, panicking over what had happened since we'd been knocked out in the dungeon.

"It was Quirrell!"

"He's got the Stone!"

"Sir, quick -"

Dumbledore held up a hand, effectively silencing both Harry and I. Dumbledore commanded respect. It was something that I would never be able to match. "Calm yourself, dear children, you are both a little behind the times," Dumbledore said. How long had it been since the dungeon? "Quirrell does not have the Stone," he reassured us.

How did he not get the Stone? Harry had been holding it, Quirrell had knocked it out of his hand and he'd been grabbing for it. Right? "Then who does? Sir, I -" Harry started again.

"Harry, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out."

I knew that he was right, we needed to calm down, but I couldn't. I was panicked. We were both panicked. "But - But he... He had it!" I cried out, knowing that we may have very well lost our chance to stop Quirrell and Voldemort.

Dumbledore held up a hand to me once more. "Quirrell does not have the Stone, dear girl, calm down," he said.

If he said that Quirrell didn't have the Stone I would have to believe him. He knew what he was talking about. I exchanged a quick glance with Harry and swallowed deeply. It felt like something was dried in my throat, making it rough and feeling almost cracked. I grabbed the glass of water on my bedside table and drank it. It tasted extremely metallic. Blood, I realized. It made me swallow again nervously and wash out my mouth with the water. It felt like I could never have enough.

The sheets underneath me had clearly once been a pristine white. They were a soft pink right now. I must have had a lot of blood on me when they'd gotten me up here. But I was no longer in my bloodied robes. I was in my pajamas. As I set my water back down on the table next to me I realized that there was barely any room for the glass. The table piled high with what looked like half the candy shop in Hogsmeade. There were some stuffed animals, cards, and pastries from the Hogwarts kitchens too. I glanced over towards the table next to Harry and saw that his had a very similar setup - spare the stuffed animals.

Dumbledore saw where we were looking and smiled. "Tokens from your friends and admirers." I exchanged a funny look with Harry, knowing what we were both thinking. We weren't the most hated people in the school anymore. "What happened down in the dungeons between the two of you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows." Everyone knew? Did they know everything that had happened? Did he? "I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you," Dumbledore said, smiling.

Both Harry and I laughed. "They were correct," I said softly.

Evidently we were all friends again. Which was good, I did miss the twins desperately. "Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic, and confiscated it," Dumbledore said.

Did he not find the Hogwarts toilet seat against the rules or offensive? Evidently not. Dumbledore was a strange man, but he was one of the best wizards that I'd ever seen. "How long have we been in here?" Harry finally asked.

"Three days."

"Three days?" I asked disbelievingly.

I'd thought that maybe a day or two had passed. Not three. We were only three days from going back to King's Cross. "Yes. You both suffered grievous wounds in the dungeon," Dumbledore said.

With a deep gulp, I nodded. Harry didn't look that bad. He had a bruise underneath his right eye and his right hand was wrapped up. What did I look like? Harry hadn't seemed that horrified when he'd looked over at me so I could only assume that I at least somewhat resembled a human being. I could see a wrap around my upper left arm and I nodded. Vaguely, I remembered being thrown back against the pillar. I must have been cut during that. My right hand was wrapped up too. It was from shielding myself from the blast when Ron had been thrown off of the horse during the chess match. Ron... What had happened to him?

Dumbledore seemed to know where my thoughts had gone. "Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Granger will be most relieved you have come round, they have been extremely worried." Harry and I both let out a breath. They were alright. They'd managed to get back to the castle. "And Mr. Diggory has been concerned for your well-being as well, Tara," Dumbledore said, looking over to me.

His eyes were twinkling and I gulped, feeling the saliva lump in my throat. Dumbledore was almost like a child, enjoying the way that I had embarrassed myself. "Oh... Well... That's sweet of him," I muttered, seeing the little glare that Harry was sending me. But that was when I remembered what the real concern was. "The Stone though!"

Harry nodded at me. "Yes, she's right. Sir, the Stone -"

Dumbledore held up a hand and, once more, we fell silent. "I see you both are not to be distracted," Dumbledore said. We both nodded sheepishly. "Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived in time to prevent that, although you were both doing very well on your own, I must say."

"I was vomiting blood all over the ground," I deadpanned.

Immediately I regretted having dared say that to the Headmaster. But Dumbledore merely smiled at me. "But your spells did ward off Professor Quirrell from getting closer to Harry," he told me.

Well... I guess it had been useful that I was there. But had he been there? I'd thought that I heard someone, I thought that I'd seen something, but I'd thought that I was just dreaming. "You got there? You got Hermione's owl?" Harry asked.

"We must have crossed in midair. No sooner had I reached London than it became clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just left. I arrived just in time to pull Quirrell off you two," Dumbledore said.

"It was you," Harry muttered.

That was when I knew that it had been real. The voice that I'd heard calling out to us. I'd thought that maybe it was Harry or maybe it was my own imagination. But it had been him. "I thought I was imagining things," I said.

"I feared I might be too late."

"You nearly were, I couldn't have kept him off the Stone much longer and Tara was about to-"

When Dumbledore interrupted Harry, I was grateful. I didn't want to hear about how close I'd been to being dead. "Not the Stone, boy, you, you both - the effort involved nearly killed you two. For one terrible moment there, I was afraid it had. We thought that it would be longer than three days before you awoken," he said. We both nodded. What would have happened if we'd been out for longer? Would we have been transferred to St. Mungo's? "As for the Stone, it has been destroyed."

Harry and I exchanged a shocked look with each other. All of that effort that we'd put into saving the Stone all year, and now it was gone. "Destroyed?" Harry asked blankly. "But your friend - Nicolas Flamel -"

Dumbledore grinned at us. "Oh, you did figure out about Nicolas? I wondered if my advice would help you all along," Dumbledore said to me, sounding quite delighted. "You did do the thing properly, didn't you?" He must have been the type of person that enjoyed seeing how people bent the rules, as long as it wasn't for nefarious purposes. "Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat, and agreed it's all for the best."

That was when I realized that he was right. After everything, it was the smartest to get rid of the Stone. We couldn't risk Voldemort coming back for it. "To keep it away from Voldemort. Or anyone else that might want power and wealth like that," I said softly.

"Yes, my dear."

Harry had another thought, though. "But that means he and his wife will die, won't they?" he asked. That's right. I'd almost forgotten about the fact that Flamel and his wife would die without it.

"They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die." Dumbledore smiled at the look of amazement on Harry and I's faces. "To ones as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

Harry and I lay there, lost for words. Dumbledore hummed a little and smiled at the ceiling. My thoughts were chasing each other around my head. Nicholas and Perenelle had decided that they were ready to die for the sake of the Wizarding World. I was almost impressed that two people could be that brave. Even if they'd been alive for so long, death still had to be scary, didn't it? But Dumbledore was right. The Stone was too dangerous to keep around. Endless money and eternal life... They sounded wonderful, but they would breed greed.

"Sir?" Harry asked, distracting me from my thoughts. I was grateful for it. I was starting to give myself a headache. "I've been thinking... sir - even if the Stone's gone, Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who -"

"Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."

"Yes, sir."

My eyes widened. That was where I'd heard that comment before. I knew that it wasn't something that I'd just cooked up. It was something that someone had told me before. Maybe it was my parents relaying it to me, or maybe I'd overheard him say it before. It didn't matter. "I knew I'd heard that before," I said, giving Dumbledore a small smile.

He was smiling at me the way that Dad had smiled at me a million times before. "Of the many things that I'm sure you said to Voldemort down in the dungeons, it is that very comment that I am the proudest of."

Had he heard everything else that I had said down there? Had he figured it out? I couldn't imagine how. But it didn't matter. I smiled and glanced down at the sheets. "Thank you, sir," I said softly.

The three of us were silent for a few moments. Finally, Harry spoke again. "Well, Voldemort's going to try other ways of coming back, isn't he? I mean, he hasn't gone, has he?"

That would be nice. "No, Harry, he has not. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share... not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies." I couldn't help it, some part of me felt badly for Quirrell. He had fallen prey to Voldemort's false promises. "Nevertheless, Harry, Tara, while you two may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time - and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."

I was still reeling from the first time that he had said. He would not be able to truly be killed unless he was truly alive. Would this always be the way that it would be? The rest of eternity spent battling against his imminent rise back to power... "Would it be better that way?" I finally asked, drawing Dumbledore's attention to me. "To continue defeating his rise to power? Or would it be better to simply let him come back and take care of him once and for all?"

It was a loaded question and I knew that. "An age old question for many things. We do not know this answer yet. Both sides have their benefits and downfalls. The most important thing is that we may all be ready, no matter what happens," Dumbledore told me.

Both Harry and I nodded. He stopped quickly. I assumed that it made his head hurt. "Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me. Things I want to know the truth about," Harry said.

"The truth." Dumbledore sighed.

"I have questions too, if you don't mind," I stepped in.

He seemed to have been expecting this. Not that he shouldn't have been, after everything that had happened the other night we deserved to know. "Not at all. The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie," Dumbledore said.

I glanced at Harry and nodded for him to speak first. "You go first," I said.

Harry nodded at me and glanced back towards Dumbledore. "Well... Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?" he asked.

We both straightened up for that answer. Everyone knew that Voldemort had tried to kill Harry's parents because they were fighting against him. We all knew that they were on Dumbledore's side during the Wizarding War. It was the same reason that he'd killed so many other families at the time. It was the same reason that he'd been planning on coming after my family. But that had always been the question. Not only why Harry had survived the Killing Curse, but the question of why he'd come after a year-old baby in the first place? Harry had posed no threat to him. The only answer that anyone could ever come up with was that he'd wanted to finish off the entire family.

But Voldemort was more deliberate than that. If he'd tried to kill Harry, there must have been a reason. Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time. "Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day... put it from your mind for now, Harry. When you are older... I know you hate to hear this... when you are ready, you will know."

Considering it was Dumbledore, Harry knew it would be no good to argue. If Dumbledore didn't think that he was ready to know, he would do everything in his power to keep Harry from knowing the truth. "But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?" Harry finally asked.

I was glad that he'd asked. I'd been curious about that too. "Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love." I was curious, wondering what he'd meant by that. "He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good."

The room plunged into complete silence. I couldn't even fathom it. This was a good thing. The one person that Voldemort was so determined to kill was the one person that he couldn't touch. But what would happen if he was able to completely regenerate? Would he be able to touch him? I wasn't sure that I wanted to know. Dumbledore became very interested in a bird out on the windowsill, which gave Harry time to dry his eyes on the sheet. I hadn't even realized that he was crying. I reached across the beds and grabbed his hand. Dumbledore watched with a smile from the foot of my bed as Harry stood and crushed himself next to me in my bed.

Our hands wrapped tightly around each other's, Harry seemed to finally find his voice again. "And the invisibility cloak - do you know who sent it to me?" he asked Dumbledore.

I leaned forward slightly. Maybe there was a chance that whoever had sent the cloak had sent me the necklace and gem. "Ah - your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Harry and I exchanged a disbelieving laugh. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Useful things... your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."

Once more, we both laughed. James Potter reminded me very much of Fred and George. They would have gotten along well... "And there's something else..." Harry trailed off.

"Fire away."

"Quirrell said Snape -"

"Professor Snape, Harry," Dumbledore corrected.

He gave a bashful nod. As nasty as Snape was, he wasn't evil, we had to treat him with the same respect that we treated the other professors with. "Yes, him - Quirrell said he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?" he asked.

My parents had once told me that Snape hated Harry because he'd hated James. But they'd never elaborated on anything that had happened during their school years. "Well, they did rather detest each other. Not unlike yourself and Mr. Malfoy. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive," Dumbledore said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"He saved his life."

The curious sound in Harry's voice faded to one of disbelief. "What?" he repeated. My brain was going into overdrive. I couldn't fathom how that made any sense.

"Yes..." Dumbledore said dreamily. I assumed that he was remembering their school years. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it?" We both nodded absentmindedly. "Professor Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt. I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father's memory in peace."

Harry was silent for a long while before speaking again. "And sir, there's one more thing."

"Just the one?"

He sounded almost teasing. There were so many more things that I was sure that Harry had to ask, but we didn't have forever. And I had my own questions, too. "How did I get the Stone out of the mirror?" he asked.

That was definitely a good last question. Dumbledore smiled. "Ah, now, I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone - find it, but not use it - would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life. My brain surprises even me sometimes..."

What a wonderful idea. We were silent again for a long while. Finally Harry nodded at me that he was done and that it was my turn. I took a deep breath before asking the question that had been burning me for months now. "I - I have a question about the invisibility cloak. You sent it to Harry. Have you ever sent me something? A note? A necklace?" I asked.

For the first time since he had walked into the hospital wing, it seemed that Dumbledore was confused. "I fear that I have not." So it wasn't Dumbledore that had been sending me the objects. So who was it? "It was never to show favoritism, you see, merely to return something that was Harry's in the first place," he told me.

But that wasn't my problem. I couldn't care less that he hadn't sent me anything, I just wanted to know who the packages had come from. "I understand, sir," I said, falling into silence for a moment. "I've been face-to-face with Voldemort twice now and each time I've thrown up blood. Why does that keep happening? It doesn't happen to Harry," I said softly.

Dumbledore let out a soft breath and nodded at me. "No. Not it does not happen to Harry. Unfortunately you've asked me a question that I do not know the answer to." I nodded at him. I had figured that my questions wouldn't be things that he knew. "Harry feels an intense pain in his scar, correct?" Harry nodded the affirmative. "Yes... It appears that you are affected by his presence as well."

"But you don't know why?" I asked.

"I fear that I do not."

Something about the way that he was looking at me told me that he did know why I was affected. But I knew not to push. He suddenly seemed the most uncomfortable that I'd ever seen him be. "He said that he didn't want me to die," I said, once I'd gathered my thoughts. "Quirrell said that I meant very much to Voldemort. Why?"

Dumbledore let out a deep breath. Clearly he had known that I would ask this question. But to my disappointment, he shook his head at me. "Now this is a question that I do know the answer to, but you will have to forgive me for not answering... Yes. I do believe that you are too young to hear this. I know how terrible that answer is, but you must trust me," he said.

Just like with the question on why Voldemort had attacked Harry as a baby, Dumbledore did not think that I was old enough to know why I meant something to Voldemort. On one hand, I was rather glad that he didn't want to tell us. I feared that it might have been far too much on my mind. I was only twelve, after all. But on the other hand, I did want to know what I meant to him. If I meant something to the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time - one of the most powerful wizards in general - I deserved to know.

Still, though, I knew not to argue. So I nodded and moved on to my next question. "Did he know my parents?" I asked, hoping that he didn't. "He said that I was funny, like them."

"Voldemort himself may not have known your parents, but there were many traitors on our side during the Wizarding War. There is a chance that your parents may have had friends that relayed their personalities to him." A chill went up my spine at the thought that one of my own parents' friends could have betrayed them to Voldemort. "One of his tactics was to use their weakness and strengths against them. He may very well have known about your father's tendencies to enjoy a good joke," he said.

Once more, I nodded. Then I spit out the question that I'd been debating on asking, "Am I related to Voldemort?"

Harry's head shot over to me. Dumbledore gave me a long stare. "An odd question..." he trailed off.

Maybe I shouldn't have asked that. It was too late to take it back though. "He said something that made me think that I might have been related to him. But he told me that I wasn't related to him. Not that way that I was thinking," I muttered.

Dumbledore was silent for a long moment and for a moment I thought that he would tell me that I was. I didn't even know what I would have done if I genuinely was related to him. Cry. Scream. "No," he said, and I let out a shuddering breath. "You have no relation to Voldemort. He will speak to make you doubt yourself. Always remember this."

I nodded at him. "Thank Merlin," I said, unable to stop myself. "He asked me if I remembered him." Automatically I remembered the second note that I'd gotten. Do you remember? Maybe Quirrell had sent me the notes. "Have I met him before?" I asked, not sure whether or not Dumbledore would know the answer to that.

It appeared that he did not. "I fear that I am unaware of this answer. I will delve into it," he told me. I nodded. The concern must have been obvious on my face, because he said, "In the meantime, best not to worry yourself."

"He was able to stop the pain that I was feeling just like that. I tried to figure out why. And how," I said.

Dumbledore nodded at me once more. It wasn't really a question, more of a curiosity. "Voldemort is a powerful man, far more powerful than anyone would like to admit. He is able to perform nearly every spell known to wizards. He can make you feel the pain that you felt down in the dungeon easily. And... just to show his power... he will take the pain away. It was one of the ways that he drew followers before," Dumbledore explained to me.

I nodded. That was what I'd been expecting. And having felt what he could do... I almost understood how people had joined him. "I - I've been seeing him for the past few weeks. After our detention in the Forbidden Forest," I said, wondering whether or not I should have said that.

Harry glanced over at me. I assumed that he'd been seeing him too. At least, I hoped that he had. "Voldemort is a very talented Legilimens. Do you know what this is?" Dumbledore asked me. I nodded at him, Harry looked completely clueless. "He will be able to show you things. Things that are not really there. It is up to you to remain strong and close your mind. You must tell yourself that he will not get to you." I nodded weakly at him. Legilimency was dangerous. And it was not easy to combat. "Is there anything else?" Dumbledore asked me after a beat.

Don't say it. Don't say it. "Yes," I said, before I could stop myself. "I'm sorry. One last thing... When we were down in the dungeons Voldemort had me look into the Mirror of Erised and tell him what I saw. I saw..." I trailed off, trying to fight off tears. Harry laid a hand on my leg. "I saw Voldemort regenerated and at full-power. I was standing at his side and I looked so happy about it. Cruel and evil. And the worst part was my eyes. I had the same red eyes that he does. But I - I don't want that. But it shows what we want most. Doesn't it?" I whispered.

Dumbledore looked almost pained. I brushed a stray tear away and tucked myself into Harry's shoulder. "Alas... I do believe that there is only one person who can answer this." Voldemort. "The Mirror of Erised does show what a person most deeply desires, but it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. After all, dreams can be interpreted in many ways," he told me.

For a good long while we all sat in silence. I knew that Harry was thinking over the answers that Dumbledore had given him and I was thinking over the answers that he had given me. He was not the one that had sent me the presents in the black box. He also didn't know why I was so affected by Voldemort's presence. He did know why Voldemort doesn't want me dead, but he didn't want me to know. Not yet. That was the answer that set me on edge the most. I knew that it wasn't good if he didn't want me to know. The only reason that he wouldn't have told me was because the answer was troubling.

I'd found out that there was a chance that Voldemort had known my parents, but, more than likely, there had been a traitor in their midst. It made me wonder who that traitor was... If they were still walking free... If they were the reason that Harry's parents were dead. I now knew that he wasn't related to me - something that was a relief - but Dumbledore was unsure of whether or not I'd ever met him before. The only condolence that I had was that he had promised that he would look into it. I knew that he was able to stop the pain that I was feeling - or start it - on a whim. I'd learned that he was a talented Legilimens that would be able to make me see things. It was something that I would have to learn to combat. And as for the Mirror of Erised... I still didn't really have any answers to that. It was something that only Voldemort could explain to me.

Harry and I sat in silence and questioned our answers for a long time. Finally, Dumbledore seemed to want us to get our minds off of what had happened. "Now, enough questions. I suggest you make a start on these sweets." He walked over to Harry's table and searched through the presents. "Ah! Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans! I was unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit flavored one, and since then I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them - but I think I'll be safe with a nice toffee, don't you?" He smiled and popped the golden-brown bean into his mouth. We both smiled at him. Then he choked and said, "Alas! Ear wax!" Harry and I laughed politely as he grinned at us and finished the bean. "I think I will leave you two be. Good day to you both."

"Thank you, sir," I said.

"Goodbye, sir," Harry said.

Dumbledore placed down the box of beans and was halfway to the door before another thought popped into my head. "Professor," I said and Dumbledore stopped to turn back to me, "before you leave, do my parents know what happened?"

He smiled at me and nodded. "Yes, my dear, they do. I went to visit them myself to tell them everything that happened." Wow. He'd actually gone to them himself. They're gonna kill me. "They all well-aware of the danger that awaited you both but I've assured them that you will both be fine and on the platform in a few days' time. They wished to come and see you but agreed that it would be best to let you be for your last few days. They will welcome you both back to King's Cross soon."

"Thank you, sir," I said.

He gave us one more small grin before bowing slightly and walking out of the hospital wing. I watched him the entire time and smiled as he turned from the wing and his robes whipped around the corner. Madam Pomfrey was standing off in the corner and working on what looked to be a potion. There was no one else in the room. I wondered if they had moved everyone out or if it was really that no one else had been injured. Harry sat upright in bed and I followed him, sitting right opposite of him. We held hands for a moment and said nothing. It was pretty obvious for a long time that we had no clue what to say to each other.

Finally I managed to say something. It felt like we had to say something, or else we would never speak to each other again. "Does it feel like none of your questions were answered?" I asked him.

Harry smiled and grabbed a Chocolate Frog from his pile. He opened it and the two of us split it. Almost immediately I felt better. "I think I'm more confused than I was twenty minutes ago," he said. I laughed and nodded with him. I was pretty sure that this was far from the last time that we were going to be concerned. "Are you okay?" Harry finally asked me after a beat.

Letting out a deep breath, I nodded. "I'll live. What about you?" I asked.

"I'll live," he parroted back to me.

The two of us smiled at each other. I wrapped a sheet over my shoulder as I continued to chow down on the Chocolate Frog. "Well..." I said, my mouth still full of chocolate. Harry and I laughed at my awkward attempt to speak. "I don't think that anyone will ever be able to say that they had a more eventful First Year," I said once I'd finished it.

Harry shook his head at me. "No, I do think that we've owned that category," he told me. We both laughed.

I glanced back at his bed. It really was close to mine. Most of the beds were spaced about ten feet apart. Ours were right next to each other. "It's nice that they kept us so close together," I said softly.

"I don't think that they wanted us to panic if we woke up and weren't near the other," he said.

Almost immediately I nodded. That had been what I was thinking too. I reached back over to my table and grabbed a licorice wand. From the card, it said that it was from Justin Finch-Fletchley. I'd helped him with his homework and Potions work more than once. But apparently he really did think of us as friends. I appreciated it. I really hadn't known him that well but we'd had a few nice conversations. I made a mental note to myself to thank him for the present when we got out of here.

The two of us were silent for a few minutes and I knew what Harry wanted to ask me. So I looked up and glared at him, letting him know to just ask it, rather than let the question hang in the air between us. "Is that really what you saw when you looked into the Mirror of Erised?" he finally said.

"Yes," I said, not seeing a point in trying to hide the truth. We sat together for a moment before I glanced up at him. I desperately wanted to keep that between the two of us. "Please don't tell anyone," I begged.

Harry shook his head at me and grabbed my hand. "Never. It stays between us," he told me and I nodded gratefully. "It doesn't mean anything, Tara. Voldemort was just showing you those things so that you would join his cause, so that you would doubt yourself. You'd never go to his side," he said, knowing that I was bothered by it.

"No. No. Of course not," I said, waving him off.

The two of us continued to munch on the food that our friends had sent us. "What were you saying about those things that were being sent to you?" Harry finally asked me.

"Oh," I muttered. "I - I don't know. I think that it's a joke."

Of course I didn't think that it was a joke at all. And it seemed that Harry knew that too. "Tara," Harry whispered to me.

Taking a deep breath, I gathered together my thoughts on the presents that I'd gotten so far. "I got the first one at Christmas. It just came in a black box. It was a necklace with a red stone on it. It had an eighty-three engraved onto the clasp. It came with a card, it just had my name signed. I got the other one after our trip into the Forbidden Forest. It had a red stone with an eighty-three engraved into it. This one had a note. Do you remember? Same person, no signature," I explained to him.

He was silent for a long while as he tried to process what I had just told him. He was probably trying to figure out who had sent it to me. But just like myself, it was only a guess. "And you don't know who sent them?" Harry asked me.

I shook my head at him. "No. I've asked everyone," I said. It definitely wasn't Cedric or Malfoy - and they were the only other ones that I could think that would send it. "I'm starting to think that it was Quirrell," I said. Harry nodded at me. He seemed to agree that it was probably him. "Maybe he was sending them to freak me out. It seemed like a very Voldemort thing to do. And it was after I started getting them that the nightmares about him started."

Once more we both nodded at each other. "What does the eighty-three mean?" he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders at him. I'd thought for hours what significance eighty-three held to me. I didn't know anyone born in nineteen eighty-three and that was the only thing that made sense to me. I'd tried to think if it held any resemblance to letters or anything that I owned that was made that year. But time and time again, nothing came up. I'd even looked through numerology books to see if I could find something there. But again, there was no significance.

"I don't know," I finally admitted to Harry.

"We should tell Ron and Hermione," Harry automatically said.

"No!" I shouted, lowering my voice when I realized that Madam Pomfrey was now looking over at us with a concerned face. "No. The year is over. I just want to let everything go back to normal. I'm going to get rid of them, burn those old robes that were ruined, and try and forget about the worst parts of this year. I haven't gotten another note or box. It's fine," I insisted.

Harry stared at me for a moment before nodding. I knew that it wasn't what he wanted to do, but I really wanted to get over it. Voldemort was gone for now, the Stone was destroyed, and we'd managed to get out alive. Things were good. I didn't want to get back to our nosy ways. At least, not until we were back for our Second Year. I was pretty sure that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and myself wanted to have some time to get our lives back to normal before the next cataclysmic event happened that we had to take care of.

Finally Harry asked me, "You'll tell me if you get another one?"

I nodded at him, hoping that it would never come to that. "Of course. But Quirrell is gone," I said, hoping that it would end things. I sat in silence with him for a while before feeling like I had to say something. "When I was under the Sorting Hat in the beginning of the year it told me that I had a darkness in me. It told me that it would have preferred to place me in Slytherin. But I asked for Gryffindor," I said.

Harry nodded at me. "It wanted to place me in Slytherin too," he said. I wasn't sure why, but it made me feel better that he had been so close to being placed in Slytherin too. I was glad that neither one of us had been placed there. I couldn't imagine how much would be different. "Why didn't you ask Dumbledore about it?" Harry finally asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders at him. "I don't know. I just felt like I was saying too much and overwhelming him. Maybe I thought that I was overwhelming myself too. I don't know. Maybe I didn't want to know," I mumbled.

"The year is over, Tara. We can go back to normal," Harry said.

Nodding at him with a small smile, I glanced back over to the large piles of presents that we both had. It was almost funny that just three days ago, no one would dare speak to us because we'd lost all of those points for Gryffindor. We had essentially handed Slytherin the House Cup and we'd obviously missed the last Quidditch match. But it seemed like, despite all of that, we'd made our way back into the good graces of the other students. Just in time for the end of the year, too.

"I suppose that we're not the most hated people in the castle anymore," I said to Harry.

Harry smiled and nodded at me, grabbing half of the sheet that I was using and pulling it over his own lap. "After defeating Voldemort and getting past all of those obstacles, I don't think that anyone will ever hate us again," he said.

"Now I wouldn't say that," I quipped back with a little smile.

The two of us spent a long time laughing and talking. For most of it we tried to ignore everything that had happened down in the dungeon. For as important as it was, just for a little while, we wanted to be normal a normal eleven and twelve-year-old. Madam Pomfrey gave us a little while to talk to each other before coming over and speaking to us, ensuring that we were healing properly. She looked me over first and gave me a brief rundown of what had been wrong with me. A broken hand, two broken toes, fractured ulna, and cracked rib. All of them were already fixed, but she did say to be weary of soreness for the next few days. I'd also lost a good portion of blood. She'd managed to replace it all but told me to be careful to not miss any meals and drink frequently.

As she looked over Harry, I glanced over the presents that we had been given. Most of them came with notes. Ron had gotten me a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Neville - who I was very curious to know whether or not remembered the incident - had gotten me a package of dark chocolate. Dean had gotten me a small batch of butterscotch. Seamus had gotten me a Dragon Claw. Hermione had brought me a treacle tart. Lavender had gotten me a Peppermint Toad. Parvati had gotten me a marshmallow treat. Fay had gotten me a rather large Chocolate Skeleton that I'd been munching on.

The gifts didn't just end with the Gryffindor's. It seemed that we had gotten presents from the Hufflepuff's too. Ernie Macmillan - who had been my partner in Herbology a few times - had sent me a few licorice wands. Hannah Abbott - whom I'd saved from Malfoy's bullying more than once - had given me a few sour apple strips. Susan Bones - who I frequently worked with during Transfiguration since she was so terrible - had given me a pumpkin pasty. Terry Boot - who I'd chatted with a few times - had given me a bag of gummy worms. Mandy Brocklehurst who I'd really never spoken to before - had given me a Chocolate Cauldron. Michael Corner - who I usually helped correct his Potions work - had given me Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. Anthony Goldstein - who I couldn't remember ever speaking to - had given me a Zebra Hoof. Padma Patil had given me a few Chocolate Frogs.

It turned out that even a few Ravenclaw's had sent me gifts, despite the fact that Cho Chang hated me so much. Lisa Turpin a toffee eclair. Sue Li had gotten me Sugared Butterfly Wings. To my complete surprise, even a Slytherin had given me something. Only one. Tracey Davis was a reasonably nice girl that frequently had detentions with me. She had sent me a Goodwin's Chocolate Extravaganza. I smiled. It was a love of chocolate that had actually been the reason that we'd bonded in the first place.

There were a few other presents from the older students like Fred, George, Lee, Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Oliver, and a few members of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. On the far corner of the table was one of the few things that I had that Harry didn't have. He had more things from students that I'd never heard of, but I was the only one with stuffed animals. There were two that were hidden underneath a few boxes. I laughed softly as I picked them up. There was a stuffed elephant and a stuffed giraffe. The giraffe had a note in its hand that I read over.

You're crazy, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Glad you're okay. See you soon.

\- Giraffe

Setting them down on the bed, I smiled and pushed them into the corner. Madam Pomfrey left with a warning to Harry to be mindful of his head. He glanced over at me and stared blankly at the animals. "Who gave you the animals? They're cute," he said.

"A friend," I answered with a small smile.

Harry gave me a long stare before asking, "Diggory?"

By the way that he was staring at me, I knew that he was bothered by the fact that Cedric had come to give me the animals. "Oh, come on, I was laying half-dead in the hospital wing after picking a fight with Voldemort," I told him. He scoffed at me and rolled his eyes. "A fight that you dragged me into, by the way!" I half-teased.

"I told you that you didn't have to come!" Harry barked back at me.

Grinning at him, I tossed a piece of a sugar quill against his face. We laughed at each other and leaned back against the ends of the bed. "You would have been dead if I didn't come along," I told him, biting my chunk of the quill in half.

Madam Pomfrey walked over a moment later and we glanced up at her with friendly smiles. She had done a lot for us. We had no right to be rude to her. She looked very stern as she glanced over us. I assumed that she thought that all of the sugar was a bad idea. "Your friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger have heard that you are both awake and are here to see you both," she said.

We both straightened up happily. I had been waiting for Ron and Hermione to come by and see us. "Wonderful, can you let them in?" I asked her sweetly.

"No," Madam Pomfrey said sternly. Harry and I exchanged a strange look. Madam Pomfrey was a nice woman, but very strict. "You will be able to see them when you're released."

"Just five minutes," Harry pleaded.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "Absolutely not."

"You let Professor Dumbledore in..." Harry argued.

"Well, of course, that was the headmaster, quite different. You need rest."

"Two minutes," I pleaded.

"No, Miss Nox."

Harry was determined not to give up, though. "We are resting, look, lying down and everything." Harry plopped down on one side of me and kicked me to follow suit, which I did. "Oh, go on, Madam Pomfrey..."

She stared at us for a moment before letting out a sigh and nodding. "Oh, very well. But five minutes only." She left to head to the door. She didn't return but a moment later Ron and Hermione came strolling into the hospital wing.

"Tara! Harry!" Hermione shouted as she dashed up to us. I cringed and sunk back into the bed. I was still sore and I knew that Harry's head still hurt. Hermione looked ready to fling her arms around us, but she managed to hold herself back. She took a seat at my side while Ron took a seat on Harry's. "Oh, we were sure you were going to - Dumbledore was so worried -"

"The whole school's talking about it," Ron spoke over her. "What really happened?" he asked.

They both looked thrilled to hear what had happened. They told us a little bit of what the school was talking about and Harry and I exchanged a little smile. It was one of those rare occasions when the true story was even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors. With a quick glance to me to ensure that it was alright, Harry told them everything: Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. He left out a few of the things that Voldemort had said to me and what I'd seen in the mirror - claiming that I'd never gotten to look into it.

I stepped in for the right spots, telling them a few things that Voldemort had told me - even relaying to them the comment about me being related to him in some way and being important to him. They both looked shocked. Hermione grabbed my hand when I told her that, but she didn't speak. It ended up that they were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places, and when Harry told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed out loud. They let us get all the way up to Dumbledore's visit before we stopped speaking. In the end, the only thing that we didn't tell them was what I saw in the Mirror of Erised and the gifts that I'd been receiving.

They were both silent for a long time before finally finding it in themselves to talk about everything. "So the Stone's gone? Flamel's just going to die?" Ron asked.

It was probably the easiest thing that we had to explain. "That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that - what was it? - 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure,'" he asked me. I nodded at him.

"I always said he was off his rocker," Ron said, looking quite impressed at how crazy his hero was.

"He's the only reason that Harry and I are still alive," I snapped at him. Ron's face immediately drained of color.

Sensing the tension, Harry leaned forward and broke my glare towards Ron. "So what happened to you two?" Harry asked. I was very glad that he'd asked. I was curious how they'd managed to get to safety.

"I was worried about the chessmen letting you back through," I said softly.

"Since we'd already won and weren't trying to get past again it wasn't an issue," Hermione reassured me. "Well, I got back all right. I brought Ron round - that took a while - and we were dashing up to the Owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall - he already knew - he just said, 'Harry and Tara have gone after him, haven't they?' and hurtled off to the third floor," she explained.

Had we waited another few hours, Dumbledore would have been able to handle it himself. But, at the same time, Quirrell and Voldemort might have managed something in the meantime. Maybe it was still good that we had gone early. We had at least managed to get some answers - both Harry and myself. Although I still had a feeling that we had more questions than answers. It just told me that this was only the beginning. Things would happen, but in time. Right now, we were allowed to be kids.

"Did anyone see what happened before we were taken up here?" I asked them after a few beats of silence.

"Everyone did!" Hermione barked at me. I jumped, having not been expecting her to speak that loudly. "Dumbledore went rushing off and practically the whole school waited around to see what had happened. No one's ever seen him in such a panic as he was right then. It wasn't long, maybe five minutes later, when he was floating you both back down the corridor towards the hospital wing, shouting at everyone to get out of the way. You were both passed out and Tara, you were covered in blood. You both looked terrible. People thought that you two were dead!" she howled.

She must have thought that we were dead, too. I coughed awkwardly and nodded. That couldn't have been fun for her. Ron either. "So how did they find out that we weren't?" I asked.

Something had to have happened, considering all of the gifts that were brought to us. "Everyone was told to wait in the Great Hall. When Dumbledore came back he said that you two were still alive. He told us that you had both gone after the Sorcerer's Stone - which he explained what it was and said that it truly was in danger - and were seriously injured during a fight with Professor Quirrell. He didn't say much else but everyone knows that there was something more," Hermione explained.

He hadn't said Voldemort. He'd mentioned Quirrell - if he was dead there was no way to keep him out of it - but he'd kept the Voldemort part a secret. Essentially he'd made it sound like we'd stopped a crazy teacher. "He didn't say anything about Voldemort... I wonder if he doesn't want to stir up a panic," I said softly.

"Probably not," Harry put in.

"D'you think he meant you two to do it?" Ron asked. I raised my eyebrow at him, wondering what he meant. "Sending you your father's cloak and everything?"

"Well if he did - I mean to say that's terrible - you could have been killed," Hermione exploded.

Harry and I exchanged a look and shook our heads at them. "No, it isn't. He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked," Harry said thoughtfully. "It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could..."

Once more we were plunged into silence as we attempted to figure out everything that had happened this year. "But, why Tara, then?" Hermione finally asked.

We all took a deep breath as gazes turned towards me. I took in a deep breath and said the thing that scared me the most. "Because there were some unanswered questions that I had. It showed me something important, if nothing else came from this. Somehow Voldemort and I are connected. This was just the beginning of me finding out how."

Sad gazes were turned downwards. It was bad enough that Harry had his connection to Voldemort. But now, somehow, I had one, too. I was very grateful when Ron said, "Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right."

Hermione spoke almost immediately afterwards. "Listen, you've both got to be up for the End-Of-Year feast tomorrow." Was that already? "The points are all in and Slytherin won, of course - you missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you two - but the food'll be good."

Of course Slytherin had won the House Cup. I wondered if Oliver and the others had been furious about the match or if they'd barely been able to think about it after what had happened to Harry and I. "I could care less about Slytherin winning the House Cup. And I completely forgot about the Quidditch match," I told them honestly.

When we'd gone through the trapdoor I hadn't even been able to think about Quidditch. "It was horrible, but no one was really angry. No one was even really playing. Everyone was still so caught up with everything that happened down in the dungeon with you two," Ron said.

I nodded at him when another thought came to mind. "Marks aren't out yet, are they?" I asked.

Hermione smiled brightly at me. Ron looked like I'd just asked him to kiss the giant squid in the Black Lake. "You're joking. That's what you have on your mind?" he asked me.

"I guess I'm more like Hermione than I care to admit," I said, giving Hermione a fond smile.

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over. "You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now out!" she said firmly.

There was absolutely no arguing with that. She'd given us three times the amount of time that she'd originally agreed to. And we told each other everything that we'd wanted to say. Hermione and Ron gave us one last goodbye. Hermione gave me a tight hug, only releasing me when I coughed painfully. I could feel that she was shaking. I realized slightly too late that Hermione and Ron must have been having it the hardest these last few days. Ron gave me another hug, being very careful not to hug me too tightly. Once they were gone, Harry and I spent the night together genuinely enjoying ourselves for the first time in months.

We played plenty of games at the request towards Madam Pomfrey. She seemed to want us just to sleep but she allowed us to play a few simple games when we'd told her that we would stay in bed, we were just bored. She had given us a deck of cards and told us that we would have to make do with that. We managed just fine - although she had thought once to shout at us not to dare play Exploding Snap. We'd laughed and settled on playing War - which I won - Poker - which was very difficult without chips - Blackjack - which we found out that we were both far too confident with - Sevens - which neither one of us were good at - Speed - which I was slightly better at - Mao - which we both quickly found out that we hated - and Pyramid - which Harry was good at.

It was the first time that I could remember in months that I had been genuinely happy. Harry and I spent much of the day together simply laughing and having a good time. There was no Voldemort and no Stone. Nothing had happened. We were just having a good day. It was almost like it was when we were together back at Privet Drive. As much as I loved Ron and Hermione, sometimes it was nice just the two of us. By early evening Harry and I had eaten almost half of the candy and chocolate that we had been giving. It made the two of us feel sick. I was absolutely sure that I was going to puke all over the place, so we put the cards away and laid, facing each other in our beds.

We spent the early evening chatting about everything under the sun. We talked about how we thought that we'd done on our exams, how annoying Slytherin's were going to be over the next few days after winning the House Cup, and how much fun we were going to have over the summer. Of course Harry had wanted to get off of the topic of exams as quickly as possible. I had teased him that after everything that we had done in the dungeons we had better well get extra points on the exams.

And as for summer... It wasn't necessarily because we were going to be together and going to have our other friends to see as well - although those were both true - but because of Dudley. We had already agreed that we were going to do everything in our power to terrorize him over magic. We'd even debated on finding a fake pig tail and stapling it to his trousers one night, just to scare him. I agreed that we'd have to confer with Fred and George for the perfect jokes to use on him over the summer. It was guaranteed to be the best one yet.

It was just past eight o'clock when we started to get ready to go to bed. Not that we really had to get ready. Someone had changed us both into our pajamas at some point over the past few days. I would have gotten up to brush my teeth or something of the sorts but none of my things were around. So I moved all of the candy wrappers off of my bed and tucked myself under the sheets as Harry did the same. It was still early - far early than it normally was when we went to bed - but I didn't mind. We had both had such a long few days that we felt that we'd earned a good night's sleep. Especially if we were going to have to face the entire school tomorrow.

Tucking myself under the covers, I turned to Harry and smiled. "Goodnight, Harry. Thanks for everything," I told him softly as Madam Pomfrey put out the lamps in the main area for us.

"Goodnight, Tara. Thanks for being there," Harry said.

It went unspoken that we would die for each other. I would always be there for him and I knew that he would always be there to help me. It was just the way that we were. So we went to bed and, for the first time in weeks, I didn't have a nightmare. I didn't even have to take Cedric's potion that he'd given me. It was rather late when we woke up the next day. It was already past four in the afternoon. The feast would be starting in just over an hour. Harry and I were only woken by Madam Pomfrey telling us to get up and get ready to go downstairs. Our clothes and toiletries had been brought to us over the night.

Thankfully after the good night's sleep I felt almost back to normal. Although my back was still bothering me and it hurt to take extremely deep breaths. "We slept late," I commented to Harry as I stood from the bed.

"Well considering we spent most of the night down in the dungeons battling crazy obstacles set up by our professors and Voldemort, I think that we earned a good sleep," Harry told me.

I smiled at him and shrugged my shoulders. "We've been sleeping for three days," I said.

"You lost almost all of the blood in your body," he argued.

"Fair enough."

We gathered our things in our arms and put up the curtains to get changed. Madam Pomfrey had brought in two full-length mirrors so that we could check ourselves over. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to see what I looked like. I grabbed my robes and began to pull myself into them. Hermione had brought up my last pair for me. It was the only pair that I'd managed not to ruin this year. I almost laughed at the thought. I'd have to go back to Diagon Alley to get another two sets. I could only imagine the look on Mom's face when I told her that I'd ruined them. Of course, I'd also helped keep Voldemort at bay, so maybe that would give me some brownie points.

Finally I gathered up the strength to look in the mirror and see what I looked like. My hair was a tangled mess - which I'd already known - but thankfully someone had washed it out. There was no trace of blood in it anymore. It took me almost ten minutes to get it back to normal. There was a soft ring of bruises around my neck from the Devil's Snare. I still had the wrap on my upper arm and around my fingers. There was a cut over my right cheek that looked about halfway-healed. My lip was also split in two places. Overall, Harry and I looked like we'd gotten in a fight with a Bludger - but we could have looked much worse.

Madam Pomfrey walked over once we had gotten ourselves together and placed on our pointy hats. This was the one time of year that we were supposed to wear them. She gave us a once-over. "We want to go to the feast," Harry told Madam Pomfrey as she straightened our many candy boxes. "We can, can't we?"

"Professor Dumbledore says you are to be allowed to go," she said stiffly, as though in her opinion Professor Dumbledore didn't realize how risky feasts could be. We both smiled at each other. I would have flipped if we hadn't been allowed to go. Even if Slytherin was going to win, I wanted to be there. "And you both have another visitor."

The two of us smiled at each other. "Oh, good. Who is it?" Harry asked.

Madam Pomfrey merely smiled and stepped off to the side. She was gathering our gifts in her arms. Since we were being checked out today, our gifts would be sent back to our dorms. I glanced upwards and smiled. "Oh, Hagrid. Hello!" I called out.

Just as I'd said, Hagrid was heading straight towards us. We both smiled at him as we walked towards the main area of the hospital wing. Hagrid sidled through the door as I spoke. As usual when he was indoors, Hagrid looked too big to be allowed. He motioned us over to a bed that was made and we nodded, taking our seats. Madam Pomfrey gave us a quick look as she ordered one of her helpers to bring our gifts and pajamas back to our dorms. Hagrid sat down in between Harry and I, took one look at us, and burst into tears.

We both jumped at the sudden, and very loud, tears. "It's - all - my - ruddy - fault!" Hagrid sobbed, his face in his hands. "I told the evil git how ter get past Fluffy! I told him! It was the only thing he didn't know, an' I told him! Yeh both could've died! All fer a dragon egg! I'll never drink again! I should be chucked out an' made ter live as a Muggle!"

"Hagrid!" Harry and I both shouted to get him to stop. I knew that we were both shocked to see Hagrid shaking with grief and remorse, great tears leaking down into his beard. I didn't him to feel bad, it wasn't his fault. It was an accident. He would have never known. "Hagrid, he'd have found out somehow, this is Voldemort we're talking about, he'd have found out even if you hadn't told him," Harry said.

"Yeh could've died! An' don' say the name!" Hagrid barked.

"Voldemort!" Harry bellowed. Both Madam Pomfrey and I stared at him like he'd lost his marbles. Hagrid was so shocked, he stopped crying. Harry cleared his throat and dropped his voice. "I've met him and I'm calling him by his name. Please cheer up, Hagrid, we saved the Stone, it's gone, he can't use it. Have a Chocolate Frog, I've got loads."

Smiling at the giant, I placed my hand over his huge arm. "We'll be fine, Hagrid. Thank you for coming to see us," I said sweetly.

Hagrid wiped his nose on the back of his hand and said, "That reminds me. I've got yeh a present. Tara, yeh might like some o' these too."

"It's not a stoat sandwich, is it?" Harry asked anxiously, and at last Hagrid gave a weak chuckle.

"Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. 'Course, he shoulda sacked me instead - anyway, got yeh this..."

It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Hagrid stepped off to the side so that Harry and I could sit together and paw through it. It looked almost like a photo album. But how many pictures did Harry genuinely have? Upon some prodding from myself, Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father. My heart skipped a beat. My parents had some of these pictures. There was a particularly sweet picture of James and Lily Potter laughing and dancing together underneath a fountain, leaving blowing around them.

Harry's eyes were watering and I wrapped my arm around him. He flipped the page and I nearly laughed. Mom was laying on a bed with Lily at her side, playing with a small baby in Mom's arms. Me... That was me... Lily must have barely been a week pregnant. She probably didn't even know that she was yet. James and Dad were standing off to the side. Dad was hovering over Mom, and James was smiling over Lily's adoring eyes as she looked at me. The picture moved slightly but I could very briefly see the shadows of a few other people. They must have been the other ones in the room when I'd been born.

It was obvious that Harry didn't understand this picture. "Those are my parents!" I told him with a laugh, wiping away my eyes. "That's me... I've just been born. They all look so happy..." I trailed off.

"Sent owls off ter all yer parents' old school friends, askin' fer photos... knew yeh didn' have any. D'yeh like it?" Hagrid asked Harry.

Harry couldn't answer, but we all understood. This was too much for him, someone that had never met his parents before. We spent a few minutes flipping through the pictures. Most of them were just of James and Lily, but from time to time someone else would be in the pictures too. Hagrid recounted as many memories as he could about the pictures that he remembered. Just before he left us, I smiled at the last picture. Lily and Mom were lying in bed together. James and Dad were standing off to the side, both smiling at the women in their lives. I was in Mom's arms, reaching out for the newborn Harry, who was pulled into Lily's arms.

It was the first picture that genuinely made me cry. It was proof that Harry and I really had known each other. We had sat together, our arms wrapped around each other, sobbing softly. I'd never hugged someone as tightly as I'd hugged Hagrid before he'd left, telling us that he would see us at the feast. Once Harry and I had managed to compose ourselves and wipe the tears from our eyes, we left the hospital wing with a thanks to Madam Pomfrey for everything that she had done.

Letting out a deep breath, I turned over to Harry. "Are you ready to go?" he asked me.

"Are you ready to be stared at?" I countered.

Harry grinned at me and shook his head. "I think the real question is, are you ready to be stared at?" he asked. I raised my eyebrows at him as we headed towards the door. "It wasn't just me down in the dungeons, Tara. You were a big part of it too."

"Still, I'm not the Boy-Who-Lived," I teased him.

Harry shook his head at me. "No. But you're smarter than him," he told me.

We both laughed as he wrapped an arm around me. "Well we all knew that," I laughed.

"Shut up," Harry told me, shoving me to the side. I stumbled slightly and laughed, pushing the pain in my knees off. I had hit them pretty hard a few times over the past few days. "Come on. Let's go." We walked out and I glanced down at my feet, kicking gently against the stone tiles. I heard Harry sigh and I looked over to him. "I think that you have a visitor. I'll wait for you at the bottom of the staircase," he said.

At first I didn't understand. But as I looked up, I realized just what he meant. "Thanks," I said with a smile. Harry walked out of the hall and gave Cedric a quick nod. "Hey," I said.

"Tara," Cedric said in almost disbelief.

Giving him a little smile, I walked forward. I made sure that Harry was already gone and down the staircase before I started laughing. He seemed like he was somewhere in between laughing and killing me. Thankfully, he chose something different. Cedric opened his arms as I ran over to him. He caught me around the waist and easily lifted me up. I didn't weigh that much and I knew that he was happy to see me. The butterflies hammered in my chest but I didn't care. For once I wasn't thinking about my stupid crush that I had on him, I was just glad that he was my friend, and he was here. We both laughed in each other's ears as he slowly let me back down.

He placed his hands on my arms, almost as if to make sure that I was still here and I wasn't going to disappear on him. "You're alright," he said.

"I'm... I'm okay," I breathed out.

He gave me a few good looks over. His eyes finally locked onto the bruises around my throat and I saw his eyes widen. I coughed awkwardly and rubbed at them. Cedric placed his hand underneath my chin and lifted it up so that I was looking straight at him. I was glad that his eyes were locked onto my throat, because my face was currently a brilliant red.

Finally he let his fingers drop so that I could lower my chin once more. "Do they hurt?" he asked softly.

I gave him a small shrug. They only hurt when people started poking at them or when I made a harsh swallow. "They're nothing compared to what happened down in the dungeon," I muttered.

Cedric gave me a guilty smile. I wondered just how much he really knew about what had happened down in the dungeon. He leaned forward and for a moment I thought that he was going to kiss me. He didn't - not on the lips but on the cheek - but it didn't matter. My heart still skipped a beat. When he pulled away from me I couldn't force the blush down in time. He merely grinned at me and didn't comment on it, something that I was very grateful for.

He ran his fingers through his hair and for a moment I thought that he might have been embarrassed too. "Well I've never been so glad to see someone alive," he told me. I smiled at him brightly.

"So what did you see?" I asked, wanting to stop thinking about how embarrassed I was.

Cedric's smile faded a little. "Nothing that I wanted to see. Everyone was hanging around on the grounds and in the halls. All of a sudden Professor Dumbledore comes rushing through in a panic. People followed. Everyone wanted to know what had made him so afraid. We saw your friends, Ron and Hermione, covered in dust and all cut up. We all just waited, wondering what had happened. Five minutes later he came back out levitating you and Harry. You were covered head to toe in blood. People thought that you were dead. I thought that you were dead," he said, his voice dropping at the end.

I guess I hadn't really thought about how traumatic it was for people that had seen us. Two students - not even teenagers yet - had been floated in through the halls from the Headmaster of the school in a panic for the first time that anyone had seen. They were covered in blood and dust and passed out, probably looking dead. I couldn't imagine how people had felt seeing that. As much as they hated us - it was only for losing points - it wasn't for anything that they wanted us dead for.

Sighing at him, I grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. "For a while there, so did I," I said softly.

Cedric took in a deep breath and continued his story, "We were all told to gather in the Great Hall. The rumors started to spread. Somehow the four of you had found out about this thing called the Sorcerer's Stone and you believed that it was in danger so you went after it. Professor Quirrell was down there. He'd been lying about who he was the entire time. Professor Dumbledore told us that Ron and Hermione had been injured beforehand and gone back. We just heard that the two of you went on and Professor Quirrell attacked you and Harry before fleeing the school when he wasn't able to get the Stone from you both."

Without knowing what had really happened down there, I supposed that it was close enough. "I suppose that's close enough to the truth. You know, this is one of those rare times when the actual truth is crazier than the stories," I told him.

"What really happened down there?" he asked me.

I took a deep breath and figured that telling him part of the truth wouldn't be that bad. "The Stone was being guarded by obstacles placed by each one of the professors. Hagrid had a three-headed dog named Fluffy. We found out that all you needed to do was play a little music to get him to go to sleep to get back him. After that was through a trapdoor where Professor Sprout had left Devil's Snare that tried to kill you." I tugged down my collar to show the bruises as evidence. "A present from it. If Hermione and I hadn't been there... I don't know what would have happened to Ron and Harry. Professor Flitwick had charmed keys to fly around the room. Only one opened the door. We had to use broomsticks to catch the right one. There were hundreds."

"Good thing that you had Harry," Cedric interjected.

I smiled at him and nodded. "We said the same thing. After that, Professor McGonagall had Transfigured a giant chess set. Turns out that Ron is very good at Wizard's Chess. We would have lost without him. He had to sacrifice himself to the queen so that we could win. I thought that he was dead when he got knocked out. Harry, Hermione, and I had to move on. After that, Quirrell had planted a troll that he'd already beaten by the time that we got there. Then it was Snape's. A riddle with seven potions. Three were poison, two were wine, one got us back through the previous door, and one got us to the last obstacle. Hermione and I figured it out. There wasn't enough for all three of us so we sent Hermione back to get Ron and Professor Dumbledore and Harry and I moved on," I explained.

"That's why it was only the two of you down there," Cedric reasoned.

Once more I nodded at him. "Yeah. It was Professor Dumbledore's last. The Mirror of Erised. You would look into the mirror and see yourself holding the Stone. But the trick that he placed in the mirror was that only someone who wanted the Stone, but didn't want to use it, would be able to get it. That's why Quirrell couldn't get it. So he waited for us. Harry was able to get it out of the mirror," I told him.

For whatever reason, I trusted Cedric with my life. I trusted that whatever I told him wouldn't go beyond us. "I don't understand though... Why did Quirrell want the Stone in the first place?" he asked.

"It's an Elixir of Life. It would have kept him alive forever. And..." I trailed off when I found myself unsure of whether or not I should say anything. He was old enough - and mature enough - to know about Voldemort. There was a good chance that he remembered the tail end of the war and his defeat. So didn't he have the right to know that he wasn't gone? "I don't know if I should say it," I muttered.

Cedric grabbed my hand and gave me a reassuring smile. "Whatever happened down there, I won't repeat it if you tell me," he said.

And I knew that it was the truth. "It would probably be best that I don't repeat everything that happened down there," I told him. He nodded at me. "But... I think..." I trailed off and took a deep breath. Just say it. "Quirrell ran into Voldemort," he gave a tiny cringe at the name but said nothing, "When he was in Romania. He showed him power and everything like that. Whatever. That's what he was saying. He was working for him. That's who he was trying to get the Stone for. Not himself."

The two of us were silent for a long while and I wondered if I shouldn't have said anything at all. But finally he managed to gather himself to form a coherent thought. "Was he down there? In the dungeon?" he asked me quietly.

Yes. No? "Sort of." Cedric didn't understand. "He's not strong enough to inhabit a body of his own. So he finds these followers and inhabits them. The reason that Quirrell was wearing that turban all year, the funny smell, the way that he would drift off into space sometimes... Voldemort was here the entire time. He was in the back of his head." I thought that Cedric might collapse from shock. He made a strangely strangled sound. "I know. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself. He spoke to us. It was horrible. When we started to defeat Quirrell, Voldemort left his body, left him to die," I explained.

Cedric breathed out a few times. It took a little bit of time to realize that Voldemort was still here and he was close. "That's horrible. Are you - are you both - alright?" he asked me.

I nodded at him with an attempt at a smile. The other day had been terrifying and tough, but it was over and we were ready to move past it. "We'll manage. He's gone for now so that's the important thing," I said.

"But he's not dead?" Cedric asked.

Might as well tell him the truth. "No," I said. Cedric shifted uncomfortably. Probably because the worst Dark Wizard in history had been within feet of him for months. "Please don't repeat any of this," I begged softly. "I don't know how much Professor Dumbledore wants the students to know... But it's probably not a lot. He must not want people to know that Voldemort was so easily able to sneak into the castle right under his nose."

Cedric nodded at me. I knew that he wouldn't repeat what I'd told him because I'd asked. We were friends and I trusted him. "Of course not. The only thing that matters to me is that you - and your friends - are safe. I don't know them very well, but I know that they mean a great deal to you," he said and I smiled.

It meant a great deal to me that even though he didn't know Harry, Ron, or Hermione, he still wanted them to be safe. "They do. They didn't have to come down to the dungeons with us but they did. Not many people would have done that," I said.

"No. You're right about that," he told me. We stood in silence for a little while, smiling at each other. It felt much better to know that the school year was over and we were safe. At least, for a little while. "Well, if nothing else, I don't think that you and Harry are the most hated people in the school anymore. I think that you're back to being the most loved," Cedric told me.

Smiling softly, I nodded. "Yes, I saw all of the presents from the well-wishers. Thank you for the elephant and giraffe, by the way. They made me laugh," I told him honestly.

Cedric smiled back at me. "You're welcome. I'm glad that it did," he said.

Before I said anything too stupid, I made an excuse to slip away. "We should go. I think the feast is starting soon," I said.

He nodded at me and motioned for me to head towards the staircase. As we were walking, Cedric chuckled under his breath. I turned towards him curiously. "So, what will you four do next year?" he asked.

"Something terrible, I'm sure," I told him truthfully.

We both laughed loudly as we reached the edge of the staircase. It was funny because we both knew that we were going to cause another disaster next year. "I'll see you again soon. Try not to die before you get back home, yeah?" Cedric teased me as the bottom of the staircase.

Grinning at him, I nodded. "I will try my hardest," I said.

I was about to turn and head over to where Harry was waiting for me. But, before I could, Cedric spoke to me again. "You know you can call me Ced," he told me.

"No," I said almost immediately.

"No?" he questioned.

"No," I repeated with a small smile. "Everyone calls you that. I think I'll be a little different," I teased.

Cedric smiled at me and I knew that he liked what I had just said. But I'd meant it. I wanted to be different. That was what I'd always liked. "I like different," he told me.

We gave each other one last hug before I turned and rounded the corner to where Harry was waiting for me. I could tell by the look on his face that he'd overheard what we had been talking about. I was grateful that he said nothing as we watched Cedric walk past us to get to the Great Hall first. He exchanged a brief nod with Harry before Harry turned back to me.

"So what do you think? Ready to face the school?" I asked Harry teasingly.

Harry let out a deep breath and nodded at me. "Can't be worse than Voldemort," he said.

"I wouldn't bet on that."

Together the two of us made our way down to the End-Of-Year feast. It was the quietest that I'd ever heard the halls, with the exception of the few times that we'd wandered the halls at night. I assumed that everyone was already down in the Great Hall. Actually, I knew that they were. The closer that we got, the more voices that I could hear. We were definitely late. We had been held up by Madam Pomfrey's fussing about, insisting on giving us one last checkup before we could leave.

That meant that the Great Hall was already full. Harry and I stopped dead in our tracks to look and see what had happened in the Great Hall. We weren't quite ready to have a thousand pairs of eyes staring at us. The entire hall was decked out in the Slytherin colors of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning the House Cup for the seventh year in a row. Both Harry and I scowled at the looks of pure joy on the Slytherin's faces. I would have loved to shove Malfoy's face into the wooden table. A huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table, and more were hung over the tables.

No food was out yet so everyone was chatting back and forth in the meantime. When Harry and I gave each other a nod to walk in, and we did, there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. It didn't help that they were all pointing to us. My face lit up a brilliant red as Harry pulled me close to him and we quickly walked to the table. Cedric have me a reassuring smile and I nodded at him. We slipped into seats between Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table - myself next to Hermione and Harry next to Ron - and tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at us.

For the most part, no one spoke to us. But we weren't left in peace for very long. "Tara!" two, very loud, shouts called. The Weasley twins bounded over to me and grabbed me so tightly that we were knocked from the table onto the stone floor.

The hall erupted into laughter and even some of the teachers were grinning at us. I let out a few deep breaths and tapped the boys on the shoulder to get them to let up on me. "Okay, okay, I was almost dead four days ago. Please be careful," I said. They stood up and offered me two hands that I took. "Hi Freddie, Georgie. I've missed you both," I told them.

The twins grabbed me in a tight hug and I smiled. It had been far too long since I'd actually spoken to them. "We missed you, too," Fred told me with a guilty smile.

"We're sorry -" George started.

"About everything -" Fred continued.

I held up a hand to stop them both. I really hadn't been angry with everyone else over the past few weeks, I'd been angry with myself for getting caught. "Don't worry about it. I would have been angry if someone else had done it, too," I told them.

They both smiled at me and allowed me to take my place again. Across the table - where Fred and George had taken their places again - Lee Jordan leaned forward to me. "Tara. How are you feeling?" Lee asked.

"Been worse. Thanks, Lee."

A few spots down the table and across from me, Dean leaned forward. "Tara!" he called to get my attention. "Are you alright?"

"I'm good, actually," I said with a small smile.

As everyone checked to see that I was okay, people were also speaking to Harry. It felt strange to speak to so many people after months of barely speaking to anyone. ""We're all glad to see that you're alright," Seamus said, speaking around Ron and Harry, "Both of you. All of you, actually," he said, speaking to the other three.

Neville leaned in from around Hermione to speak to me. I took in a deep breath, hoping that at least part of my spell worked. "What happened the other night?" I exchanged a little grin with the other three. "I remember seeing you four down in the Common Room... And then I don't remember anything until Seamus woke me up."

"Trust me when I say that you don't want to know," I told him.

Very sheepishly, Parvati leaned forward to me. "I have some cream that will help take away the bruises a little faster," she said softly.

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that," I told her, giving her a small smile.

A moment later, Lavender leaned forward too. I stared at her, wondering what she was going to say to me. We'd been rather rude to each other recently. "Tara... I'm sorry for being so awful to you for the past few months," she said.

I waved her off. Next year would be a chance to start anew, and in the meantime, we would all get things sorted between ourselves. "I get it, Lavender. I do. I would have been mad if someone else had lost all of those points too. But we knew that there were more important things than the points. Still, you all had every right to be angry," I told her.

Fay - who hadn't been rude over the past few weeks but hadn't really spoken to me - gave me a sweet smile. "Still, we're all just glad that you're all okay," she said.

It seemed that others wanted to speak to me, but fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away as he stood up at the podium. I leaned forward to listen to what he was going to say. "Another year gone!" Dumbledore hooted cheerfully. I smiled at him, wondering if he'd ever had a bad day in his life.

"And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were. You have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts." Small chuckles were exchanged. "Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with two hundred and sixty-two points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-seven."

Ouch. Our points were really that low? A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. The Ravenclaw table clapped politely and the Hufflepuff's barely made a noise. Gryffindor's mostly glared. Hermione made a few weak attempts to clap as Harry, Ron, and I glared over at the Slytherin table. I could see Malfoy banging his goblet on the table. It was a sickening sight. More than anything I wanted to chuck my plate at his fat head. We should have been the ones to win the House Cup.

Harry was clearly just as bitter as I was. I leaned over to him and whispered, "Just remember, the whole school still hates them."

"Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin. However, recent events must be taken into account." The room went very still. The Slytherin's smiles faded a little. The Gryffindor students all leaned forward slightly. "Ahem. I have a few last-minute points to dish out." More scattered mutters were exchanged. "Let me see. Yes. First to Mr. Ronald Weasley..." Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn. "...for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Harry, Hermione, and I all leaned forward and started hugging him tightly. Percy could be heard telling the other Prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!" We laughed as even the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw's cheered.

At last there was silence again. "Second - to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." Hermione buried her face in her arms; I strongly suspected she had burst into tears. Gryffindor's up and down the table were beside themselves - we were a hundred points up. I leaned into her and gave her a tight hug. "Third - to Miss Tara Nox..." The room went silent as gazes turned to me. I blushed and nodded. "...for choosing to side with a friend even in the darkest of times, for saying no to evil even when her own life was in grave danger, and showing us all what a true Gryffindor is, I award Gryffindor House fifty-five points."

The table exploded into cheers as I was pulled back and forth into arms. Harry and I hugged each other so tightly that I was sure my bones would break. It didn't matter. We were winning back all of the points that we had lost. I could see Cedric cheering for me loudly at the Hufflepuff table. "Fourth - to Mr. Harry Potter..." The room went deadly quiet, even more so than when my name was called. "For pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

The din was deafening. I leaned over to Harry and squeezed him in a huge hug. No one could be angry about the points anymore. We'd gained them all back. Things got even better though. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had four hundred and seventy-seven points - exactly the same as Slytherin. We had tied for the House Cup - if only Dumbledore had given one of us just one more point. Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.

"There are all kinds of courage," Dumbledore said, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place; the noise was so loud that erupted from the Gryffindor table. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryffindor before. Everyone in the hall was on their feet and cheering until they couldn't any longer. I was about to burst into tears. We'd done it. We'd won the House Cut. Harry, still cheering, nudged us in the ribs and pointed at Malfoy, who couldn't have looked more stunned and horrified if he'd just had the Body-Bind Curse put on him.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, "we need a little change of decoration."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. The cheers hadn't diminished. Members of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were coming over to celebrate with us. I'd met some of Cedric's friends and so many older students that I couldn't even begin to remember their names. It didn't matter, in this moment, we were all the best of friends. Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a horrible, forced smile. She looked absolutely beside herself with joy.

As Harry and I were lifted into the air and passed around, I laughed and glanced back to the High Table at the end of the Great Hall. Hagrid was cheering for us loudly, as were most of the teachers. Even Madam Pince - who normally hated us - and Professor Sinistra - who was not overly fond of me since I slacked off so much in her class - were cheering for us. Very briefly I glanced over to Snape. He did not look thrilled with the turn of events and one glare sent in my direction told me that he still hated us. But it didn't worry me. Not today.

It seemed as though life would be back to normal next year, or as normal as it ever was at Hogwarts. Things would never be normal with Harry Potter in my life, but that was okay. I didn't mind. He was my best friend. I had Hermione nagging at me all of the time to do my homework and Ron making me want to tear my hair out, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. It was the best evening of my life, better than winning at Quidditch, or Christmas, or knocking out mountain trolls... I knew that we would never, ever forget tonight.

With only one more full day at the castle - since we were leaving the next morning to head back home - and the excitement of the night before with winning the House Cup, I had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. To their great surprise, both Harry and Ron passed with good marks. We had laughed at them, who were both shocked that they'd even managed to pass the Potions exam. Hermione, of course, had managed to tie with me for the best grades of the First Years. In some classes we'd done better or worse than the other, but altogether we'd managed to have the same averages.

The two of us weren't angry with each other. We'd merely congratulated each other and laughed, promising that next year we each would get the better final grades. Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one. Everyone had hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be thrown out, but he had passed, too. It was a shame, but as Ron said, you couldn't have everything in life.

As for myself, I was almost surprised at my marks. They were better than I'd expected. For Transfiguration, I'd managed a nearly perfect score. Professor McGonagall had taken away one point for a tiny patch of fur on the bottom. I'd still managed an O. I'd gotten a one hundred and fifteen percent in Charms, as Hermione had said, and it was the highest mark in the First Year class. Obviously it was an O. Potions - as much as Snape hated me - had been another O. He'd had to give me a one hundred since nothing on the Forgetfulness Potion had been wrong and I'd been done early. In History of Magic, I'd somehow scored an O. Hermione did get a higher grade than me, unsurprisingly. I'd beaten her in Defense Against the Dark Arts with an easy O. Harry actually got a perfect score right along with me.

The one thing that had made me laugh was the fact that Professor Sprout had been so impressed with our dealings against the Devil's Snare that she'd awarded both Hermione and I five extra points to our exams. It put us both at over one hundred percent. Again, easy O's. Astronomy was the only class that I didn't receive an O in. But that was okay. I'd gotten an E - surprising even me. I'd thought that I would get an A. I'd run straight to Cedric and thrown myself into his arms, telling him that he was the only reason that I'd managed a score that high. He insisted that my own hard work had gotten me the grade.

We'd gotten our exam scores at the beginning of the day. It left us the afternoon to enjoy one, final, day in Hogwarts and pack up our things before departing in the morning. It was pretty obvious that our friendships with the other students were easily recovered. Everyone was enjoying sitting out by the Black Lake together and messing around. I exchanged phone numbers with a few of the other students - mostly Muggle-Born's and Half-Blood's. I'd exchanged addresses with the Pureblood's.

Dean and I had kicked around a soccer ball for a good part of the afternoon and I'd sent a, deliberately, aimed kick to Pansy Parkinson - whose lie had now come out to the entire school. It had hit her in the back of the head so hard that she'd been knocked off of her feet and fallen into the Black Lake. I was sure that the entire school had laughed at her. Even the Slytherin's. To my horror, Professor McGonagall had been walking by, but she merely claimed that she hadn't seen anything and continued walking. I was almost positive that she winked at me.

It had certainly earned me a name for myself throughout the school. Fred and George had decided that we would put our prank war on hold, much to my excitement. I'd been so busy - and depressed - over the past few weeks that I hadn't even bothered to think about the prank that I was supposed to pull. We agreed that with everything that had happened, it wasn't worth it. We also agreed that I had won in some way - even though winning the House Cup wasn't really a prank. But seeing the Slytherin's looks of horror when they realized that they'd finally been dethroned was the highlight of most people's year.

And suddenly, my First Year at Hogwarts had come to an end. With the calm of the past few days I almost wished that I wasn't going home. Our wardrobes were empty, our trunks were packed - Cedric's stuffed animals on the very top - Neville's toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets, and Hermione was already thinking about what books we would need for Second Year. I dropped my trunk 'accidentally' on her foot, and that was the end of that conversation. Just an hour before we were to leave, notes were handed out to all students, warning us not to use magic over the holidays.

"I always hope they'll forget to give us these," Fred said sadly as we waited in the Common Room to leave.

"I'm certain that this note is a good thing when it comes to the two of you," I told the twins.

They both laughed and most of the Common Room agreed that it was probably for the best until they were fully trained. Finally it was time to leave. The school seemed extremely happy as we waved off the professors and left the castle. The Seventh Years were all in tears as they left the castle for the last time. Everyone waved them off, happy to see that they were onto the next parts of their lives. I didn't really know any of them but I was happy to see that all of their hard work had paid off.

Once we had all gotten off of the grounds, we saw that Hagrid was there to take us down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I gave him tight hugs and everyone else waved him off. He was a friendly face and very popular among the students. We were boarding the Hogwarts Express a moment later. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, and Lee had all gotten a compartment to ourselves. But it didn't really matter. We'd moved back and forth to the other cabins, saying hello and chatting with the other students. It was so different from the first ride all those months ago, people trying to make friends and sitting about nervously.

For the six hour ride we talked and laughed as the countryside became greener and tidier. It didn't take long to get out of Scotland. I attempted to take a nap about halfway through, but it didn't work. Fred and George were determined that I would either be awake for the ride, or risk waking up without hair. So instead I went to eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and challenging the twins to eating them with me. Fred gave up the moment that he got a dirt flavored one. So we settled on laughing together as we sped past Muggle towns. We were getting closer and closer to King's Cross.

Finally Hermione and I left the compartment at her nagging that we needed to get changed. Stumbling over all of the other girls in the bathroom, we pulled off our wizard robes and put on our jackets and coats. It seemed so strange to have to go back to the Muggle world after so long dealing with only magical lives. The two of us said a final goodbye to Lavender, Parvati, and Fay; telling them that we would see them soon enough. We finally pulled into platform Nine and Three-Quarters at King's Cross Station and I took a deep breath. The year was over.

It ended up taking quite a while for us all to get off the platform. It made perfect sense though. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting us go through the gate in twos and threes so we didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles. It was probably a good idea. We moved forward slowly; Ron, Harry, Hermione, and I were all standing together and waiting to go through to meet up with our families once more.

"You must come and stay this summer, all three of you - I'll send you an owl," Ron said.

Fred and George popped up behind me, startling me. "Yes, Tara, you must come and stay," Fred teased, half hanging over me.

I turned and glared at him, giving him a gentle shove backwards. "Ah, yes, so that I can wake up one morning without any hair," I snapped.

"Exactly!" George chirped.

Harry and Ron both laughed. Hermione seemed reasonably concerned for me. I shrugged at her. After Voldemort, Fred and George would be nothing. "Thanks. I'll need something to look forward to," Harry said. I sighed at him. I knew that I would still be around over the summer, but it didn't change the fact that he would still have to be with the Dursley's. And heaven knows that they would be extremely careful letting me anywhere near their house now.

People jostled all around as we moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. "Bye, Harry!" an older Ravenclaw called.

"See you, Potter!" a Gryffindor boy called.

Two older Hufflepuff's passed by us and I smiled at them. They were some of Cedric's friends. "See you, Tara!" the boy called.

"Have a good summer, Tara!" the girl added.

A boy that had high-fived me when I'd gotten Parkinson to fall in the Black Lake passed by me and patted me on the back. "Bye, Tara!" he called and I waved back to him.

"Still famous," Ron said, grinning at Harry. He turned to me a moment later. "And you, you're getting famous too."

"Not where I'm going, I promise you," Harry said.

I gave him a gentle nudge, hoping that he would smile and remember that in two months, we'd be back here. "I'll just hide behind Harry. He'll always be the most famous of us. Thankfully." Both Ron and Hermione laughed. "And don't worry, Harry, you'll always have me," I told him, throwing an arm over his shoulder.

"That's comforting," Harry groaned.

Everyone laughed as I shoved him away from me. A hand laid itself on my shoulder and I turned back to see Cedric standing behind me. The others watched with small smiles. "Write me over the summer, yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah. See you next year," I said.

"Maybe sooner," he told me with a smile.

We gave each other a small hug as he offered to let me come over and play Quidditch with him in the open field by his house. I'd made sure to try not to sound too eager when I said yes. Cedric waved me off and walked through the barrier. "Obvious!" Fred called through a cough.

"Shut up!" I barked.

Everyone laughed as we all passed through the barrier together. Right through the edge of the barrier were the Weasley's. More appropriately, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley. Mr. Weasley was probably at work. "There he is, Mom, there he is, look!" It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron. "Harry Potter! Look, Mom! I can see -"

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point." Mrs. Weasley smiled down at us as we walked over to her. "Busy year?" she asked.

I assumed that she didn't know what had happened. So we exchanged a smile and nodded at her. "Very. Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley," Harry told her.

I smiled. She'd sent my family fudge too. "Oh, it was nothing, dear. Did your parents get the fudge that we sent them, Tara?" she asked me.

I nodded at her. "They did. It was wonderful, thank you."

"You're quite welcome, dear."

"Ready, are you?"

We all turned back and I almost immediately scowled at him. It was Vermin, still purple-faced, still mustached, still looking furious at the nerve of Harry, carrying an owl in a cage in a station full of ordinary people. He also didn't look thrilled that Harry was no longer alone. He was now standing with a rather large group of people. No longer would be just be the boy that lived under the staircase. Behind Vermin stood Horse-Face and Dudley, looking terrified at the very sight of Harry.

Mrs. Weasley did not see the issue. Of course, as far as I knew, she'd never heard about the Dursley's. "You must be Harry's family!" she cheered happily, moving over to them.

"In a manner of speaking. Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day."

He started to walk away before I called back to him. "Mr. Dursley! I think that you'll all be quite curious to hear all about the hexes and jinxes that we learned this year. Oh, and, of course, the curses too!" I said.

The Dursley's all stumbled backwards and dashed towards the edge of the station, waiting for Harry to join them Harry smiled and me and hung back for a last word with Ron and Hermione. We would be able to talk any time. "See you over the summer, then."

"Hope you have - er - a good holiday," Hermione said. She seemed shocked that anyone could be so unpleasant.

"Oh, I will," Harry said. I knew that we were all surprised at the grin that was spreading over his face. "They don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer."

The four of us barked out laughter. "You sure that you don't need a ride home?" I asked Harry.

Harry shook his head. "Oh no, I want to tell Dudley everything that we learned this year," he said.

The two of us laughed once more. "Okay, I'll come see you tomorrow," I told him, beginning to search for Mom and Dad.

It didn't take long to find them. More appropriately, them to find me. "Tara Nox!" Mom's shrill voice cried out through the crowd. I cringed, knowing that I was in trouble. She was rushing up to me, Dad following closely behind her. "What in Merlin's name were you thinking?" She turned over to Harry. "Oh, Harry, we're so glad that you're alright."

She brought Harry into a tight hug and I scowled. "What about me?" I asked.

"You're fine," she told me. "You and your father... What will I do with you both?" Mom asked me.

We all laughed. "We keep you on your toes!" I called out to her.

"You're both going to give me gray hair. But... The important thing is that you're safe. Both of you," she said. "All of you," she added when she saw the others that were standing with us.

The group of us exchanged hugs and greetings. Mom and Dad met the other Weasley's and demanded that we tell Mrs. Weasley what had happened. I sighed but followed the order. She seemed horrified until we told her that our disobedience had won us the House Cup. My parents also met Hermione and her parents - and got to know Ron a little better - and offered to let them both come over the summer if they liked. We figured that they could come over to my house in the beginning of the summer, and Ron's at the end. Finally we all managed to say goodbye with promises to keep in touch.

We headed over to the hidden fireplace and immediately took the Floo system home. Dad got my things through first before Mom and I followed him through. We popped into the living room and I smiled. "Home sweet home," I said, opening Dai's cage and letting him fly off.

He flew over to Hale, the two of them soaring out through the window together. No one was worried, they would be back. "Do you want to move your things back upstairs? We can go and see a movie afterwards, or we can go to dinner, walk around the mall; whatever you'd like," Dad told me.

"Can we take Harry out to dinner? I want to tell you guys everything!" I exclaimed.

They both nodded at me with a little smile. I wanted to keep Harry away from the Dursley's as much as humanly possible. Mom and Dad both smiled at me. "Yes, we would like to hear everything," Mom said.

"I'll go over and get him," Dad said, moving towards the door. "Why don't you move your things upstairs and out of the living room so that we can unpack with you when we get back?" he offered me.

I nodded and moved towards my things. "Sure. I'll be done in a few minutes," I told them.

So I dashed upstairs, well, not quite dashed. The trunk was extremely heavy, even with all of the charms on it. But I managed to haul it up the stairs. I really would miss being able to do magic to take care of everything. At least Mom and Dad could help me out. These were the moments that I felt terrible for the Muggle-Born's like Hermione. Other than being able to read their books they would have a mostly magic-free summer. At least Harry would be able to come over here. And in a few weeks we might be able to go see Ron.

Moving my bags and Dai's cage upstairs, I sighed and wiped a bead of sweat off of my brow. I pulled my hair up and turned back to my bed with a small smile. It was only then that I realized that my window was open and an owl was sitting on it. Who had delivered me a letter already? The black owl hissed at me and I jumped as it flew off. I scoffed at it. Nastier thing than Hale. I almost felt bad for whoever owned it. Maybe it was nicer to the owner. But my thoughts about the owl were halted in my tracks when I spotted what it had brought me. Not a letter, but a box. A perfectly-wrapped, very familiar-looking, black box.

It's not Quirrell... It never was... With shaking hands, I opened the top of the box and placed it off to the side. I could hear Harry chatting with my parents downstairs and I knew that I would have to move in a moment, but I had to see this first. I opened the top of the box and saw that, this time, there was no present inside. There was only a neatly printed note. Well done. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest as my parents called for me. Even though Quirrell and Voldemort were gone, this was far from over.


	19. Summer Daze

The Quaffle came straight towards me and I caught it with minimum effort. It was almost like he'd meant to throw it straight towards me, rather than trying to throw me off. "You throw like a girl, Diggory!" I shouted across the open field.

Cedric swooped around as I threw the Quaffle back to him. He wavered for a moment before beginning to fly around once more. "Well if you're referring to yourself, that's a compliment!" he called back to me.

We both laughed as we began to loop around the field again. Cedric was still holding onto the Quaffle and he looked extremely awkward trying to fly and hold onto the ball. The Snitch was so tiny. I assumed that he was not used to holding something the size of a Quaffle. That was one of Oliver's training techniques. To make all of the players as versatile as possible, we had to train in the basics of every position. It taught us how the other players would think and move and helped us learn new ways to play. I had always thought that it was one of his more interesting training styles.

Dad seemed very intrigued about it and wrote back to his friends still on the Stars, letting them know to give that a try. It was probably the reason that they'd won two of their last three games. They'd beaten Canada and Germany, but a few weeks ago they'd lost to Italy, who had in turn lost to Argentina. Of course, that meant that they weren't high enough to be going to the Quidditch World Cup this year. In the meantime I would be rooting for Japan while they played against Argentina.

Closer to home, it was so nice to be back flying around with the breeze whipping my hair around my head. I missed being at Hogwarts and being able to fly whenever I wanted. In Surrey there wasn't enough room and there were far too many Muggles around to be able to play. Cedric's home wasn't far from London, but with all of the woods that surrounded him and the Muggle-Repelling Charms that were placed around the house, no one would ever be able to see us.

Unfortunately, I did feel a little bad while I was here having fun. I knew that Harry missed flying too. I had thought about asking to invite him, but I'd restrained myself. Cedric had only invited me over and I knew that he didn't know Harry that well. I didn't want to be overstepping my boundaries. The only other time that Cedric had invited someone else with us was once or twice when the entire Hufflepuff team came over. Of course, we rarely actually played Quidditch when it was all of us together. We would all sit around outside together, and the girls would roll their eyes while the boys wrestled in the yard.

Since the beginning of the summer holidays I'd been coming over to Cedric's house one a week. Sometimes I would come over twice. Especially when my parents were working and Harry was unable to leave his house. I'd been teaching Cedric to be a better Chaser and he'd been teaching me to be a better Seeker. It was mostly for fun, since neither one of us had really learned that much. Plus Cedric's Snitch was old and slow. It was nothing like the one at Hogwarts that was like a bullet. We were currently about a month out from the start of my Second Year at Hogwarts - and Cedric's Fourth Year.

Glancing down at the Muggle watch that was around my wrist, I sighed. I would have to be leaving soon. I had told him when I'd first come over that I wouldn't be able to stay for more than an hour. It was just past nine in the morning now. I motioned to Cedric that I was running short on time and he nodded. We did one, last, loop around the area behind his house and I smiled. A moment later I caught the Quaffle as he tossed it to me and landed on the ground. He followed a moment later and I tossed his Quaffle back to him, waiting while he put his broom, Quaffle, and gloves back in the storage shed.

Today was an important day, and that meant that I couldn't be late. Of course, I'd given myself plenty of time to manage everything. Today was Harry Potter's twelfth birthday, and being his best friend, I'd taken it upon myself to do something special for him. Hermione was currently away with her parents and Ron was busy helping his family with chores around the house while they were back home. But that didn't matter. I would get Harry away from the Dursley's for a little while and make his day just slightly better. But I did have to make a pit stop at Diagon Alley before heading home. As usual, I left shopping for presents until the last possible second.

Cedric walked back out from the shed and smiled at me. "Good game," he said. I nodded and wiped some sweat from my brow. It was abnormally hot today, even for the summer. "You know, I think that I'll keep this," he teased me.

The past few times that I'd been over here, I'd allowed him to use the Nimbus Two Thousand. He had wanted to try it anyways, and I didn't mind letting him borrow it. But he was not going to keep it. "I think you will not!" I shouted, snatching it back from him as he laughed.

"You want a drink?" Cedric asked.

Smiling at him, I nodded. "I'd love one."

Cedric motioned for me to follow him. "Come on," he said.

We were walking towards his house and I raised my eyebrows at him. For as many times as I'd been here, I'd only been inside his house once. "I thought that I wasn't allowed in your house?" I asked.

The first time that Cedric had invited me over to his house, Amos Diggory had told me that I wasn't allowed inside of the house when he wasn't around. I'd never been so mortified at the thought of what Cedric's father was thinking. There was no way that something like that would happen. I wasn't even thirteen yet! And honestly, even if we'd wanted to do that, there wasn't anyone that lived around him. There was just as much privacy outside as there was inside.

But it was - and probably always would be - one of the most mortifying moments that Cedric and I had shared. I knew that he was just embarrassed as I had been. He'd shouted at his father for the insinuation and I'd very awkwardly made my way outside to wait for them to come to terms with each other. When I came over by the Floo network, I was able to go through the fireplace that they had on their porch. It meant that I never set foot inside. It wasn't that I wasn't allowed in the house. I was. But only when Amos Diggory was here. And today was not one of those days. He was at work right now.

Cedric shook his head at me and motioned me inside. "Dad shouldn't be home for hours. And it's only to get a drink," he argued. I nodded and walked inside with him. We walked into the mostly white kitchen and I stood against the counter as Cedric went pouring through the cabinets. "You really are good," he said as he searched.

Blushing slightly, I nodded at him, reveling in the air conditioning. "Thanks. But I grew up with Dad on the Stars. I'm pretty sure that I could fly before I could walk. This is just something that I've always loved to do," I said happily.

Cedric grabbed two glasses and began to pour some lemonade for the two of us. "Thinking about being a player after Hogwarts?" he asked.

He handed me the spare drink. "Thank you. I don't know. I've always wanted to be an Auror," I said honestly. As Cedric hopped up onto the counter near the refrigerator, I hopped up onto the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. "What about you?" I asked once I'd taken a few sips of the drink.

"I'd actually love to be an Auror," he said. I smiled brightly. He would make a good Auror. I knew that he was good with both Charms and Defense. "But I've also thought about being a Healer. It's hard not to, with Professor Sprout as the Head of House." I smiled softly. That made perfect sense to me. And Mom loved being a Healer. "My problem with being an Auror, I think, is that Dad works for the Ministry. I hate the politics. I'm not so sure that I would want to work somewhere like that."

Taking a deep breath, I nodded at him. My parents had seemed so much happier with their jobs back in the States. "I know what you mean. Mom used to be a Healer at St. Dorrin's back in the States. And Dad... You know. They both work at the Ministry now and it always seemed like they were so much happier back in the States," I explained.

Cedric smiled at me as I crossed my legs on the counter and placed the drink in between them. "I guess neither one of us wants someone telling us what to do," he said.

We both laughed at that one. I hated people telling me what to do, but I knew that it was a part of life. There would always be someone giving me orders, as much as I didn't like it. "As you've seen, I'm not very good at following rules or orders," I teased, referring to last year.

In the end, most of the things that I'd done last year had gotten me in trouble in some way or another. I'd gotten a grand total of twenty-six detentions throughout the prior year. I'd gotten over two hundred points taken away from Gryffindor by myself. I'd entered the Forbidden Forest - granted that it was on a detention - and the sectioned off third floor corridor. We'd helped Hagrid raise a dragon, an extremely illegal activity. We'd snuck out of Gryffindor tower after hours, snuck into the Restricted Section, snuck into the Astronomy tower all hours of the day, and skipped classes. I supposed that we made up for it all by the way that had battled the old Defense teacher, Professor Quirrell, and defeated Voldemort again, saving the Sorcerer's Stone.

In all honesty, I was amazed that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I hadn't been expelled from Hogwarts. I supposed that we had another six years to make that happen. "That's right. You lost maybe three hundred points last year?" Cedric asked. I grinned. It wasn't that many. I didn't think that it was... "How many points do you think that you're going to lose this year?"

"I think that I'll do better! How about two hundred?" I offered, not wanting to go too low.

"Two-fifty," he countered.

I thought about it for a few moments before deciding that two-fifty was too high. "You have no faith in me," I teased.

If I had the choice, this year I would get more detentions but have less points taken from me. At least that would make my mistakes my own fault, not the rest of Gryffindor's. "I have lots of faith in you," Cedric said.

We were silent for a little while as Cedric refilled my drink. The two of us chatted back and forth about how excited we were for our Second and Fourth year. Once more he was excited to be going into Hogsmeade, something that I was extremely jealous that I would have to wait until my Third Year to do. He would also be receiving much more homework, considering that his O.W.L.'s would be next year. He was also not looking forward to another year of Arithmancy and Divination - something that Amos Diggory had told him that he would need to take. He had elected to take Care of Magical Creatures, something that made me smile.

He had asked me what I would want to start taking next year. I'd told him that I really wanted to take everything. I loved Care of Magical Creatures and I'd told him that it was a core class at Ilvermorny. I mentioned that I wanted to take Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and maybe even Divination - mostly out of curiosity. Essentially everything but Muggle Studies. He told me that I would have to pick which ones that I wanted, something that I wasn't looking forward to cutting out certain classes. I would have to figure out which ones would look better for an Auror position. Unfortunately, probably not Care of Magical Creatures.

In the meantime, he'd also told me what I could be looking forward to for my Second Year. Of course, more Quidditch, something that we were both excited for. We would be taken up to the castle by carriages pulled by Thestrals. I was excited, considering that Thestrals were invisible. We would not have flying lessons, but that wasn't too bad, considering that flying lessons were mundane. Everyone would be allowed to bring their own brooms this year and Second Years would be allowed to try out for the Quidditch teams. It didn't mean much for the Gryffindor team, considering that all of the spots were already filled, but it would be interesting for the other Houses.

As far as classes went, I would be back in all of the same classes. Over Easter holidays we would pick which electives we wanted for our Third Year. Cedric had mentioned that Charms would be intense this year for me. It was a big tear to start learning a lot of spells and new, more complicated, wand movements. Defense would also be a big deal, as we would be first getting introduced to dueling at a very minor intensity. Cedric had mentioned to be careful in Herbology, as we would be using more dangerous plants this year. Of course, Cedric had teased me saying that History of Magic would still be used as nap time. He had warned me about Potions - telling me that it was only getting harder - and Transfiguration - where we'd regularly be using animals.

I'd teased him by saying that this year sounded much more dangerous. He'd laughed and told me that I lived for danger. He wasn't particularly wrong. For now we were sitting on the couch, finishing off our drinks before I headed out to Diagon Alley. I really would have to leave soon, but I knew that the Dursley's would be keeping Harry captive anyways. It was almost impossible to go and do something with him. They treated him like a bomb that was about to go off, and they seemed to think that somehow I would make things worse.

Finishing off my drink, I glanced over at Cedric and smiled. "You excited to go back to Hogwarts?" I asked him.

It certainly sounded like he was excited. "Of course. It always is a good time being back there. But I do feel a little bad leaving Dad at home like this. I feel like he gets lonely. I don't blame him; a house this big by yourself," he said, motioning around us.

I sighed at him and nodded. I imagined that if it was just Mom or just Dad, they'd be lonely when I left too. "Well he should cherish the time that he has with you. And he knows that you're doing a good thing at Hogwarts. It's important to get a real education," I said carefully.

"I somehow think that you'd manage to become a master witch even without going to Hogwarts," Cedric told me with a little grin.

I was very grateful that he'd changed the subject to something a little less intense. "How do you gather that?" I asked him curiously.

He gave me a bright smile. "You figured out how to get into the third floor corridor, you figured out how to get past all of those enchantments placed by the professors, you defeated Quirrell and Voldemort, and you managed to help Gryffindor win the House Cup," he said. I laughed and nodded. Those were good reasons.

But his problem was that I would have been much more impressive if I hadn't lost so many points in the first place. "After I lose all of those points to begin with?" I asked him, both teasing and serious.

"I'm trying to compliment you," Cedric told me as he narrowed his eyes at me.

Blushing slightly, I nodded. My parents had always told me that I was either too big-headed or I couldn't take a compliment. There was no in between with me. "You're right. Of course, my parents have always said that my accomplishments would be much more impressive if I could manage to keep myself out of trouble in the first place," I said.

Cedric almost immediately shook his head. "No. I think that's the exact reason that it's more impressive. You're not a stick-in-the-mud. You know how to have fun," he told me.

I opened my mouth to tell him that I probably had too much fun when a call rang out through the house, silencing me. "Ced!" Amos Diggory called.

It was too late for us to run back outside and pretend that we hadn't just been in here. So I held my glass in my hand, glad that we were sitting on opposite ends of the living room. Cedric had paled slightly as he looked towards the front door where Amos was headed into the house. I turned my glare on Cedric, hoping that we weren't both about to get in trouble.

He was giving me a bashful smile. "Hours, huh?" I asked.

"I thought that it would be," Cedric whispered to me. He raised his voice and shouted out towards the front door, "I'm in the living room, Dad."

Amos sounded like has was placing some things down before his footsteps led to the living room. I glanced back over the couch and I was sitting on and saw that he was reading the Daily Prophet as he walked over to Cedric - and unknowingly myself. "I wasn't going to be back this early but I realized that I'd forgotten my -" He finally glanced up and noticed that I was here. His face fell as he stared at me. "Oh. You're here again," he said dryly.

Rude. "Dad -" Cedric barked, obviously irritated with his father's rude comment towards me, but I spoke over him before the two men could start an argument.

They were each other's only family. I didn't want to be the reason for a fight. "Sorry, Mr. Diggory. I know that I'm not supposed to be in your home but it was getting hot outside so we came in to get a drink," I said, standing from the couch. Amos nodded at me. "I've actually got to get on my way anyways."

"Have a good day, Tara," he said. I knew that it was in one way to be polite and make up for the earlier comment, but I also wasn't fool enough to mistake that it was his dismissal to me from his house.

"You too, Mr. Diggory!" I called back, heading outside towards the fireplace.

Cedric stood and walked with me. "Come on, I'll walk you out," he said.

"I'm just going over to the fireplace," I told him.

The last thing that I wanted was Cedric thinking that I was just a little kid that needed to be taken care of. I wanted us to be somewhat equal. And perhaps I still harbored a little bit of my crush on him. Okay... I harbored a lot of my crush on him still. And it seemed to get worse and worse with each passing day. It definitely didn't help with all of the letters that we exchanged, and seeing each other so often. Plus, I knew that I was the only person that he invited over to play. At least, alone. I'd teased him about it one day, asking if he invited all of girls to play Quidditch with him. He'd been quick to mention that I was the only one that he invited.

When I wasn't around him and had time to daydream, I liked to imagine that he was inviting me over because he had the same kind of crush on me that I had on him. I tried to brush that thought off, though. He was just my friend. And even we did share the feelings, I couldn't imagine that Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Dad, or really any other guy that I knew would be fond of the idea. Dating for me would be a nightmare when that time come. They'd already made that clear.

"I'm heading out, Ced!" Amos shouted from across the house, startling me from my thoughts.

"See you later!" Cedric called back. He turned to me a moment later and smiled. "It's polite to see a lady out." We both snorted very loudly at his comment. I was not a lady. "I just wanted to see if I could get the Nimbus away from you," he teased.

Snorting at him once more, I yanked the broom away from him. "Yeah, right." I suddenly remembered something, though, and turned back to him. "Actually, if you want, you can keep it for a few days as long as you don't do anything to it. I need to go to Diagon Alley and I don't want to have to drop by my house in the meantime," I said, somewhat lying.

Actually, I considered it more omitting the entire truth. "Thanks," Cedric said, gently taking the broom from me and leaning it up against the door. "I promise it won't be broken when you get back."

"You'll be buying me a new one if it is," I teased.

He smiled at me and nodded. I knew that he wouldn't damage the broom. He probably cared about the broom just as much as I did. "What are you heading to Diagon Alley for?" he asked as we walked towards the fireplace.

"Today's Harry's birthday. I'm horrible at buying presents on time, so, of course, I've saved getting him something until the last possible second," I told him.

Cedric laughed as we came to stand at the edge of the fireplace. "You didn't have to come here if it's his birthday," he said.

Shrugging my shoulders at him, I shook my head. "It didn't really matter. His Aunt and Uncle are terrible to him and I knew that they'd make him do his chores first anyways. This keeps me from getting too antsy and going over there early. Making them angry with him will only make things worse," I said, almost immediately regretting telling someone about Harry's horrible home life.

But it was Cedric and I knew that he wouldn't repeat anything that I told him about. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said. I knew that he meant it. "Best of luck with the present hunt."

"Thanks. I'll see you later."

We pulled back the grate over the fireplace in the den of his home and I sighed. They kept it clean, thankfully. I'd popped out in some pretty disgusting grates before. "I'll send you a letter in a few days, yeah?" he asked me.

Giving him a small smile - and trying to push down the butterflies in my stomach - I nodded. "Yeah. Treat my broom carefully!" I called out to him as I stepped into the fireplace. Cedric handed me a handful of Floo Powder and stepped back, waving me off. I smiled and waved back for a moment, throwing down the powder and shouting, "Diagon Alley!"

The green flames swirled up around me and I felt the sickening suction as I was brought through the Floo system. I very nearly collided with a middle-aged man and a younger woman in the midst of their travels before being spit out into Flourish and Blotts. The bookstore was mostly empty right now. I assumed that most kids were waiting until they got their Hogwarts letters. I walked up and down the aisles for a few minutes, debating on whether or not I should get Harry a book. After a while I decided that it was more of a Hermione gift. Harry would read a book that I got him, but I knew that he would rather have something that he could really use.

So, begrudgingly, I left the store and headed on my way. As I walked through the shops I stopped to say a brief hello to Tasmin - one of the members of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. She was clearly shopping for some new robes since she had grown over the summer. We chatted for a bit and she seemed oddly interested in my visits with Cedric. She mentioned that she'd only ever been to his house twice. And both times were with the rest of their team. I was just barely able to stop myself from asking her to not get my hopes up.

The two of us stopped for tea at Rosa Lee Teabag for a few minutes before going on our way. She had wished me a good remainder of the holidays as we departed. She was one of the nicer upperclassmen that I'd met. I did stop by the Leaky Cauldron to grab myself something to eat and a quick drink. It turned out that I would regret being in there in the first place. The moment that I saw him I wished that I could have ducked out of the way. But it was far too late. He was right there and I couldn't just run. That would look cowardly.

So I sat at the bar and waited for him to come and bother me. I knew that he would. He couldn't resist the opportunity. Just as I'd expected, he slid into the stool next to me. "Nox," Malfoy greeted.

"And here I was, having such a good holiday," I growled.

Tom - the bartender - slid a mug of Fishy Green Ale. It wasn't my favorite drink in the world, but I was dying of thirst and I wanted something sweeter than water. I would have bought myself a Butterbeer, but Tom wouldn't sell it to me with all of these people around. The drink did have some alcohol in it, and although underage witches and wizards were allowed to drink it, it was frowned upon by the older members of the community. So I settled for the next best thing.

"No need for such manners," Malfoy said, drawing my attention back to him. "Fizzing Lemonade," he ordered as Tom passed by.

"Two Knuts," Tom said.

As Malfoy went to digging through his coin pouch, I suddenly remembered something that I hadn't thought about in almost the year since it had happened. In Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, Malfoy had paid the two Knuts when I'd been unable to find them, even though I'd asked him not to. I'd promised him that I would pay him back, something that he had said that he would hold me up to. But our friendship had dissolved not long after, and I'd never gotten the chance to repay the favor.

He was still one of my least favorite people on the planet, but I did not enjoy being in someone's debt. Even if they'd forgotten about it. "Here you are, Tom. For his," I said, handing over the two Knuts.

Malfoy stared at me like I'd lost my mind before asking, "What in Merlin's name do you think you're doing?"

"Paying you back."

It was very obvious that Malfoy had no clue what I was talking about. "What?" he asked.

"Last year, in Madam Malkin's, you paid two Knuts for my clothes," I explained.

He looked very shocked that I had even remembered. "It was a gift," he finally said.

A strange feeling seeped into my stomach. I hadn't really ever thought of it that way. But it didn't matter. I only accepted gifts from friends. "It was not a gift, we're not friends. It was a debt. It's repaid," I snapped.

Malfoy continued to stare at me and I debated on using a quick spell to light his pants on fire. I very quickly decided that it was for the best that I didn't. The last thing I needed was to be expelled from Hogwarts. "You're a very odd person," Malfoy said.

"Take the damn drink, Malfoy," I barked, shoving it towards him.

It spilled slightly over the counter, but he took it anyways. "Thank you," he muttered so softly that I almost wasn't sure that he'd said it.

But judging by the way that he was staring very intensely at the counter, I assumed that he had said it. "Don't mention it. Seriously. Don't," I growled. I didn't want people to start thinking that I might actually like Malfoy. We sat in silence for a while before I glanced over at him and glared. "What are you doing here?"

He almost always spent his time in Knockturn Alley, unless he was here to buy books. And he was not buying them yet, considering that the lists hadn't been sent out. "Isn't it obvious? I'm having a drink," he teased, motioning to the cup.

"Right next to me when the entire bar is open?" I said, motioning to the rest of the bar. There were a few scattered witches and wizards, but there were plenty of other spaces. "Yeah, right. What in Merlin's name could you possibly want? Go find Parkinson, I'm busy," I snapped.

"By yourself?" he asked curiously.

Grinding my teeth together, I nodded. "If I am by myself, what business is that of yours?"

Malfoy grinned at me. I wondered just how much trouble I would get in if I smashed his head against the counter. "Do I detect a hint of sadness? Did your filthy little friends forget about you?" he asked.

"Leave me be!" I barked, accidentally drawing the attention of some of the bar patrons. I lowered my voice and continued speaking. "No, my friends have not forgotten about me. It's Harry's birthday today and I'm here to buy him a present. And at least I have friends!"

Malfoy looked affronted. "I have friends too," he argued.

"No you don't. You have people that are too afraid of you to say that they don't want to be your friend," I said. His gaze narrowed at me dangerously. "Why I am even talking to you? Go away."

Malfoy didn't answer me. Instead, he looked very carefully over me. "You're sweating," he commented.

"It's - hot - out," I seethed in between breaths.

He really did drive me up the damn wall. Malfoy shook his head at me. "Not that hot out. You're flushed too. The hair is windblown and you still sound like you're out of breath. You've been flying," he finally concluded.

"You'll be a perfect detective later in life. I'm so glad that my appearance is such an area of interest to you." Malfoy recoiled from me in disgust and I glowered at him. "Now, if you'll excuse me for being so rude, leave."

Of course, my order did nothing. "You live in the middle of a Muggle community," he continued.

"So?" I asked.

"So, where were you flying?"

"Why do you care?"

"Curiosity," he stated plainly.

This was far beyond curiosity. This was his way of making up for four weeks of being unable to annoy me on a daily basis. "Go be curious elsewhere," I snapped at him, trying to finish my drink as quickly as possible so I could leave.

Malfoy stared at me for a moment before his grin turned upwards. "Oh, I understand. You've been seeing Diggory over the summer." My face paled but otherwise I made no movement to indicate that he had bothered me. "I overheard the Hufflepuff Quidditch team talking about their trip to his house in the Leaky Cauldron a few weeks ago. But they mentioned someone else coming flying with them, too. A good player and a female. Perhaps it's you."

Swallowing my pride, I nodded at Malfoy. There was no reason for me to deny that I'd been seeing him. "We're friends. Is it a crime for me to go flying at his house?" I asked him sharply.

"You have a crush on him," he stated, as if it was obvious. Maybe it was. Everyone seemed to know. "That's pathetic. You think that he'd like you?"

Glaring at him, my hand tightened around my drink. "What's got you in a sudden interest about my love life?"

Malfoy scoffed at me and shook his head. "Nothing. You have no love life. You never will. I pity the poor man that ends up with you. Here's hoping that Diggory realizes who you are before he ruins his good name, just like your parents ruined yours," Malfoy said.

That was where I drew the line. Malfoy had said some absolutely terrible things about me. It didn't shock me. That was the way that he was. But I was sick of him talking about my - already noted - embarrassing crush on Cedric Diggory. I knew that he wouldn't like me. It didn't bother me. But I didn't need other people saying it. And I really didn't need him constantly talking about how my family were blood traitors. So, in a bought of anger, and desperate the wipe the smirk off of Malfoy's face, I took my cup and threw the drink all over Malfoy. It was a waste of two Knuts, but well worth it. The bar went silent as Malfoy gave me an absolutely stunned look.

"Sorry about the mess, Tom," I apologized to the old bartender. He merely gave me a wink. I turned back to Malfoy. "You should come to Hogwarts like that. I like you better that way," I quipped.

He looked like he might either throttle me or punch me, but with so many people around, he wouldn't dare. So he merely settled for leaning in to intimidate me. "One day you'll realize where you belong," he snarled.

I knew that he meant something along the lines of six feet under, but I decided to irritate him a little more. "Where? With someone like you? I'd rather eat my own arm," I said.

Malfoy smirked, looking a little foolish with the green goo all over him. "I never said anything about being with me," he said.

Well that backfired. "Come off it!" I howled.

Without letting him get another word out, I got up from the bar and stormed away. I'd already paid, so I wasn't particularly concerned. I just wanted to get as far away from the Leaky Cauldron as possible. I felt a little bad for the mess but I knew that Malfoy would leave any moment now and if he caught me again, I didn't want to see what would happen. He was such a git. I hadn't thought that it was possible for someone to be quite as pompous as he was.

I knew that I had my moments. I liked to think that I was reasonably pretty, I knew that I was smart, and I definitely thought that I was funny. But I also knew when to be quiet and own up to the fact that other people deserved recognition. Harry was probably a better Quidditch player than I was. Ron was definitely better at chess. Hermione was naturally smarter than I was. Cedric was quite a bit kinder than I was. Fred and George were funnier. I recognized all of those things and admired the others for it. But Malfoy... For whatever reason, he couldn't seem to understand that he was not Merlin's gift to the Wizarding World. I couldn't imagine having to spend the next six years around him. And I could only pray to the higher powers that we would not end up working near each other.

Not wanting to think about Malfoy on one of my favorite days of the year - save my birthday, Halloween, and Christmas - I turned to finding something for Harry. Once I was sure that Malfoy had gone from the Leaky Cauldron I'd returned and left Tom a large tip for the mess earlier. He'd laughed and said that I was in the right and he didn't mind cleaning up. Once I'd ensured that the older man didn't hate me, I turned back and wandered around Diagon Alley.

It was already pushing ten in the morning. I would have to do something quickly. And I had just the idea of what I wanted to get him. It started in Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. Most of these things weren't quite for Harry, more something to terrify Dudley and the rest of the Dursley's without getting Harry into legal trouble. Something to laugh about when we were older.

I picked up a fake wand first. It would make little joke spells that would wear off in a matter of minutes. They looked incredibly fake to me but the Dursley's wouldn't know the difference. I debated on giving him an Acid Pop, but I knew that Mom would never let him give it to Dudley. I did get him a package of Bulbadox Powder to use on Dudley. Breaking out in hives would be the least that we could do in repayment for everything that he had ever done to Harry with his friends. I'd also gotten him an Ever-Bashing Boomerang. It would definitely be funny for Dudley and his friends to try and throw at one of the kids that they were bullying as the boomerang was designed to come back and hit the thrower in the face multiple times. I knew that Harry would have a blast tormenting Dudley with these.

Afterwards I moved into Sugarplum's Sweets Shop. It was always easy to buy Harry food. It was a foolproof gift for him. I bought him a Chocolate Frog, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Pumpkin Pasties, a Cauldron Cake, and a Licorice Wand. At Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment I found a glow-in-the-dark toy Snitch that would fly around Harry's room and entertain him when I couldn't be there. The last thing that I'd gotten him had already been placed on hold. I'd simply been waiting for it to be finished. It was a photo frame that was engraved with: Happy birthday, always, Tara. It would be just big enough to fit the photo where Harry had just been born and I was in Mom's arms, reaching out for him.

Once I was sure that I had everything, I headed back to the fireplace in Flourish and Blotts. Not without taking a few pit stops. Shopping had always been my weakness. I managed to somehow always find myself distracted by things as I walked. With my mind off in another world, I thought back on my eventful summer. I had initially hoped that it would have been calm after my eventful year at Hogwarts, but I realized that I would have been bored if it were too calm.

On the insistence of both Mom and Hermione, I had been keeping up with my schoolwork. They were both determined that if I continued reading and preparing for the new year I would be much more prepared for exams - which I'd been quick to point out weren't happening for literally almost another year. But still, I'd listened to them and done some mild studying. More than once, I'd tried to get Harry to read with me, but he was far too lazy. It didn't help that it was almost impossible to talk about anything mildly magical with the Dursley's around. Ron simply ignored me when I talked about anything having to do with schoolwork.

Earlier this summer I'd gone back to the States for a few days. Mom had wanted to see some of her old friends from her days at St. Dorrin's and Dad had wanted to go back and play with his friends from the Stars. It had been a good chance to see all of my friends back from the summer programs at Ilvermorny. I'd written them all ahead of time and we'd met up at the hotel that we had stayed at. It was great to see them all again. They'd been happy to see me and hear all about my year. I didn't tell them everything - I mostly focused on the classes and my new friends - but I did tell them a lot. I didn't bother saying that Hogwarts sounded like it was much more fun. They told me all about Ilvermorny and I was glad to hear that it sounded like they were having a good time.

We'd spent most of the day together before departing in the evening, all of them promising to keep in touch. I'd even mentioned Cedric to the girls. They made me promise that I would keep them updated on what happened there. Towards the end of our trip, Dad had taken me out to the Stars Quidditch Pitch and allowed me to fly around with them. So far it was the highlight of my summer and something that made Cedric very jealous when I'd told him about it.

Unfortunately things still weren't any better on that front. Very embarrassingly, Hermione had mentioned to me that I was the type of person that became outgoing around my crush. And she was right about that. I liked to tease him and laugh whenever the two of us were together. Maybe I ran my mouth too much. I tried not to make it too obvious by dressing up or wearing makeup. Of course, that would be stupid considering that we were playing Quidditch. He made me nervous, but it was in a good way, I liked being around him. I just kept trying to convince myself to not worry about it. It would either happen naturally or it wouldn't.

Besides, I had better things to worry about. Or, perhaps, I didn't have things to worry about. Ever since the last present that I had received upon returning back home a month ago, I hadn't received another one of the strange presents. It was something that I was very grateful for. I'd thought about mentioning the last one to Harry, but considering that I hadn't gotten another one, I hadn't said anything. No need to worry him. I was actually starting to think that maybe they were jokes. It was partially because the dreams about Voldemort had gotten better. I still had them from time to time. But they were nowhere near as bad as they were a few months ago, when I hadn't even been able to sleep.

No part of me thought that I could get through another year like the end of the prior. I'd barely been sleeping and when I was awake I was constantly looking over my shoulder and seeing Voldemort everywhere. It still didn't matter. I was so excited to get back to Hogwarts. It was the best time to get everyone back together and see friends. And, as Cedric had said, I wanted to see what kind of disaster that I could cause this year with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It would all start in a few days when we'd get the Hogwarts letters.

Of course, Mom and Dad liked to remind me that I wasn't just going back to Hogwarts to be with my friends again and cause more trouble. The actual reason that I was there was schoolwork. It wasn't really the schoolwork that I minded. It kept me busy a lot of the time. It was the professors that could be the problem. Some I was grateful to have again, others - Snape - I was not so grateful for. The only one that I didn't know would be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts. They hadn't announced who the new one would be yet. Everyone was curious who it would be, myself included, considering the last one had been harboring Voldemort.

As the clock chimed that it was past ten-thirty I knew that it was time to go. So I headed back to Flourish and Blotts and walked inside. There were a few people perusing the shelves and I smiled. I stopped at the counter to say hello to the owner. She was a very sweet older woman that loved to read and point people in the right direction for a book that she thought they might like. After saying that I would be back soon for my new supplies, I headed towards the fireplace.

In the center of the store was a sign that stated that Gilderoy Lockhart would be making an appearance soon. I rolled my eyes. He was a quack. Everyone back in the States used to laugh like maniacs whenever he would come out with a new book. There was no way that one wizard was able to do that much, especially considering he was never able to answer interviewer questions. That was why his books sold so poorly in the States. Unfortunately he was well-liked in England. Sighing as I made my way past the sign, I walked into the fireplace in the back of the store and called out my address.

Groaning as I popped out in my own fireplace, I stuck my head out and brushed some soot off of my shirt. "Hello?" I called out, not spotting either one of my parents.

"Tara!" Dad's voice called from the living room. "Get what you needed?"

"Sure did!" I called back as I walked into the living room. I smiled the moment that I walked in and dropped my packages. "Looks great in here! Harry's going to love it."

They had told me that they were going to decorate the house for Harry's birthday, but I'd thought that they meant a banner or something. Not this. The entire living room was decorated and it really did look lovely. Scarlet and gold decorations were scattered around and a Gryffindor lion was on the cake on the table. Mom must have had it made for us. It looked far too good to be from here. There were a few presents on the table that my parents had gotten Harry themselves.

As Dad took my presents so that Mom could wrap them before I got Harry, he looked at me curiously. "You're sweaty. Is it hot up there in London?" he asked me.

My face immediately paled. I should have gotten a bottle of water or something like that. Or at least been smart enough to bring a change of clothes. I hadn't told my parents that I was going to Cedric's house to play Quidditch in his yard. It would have caused too many problems and they'd think that I was too young. Plus it would start all kinds of issues with Amos. It was better to keep it to myself. I always had some type of excuse about where I was going. Today it was to tell them that I was going to Diagon Alley the entire time. That was part of the reason that I had left my broom with Cedric. I'd managed to sneak it out this morning but I knew that it would be too hard to get back into the house.

It might have sounded terrible, but I figured that if I wasn't doing anything bad, the lie wouldn't hurt anyone. "It is hot. But I had to carry all of these things back and forth. I'm going to go get changed really fast," I said, trying to get away from the conversation.

"Hurry along, love!" Mom called to me.

Nodding at them, I dashed upstairs and bolted into my room. I shut the door behind me and walked over to the dresser, changing quickly. I pulled on a pair of shorts that were suitable for the warm weather today, and a white tank top that flowed slightly. Once I was sure that I no longer looked like I'd played a game of Quidditch, I brushed out my hair and smiled at Dai. He was hopping around on my bed, holding a letter in his beak. He tossed it onto the bed and hooted loudly at me, nudging my arm. I sighed. I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to get Hedwig out to fly with him.

I sighed sadly at Dai and petted his feathers gently. "I know, I miss Hedwig, too. I'll see if Harry can let her out so you can fly with her, yeah?" I asked him. Dai hooted loudly in response.

Owls had always made me laugh that way. They didn't understand English - or any human language - but they always seemed to know what you were saying. I gave Dai my undivided attention for a few minutes, knowing that he was bored, before shooing him off slightly so that I could look at the letter. He bit me slightly harder than necessary and I sighed. Owls were cool, but they could definitely be moody. The letter turned out to be from Hermione, something that made me smile as I opened it. I'd been keeping in regular contact with Ron and Hermione.

Tara,

Have you gotten the list of the books for Second Year, yet? I really wanted to get ahead with some work. I know, I know, I need to get a life, right? But it's so strange being back home after everything with magic at school. I don't want to say that I'm not happy to be back home. I love my parents, I do. I just miss magic.

How's Harry? I haven't heard from him. Have you been seeing him lately?

I miss you! Perhaps we can get together at Ron's house before the end of the summer. Tell Harry happy birthday for me. And I'll see you soon. Come back over sometime soon, it's dreadfully boring without schoolwork to keep me busy.

Love always,  
Hermione.

Of course the first thing that Hermione would want to know about would be the new books. I was shocked that she didn't just buy everything from Flourish and Blotts. We all knew that she would be able to read them all in a year anyways. I was slightly surprised to hear that she hadn't been talking to Harry. He hadn't mentioned that he wasn't keeping in contact with her. Then again, he hadn't told me that he was. Smiling at the last part of the letter, I picked up a pen and began to scrawl back to her.

Hermione,

No, I haven't gotten the book list yet, but I imagine that Hogwarts letters will be coming out very soon. I imagine that First Years have already gotten their letters. I've been getting ahead with schoolwork but that's because Mom is able to teach me. Once we get the list I'll Floo over and we can read through them. We can make a study plan to drive Ron and Harry insane! Yes, you do need to get a life. I understand, I couldn't imagine my life without any magic. Although I really do miss being able to actually do it. It's no fun watching Mom and Dad do it.

I see Harry every day. He hasn't been able to write because those awful Dursley's have taken Hedwig and locked her away! I know that Dai misses being able to fly with her. Send me a letter meant for him. I'll deliver it.

I miss you too! Ron still wants us all to come over to his house at the end of the summer. Perhaps in a few weeks? Maybe sooner. I'll tell him happy birthday for you. We can meet up in a few days if you'd like? Let me know when I'd be good to come over.

Love and miss you,  
Tara.

Once I'd sealed it with the Weather-Proof Parchment, I ran over to Dai and handed it to him with two treats. "Bring it to Hermione, yeah?" I asked him. He chirped at me, probably happy to be given something to do, nudged my arm, and flew off without another argument. "Thanks, Dai!" I called after him, shutting the window.

Slipping on my black sandals, I dashed down the stairs and smiled at my parents. They were running back and forth, clearly trying to fix everything before Harry came over. "We're going to finish up here. Why don't you go get Harry?" Mom asked me.

"Alright. We'll be back soon," I said.

My parents told me a quick goodbye as I walked from the house, just barely ducking out of the way as Snitch shaped fireworks blasted around the room. I laughed softly and left the house, quickly heading over to Harry's house. Even from my own yard I could hear the shouts. I wasn't surprised. They'd been like this ever since Harry had come back home for break. They'd been absolutely terrible to him. Not that they weren't normally mean to him, but things had gotten worse.

As I walked closer, I rolled my eyes. It appeared that today they were arguing about Hedwig. "Third time this week! If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!" Vermin shouted, startling some of the gardening neighbors.

"She's bored. She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night -" Harry tried to explain before being cut off by Vermin.

"Do I look stupid?" Even though I couldn't see him, I was absolutely positive that Vermin looked stupid in some way. "I know what'll happen if that owl's let out." What in the world did he think would happen?

Deciding that I should try and diffuse the fight before it got even worse, I knocked on the door. A moment later Vermin opened it, a big of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache. So I was right, he does look stupid. "Good morning!" I said brightly, knowing that if I wanted to come inside I would have to be nice.

Vermin glared at me and shook his head. "Absolutely not!" he barked at me. He went to slam the door in his face, but I moved before he could.

"Good morning, Dudley!" I chirped to the overweight twelve-year-old in the background at the table, Harry standing in the kitchen behind them, smiling at me. I knew that Dudley was my only way into the household lately.

Dudley barely glanced up from his breakfast. "Hey, Tara. Come on in," he said.

"Thanks," I said, trying very hard not to give Vermin a bright smirk, knowing that I'd won this one. I walked over to Harry, who was in the kitchen cooking more bacon. He glanced up at me and smiled brightly. "Happy birthday!" I called, jumping forward and wrapping my arms around his neck. He laughed and wrapped his arms around my waist.

He laughed into my ear and said, "Oh, thank you, Tara."

After a moment I backed away from him and leaned up against the counter, letting him go back to cooking. "Hermione says happy birthday, too. I just got a letter from her earlier," I told him.

He gave me a very strange look that I couldn't quite read. "Tell her thank you," he said stiffly.

Had something happened to change his opinion of her? No way. He loved Hermione. I decided to let it be for now. So I glanced over at the Dursley's, who were trying to pretend that I wasn't there. That was the way that it normally was when I was over here. "I suppose they haven't said anything to you?" I asked him.

Honestly I was curious whether or not they had told him happy birthday. They normally did, but they didn't seem to mean it. They'd never completely ignored it. "Of course not," Harry muttered.

"Want me to take out my wand?" I offered.

Harry gave a small laugh and I smiled at him. I knew that this summer had been hard for him and I knew that he was desperate to be back at Hogwarts. "If I didn't need food to live, I'd love for you to," Harry told me.

"You can come and live with me," I told him.

He breathed out a sigh that told me that he would love to live with me. I still didn't understand why he couldn't... "I'd do anything if I could live with you. I'd eat my own foot. I'd kiss Snape," he said.

Recoiling slightly at the thought, I shook my head at Harry, grabbing a piece of bacon. "Now let's not get drastic. Come over when you're done with breakfast. We have some stuff for you," I said.

He looked curious about that, but he very quickly seemed to understand what I meant. Harry's face colored slightly as he shook his head at me. "You didn't have to get me anything," he muttered.

"Shut up and say thank you," I ordered.

Harry smiled and nodded. "Thanks."

We stood together for a moment and I leaned over the frying pan. I hadn't eaten yet today and I was starving. "Can I have a piece?" I asked him, motioning to the pan.

Harry glared at me for a moment and I smiled brightly. "You mean another piece?" he asked me. With a little laugh, I nodded. "Sure. Don't let them see," Harry told me.

Gently pushing me to the side, Harry quickly grabbed a slice with the spatula and handed it to me. I smiled and cut it in half, handing the other - larger piece - to him. The two of us garbled down the bacon quickly so that the Dursley's didn't see. Once we had eaten the food I glanced up to the Dursley's. Vermin was exchanging a dark look with Horse-Face, for Merlin knew why. I was about to ask Harry if he wanted to go to Diagon Alley today but my words were drowned out by a long, loud belch from Dudley.

I cringed at the disgusting noise. I burped too, but not like that. "I want more bacon," Dudley said.

Horse-Face barely looked up at her son. "There's more in the frying pan, sweetums." A moment later she turned her misty eyes on her massive son. I wondered if she might say no, realizing how large her son had gotten. "We must build you up while we've got the chance... I don't like the sound of that school food."

I leaned into Harry and whispered, "How much more building can one person take?" He snorted at me and went back to the frying pan, trying to keep their attention on each other and not on us.

"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings," Vermin said heartily. I wanted to tell him of course he hadn't gone hungry. After all, had he looked in a mirror lately? Dudley was the spitting image of his father. But, scarily enough, Dudley was even larger. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?"

As usual, Dudley ignored his father. Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Harry. "Pass the frying pan," he barked.

Harry was holding the frying pan and I saw that he grit his teeth. "You've forgotten the magic word," Harry said irritably.

I sucked in a breath. "Oh, Harry. Why would you have said that?" I asked softly.

The family that had mostly been ignoring Harry suddenly seemed to kick into gear, remembering who and what their nephew was. It was almost comical; the effect of the simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible: Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Horse-Face gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Vermin jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples. Harry realized far too late what his mistake was.

Hopefully none of the neighbors were standing too close to the Dursley household. "I meant 'please'!" Harry said quickly, trying to rectify his mistake. "I didn't mean -"

"What have I told you," Vermin thundered, spraying spit over the table, "About saying the 'm' word in our house?"

He was so loud that the entire house was shaking. It certainly seemed magical. "But I -" Harry tried to defend himself.

"How dare you threaten Dudley!" roared Vermin, pounding the table with his fist.

"I just -"

"I warned you! I will not tolerate mention of your abnormality under this roof!"

Horse-Face and Dudley were silent as Harry and I exchanged a look. I motioned for him to say something, if nothing else, so that Vermin would leave him be. Harry glanced back over at them and stared from his purple-faced uncle to his pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet. It was somewhat funny. "All right, all right..." Harry muttered.

Vermin sat back down, breathing like a winded rhinoceros and watching Harry closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes. Awkwardly I moved forward and grabbed Harry's shoulder, pulling him with me. "Why don't we go over to my house for a little while and give your family some time to enjoy their breakfast?" I asked.

"Sure," Harry said.

We walked out of the kitchen and I cleared my throat, stepping back nervously when Vermin glared at me. "I'm taking Harry over to my house for a while so you can all enjoy a family breakfast today," I said softly. They all grunted at me and I assumed that it meant that they were okay with it. Not that I cared.

The two of us had just made it to the door when Vermin called up to us. "Be back to do the chores later," he barked.

"Of course he will be," I said before Harry could make things any worse for himself. We walked outside and I shut the door behind us. He seemed grateful to be out of the house, but was clearly still sad. "I'll help you with the chores later," I said. Harry turned to me and I sighed. "Come on, cheer up, Harry. It's your birthday! Not every day that you turn twelve," I teased, nudging him.

Just a few months from now I'd be thirteen. I was extremely grateful that we were in the same year. "You don't have to do the chores with me. They're mine, not yours. I'm sorry, Tara. You're right. You - your parents - have always done so much for me. The Dursley's are just driving me insane. I want to go back to Hogwarts," he said.

I shook my head at him and grabbed his hand as we walked. "Soon, Harry. Just another month to go. And I don't mind helping with the chores," I said. It would be more amusing than sitting at home and being bored.

"You're sure?" Harry asked.

"Of course."

Harry smiled at me and wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. "Thank you." We walked over to my house and I shrugged. I never had chores so I didn't mind helping Harry with his. "I'll have to be back over there soon," he said sadly, looking back at his house.

Giving a soft sigh at him, I nodded. I really did wish that he lived with us. He would have been so much happier. "I know. But you deserve to have some time to have a real birthday party. So, come on!" I chirped, dragging him with me.

Slowly I opened the door and laughed as Harry jumped in fright as Mom and Dad hopped out from their hiding spots. "Happy birthday, Harry!" they cheered.

Once Harry realized that nothing was going to attack him, he relaxed and laughed. The living room was everything that he could have ever wanted from a birthday party. It was done mostly last minute, but I hoped that he would like it. A banner was hung over the back wall - actually it was floating - that said Happy birthday, Harry and had a Gryffindor lion running across it. There were the Snitch fireworks that were exploding in the air and scarlet and gold-wrapped presents were covering the table. The birthday cake with the lion on it was on the counter and a few other decorations were hung.

Harry had the largest smile on his face that I had seen since Gryffindor had ended up taking the House Cup away from Slytherin. He laughed and stuttered stupidly. "T - Thank you. Thank you so much," he said softly.

A chorus of soft music was playing over the Muggle radio that we had. "Of course, darling," Mom said, dragging him with her. "Come! Let's get you some cake. Pick the piece that you want," she said, motioning him to the cake.

He stared at it and I knew that he would try and be reasonable, asking for a smaller piece of the cake. It came with living with the Dursley's. "I'll take the edge, please," he said.

Mom shook her head at Harry and scoffed at him. "Nonsense. That's too small," she said. Harry sent me a funny smile. "Both ends, how's that?" she asked, showing him the plate that was overloaded with cake.

He smiled at her and took the plate. "That's wonderful. Thank you, Mrs. Nox," he said politely.

This time it was Dad that stepped in. "You're family, Harry," he said, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. "It's our pleasure."

The four of us all got food and sat together. Mom and Dad told us stories about their work and the crazy things that they had to deal with. Harry told us all about every stupid thing that had happened with the Dursley's since he had been home. Dad particularly was amused by how terrified Dudley was every time that Harry began to mutter nonsensical words to himself. He had offered to do a little spell that Mom had almost immediately shot down. Although she had offered to switch out some of their food with some not-so-normal wizard food. It had made us all laugh like loons. I could tell that this was the best time that Harry had had since coming back to Privet Drive.

We finished our pieces of cake and the conversation died down after about an hour. I gave him a gentle nudge and shoved him towards the presents. "Open your presents!" I shouted.

He nodded at me and began opening the presents as Mom and Dad took pictures. I knew that they were trying to document all of the childhood that we had missed out on. Dad got him a Quidditch Serving Kit with the Stars emblem. It was a professional grade kit, something that amazed Harry. He promised to treat it well. Mom got him a whole bundle of new Muggle clothes, considering that all of his were hand-me-downs from Dudley and didn't fit. He thanked her and immediately got changed. As he opened mine, he laughed, smiled, and thanked me, wrapping his arms around me tightly when he saw the photo frame.

Once he had opened everything and had taken a few bags to bring all of his presents back to his house, he turned to us with a slightly red face. "Thank you. All of you. I love everything," he said.

"Of course, dear," Mom said.

"Come over whenever, Harry," Dad added.

It looked like Harry was going to open his moth to say something, but before he could, Vermin's shout echoed throughout the neighborhood. "Boy! Get back here!" he shouted.

I rolled my eyes. He couldn't even be bothered to say Harry's name, nevertheless get off of his ass and come get him. Harry glanced over at me and sighed. "Happy birthday to me, right?" he asked sarcastically.

As Mom and Dad began to clean up the mess, Harry stood and I went with him. "I'll come with you. Come on, I'll help you do the chores," I said as we headed towards my parents.

"They won't let you," Harry argued.

My wand - which was tucked into the waistband of my pants and underneath the loose-fitting shirt - was slipped out quickly. Harry watched me as I twirled it viciously. "Let them try," I said darkly.

"Tara Nox!" Mom shouted, startling both Harry and I. I turned over to her and smiled, almost immediately shoving my wand back into my clothes. "Don't you dare use an actual spell when you're over there," she warned me.

"I won't, I won't," I muttered under my breath. Harry walked away from me as I grabbed a spare plate. He was about to grab the last piece of cake when I swatted his hand away. "Don't eat that last piece of cake!" I shouted.

My parents were looking at me like I had lost my mind, and so was Harry. "Why not?" Harry asked.

"We're giving it to Dudley," I said as I began wrapping it.

Harry stared at me curiously. "What did you do to it?" he asked slowly.

Shaking my head at him, I grabbed the cake package and motioned to Harry to leave. "Honestly, I'm Tara, I'm not Fred or George," I said. Harry laughed as we walked back over to Harry's house. "It's my ticket to get back into your house," I explained as we walked back through the yard and into the foyer of the Dursley's household.

The Dursley's ignored the door for a moment before Vermin turned back, probably to bark orders at Harry. His eyes immediately narrowed when he saw me. "Why are you here? Get out!" he shouted.

Take a deep breath, Tara. "Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Dursley, I just wanted to come over here for a little while and help keep Harry out of trouble," I said. I smiled as I rested my spare hand on my wand, just in case they needed a little extra encouragement to let me into the house. "Not to worry, we'll stay upstairs and be silent. I brought a few books to study with. Good grades are important, you know. And I brought Dudley a piece of cake," I said loudly, hoping that he would overhear me.

Of course, it was Dudley. If food was ever involved, you could leave it to him to manage to be there. He glanced up from the table over to the door. "Let her in, Dad!" Dudley yelled.

I walked over to him and placed down the plate. "What's in it?" Vermin asked suspiciously.

Should have put cayenne pepper in it, Tara. Next time. "Chocolate," I deadpanned.

"Very well," Vermin said, clearly not wanting to let me in. We'd barely made it two steps before he turned over to me and shouted, "Absolute silence!"

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. "Of course, sir."

Honestly, we weren't that loud and we didn't want to be heard anyways. At that moment, Vermin cleared his throat importantly. Dudley and Horse-Face came to attention and Harry and I glanced over, more out of curiosity than anything else. "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day." Harry and I exchanged a look, hardly daring to believe it. Had they really remembered? "This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career."

Harry scoffed and I glanced over at him curiously. What were they talking about? Harry leaned over to me and whispered, "I'll tell you later." I nodded at him.

"I think we should run through the schedule one more time. We should all be in position at eight o'clock." What in the world were they doing tonight? "You will be out of the house," Vermin snapped at me.

Challenging his glare, I leaned forward. "After bringing your son cake?" I asked, motioning to Dudley, who had already scarfed down most of the cake.

He was just licking off the icing. "Let her stay," Dudley said through a mouthful. I groaned and very nearly threw up all over the floor. "She can keep him quiet," he continued, shooting a nasty look at Harry.

Vermin glared at me for a few seconds before sighing. "Very well," he finally said. I grinned. Every now and again, the fact that Horse-Face and Vermin did whatever Harry wanted was a good thing. Once he had gathered himself, he turned over to his wife. "Petunia, you will be?"

Horse-Face stood and motioned her hand back gracefully. "In the lounge, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home." I rolled my eyes at her. It was a living room. Not a lounge. They must have had some very important guests coming over.

"Good, good. And Dudley?"

To my surprise, Dudley got out of the chair and cleared his throat, moving over to the door. "I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?" he asked the fake Masons. He extended his arm to the imaginary people and I rolled my eyes.

I'd never seen Dudley as much as speak to an older couple. "They'll love him!" Horse-Face cried rapturously.

Harry and I exchanged a desperate attempt not to snort in laughter. The only people that loved Dudley were the ones that were desperate to get away from his bullying. "Excellent, Dudley," Vermin said. Then he rounded on Harry. "And you?"

"I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I'm not there," Harry said tonelessly.

"Exactly," Vermin said nastily. He rounded on me. "And you will be in there with him, making absolutely no noise while you... study." I rolled my eyes but nodded anyways. "I will lead them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour them drinks. At eight-fifteen -"

"I'll announce dinner," Horse-Face said.

"And, Dudley, you'll say -"

Dudley cleared his throat once more. "May I take you through to the dining room, Mrs. Mason?" Dudley said, offering his fat arm to an invisible woman.

"My perfect little gentleman!" Horse-Face sniffed.

I rolled my eyes at the family and leaned into Harry, dropping my voice and hoping that they couldn't see us. "They must be joking," I said softly.

"I wish," Harry groaned.

"And you?" Vermin viciously asked Harry.

Once more I grit my teeth to keep me from saying something. He was still their family. How could they treat him like that? "I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I'm not there," Harry said dully.

"Precisely," Vermin said, turning back to his wife and son. "Now, we should aim to get in a few good compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?" he asked her.

Watching them curiously, I waited for Horse-Face to figure something out. Finally her face lit up and she cleared her throat. "Vernon tells me you're a wonderful golfer, Mr. Mason... Do tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Mason..."

Vermin smiled and turned to his son. "Perfect... Dudley?"

Dudley took a little more time. "How about - 'We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Mason, and I wrote about you.' "

That answer was too much for Horse-Face, Harry, and I. Horse-Face burst into tears and hugged her son, somehow nearly knocking him off of his chair. Unable to hold it in, Harry grabbed me and we ducked under the table so that they wouldn't see us laughing. It was far too much. I couldn't believe that they really thought that someone would fall for that. It was pathetic. It was horribly obvious that they were trying to say anything to make these people do whatever it was that they wanted.

Covering my mouth with my hand, I glanced over at Harry and moved closer to him. It was clear that Horse-Face was still crying over her son. "Are they serious?" I whispered to Harry.

He smiled at me and nodded. "Very," he said.

It took a few moments for everyone to calm down. "And you, boy?" Vermin asked.

Harry offered me his hand to help me stand. We both fought to keep our faces straight as we emerged. They had calmed down and now they were glaring at us. "I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I'm not there," Harry said slowly.

Vermin nodded. "Too right, you will," Vermin hissed forcefully. "The Masons don't know anything about you and it's going to stay that way. When dinner's over, you take Mrs. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject around to drills." I nodded. This was all something about his work. "With any luck, I'll have the deal signed and sealed before the news at ten. We'll be shopping for a vacation home in Majorca this time tomorrow."

Giving Harry a little nudge, I smiled. Hopefully it meant that they would go to Majorca and Harry could stay with me. I wanted him to come with us to the States. He'd love it. Of course, if they decided to take him, it would be awful. The Dursley's would like him any better in Majorca than they did on Privet Drive. "And you'll stay with us," I whispered to Harry.

He turned to me and smiled. "Right - I'm off into town to pick up the dinner jackets for Dudley and me," Vermin said. I rolled my eyes. Did they even make jackets that big? "And you two," he snarled at Harry and I. "You stay out of your aunt's way while she's cleaning."

It didn't take long for everyone to disperse. Horse-Face went to cleaning the kitchen counters and living room while Dudley headed back upstairs. Vermin grabbed his keys and walked through the door. I thought about heading upstairs to Harry's room - his aunt and uncle had given him the spare bedroom, probably for fear that he would light the house on fire if they stuffed him under the stairs again - but he grabbed me to stop me. I nodded and walked with Harry through the back door. It was a brilliant, sunny day. It was just slightly cooler here than in London. We crossed the lawn and slumped down on the garden bench.

Pulling my feet up underneath me, I glanced over at Harry with a smile. "So what was that all about?" I asked.

"Uncle Vernon was talking about the stupid dinner party. He'd been talking of nothing else for two weeks. Some rich builder and his wife are coming to dinner and Uncle Vernon is hoping to get a huge order from him," Harry explained.

Grinning madly, I fingered the wand that was underneath my shirt. Harry smiled at me and pushed my hand away from the wand, probably not wanting me to get in trouble. "That would be a perfect opportunity to do something awful to them," I said.

Harry sighed but smiled anyways. "I'd never eat again," he told me.

"I wish that you lived with us," I said.

"I do too."

We sat in silence for a little while before I looked up to Harry. He looked way more upset than normal. And it was his birthday, he should have been happy today. "You alright?" I asked him.

It didn't take a genius to know that it was something about his birthday that was bothering him. I had a feeling that he hadn't gotten anything from anyone else yet. It didn't help that he would be spending the evening pretending not to exist. He gazed miserably into the hedge and I sighed at him. He'd had such a wonderful life ripped away. James and Lily should have been here. He should have at least gotten to take a small trip and go play Quidditch. I'd asked Mom and Dad if we could bring him to the States with us, but Vermin and Horse-Face had refused almost immediately, claiming that he didn't have a passport.

Harry's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Have Ron or Hermione written you?" he asked me. "More than the letter that you just got from Hermione?"

What should I say? I wasn't sure what would make things better. It was very obvious that he must not have been hearing from them. Either at all, or just not that much. In all honesty, I'd been over to both of their homes during the summer holidays. Ron had mentioned that he would bring us all over at the end of summer. We hadn't really talked about Harry at all when I'd been to their houses, we'd been so busy. Particularly at the Weasley's home. And I'd gone to see more than just them.

Two weeks ago I'd spent two days at Ron's house. The Burrow, as they called it. It was quite a bit of fun. The house was never dull and the kids were hysterical. Bill and Charlie weren't around but I did see some pictures of the two of them. Just like the rest of the family, they had bright red hair. Arthur Weasley had asked me all about what it was like to live around Muggles. Fred had told me how much he loved Muggles and how fascinating he thought that they were. Molly Weasley had Ginny and I help in the kitchen to prepare dinner one afternoon. I'd ruined it and we'd had to eat around all of the burned parts. On the last night Mom and Dad had come over and we'd all eaten together.

Away from the parents, the kids had enjoyed ourselves too. Fred, George, and I had played endless pranks on Ron, who was determined that the next time I came over would have to be with Hermione, who he thought would stop me from pranking him. He was dead wrong. Percy had shown me some things that I would have to remember for exams this year and I'd met - and shared a room with - Ginny. The two of us had gotten to know each other and she was quite sweet. I'd promised her that I would keep her company as she met friends during her First Year. It was one of the highlights of my summer and I couldn't wait to go back.

The other longer trip that I'd made had been to Hermione's house. I'd spent an entire week with her and it had been wonderful. Her parents were both dentists and very sweet. They loved to hear all about Hogwarts and our adventures. We did leave out the more dangerous parts, but I ensured to tell her parents all about how wonderful she was in her subjects. I could tell that Hermione was very grateful for it. We also told them all about Ron and Harry - whom they'd only briefly met. They ended up telling me all about her early childhood and it had been more than a little amusing. It had been so hard to go back home afterwards.

A few weeks ago I'd been writing back and forth with Lavender - who was asking advice on how to deal with a Muggle boy that had a crush on her - when she'd invited me to go shopping. I really hadn't thought that I'd enjoy myself but I'd known that it would be rude to deny the invitation. So I'd gone and actually had a good time. We went with Parvati and Padma Patil, too, and the four of us had actually ad a good time. It was a lot of fun spending the day with the three girls. They'd promised that we would go shopping again before the summer, and once we were in our Third Year, we'd promised to go into Hogsmeade together one day.

Last week I'd even gone to Diagon Alley with Seamus, Dean, and Neville one day. I'd kept in contact with the three boys and we'd all agreed to meet in the Leaky Cauldron sometime over the summer. I'd actually just been going to get some books and drop by to say a quick hello but we'd ended up spending the entire day together. We'd spent most of the day walking around in Quality Quidditch Supplies and it was rather funny explaining to the boys what everything was and what it was used for. They had all made it a point to say that there were way more things that went into Quidditch than they thought; something that had made me laugh.

Over the summer I'd been talking with everyone and keeping in contact with most of my friends from Hogwarts. Of course, it was just as we'd all promised that we would. But it was very obvious that Harry had not been getting any letters. But how was that possible? He had promised people that he would write, too. And, if nothing else, what about Ron and Hermione? They would have been writing him. Hermione had just asked me if I'd been seeing him. Harry hadn't said that he wasn't getting any letters. Maybe it was because he was embarrassed.

I realized that I'd been thinking for far too long. "No," I quickly lied.

I didn't want Harry to feel bad that I'd been getting letters and seeing our friends and he hadn't. Plus, how could I have not thought to ask Harry if he'd been talking to anyone? Harry glared at me. "Come on, Tara. Don't lie to me. You've heard from them," he said.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed. "You haven't been telling me that you weren't getting letters!" I barked, almost immediately feeling bad. He hadn't heard from our friends and I had, I didn't need to be any worse with him. "I thought that you were, you just weren't telling me," I muttered.

It was his birthday. I didn't need to be rude or nasty to him. "I haven't gotten one letter from them," he said sadly.

Once more, I moved closer to him and grabbed his hands. "There's no way that they just haven't been writing to you. They're your friends. I'll send Dai with letters to them asking why they haven't written to you," I told him.

Harry hung his head. "I don't want to sound pathetic," he muttered.

This was why he'd seemed so upset today. It was his birthday and I was the only person that had remembered. "You won't. Maybe something is happening to the letters. Maybe the Dursley's are taking them," I offered. Harry didn't seem convinced. "Don't worry, Harry, they love you. There's no way that they'd just ignore you. In Hermione's letter she even asked me to ask you if you'd gotten her letters. They have been sending them," I told him.

Now he looked a little more curious. I assumed that he'd thought that they'd completely forgotten about him. "I haven't gotten a single one. Not from her and not from anyone else," he told me.

Giving a soft sigh, I shook my head. "Well it's not that they don't want us to be there. They wanted us both to come visit them over the summer. And Ron wanted us to spend time at the Burrow," I said happily.

Harry's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "The Burrow?" he asked.

"That's what they call their house," I explained.

"Have you been?" Harry asked me.

I suddenly realized that I had said far too much. I didn't want Harry feeling even worse than he already did. "Harry -" I tried to explain before being cut off.

In a way I was glad that he had. I really didn't know what I would have said. "So you have," Harry said.

My stomach turned awkwardly. I knew that this was going downhill fast. "Just for a few days. It wasn't a big deal," I tried to downplay it. "I thought that they were doing it more because they wanted me to get to know Ginny so that she would have some friends going into her First Year," I said, hoping that he would believe me.

It was pretty obvious I was too late. Harry waved me off. "I get it. Tara, they're your friends, too. I'm not angry. Just annoyed at still having to be here. If you weren't here, no one would have even remembered my birthday. Not even my family," he told me.

I grabbed his hand and shook his head. They were terrible to him, no family would treat him like that. "They aren't your family. We are. Ron and Hermione didn't forget your birthday, I promise. I know that Hermione didn't. And Errol - Ron's owl - takes forever. He might have already sent the owl with a birthday letter. I'll write them," I promised.

Harry sighed as we leaned back on the bench, reveling in the nice weather. "I'd even take a letter from Malfoy at this point." My eyes shot open as I glanced at him. "I love you, Tara, but I thought that I'd made other friends too. If you weren't here, I'd think that the whole thing was a dream," he explained.

I was grateful that I was here. I couldn't imagine how miserable he would be if I wasn't here. "It wasn't," I told him with a small laugh. "We'll figure out why they haven't been writing to you. Or why you haven't gotten the letters."

Harry suddenly sat bolt upright on the garden bench. I glanced over with him, curious as to what he was looking at. Beforehand, he had been staring absent-mindedly into the hedge. As I followed his gaze I realized what the problem was. The hedge was staring back at us. Two enormous green eyes had appeared among the leaves. Harry jumped to his feet and I followed him, debating on whether I should run or go see what the eyes were attached to. We never got the chance. The eyes disappeared just as a jeering voice floated across the lawn.

For a moment I ignored it. "Did you see that?" Harry asked me.

"Was that a squirrel?" I asked.

Harry shook his head at me. "What kind of squirrel had big, green, eyes like that?" he asked.

That was actually a good point. And there weren't many squirrels around here. "I know what day it is," Dudley sang, waddling toward us. The huge eyes blinked and vanished. We had lost our chance to see what they were.

"What?" Harry asked. He still hadn't taken his eyes off of the spot where the eyes had been.

"I know what day it is," Dudley repeated, coming right up to us.

Harry finally looked away from the bushes and stared at his cousin. "Well done. So you've finally learned the days of the week," Harry said, making me laugh lightly.

He really was very funny. It made up for the moments that he wasn't overly bright. "Today's your birthday," Dudley sneered. I rolled my eyes. They knew what today was but they'd completely ignored it. "How come you haven't got any cards? Haven't you even got friends at that freak place?" Dudley continued.

That was where I drew the line. Insulting Harry was bad enough, but to also call us freaks? "Excuse you!" I shouted, startling Dudley and drawing his attention to me. "It isn't a freak place. His letters were all sent to my house since your family is so petrified of anything having to do with magic," I lied, growling through my teeth.

Harry seemed to appreciate the lie. "Better not let your mum hear you talking about my school," Harry said coolly.

Dudley hitched up his trousers, which were slipping down his fat bottom. Honestly I was amazed that he could even still walk. "Why're you two staring at the hedge?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm trying to decide what would be the best spell to set it on fire," Harry said.

I snorted loudly at the very obvious lie. I knew the spell, but I wouldn't dare say it in case something actually happened. Dudley stumbled backward at once, a look of panic on his fat face. "You c-can't. Dad told you you're not to do m-magic, he said he'll chuck you out of the house, and you haven't got anywhere else to go. You haven't got any friends to take you -"

"I'll take him," I immediately stepped in.

Harry had other plans to get Dudley to leave. "Jiggery pokery!" Harry said in a fierce voice. I had to force myself to keep an even face and not laugh. It sounded absolutely absurd. "Hocus pocus - squiggly wiggly -"

"Muuuuuum!" Dudley howled, tripping over his feet as he dashed back toward the house. "Muuuum! He's doing you know what!"

The door slammed to the house a moment later. I could hear the shouting from here. Harry and I exchanged a laugh and landed on our butts, howling with mad laughter. Once we had calmed down, I looked over at him. "You're going to pay for that," I said.

"I know."

But it didn't seem that he cared. Not right then, anyways. Just as I had said, Harry paid dearly for his moment of fun. As neither Dudley nor the hedge was in any way hurt, Horse-Face knew he hadn't really done magic. I assumed that she probably remembered little bits from Lily and she probably knew that Harry's words were nonsensical, just meant to startle Dudley. None of that matter. She howled at him to come back in the house and I pulled him out of the way as she aimed a heavy blow at his head with the soapy frying pan.

After a good long time of arguing - something that I was very grateful that Vermin wasn't around to see - she decided on the punishment. The list of chores that he had originally had were suddenly added to. I was sure that half of the chores on the list wouldn't matter to anyone else. She made sure to promise that he wouldn't eat again until he'd finished. Harry almost immediately told me that I didn't have to help, but I refused to leave him with the insane amount of work that he'd been given to do, alone, on his birthday.

So we went to work. While Dudley lolled around watching and eating ice cream, Harry and I did everything on the list. And that all included the mundane tasks of cleaning the windows, washing the car, mowing the lawn, trimming the flowerbeds, pruning and watering the roses, and repainting the garden bench. Of course it was all outdoors as Horse-Face did the easier chores inside. The sun blazed overhead, burning the back of my neck. This was horrible, it was so hot out. I couldn't believe that he'd done all of this for all of his life. I also couldn't imagine having to do this regularly without magic.

We were in the middle of pressure-washing the driveway when I leaned over to Harry and spoke loudly over the noise of the hose. "They treat you like a slave," I shouted at him.

Harry turned the water off long enough to wipe the sweat off of his brow. "Slaves were treated better than this," he told me.

And he wasn't wrong about that. I sighed and went back to working. Harry asked me to redo the mulch - which was at least in the shade - as he spread fresh manure on the flowerbeds. I couldn't believe that this was the way that we were spending his birthday. I'd thought about asking Mom and Dad to help things along, but I didn't want to make things any worse if the Dursley's saw. My back was aching and sweat running down my face as we finished the chores.

It was half past seven in the evening when at last, exhausted, we heard Horse-Face calling him. "Get in here! And walk on the newspaper!"

As we walked back into the house, Harry and I leaned on each other. "They get nicer with every passing moment," I said.

Harry laughed at me as we moved gladly into the shade of the gleaming kitchen. Just as we thought, she had scrubbed the house until it was spotless. On top of the fridge stood the pudding: a huge mound of whipped cream and sugared violets. It looked horrible to me. A loin of roast pork was sizzling in the oven. Even that looked horrible. Of course, it was typical Dursley food. It was the reason that Vermin and Dudley looked like tug-boats.

"Eat quickly! The Masons will be here soon!" Horse-Face shouted, pointing to two slices of bread and a lump of cheese on the kitchen table.

Disgusted, I motioned for Harry to eat it all. I would eat later. She was already wearing a salmon-pink cocktail dress. Harry washed his hands and bolted down his pitiful supper. While he ate, I hid the package of candy and chocolate that I had gotten from my house while Harry had started on the chores. I knew that they would barely give him anything to eat. I just wished that I would have taken more of the chicken that Mom and Dad had made.

The moment he had finished, Horse-Face whisked away his plate. "Upstairs! Hurry!" she barked.

We stood and walked from the room. As we passed the door to the living room, Harry and I caught a glimpse of Vermin and Dudley in bow ties and dinner jackets. I was amazed that they'd even managed to find jackets where the buttons could close. I snarled at them and nudged Harry up the stairs. We had only just reached the upstairs landing when the doorbell rang and Vermin's furious face appeared at the foot of the stairs. The two of us stared at him.

"Remember, boy - one sound -" he warned.

Snarling at Vermin, I shoved Harry towards his room and kept my voice low. "Cheer up, Harry. You'll be back to Hogwarts soon and we'll figure out why no one has written you. There has to be a reason. In the meantime, I brought candy! And real food," I said, showing him the bag.

He stared at the food and laughed softly. It was enough for a normal dinner and enough candy to make him sick. Harry grabbed me in a tight hug. "Thanks, Tara," he said.

I showed him the rest of my bag and began pulling out books as we walked down the hallway to his new room - which was at the very end. "And I also brought books for us to study with," I said.

Harry groaned at me. "When I said that I missed Hermione, I didn't mean this part of her," he said.

The two of us both laughed as I shoved him roughly. "You got good marks last year but I know that you can get better ones this year. Come on, besides Hermione and I, Malfoy got the best marks of the First Years," I told Harry.

He looked absolutely horrified at the thoughts. "He did?" Harry asked.

I nodded at him. "Yeah. For as awful as he is, he's quite bright. Wouldn't you like to say that you got better grades than him?" I teased.

Harry nodded at me as he popped a piece of a Chocolate Frog into his mouth. "I suppose that would be good." I was walking just ahead of him and I gently pressed open the door, stopping dead in my tracks. Harry knocked into my back. "Jeez. Tara, what are you -?" he asked.

He stopped running his mouth the moment that I yanked him inside and pressed the door softly shut. He still hadn't realized the problem. Harry turned on the light and made to cross the room to his bed, probably to start eating a real meal. The trouble was, there was no way that he would be able to sit on the bed. There was already someone sitting on it.


	20. Dobby The House-Elf

Harry and I both gasped and he clasped a hand over my mouth, something that I was very grateful for. The surprise had worn off and the fear suddenly seeped in. What the hell was that thing? After a few seconds I patted Harry's hand and got him to let go of me. I wouldn't scream. But I had been very close to doing so. The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. It was clearly the creature that had been watching us out of the garden hedge that morning.

The three of us all stared at each other for a long time. It was very obvious that no one knew what to say. The little creature was smiling very brightly and for a moment I thought that it would be because he was going to kill us. He... She... It? I wasn't really sure what it was. It definitely looked like a he, but I could have been wrong. Harry slid past me and shut the door behind us. The little creature still hadn't spoken. But I could tell that it was about to speak.

For a long time we stood there. Finally I heard Dudley's voice from the hall. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?" Dudley asked. His voice was very slow and sweet-sounding. I could hear Horse-Face swooning at her son, but the Mason's stayed silent.

The creature that had been sitting on the bed looked very ashamed to have been caught sitting on the bed. He slipped off the bed - dropping down to the floor considering that he was so short - and bowed so low that the end of his long, thin nose touched the carpet. I very nearly laughed. It almost didn't look real. A moment later I noticed that he was wearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm- and leg-holes. Suddenly I realized what he was.

But before I could say anything, Harry leaned over to me. "Is it yours?" he whispered to me.

"Are you joking?" I hissed back at him, low enough so that the chatting Dursley's and Mason's wouldn't hear us downstairs. "No it's not mine!" The creature didn't mind out whispering. It merely stared at us.

Harry cleared his throat and took a step forward. "Er - hello," he said nervously.

I decided to step forward before Harry made things worse. "You're a house-elf!" I chirped softly, moving past Harry, who was staring at me like I had lost my mind. The house-elf smiled at me and nodded. "I've never met one before. Hello, how are you?" I asked it.

For a moment I debated on extending my hand, but I knew that house-elf's weren't very fond of human contact. "Oh! You're most polite, Miss," he said. It was definitely a he. It had a high-pitched voice and I cringed. His voice was sure to carry down the stairs. The house-elf moved towards us. "Tara Nox! Harry Potter!" My jaw nearly dropped. I'd figured that it would know who Harry was, but I was surprised that he knew who I was. "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir. Such an honor it is."

Smiling slightly, I moved past Harry, who looked far too shocked to speak. "It's good to meet you, Dobby," I said.

After a moment of deliberation, I decided on extending my hand, despite the lore that house-elf's didn't like to be touched. Thankfully he didn't seem to mind. He smiled and walked towards me. Dobby's small hand enclosed over mine. He was very bony and for a brief moment I wanted to feed him some of the chocolate and fried chicken that I'd brought Harry. But I knew that he wouldn't take anything that wasn't from his master. Harry looked like he might pass out as Dobby backed away from me.

"How do you know who I am?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Normally the question might have been considered rude, but judging by the way that Dobby was dressed, I assumed that he had heard much worse. "My master speaks of you frequently, miss," Dobby told me.

Curiously, my eyebrows knitted. I knew that Cedric, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Parvati, and Fay, didn't have a house-elf. I was reasonably certain that Neville didn't either. I didn't know about the kids in the other Houses but I had to assume that none of them knew me well enough to be speaking about me. At least, not this long after the eventful last school year. I could assume that Malfoy probably owned one, but would he be speaking about me? Maybe complaining about me. But Dobby seemed happy to be here, meeting both Harry and I. Malfoy would have ensured that Dobby hated us. So who owned the house-elf?

"Who is your master?" I asked him.

Dobby gave something akin to a blush. I assumed that it was as close as the leathery creature could get. "I am unable to say, miss," Dobby told me bashfully. I nodded at him.

I'd always thought that we should get a house-elf, but Mom and Dad had refused. They knew that they were slaves and they absolutely refused to allow any type of slave in our house. I'd tried to argue that it would be better that we have one. We could treat them like a member of the family. But they'd absolutely refused, saying that we didn't need one anyways. Perhaps that was always why I'd been so fond of them. Mom and Dad had told me how brutal people were to their house-elf's and after meeting a cute creature like Dobby, I couldn't imagine anyone ever treating him poorly.

Harry leaned over to me, distracting me from my thoughts. "What's a house-elf?" he asked me.

"I'll tell you later."

Harry seemed to finally remember that Dobby had said that it was an honor to meet him. "Th-thank you," he stuttered. He edged along the wall, grabbing me and pulling me with him, and sunk into his desk chair. He scooted over slightly so that I could share the seat. We were next to Hedwig, who was asleep in her large cage. "Who are you?" Harry finally asked.

If I hadn't been afraid of making too much of a noise, I would have smacked him over the back of the head. He'd already told us who he was. Not that he really told us much... But the point was still the same. "Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," he squeaked.

Harry cleared his throat awkwardly. "Oh. Really?" he asked. I was going to punch him. How stupid could he sound? "Er - I don't want to be rude or anything, but this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom." Horse-Face's high, false laugh sounded from the living room. Clearly they hadn't heard us yet. That was a good thing.

But it wasn't going to last long. Dobby hung his head and I cringed. He hadn't meant to sound rude, but house-elf's were relatively sensitive creatures to people that weren't their family. "Harry!" I hissed at him.

He seemed to realize that he'd made a mistake with what he'd said. "Not that I'm not pleased to meet you," Harry said quickly to rectify the mistake, "but, er, is there any particular reason you're here?"

That seemed to cheer Dobby up slightly, talking about the reason that he had come. "Oh, yes, sir," Dobby said earnestly. He made me want to smile. I liked the bright eyes that took up most of his head and the little smile on his face. "Dobby has come to tell you, sir... it is difficult, sir... Dobby wonders where to begin..."

Sensing that Dobby didn't know where to go with what he'd come here for, and probably wouldn't for a while, I grabbed a candy out of my bag and held it out. "Would you like a Chocolate Frog?" I offered.

The moment that I'd said it, I wished that I could have taken it back. Dobby's big, green, eyes started to water and I sunk back in horror. He was stuttering and began sniffling loudly. Harry whacked me over the back of the head as we had a silent battle on what I'd done wrong, our hands motioning and sweeping everywhere. More than once one of us ended up hitting the other. Dobby was still standing on the ground, burying his face in his hands and sobbing.

"Ch - Chocolate? Y - Young miss is offering Dobby chocolate?" Dobby sobbed.

Slowly I began to stand from the chair. Almost immediately I collapsed back into the chair on my weak legs. I was a little too stunned to react properly to Dobby. "Are you allergic?" I asked. Dobby's sobs got a little louder. I gasped, knowing that I'd said the wrong thing once more. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I -"

"Miss is so good to Dobby!" the house-elf yelled, far too loudly for my liking. He began to sob loudly and placed his head in his hands. Harry and I exchanged a panicked look.

Clearly this night had become a lot more complicated than I'd been anticipating. And all I'd wanted was to actually do my homework for once. Hermione would have been so proud... "What do we do?" I whispered to Harry.

Harry looked stunned. "Aren't you usually the one with the plan?" he whisper-yelled back at me.

He wasn't wrong. I was the person that always had a plan. But right now I did not have a plan. Nothing even close to a plan. We couldn't just toss Dobby out and we couldn't do any magic to soundproof the room. "I - I don't have a plan this time. We have to do something. Vermin will hear us if he gets any louder," I said.

So Harry glanced over and cleared his throat. "Sit down," he said politely, pointing at the bed.

I sucked in a breath. I'd realized far too late that Dobby clearly had very cruel masters. He was the epitome of a house-elf servant. We were being polite to him, something that he'd never experienced before. To my horror, Dobby's soft sobs turned into tears - very noisy tears. "S-sit down!" he wailed. "Never... never ever..."

He was still crying loudly. Listening downstairs I could have sworn that I heard the voices downstairs falter. We had to fix this, and quickly. "Do something!" I hissed desperately at Harry.

Harry moved forward towards Dobby. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I didn't mean to offend you or anything -"

"Offend Dobby!" choked the elf. I cringed. His voice was so high that I knew it had to be carrying down the stairs. It was only a matter of time before the Dursley's would run out of excuses for the noise and come up to wring our necks. "Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard - like an equal -"

As Dobby continued to sob to himself I grabbed Harry by his belt loop and yanked him towards me. "They're servants, Harry! We have to treat him like he's less than us. I know it sounds terrible but Vermin will kill us if they hear us," I explained to Harry. He seemed bothered by the thought, but we were desperate. "We have to get him to stop!"

The last thing that I wanted to do was treat Dobby like trash - or at least barely acknowledge him - but I knew that we were both going to be in deep if we kept making noise. So Harry and I stood, trying to hush Dobby and look comforting at the same time. It took a while but he finally stopped howling and calmed down. He was still crying, but it was quieter. Harry and I ushered Dobby back onto the bed where he sat hiccoughing, looking like a large and very ugly doll. No one spoke at first. We wanted to give the Dursley's some time to get back into the swing of things. It wasn't long before I heard Vermin and Horse-Face laughing again.

But that didn't mean that we were ready to talk. It was a long time that we all sat and I handed Dobby a few tissues, knowing that I was taking a risk. My heart was beating extremely quickly as I handed it to him. But he merely took it with a soft thanks and began blowing his nose rather loudly. But at least he wasn't crying anymore. At last he managed to control himself, seemingly back to a normal state, and sat with his great eyes fixed on Harry in an expression of watery adoration.

The air in the room was very thick as we thought about what was the best thing to say next. "You can't have met many decent wizards," Harry finally said, probably trying to cheer him up.

This did not work as expected. Dobby shook his head. Then, without warning, he leapt up and started banging his head furiously on the window, shouting, "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

My heart skipped a beat as Harry and I stared at each other in shock. For a moment I had absolutely no clue what he was doing. But I figured it out a moment later. House-elf's were loyal, just like a Hufflepuff, no matter what. "Oh, you made him speak poorly of his family! No matter how awful they are, house-elf's are supposed to be loyal to their families," I told Harry.

"How do we stop him?" Harry asked me desperately.

The chattering downstairs had softened once more. I knew that Dobby was rattling the house with his movements. I moved forward and extended my arms to him. "Please don't hurt yourself!" I begged with him softly.

Dobby stopped hitting himself on the window only for a moment to speak. "The kind Miss cares about Dobby's well-being when Dobby disobeys orders!" he howled. A moment later he went back to banging his head on the window.

At least I'd tried. Harry gave it a shot next. "Don't - what are you doing?" Harry hissed.

Well that was not the way that I would have gone about it. I watched desperately as Harry did one of the most useless things that he could do. He sprang up from where he had been sitting and ran after Dobby. He grabbed the little creature around the waist and pulled Dobby back onto the bed. Unfortunately it did not work out the way that he was expecting. It wasn't Dobby that was startled. It was Hedwig. Hedwig had woken up with a particularly loud screech at the sudden movement and now was beating her wings wildly against the bars of her cage.

If the Dursley's hadn't heard all of the racket before, they were definitely going to hear her. I ran over to her cage and began stroking her feathers through the cage. "No, Hedwig, calm down girl, calm down. Shh... It's okay. You're okay. Here. Have a treat," I told her, reaching into my bag and handing her three treats, desperate to keep her quiet.

"Thanks, Tara," Harry said breathlessly.

Hedwig chirped softly and I let my fingers linger in the cage so that she could nip at them gently. Dobby sat himself back on the bed and took a few breaths. He had clearly exerted himself. "Dobby had to punish himself, sir," Dobby said, who had gone slightly cross-eyed. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir..."

"Your family?" Harry asked.

"The wizard family Dobby serves, sir... Dobby is a house-elf - bound to serve one house and one family forever..."

Harry looked shocked by the fact that Dobby would never know what freedom was. "Do they know you're here?" Harry asked curiously.

I couldn't imagine that his cruel family ever let him leave without their permission. And I couldn't imagine them giving him permission to come here. Dobby shuddered. "Oh, no, sir, no... Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this." I cringed at the thought. So did Harry. "If they ever knew, sir -"

"But won't they notice if you shut your ears in the oven door?" he interjected.

If they were that cruel, they probably wouldn't even notice if Dobby died and another house-elf replaced him. "Dobby doubts it, sir. Dobby is always having to punish himself for something, sir. They lets Dobby get on with it, sir. Sometimes they reminds me to do extra punishments."

Once more I cringed. He must have served a completely awful family. And once more I got curious about who he served. Maybe he would be a little more open now. "Which family do you serve?" I asked curiously.

But that was one thing that Dobby wouldn't bend on. "Dobby must not say, miss," he said.

"But why don't you leave? Escape?" Harry asked.

There was no way that he would do that. He'd be arrested or returned to his family. I wasn't sure which one would be worse in his case. "A house-elf must be set free, sir. And the family will never set Dobby free... Dobby will serve the family until he dies, sir."

Guiltily, Harry and I both stared. "And I thought I had it bad staying here for another four weeks," he said. I glanced over at him and sighed. As much as Harry hated the Dursley's, he could have things much worse. At least he had a home and wasn't in an orphanage. "This makes the Dursley's sound almost human. Can't anyone help you? Can't I?" Harry asked.

Gasping slightly, I whacked Harry on the back. "No!"

It took him a moment to gather what had happened. Almost at once, things went right back to the way that they had been a moment beforehand. Dobby dissolved again into wails of gratitude. "Please," Harry whispered frantically, "please be quiet. If the Dursley's hear anything, if they know you're here -"

"Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby... Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew."

Thankfully his sobs got a little bit quieter. Harry, who had turned a little red in the face, said, "Whatever you've heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I'm not even top of my year at Hogwarts; that's Tara and Hermione, they -"

I blushed softly as Dobby turned his green eyes on me. Harry stopped quickly, and I glanced over at him. I assumed that it had bothered him, remembering her when he thought that she'd forgotten about him. "Harry Potter is humble and modest," Dobby said reverently, his orb-like eyes aglow. "Harry Potter speaks not of his triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named -"

"Voldemort?" Harry interjected.

Smacking my hand against my forehead, I groaned softly. "Merlin, Harry," I muttered.

Dobby clapped his hands over his bat ears and moaned, "Ah, speak not the name, sir! Speak not the name!"

Thankfully he was not as loud as he could have been. "Sorry," Harry said quickly, not wanting to upset Harry even more. "I know lots of people don't like it. My friend Ron -" He stopped again. I assumed that thinking about either Ron or Hermione upset him.

After a beat of silence, Dobby leaned toward Harry, his eyes wide as headlights. "Dobby heard tell that Harry Potter and Tara Nox met the Dark Lord for a second time, just weeks ago... that Harry Potter escaped yet again." Harry and I both nodded and Dobby's eyes suddenly shone with tears. "Ah, sir," he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. "Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later... Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts. Neither shall Tara Nox. She is in grave danger."

For a long while Harry and I sat in silence. Danger? When wasn't there danger with Harry around? But judging by the horrified look on Dobby's face, I knew that this wasn't just something to be unnerved about or something to be laughed off. Something had happened that must have been terrible. But how had he known? Perhaps he'd overheard something. It didn't matter. We had to know what he thought was going to happen. I couldn't deal with another lapse of finals and a Sorcerer's Stone-type situation.

I glanced over to Harry but he was very clearly still processing everything that had happened. "Danger?" I asked, my voice hoarse. Dobby nodded. "What kind of danger, Dobby? Please, tell us. We can do something about it if we know. Or even if you can tell us who your family is. That must be where you heard it from," I said softly.

Dobby jumped forward, looking horrified that I had dared to suggest something like that. "You must not!" he shouted. I leaned forward and tried to shush him quietly. "Dobby should not have heard... Dobby was just listening and overhearing... Dobby wasn't supposed to, but he must come warn Harry Potter."

There was a long silence afterwards, broken only by the chink of knives and forks from downstairs and the distant rumble of Vermin's voice. They had clearly gotten over the noise up here earlier. "W-what?" Harry stammered. "But I've got to go back - term starts on September first. It's all that's keeping me going. You don't know what it's like here. I don't belong here. I belong in your world - at Hogwarts."

"No, no, no," Dobby squeaked, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. Harry and I exchanged a look as Dobby continued to speak. "Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger."

Well that certainly didn't sound good. It was going to be last year all over again. Only this time it sounded like things were going to be even worse. I found myself at a loss for words. "Why?" Harry finally asked in surprise.

Before Dobby got the chance to answer, I found my voice. "You have to tell us what's happening, Dobby. Please. We can help," I said desperately.

"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," Dobby whispered, suddenly trembling all over. Harry and I exchanged a panicked look. We had to do something. There had to be something that we could do to help out. We couldn't let things get as bad as they had last year. "Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!"

Months? This had to be a complicated plan if they'd been planning it so long. "What terrible things? Who's plotting them?" Harry asked. Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his head frantically against the wall. Horrified, I shoved Harry forward to stop him. "All right!" Harry cried, grabbing the elf's arm to stop him. "You can't tell me. I understand. But why are you warning me?" A thought had clearly struck him. "Hang on - this hasn't got anything to do with Vol - sorry - with You-Know-Who, has it? You could just shake or nod," he added hastily as Dobby's head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.

My stomach filled with bile and for a moment I was sure that I was going to vomit. I was just about sick of Voldemort. I never wanted to hear about him again. Things had gotten far too awful last year for my liking. Vomiting blood whenever I was near him, the searing pain that had encased me, making my entire body tremble at the memories. He had as good as told me that we were in some way related. He didn't want me dead, but he had put me through so much pain that I'd wanted to be dead. He made it sound like we knew each other. And all of the dreams and visions of him... Oh, no. I wanted nothing to do with him.

Slowly, to my pleasure, Dobby shook his head. "Not - not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir -" But Dobby's eyes were wide and he seemed to be trying to give Harry and I a hint. One gaze between the two of us though, and it was clear that we were both lost.

"He hasn't got a brother, has he?" Harry asked. Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever.

Leaning over to Harry, I rolled my eyes. "No, you twit," I snapped at him. Harry glared at me as I turned my gaze back on Dobby. "Is it someone related to him? In any way? Someone that might mean something to him? A helper or something along those lines?" I asked.

Judging by the looks on his face, I could tell that it was someone that had a connection with Voldemort. And that didn't sit well with me. "His followers still exist, miss," Dobby said softly.

Harry didn't seem to understand the threat. "But if it's just his followers, we're safe. He's gone." I rolled my eyes at him. He wasn't gone. He would be back eventually. It was like a pimple that kept coming back. "Well then, I can't think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts," Harry said. I almost agreed with him. People - Voldemort included - were terrified of Dumbledore. Would they be willing to do something with him around? "I mean, there's Dumbledore, for one thing - you know who Dumbledore is, don't you?"

Dobby bowed his head in respect. "Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, sir" - Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper - "there are powers Dumbledore doesn't... powers no decent wizard..."

Of course. Dumbledore was a good man, he would never do something that someone without a sense of decency could do. He wouldn't dare use one of the Unforgivable Curses. Or, at least, I couldn't imagine that Dumbledore would do something like that. Not unless his hand was forced. That wasn't something that Voldemort could say. He'd used them more than once. The Killing Curse was something that he was known for. Of course, it was also the curse that would eventually bring about his downfall. Not before ending the lives of many good witches and wizards. My thoughts were cut off by another sudden movement from Dobby.

Before Harry or I could stop him, Dobby bounded off the bed, seized Harry's desk lamp, and started beating himself around the head with earsplitting yelps. My heart felt like it had stopped. What the hell was he doing? He must have thought that he'd insulted his family. Harry was trying to wrestle the lamp away from Dobby as I pressed my ear against the door to check if Vermin or Horse-Face had heard. Of course they had. A sudden silence fell downstairs.

Two seconds later I heard Vermin coming into the hall, calling, "Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!" There was no way that we could let him see Dobby.

"Hide him!" I whispered to Harry.

He nodded and grabbed Dobby. In the meantime I grabbed a few books and splayed them open on the bed. "Quick! In the closet!" Harry hissed, stuffing Dobby in, shutting the door, and flinging himself onto the bed with me. Harry grabbed me and pulled me into him, the both of us calming our breathing and glancing down at the books, just as the door handle turned.

Vermin's face was much redder than normal. We glanced up at him as it we were shocked to see him, wondering what he would have left his precious dinner. "What - the - devil - are - you - two - doing?" Vermin asked through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry's.

My throat closed as I glanced up at him, praying that he didn't know that we were hiding something. "We - We're sorry," I said awkwardly.

"You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke... One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy!"

We didn't get a chance to say anything back to him afterwards. He stomped flat-footed from the room. Shaking, Harry got up from the bed and offered me a hand up. Once we heard the voices start up again downstairs, Harry let Dobby out of the closet. He looked dizzy as he stumbled out. "See what it's like here? See why I've got to go back to Hogwarts? It's the only place I've got - well, I think I've got friends," Harry told Dobby awkwardly.

"Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?" Dobby asked slyly.

His words immediately caught my attention. "Excuse me?" I asked. How was it possible that Dobby knew that Harry hadn't been receiving any letters from Hermione or Ron?

Harry didn't catch the meaning of Dobby's words at first. "I expect they've just been - wait a minute," Harry said, frowning. We exchanged a look and I nodded. Something didn't fit quite right. Harry moved forward and narrowed his eyes at the house-elf. "How do you know my friends haven't been writing to me?"

Dobby shuffled his feet nervously. Either he had done something with the letters or he knew the person that had been doing something with them. "Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best -"

"Have you been stopping my letters?" Harry interrupted.

"Dobby has them here, sir," Dobby said shamefully.

Glancing over at Harry, I glared at him. I knew that Ron and Hermione had been writing to him. Especially Ron, who I knew wanted Harry to stay with them at the Burrow for a few days. "I told you that Hermione had written to you!" I hissed at Harry, trying to drop my voice to not bother the people downstairs. "Ron must have been writing, too."

We both swallowed nervously. Dobby had really stopped the letters... I couldn't believe that he'd done something like that. Stepping nimbly out of Harry and I's reach, he pulled a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing. There they were. Clear as the day. Glancing at it closely, I could make out Hermione's neat writing, Ron's untidy scrawl, and even a scribble that looked as though it was from Hagrid. They had all been writing to him. There was a chance that there were others buried in there, too. Harry had been having a miserable summer because he thought that no one remembered him. But that wasn't the truth. They had remembered, and the letters had been stolen. Dobby blinked anxiously up at Harry and me.

"Harry Potter mustn't be angry... Dobby hoped... if Harry Potter thought his friends had forgotten him... Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir..." Harry clearly didn't want to hear it. He made a grab for the letters, but Dobby jumped out of reach. "Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he gives Dobby his word that he will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, sir, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, sir!"

As Harry passed me, I grabbed him and yanked him back. We couldn't cause a ruckus and we couldn't startle Dobby. "No," Harry said angrily, trying to get away from me. "Give me my friends' letters!"

Trying to diffuse the situation, I moved forward. "Please tell us what the plot is at Hogwarts, Dobby," I pleaded with the house-elf. "If we can tell Dumbledore, we can fix things before they get bad."

Dobby looked horrified at the very thought. "No one must know!" he shouted at me. I cringed and nodded at him. "Harry Potter and Tara Nox must not go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year."

"Will something terrible still happen even if we don't go?" I asked Dobby. Maybe if it was something that was only going to happen if we went... Maybe there was a chance that Dobby was right, that we shouldn't go back to Hogwarts. But Dobby still nodded sadly. "We can't just stay here and let our friends die or get hurt. We have to go and do something."

"She's right. We can't stay," Harry added.

"Then Harry Potter leaves Dobby no choice," Dobby said sadly.

And he didn't give us a chance to realize what he was going to do. Dobby moved much faster than I'd thought was possible for a creature so small. But he managed. Dobby leaped from the floor and darted to the bedroom door. He yanked it open as hard as he could and I gasped as the door whacked into the wall. I was praying that no one had heard downstairs. I could barely hear his little feet padding on the floor as he darted downstairs. My heart leapt into my throat as I turned to Harry in horror.

What the hell were we going to do? "Oh, no," I whispered to Harry. We were both staring at the open door, unable to move. Finally, I managed to get my feet working. "Go. Go!" I hissed at him, shoving Harry towards the door.

We followed the way that Dobby had run, but I had absolutely no clue where he had gone. He was so small that he could have hidden anywhere. Or had he left? No. I would have heard if he was Apparating. Could house-elf's Apparate? I wished that Mom and Dad would have taught me more about them. Harry was hot on my heels as we sprinted through the halls. Mouth dry, stomach lurching, Harry and I sprang towards the staircase after him, trying not to make a sound. He jumped the last six steps, landing catlike on the hall carpet, and motioned me to do the same. I did and gently grabbed onto him, letting him steady me.

The two of us were looking all around for Dobby. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no mention of Dobby. This was not good. I couldn't imagine a worse day for this to happen. I could hear the Dursley's and the Mason's talking back and forth with each other. They seemed a little happy as they spoke to each other and my stomach twisted. Their good night was about to go south. And so was ours. Harry and I were standing in the hall, debating on which way to go.

Leaning over to Harry, I whispered into his ear. "Where'd he go?" I asked.

Harry shrugged his shoulders at me and grabbed my hand, pulling me with him. "I don't know. Look for him," he told me.

From the dining room I could hear Vermin saying, "...tell Petunia that very funny story about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason. She's been dying to hear..."

Part of me wanted to run over and tell them that jokes about Americans weren't that funny, but I managed to restrain myself. Maybe it wasn't that I had restrained myself, but for the fact that Harry grabbed my hand and yanked me with him. We ran up the hall into the kitchen and my hand flew over my mouth. Any courage that I'd been feeling that Dobby might have just disappeared and left us be had suddenly left me. Horse-Face's masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of cream and sugared violets, was floating up near the ceiling. We couldn't bring it down. We couldn't risk being caught doing underage magic. Not while it was against the law. And we were too short to catch him. On top of a cupboard in the corner crouched Dobby.

He was right there. But he was far too high out of our reach. There was nothing that we could do other than watch on in horror. "No, no, no. Please don't do that, Dobby," I said as softly as I could.

"No," Harry croaked. "Please... they'll kill me..."

Moving very carefully towards Dobby, I prepared to plead with everything in me. I was not going to let the Dursley's kill my best friend because a house-elf came here on some strange mission to ward him off of Hogwarts. Dobby was watching me closely, clearly prepared to make a move if I did anything. Harry tried to grab onto me to stop me. But I shook him off. I knew what I was doing. At least, I thought that I did. We would see soon enough.

Keeping my voice low, I spoke to Dobby. "If you want to keep Harry safe, you can't do that. Whatever terrible thing at Hogwarts that's going to happen will be nothing compared to what happens to him if you do that," I whispered to the house-elf.

Dobby looked pained, but still didn't make a move to put the pudding back where it belonged. "Dobby can't, miss. Harry Potter must say he's not going back to school -"

"Just tell him!" I hissed at Harry. He looked completely hopeless. "He'll stop," I reasoned, not really sure whether or not my logic was sound.

"I can't," Harry told me desperately. I wanted to slap him and tell him to just say it, but I knew how hard it was for someone that literally had nothing more to look forward to than school. "Dobby... please..."

"Say it, sir -"

"I can't -"

That was when I knew that it was too late. We had done all that we could, but Dobby was going to do this. Dobby gave us a tragic look. "Then Dobby must do it, sir, for Harry Potter's own good."

I decided to beg one more time. "Please don't, Dobby. Please," I whispered.

But it was too late. Dobby made a very quick movement of the hand, almost like he was trying to cut something, and that was it. The pudding fell to the floor with a heart-stopping crash. I tried to dive after the dessert, but I was too late. It had fallen too fast. Cream splattered the windows and walls as the dish shattered. Sitting flat on my stomach, I turned to look at Harry, who had gone as pale as a sheet. With a crack like a whip, Dobby vanished. He had Apparated back to his home, leaving Harry and I to deal with the aftermath.

"Merlin," I whispered in horror.

There were screams from the dining room and I cringed, knowing that there was no way that we were going to get out of this. Vermin burst into the kitchen to find Harry and I, rigid with shock, covered from head to foot in Horse-Face's pudding. The Mason's followed a moment later. Mr. Mason was a thinner man, looking shocked at the turn of event. It looked as though this was the first interesting thing that he'd ever seen in his entire life. Mrs. Mason was a heavy-set woman that seemed absolutely shocked to find that someone else was in the house. Dudley came in with wide eyes, wondering what we'd just done. For a moment I thought that he might eat the pudding right off of us.

The house was silent for a while as everyone surveyed the mess. Harry was kneeling next to me as I moved from my stomach to sit back on my heels. Harry and I were crouched together, both of us in fear for our lives. Neither one of us wanted to admit that we were afraid of the Dursley's. I knew that they wouldn't do anything right now, not with guests, but once they got rid of the Mason's and kicked me out, I couldn't imagine what they would do to Harry for ruining the dinner. If only they knew that the story was so much worse than that.

At first, it looked as though Vermin would manage to gloss the whole thing over. He laughed awkwardly and turned to explain. "Just our niece and nephew - very disturbed - meeting strangers upsets them, so we kept them upstairs..."

Trying to play into the lie so that Harry wouldn't get in any more trouble, we wrapped our arms around each other and stood, backing into the corner of the kitchen. Perhaps a bad idea. We stood and watched as the Mason's were ushered away. Vermin shooed the shocked Mason's back into the dining room, and advanced on us. He promised Harry he would flay him to within an inch of his life when the Mason's had left, and handed the both of us a mop. He promised me that he'd expose the whole world for what I was if I ever did anything like that again. I gulped, knowing what a huge problem that could cause. I could be thrown into Azkaban Prison.

My stomach churned itself in knots as I thought about all of the horrible things that could happen to me. I was shaking as Harry pressed me into the counter, wrapping his arms around me. Dobby's slightly-innocent attempt at keeping Harry out of Hogwarts had turned into a very dangerous proposition for me. Once Harry was sure that I was alright, he let me go and carefully pick up the pieces of glass while he mopped the floor. Horse-Face dug some ice cream out of the freezer and prepared a new dessert. In the meantime, Harry and I, still shaking, started scrubbing the kitchen cabinets clean.

As time went on, Horse-Face, Vermin, and the Mason's got back to chatting about whatever deal it was that Vermin was trying to make. Dudley - who was absolutely terrified at the very thought of magic - was now very silent. The conversation had mostly drifted back to normal but from time to time I could hear either Mr. or Mrs. Mason question Harry and I. Where we'd come from, why we were staying with them, what had happened to us, and the likes. Vermin and Horse-Face were very clever to avoid those questions.

About ten minutes had passed from the moment that the pudding had shattered when Harry walked over to me and we began speaking softly with each other. "What was that about? What's going to happen at Hogwarts?" I whispered to him.

The last thing that I wanted was for Harry to get in even more trouble. We had to keep quiet so that no one would hear us talking. "Is there a way to track where house-elf's are?" Harry asked me.

For a moment I couldn't think of anything. But then it hit me. The House-Elf Placement Agency. We could go there. "There's a registry," I said softly, earning Harry's full attention. "Maybe we could find out which family he works for and confront them about it? It can't be someone good if they're talking about a plot that they aren't planning to stop."

Harry was nodding along with me. It was certainly not the best plan in the world, but so went life with Harry. We sort of just went along with things, no matter how terrible the plans were. "Where's that registry?" Harry asked me.

"Diagon Alley, I think. Maybe I could get Mom and Dad to take a trip one day. Or maybe I could go myself. We could slip away when we go shopping for our Hogwarts things," I offered a few solutions.

We stood together for a long time, trying to figure out what had happened to panic Dobby so much so, that he was willing to do all of that to keep Harry away from Hogwarts. "Do you have any idea what Dobby's talking about could be?" Harry asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I pushed away some of the pudding that was on the counter. "Not a clue. All I know is that my life was a lot simpler before you came into it," I whispered to him. Harry laughed softly as we cleaned up the last little bits of pudding in the kitchen. "But it was also a lot less interesting. We'll figure it out. If we figured out the Sorcerer's Stone, we can figure this out, too," I promised him.

And I genuinely believed that. We always knew how to fix something, no matter how hopeless it seemed. "They're going to kill me when the Mason's leave. They'll kick you out," Harry said.

Shrugging slightly, I nudged his hip. We would manage. We always managed to make things work out. "Don't worry. If you're thinking that they won't let you go to Hogwarts, they will. I don't know how, but I'll figure something out. No matter what happens, don't panic. Just sit tight and wait it out," I told him, squeezing his hand gently.

Harry smiled at me and leaned slightly into my arms. "What would I do without you?" he sighed.

"Cry," I answered quickly. We smiled at each other, but right over the back of Harry's head, I realized that the calm air that had surrounded the house was about to die. "Uh-oh," I muttered.

"What?" Harry asked frantically, probably thinking that Dobby had returned.

But that would have been easier to explain - and definitely easier to manage ourselves - than what really happened. Vermin seemed to have talked his way into making his deal once more. We both thought that it was actually going to work out for everyone - if it hadn't been for the owls. Horse-Face was just passing around a box of after-dinner mints when a huge barn owl swooped through the dining room window, dropped two letters on Mrs. Mason's head with a loud screech, and swooped out again.

The mop clattered onto the floor as I dropped it. Any chance that we'd had of getting out of this relatively unscathed had gone out the window. Mrs. Mason screamed like a banshee and ran from the house shouting about lunatics. Horse-Face dropped the box of mints as Vermin began stuttering apologies. It was very obvious that nothing was going to change what had just happened. The business deal had been ruined. And it was all because Dobby had been trying to warn Harry and I that something terrible was going to happen at Hogwarts this year. Had things been less serious, I would have laughed. We were getting involved in all sorts of disasters before even getting our letters from Hogwarts.

Mr. Mason threw down his napkin, stood huffily, and headed to the door. Before he could leave, he turned back to Vermin, who was trying in vain to get the Mason's to stay. "My wife is mortally afraid of birds all shapes and sizes. Is this your idea of a joke, Vernon?" Mr. Mason asked.

"N - No," Vermin muttered awkwardly.

It was one of the least confident that I'd ever seen Vermin look. He looked even more terrified than he had the moment that Hagrid had cornered him for lying to Harry and insulting Dumbledore. Perhaps it was because, this time, he had to deal with the repercussions. This wasn't just something that he could ignore for ten months out of the year. He was going to have to deal with whatever happened to him at work in the morning. Probably nothing good. Perhaps he was going to get fired. Perhaps not. In a way, I hoped that he didn't. I knew that he had a family - as much as I didn't like them - to support. And I didn't want to be part of the reason that he got fired.

It wasn't even just that. I didn't know what was going to happen to Harry. I didn't want anything terrible to happen to Harry. I knew that it would. They were going to end up blaming the both of us. Of course, it kind of was our fault. If Dobby hadn't been here, if we had just agreed to say that we wouldn't go, there might have been a chance that this hadn't happened. And things would be much easier right now. The Mason's car lights flashed through the windows as they left, and I began to quake in fear.

Very few times had Vernon Dursley scared me, but now was one of those moments. Harry stood in the kitchen, clutching the mop for support, myself clutching Harry, as Vermin advanced on us, a demonic glint in his tiny eyes. "There's two of them! Read them!" he hissed evilly, brandishing the two letters that the owl had delivered. "Go on - read them!"

The house shook with his anger. That was when I remembered. The letters that we had been delivered. I didn't like the look of them. It wasn't Dai, Hedwig, or Hale that had come through. It wasn't Errol either. It wasn't even Rusty, Cedric's owl. I'd never seen that one before. It wasn't any of the school owls, at least, not any of the ones that I'd seen. With shaking hands, Harry and I took the letters. They were not greetings from Hogwarts, or any type of invitation to hang out with one of my friends.

Dear Miss Nox,

We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your current location this evening at twelve minutes past nine. As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).

We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity that risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offense under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy.

Enjoy your holidays!

Yours sincerely,  
Mafalda Hopkirk

Improper Use of Magic Office  
Ministry of Magic

Vermin had already read the letters. He knew what they had said. But that wasn't what I was currently thinking about. I was currently thinking about a way out of this. Vermin was nothing compared to the letter. What the hell were we going to do? Could we go and rat out Dobby, telling the Ministry that he was the one that had performed the charm? But would they even believe us? There was no way. Plus, I knew that Dobby meant well. I really didn't want to get him in trouble or something like that. My heart was thudding loudly in my chest.

From now on, I would have to be incredibly careful about what I did or if I was ever around magic. I wouldn't be able to do magic anywhere that wasn't school. My parents would kill me if I actually got expelled from Hogwarts. But it wasn't even my fault... A ruined dinner party was suddenly the least of my worries. What the hell was going to happen to us? I couldn't get kicked out of Hogwarts. I couldn't not go, either. It was my home away from home. My friends were there. Everyone was there. It was where I was going to learn to be a full witch. Would this go on some kind of record? Would I not be able to become an Auror? Had Dobby the house-elf ruined things for Harry and I?

My thoughts were interrupted by Vermin's seething voice. "You didn't tell us you weren't allowed to use magic outside school." He was speaking to Harry but his gaze briefly lingered on me. I'd brought my wand around and mentioned doing magic occasionally around them. There was a mad gleam dancing in Vermin's eyes. "Forgot to mention it. Slipped your mind, I daresay." He was bearing down on Harry like a great bulldog, all his teeth bared. "Well, I've got news for you, boy. I'm locking you up. You're never going back to that school... never... and if you try and magic yourself out - they'll expel you! Get out of my house!" he barked at me.

As much as I wanted to grab Harry and pull him from the house, I couldn't. Laughing like a maniac, Vermin dragged Harry back upstairs. He had me in his other hand as he shoved me towards the door. We were stumbling over each other, Horse-Face and Dudley clutching onto each other in the living room. Like everyone else, they were still trying to process what had happened over the past half an hour. Just as I went to grab onto Harry's arm, Vermin ripped me away from him, shoving me towards the door and Harry up towards the stairs.

He left Harry at the foot of the stairs with a warning not to move, and stormed back over to me like a wild rhinoceros. "We'll figure this out, Harry!" I yelled over Vermin's hulking shoulder.

Before Harry got the chance to say anything back to me, Vermin grabbed me by my shoulder, yanked open the door, and shoved me outside. "Out of my house! Never come back!" he howled into the night.

Harry was trying to yell something back to me, but I never heard him. Vermin slammed the door in my face so hard that it rattled the entire house. Shouts were immediately heard and I cringed, turning back to my house. If there was anyone that I could try and talk to, to solve what had just happened, it would be Mom and Dad. I stormed into the house and saw that they were together. They were curled up on the couch and laughing at something that the news announcer had said. Mom turned back at the sound of the door shutting and smiled at me. She shut off the television and lit up a lamp with the wave of her hand.

They were both turned around as Mom motioned me over to sit with them. I stood in front of the television. They clearly hadn't understood what the problem was. "What was all of that noise, Tara? The Dursley's make that deal they wanted?" Mom asked.

She seemed genuinely curious. Dad was snorting under his breath. He had probably been laughing about the deal all night long. "Getting excited ahead of time for that trip to Majorca?" he asked haughtily.

Mom finally seemed to realize that I was covered in frosting. "What in Merlin's name is all over you?" Mom asked.

"They're going to kill Harry!" I shouted.

If I hadn't had their attention before, I certainly had it now. Mom and Dad stood from the couch and walked me over into the kitchen, where they sat me on the stool. "What happened?" Mom asked, starting to clean me up.

Trying to take a deep breath and explain everything that I could without making things sound too dark. They still hadn't gotten over everything that had happened last year with the Sorcerer's Stone and Voldemort. They were going to flip if I told them that a little house-elf had come and warned us to stay away from Hogwarts, that something dark was going to happen. The good thing with that was that since Dobby hadn't told us what was going to happen, or who was going to do it, there was no real proof that something was going to happen.

While I told the story, I cut out little bits and pieces. I didn't want them to panic and take Dobby's warning to heart, thinking that they couldn't send me to Hogwarts. I couldn't imagine life without Hogwarts. So I told them that we got upstairs and saw that Dobby was on Harry's bed. Unfortunately, they didn't know who Dobby belonged to. I told them that Dobby had warned us away from Hogwarts - that it didn't have to do with Voldemort - but that we had refused to say that we wouldn't go. I had gone on to tell them about the pudding and the Dursley's plan to lock Harry in his room so that he couldn't go to Hogwarts next month. Unfortunately, I'd even told them about the letters that Harry and I had gotten, something that had almost made Mom lose her mind.

It took nearly twenty minutes to explain everything that had happened, and my parents seemed absolutely stunned. They paced the kitchen back and forth. "Perhaps we should write to Dumbledore..." Dad muttered.

Mom thought it over for a few minutes before shaking her head. My jaw dropped. We had to tell Dumbledore. And I had to get that underage magic note off of my record! "No. I guarantee you that he knows," she told Dad before turning to me. "No more performing magic, not even for a second, do you hear me? You can't be kicked out of Hogwarts."

"But I didn't do anything!" I shouted.

Mom shushed me and moved forward. "I know, but we can't get this Dobby into trouble. I'm sure that his family is awful to him already. We wait it out. There are four more weeks in the holidays. It won't be fun but Harry will wait there. We'll get him out before the day comes to take him back to Hogwarts," Mom told me.

Shaking my head at her exasperatedly, I nearly shouted at them. "They're not going to let him go!" I hissed. They were going to let Harry go to Hogwarts over their dead bodies. "Were you listening to me?"

My parents shared a look before Mom moved towards me, grabbing my hand in hers. "My girl, you have such a big heart. I know that you love Harry, we do too." I nodded at her. They looked at him like a second child. Most of the summer we'd tried to bring him over as much as we could. "But trust me when I say that we have things handled. I know that you're impatient, but you must trust that Harry will be at Hogwarts on September First," Mom said, pushing back my slightly wet hair.

"How?" I asked grumpily.

This time it was Dad that moved forward. "We'll speak to Dumbledore. He'll pull some strings and if the Dursley's show no signs of letting up in a few weeks, we'll take care of it," he guaranteed me.

But we couldn't wait that long... They were going to starve him. But I knew that they weren't going to do anything. Not if they could get in trouble for it, too. So I turned the conversation for a moment. "Sorry about the letter," I mumbled.

"It's alright, love. We've all done stupid things," Dad said. I ground my teeth together. I hadn't done anything stupid. It was Dobby. "Just make sure that you don't get another."

I sure as hell would not be getting another. There was no way that I was going to get kicked out of Hogwarts or get my wand snapped. "Why don't you go out with your friends tomorrow?" Mom offered. I knew that she was trying to get my mind off of Harry. "Or sometime in the next few days? Relax and remember that you'll be back at Hogwarts and Harry will be away from the Dursley's in no time."

I was about to tell her that I really didn't want to do that, but suddenly an idea began to form in my head. And Mom had just given me the perfect excuse to put it into action. So, really, if anything went wrong it would be her fault. "You're right. Ron wanted me to stay at the Burrow again. Do you mind if I stay with them for a few days? Maybe in a couple of days," I said softly.

It was obvious that they didn't understand that I was plotting. "That's a wonderful idea," Dad said happily.

Mom was smiling as well. "Yes, you seemed very happy last time," she said. I had been happy. It had been one of the most fun moments of my summer. "Can you write them?"

I nodded at her. I had no intent to write to anyone but Ron. "Yes. I'll manage," I told them before coming to a stand. "I've had a very long night. I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight," I called to my parents, waving them off.

"Night, love," Mom called.

"Goodnight, Tara," Dad said, pulling me into a hug. "Wash that junk off of you. It smells terrible. Perhaps it's better that this Dobby ruined it," he told me. Despite myself, I laughed.

Heading upstairs quickly, I hopped into my shower and washed off all of the pudding that had somehow gotten all over me when Dobby had dropped it. It actually didn't taste half-bad, although I definitely didn't want it on me. For a moment, I actually felt bad for the Dursley's. We had accidentally ruined their very important dinner. But there was no need to tell Harry that he couldn't go back to Hogwarts. If anything, I thought that it would be reason to get rid of him. They hated him. So why were they so against getting away from him for ten months? Probably because they felt that his 'strangeness' reflected on them.

Once I had turned the water off, I changed into my pajamas. I knew that the Dursley's were going to do something to Harry, probably lock him away without food, so I knew that he was going to need some things to keep him and Hedwig for a few days. Once I was sure that I'd gotten everything together, I opened my window and grabbed a few pebbles off of my floor. I'd kept a pile of them over the summer to throw at Harry's window whenever the Dursley's wouldn't let him outside or me inside, and I wanted to talk to him. So I leaned out of the window and chucked a few pebbles at his window. It wasn't until I'd thrown the third that he popped up.

I stopped throwing the rocks and waited for Harry to open it. Even from here I could tell that he was absolutely terrified. My gut twisted at the sight of him. Nothing good had happened to him in the past hour. "Don't worry, I've got a plan," I called to him.

"They're going to put bars on my window. They've already locked the door so that I can't get out," he told me. I scoffed at the thought. They were so horrible to him. We had to do something for him, and we could not wait for Mom and Dad to do something. "Tara, I won't be able to get back to Hogwarts in a month," he said desperately.

"Calm down," I immediately told him. We were going to do something. I wasn't sure what, just yet, but I'd manage. "I've got an idea. Can you manage for a few days?" I asked.

He looked surprised at me, but he shouldn't have been. I was always the one with a plan, despite the fact that they usually weren't that good of plans. "Well - Yes - But what's your plan?" he asked me.

"Don't ask. You probably won't like it," I told him. He looked like he might counteract me, but he didn't. "Can you catch?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah."

"Step back," I warned.

He did as I said and I smiled at him, making sure that I had everything ready on my bed. He was about two feet away from his window as I began throwing. The first thing that I threw was a bag of owl treats. I knew that Vermin would barely be feeding Harry, and he definitely wouldn't be feeding Hedwig. Once he had grabbed those, I began throwing some candy and snacks for Harry. I knew that they weren't nutritious and they would make him sick if he ate too much, but it would be better than the dog food that Vermin would feed him. I also tossed over the prank box that George had given me for Christmas to keep himself amused with. It wasn't illegal. I'd even included a book on the origins of Godric Gryffindor. Not really amusing, but it would keep him busy for the next few days.

Once everything had been tossed over to Harry, I leaned forward out of the window, and he did the same. "That's all I have for now. Sorry it's not a lot but it should last you for a few days," I told him.

He was smiling softly at me. "It's wonderful. Thanks, Tara," he said.

Smiling back at him, I shrugged. I should have gotten some type of granola bar or something. "No problem. Get some sleep, alright?" I asked him. He nodded at me. We would have to be careful so that Vermin wouldn't hear us conspiring with each other. "I'll check on you in the mornings and at night."

Harry nodded at me, moving back from the window slightly. "Alright. Don't get yourself into trouble, okay?" he asked me. I smiled at him. I would always get in trouble. He laughed at me. "Too much trouble, at least. Love you, Tara."

"Love you too, Harry. Take it easy," I called back to him.

We both shut our windows and I sighed as I began to put everything back in its place. My parents couldn't know that I was conspiring to do something that they really wouldn't like. They always insisted that they had things handled, and they probably did, but they took far too long. Mom and Dad would leave him there all summer. And Harry couldn't deal with that. He would starve before the summer ended. So I took a seat at my desk, grabbed a piece of paper, and began to compose a note to Ron.

Ron,

You haven't heard from Harry this summer, right? I know why. I can explain everything later, but I need your help. I'll be in your fireplace four days from now. Please respond by then. Get Fred and George. We'll need their help. Harry's being held captive by the Dursley's. I'll explain everything later. You might get in trouble for this. Bear that in mind.

Get back to me soon,  
Tara.

Once I'd gotten everything together and ensured that my note made enough sense for now, I walked over and nudged Dai awake. He didn't seem happy with me for disturbing his sleep, but he allowed me to wake him. "Take it to Ron, yeah?" I asked the owl. He hooted and grabbed the letter, fluttering off.

Three days passed without a response from Ron. I was starting to get worried about whether or not he would actually be able to help me. I knew that it wasn't because he hadn't gotten the letter. Dai knew where he was going. And he was still gone anyways. He was probably enjoying life at the Burrow as Ron attempted to figure something out. It was moments like these that I really wished that he had a telephone. It would have made things a lot easier for everyone. Of course, he didn't know how to use one.

I'd thought about writing to Hermione, but I'd decided against it. She would probably side with Mom and Dad about waiting it out. And I really didn't want to tell her about the letter that we had gotten. She would kill me, even though it wasn't my fault. And if she knew that both Harry and I had gotten the letters, forget it. She would demand that I should stay at home and let things take their own course. In all honesty, she probably would have told me that Dumbledore would have taken care of it. But she also didn't know what was happening to Harry in the meantime, under the Dursley's iron-rule.

Vermin had proven himself to be just as bad as his word. The morning after the disaster of a dinner party, he paid a man to fit bars on Harry's window. I'd wanted to go out and give him a piece of my mind but Mom had threatened to place a Full Body-Bind Curse on me if I made a move to the front door. So I'd had to sigh and agree that I wouldn't say anything. That night Harry had told me that Vermin himself had fitted a cat-flap in the bedroom door, so that small amounts of food could be pushed inside three times a day. They were letting Harry out to use the bathroom morning and evening. Otherwise, he was locked in his room around the clock. Three days later, the Dursley's were showing no sign of relenting, and I knew that Harry couldn't see any way out of his situation.

Still, I was planning on heading to the Burrow tomorrow, no matter what. More than anything, I'd been hoping that Dobby would make another appearance. I had words to exchange with him. But he hadn't come to visit me, and according to Harry, he hadn't visited him either. He probably knew that we were furious. It made perfect sense that he would try to avoid us. But I was desperate to get the little house-elf back. If nothing else, just to make him go to the Ministry and tell them that he was the one that did the levitating charm. But I hadn't seen him, and I had no idea who he belonged to. Not that I hadn't tried.

Yesterday, to get my mind off of everything that had been happening with Harry, I'd gone out to Diagon Alley. I'd told Mom and Dad that it was to do some shopping and get my mind off of everything that had happened, and that was partially the reason. I also had to go and get two new sets of robes. I had destroyed two of my three sets last year, but I'd also gotten a smidgen taller. My shirts had become slightly tighter over the summer. It had really seemed to happen overnight. Curves had suddenly began to set in.

Thankfully they weren't that extensive yet. But it was just enough to make my shirts slightly tighter in the chest area. I'd been mortified when I'd had to pull Mom to the side yesterday - unable to deny any longer that I needed some new clothes - and tell her that I needed money to go shopping. She'd laughed and said that it was nothing to be ashamed of. When I'd written to Hermione about it, she'd said that I was lucky that I was starting to develop. She'd mentioned to me that she had grown maybe an inch, but that was all that had changed with her. So I'd gone to Diagon Alley with my face burning as Mom had shouted at me to buy slightly over-sized clothes for when I 'grew' again. Thankfully she hadn't explained what she'd meant to Dad.

For the most part, the trip had been uneventful. I'd gotten the new clothes that I'd needed. Thankfully the witches that were there had understood my problem without questioning me on it. They'd gotten me the sizes that I'd needed and had gone one up from those, telling me that they should carry me through at least my Second and Third Years. They'd mentioned that I might have to come back before my Fourth Year to get new clothes, saying that I'd probably grow all over in two years.

Once I'd gathered everything together, I'd headed out to the House-Elf Placement Agency. I'd formulated a plan to go into the agency and tell someone that my friend was concerned for her house-elf. I was going to tell them that her house-elf was getting older and she was thinking about getting a new one. Once they gave me the registry, I would look through quickly and find out who Dobby belonged to. If nothing else, it would at least give me a chance to question the owners. But my plan had been foiled before it had really begun.

I'd barely made it into the building when an older house-elf had jumped out in front of me. "How old are you?" he asked me.

My throat closed as I stared at the little creature. This one was much less pleasant than Dobby had been. Even when he'd dropped the pudding. "Oh, um, I'm twelve," I answered stupidly.

"Out!" the little thing bellowed at me. I jumped backwards and stumbled towards the door. "House-elf's may not be obtained by witches or wizards under the age of seventeen!"

"No, no, I just need to know about one -" I never got a chance to finish. The little house-elf slammed the door in my face and I stumbled back onto the stone walkway with my bags in hand. There went that plan...

The street was crowded, but I was still surprised when I heard a voice call out to me. "Looking to adopt a house-elf?" Cedric asked, leaning up against the side of the House-Elf Placement Agency. He was grinning sideways at me.

Blowing some hair out of my face, I moved away from the door and stood with him in the little out-cove that he had found. "Why is it that you always show up at the least convenient times?" I asked. He laughed at me. "No, I was actually looking to see if I could find the family that a certain house-elf belongs to."

Cedric gave a deep sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. "Should I even bother asking why?" he asked. It was halfway between a laugh and an exasperated sigh.

"Oh I'm sure that you don't want to know," I told him honestly.

Cedric grinned at me. "And that's exactly why I'll ask. What happened? Dad said that you and Harry Potter were sent letters about using underage magic in front of Muggles." I swallowed deeply. Of course. His father worked for the Ministry. He would have known that we'd been sent those letters. "I can't believe that you'd be that careless."

"You'd be right." Now he looked even more curious. "Would you believe me if I told you that a house-elf named Dobby came to Harry's house to warn Harry and I against going to Hogwarts this year because of some evil plot, that he'd even stopped Harry's letters to make him think that he didn't have any friends, and, when he didn't agree that he wouldn't go, shattered a very nicely made pudding on the floor - using the Levitating Charm - disrupting a dinner in front of Harry's Aunt and Uncle's very important Muggle work guests?"

For a long time, Cedric simply stared at me, trying to process the information. Finally he began nodding, looking completely unsurprised at the revelation. Not that he really could, when he took into account who we were talking about. "Considering that it's the two of you, yes, I'd believe that. Sounds like we're all in for another spectacular disaster this year," he said.

I was very impressed that he treated the news as almost a joke. I wished that I could take things like that. Of course, I'd actually seen and spoken to Voldemort, so maybe I had a reason to react a little more hastily. "Yes, I'd think so," I laughed with him.

"Please tell me that you aren't thinking of doing something highly illegal?" he asked me.

"Well I don't think that it's necessarily illegal..."

Cedric pinched the bridge of his nose in between his fingers and laughed softly when he looked back at me. "You're going to get yourself expelled one of these days. I hope you know that," he said.

Grinning proudly, I nodded. "I'm very well-aware of that fact."

Cedric motioned for me to walk and I did, blushing softly as he placed his hand on the small of my back. "Come on, let me buy you a Butterbeer, and try and talk you out of doing whatever you're planning on doing."

"It won't work," I told him.

After a beat he turned to me and smiled playfully. "I know. That was just my excuse to sit with you so that I don't have to go home," he said proudly as we walked into the Leaky Cauldron, taking a seat in a secluded corner.

Not that I'd told him or made it that obvious, but I'd been absolutely thrilled that he'd wanted to sit with me. Even if it was just a way for him to not have to go back home. It meant that I actually got a chance to sit and talk with him. And talk, we did. For hours we hung around the Leaky Cauldron, making me forget all about Dobby and Harry. We'd promised to see each other a few more times before the new school year started and I found myself thrilled that he clearly wasn't sick of me yet. As much as he pretended to be exasperated with all of the little rules that I broke, and oddities about myself, I had a feeling that he actually enjoyed them.

Unfortunately I'd eventually had to leave when it was time for dinner, but I really hadn't wanted to. We'd promised to write each other, and I'd made him promise that he was still treating my broom well. He'd laughed and told me that it was now acting as tinder. I'd whacked him over the head before heading home. Of course, Mom and Dad had asked what had taken me so long, and I'd lied and said that I ran into Oliver Wood - the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team - telling them that we had sat together and chatted about the upcoming season. Dad being Dad, he hadn't realized that it was a lie and had happily dropped the subject of why I'd been gone for so long.

That was yesterday. Now it was the morning of the fourth day since I'd owled Ron. I was still convincing myself to go to the Burrow today, whether or not I heard back from Ron. I knew that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley liked me just fine, so I wasn't concerned that I would be overstepping my boundaries. After grabbing my breakfast, I'd come upstairs to get ready for the day. Really, it was just so that I could take some time to shout over to Harry. I opened my window and tossed one... two... three... four pebbles at his window before I saw him appear.

He looked dreadfully bored, and absolutely starving. "What's been happening?" I called to him.

Harry placed his head in his hands and I sighed at the sight of him. This was how I knew that what I was doing was worth it. We couldn't leave him like this. "They're horrible, Tara. They've completely locked me in the room. I can't do anything. And most of the time I'm too afraid to use any of this in case they see me. I've read this book three times," he said.

Wow. Three times? I'd barely managed to get through it once. Although, I supposed that it was better than staring at the walls. "Sorry it's not more entertaining. I'd give you another, but, you know," I said, motioning to the bars on the window.

Harry sighed as he gripped at the edge of the bars. "I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful," he told me. I nodded at him. I knew that he was grateful that I'd at least done something. "They put a cat-flap on the bottom of the door so they can slip me food three times a day. It's worse than usual. They wouldn't be feeding Hedwig at all, so thanks for the treats." I nodded at him. "They let me out to use the bathroom in the morning and at night."

"How could people be that miserable?" I asked, my voice carrying with the light breeze.

"How do I get out of here?" Harry asked me desperately.

"I've handled it. Don't worry," I said.

It was the same thing that I had told him every day for the past three nights. I was sure that he was sick of hearing it. "You keep saying that, but here I am, worrying about it. What are you planning?" he asked curiously.

And that was where we ran into problems. There really wasn't a definitive plan. I just knew that we had to do something. "Honestly, I'm not completely sure. But I'm working on it," I promised him.

Vermin's voice echoed so loudly through the house that even across our yards and through Harry's door, I could hear him. "Who are you talking to? Be quiet! Speak to no one!" he shouted.

"I have to go," Harry said, starting to shrink back into the house.

"We'll get you out of this!" I promised as he closed the window.

Sighing deeply, I shrunk back onto my bed and dropped into the pillows. The air was humid and warm, but I left it open in case Dai came back tonight. I hadn't seen him or any other owls lately and it made me more irritable with every passing day. Having telephones would be so much easier. It was the one thing that drove me nuts about wizards. But just as I thought that, Dai came swooping through my window, landing on my stomach. I shot up so quickly, thrilled to see the owl, that he was knocked backwards. He hooted angrily at me and I apologized softly, tossing three treats at him. That got him to be quiet. He dropped a letter on my bed and I grinned. It was from Ron.

Tara,

I'm in. Whatever happened between Harry and the Dursley's, we'll get him out of it. I was wondering why I hadn't heard from him before. Fred and George are in, too. Come over whenever you get this. Mom's expecting you.

See you soon,  
Ron.

Grinning madly, I ran back and forth, trying to grab the clothing and toiletries that I would need for a few days. I didn't even bother to write back to Ron. I would be there in a few minutes, hopefully. I gathered clothes for four days and my toothbrush, toothpaste, and everything else that I would need. Once I had everything in my overnight bag, I dashed back downstairs and went to hunting for Mom and Dad. They were just here. Where had they gone? It was a weekend. There was no way that they were at work. They were here somewhere. I just had to find them.

"Mom? Dad?" I called out.

"In the kitchen!" Dad's voice floated through the living room.

Darting over to the kitchen, I dropped my bag on the floor and smiled sideways at them. My parents laughed and placed down their papers. "Ah, you heard back from Ron?" Mom asked.

"Yeah. He said that Mrs. Weasley is expecting me and has already made up a spot in Ginny's room. He said to come over whenever I got the letter. Mind if I go now?" I asked them.

Mom and Dad exchanged a look with each other before turning to me and nodding. It was amazing the way that they did that without actually speaking to each other. "Go on. And tell the Weasley's that we say hello!" Mom called after me.

"I will!" I called back.

I'd barely made it out of the kitchen when Dad's voice called me back. I groaned. This was taking away from my plotting time. "How long will you be gone?" Dad asked me. I stopped dead in my tracks.

How long would I be gone? I wasn't really sure. "Four, maybe five, days. I'll Floo back over in a few days and let you know," I said. They both nodded. That was the thing about wizards. Considering that they could handle themselves if the need ever really arose, parents tended to be a little more relaxed about letting their kids come and go as they pleased.

"Be careful!" Mom called after me.

"Have fun!" Dad added.

I poked my head around the corner of the kitchen and waved to them. "Bye Mom, Dad, love you both!" I shouted.

As I walked back out towards the living room, I could hear them both laughing at me. They knew that I was bored at home and they knew that I was antsy waiting to see what would happen to Harry. So, they were being kind enough to let me leave. Little did they know that I was going to do exactly what they didn't want me to do. I hopped into the fireplace and shouted out for the Burrow. The first time I'd done so I thought that it would bring me to some random place. Thankfully, it seemed to always know where I wanted to go. So, as the flames shot up around me, I closed my eyes and waited until I popped out of the Weasley's fireplace.

The trip seemed longer than usual. I was spit out into a very dusty fireplace and I coughed, trying to brush the charcoal out of my eyes. Not only that, but I was awkwardly trying to find my way out, since ash was all over me now. I could barely see where I was going. But I managed to stumble out of the fireplace and start wiping all of the dust, soot, and ash out of my hair and clothes. The Burrow was beginning to come into view and I saw Mrs. Weasley walking out of the kitchen with a guilty look on her face.

She handed me the towel that she had over her shoulder and began wiping off everything that was covering me. "Oh, Tara, I'm sorry dear. I thought that we had some time to clean out the fireplace before you arrived. Ronald just told me that you would be coming," she said. I waved her off and thanked her as she waved her wand, easily cleaning me off. "I do have your bed made up."

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley. And it's not a problem. The fireplace in Flourish and Blotts is much worse," I told her with a smile.

She laughed at me and nodded, taking a step back. She motioned me to follow her into the kitchen, but I never got the chance. "Tara!"

For a moment I thought that it might have been Ron, but that didn't make any sense, seeing as there were two voices. It didn't bode well for me. Fred and George came barreling down the stairs, and before I got the chance to realize what they were doing, they had knocked into me, sending me careening to the floor. I grunted as we fell and twisted into a pile of limbs and bodies. The twins were both laughing at me as they crushed me into the stone floor, gasping for air.

"You'd think that I'd be used to that by now," I groaned to myself.

"Get off of her!" Mrs. Weasley barked at the boys.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Ginny was downstairs and laughing at us. She walked up to me and smiled, her red hair hanging in her face slightly. "Hi, Tara!" she chirped.

"Hey, Ginny," I groaned, unable to do much more than that. Whacking the twins on the backside, they began to laugh. "Get off of me!" I shouted. They moved off of me slowly, not without whacking me themselves. I rolled my eyes as they each gave me a hand up. Once they had let go, I moved over to Ginny and gave her a hug. "How have you been since I was last here?" I asked.

Ginny smiled brightly as she let go of me. I knew that she liked having me here. It was nice for her to have another girl in the house. "Good! I'm so excited to get my wand and see Hogwarts for the first time," she rambled.

"You'll love it," I told her brightly. "Thanks for letting me stay with you," I added. She was sharing her bedroom with, and considering that it was already so small, I really appreciated it.

Ginny shrugged her shoulders at me. "No problem. It's nice to have another girl in the house for a few days," she said. I smiled at her, letting my arm fall over her. She was taller than me though. Height definitely ran in her family.

Smiling at her, I brought her into the living room. "What do you say that we go to Diagon Alley together in a few days?" I offered to her. She nodded quickly. "I want to show you all of my favorite places and I need a few new sets of robes, since I ruined them all last year."

I had remembered to get the shirts, but I hadn't actually gotten the robes since there was such a long line. "Well it couldn't be because you've gotten taller," Fred interjected into the conversation.

"Who asked you to speak?" I deadpanned at him.

"I'd love to," Ginny said before Fred could respond.

Nodding at her, I went to walk off when I realized that the one person that I was looking for was nowhere to be found. A small glare settled across my face. Where was he when I needed him? "Where's Ron?" I asked everyone.

Fred was the one that moved into me. "He's upstairs," he told me. I nodded and made a move to head up to his room when Fred moved into me so that Ginny and Mrs. Weasley couldn't hear. "What's going on?" he asked me softly.

"I'll tell you guys soon. Come on, let's go and get him," I said.

"Ginny! Come and help with dinner!" Mrs. Weasley shouted. I'd never been so grateful for her. As much as I loved Ginny, I didn't want to get her involved in all of this.

Ginny groaned but nodded anyways. "Coming, Mum," she called back.

Feeling slightly guilty, I turned back to her with a little smile. "We'll do something later, yeah?" I offered her.

"Sure," she said with a smile before heading off.

I was about to turn and head upstairs with the twins, but I was cut off before I could. "Tara, I heard that you were coming over for a few days," Percy said. I smiled at him and brought him in for a hug. He could be a prat, but he was still relatively sweet. "Good to see you. How have you been?" he asked me once we'd backed away from each other.

"I've been good, Percy, thanks. I was getting bored at home, being that my parents work so much. I figured that I had to come and drop by for a few days, as long as it was okay with you guys," I told him with a bright smile.

Percy smiled at me and grabbed my things, probably to put them up in Ginny's room. I thanked him softly. "You'll always be welcome here, Tara," he said.

It was one of the nicest things that I'd ever heard him say. "Tara!" Mrs. Weasley shouted from the kitchen. I jumped slightly but walked around the corner, smiling at the two of them, standing around the counter. "Is bangers and mash okay for dinner?" she asked me.

I nodded at her happily. It was one of my favorite English dishes. Of course, I did still prefer the American food that I had grown up with. "That'd be wonderful, thank you!" I called before heading back to the twins, who were waiting in the living room. "Come on, you two, we need to talk," I told them. I grabbed the twins and yanked them up the stairs. "Where's your Dad?" I asked curiously.

"He's at work. He'll be back soon," George said.

Nodding at him, I let them lead me up to Ron's room. We walked into the small bedroom and I stood behind the twins. Ron was splayed out on his bed, fast asleep, taking a nap. I rolled my eyes at him. The twins looked like they were about to do something to him, but I pushed them off. I needed them all sane today.

So I walked up to the edge of his bed and shouted, "Ron! Wake up!"

He bolted upright in the bed and I was sure that he was about to fall out of the bed. But he didn't. He merely breathed heavily as he stared at me. "Bloody hell. You got here faster than I thought that you would," he said, still breathing heavily.

Nudging him slightly, I seated myself on the edge of his bed. "Scoot over. We need to talk," I said.

The twins propped themselves up on Ron's desk, across from us. Everyone righted themselves and situated themselves as comfortably as they could in the small space. "What's going on with Harry? I've written him at least twelve times asking him to stay but I never get a response. I just asked Hermione and she said that she hadn't heard from him either. Have you seen him?" Ron asked almost all in one breath.

"If you'd be quiet, I'd tell you!" I barked at him.

The tips of his ears turned pink. "Sorry," he muttered.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared to launch into the story. "The Dursley's are holding Harry captive. Vermin was having some kind of dinner party and told Harry to stay upstairs and be completely silent. It was his birthday so I went with him. But we got upstairs and this little house-elf named Dobby was already there." Strange looks were exchanged around the other three and I wondered if they knew who he was. "It turns out that Dobby doesn't want Harry to come back to Hogwarts. He thinks that he's in danger. Shocking." A few laughs were exchanged. "Anyways, he was cutting off Harry's letters, thinking that if Harry thought that he didn't have any friends at Hogwarts, he wouldn't come back."

They were silent for a long while. It was the longest that I had ever heard Fred and George stay quiet. "So this Dobby's been cutting off the letters?" Ron finally managed to ask me.

"Yeah. Anyways, to keep Harry from coming back to Hogwarts he Apparated downstairs and used a Levitating Charm to drop the pudding onto the floor. It scared everyone and got Harry in a ton of trouble. Not just that, but an owl delivering a letter scared away the Mason's, the people that Vermin had invited to dinner. The wife's scared of birds. It ruined the deal," I told them.

This time, Ron spoke much quicker. "Dad said that you and Harry had gotten letters about using underage magic in front of Muggles! That's what happened?" he asked me.

I nodded furiously. I'd probably always be upset about that. "Yes! Dobby got us in trouble. Anyways, the Dursley's have put bars on his window. They're only letting him out twice a day to go to the bathroom. Other than that, they're barely feeding him scraps through a dog door. We have to get him out! They're not going to let him come back to school," I told them, finally admitting why I was here.

The three brothers exchanged a look with each other. I knew that they were thinking about how we could manage to make this work. "And you thought that Mum was bad," George muttered to the other two.

"We'll figure something out," Ron promised me, placing his hand on my crossed leg.

"So why exactly are we here?" Fred asked, motioning to himself and George. "Not that we don't want to help Harry," he said quickly when I sent him a little glare.

"We need help. We can't just Apparate, none of us are of age yet. And we can't go through the Floo network. The Dursley's know about that. They've sealed off the fireplace. Even if we could get past it, Harry's door has all kinds of locks on it and I don't know where the key is. We need to get to him. If anyone could form a plan, I know that it would be the two of you. So?" I asked.

They were silent for a long while. I sat back and let the twins speak among themselves. Ron and I watched closely, knowing that this was their area of expertise. We sat together and waited for the twins to figure out what we could do. They spoke among themselves, only speaking in very brief, clipped, sentences. But every time that it seemed like they might have been making headway, one of them would shake their heads and decide that it didn't make sense. It was nearly half an hour before the twins seemed to have figured something out. Both Ron and I straightened up, curious to hear what the plan was.

"The car," George finally muttered.

Fred glanced up at his brother and nodded slowly. "The car would work," he added in a low voice.

That definitely wasn't what I was expecting. They were Pureblood wizards, the last thing that I would have thought that they knew how to do was drive. My parents barely knew how. Dad was alright, but Mom had never even tried. "You two can drive?" I finally asked them.

Ron shook his head. "It's not that kind of car," he told me. How many types of cars were there? He had gone ashen as he stared at his brothers. "Mum and Dad will kill us!" he hissed lowly.

This car must have been very important to the family. "That's why we're going to take it in the middle of the night," Fred told his brother with a little smile. He then turned to me. "Tara, sneak out of Ginny's room at eleven. She'll have gone to bed by then. So will everyone else. We'll meet you in the living room," he said.

I nodded at him. "You three are sure about this?" I asked uneasily.

They were the pranksters, they knew what they were talking about, but I didn't have good feelings about this plan. Of course, I was the one who had asked them to do this. "As long as we don't get caught," George told me.

"Are you going to tell me anything more?" I asked them.

The three exchanged a look before all shaking their heads at once. "Probably best that you don't know. Have some faith, Tara. We'll get Harry away from the Muggles," Fred told me.

Taking in a deep breath, I thought about it for a moment. The repercussions were probably relatively high, but I was not going to let Harry live with the Dursley's for the next month. "In the meantime we should go downstairs and hang out with your family. Pretend that we're not about to do something that's probably highly illegal," I told the boys.

They all laughed but nodded at me, telling me that it was for the best. So we all decided to go outside and play a few rounds of Quidditch. Not that it was real Quidditch, considering the number of players that we had. I had to borrow one of their old Comets, which wasn't very good, but I made it work. It was what we spent most of the day doing. It was a lot of fun and actually got my mind off of whatever stupid thing we were planning on doing tonight.

It was definitely fun to get the twins up in the air. Just like Oliver had told us when we'd first joined the team, the Weasley twins really were like human Bludgers themselves. We taught Ginny to play for most of the day. She wasn't the best player in the world, but I had a feeling that she could actually be really good. Ron was actually really good, but I knew that he was too scared to actually try out for the team. Either way, it would be a long time before Gryffindor needed any new players. We'd even gotten Percy to come out and play with us. He was pretty good for ensuring that we were playing by the rules, which would usually earn a faux Bludger sent his way by Fred or George.

That night we all sat together and had dinner. I'd been lucky enough to have gotten seated in between Fred and George. I had to be very careful to ensure that they didn't do anything to my food. They kept trying to do something to it, and more than once either Fred or George had tried to distract me while the other would attempt to put either salt or pepper in my tea. Eventually I'd given up on eating the food, not trusting that they hadn't done anything to my food, and had gone to talking with Mr. Weasley, who I didn't normally get a chance to speak to. It was nice to actually see him and get to speak to him.

We'd ended up spending much of the night tending to the fire and making roasted marshmallows. It was a ton of fun, spending my time with the Weasley family. As much as I loved my family, the Weasley household was so much busier, and could be a lot more entertaining. I'd talked to Percy about how excited he was, getting nearer to the end of his Hogwarts career. He seemed to be extremely excited to actually go out into the world and get a job. It was nice to see. I'd chatted with Ginny, who seemed so excited to go to Hogwarts that I thought that she might explode. She'd also asked me all about Harry, something that had made me laugh.

As the kids started to go to bed, I was left downstairs with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and the twins. Ron hung around for a while, too. Mr. Weasley had asked me all about the Dursley's, who I had nothing good to say about. Muggles absolutely fascinated Arthur Weasley. Mrs. Weasley had asked me if there were any cute boys at Hogwarts. It certainly didn't make a good conversation when George had told his mother to ask about 'Pretty-Boy Diggory' before running upstairs with his brother. I turned to Ron for help, but he, too, fled the scene. Thankfully she only asked me a few questions about him before letting me head off to bed.

When I got upstairs, I hung around Ginny for a long while, trying to tire her out so that she would go to bed. But I really did enjoy having a girl around to talk to. It felt like it had been forever since I'd seen Hermione. We had gossiped most of the time and Ginny had made it a point to ask me all about Cedric. I'd insisted to her that I would tell her all about him in time. She - just like Hermione - had insisted that I tell her all about Cedric when the time came that something happened. Which it wouldn't.

I'd told her that she would have to tell me when she found a boy at Hogwarts that she liked. She had agreed that she would tell me, considering that there was no way that she could talk to her brothers, and she had no sisters. Around ten o'clock, Ginny finally drifted off to sleep. I changed into a t-shirt and a pair of cloth shorts that were pajamas, but could pass as normal clothes so the twins wouldn't laugh at me. I pretended to be asleep until eleven o'clock finally came. As the clock downstairs chimed, I stood up from my bed extremely quietly, and started to pad as softly as I could from the room.

Evidently it was not quiet enough. "Tara?" Ginny muttered sleepily. She had her fuzzy eyes turned on me.

It felt like my heart had stopped. Keeping my voice very low, and pretending to sound tired, I told her, "Go back to sleep, Ginny. I'm just going to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

"Oh, okay. Goodnight."

She fell right back into the bed after that. "Goodnight, Ginny," I whispered.

Once I was sure that Ginny went back to bed, I slipped from the room and very softly shut the door behind me. Once it had clicked closed I padded down the stairs, skipping over the few stairs that creaked. Down in the living room, I spotted Ron, Fred, and George. They all shushed me and I nodded as we slipped out of the house. I didn't have my wand with me, just in case. I couldn't afford another one of those letters. We walked out into the yard, still staying silent. I wasn't sure how light of sleepers the Weasley's were. The twins pointed me over to an old blue Ford Anglia. Ron hopped into the driver's seat, myself in the passenger, with Fred and George in the back.

"You three had better be right about this," I said, keeping my voice down, even though I was sure that the Weasley's couldn't hear us.

"Relax, Tara," Ron said, pulling out the keys.

Suddenly the strange thought occurred to me that Ron was driving. Wasn't there an age restriction on how old someone had to be to drive? "Why are you driving?" I asked him.

Fred leaned forward from the back seat. "Like we said, it's not a normal car," he told me.

Raising an eyebrow, I was about to ask him what he meant. But I never got the chance. Ron stuck the keys in the ignition and I watched as it roared to life. I cringed, hoping that it wasn't loud enough to wake their family up. The car started and we began driving down the road. But we weren't actually on the road for that long. The car began to lift and, to my absolute horror, fly. I squeaked and grabbed onto Ron's arm. I loved flying. But on a broom, not in a car. This was not supposed to happen. I didn't even know that flying cars existed.

Ron laughed and placed a hand over mine. "You guys have a flying car?" I asked weakly.

The three of them nodded at me. "Dad bought it and told Mum that he was going to disassemble it to see how it worked," George said. "You know, he loves Muggles and everything that they use. But he enchanted it so that it could fly. He still hasn't told her. But, of course, she knows. It's got the Invisibility Booster, too. In case we ever have to fly around during the day, it can turn invisible," he said.

"And it's got a Shrinking Charm on it so that everyone and their things could fit. It's how we got to King's Cross every year," Fred added.

My jaw dropped. This was impressive on everyone's parts. I couldn't believe that they had actually figured all of this out. "I have to admit, boys... This is pretty brilliant," I said slowly.

They all nodded at me. "We will take full credit for this wonderful plan," Fred said haughtily.

Rolling my eyes, I turned back in my seat and glared at him. They were so charming. "And what, exactly, is the plan once we get to Privet Drive?" I asked.

And that was when the happy air in the car suddenly faded. We knew how to get there, but we had absolutely no clue what to do once we got there. "We'll figure out how to get the bars off of the window, we'll get Harry's things, and Harry, and then we'll be on our way back to the Burrow. We'll be back before anyone wakes up," Ron said.

It sounded like a simple plan, but there really wasn't anything that we were sure about. "And how will you explain Harry?" I asked, wondering how they were going to explain another person in their house in the morning.

"Haven't gotten that far yet," Ron admitted.

We flew in silence for a little while before I realized that this car was definitely using magic. And I couldn't afford to be doing any underage magic. "Hang on. Am I going to get in trouble for this?" I asked them.

Fred immediately shook his head, and I let the worry flood out of me. "Nope. We're just borrowing it. Since there are no wands involved... You did leave your wand at the Burrow like we told you to?" he asked me. I nodded at him. They didn't even need to tell me that one. "Good. It doesn't count. You won't get in trouble."

That definitely made me feel better. "Neither will Harry once we get him. Just make sure that he doesn't use his wand for anything until he's back to Hogwarts. Both of you, actually," George said.

I nodded at them gratefully. They really had thought of everything. "I'll say, Tara, you might actually get in more trouble than us," Fred told me with a small smile.

"And that's saying something," George added.

We all laughed. Somehow I did manage to get into more trouble than the twins. And I didn't even mean for anything to happen! They were always trying to get into trouble. "Trust me, I can't believe it either. And it's not even my fault. It's Harry's! Somehow I get dragged into it. But I wouldn't trade him for the world," I said softly.

"You might rethink that in a few years," Ron teased me.

We all laughed again. The car was silent for a little while longer before I looked to the three red-heads. "Thank you, to all of you, for helping me with this," I told them.

"Harry's our friend too. And these Dursley's seem awful," Ron said.

"Trust me, they are."

We all sat together and enjoyed ourselves in the peaceful air of the car. The longer that we sat together and chatted, the more comfortable I felt with the flying car. We were all laughing together and talking without a care in the world. It was nice to actually have the flying car. Ron had to be careful, but not so much that he really had to pay attention, he could look away from time to time. The car gently floated around and I gave them directions towards the house. Finally - after a few hours - I spotted Little Whinging.

"Start dropping. The house is over that way," I said, pointing over to the large neighborhood off in the distance.

Ron nodded and starting dropping the flying car. It was the middle of the night, so we weren't concerned with any Muggles seeing us. "Everything looks exactly the same," Fred commented.

"There's no magic, anywhere," George added.

Grinding my teeth together, I nodded. At least my Muggle community back in the States had been kind of fun. Although I did have Harry here. "Most of the people who live here are Muggles. Harry and I are the only people that I know of that are actually magical," I explained. A few minutes later I saw our houses. "Okay, that's his room! With the bars on the window."

I pointed off in the distance and the boys easily spotted the room. It was the only one that actually had bars on the window. The boys stared at it curiously. "Merlin," Fred muttered.

"Okay, Ron, fly up to the window. I'll tap on it and get him up," I instructed.

"We've got a hook that we can use," George said.

I could hear the boys clanging around in the back. "Got it," Fred said.

Ron pulled the car up to the edge of the window and I reached my thin arm through the break in the windows, tapping on the window quietly enough that it wouldn't wake up the Dursley's, but loud enough that it would wake up Harry. Harry: "Stop it," I could hear Harry muttering. He must have been dreaming. I continued to bang on the window. "Leave me alone... cut it out... I'm trying to sleep..."

"Wake up, you lazy bum!" I shouted, hoping that I hadn't woken anyone up.

His eyes finally shot open in surprise. I smiled at him as he reached over to the dresser and placed his glasses on his face. He looked absolutely shocked to realize that it wasn't a dream. Moonlight was shining through the bars on the window to illuminate his face to us. Ron, Fred, and George leaned forward to smile at Harry, myself hanging in front of them. I was sure that I'd never seen as big of a smile on his face as I had in that moment.


	21. The Burrow

For a moment, I was absolutely sure that Harry was going to lose his mind. He never thought that anything that I did was that brilliant. Of course, he was probably right, considering most of the things that I did were enough to get us kicked out of Hogwarts or get our wands snapped. Not that he could say anything. His plans were usually just as stupid as mine were. And he was definitely the reason that I'd gotten half of the points taken away from Gryffindor and half of my detentions.

Still though, this one was on me. As I hung out towards the window, Ron, Fred, and George began switching places. Fred hopped into the driver's seat and George crammed into the passenger seat with me. Ron hopped in the back. We needed enough room for everyone. Harry's jaw was still hanging open as we all smiled at him. He was probably still trying to determine whether or not this was a dream.

"Tara!" Harry finally hissed at me. "This is your brilliant plan?" he asked, motioning around us.

Grinning madly at him, I nodded. He looked absolutely besides himself in surprise. "And it's pretty brilliant, isn't it?" I asked him with a very haughty laugh to my voice.

Harry stared at me for a moment before seemingly finally realizing that it wasn't just me outside of his window. "Ron!" he breathed, creeping a little closer to the window so that we could all talk through the bars. "Ron, how did you... What the - ?"

He was clearly going to exhaust him by trying to figure out what had just happened. "Stop talking," I told Harry. His mouth snapped shut. "We're helping you, you twit. I knew that if we wanted to get you out of there, I needed some help. So, I recruited the best people that I knew, who wouldn't mind breaking the rules. The car was their idea."

Harry's mouth fell open as the full impact of what he was seeing hit him. He glanced out of the window and I backed off slightly so that he could take everything in. It wasn't exactly an easy sight to understand. Ron was leaning out of the back window of the old turquoise car, and I was leaning out of the front of the car, which was parked in midair. Grinning at Harry from the front seats were Fred and George, who were both clearly perfectly fine with helping us essentially break the law.

"All right, Harry?" George asked.

Before Harry got the chance to answer, Ron spoke. "What's been going on? Tara told us a little bit about what happened, but it didn't make sense." I turned a glare on Ron. It made perfect sense. "Why haven't you been answering my letters? I've asked you to stay about twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you'd got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles -"

"It wasn't us," Harry immediately cut in. I smiled at him. "And how did he know?"

Ron shrugged and I awkwardly sat still. We really shouldn't have been talking out here. "He works for the Ministry. You know we're not supposed to do spells outside school -" Ron tried to argue again.

"You should talk," Harry said, motioning to the floating car.

The three Weasley's all shook their heads. "Oh, this doesn't count. We're only borrowing this. It's Dad's, we didn't enchant it," Ron told Harry, who was nodding absentmindedly, although I was sure that he was completely lost. "But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with -"

"I already told you what happened!" I hissed at Ron, interrupting him.

Ron turned to me, his face paling for a moment, before he finally seemed to regain his ability to speak. "Well it didn't really make sense," he told me, his voice cracking slightly from nerves.

Turning back at him, I rolled my eyes. "You're useless," I snapped.

"I got you here!" he barked back at me.

Shrugging my shoulders at him, I shook my head. "Technically the car was Fred and George's idea," I said. Both twins smiled proudly. But as I looked back at Harry I realized that we were really pushing our luck. We had to get him out of here before Vermin woke up and saw this. "And this is ridiculous. We can talk later. Come on, let's get him out," I told them.

Harry seemed as exasperated with this as we were. "I told you, I didn't - but it'll take too long to explain now. Look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursley's have locked me up and won't let me come back, and obviously I can't magic myself out, because the Ministry will think that's the second spell I've done in three days, so -"

"Stop gibbering," Ron said, interrupting Harry. He stared at us curiously. There was no way that he was missing the Hogwarts Express or shopping in Diagon Alley. "We've come to take you home with us."

Harry's jaw dropped and I rolled my eyes. He couldn't seriously have thought that we would come here just to chat and then leave without him, simply letting him stew in his misery for the next six months? I knew why the Sorting Hat had never considered Ravenclaw for Harry. He got halfway decent marks, but he could be such a twit.

"Don't be stupid," I snapped at him. His gaze turned to me in surprise. "You really think that people don't know? I told Mom and Dad about what happened but they said that we should wait it out. Now, I'm not letting you remain like this for the next month, so we took things into our own hands," I said, motioning around me.

It was a great plan. I didn't see how people thought that I ever had bad plans. Harry sighed at me and shook his head. "You're going to get -"

"Expelled," I answered for him. I'd heard that enough times from Hermione and other people. One of these days I probably would be, but that day was not today. "Yes, yes, I know," I said, waving him off.

Harry didn't look any more convinced by my lack of concern towards the situation. "But you can't magic me out either -" Harry started before being interrupted.

This time it was Ron that interrupted Harry. "We don't need to," he said, jerking his head toward the front seat and grinning. "You forget who I've got with me."

Fred and George stuck their heads out and smiled at Harry. I laughed at the twins, unable to believe that they were really willing to get in this much trouble with their parents for us. "Tie that around the bars," Fred ordered, throwing the end of a rope to Harry.

I moved out of the way so that Harry could catch it. He didn't look convinced, but did as the twins ordered him. "If the Dursley's wake up, I'm dead," Harry said as he tied the rope tightly around a bar. He kept glancing back nervously at the door to his room. I knew that he was petrified that Vermin would hear us any moment now and come to kill him.

Hopefully we would be long gone before Vermin ever even realized that Harry was gone. Fred revved up the car so that we could pull the bars free from the window. "Relax. It'll be fine," I said, reaching through the bars to squeeze Harry's hand reassuringly.

"Don't worry," Fred added before grabbing the back of my shorts and yanking me backwards. "Stand back," he warned the both of us.

Moving back into the car, I took a seat back in the chair and nodded. Fred motioned for us to buckle up and we all did so. Harry moved back into the shadows next to Hedwig. I was very impressed that the owl had managed to keep still and silent. Ron was next to me and he laid an arm over my chest, keeping me in place in case something happened. I sucked in a breath and glanced over at my house. It looked like my parents were both asleep, and I hoped that they were still the heavy sleepers that they'd always been.

Fred slowly began to move the car away from the window and I braced for the impact. We moved forward slowly until the car met the resistance of the rope. We had gone as far as we could do. George told his brother to step on it and I listened as the engine revved louder and louder. The bars were creaking and I groaned, feeling like at any moment someone would hear us and we'd be done for. The bars gave a rusty creak, and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window. We all lurched forward at the sudden movement and I found myself very grateful that Ron had his arm over me.

The four of us all panted for a moment and kept the car steady. Once we were sure that no one had heard, I motioned for Fred to put the car back in drive. Fred drove straight up in the air to get the bars untangled from the rose bush. In the distance I could Harry ran back to the window. Ron and I leaned out of the car and began tugging at the bars as quickly as we could. They seemed to be much heavier than they looked. It was moments like these that I really wished that I could use the Levitating Charm. It would have made things so much easier.

Panting, Ron and I finally managed to hoist them up into the car. Harry was standing at the window, anxiously watching us. I could tell that he was trying to listen for any noise. But it seemed that no one had heard the noise. It was something that I was extremely grateful for. I couldn't imagine the look on Mom or Dad's face if they saw us doing this. Mom would probably holler herself hoarse, but Dad might laugh. When we had finally managed to get the bars safely in the back seat with Ron and I, we motioned for Fred to reverse the car as close as possible to Harry's window.

The entire thing had taken almost five minutes, but we'd had to be very careful and very quiet. My arms were still stinging from lifting the bars as Ron leaned towards Harry. "Get in," he ordered.

Harry hesitated at the window and I groaned. I was going to kill him. "But all my Hogwarts stuff - my wand - my broomstick -" he started.

Smacking a hand to my forehead, I realized that this rescue had just gotten a lot harder. I'd completely forgotten that Harry would need his things. We couldn't waste the money to buy him all new things. And no one would be able to afford to buy him a new broom. Although, the Nimbus Two Thousand One had just come out... Wrong time for this, Tara. No, all of his things were downstairs. And there were two locks in our way, no to mention some very easily perturbed Dursley's.

"Where is it?" Ron asked.

"Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can't get out of this room -"

"No problem," George interrupted from his place in the front passenger seat. He began to move and Fred began to move behind him. "Out of the way, Harry," they said.

I moved forward so that I could go with them. We only needed one person in the car to make sure that the car held still and we weren't getting caught. "I know where it is. I'll help you guys," I said to the twins.

They both nodded at me and I watched as Fred and George climbed through the window first. They were almost catlike in their motions and I was very impressed. They were so big that it seemed almost strange to see them move like they were classically trained ballet dancers. Once they were through, Fred and George stood at the window and offered me a hand. Being so small, I tucked myself through the window of the car and placed one leg on the windowsill. Fred grabbed one hand and yanked me from the car. George helped me pull myself into the small window and I was extremely grateful that I was so small.

My height had kept me from whacking my head on the top of the window, which I knew would have led me into a loud stream of profanities. Wobbling slightly from the shaky car, I let the boys help me down into Harry's room. They barely let me catch my balance before walking over towards the door. I smiled at the sight of George pulling an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and leaning down in front of the door. He placed the pin inside and began wiggling it around.

Laughing softly, I made sure to keep my voice down. The Dursley's were on the other end of the house, but I didn't want to risk waking them up. "I should have figured that you two would know how to pick a lock," I said.

George glanced over at me and smiled, briefly distracting himself from the lock. "You really thought that we relied on magic all of the time?" he asked.

Being from a Pureblood family, I had actually thought that they always relied on magic. But it was nice to see that the boys could manage practically, too. "Of course not. You can't legally do magic yet," I reasoned. They both tapped their noses and nodded. "And the Muggles do actually know what they're doing from time to time," I mumbled.

Muggles could be a major pain, but they had some pretty neat ideas. Fred leaned over to Harry and I. "A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick, but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow," he said.

Harry nodded and I could tell that he was very impressed with what the twins were demonstrating. "What other Muggle tricks do you know?" I asked them curiously.

Fred sent me a little smile that told me that I would end up wishing that I hadn't asked. "All in good time, my dear," he teased. There was a small click on George's end of the door and the three of us looked up. George gave a little push and the door swung open.

The twins didn't even bother smiling at each other. Probably for the best. We needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Every moment that we spent here, we were getting closer to being discovered. "So we'll get your trunk - you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron," George whispered to Harry.

He nodded at them and I moved forward with the twins. "I'll show you two where it is," I said. They both nodded and motioned me ahead of them. "Get everything up here together," I told Harry.

"Okay. Watch out for the bottom stair - it creaks," Harry warned, even though I already knew that.

"Come on. Follow me and be quiet," I told Fred and George.

Just as we left the room I could see Harry carrying things from the room and tossing them into the car, passing the more delicate items to Ron. I knew that the car would be a disaster, since we really didn't have time to pack anything away, but it would be able to carry everything. As we crept down the hallway, I kept in between Fred and George. Their hands were on my back and I held a hand out to their torsos, pulling them with me. The three of us were careful going down the hallway and I motioned for them to jump the last stair.

We weren't as quiet as I would have liked to be. George managed the jump without a problem. He landed on the bottom and motioned for us to follow. Fred followed, stumbling slightly but managing quietly. Of course, I had gone from the Burrow without shoes, not wanting to alert Ginny that we were doing something very stupid. I went to jump but my sweaty feet slid slightly on the tile floor. I slipped and made a small squeak, but Fred and George were able to catch me, steadying me quickly.

The three of us didn't dare move. We all stood in complete silence and in the exact positions that I'd been in when I'd slipped. Fred had an arm around my waist and George had a grip on my arms. We must have been still for at least two minutes before finally relaxing, realizing that if we had woken someone up, they'd gone back to sleep. The only thing that I'd heard was a snore from Vermin. Once we had recovered, I pulled the twins over to the cupboard that Harry used to use as a bedroom.

Grabbing Fred to stop him from walking any further, I motioned to the small area through the darkness. "In here?" Fred whispered to me, coming to stand in front of the door.

"Yes," I whispered, not wanting to say anything else and risk alerting the Dursley's.

Fred and George both stood at the door and began fiddling with the lock. They were using the same pin that they had used in Harry's room. I stood back, knowing that I would be of no assistance. The only thing that I could use those pins for was to pin back my hair for a Quidditch game. They fiddled with it for a few minutes before I heard the small lock engage. I hadn't heard a peep from either Ron or Harry upstairs, and I hadn't heard anything from the Dursley's since Vermin's snore.

Just as I'd thought, all of Harry's things were lined up in the old cupboard. "Here, stuff everything inside," I whispered, grabbing Harry's trunk and moving it out into the kitchen hallway with George's help.

They did as I ordered and we tried to move as quickly as possible. His wand was the first thing that we moved and we were very careful to not have it do anything as I moved it. The last thing that I wanted to do was break the wand or accidentally make it do something. We couldn't afford another letter from the Ministry of Magic. We were careful moving the telescopes and brass scales, too. They were easily broken. I supposed that someone could fix it, but I didn't want the Dursley's to hear the crack. The books took up most of the room and we had to shove them into the trunk. There was no charm on his and it meant that we had to be careful with the small room inside. It also meant that it would weigh a hell of a lot when we started to actually move it.

We grabbed all of his robes and stuffed them inside. He had more than I thought that he did. He had four sets of robes for the day, his winter cloak, and the set of Quidditch robes. I was going to hit him when we got upstairs. He had way too many clothes. His gloves and Quidditch pads went inside, too, tucking them against the sides of the trunk. I sighed. This was much easier when we were allowed to make noise and had a Bottomless Charm placed on the trunk. We stuffed Harry's hat inside and I was sure that we'd ruined it. His cauldron and crystal phials proved to be the hardest things to jam into the little room that we had left. Once we had gotten everything inside, Fred and George had me sit on the top as they shoved it closed.

Panting from the quick movements, Fred and George stood on either end of the trunk. With me counting down to three on my fingers, I motioned for them to raise it up. They groaned at the weight and nodded at me to walk. I shut the cupboard door softly before dashing back over to the boys. George was going backwards and Fred was walking him forward. To keep Fred from having to speak too loudly, I stood behind George and wrapped my fingers around his belt loop, leading him through the house. We had just reached the staircase when Harry came bounding down them to help us heave the trunk upstairs. Once more, Vermin coughed.

He stood between the twins and lifted from the bottom. It didn't seem to help. They boys were still panting as we slowly moved up the stairs. As I saw Fred losing his grip, I moved next to him and helped lift. Yeah, definitely heavy. At last, panting, we reached the landing. Walking in somewhat like a waddle, we carried the trunk through Harry's room and dropped it at the open window. Fred climbed back into the car to pull the trunk with Ron, and I went with him. Fred grabbed my hand and pulled me into the car. Once I was in, we opened the door in the backseat for the trunk, urging Ron a little closer to the house.

As Fred and I positioned ourselves right at the edge of the bench in the backseat, Ron held onto our shirts to ensure that we wouldn't fall. Harry and George heaved the trunk onto his desk and pushed from the bedroom side. Inch by inch, the trunk slid through the window. Vermin coughed again and I sucked in a breath. I did not want him to wake up anytime soon. The trunk was halfway into the car, Fred and I backing to the other corner of the car to pull it across the bench and onto the floor.

"A bit more," Fred panted, yanking at the edge of the trunk. It seemed to have gotten stuck where it was. "One good push," he called the two still inside the bedroom.

They both stepped back and counted to themselves. Harry and George moved at the same time and threw their shoulders against the trunk. Thankfully it slid completely out of the window into the back seat of the car. Fred and I moved into the corner and shoved the trunk to the floor so that Harry, Ron, and I could sit in the backseat once we were ready to leave. It fell onto my foot and opened my mouth to scream. Fred saw my pain and clapped a hand over my mouth. My eyes watered and I breathed heavily in pain. Once I was sure that I wouldn't yell, I nodded to Fred to let me go.

He did so and I nodded at him, thanking him for not letting me scream. George and Harry both looked like they felt terrible for making the trunk fall on my foot. Fred and I rearranged everything in the back of the car to ensure that there was enough room. Once we were sure that we had enough room for us, we rearranged ourselves. Ron hopped into the backseat and Fred hopped into the driver's seat. We nodded for George and Harry, letting them know that we were good on our end.

"That everything?" I asked Harry, leaning towards the window, being careful with the open door.

Harry glanced around the room and nodded. "Yes, I think so," Harry said.

"Okay, let's go," George whispered.

He hopped up onto the windowsill and pushed himself out. The passenger door was open and George pulled himself through. Once he had seated himself, he closed the door and nodded for Harry to come through. We all nodded for Harry to come through once George was seated. But as Harry got one foot onto the windowsill, there was a sudden loud screech from behind him, loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood. It was followed immediately by the thunder of Vermin's voice.

"That ruddy owl!" he shouted.

We had very little time to correct this. They only lived a few rooms down. "Get your damn owl!" I barked at Harry.

"I've forgotten Hedwig!" he yelled in horror.

We were no longer worried about being quiet. Harry tore himself off of the windowsill and it was almost funny the way that he stumbled back across the room to grab Hedwig. But I was far too nervous to actually think that any of this was funny. Harry darted back across the room as the landing light clicked on. They would be here any second. The locked door was the only thing that we had in his way. Harry snatched up Hedwig's cage, dashed to the window, and passed it out to Ron. Ron was bringing it into the car, tossing it against the other side. Hedwig screeched her indignation at this but we ignored her.

We all were shouting for him to hurry up. It didn't matter that we were quiet. Vermin already knew that he was awake and doing something he shouldn't have been doing. We had to get out of here before he could stop us. Harry took a step back and pulled himself up onto the chest of drawers. He was scrambling towards the window when the thing that we wanted least to happen, happened. Vermin hammered on the unlocked door as hard as Hagrid had a year ago, and it crashed open.

"Move!" I howled.

For a split second, Vermin stood framed in the doorway. Harry was frozen on top of the dresser. But, at my shout of panic, he shoved himself forward. Vermin let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry. We had him halfway through the open door when we were unable to grab him any further without risking either dropping him or hurting him. Fred, George, Ron, and I all grabbed Harry around the arms and torso, yanking him into the car and pulling as hard as we could, no longer concerned with hurting him. Vermin was not helping our case. He had grabbed Harry by the ankle.

"Petunia!" Vermin roared. "He's getting away! He's getting away!"

Cringing slightly, I found myself slightly concerned that he was going to wake up my parents. Whatever. I'd find an excuse for my actions. Everyone was tugging back and forth, desperate to get Harry into the car before Vermin got backup from Horse-Face and Dudley. Giving him one, last, hard tug, we yanked Harry out of Vermin's grasp. Harry's leg slid free and we yanked Harry into the car. Fred and George leaped into the front seat and Harry collapsed on top of me. Ron had fallen to the floor. Harry leaned up for a moment to slam the door shut.

Trying to gather my breath from Harry knocking the wind out of me in the fall, I shouted up to Fred. "Drive, drive!"

"Put your foot down, Fred!" Ron yelled from the floor, and the car shot suddenly toward the moon. It was right then that I realized that the sudden jerk from Harry had brought Vermin toppling out of the window. He now looked very shocked, laying in the rose bush, staring up at the car as we flew away.

We were all thrown backwards at the sudden movement. Ron was still sitting on the floor, probably very uncomfortable from being on top of all of Harry's things, Hedwig looked absolutely furious at the turn of events, Fred and George were laughing and giving each other high-fives in front seat, and Harry and I were staring at each other. I knew that Harry couldn't believe it. After four days he was free. He rolled down the window, the night air whipping his hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. I glanced back with him. Horse-Face and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry's window. Vermin was glaring up at the car.

"See you next summer!" Harry yelled.

That was all that it took. The five of us all dissolved into fits of laughter. The next few minutes were filled with the five of us trying to rearrange ourselves. We shoved Harry's things into the back of the car, out of our way. I offered Ron my hand so that he could get out of being crammed in between the seats. Fred went to driving back to the Burrow as George began flicking at the trusty hairpin. Harry settled back in his seat, grinning from ear to ear and I took the seat in between him and Ron.

Once we had left Little Whinging, I glanced over at Harry. He was still smiling madly. My worries about explaining this to Mom and Dad went out the window. "I told you that I had a plan," I told him, still slightly breathless from the chase.

"That was one of the worst plans I've ever seen," Harry told me.

Laughing softly, I shook my head and leaned over him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "But it worked!" I howled in excitement!

My plans - as well laid out as they could be - could end up going pretty badly. With the exception of Vermin probably having back problem for the rest of his life, this plan had gone pretty well. "Thank you, all of you," Harry said to us.

The lights from Little Whinging vanished as we flew up through the clouds. The sun would probably be rising by the time that we got back to the Burrow. "You're welcome. Come on, Harry," I teased, rocking him back and forth. "It's been too long since we all did something that could get us either expelled or killed."

We all smiled at each other as we continued driving through the clouds. "Let Hedwig out. She can fly behind us. She hasn't had a chance to stretch her wings for ages," Harry told Ron.

From the front seat, George handed the hairpin to Ron. I watched as he leaned over the chair and I smiled. As much as Ron and the twins liked to rag on each other, it was pretty obvious that they were very close to each other. How else would have Ron known how to use the hairpin? He didn't know how to use anything like that. It was a few moments later that the cage popped open. Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside us like a ghost.

Smiling softly at Hedwig, I let my hand drift out of the window, gently fluttering over her wings. She hooted at me playfully and I smiled, retracting my hand, closing the window, and resting in the seat. "So - what's the story, Harry?" Ron asked impatiently. "What's been happening? Tara only told us part of what happened."

Turning over to him, I whopped him over the back of the head with one of Harry's books. He cringed in pain but said nothing back to me. "Excuse you! I didn't want your parents hearing what we were talking about!" I shouted at him.

Exchanging a look with Harry, I nodded at him. We had to tell them everything. Perhaps it would help if Harry and I told them together. We could fill in the little holes in each other's story. Harry told them all about Dobby and I interjected with saying that I'd tried to trace him, unfortunately I'd been unsuccessful. I'd had to recount to Harry my story from the House-Elf Placement Agency. We'd also told them the warning that he'd given Harry and I and everything that we'd been able to figure about it. Harry had also repeated the fiasco of the violet pudding. There was a long, shocked silence when he had finished.

The only noise that could be heard was the rumbling of the engine for a long while. Harry and I looked at each other, both sighing. Somehow it always ended up being us. "Very fishy," Fred said finally.

"Definitely dodgy," George agreed.

Glaring at the two of them, I debated on whacking them. But I didn't want them to get a little scared and crash the car into something. So I settled for complaining. "Why does no one ever listen when I tell the stories?" I growled.

George turned back to me. "Because no one ever trusts that you're telling us the truth. You could have been playing a prank on us," he said. Well, George wasn't driving. Leaning up, I smacked him over the back of the head, earning laughs from Fred and Ron. "Ow!" George shouted, covering the back of his head with his hand.

He looked like he was about to turn around and yell at me, but his courage failed when he saw just how serious I was. This could be extremely dangerous! "Of course I was serious, you twit!" I barked at him.

Gulping heavily, George flushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Only trying to answer your question," he mumbled before turning back to look at Harry. "So he wouldn't even tell you two who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?"

The two of us exchanged a look with each other. I nodded for him to explain. "I don't think he could. I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall." Fred and George looked at each other from the front seat and I raised my eyebrows. Did they know something about this? "What, you think he was lying to us?" Harry asked.

"Well, put it this way - house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission," Fred said. I nodded at them. I'd never really known how house-elf's did magic, considering that I'd never seen one with a wand. "I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?" Fred asked.

"Yes," Harry and Ron said together, instantly.

The three of us exchanged a look with each other. Draco Malfoy... Of course. Old family. Rich. Pureblood. They must have had a house-elf. And someone with a grudge match against Harry and I that wouldn't want us to come back? Definitely him. Not to mention he knew that Harry and I had savior complexes. He knew that we would stay home if something horrible were to happen to others at our hands. Not only that, but he'd hinted towards Voldemort. And he knew that Harry and I were sensitive to that topic.

How could I have really fallen for Dobby's words? Of course it was just a stupid joke that Malfoy had pulled. Something that had come very close to doing a lot of damage. "I can't believe that I didn't even think of that..." I muttered, shattering the silence.

Fred leaned backwards towards me and flicked the tip of my nose. "We might be just a touch smarter than you," he told me as I batted his hand away.

"Please," I snapped, unwilling to believe it.

They were smart, the twins, but I would never admit to them that they were smarter than me. That was never going to happen. Fred and George laughed at me. "Don't worry, Tara. It'll be our little secret," Fred offered.

Turning back to the twins, I glared at them. "Shut up," I snarled.

Interrupting our pointless argument, Harry put in, "Draco Malfoy. He hates us." He pointed back and forth between the two of us.

"Draco Malfoy?" George asked, turning around. The three of us raised a brow at him. He sounded confused. I could have sworn that he knew who Malfoy was. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?"

Glancing up to the twins, who looked very confused, I asked, "I thought you two knew him?"

"No," Fred and George said together.

That was when I realized that they had seen him before, he'd come up to the Gryffindor table countless times to mess with us, but they'd never known who he was. They'd just thought that he was some obnoxious underclassmen Slytherin. "Must be, it's not a very common name, is it?" Harry asked.

I nodded at them. I was absolutely positive that Lucius had been what Dad had called Malfoy's father last year. "It is his son. I met Lucius in Twilfitt and Tatting's last year before the start of the school year. They look exactly alike. Some woman named Narcissa is his mother," I said.

Fred and George exchanged a look with each other as I thought back to what had happened between the two of us a few days prior. When I'd been in Diagon Alley the other day I'd thrown my drink on Malfoy. That was definitely enough to make him pretty angry with me. He already hated Harry. That would have given him a reason to try and keep us away from Hogwarts. Of course... It was my temper that had gotten us all into so much trouble. Malfoy was probably laughing at my stupidity as we spoke.

Slapping a hand to my forehead, I easily drew the attention of the other four in the car. "Of course he would have done something like that after what I did!" I yelped.

"What did you do?" Ron asked.

Blushing slightly, I smiled at Ron. I had a feeling that he hated Malfoy even more than Harry did. "He was in the Leaky Cauldron with me a while back and annoying me so I took my drink and threw it on him," I explained simply.

Fred laughed so hard that the entire car surged to the side. We all screamed and shouted at Fred to steady the car out again. Once he had, the car was silent with laughter for a little while. Hedwig had tapped her beak on the window to make sure that we were all alright. After tossing her a treat to apologize for the scare, she flew off again. Harry and Ron were still laughing and gasping for air. I certainly hadn't been good to Malfoy. I'd broken his nose and dumped a drink on him in the span of a year.

We certainly weren't the prized friendship that everyone should hope for. The car finally managed to calm down. "You threw a drink on him?" Harry asked me disbelievingly.

"Yeah," I said, nodding at him. "He annoyed me."

I didn't want to admit that he had been telling me that Malfoy had been telling me that Cedric would never come to care for someone like me. "Nice!" Ron said, giving me a high-five.

I laughed softly and thanked him. It definitely made me feel better having people with me. And Ron was always good to have a laugh with. Especially if you wanted to forget about something. That was not a conversation that I really wanted to have with anyone. I didn't need people - particularly ones that I really didn't like - telling me that I had no chance with Cedric Diggory. I already knew that. I just didn't want someone else to tell me that.

Harry leaned over to me, laughing at me and wrapping an arm over my shoulder. "You're hysterical," he said through a laugh.

Smiling brightly, I flipped my hair over my shoulder. "Thank you, I try," I said teasingly. "I wish that you all could have seen it." The actual dumping of the drink, not the conversation that led up to it.

"We wish that we could have seen it, too," Harry told me before glancing up to Fred and George in the front seat. "Why were you asking about Lucius Malfoy?" he asked the twins.

"I've heard Dad talking about him. He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who," George said.

Honestly, I couldn't find myself surprised that Lucius Malfoy supported Voldemort. He seemed like an awful man. "And when You-Know-Who disappeared," Fred said, craning around to look at Harry and I, "Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung - Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."

Again, it wasn't something that surprised me. Mom and Dad had told me the stories about Lucius Malfoy and his family all of the time. Mostly because they hated them. Apparently the Malfoy's had been instituting the superiority of pure blood for hundreds of years. Dad had told me the rumor that someone would never find a Malfoy at the scene of the crime, though their fingerprints might be all over the guilty wand. To me, it made them cowards. They couldn't chose to be loyal to a side, good or bad. They went wherever they would be deemed strong. Malfoy had proven that point by his compulsion to have Crabbe and Goyle with him whenever he wanted to confront someone.

But that didn't mean that they were doing it voluntarily. As much as I hated Malfoy, I didn't want to believe that anyone was guilty unless it could be proven. "Could he have been under the Imperius Curse?" I asked.

Harry looked confused as to what the Imperius Curse was, but he would learn soon enough. Ron flinched slightly. "Plenty of people said that they were, but he said that he was terrified of him. He was too scared to say no," Fred explained.

Nodding slowly, I sighed. Unfortunately, that happened to some good families. They were too petrified him of to stand up to him, like Lily and James Potter had. "That's what most people said. Of course, they were only saying it to keep themselves out of Azkaban," I muttered.

George tapped his nose. "Exactly. But Dad always thought that Malfoy really was a supporter. Came back to our side right after. They were some of the first to do so," he said.

"I don't know whether the Malfoy's own a house-elf..." Harry trailed off.

"Well, whoever owns him will be an old wizarding family, and they'll be rich," Fred put it.

That definitely matched up with Malfoy and his family. "Sounds like the Malfoy's," I said.

We were all nodding along, trying to understand why Malfoy would go through such lengths to keep Harry and I out of school. Maybe they were thinking of it more as a joke. "Why doesn't your family own one, Tara?" George asked, distracting me from my thoughts.

My parents would rather do everything themselves than ever get us a house-elf. Particularly Mom. "Mom absolutely refuses to have a house-elf in the house," I told the boys. They all raised their brows and turned to me. "She thinks that it's all slave labor, and she doesn't want anyone working for us that won't accept payment, which house-elf's don't."

I almost felt bad for saying it. The Weasley's would love to have a house-elf but didn't have the money. We had the money, but Mom would never allow a slave in the house. "Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing. But all we've got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn't catch one in our house," George muttered.

Of all of the sad things that he had said, I hadn't even heard most of them. I'd stopped listening when he'd mentioned the ghoul in the attic. "Since when did you have a ghoul in the attic?" I asked them.

Ron glanced over at me. "Always. You never heard it at night?" he asked.

I did remember hearing moans and groans and sometimes things that sounded like pots and pans clattering. There was even the occasional thing that sounded like an explosion. But I'd never thought that it was a ghoul doing that. "I thought that it was you two doing something that you shouldn't have been!" I shouted at Fred and George.

They both laughed and winked at me. I couldn't imagine the amount of times that I'd heard the ghoul doing something only to think that it was one of the twins doing some new stupid thing. I had always thought that they were planning pranks. Half of the time that I'd heard the ghoul making noise I'd thought that they were staying up past their bedtimes. Not that they probably didn't stay up past their bedtimes anyways. I almost thought about asking if I could see the ghoul, but I decided to stay quiet and not ask.

For a long time everyone in the car was silent. My thoughts slowly turned from the ghoul in their attic onto the fact that we had been so stupid to believe that Dobby's warning had been serious. Of course Malfoy had done something like that. He hated us and would do anything to keep us out of Hogwarts. I only made it worse with every time that I said or did something extremely rude to him. Not that he didn't deserve it. But now I finally got the payback that I had probably been asking for, for a long time.

He knew how sensitive Harry and I were to something happening. He knew that we couldn't keep to ourselves. He would know that if something came and warned us about something bad happening at Hogwarts it would either bother us to the point that we wouldn't go, or it would keep us awake at all hours of the night and end up somehow getting us in trouble if we broke the rules - which I was sure that we would. Judging by the fact that Malfoy usually had the best of everything since his family was rolling in wizard gold; I could just see Malfoy strutting around a large manor house. Sending the family servant to stop Harry and I from going back to Hogwarts also sounded exactly like the sort of thing Malfoy would do. How had we even taken Dobby seriously for a moment?

Finally I decided that someone would have to say something. "So maybe this whole thing was just a joke from Malfoy..." I trailed off, exchanging a look with Harry. "He knows that we're still antsy from everything last year, and this would be the perfect way to mess with us," I tried to reason with him.

Harry nodded at me. He seemed to be wanting to think that Malfoy would do something like this, but trying very hard to convince himself otherwise. "I can't believe he'd do something like that," Harry muttered.

Glancing over at Harry, I narrowed my eyes. "Honestly you can't see Malfoy doing something like this?" I asked him.

Harry looked out of the window for a moment. "Well..." His voice faltered and he looked back over at me. "Yes, I can."

Distracting us from the conversation about Malfoy, Ron spoke. "I'm glad we came to get you, anyway. I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters. I thought it was Errol's fault at first -" Ron said until Harry spoke over him.

"Who's Errol?" Harry asked.

He was a Great Grey Owl that was just a few years old. He very greatly resembled a molting feather duster. He was absolutely pathetic for a bird that was only a few years old. He had such poor eyesight that it frequently caused him to hit objects in flight. He'd run into our windows at home at least three times over the summer. Once had knocked him out for over a day. I'd told Ron in my next letter that he should stop sending Errol all of the distance to my home, and to just keep Dai until he was ready to send me a letter. I knew that Dai liked hanging around at the Weasley's house. They had that huge field that he could flutter around in.

Unfortunately when we were at home, Dai had to hang around in the house most of the time. He could only fly around when I was asking him to send a letter. We couldn't even let him hang out with Hedwig most of the time because the Dursley's had been so cruel to lock her up for the summer. I knew that Dai would be thrilled to see Hedwig once we got him out to the Burrow.

"Our owl," Ron finally said. They could live an extremely long time and I had a feeling that Errol was around ten. Still young for a Great Grey. "He's ancient. It wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery. So then I tried to borrow Hermes -"

"Who?" Harry interrupted.

I rolled my eyes at him. Hermes was a sweet little bird, but he was Percy's, and somehow he had become just as uppity as Percy could be. "The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made Prefect," Fred informed Harry.

"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me. Said he needed him," Ron explained.

My eyebrows furrowed. Was Percy really doing his schoolwork already? Or perhaps he was talking to that girl that he liked... I'd found out through threatening him to tell the twins that he had a crush on a girl named Penelope Clearwater. All I knew was that she was a Ravenclaw Prefect. She had long, curly, blonde hair and loved Quidditch. She wasn't on her team. That was about all I knew about her. I was reasonably sure that she would be a Sixth Year this year.

"Percy's been acting very oddly this summer," George said, frowning, drawing my attention over to him. "And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room. I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a Prefect badge." Ron and I snorted at the thought. "You're driving too far west, Fred," George added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard.

Fred twiddled the steering wheel and the car rocked gently to the east. I noticed Hedwig alter her flight path ahead of us. Owls really were the strangest creatures. But I was still so curious to hear what had been happening to Percy this summer. He was always somewhat distant with us, not that I was really shocked. He was the oldest and had better things to be doing than hanging around us. I was just so curious to know where he'd gotten his personality. Bill was apparently serious but also had a good joking manner about him, Charlie had been an incredible Quidditch player and he was friendly, Fred and George were both huge goofballs, Ron had a great sense of humor, and Ginny loved to laugh.

So where did Percy make any sense in the equation of the Weasley's? Perhaps it was better that I didn't know. "Did you even bother asking him what he's been doing?" I asked the Weasley's, curious if they'd tried.

George looked back at me. "It's Percy. What in Merlin's name could he possibly be doing?" he asked me.

"He's a sixteen year old boy," I pointed out.

It didn't seem to have any effect on them. "What's that got to do with anything?" Fred asked, looking at me in the rear view mirror.

I rolled my eyes at them. I glanced back at Harry and Ron, but they looked just as lost. I supposed that they would have never thought that there was any chance that Percy could have a girlfriend or something like that. "Nothing. Never mind," I said, waving the twins off.

"So, does your dad know you've got the car?" Harry asked, probably already knowing the answer. I was grateful that someone had changed the conversation from Percy. He'd tell them in their own time.

The air became very awkward. "Er, no," Ron said, rubbing the back of his neck. "He had to work tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it," he told Harry.

Had Mr. Weasley gone back to work? I hadn't even noticed. Perhaps Ginny and I had been talking a little louder and longer than I'd thought that we were. "What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?" Harry asked.

"He works in the most boring department. The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office," Ron explained.

That probably wasn't the most boring department in the Ministry of Magic. There were lots of boring ones that I could think of. There was the Improper Use of Magic Office, which really just annoyed everyone. They were the reasons that Harry and I had gotten the letter about Dobby's spell. Evidently they couldn't even do their jobs correctly. There was also the Obliviator Headquarters. That seemed like a depressing job. There was the Pest Advisory Board and Office of Misinformation. There was also the International Magical Trading Standards Body. That couldn't be amusing. All of the departments in the Department of Magical Transportation sounded boring.

There were much more boring offices that Mr. Weasley could have worked for. Perhaps it was just because Ron didn't find Muggles at all interesting. "The what?" Harry asked.

I smiled. He would be like an alien in this world for a long time. "It's all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare. Dad was working overtime for weeks," Ron explained.

"What happened?" Harry asked curiously.

"The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. Dad was going frantic - it's only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office - and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up," Ron said.

Harry and I exchanged a look before I burst out laughing. Sometimes we just had to feel so bad for Muggles. Stupid things were happening to them all the time that were probably the fault of wizards. Half of the time that bridges and buildings came down were because wizards were getting into fights. Most poisons and diseases were from wizards messing around with things that they really shouldn't have been meddling with. It was why most wizarding hospitals had Muggle wings for mishaps.

"That's hysterical," I said once I'd calmed down.

"That's what we said, too," George told me.

It seemed that Harry was the only one that didn't think that the teacup incident had been the slightest bit funny. "But your dad - this car -" he tried to ask.

Fred laughed at Harry's bumbling. "Yeah, Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he'd have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad," he explained.

They did have quite a few Muggle things in their house. Of course, everything had charms and spells placed on them so that they were magical. "That's the main road," George said, peering down through the windshield. "We'll be there in ten minutes. Just as well, it's getting light," he said.

Glancing out of the front windshield, I nodded. The sun looked gorgeous. I'd always lived in the suburbs or in the city. Always in places that Muggles were crowded around. It was times like these that I wished that I lived out in the country. Somewhere like this or Cedric's house. Close enough to London, but still with lots of coverage from the Muggles. A faint pinkish glow was visible along the horizon to the east. Fred brought the car lower. We could just barely see the village that they lived near. It was a cute little thing. Nothing like Little Whinging and Surrey - where there were always people and traffic.

"We're a little way outside the village. Ottery St. Catchpole," George said.

The four of us looked around. It was probably just a little bit before six in the morning. Mr. Weasley had clearly taken out the clock in the Muggle car. There was no way of knowing. And I didn't have my Muggle watch. Fred gradually took the car lower and lower. We weren't that far off of the road anymore. The Burrow could just be seen over the edge of the trees. Harry seemed to be focusing on not dying when the car hits the ground. The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees.

"Touchdown!" Fred chirped as, with a slight bump, we hit the ground.

The car rolled forward slightly into the garage and I smiled. It didn't look like anyone had even realized that we had been gone. I was sure that I'd have to figure out something to tell my parents about how Harry had escaped the Dursley's, but I had time. Of course, it certainly wouldn't be easy to explain if Vermin went next door and started to shout at my parents for the flying car. Perhaps they'd just be grateful that Harry was gone for the entire year. It seemed like they should have been.

Once the car finally came to a stop I looked out of the window. Hedwig was hanging around on the fence, probably looking to go find Errol. We had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small part of the yard. I'd never really bothered to look at Ron's house. So I glanced up and took a real look at it for the first time. It looked as though it had once been a large stone pigpen, but extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and so crooked it looked as though it were held up by magic. Of course, it was. Mrs. Weasley had done it when they'd first moved in and had added to it as the kids were born. Four or five chimneys were perched on top of the red roof.

For a moment I wondered what this house would have been like when Charlie and Bill had lived here, too. It must have been a disaster. It was crowded enough now. A lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance read, The Burrow. I smiled, wondering who had come up with the name in the first place. Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron. I rolled my eyes. They'd told me that Ron had accidentally spilled some vile potion in it when he was younger. Several fat brown chickens were pecking their way around the yard.

Glancing over at Ron, I saw that he was watching Harry nervously. Harry's house was technically nicer, but the magic and love here was so far past Number Four, Privet Drive. "It's not much," Ron said awkwardly.

Harry was looking all around the house. "It's wonderful," Harry said happily. Ron's ears turned pink and I saw the twins exchange a smile. With a quick motion from the twins, we got out of the car.

As we tiptoed into the front yard of the house, Fred spoke. "Now, we'll go upstairs really quietly and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, 'Mum, look who turned up in the night!' and she'll be all pleased to see Harry and no one need ever know we flew the car."

That was an absolutely terrible idea. If he'd come through the fireplace - the only way that he could have come - she would have heard it. "You know she's going to figure out that we did something," I told him.

Fred leaned over to me and wrapped an arm over my shoulder. "Not if you and Ginny keep your mouths shut," he said.

"Oh, come on, I appear one day and then the next day Harry magically appears?" I asked him, trying to make him see the light.

George whacked me over the back of the head and I groaned, stomping down on his foot. We were both trying to bite back shouting at the other. "Zip it. Mum loves Harry. She'll forget it," George argued.

"Right," Ron said, leading us along. "Come on, Harry, I sleep at the - at the top -"

Ron had gone a nasty greenish color, his eyes fixed on the house. The other four of us wheeled around to see what the problem was. Unfortunately, I already knew what the problem was. Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger. But that wasn't what made my face completely drain of color. Right behind her, marching just as angrily, stood my mother. Bile immediately rose in my throat as I shoved Fred's arm off of me.

The twins had never met my mother before, at least, not for a long time, but they clearly sniffed the danger in the air. Harry and Ron both looked horrified. "Ah," Fred groaned.

"Oh, dear," George said.

The two women came to a halt in front of us. Sensing that I should speak before the yelling started, I moved forward. "Hello, Mom!" I chirped brightly. Her straight face told me that I wasn't getting out of this one unscathed. "Isn't it great that Harry showed up here?" I asked happily, motioning back to the stunned boy.

"It's wonderful," Mom growled, very little emotion other than anger in her voice.

Guiltily, I smiled at her. "Do I have to come home now?" I asked quietly.

She shook her head at me. Probably for the best, I could avoid a large and loud argument. "Oh no. You'll be staying here for the next few weeks and doing whatever Mrs. Weasley needs you to do, without complaint," she told me. I nodded, figuring that it was fair. "You'll come home on the weekends though, correct?" Mom asked.

"Correct," I immediately said, knowing that I was getting off easily.

"Next time I tell you to wait, do so," Mom warned me.

My face heated up slightly as I nodded at her. "Yes, ma'am," I said.

She fluffed out her hair and turned to Mrs. Weasley. She must have come straight from bed. She was wearing her pajamas and her hair was ruffled. "Now then... I'll be on my way. Thank you for letting me know what's happened, Molly. In the meantime I think I'll go laugh at Vernon and Petunia as they try to fix that window," she said.

Both Harry and I had to try and stop ourselves from laughing. We knew that this was too serious of a situation to laugh. Mrs. Weasley smiled at my mother. "You and Marcus must have dinner with us tonight. You're more than welcome to stay a few nights yourself," she said.

Mom smiled at her. "We would like that. Perhaps in a week or so?" she offered. Mrs. Weasley nodded her agreement at her. "Marcus and I are quite busy at the Ministry. Seems that no one there has their head screwed on straight," she complained.

Mrs. Weasley sighed at her, and I immediately knew that this was a problem. I'd heard Mom and Dad complaining about the Ministry, and I'd heard Mrs. Weasley complain to Mr. Weasley. He seemed to frequently complain to his wife. As much as they loved their jobs, they did not enjoy having to work for the Ministry. I'd heard it time and time again. It was the same way with the Muggle world. As much as they wanted to love working in the government, they hated their governments, too.

"You must speak to Arthur about that someday," Mrs. Weasley told Mom, distracting me from my thoughts.

Mom nodded at her, gently laying her arm over Mrs. Weasley's shoulder. "I will. Thank you for keeping after Tara. We're just so busy, I feel awful having her at the house by herself so much," Mom said, shooting me a slightly guilty look. I smiled at her. We had years together. One busy summer wouldn't hurt. "Plus I doubt that Vernon and Petunia will want to be seeing her much."

Both Harry and I exchanged a small smile with my mother. They didn't like ever seeing us, nevertheless after the stunt that we had just pulled. "Not a worry, Julia. Tara is a pleasure," Mrs. Weasley said, smiling back at me.

I smiled brightly at her. She had become like a second mother to me over the summer, after all of the time that I had spent with the Weasley's. "And she will continue to be a pleasure. Yes?" Mom asked, turning back to me with a warning glare. I nodded at her quickly. I'd done enough bad things this summer. I was going to act properly for the rest of the summer. Mom looked back at Mrs. Weasley. "Then I'll be on my way. Behave yourself, Tara. Good to see you, Harry," she said.

Smiling at her, I very nearly scoffed. Half of the time I got the feeling that she liked Harry more than she liked me. But she was just irritated with me breaking so many rules within a very short span of time. Mom walked over and gave Harry a quick hug. He smiled at her and thanked her for letting Dumbledore and Hagrid know what had happened to him. She gave Ron a hug as well, telling him that he would have to come by the house at some point, that way he could really meet the Dursley's, too. She very quickly hugged the twins as well, giving Fred a lingering gaze. I couldn't quite figure out why. She gave me a quick peck on the cheek - and a warning to behave - before Apparating back home.

Once she had gone, we turned back to Mrs. Weasley. I had gotten away somewhat unscathed, but now the Weasley's had to deal with the wrath of their mother. Mrs. Weasley came storming up to us and came to a halt in front of us. Her hands were still on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket. Now that Mom was gone, things seemed to have gotten tense again.

"So," she said.

Clearly the boys still thought that they might get out of this without having to own up to what Mom had probably already told Mrs. Weasley what had happened. "Morning, Mum," George said, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice.

He didn't get much farther than that. "Have you any idea how worried I've been?" Mrs. Weasley asked in a deadly whisper.

George: decided to give it another try. "Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to -"

All three of Mrs. Weasley's sons were taller than she was, but they cowered as her rage broke over them. "Beds empty! No note!" Harry and I took a step backwards, very frightened for the three redheaded boys. "Car gone - could have crashed - out of my mind with worry. Did you care? Never, as long as I've lived - you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy -"

"Perfect Percy," Fred muttered.

His comment did not go unheard or appreciated by Mrs. Weasley. "You could do with taking a leaf out of Percy's book!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, stomping up to us and prodding a finger in Fred's chest. He had never looked quite so terrified. "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job -"

The entire barrage of shouting and screaming and blaming seemed to go on for hours. Harry and I stood a few feet back as they continued to yell at each other. More like Mrs. Weasley would yell and the boys might try to get in a word before she would yell over them again. Harry and I kept glancing at each other, wondering if we should do something, but I knew that we were both a little too scared to do that. So we stood awkwardly and watched. Mrs. Weasley had shouted herself hoarse before she turned on Harry and I, both of us backing away slightly.

The angry glare faded from her face and she smiled. Fred, George, and Ron looked shocked. "I'm very pleased to see you, Harry, dear," she said before turning on me. "And Tara, your mother must come by more often." I nodded brightly at her, glad not to have any of her wrath directed at me. "Come in and have some breakfast."

There was a shocked silence as she turned and walked back into the house. We all stood and stared at each other. No one knew what to do for a moment. Harry and I, after shooting a nervous glance at Ron, who nodded encouragingly, followed her. We walked into the house and I ensured to stand close to Harry. The closer that I stood to him, the less likely Mrs. Weasley was to take out her anger on me. It was obvious that no one else was awake yet. Ginny and Percy were nowhere to be found. Mr. Weasley was probably still at work.

Mrs. Weasley led us through the house quietly. The kitchen was small and rather cramped. I hadn't really ever been in it. They usually had us eat in the dining room where there was more room. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle. There were seven seats, enough for room for all of them, but I assumed that they didn't eat here very often. Harry sat down on the edge of his seat. He took the seat in the middle of the table, Ron on one side and me on the other. Fred and George were across from us. Harry was looking around. He had never been in a real wizard house before. Mine was decorated mostly as a Muggle house to disguise us.

There were two clocks on the wall and I smiled at them both. One seemed to just be for Mrs. Weasley, mounted right over the sink. It had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like time to make tea, time to feed the chickens, and you're late. The other was clearly the one for the family. It was on the wall just outside of the kitchen, facing the living room. It had nine hands on it that looked more like spoons. Each one had a picture of one of the Weasley's. There were labels like garden, school, home, work, dentist, Quidditch, lost, prison, hospital, traveling, and mortal peril. I got a particularly good chuckle out of mortal peril and prison.

All of the hands were pointing to wherever the people were. The hands with Ginny, Percy, and Mrs. Weasley's faces were all pointing to home. The hands with Charlie, Bill, and Mr. Weasley's faces were all pointing to work. The hands with Fred, George, and Ron's faces were currently resting on lost. I was only staring at the clock for a moment before they changed to home with most of the other hands.

Smiling slightly, I turned and looked around at the rest of the kitchen. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece and I laughed. We had some of the same books, not that Mom ever actually looked at them. She was a miserable cook. Mrs. Weasley had Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, and One Minute Feasts - It's Magic! The radio was playing softly in the background, probably trying not to wake Ginny and Percy up. Apparently the Witching Hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck, was coming up. I rolled my eyes. She wasn't half-bad, but she certainly wasn't my style.

Personally, I liked Blodwyn Bludd, a vampire with a bass-baritone voice. Lorcan d'Eath was pretty good, too, a part-vampire singer. They tended to have the best voices. Spellbound were really good, but they seemed to always have something terrible happening to them. Because of Mom I liked the Hobgoblins, but they had retired before I was old enough to actually hear them play. I did hear the old recordings though. And, of course, the Weird Sisters. They were probably the most famous wizarding rock band.

It was rather funny having Mom and Dad have to attempt to explain to me why they were the Weird Sisters, if their band was all-male. I still didn't really understand it. I was trying to tune out Celestina Warbeck as Mrs. Weasley was clattering around the kitchen, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan. Every now and then she would mutter something about how she didn't know what they had been thinking of, and how she couldn't believe it.

"I don't blame you, dear," she assured Harry, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. "Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron by Friday. But really," she said as she added three fried eggs to his plate, "flying an illegal car halfway across the country - anyone could have seen you. I'm sure that they dragged you into it, Tara," Mrs. Weasley said to me.

She tipped five sausages and two fried eggs onto my plate. It was far more than I could eat, but I smiled at her. She made the best food. "Yes, Mrs. Weasley," I said as I took a bite of the sausages.

"Tara!" Fred, George, and Ron all hissed at me as their mother walked away.

Once she was gone, I turned back to them with my fork pointed towards them. "I've got my own mother to deal with, zip it!" I barked at the other three.

The quick banter had gone unnoticed by Mrs. Weasley. She was standing in the kitchen and finishing up her chores. I noticed that she'd given Fred, George, and Ron far less than she had with Harry and I. She'd be irritated with them for a few days before she got over it. She flicked her wand casually at the dishes in the sink, which began to clean themselves, clinking gently in the background. I scoffed, wondering why Mom made me do the dishes if there was a spell to do them for her.

"It was cloudy, Mum!" Fred argued towards her earlier comment that anyone could have seen us.

Mrs. Weasley did not appreciate that comment. "You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" she snapped.

Fred's courage faltered for a moment, so George decided to step in. "They were starving him, Mum!" he tried to reason.

"And you!" she added to her other son.

They both faltered at this comment. Harry and I grinned down at our plates. Fred and George were too tough about everything - they had to be with half of the pranks that they pulled - but they were nothing compared to their mother. Of course, for a witch that wasn't even five feet tall, she was quite intimidating. I certainly didn't want to be on her bad side. Her expression softened slightly as she started cutting Harry and I bread and buttering it for us.

Thanking her softly, I took the bread and swallowed it quickly. Bread would always be one of my favorite foods. I noticed that she also had coffee in the house, something that she was currently handing me. She never had coffee otherwise. She must have gotten it with it in mind that I would be here. I almost felt bad for causing her such a panic. But I couldn't leave Harry the way that he had been. At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, red-headed figure in a long nightdress. I smiled at Ginny, who hadn't looked up yet.

"Mummy, have you seen my jumper?" Ginny called.

"Yes, dear, it was on the cat," Mrs. Weasley called back.

My eyebrows rose. I wasn't aware that they even had a cat. Of course, there were certainly enough places for a cat to hide in this house. Ginny finally glanced up and spotted us. She looked over at me and I smiled at her. She smiled back but her gaze quickly turned away from me and locked onto Harry. Her eyes widened and she took a step backwards.

Harry smiled at her, unaware of her fright. "Hello," he told her happily. Fred, George, and I all laughed as she gave a small squeal, and ran out again. Ron rolled his eyes. Harry turned to Ron. "What did I do?" he asked worriedly.

"Ginny," Ron said in an undertone to Harry. He rolled his eyes again. "My sister. She's been talking about you all summer."

"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Harry," Fred said with a grin.

It was very obvious that they boys were going to start teasing Harry about Ginny, but they caught their mother's eye and bent their faces over their plates without another word. I almost laughed. I was pretty sure that Harry and I could have spoken without getting yelled at, but I didn't really want to test that. So we all ate in silence. Nothing more was said until all five plates were clean, which took a surprisingly short time. I knew that Harry had been starving, and the others were boys. They were like Muggle trash compactors. Between the three Weasley boys and Harry, they'd easily been able to finish what I hadn't.

"Blimey, I'm tired," Fred yawned, setting down his knife and fork at last. "I think I'll go to bed and -"

"You will not," Mrs. Weasley snapped. The movement stopped on all ends of the table. "It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again -"

"Oh, Mum -" George interrupted.

He didn't get much farther than that. "And you two," she said, glaring at Ron and Fred. They both groaned at her but nodded anyways, sensing that a fight would not have been a good idea. "You can go up to bed, dear," she added to Harry. "You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car." She finally turned to me. "Would you mind helping them, Tara?"

Standing, I gave her a smile. I'd told Mom that I wouldn't argue, and I wouldn't. De-gnoming was annoying, but I'd manage. I'd only had to do it a few times before. "Not a problem," I told her.

I found myself very grateful when Harry said, "I'll help them. I've never seen a de-gnoming -"

"That's very sweet of you, dear, but it's dull work." Harry didn't seem to mind. I knew that he didn't want to be alone and he didn't want us to have to suffer because we'd tried to save him. Mrs. Weasley shifted over and started looking through a large stack of books. "Now, let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject."

Turning my head over to Fred and George, they both nodded. I couldn't believe that she read him. She pulled a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece. George groaned. "Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden."

It didn't make a bit of a difference. She was still looking at it lovingly. I'd never actually finished one of his books before. Half of the books were about himself. And the parts that were actually useful seemed like they were written by someone else. Break with a Banshee was half about his own wondrous childhood accomplishments. Gadding with Ghouls mostly seemed like a fairy tale. Holidays with Hags had quite a bit about how he enjoyed spending his own holidays. I hadn't even bothered trying to read Marauding with Monsters, Traveling with Trolls, Voyages with Vampires, or Year with the Yeti. Half of his book, Wanderings with Werewolves were about how cruel he was towards lycanthropes. I'd been furious for weeks after reading his backwards thinking.

Magical Me - his autobiography - was the absolute worst. A thousand pages of him bragging about himself. It was somewhere in its twentieth - or something like that - week atop the bestseller list. Showed how much the Daily Prophet knew. They had all been on the clearance shelves in the States, and I'd been waiting on Mom and Dad, the only reason that I'd even bothered trying to read them.

Harry and I looked at the cover of Mrs. Weasley's book. Written across it in fancy gold letters was Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. I rolled my eyes. There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. I'd never actually looked at him before. He was attractive, but he was a twit. Obviously the book was meant to draw in witches, as the man in the picture kept winking cheekily up at us all. Mrs. Weasley beamed down at him.

"Oh, he is marvelous. He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book..." Mrs. Weasley trailed off.

"Mum fancies him," Fred said, in a very audible whisper.

Mrs. Weasley turned back to him and glared, although she still seemed mostly enamored with the picture. "Don't be so ridiculous, Fred." Her cheeks were rather pink. "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it."

We decided to leave Mrs. Weasley to her fawning over the book. As we walked out, I looked over at Harry, ensuring that the others could hear me. "Lockhart is a nutter. He claims to have done all these incredible things himself, but most people in the States think that he's more of a fiction writer than anything else. His books sell terribly overseas," I told him.

Harry nodded at me, but it was Fred that spoke. "They do?" he asked, sounding very surprised.

Of course. The books were always bestsellers in England. "Yeah. Mom and Dad hate him. So do the professors at Hogwarts. That's what they said. I think he was a few years behind them in Hogwarts. They always say how irritating that he was for a Second Year in their Seventh Year," I told them.

"Mum loves him," Fred put in.

"Most English witches do," I muttered.

Honestly, I couldn't understand why. He was a cow. Yawning and grumbling, the Weasley's slouched outside, hunched over themselves. Harry and I were behind them. We made our way outside and I basked in the warm air. The garden was large and took up most of the field. Probably why they had such a gnome problem. Harry was grinning brightly. Probably because it looked nothing like the Dursley's garden.

There were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting badly. The only thing that bothered me about that was the fact that I did not want something getting up and biting me. There were some scary plants and animals in the Wizarding World. I'd probably always hold a grudge against Devil's Snare. There were also gnarled trees all around the walls of the house, and surrounding the garden. A large hedge separated the garden from the rest of the field. Plants were spilling from every flower bed, and I was desperate to put them in a little more order. Although the big green pond made me smile. It was full of frogs. I loved frogs.

But I had a feeling that these weren't friendly. Harry was walking next to me with Ron on his other side. The twins were trudging angrily ahead of us. "Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know," Harry told Ron as we crossed the lawn.

Grimacing slightly, I shook my head. The gnomes that people put in their gardens were adorable. They were always pudgy with nice long pants on that were tucked into boots. Usually they were wearing some type of coat that was buckled in the middle. For whatever reason, the Muggles always made them overweight. Gnomes were actually quite thin, with bones poking out of them. And they seemed to always be wearing a pointed hat, usually red. It made them look a little like Santa Claus.

Ron's voice distracted me from my thoughts about garden gnomes. "Yeah, I've seen those things they think are gnomes," Ron said, bent over with his head in a peony bush, "like fat little Santa Clauses with fishing rods..."

Harry was staring at Ron like he'd lost his mind. "Gnomes are horrible, Harry," I told him.

He glanced over at me as if to ask why they were so bad, but he was about to find out. Ron had clearly just found one. There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered, and Ron straightened up. "This is a gnome," he said grimly.

"Gerroff me! Gerroff me!" the gnome squealed.

Its voice was horribly high-pitched. This seemed to be a younger one. And it was certainly nothing like Santa Claus. They looked a tiny bit like gargoyles to me. This one was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. One eye was bigger than the other, but they were both beady and black. It only wore something that looked a touch like a collared shirt. The feet was huge and kicking angrily as Ron led it over to the hedge.

This one was just under a foot tall. It looked like the ones in North America. That was mostly where they were found, and Northern Europe. Exactly where we were. They liked worms and roots, exactly why they kept hanging out in the Weasley garden. Ron held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside down. The gnome continued to shout. Of course, they only really ever told people to get off of them.

"This is what you have to do," Ron said, demonstrating to Harry. He raised the gnome above his head and started to swing it in great circles like a lasso. Seeing the shocked look on Harry's face, Ron added, "It doesn't hurt them - you've just got to make them really dizzy so they can't find their way back to the gnomeholes."

Harry still looked totally lost. He actually looked like he felt terrible for the little things, despite how ugly they were. I knew how he felt. When I was a kid I'd told my parents that we shouldn't do that. I'd learned the hard way that we had to. A gnome had bitten me on the finger and I'd bled so badly that they'd had to take me to St. Dorrin's. It had not been a fun day for me. Ron finally let go of the gnome's ankles: It flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge.

It was not a particularly impressive throw. Maybe Ron would be a Quidditch player, but he would not be a Chaser or Beater. "They're horrible. Trust me when I say that you don't want them in your yard," I reassured Harry before turning towards Ron. "Ron, you have a weak arm," I teased.

"Let's see you do better!" Ron shouted at me, affronted.

Chuckling loudly, the twins made their way over to us. Fred and George both had gnomes in their hands. "She's right. Pitiful. I bet I can get mine beyond that stump," Fred said.

This was the way that we had to do de-gnoming. It was a dreadfully boring task if we didn't have some fun with it. For a while, Harry watched us. Fred was right. He'd gotten his gnome beyond the stump. Not by much thought. Of course, his had been extremely heavy. It looked like one that had found a few too many worms. George had gotten his just past Fred's, and the two had quickly gotten into a competition on who could throw the furthest. Ron had some halfway-decent throws, but none that compared to his brother's. Currently I had the furthest throw, just a few feet past where George's last gnome had landed.

It had taken a while for Harry to finally give it a try. I'd laughed very hard when Harry had learned quickly not to feel too sorry for the gnomes. He decided just to drop the first one he caught over the hedge. Fred and I watched closely, betting on whether the gnome would get out of his grip or bite him. I'd won, having bet on it biting him. After only a few seconds, the gnome, sensing weakness, sank its razor-sharp teeth into Harry's finger and he had a very hard job shaking it off. We were all laughing at Harry until he managed to shake the thing off and give it a hard throw over the hedge.

It went a whopping distance, going just past where my throw had been. I growled at him. It had taken me three gnomes to get it that far. Harry didn't notice, he was nursing the wound. I walked over to him and nudged his shoulder. "Told you not to take pity on them. Nice throw," I added when he glared at me.

"Wow, Harry. That must've been fifty feet," Ron said.

We spent a long time clearing gnome after gnome. Harry still had the strongest throw. I'd come close twice, but I hadn't passed him yet. Harry hadn't been able to throw as far as he had the first time since we'd started. We figured that it was because he was shaking his arm so hard. Finally I grabbed the gnome that had been evading me for nearly ten minutes. It kept running back and forth in between the trees but Fred and I had finally managed to head it off and I'd captured the little thing.

It had put up a good fight. It was thrashing back and forth. Clearly this one was younger. It still had the spunk that the older ones didn't. I held it upside down and quickly made my way to the hedge. I could see the teeth on this one and I really didn't want to get bitten. I began to whip the gnome around ten - fifteen - twenty times, hoping that this one wouldn't make its way back for a long time. Finally I let go and watched as it went soaring past where Harry's impressive first throw had landed. I stepped back and smiled, wiping a bead of sweat away.

The boys had their hands over their eyes, watching the throw. They were all very clearly impressed with the last one. I was, too. "Merlin, Tara," Fred muttered.

Laughing at him, I made my way back over to the twins, leaning up against Fred. It was boiling out by now, and we'd been out here for hours. "How many of these damn things do you guys have?" I asked.

"Way too many," Fred answered me honestly. I couldn't even imagine how they did this every few weeks. "How do you throw so far?"

"Marcus Nox. Professional Quidditch Chaser," I said flatly.

The five of us stood in silence for a little while, taking a few minutes off. It was only when Mrs. Weasley shouted at us to get back to work that we did. Fred, George, Ron, Harry, and I worked together well. The twins would chase them out of the gnome holes, making sure that they wouldn't be able to dive back into another one, while Ron would grab them. Harry and I would take them from there, chucking them over the hedge. But it didn't take the gnomes long to realize that we had formed a plan. That was when the frenzy started, gnomes running left and right. We had to cease the plan and move forward with just grabbing them and throwing. The air was soon thick with flying gnomes.

"See, they're not too bright," George said, seizing five or six gnomes at once. I was very impressed how he grabbed them all and managed not to get bitten. "The moment they know the de-gnoming's going on they storm up to have a look. You'd think they'd have learned by now just to stay put."

That was how gnomes worked. For whatever reason, they always came back. Perhaps it was because of the food that they had here in the garden. Or perhaps it was just because they thought that this was funny. Thankfully the gnomes finally seemed to realize that they were fighting a losing battle. They stopped running and crawled out of their holes, trying to bite our ankles as they walked. We had to be careful to ensure that they wouldn't. Soon, the crowd of gnomes in the field started walking away in a straggling line, their little shoulders hunched.

They walked through the hedge, slowly disappearing from our eyes. "They'll be back," Ron said as we all watched the gnomes disappear into the hedge on the other side of the field. "They love it here. Dad's too soft with them; he thinks they're funny..."

My head snapped over to him. "How could anyone like these things?" I asked.

Ron shrugged his shoulders. "It's a mystery to us," he told me.

"How long will it be before they come back?" I asked curiously.

The boys exchanged a shrug. This must have been nothing abnormal. I wondered what they did with the gnomes while the kids were at Hogwarts. "Not long. A few weeks maybe," George told me.

At least the gnomes were done with. I dropped into the garden with Fred next to me. He was laying heavily on me and I whopped him over the head, trying to get him off of me. It didn't work. The twins turned it into a dog pile. Harry and Ron stood and laughed as Fred and George pinned me down, sitting on me. I cried out in frustration, desperate for them to let go of me, but they didn't. Fred grabbed at my sides, tickling me, as George held down my arms and legs. I was about to bite Fred's hand, that was lingering at my neck, when the front door slammed.

That was enough to stop the movement. Ron and George straightened up. "He's back! Dad's home!" George said, getting off of me. Fred sprung up quickly as well, running off so that I couldn't chase them.

Rolling my eyes at the twins, I allowed Ron and Harry to help me up. I hit both of them, angry that they hadn't even tried to help. After laughing together for a moment, we hurried through the garden and back into the house. Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. I smiled softly at him. He looked absolutely exhausted. I couldn't imagine how tiring it was to work all through the day, come home for a few hours, and then be forced to go back to work all night and into the next afternoon. Hopefully he would have a few days off. He was wearing long green robes, which were dusty and travel-worn.

"What a night," he mumbled, groping for the teapot as we all sat down around him. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned."

I'd heard that Mundungus Fletcher was not a pleasant man. Mom and Dad both didn't like him. Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed. "Find anything, Dad?" Fred asked eagerly.

Leaning over to him, I kept my voice low. "Hoping to find a new pranking device?" I whispered.

He looked over at me and grinned, swatting me on the nose. I groaned at him and punched his stomach, earning a small groan from him. "You know us too well," Fred said, fighting to get his breath back.

"All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle," Mr. Weasley yawned. Both Fred and George looked disappointed at the news. "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness."

Harry and I both looked at each other at the ferret news. What could someone possibly have done to a ferret? "Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" George asked.

To laugh at Muggles, probably. "Just Muggle-baiting," Mr. Weasley sighed, confirming my thoughts. "Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it. Of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking. They'll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face. But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe -"

"Like cars, for instance?" Mrs. Weasley roared. She had suddenly appeared, holding a long poker like a sword. Mr. Weasley's eyes jerked open. He stared guiltily at his wife.

The kids all tried to hide fits of laughter. "C-cars, Molly, dear?" Mr. Weasley asked weakly.

"Yes, Arthur, cars," Mrs. Weasley said, her eyes flashing. "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly."

Mr. Weasley blinked. "Well, dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if - er - he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. There's a loophole in the law, you'll find. As long as he wasn't intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn't -"

"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!" Mrs. Weasley shouted. We all laughed down into our laps. "Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren't intending to fly!"

"Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked blankly. "Harry who?" He looked around, saw Harry, and jumped. "Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about -"

He didn't get a chance to say anything more to Harry. "Your sons flew that car to Harry's house and back last night and dragged poor Tara with them!" Mrs. Weasley shouted. I exchanged a wicked grin with the Weasley boys, who were all glaring at me. "What have you got to say about that, eh?"

Mr. Weasley did not take the news as Mrs. Weasley had expected. "Did you really?" he asked eagerly. "Did it go all right? I - I mean," he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs. Weasley's eyes, "that - that was very wrong, boys - very wrong indeed..."

The shouting from Mrs. Weasley and weak argues from Mr. Weasley flew through the house. Fred and George slowly slipped from the room, trying not to remind their mother that she was angry with them, too. "Let's leave them to it," Ron muttered to Harry and I, as Mrs. Weasley swelled like a bullfrog. "Come on, I'll show you my bedroom."

I'd never actually given his bedroom a good look. The first time that I'd been in it was last night, and I hadn't really been looking around. Normally we spent all of our time in the living room, or the twin's room, or I was with Ginny in her room. We slipped out of the kitchen and down a narrow passageway to an uneven staircase, which wound its way, zigzagging up through the house. It always made me nervous that the staircase was going to collapse. On the third landing, Ginny's door stood ajar. I glanced over just in time to catch sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at Harry before it closed with a snap.

I smiled to myself. She had a huge crush on Harry. I kept telling her that it might work out, also telling her that I'd give her any information on Harry that she wanted to know. Within reason, that is. "Ginny. You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally," Ron said.

I nodded at him. She was usually a chatterbox. "I'll be in there in a little while, Ginny!" I shouted to the younger girl. I only got a small squeak in reply.

Yesterday I'd promised her that we would spend time together, and I wanted to honor that. We climbed two more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying Ronald's Room. It made me laugh. I couldn't imagine anyone actually calling him Ronald, other than his mother, when she was angry. Harry and I stepped in. Harry's head almost touched the sloping ceiling, I still had nearly six inches of clearance. Hell, I was shorter than Ginny. Even Hermione towered over me. Perhaps one day I'd actually be the size of a normal human being. I was one of the shortest First Years, last year.

Ron's room was like walking into a furnace. Nearly everything in Ron's room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling. My eyes took a moment to adjust. It had been nighttime, and the lights had been off, the last time that I'd been in here. The sun was streaming through the window right now. It took me a moment to realize that Ron had covered nearly every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks, and waving energetically.

It was the Chudley Cannons. I rolled my eyes at him. Of course, I had things for the Stars all over my room back on Privet Drive. "Your Quidditch team?" Harry asked.

Ron nodded. "The Chudley Cannons," he said, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league."

"Because they suck!" I yelled at him.

Harry grinned as Ron glared at me. It was one of the areas that we did not see eye-to-eye on. "They are not that bad," Ron argued with me.

"Yes they are," I argued back.

The States were currently ranked in the fifth place. Not the best, and not good enough to earn a spot at the Quidditch World Cup, but they were certainly better than the Cannons. Ron blushed. "Okay, so maybe the States are a little better..." he muttered.

"A lot," I put in.

"Shut up, Tara," Ron bit back bashfully.

We both smiled at each other before I went to rooting through his things. Mom and Dad had always told me that I was nosy. Ron's school spell books were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that I rolled my eyes at. He must have talked about these with Dean. He liked The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle, too. Ron's magic wand was lying on top of a fish tank full of frog spawn on the windowsill, next to his fat gray rat, Scabbers, who was snoozing in a patch of sun.

If his fat stomach hadn't have been moving, I would have thought that he was dead. Harry and I stepped over a pack of Self-Shuffling playing cards on the floor and looked out of the tiny window. In the field far below I could see a gang of gnomes sneaking one by one back through the Weasley's hedge. Laughing softly, I turned away. They hadn't even been gone for a few hours. Then Harry and I turned to look at Ron, who was watching us almost nervously, as though waiting for our opinions.

"It's a bit small. Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging on the pipes and groaning..." Ron said quickly.

"I really thought that was the twins making one of their new inventions," I muttered to myself.

And I really had. Of course, some of those noises probably were the twins. Ginny was right across from them. But Harry, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in." Ron's ears went pink as we settled onto the bed, playing with the Self-Shuffling cards. I'd never seen Ron look so proud.


	22. At Flourish and Blotts

The last week at the Burrow had been almost as much fun as my first week. It was a little different having Harry around, but we all enjoyed it. It was particularly fun getting to teach him all about the magical things that would be in his home as he grew older and graduated from Hogwarts. Sometimes it seemed like he forgot that he wouldn't always live at Privet Drive. Sometimes I forgot that one day I would get married and leave Mom and Dad. I'd have a family of my own and send my kids off to Hogwarts. But for now, I was perfectly content being a visitor at the Burrow for a few weeks.

Life at the Burrow was always a blast. The Weasley's house burst with the strange and unexpected. It was far more magical than mine was. Definitely a lot more disastrous. The mirror over the mantle liked to shout as us all. Today it had shouted at me for having my hair tied up loosely at the base of my neck. The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting too quiet. Right now he was probably still asleep. I'd learned that the ghoul actually slept, as strange as that was. Fred and George must have recently woken up. I could hear explosions happening in their bedroom for the past few minutes. Harry seemed shocked by the fact that everybody seemed to like him.

It was rather amusing watching Mrs. Weasley fuss over him. You could tell that she was a mother to seven children. My mother loved Harry, but she only had one. She was used to me being self-sufficient. She treated Harry the same way. Mrs. Weasley was constantly hanging over him. Whether it was the state of his socks or forcing him to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard him with questions about life with Muggles, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked. He was particularly fascinated my telephones. He never seemed to understand how Muggles got along without magic.

Last weekend I'd gone back home for a few days. Mom had given me a good chewing-out for interrupting her plans to contact Dumbledore and alert him to come and get Harry himself before the holidays were over. I'd blushed as I'd been forced to explain everything that had happened, even the conversation about Dobby and Malfoy. Dad had fought extremely hard not to laugh and tell me that I'd done a good job getting Harry. Although he had told me before I'd gone back to the Burrow - and they'd gone back to work.

It had been just about a week since we'd taken Harry from the Dursley's. I was already downstairs and smiled when I saw the owl swoop in through the window with the Hogwarts letters in hand. Ginny and I were already at the table. Fred and George must have been upstairs and awake - a large explosion had just rattled the entire house. Everyone had ignored it. Percy was still locked up in his room. Harry and Ron came down to breakfast about ten minutes after Ginny and I did. The moment she saw Harry, after asking me to pass the salt, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter.

Ginny seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room. It made me smile at her. I knew that she had somewhat of a crush on Harry. I assumed that he could be considered kind of cute, just the way that he would probably consider me kind of pretty. Ginny was always cute about her crush on him. It was sweet that he pretended not to see her mishaps. Ginny dived under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like the setting sun. She sat quietly at my side. Pretending he hadn't noticed her accident, Harry sat down and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered him.

"Letters from school," Mr. Weasley said, passing Harry, Ron, Ginny, and I identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you two are here, Harry, Tara - doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two've got them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.

The two boys took the seats that were still open. Fred shoved me from the chair that I was in and I whopped him with my letter, moving into the chair next to Harry. George sat on the other side of his brother. For a few minutes there was silence as we all read our letters. It seemed that they all told us the same things as normal. Mine said to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books we'd need for the coming year.

Second-Year Students Will Require:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

There were seven books here for Gilderoy Lockhart. That was almost his complete set. Maybe it was his complete set. I didn't really ever actually keep track, considering that he was useless. It appeared that everyone else was starting to understand what was happening. As I glanced over, it seemed that Lockhart's books were on Fred, George, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Percy's lists too. Percy had just joined us. It must have been the new Defense teacher. But why would we need all of them? We normally only needed one or two books for each class. Not seven. Seven very expensive books... For five students...

Guilt seeped into my stomach as I glanced up. I could only imagine how they were going to afford all of Ginny's things too. I also couldn't believe that we really needed all of Lockhart's shoes. I didn't know anyone that actually liked Lockhart that much. I knew some people really did love him, but I couldn't believe that an educator that Dumbledore was hiring would love him that much. I couldn't believe that McGonagall - who was in charge of the lists - would actually allow that many of his books to be on the list.

Finally I couldn't remain silent anymore. "The hell do we need all of Lockhart's books for? He's useless!" I hissed to the others.

It was Percy that spoke though. He actually seemed wide-awake. Perhaps he had actually been awake for a long time. "Why do you say that?" Percy asked me curiously.

I rolled my eyes. For someone so smart, he was an idiot. "Come on, Percy. Have you read any of his books?" I asked. He shook his head at me. "They're more fiction than they are fact. Everything is so extravagant that he does. None of it is actually practical."

Percy stared at me for a moment before nodding. "Fair point. I wonder why we need to get them?" he asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders slightly, I sipped on my hot coffee. "New teacher could be a fan," I suggested. But even that seemed a little far-fetched. "But I can't believe that Dumbledore would let the new teacher order us to get this many books. They're so overpriced."

"How much are they?" he asked curiously.

"Two Galleons," I answered.

Percy looked shocked. "For all of them?"

"Each."

Now I knew that he was shocked. His jaw dropped and I immediately felt terrible. Two Galleons was nothing to my family. Even fourteen Galleons. That was just a drop in the bucket. But for them, that was terrible. And they would be spending seventy Galleons on them. At least Bill and Charlie were already out of Hogwarts. That would be almost a hundred Galleons.

Percy gulped and ran a hand through his very messy red hair. It was sticking up all over the place. I would have laughed if the situation had been less serious. He always looked so put together. "Merlin, that's a lot of money," he muttered.

Awkwardly, I wrung my hands together. Harry and I had the money. But the Weasley's couldn't afford all of this. "Maybe they'll be discounted for the Hogwarts students?" I tried to offer helpfully. "There's no way that they can be expecting everyone to buy all of these books. Each year needs them. Sixth, Fourth, Second, and First - at least," I said, referring to the Weasley's all receiving the same orders to buy them.

It was at that comment that Percy left the room and headed back upstairs. Fred, who had finished his own list, peered over at Harry's. "You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too! The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan - bet it's a witch," he said.

Glancing over at him, I grinned. He did make me laugh. For more than just being a prankster, he was simply a funny person. Unfortunately, his mother didn't seem to always have the same feelings about his jokes. She glanced over at him and I was sure that she would kill him. Obviously she was a witch that was a huge fan of Gilderoy Lockhart. Whatever. At that moment, Fred caught his mother's eye and quickly busied himself with the marmalade.

Snorting under my breath, I earned a little bit of marmalade in my hair. "That lot won't come cheap," George said, with a quick look at his parents. My stomach twisted with guilt. "Lockhart's books are really expensive."

He was right about that. Lockhart was one of the most expensive authors I knew. Even worse than some of the popular Muggle books. "It'll be about fifteen Galleons for each set..." I muttered under my breath.

That caught the attention of all of the Weasley's. Their heads snapped over to me and for a moment I regretted saying anything. But perhaps it was better that they knew what to expect. "Well, we'll manage," Mrs. Weasley said, but she looked worried. "I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand."

At least there was that. Ginny needed a lot of things that were easy to find cheap. They simply wouldn't be in that great of condition. "Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny.

As usual, when Harry directed a comment at Ginny, it didn't go over very well. She would get over it. She just needed some time. She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish. Trying extremely hard not to laugh, I glanced away. Fortunately no one saw this except Harry and I. I knew that Fred and George would have gotten her for it. At the same moment of Ginny's butter dish caper, Percy walked back in. Most of the others hadn't even noticed him the first time that he'd come in. This time, he was already dressed, his Hogwarts Prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.

Clearly he was very proud. I couldn't imagine how he would feel if he became Head Boy next year. I wouldn't ever want it, of course, with all of my detentions and point deductions, that would never happen. "Morning, all. Lovely day," Percy chirped.

His voice was as brisk as it normally was. Something strange was happening to him this summer. He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately. I glanced over at him, wondering what his problem was. It didn't take me long to see what the problem was. He pulled out from underneath him a molting, gray feather duster. At least, that's what I thought that it was. Until I saw that it was breathing. It must have been Errol.

"Errol!" Ron howled angrily, taking the limp owl from Percy and extracting a letter from under its wing. Leaning into Ron, I shoved Fred's head off to the side. "Finally. He's got Hermione's answer. I wrote to her saying we were going to try and rescue you from the Dursley's."

"Why would you tell her that? She's going to get all upset with us for breaking the rules," I told him.

Ron carried Errol to a perch just inside the back door and tried to stand him on it, but Errol flopped straight off again. I moved over and checked that the bird really was still alive. He was. I felt terribly for the thing. I was almost to the point of telling Ron that they might need to let Errol go. But Ron took him and laid him on the draining board instead.

"Pathetic," he muttered under his breath. "And I thought that she might offer some helpful insight." I rolled my eyes. Hermione would tell us that we were taking a big risk - which was somewhat true. He shrugged his shoulders at me and ripped open Hermione's letter. His eyes scanned over it for a moment before he cleared his breath and read it out loud.

"'Dear Ron, and Harry and Tara if you're both there, I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too. Is Tara there? I've sent her three owls and gotten no response. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl, because I think another delivery might finish your one off. I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course -,'" Ron broke off. "How can she be? We're on vacation!" he howled.

Rolling my eyes, I shoved against him. "It's Hermione, Ron, she loves studying. That is her vacation. Keep going," I said.

"'- and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley? Let me know what's happening as soon as you can. Love from, Hermione.'"

I had indeed forgotten to send Hermione a letter telling her that I would be at the Burrow. Oh well, Ron would write back to her and let her know that we would be at Flourish and Blotts to meet her. Or maybe the Leaky Cauldron, since she had to go through the Muggle side. I wondered if the letters were piling up back home. I hadn't told anyone that I would be going back to the Burrow. Maybe next week I'd have to go back home and check to make sure that I didn't have a stack of letters on my bed.

Mrs. Weasley's voice startled me from my thoughts. "Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too," Mrs. Weasley said, starting to clear the table. "What're you all up to today?"

We told her the same thing that we'd been telling her for the past week. We did the same thing that we did every day. It wasn't that the Burrow wasn't fun, it was just that it was a good and rare chance to play Quidditch. For Harry, at least. I had Cedric's house to go to. Today Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and I were planning to go up the hill to the small paddock the Weasley's owned. It was surrounded by trees that blocked it from view of the village below, meaning that we could practice Quidditch there, as long as we didn't fly too high. I did miss being able to fly however high I wanted at Cedric's house. He was far away enough from the city.

Unfortunately we couldn't use real Quidditch balls, which would have been hard to explain if they had escaped and flown away over the village. It was almost funny. We had thought about letting a rogue Bludger or two out just to see what would happen. But Mrs. Weasley would have our heads. Instead we decided to throw apples for one another to catch. We all took turns riding Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand, which was easily the best broom. I didn't mind using the old Comet and Cleansweep that they had. They weren't too bad, and I had a Nimbus to use myself. Ron's old Shooting Star was often outstripped by passing butterflies.

An owl swooped through the window and interrupted my thoughts. We all glanced up at it. Hermes was up in Percy's room, Dai was hopping around, trying to eat the leftover food. He'd gotten here three days ago. Hedwig was currently trying to get some food with her. And Errol still looked dead. Although at the sight of the new owl, Errol hopped up and over to the new owl. I walked over to grab the letter, spotting my name on it, thinking that it was from Mom and Dad. But the moment that I saw the writing, I grinned.

It wasn't from Mom or Dad. And it wasn't long that I was left alone to stare at the letter. "What's got you all smiley?" Fred asked, leaning over my shoulder, his voice holding a teasing lilt.

Hiding the letter in my lap, I glanced back at him, our heads very close together. "Thinking about beating you in Quidditch. Move it," I barked at him.

Fred seemed to finally realize what was happening. He glanced down towards my lap and I groaned, knowing that this wouldn't go well. "Oh, you have a letter," he said, reaching down and snatching the letter. "Who's this from?" he asked as he grabbed the still-sealed letter.

George walked over and smiled. "Let's see it, Freddie!" he called to his twin brother.

"Give it back!" I shouted at them.

The attention from everyone else was drawn over to me as they realized that we were starting some trouble. Fred and George ran off in opposite directions. I was reasonably certain that Fred still had it. I ran after them, shoving back my chair in the kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley grabbed the plates and moved them out of the way. This must have been a regular occurrence. I dashed through the living room and vaulted over the couch. I hit Fred on the back, knocking him to the ground. But one search of him proved that he no longer had the letter. I groaned and punched him shoulder, getting up and running after George.

Just as I passed the kitchen again, I saw George dash the other way. My feet hesitated as I debated on which way to go. I did an about-face when I saw that Ginny was passing by. "Ginny! Help!" I shouted at her.

It didn't take anything more than that. She nodded at me and ran off with me. I shoved her to one side and I went around the other. We both slipped through the kitchen, going off to the sides. Ginny grabbed Fred and bowled into him. He clearly hadn't been expecting her as he stepped back and hit the ground. A moment later I tackled George to the ground. The twins fell together and I wrenched the letter from Fred's hand. It was opened and about halfway out. Thankfully I was able to stop them from reading it.

"Thank you," I snapped as I pushed it back in the envelope. I turned and whacked them both on the backsides. They groaned but laughed too. I stood and headed back into the kitchen, Ginny at my side. "And thank you," I told her.

She smiled and nodded at me, leaning over the letter. "Who's it from?" she asked.

"I'll tell you tonight. I don't need them overhearing," I promised her.

Ginny nodded happily as I took a seat at the edge of the kitchen. "Okay," she said. I pulled the letter out and began to scan over it.

Tara,

Have you gotten your letters from Hogwarts yet? I just got mine and I'll be heading into Diagon Alley next week to pick up my things. I'm meeting a few friends and I wanted to see if you would be there. Figured it would be a good chance to get you your broom back. Although, I'm starting to like it. You might have a tough time getting it back.

You must have been causing trouble lately. I haven't heard anything from the Ministry or Dad, but I'm sure you've managed something. Even though we aren't even on the Hogwarts Express yet. Although I can believe that you're already getting into trouble.

Anyways, I'd like to see you before we go back to Hogwarts. Let me know when you're going into Diagon Alley. Either way, I'll see you soon. By the way, is your list full of Gilderoy Lockhart's books? Everyone that I know has to get them. Strange.

See you soon, Elephant,  
Love, Giraffe.

Smiling softly, I fingered at the edge of the letter. This was the longest that I'd gone without seeing Cedric since the beginning of the summer. I was the first one to admit that I really did miss him. He was a good friend. It was interesting that he had offered me to come shopping with him. I would have thought that he had other friends that he'd want to go with. Maybe he did like me just as much as I liked him. And that made sense that he would need Lockhart's books. So did Fred and George. I grabbed a quill that was on the Weasley's table, dipped it in the inkwell, and began to write back to him.

Cedric,

I just got my letter from Hogwarts earlier today. I'm always so impressed with owls. Yours knew that I was in the Burrow. It's the Weasley's home. I'm here for the rest of summer with Mom and Dad at work so much. Harry's here, too. They wanted me to at least to enjoy the rest of my summer with my friends.

We're going into Diagon Alley next Wednesday. I'd like to meet up with you. We're meeting up with Hermione Granger. Perhaps I could meet you in Flourish and Blotts around midday? You may not keep that broom. You're lucky that I've let you have it for this long. I guess it's because you're alright. Have you seen the new Nimbus Two Thousand and One? If not, you have to.

I have not been causing trouble! Okay, maybe a little, but minimal. Come on, you couldn't not be expecting that?

I'd like to see you, too. I do miss our little Quidditch outings. Perhaps we'll have to do that again before we go back to school if we can? Like I said, next Wednesday. Meet me in Flourish and Blotts at midday. I'll hunt around if I can't find you anyways. Yes. Everyone's list is full of them. First, Second, Fourth, and Sixth I've seen have them so far. Fred and George think that the new Defense teacher must be a witch that has a crush on him. Either way, those sets are expensive.

Love always, Giraffe,  
Elephant.

The others had since moved back into the living room. Cedric's owl was still hanging around the window. I smiled at it and pet its feathers. It was definitely one of the friendlier owls that I'd met. His owl always seemed to want me to stay and pet it. I allowed the feathers to gently push through my hands before handing him over the letter. He grabbed it, affectionately nudge my hand, and flew off. I did feel bad about not giving him any treats, but I didn't want to use the Weasley's. I walked back into the living room and stood with the others.

I leaned up onto the couch that Harry was sitting on. "Whose owl is that?" Harry asked.

The owl was slowly floating away and out of sight. For a moment, I didn't want him to know that it was Cedric. I knew that he would start complaining that I was too young and he was too old. "Seamus," I said quickly.

Harry's face fell and he smiled slightly. "Oh. Tell him we said hello?" he asked, ensuring that I had.

I nodded at him with a small smile. "I did." I'd have to write Seamus a letter sometime soon and tell him that Ron and Harry said hello, too. Harry stood from the couch and I motioned to the others. "Ready to go?" I asked them.

"Seamus, huh?" Fred asked in my ear.

Harry and Ron walked over to the broom shed to go get everything. I turned back and saw that Fred was alone. At least George wasn't with him... "I will end your lives if you say anything," I hissed at him.

"Relax, Tara, your secret is safe with us," Fred said, motioning to where George was standing not far from us.

Rolling my eyes at them, I shoved Fred out of the way and stomped past George. "I'm sure," I snapped at him. The twins laughed as I walked up to Harry and Ron.

Harry glanced down at me as Ron handed me off the Comet Two-Sixty that the twins had as a spare broom. It was slow and wobbly, but it would work. "Where is your broom?" Harry asked me.

Slowly, I shrugged my shoulders at him. "Back at home with all of my other things. I'll get them before we head back to Hogwarts," I said. All of my things were still back at home. The only thing that I had was the spare key for the family vault at Gringotts and my money bag. "You forget anything at the Dursley's?" I asked, trying to distract him.

Harry looked over at me and grinned. "I somehow doubt that you should ever set foot near their house again," he said.

Laughing softly, I nodded at him. The Dursley's would probably be perfectly content with never even knowing me. I had certainly assisted in causing them a lot of trouble. But that didn't matter to me. They'd caused Harry quite a bit of trouble over the past twelve years. I assumed that it was only fair that I paid them back. We sat together for a while as the twins gathered their things. We didn't need the pads or robes or anything of the sort, considering that we weren't playing with the Bludgers or the Snitch.

Five minutes later we were marching up the hill, broomsticks over our shoulders. Fred's old broom was slightly too big for me, but it could have been worse. I was walking in between Ron and Harry, Fred and George were just ahead of us. Before we'd left, we had asked Percy if he wanted to join us, but he had said he was busy. It seemed that he was always busy doing something these days. Besides this morning to collect his Hogwarts letter, I had only seen Percy at mealtimes so far; he stayed shut in his room the rest of the time.

I had a feeling that he was conversing with some girl back at Hogwarts. There was a Ravenclaw Prefect that I knew that he spent a lot of time with. Penelope Clearwater or something like that. The only reason that I knew who she was, was because she'd given me a detention one day for kicking Malfoy when he said that Hagrid shouldn't have even been allowed in a civilized society. She didn't seem to enjoy his comment either, but fighting was technically against the rules at Hogwarts.

Fred's voice called me back from the annoying memory. "Wish I knew what he was up to. He's not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all," Fred said, referring to Percy.

My eyes went to the size of saucers. I didn't even know that it was possible to have twelve O.W.L. level classes. I couldn't even imagine having eight. "Twelve? I didn't even know that Hogwarts offered twelve classes that were O.W.L. level..." I muttered.

"That's what we thought, too," Fred told me.

George glanced over at Harry, who was looking at us like we'd lost our minds. Of course, he didn't know what O.W.L.s were yet. "Ordinary Wizarding Levels," George explained, seeing Harry's puzzled look. "Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we'll have another Head Boy in the family. I don't think I could stand the shame."

Glancing over at the twins, I rolled my eyes. They would achieve so much more if they actually paid attention to their classes. "Imagine what you two would be able to accomplish if you actually worked at something," I told them.

"Excuse you!" Fred shouted haughtily. I glanced at him as he wrapped an arm over my shoulder, towering over me. "There are plenty of things that we work hard at."

"Excluding pranking?" I asked.

Both he and George exchanged a look before Fred looked back at me proudly. "Entrepreneurship," he said.

"Spell entrepreneurship," I challenged.

"It's got an E in it," he answered.

Snorting softly under my breath, I shoved him away from me. Harry and Ron were both laughing. "Thank you for that brilliant insight," I snapped at the twins as they walked off, chatting about their brothers.

They were still the only two Weasley's that I'd never met. We had gotten a letter from Charlie once, but never actually met him - only his friends when we were trying to get rid of Norbert last year. Bill was the oldest Weasley brother. He and the next brother, Charlie, had already left Hogwarts. I'd seen the pictures that they had up of them, but that was about it. I did know enough to remember that Charlie was in Romania studying dragons and Bill was in Egypt working for Gringotts.

We had just reached the top of the hill as we set down the bucket of apples. "Dunno how Mum and Dad are going to afford all our school stuff this year. Five sets of Lockhart books! And Ginny needs robes and a wand and everything..." George muttered.

As playful and ridiculous as the twins were, I knew that they really did care for their family. For a long while, I said nothing. Neither did Harry. We both felt a bit awkward. Stored in an underground vault at Gringotts in London was a small fortune that Harry's parents had left him. In a vault not far from Harry's was mine. It was filled to the brim with golden Galleons. It wasn't even the one vault that we had. We had two... One was full of the actual coins. The other had priceless jewels and prized possessions that had been passed down through the generations of my family. On both my mother and father's side.

That wasn't even where it ended. They had a few accounts in the Muggle world as well. We needed Muggle things, too, considering that we lived in a Muggle community. There were small fortunes in those accounts, too. Being with the Weasley's for extended periods of time reminded me just how lucky I was to have my parents. I'd advised Harry to never mention his Gringotts bank account to the Dursley's. They were greedy people and I didn't think their horror of anything connected with magic would stretch to a large pile of gold.

Looking back up to Fred and George, I walked over to them. "I have a spare set of phials and telescopes and things like that. Plus I have an old set of robes that might be a touch short on her, but they'll work," I offered.

Fred shook his head at me, giving me a grateful smile. "Don't worry about it, Tara," he told me.

But I was worried about it. As much as I tried not to be worried about the money situation, something that I knew was supposed to be what the adults worried about, I was worried for them. I'd never thought about money with my family. We never had to worry about it. But when I'd met the Weasley's, I finally realized what a big deal that it could be. With seven kids, things must have been extremely tight. At least they only have five that they still needed to take care of, but that was still a lot. Things would get easier as the kids got older - particularly once Percy and the twins left Hogwarts - but for a while they would have a lot of trouble. It made me feel guilty that I'd never once thought about how much certain families struggled just to feed themselves or pay the bills.

Thankfully Quidditch took my mind off of my worries about the Weasley's money issues. They'd manage, and they'd try to keep it away from their kids. Mothers and fathers never wanted kids to worry about things like that. So I decided that I would throw the apples. Harry never missed one. Fred and George both used the bats to knock them back to me. More than once they'd come extremely close to hitting me in the eye with one. It had earned them chucked as hard as I could back at their heads. It had quickly become a war. Ron was actually quite good at catching them. I had a feeling that he might make a halfway decent Keeper one day. He'd gone bright red when I'd told him that.

The five of us had been out in the field for hours until we'd been called back inside by Mrs. Weasley. She was making us all a dinner that we sat together and ate. Fred and George were speaking in hushed tones and I rolled my eyes. They were probably planning the next new disaster. Percy ate quickly before excusing himself. I saw a roll of parchment - written on - tucked into his pocket and I smiled. He was writing to some girl. That's what was keeping him so busy. Ron and I chatted about Quidditch as Ginny stared mostly at Harry. But Harry himself was too busy trying to explain elevators to Mr. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley kept howling at her husband to leave Harry alone.

We all sat together for a few hours - myself playing cards with Ron and Harry - before we all headed upstairs. I let Harry and Ron go to have a boy's night together as I headed into Ginny's room. I walked in and saw that she was perched on her bed, reading a book. She always seemed much more relaxed whenever she was away from Harry. I smiled at her and shut the door behind me.

Changing quickly, I plopped down onto the spare bed that Mrs. Weasley had set up for me on the far side of Ginny's room. "Hey. What have you been up to today?" I asked her.

The words were barely out of my mouth when she enthusiastically shouted, "Tell me about the letter!"

Laughing softly, she walked across the room and jumped onto the other end of my bed. The two of us sat together, our legs crossing over each other's. "I've had a wonderful day, too, thanks for asking," I teased.

Ginny smiled at me but wasn't going to let me get away with this without explaining to me what had happened. "Letter. Tell me. Now," she demanded.

"His name is Cedric Diggory," I told her through a sigh.

I couldn't help but to wonder if he ever spent as much time thinking about me as I spent thinking about him. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answer. "Is he cute?" she asked.

"Very," I said, blushing softly.

It was the reason that I'd been attracted to him in the first place. It was only later that I'd found out that he was funny and had a good heart as well. Those were probably the main reasons that I really did continue to like him. The way that he looked was always just a bonus. I wondered if he ever looked at me like I was attractive. I liked to think so, but I was smart enough to know that he probably looked at me more like a little sister. I wouldn't blame him. I was only two years younger than him, but it felt like ten sometimes.

Ginny was silent for a moment, knowing that I was deep in thought. Finally, she spoke again. "Does he like you?" she asked me.

And that was the million Galleon question. I had no clue. I wished that I was a Legilimens so that I could know. "I - I don't know. As pathetic as that sounds. Sometimes I get the feeling that he might like me and other days I feel like he thinks of me as his little sister. He was saying that I was the only person that he'd invited over to his house other than the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Alone, at least. I know he's had some of his groups of friends over," I told her.

For a while we sat together. Finally, Ginny looked over at me and smiled. "Sounds to me like he likes you," she said, nudging me. I smiled. If only that was the truth. "Tell me about him," she said after a beat.

Smiling softly at her, I nodded. "Like I said, his name is Cedric Diggory. He's going to be a Fourth Year, this year. He's in Hufflepuff and he's a Prefect. I met him in Madam Malkin's last year while I was being fitted for my robes. He's - He's really great."

We spent much of the evening talking about Cedric. I told her everything about him that I could think to say. I told her all about the first time that we had met and our conversation, even to joking about our robe lengths. I did keep the Elephant and Giraffe nicknames to myself. It felt like something that was precious. I knew that he hadn't told anyone. I told her about all of our little conversations together, the time that he risked a detention himself to sign the note from Malfoy, and I even told her about the brief time that he wouldn't speak to me. She looked thrilled that he would at least listen to me.

She had never seemed so happy as the moment that I told her that for a while, he was the only person that would speak to me, save Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I told her all about seeing him after going into the dungeons. She laughed and thought that it was hilarious that he was the one waiting for me outside of the hospital wing. She said that it was romantic. I supposed that in a way, it was sort of romantic. But I was still determined that it was friendly, rather than anything else.

Once I had completed the stories of our school year together, I even told her about the times that we had gotten together over the summer. She told me that it sounded like he was willing to anything for me. I told her that it wasn't that he would do anything for me, but he would certainly do a lot. Talking about Cedric with someone - and having that person tell me that it sounded like he felt the same way about me - definitely made me feel better. It was the first time in a long time that I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

The next week flew by without a problem. I enjoyed spending my time at the Burrow. Living with the Weasley's was so much different than anything else that I had ever lived with. Mom and Dad liked things to be reasonably neat, but they always got a good laugh when something blew up or we destroyed one of our Muggle appliances. The Granger's were a nice and normal Muggle family that loved to hear about the Wizarding World. And I loved to help Hermione tell them all about it. But in the end, they were a proper family that liked to keep the house neat. Cedric lived in a wizard's house, but it was still kept proper, nothing ever out of place.

But that was not the case with the Burrow. Things were disastrous living with them. But it was definitely a lot more fun than we normally had. Mostly because with Harry and I here, it made things all the more interesting. The Burrow was disastrous enough without us. But now, we were able to have fun, all of us together. Fred and George continued their nightly attempts to make new pranking devices. They had caused me to wake up early at least four out of the seven mornings that I'd been here. Twice had been because they'd blown their eyebrows off. Mrs. Weasley had shouted at them for an hour.

Most days that Mr. Weasley wasn't working, he liked to talk to Harry and I about Muggles and the way that they operated. He found things like parking meters, telephones, and televisions absolutely fascinating. Mrs. Weasley would always tell him to leave us be. Most days, Harry, Fred, George, Ron, and I would go out to the paddock and play our version of Quidditch. We recently had to call Mom over to heal Ron's eye. A wayward apple that had been meant for Harry to catch had hit him straight in the eye. It was my fault and I felt terrible, but Ron insisted that no harm had been done. His eye was back to normal within the hour.

That was when Mom and Dad had actually stayed with us. Fred and George were polite enough to take the couches downstairs so that my parents could use their bedroom. I told them that they didn't have to, but they were actually on their best behavior, gladly giving up their room. Maybe they just had more space to work downstairs. They'd been here for the last two days, but they'd left last night so that they could go to work today. I knew that it was because they wanted to get up early. Dad had the Quidditch World Cup to help organize, and Mom was dealing with some type of massive curse that had been spread over a Muggle village near Essex.

It was already one of Dad's busiest times of the year, but now Mom was insanely busy too. They promised that they would stay at the Burrow for a few days leading up to my departure for my Second Year. I appreciated that. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would take Harry and I with them when we went to King's Cross to catch the Hogwarts Express. Today they were all taking us to Diagon Alley to buy our things. I had to buy some new things, but I did have most of what I needed.

The guilt had since seeped back into my stomach about the Weasley's and their money problem. I could see the stress marks on Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's faces as we got towards our departure for Diagon Alley. Ginny was going to have a problem buying all of her things. Right now, I was lying awake in my bed, trying to get back to sleep. I'd had a nightmare, but the moment that I'd woken up, I'd forgotten what it was about. It didn't matter. Mrs. Weasley opened the door a moment later. She was clearly trying to wake us all up early so that we could get a head start on getting our things for the year.

Mrs. Weasley opened the blinds and - despite the fact that I'd been awake for a while - the light was blinding. I groaned and covered my eyes. "Merlin it's early," I hissed as Ginny weakly stumbled from her bed.

The two women in the room chuckled softly as we woke up. Ginny walked over to her dresser and began getting changed as Mrs. Weasley strode from the room, closing the door behind her. The weather was still nice and warm from the summer heat, so I decided to try and look like a real Floridian for once. I grabbed a pair of shorts and stumbled into them, grumbling to myself about the early hour. We didn't even need to get up this early for classes. Pulling on a white tank top, I walked out of the room, hoping that the twins hadn't done anything to my shoes.

When I'd left my tennis shoes out in the living room earlier this week, I'd walked out to find them half-burned. Apparently they had been attempting a new color-changing prank. I'd assured them that their new invention was probably not going to be a success. They'd agreed. Thankfully this time, my shoes were unharmed. I slipped them on my feet and plopped down next to Fred on the couch. He and George were already downstairs, sleeping. Fred immediately laid his head on my shoulder, and I laid my head on his. George was asleep in my lap. A few minutes later, Harry walked over, dropping onto my arm.

Clearly everyone was falling back asleep. Fred, George, and Harry were all using me as a pillow. Not that I minded. I was actually rather comfortable. Percy was the only one that looked mildly awake. Ginny was out as well, yawning as she sat in the loveseat with Ron. He himself was asleep, curled up in the corner. Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen, making breakfast for everyone. Mr. Weasley was still getting ready for the day. The house was as silent as I'd ever heard it.

"Breakfast, everyone!" Mrs. Weasley called out.

A few of us immediately straightened out. Fred and George limped into the kitchen. Harry and I grabbed onto each other, pulling ourselves into the room. "Did we have to get up quite this early?" I moaned as I dropped into a chair.

"The early bird gets the worm," Mrs. Weasley chirped happily.

"The early bird is going to pass out before we get to Diagon Alley," I muttered into the wooden table.

Thankfully we were able to get some coffee and tea into us. It took me two cups of each, but I managed to wake up eventually. It was about a half an hour after being awoken that everyone seemed to be waking up. George had shoved me into the marmalade when I hadn't moved fast enough. That was my official wake-up call. After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, we headed on our way. Most of the family pulled on their coats, but myself, Harry, and Percy went without them. We walked into the living room and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.

Harry was staring at us like we'd lost our minds, standing in front of the fireplace. I felt terrible. He was not going to enjoy this. I should have had him travel by Floo powder sometime this summer. "We're running low, Arthur. We'll have to buy some more today," Mrs. Weasley sighed. I thought about offering some of ours - we had an endless supply - but I didn't want to sound patronizing. So I said nothing. "Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear!"

And she offered him the flowerpot. Harry stared at us all watching him. I snorted under my breath and moved to explain that he'd never used Floo powered before. "W-what am I supposed to do?" he stammered before I could explain.

"He's never traveled by Floo powder. Sorry, Harry, I forgot," Ron said, looking towards Harry guiltily.

It wasn't like it was the hardest thing to master. After watching a few of us go, he'd be fine. "Never?" Mr. Weasley asked. Harry shook his head. "But how did you get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things last year?"

"I went on the Underground," Harry explained.

Mr. Weasley's eyes lit up and I smiled. He really should have been a Muggle. He would have loved it. Or maybe he needed to live in a Muggle community. "Really?" Mr. Weasley asked eagerly. "Were there escapators? How exactly -"

"Escalators," I corrected. "And, yes. Many."

Now he looked like he might wet himself. Before he could ask me anything else, Mrs. Weasley spoke over him. "Not now, Arthur," she said before turning back to Harry. "Floo powder's a lot quicker, dear, but goodness me, if you've never used it before -"

"He'll be all right, Mum," Fred insisted. I was rather surprised that it wasn't Ron that came to Harry's aid. But I knew that the entire Weasley family liked Harry. "Harry, watch us first." Fred then turned to me. I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing that this wasn't going anywhere good. "Wanna share a fireplace?" he teasingly asked me, waggling his eyebrows.

Scowling at him, I shook my head. "Get out," I snarled.

Giving Fred a rough shove, I couldn't help but to laugh anyways. He smiled at me. Off to the side, I could hear the other Weasley's laughing. Fred was the charmer of the family. He'd made someone very happy one day. Or maybe miserable. Perhaps a little bit of both. He took a pinch of glittering powder out of the flowerpot, stepped up to the fire, and threw the powder into the flames. Harry was watching with wide eyes. He looked like he was going to pass out. With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Fred. He didn't hesitate as he stepped right into it, shouting for Diagon Alley. The flames roared again, and he was gone.

I was absolutely positive that Harry was going to pass out. Mrs. Weasley motioned for George to come forward and go through. He was grabbing the powder as Mrs. Weasley spoke. "You must speak clearly, dear. And be sure to get out at the right grate," she instructed Harry.

"The right what?" Harry asked nervously as the fire roared and whipped George out of sight, too.

Mrs. Weasley didn't seem to understand that her attempted explanation was only making things worse. "Well, there are an awful lot of wizard fires to choose from, you know, but as long as you've spoken clearly -"

"He'll be fine, Molly, don't fuss," Mr. Weasley said, in a very fatherly fashion, helping himself to Floo powder, too.

"But, dear, if he got lost, how would we ever explain to his aunt and uncle?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

Harry and I exchanged a small smile. We both knew that nothing would make the Dursley's happier than if something like that happened. Harry vanishing would be like an early Christmas. "They wouldn't mind. Dudley would think it was a brilliant joke if I got lost up a chimney, don't worry about that," Harry reassured her.

Mrs. Weasley looked unconvinced, but nodded anyways. "Well... all right... you go after Arthur. Now, when you get into the fire, say where you're going -"

"And keep your elbows tucked in," Ron advised.

"And your eyes shut. The soot -" Mrs. Weasley continued before Ron spoke over her again.

"Don't fidget. Or you might well fall out of the wrong fireplace -"

I was reasonably certain that it was fidgeting that was how I'd wound up in India when I was a child. That, and the fact that I couldn't really talk yet. "But don't panic and get out too early; wait until you see Fred and George," Mrs. Weasley added.

It was very obvious that none of this made any sense to Harry. He was staring with a blank face, looking very nervous. "Do you want me to go with you?" I offered quietly.

Harry seemed to think about it for a moment. "No," he finally said. I nodded, knowing that he would say that. He didn't want to be the person that had to have help to get through something that most wizards could manage by the time that they could speak. "I can manage." He still looked nervous to me.

And I wasn't quite sure that I wanted him going through alone. "You're sure?" I asked him.

Harry nodded at me. "Yes. I think I'm old enough to get through a fireplace on my own," he teased.

Smiling softly at him, I nudged him towards the fireplace. He walked over but glanced back at me. "Never thought you'd be saying that a year ago, right?" I asked him.

After a beat, Harry laughed. He knew that I was just trying to make him feel a little bit better. I knew how terrifying this must have been. Trying hard to bear in mind all of the tips that we had told him, Harry took a pinch of Floo powder and walked to the edge of the fire. I motioned for him to go inside first. It would be easier and go faster. He took a deep breath, scattered the powder into the flames, and stepped forward. I was just barely able to see him. I knew immediately that this wasn't going to go well.

He should have thrown the powder in the corner of the fireplace, not right around him. He opened his mouth and immediately swallowed a lot of hot ash. "D-Dia-gon Alley," he said through a cough.

The green flames swirled up and I heard Harry gasp before he was sucked back through the fireplace. The flames died a moment later. Ron, Ginny, Percy, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, and I were all watching in silence. "What did he say, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Diagonally," Mr. Weasley said breathlessly.

"I thought he did."

"Oh no," I muttered, moving forward before anyone else could. Harry didn't know how this all worked. Someone had to go after him. And, for whatever reason, I was always the person that went with him to rectify his mistakes. "I'm going to try and follow him," I said.

Mrs. Weasley stared at me for a moment, probably debating on whether she should stop me or let me go. After a moment, she nodded at me and handed me the pot. "Go through and bring him back to the Burrow if you don't know where you are. Take him with you through the grate next time," she instructed me.

I nodded at her. "No problem." I grabbed a handful of Floo powder and tossed it into the far corner of the fireplace. As the flames came up, I stepped in. "Diagonally," I called, praying that I would go where Harry had gone.

It felt a little rougher than normal as I was sucked through the Floo system. Closing my eyes for a moment, I held my breath. Wherever he had gone, it was somewhere that hadn't been cleaned in a long time. I could feel the soot whipping all around me. It felt as though I was being sucked down a giant drain. I began spinning very fast - far faster than normal - with the roaring of the flames in my ears deafening me. I tried to keep my eyes open but the soot flooded into my eyes. I had to shut them again.

Harry must have been having a terrible time with all of this. I felt terrible for not forcing him to go with me. Something very hard knocked into my elbow. It happened all the time. People never tucked themselves in. I tucked in as tightly as I could, still spinning and spinning. I opened my eyes for just a moment to see that I was flying past the grates. I groaned, feeling the bacon sandwiches churning inside me. I should not have eaten right before going through the grates. I should have known better. I closed my eyes again wishing that I would finally make it to the grate that I was going to. The moment that I did make it, though, I wished that I hadn't.

Without warning, I fell, face forward, onto cold stone. Groaning through the pain in my nose, I weakly began to move. Dizzy and bruised, covered in soot, I gingerly got to my feet. My head was throbbing from the impact and my body was quivering from the fall. That trip was worse than the one that had taken me to India. For a moment I feared that I had not gotten to the same place that Harry had gone. It seemed like I was alone, with no idea where I was. All I could tell was that I was in a large, dimly lit wizard's shop.

But this was clearly a store dedicated to the Dark Arts. As I turned back to the grate, ready to head back to Diagon Alley, I saw that Harry was standing off to the side. His glasses were hanging from his hand. He must not have seen me. "Harry!" I yelled softly.

He whipped back to me in shock. The relief was clear on his face the moment that he saw me. "Tara! Thank Merlin you're here," he said, moving forward to give me a hug. I noticed that his glasses were broken. He must have fallen, too. Once Harry let go of me, he glanced around us. "Where are we? How'd you get here?"

"I repeated what you'd said. Diagonally. Speak clearly, you twit!" I said, whacking him on the shoulder. "We told you that!" Harry looked very guilty. "As for where we are... I'm not sure. We should go back to the Burrow. I'll take you with me through to Diagon Alley."

Harry nodded, looking very grateful to be getting out of here. "Okay."

"This place is full of things for the Dark Arts. Don't touch anything," I warned him.

Harry looked a little sick. "No problem," he muttered.

As we headed back to the fireplace, I realized something that I should have noticed before. There was no Floo powder set up, and I had none with me. How the hell would we get back? Not wanting to tell Harry the rather disturbing news that we were likely trapped here, I glanced around, trying to form a plan. I didn't want to ask the owner. That might not end up well for us.

A glass case nearby held a withered hand on a cushion. I cringed at it. It was slightly blackened and looked still somewhat alive. There was also a bloodstained pack of cards and a staring glass eye. That couldn't be good. It probably looked at someone, almost like a looking glass. But this was definitely worse. Evil-looking masks stared down from the walls, an assortment of human bones lay upon the counter, and rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling. Goosebumps rose on my arms as I scooted closer to Harry. Even worse, the dark, narrow street I could see through the dusty shop window was definitely not Diagon Alley.

Of course, I knew that it wasn't. The sooner that we could get out of here, the better. We would have to go through the street. Hopefully we could find another grate somewhere close. Harry and I made our way swiftly and silently toward the door, not wanting to alert the owner to the fact that someone was in here. Before we'd gotten halfway toward it, two people appeared on the other side of the glass. My heart lodged itself in my stomach. Lucius and Draco Malfoy. They were not people that I wanted to see right now. Or ever. Harry spotted them at the same time that I did, and looked very concerned about it.

"Malfoy!" he hissed, grabbing onto me. "Move!"

"Where do we go?" I asked.

Harry's eyes searched back and forth. I was tempted to dive under one of the displays, but if they came back here, they would see us. "Here. Come on!" Harry said, yanking me with him.

Stumbling over my feet, I blindly followed Harry to whatever he had seen. We dashed through the store as Harry shoved me towards a large black cabinet to out left. I supposed that he could have found something worse. So we shot inside it and pulled the doors closed, leaving a small crack to peer through. Harry was right behind me, pressed against me. There wasn't even an inch between us. The cabinet was definitely not designed for people to stay in. Seconds later, a bell clanged, and Malfoy stepped into the shop. He was closely followed by his father. His mother was nowhere to be found.

Lucius Malfoy crossed the shop, looking lazily at the items on display, and rang a bell on the counter before turning to his son and saying, "Touch nothing, Draco."

His voice was as cold as it had ever been. I couldn't imagine Lucius ever teaching Malfoy to play Quidditch or even speaking to his son. I almost felt bad for Malfoy. Almost. And Malfoy, who had reached for the glass eye, said, "I thought you were going to buy me a present."

Harry and I both rolled our eyes. I could feel the exasperation in his body. "I said I would buy you a racing broom," Lucius said, drumming his fingers on the counter.

"What's the good of that if I'm not on the House team?" Malfoy asked, looking sulky and bad-tempered. Harry and I exchanged looks, smiling at each other. "Harry Potter and Tara Nox got a Nimbus Two Thousand last year. Special permission from Dumbledore so they could play for Gryffindor. They're not even that good, it's just because he's famous. Famous for having a stupid scar on his forehead. And she's got her father. He's not even that good. Neither is she." I grit my teeth, Harry grabbing my arms to keep me still. Malfoy bent down to examine a shelf full of skulls. "Everyone thinks he's so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick -"

"You have told me this at least a dozen times already," Lucius interrupted, with a quelling look at his son. "And I would remind you that it is not - prudent - to appear less than fond of Harry Potter, not when most of our kind regard him as the hero who made the Dark Lord disappear." Both Harry and I tensed. It became very clear to me what a sleaze ball Lucius Malfoy was. "Ah, Mr. Borgin."

Glancing up, I saw that a stooping man had appeared behind the counter, smoothing his greasy hair back from his face. "Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you again," Mr. Borgin said in a voice as oily as his hair. "Delighted - and young Master Malfoy, too - charmed. How may I be of assistance? I must show you, just in today, and very reasonably priced -"

"I'm not buying today, Mr. Borgin, but selling."

My eyebrows rose. I supposed that if any family would be selling something having to do with the Dark Arts, it would be the Malfoy's. "Selling?" The smile faded slightly from Mr. Borgin's face.

"You have heard, of course, that the Ministry is conducting more raids," Lucius said, taking a roll of parchment from his inside pocket and unraveling it for Mr. Borgin to read. I moved down slightly so that Harry could see over my head. "I have a few - ah - items at home that might embarrass me, if the Ministry were to call..."

My eyebrows knitted together. That didn't sound promising. Mr. Borgin fixed a pair of pince-nez to his nose and looked down the list. "The Ministry wouldn't presume to trouble you, sir, surely?" he asked.

Lucius Malfoy's lip curled. Clearly he didn't enjoy someone questioning him on the power that the Malfoy name held. "I have not been visited yet. The name Malfoy still commands a certain respect, yet the Ministry grows ever more meddlesome. There are rumors about a new Muggle Protection Act. No doubt that flea-bitten, Muggle-loving fool Arthur Weasley is behind it -" I felt a hot surge of anger, "- and as you see, certain of these poisons might make it appear -"

Harry was tensed for a moment, and I turned back to him, knowing that he was about to do something very foolish. "Hush. Let them talk. Don't do anything stupid," I hissed at him.

He nodded, still looking unhappy. "I understand, sir, of course. Let me see..." Mr. Borgin trailed off.

"Can I have that?" Draco Malfoy interrupted, pointing at the withered hand on its cushion.

I hissed softly. Why the hell would anyone want that? It creeped me out. "Ah, the Hand of Glory!" Mr. Borgin said happily, abandoning Lucius's list and scurrying over to Draco. I rolled my eyes. He was clearly hoping to make some money. "Insert a candle and it gives light only to the holder! Best friend of thieves and plunderers! Your son has fine taste, sir."

Lucius did not appear to take this as a compliment. "I hope my son will amount to more than a thief or a plunderer, Borgin," Lucius said coldly.

Mr. Borgin said quickly, "No offense, sir, no offense meant -"

"Though if his grades don't pick up," Lucius said, more coldly still, "that may indeed be all he is fit for." I grinned to myself, but it faded after a moment. He did have high grades. Hermione and I were the only two that had bested him in all of the exams.

"It's not my fault. The teachers all have favorites, that Hermione Granger -"

"Ha!" Harry said under his breath. I nudged him, trying to keep him quiet.

"I would have thought you'd be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam," Lucius snapped, interrupting his son. "Not to mention the daughter of those blood traitors."

Obviously that comment was meant for me. Harry's fists closed behind me and I laid a hand over his, forcing him to relax. It was nothing that Malfoy hadn't told me a thousand times before. I leaned back to Harry and whispered, "So we see where Malfoy got his fondness for calling me a blood traitor."

"It's the same all over. Wizard blood is counting for less everywhere -"

"Not with me," Lucius said, his nostrils flaring as he interrupted Mr. Borgin.

"No, sir, nor with me, sir," Mr. Borgin said, with a deep bow.

"In that case, perhaps we can return to my list. I am in something of a hurry, Borgin, I have important business elsewhere today."

Again, it was probably nothing good. They started to haggle. Harry and I were pressed back as far as we could go into the cabinet. We watched nervously as Draco drew nearer and nearer to our hiding place, examining the objects for sale. He was touching nearly everything, and I knew that if he got back here, he would touch the cabinet and find us. Draco paused to examine a long coil of hangman's rope and to read, smirking, the card propped on a magnificent necklace of opals, Caution: Do Not Touch. Cursed - Has Claimed the Lives of Nineteen Muggle Owners to Date. Bile rose in my throat. That was not funny.

Draco turned away and saw the cabinet right in front of him. He walked forward and stretched out his hand for the handle. It had barely touched when Lucius Malfoy called out. "Done. Come, Draco," he said from the counter. Harry wiped his forehead on his sleeve and I relaxed as Draco turned away. "Good day to you, Mr. Borgin. I'll expect you at the manor tomorrow to pick up the goods."

The pair left without another word. The moment the door had closed, Mr. Borgin dropped his oily manner. "Good day yourself, Mister Malfoy, and if the stories are true, you haven't sold me half of what's hidden in your manor..."

I wasn't sure that I wanted to know what that meant. Actually, I was sure that I didn't want to know what that meant. There were far too many secrets that I'd discovered last year, I was good without any more. Muttering darkly, Mr. Borgin disappeared into a back room. Harry and I waited for a minute in case he came back. Then, quietly as we could, so not to alert Mr. Borgin, we slipped out of the cabinet, past the glass cases, and out of the shop door.

The door had just closed when Harry and I turned to each other. We were at least out of the shop, but we still had no clue where we were going. "Come on. We need to get out of here," Harry told me.

"Where do we go?" I asked.

Harry was clutching his broken glasses to his face, and staring around. We both froze, grabbing onto each other. We had emerged into a dingy alleyway that seemed to be made up entirely of shops devoted to the Dark Arts. This was not a good place for two young magical people to be. It was even worse that I was with Harry Potter. If there was one person that needed to stay away from the Dark Arts and whatnot, it was Harry. People down here wouldn't be happy to see him.

Glancing around for the exit of the alley, I saw that the shop that we had just left was probably the largest one on the block. People had to be careful selling and buying Dark Arts artifacts. The shop that we'd just left was called Borgin and Burkes, and was opposite was a nasty window display of shrunken heads. I backed away slowly. Two doors down, a large cage was alive with gigantic black spiders. Ron would have hated it down here. Two shabby-looking wizards were watching us from the shadow of a doorway, muttering to each other.

My hand quickly wrapped around Harry's. He was clearly jumpy, as he lurched forward at my touch. A moment later he relaxed, grabbing my hand tightly and pulling me to him. We set off without another word, not wanting to draw more attention to ourselves. An old wooden street sign hanging over a shop selling poisonous candles told us that we were in Knockturn Alley. My face turned up slightly. I didn't know my way out, but I did know that Knockturn Alley connected to Diagon Alley. We were close to where we needed to be. I just had to find my way out of here. I grabbed Harry and pulled him out of the center of the street.

Too many eyes were starting to turn towards us. It wasn't common to see kids in Knockturn Alley by himself. "Knockturn Alley! It's just off of Diagon Alley. We aren't far," I told him.

"Which way?" Harry asked me.

Placing my hand against my forehead, I tried to plot a mental map of Diagon Alley and remember which way Mom had told me never to go. For the life of me, I couldn't make sense of things. It felt like Diagon Alley was hours from here. "I'm thinking. I've never been down here before," I muttered back to him.

"Not lost are you, my dears?" a feminine voice said in our ears, making us both jump.

We both turned back and I had to hold my breath to keep from screaming. I knew that dark witches and wizards didn't always look too good, but I certainly hadn't been expecting the woman to look the way that she did. An aged witch stood in front of us, holding a tray of what looked horribly like whole human fingernails. Harry's hand tightened on mine as he gently pushed me away from the witch. She leered at us, showing mossy teeth. Harry backed away slowly, pushing me back.

His voice was shaky once he managed to find it. "We're fine, thanks. We're just -"

"Harry! Tara!" a loud voice called. The men and women that had been coming towards us backed away almost immediately. The tension dropped from my body. I'd never been as happy as I was to see him. Even happier than when he'd told me that we were going to tell Harry the truth. "What d'yeh think yer doin' down there?"

My heart leapt. So did the witch; a load of fingernails cascaded down over her feet and backed away. She was very clearly terrified. Not that I blamed her. If she didn't know how sweet and harmless Hagrid really was, I assumed that he could be quite intimidating. She cursed at the massive form of Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. He came striding toward us, looking furious - with either the witch or us, I didn't know and didn't care - beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard.

"Hagrid!" Harry croaked in relief. "We were lost - Floo powder -"

He was never able to say anything more than that. Hagrid seized Harry and I by the scruffs of the neck and pulled us away from the witch, knocking the tray right out of her hands. Her shrieks followed us all the way along the twisting alleyway out into bright sunlight. I didn't bother fighting Hagrid as we walked. I wanted to get out of there more than anything else. Off in the distance, I saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance - Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered us right into Diagon Alley.

Once I was sure that we were out of danger, I looked over at Harry. "You were lost! You were the one that said Diagonally, not Diagon Alley. I just followed you to try and help! I've told you a million times, you make my life so much harder," I snarled at him.

"More fun, I think you meant," Harry put in.

His nerve had come back to him now that we were back in Diagon Alley. "Yer both a mess!" Hagrid said gruffly, brushing soot off Harry and I so forcefully he nearly knocked us into a barrel of dragon dung outside Slug and Jigger's Apothecary. If we hadn't grabbed onto each other, soot would have been the least of our problems. "Skulkin' around Knockturn Alley, I dunno - dodgy place, Harry - don' want no one ter see yeh down there -"

"I realized that," Harry said, ducking as Hagrid made to brush him off again. "I told you, we were lost -

"You were lost," I muttered.

"What were you doing down there, anyway?" Harry asked.

Hagrid looked surprised to realize that Harry had noted that he was down in Knockturn Alley, too. I narrowed my eyes. I did not want a Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback repeat. "I was lookin' fer a Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent. They're ruinin' the school cabbages," Hagrid growled.

"Try the Apothecary at the end of the street. More expensive, but they had some last time I saw," I offered.

Hagrid nodded at me. "Thanks, Tara. Yer not on yer own?" he asked us.

Harry and I both shook our heads. "No. We're staying with the Weasley's but we got separated," Harry explained. "We've got to go and find them," he trailed off, looking around. They must have already been here.

Together we set off down the street. "How come yeh never wrote back ter me?" Hagrid asked.

He seemed to always forget that we weren't quite as big as him. Harry and I were half of the height of Hagrid. Harry and I had to jog alongside him. We had to take three or four steps to every stride of Hagrid's enormous boots. It was a good thing that Oliver made us do all of the running that we did while we were on the Quidditch team. Of course, we still liked to complain. Harry and I took turns explaining all about Dobby and the Dursley's, even our rescue to the Burrow.

Hagrid still seemed caught up on the fact that the Dursley's were such awful human beings. "Lousy Muggles," Hagrid growled. "If I'd've known -"

"Tara!" a familiar shout sounded, interrupting Hagrid. I glanced up and around for the person calling to me. "Harry! Harry! Tara! Over here!" the voice sounded again.

Once more I looked around for the voice. This time, I found her. Harry and I looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. Her parents were standing at her side. I smiled at her and motioned her to come meet us. She ran down to meet the three of us, her bushy brown hair flying behind her. The moment that she was close enough to us, she flung herself into my arms. I groaned, taking a step backwards.

The trip to the Borgin and Burkes fireplace hadn't done me well. "Hermione! Oh, I missed you!" I shouted, hugging her tightly.

Hermione and I stayed together for a moment before she let me go. "I missed you, too!" She then turned to Harry and her eyes narrowed at the sight of his glasses. "What happened to your glasses?" She didn't give him a chance to answer before turning to Hagrid. "Hello, Hagrid. Oh, it's wonderful to see you two again. Are you coming into Gringotts?" she asked.

It was all in the very typical Hermione fashion. She spoke very quickly and over the top of herself, trying to get all of her thoughts out. "As soon as we've found the Weasley's," Harry told her.

"Yeh won't have long ter wait," Hagrid said with a grin.

Harry, Hermione, and I looked around. The street was extremely crowded. I could only assume that a lot of these people were here buying things for the Hogwarts age kids. After all, letters had only recently come out. Finally, I spotted them. The flaming red hair made them very easy to distinguish. Sprinting up the crowded street were Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Mr. Weasley. They had easily spotted us with Hagrid. I could only assume that Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were running a little slower.

Mr. Weasley got to us first. "Harry, Tara," Mr. Weasley panted. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far." He mopped his glistening bald patch. "Molly's frantic. She's coming now."

I felt terrible for them. They treated Harry and I like extended family. Not knowing where we'd gone, and not stopping me from doing something rather foolish, had probably given them a heart attack. "Where did you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," Hagrid answered grimly.

"Excellent!" Fred and George said together.

Fred leaned over to me so that his father couldn't hear. "You have to tell us all about it," he whispered in my ear.

Glancing up at him, I shook my head. There was no way that Fred or George needed to know anything about Knockturn Alley. They were disastrous enough. "Yeah, right. I don't want to see what the two of you would do with anything down there," I told him.

"We've never been allowed in," Ron said enviously.

Slowly I shook my head at him. I couldn't imagine why anyone would actually want to go in Knockturn Alley. "I should ruddy well think not," Hagrid growled.

Just then, Mrs. Weasley came galloping into view. Her face was bright red as she ran towards us, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, Ginny just clinging onto the other. "Oh, Harry, Tara - oh, my dears - you could have been anywhere."

We both smiled at her. She was such a mother, it was almost painful to watch. I wondered how she had ever managed all seven of her children at once. Gasping for breath she pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away. It wouldn't take care of everything - considering that I'd worn a white shirt - but it would make us look slightly better. Mr. Weasley took Harry's glasses, gave them a tap of his wand, and returned them, good as new.

"Well, gotta be off," Hagrid said, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley.

They had been chatting back and forth about what had happened to the two of us when Hagrid had found us. "Knockturn Alley! If you hadn't found him, Hagrid!" Mrs. Weasley cried frantically.

"See yer at Hogwarts!" Hagrid called, once Mrs. Weasley had let him go. And he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.

"Bye, Hagrid!" I called after him.

Waving him off, Harry and I turned back to Ron and Hermione. "Guess who we saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione as we all climbed the Gringotts steps. The Weasley's and Granger's were just behind us. "Malfoy and his father."

That caught the attention of the people behind us. "Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?" Mr. Weasley asked sharply behind them.

"No, he was selling -" Harry insisted.

"So he's worried," Mr. Weasley said with grim satisfaction, interrupting Harry. We both smiled. It would be rather funny to see the Malfoy's get knocked down a peg. "Oh, I'd love to get Lucius Malfoy for something."

More than anything, I wanted to know what the Ministry was conducting raids for. Especially in houses like the Malfoy's. "You be careful, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said sharply as we were bowed into the bank by a goblin at the door. It was a larger one than the one that had let Harry, Hagrid, and I in last year. "That family's trouble. Don't go biting off more than you can chew -"

"So you don't think I'm a match for Lucius Malfoy?" Mr. Weasley asked his wife indignantly, but he was distracted almost at once by the sight of Hermione's parents, who were standing nervously at the counter that ran all along the great marble hall, waiting for Hermione to introduce them. I smiled and waved at them. "But you're Muggles! We must have a drink! What's that you've got there? Oh, you're changing Muggle money. Molly, look!" He pointed excitedly at the ten-pound notes in Mr. Granger's hand.

All thoughts of the Ministry raids and Lucius Malfoy went out the window. "Meet you back here," Ron said to Hermione as the Weasley's, Harry, and I were led off to our underground vaults by another Gringotts goblin.

Thankfully Hagrid hadn't stayed with us. These carts made him sick. I'd always liked them. They reminded me of Muggle roller coasters. Although, seat belts might have been a nice addition. The vaults were reached by means of small, goblin-driven carts that sped along miniature train tracks through the bank's underground tunnels. Harry and I both laughed and enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasley's' vault. Their vault was one of the lower ones. Harry and I's were both in the upper-levels, just a few floors below the entrance to the Gringotts vaults. I wondered if Hermione would like the carts. Probably not. She wasn't fond of rides or anything of the sort.

My joyful mood was dropped the moment that the Weasley vault was opened. Being in Knockturn Alley was far better than this. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon. I remembered last year when Fred, George, and Percy had paid for all of our drinks in the Leaky Cauldron after we'd met. They'd paid the three Sickles and I'd given it back to them, feeling like they might need it more than I did. They'd insisted that it was no big deal, but this... It had definitely been a big deal. Harry clearly felt just as guilty, if not more, than I did. All of his gold was just for him. At least Mom and Dad still owned ours. It wasn't just mine.

Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag. The guilt only worsened when we reached Harry's vault. He tried to block the contents from view as he hastily shoved handfuls of coins into a leather bag. Then we moved onto mine. And I was sure that I'd never felt worse when I heard the gasps from the Weasley's. My vault was twice the size of Harry's, and nearly over-brimmed with gold Galleons. It was why we had another vault... And accounts in the Muggle world. This was just a piece of our fortune. I shoved my coin pouch full as quickly as I could and raced out of the vault.

My face was bright red as I stared at the ground as we left. Fred and George both smiled at me, but I could see the jealousy brimming in their eyes. I smiled back at them and had to resist offering them a few Galleons to get something that they wanted. I knew that they wouldn't appreciate that. Ron was staring at my coin pouch that I tried to shift out of sight. I couldn't, I'd weighed it down a little too much.

I'd never been as grateful as I was the moment that we could get out of the carts. Back outside on the marble steps, we all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Mrs. Weasley didn't get a chance to ask him to repeat what he'd said before he walked off. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan. After a quick hug from Lee, I allowed them to move on. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to the Secondhand Robe Shop. My stomach twisted. I'd just bought two new sets recently - stain-proof at Mom's insistence - something that cost another Galleon each. Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Granger's off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.

Before Mrs. Weasley left, she turned back to us. "We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," she said, setting off with Ginny. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" she shouted at the twins' retreating backs.

We all smiled at that. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold, silver, and bronze jangling cheerfully in my pocket was clamoring to be spent. I knew that Harry felt the same way. So we went to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and he bought four large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams, which we slurped happily as we wandered up the alley. I bought four large bags of Chocolate Cauldrons, which was dumped the ice cream into. It made a mess, but it was wonderful.

The four of us chatted happily was we examined the fascinating shop windows. It had been so long since I had actually been to Diagon Alley to shop with some friends. Normally I was by myself or I lingered in the Leaky Cauldron to chat with my friends. Hermione was dragged into Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions by myself, Ron and Harry looking like they'd rather gouge their eyes out. But they allowed us to stock up on the Anti-Acne Potion and grumbled to themselves in the corner as I forced Hermione to buy a hair-smoothing potion. One night I wanted to have a girls' night with Parvati, Lavender, and Fay.

The boys looked absolutely thrilled when we finally told them that we could leave. I'd never seen the two of them move so quickly. Hermione and I both laughed, keeping our voices low as we discussed what they would act like when they got themselves girlfriends that wanted to go shopping. We both laughed loudly at the thought that they would let their girlfriends go shopping together, and they'd go somewhere far from the shop.

We'd gone where the boys wanted to go after that. Thankfully, I wanted to go there too. Hermione didn't love looking at Quidditch things, but she didn't mind standing with us. I walked over and bought Ron a jersey, simply because I knew that he would shut up about them if I did. I'd thought that he was going to kill me by hugging me as tightly as he was. Even with the jersey, though, Ron gazed longingly at a full set of Chudley Cannon robes in the windows of Quality Quidditch Supplies. We stood there for a long time until Hermione dragged us off to buy ink and parchment next door.

I did need a bunch of new quills and ink and parchment. I bought three sets of parchment, since I wrote so often, more black ink, and scented ink. Just for fun. I'd also bought two new quills. "The Chudley Cannons suck," I muttered to Ron as he pulled on the brand-new jersey.

"No they don't!" he hooted at me.

"Yes they do," I teased.

The entire time that we walked through the store, Ron and I argued about the Chudley Cannons. Hermione finally got sick of us arguing and dragged us out of the shop. We'd worked together to drag her towards Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. I was far from surprised to find Fred and George in the shop. They were still there with Lee Jordan. The three of them were stocking up on Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks.

"What are you three doing?" I asked, popping up behind the trio.

Fred glanced over his shoulder at me. "Shopping," he answered.

Shaking my head at him, I yanked the fireworks away. "When the three of you are buying something like fireworks, I know that there's something to be scared of," I said.

The fireworks were yanked back from me by George. He grabbed them from over my shoulder and wrapped an arm around me. "Now, now, Tara, don't worry -"

"We won't mess with you," Fred finished.

"I highly doubt that."

The seven of us stood together for a while before we moved on together. Fred and George were carrying large packages, something that I was sure was going to give their mother a heart attack. We were slowly heading towards Flourish and Blotts, meeting our time limit, when we passed the tiny Junk Shop. I spotted Percy and stopped the others, pointing towards him. We walked in and I looked around, I'd never been in here before. It was full of broken wands, lopsided brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion stains. Percy was towards the back of the store, deeply immersed in a small and boring book called Prefects Who Gained Power.

"Why are you in the Junk Shop?" I asked him.

Percy jumped, probably not expecting me to have been behind him. He barely glanced up at me as he spoke. "There are some quite interesting things in here, I'll have you know," he said.

"Looking around all of these things bother me," I responded.

The shop was so out of order that I cringed. I couldn't stand stores like this. I liked everything to be together and tidy while I was looking. At home was another thing. I just wanted my shopping trips to be easy, not a hunt. "A study of Hogwarts Prefects and their later careers," Ron read aloud off the back cover. "That sounds fascinating."

"Go away," Percy snapped.

"'Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out. He wants to be Minister of Magic." Ron told Harry, Hermione, and I in an undertone as we left Percy to it.

Fred, George, and Lee were walking just ahead of us, keeping their voices low. Probably planning something terrible. "Why would anyone actually want to be the Minister of Magic?" I asked Ron.

"Why wouldn't they?" Hermione asked me, looking at me like I'd lost my mind.

Shaking my head at her, I moved towards the roasted almost stand, buying some for us to share, and another for the twins and Lee. "Too much work. And complaining from everyone. It'd make you want to tear your hair out. Every time that something happens, it's on you. Always the Minister to blame," I told her.

I tossed the package to the twins and Lee, earning fond smiles. It was my way of trying to help them out without seeming patronizing. Ron grabbed a large handful, stuffing his mouth. "Sounds awful," Harry said through bites.

"It sounds like a good challenge," Hermione said proudly.

It seemed like she was excited for the challenge. I would love her to be the Minster for Magic. I could get away with anything. "Then I'll vote for you," I told her happily. She laughed at me.

An hour after we'd started walking around, like Mrs. Weasley had ordered us, we headed for Flourish and Blotts. We were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. My jaw nearly dropped. The bookstore was always crowded, but never like this. As we approached it, we saw a surprisingly large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The seven of us - Fred, George, and Lee had come to stand with us - exchanged a bewildered glance. I realized why this was a moment later, motioning towards banner above the shop to the others.

Gilderoy Lockhart will be signing copies of his autobiography Magical Me today 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The twins groaned, Ron rolled his eyes, Harry and Lee simply stared, and Hermione clapped a hand over her mouth. My head whipped over to her. "We can actually meet him! I mean, he's written almost the whole book list!" Hermione squealed.

"You can't honestly be excited to meet him?" I asked her.

With the twins as battering rams, we were able to slowly make our way into the shop. "Of course! He wrote all of the books!" Hermione said.

"They're fiction."

"They are not!" she howled at me. "They're documented accounts."

Glaring at her, I shook my head, shoving past an older woman that was standing right in the middle of the doorway. "Have you not realized that they're almost all about him?" I asked her.

Hermione's grin faded a little, but she ignored the question. "You really hate him," she commented.

I nodded at her. "I guess I got it from Mom. She hates him too. Dad as well, actually. They were all at Hogwarts together. He was a few years younger than them," I said, only remembering bits and pieces of what Mom and Dad had told me about him.

"Don't be prejudiced," Hermione told me.

Glaring at her, I shook my head. "I'm not. I can read and make my own assumptions," I snapped.

The two of us sighing at each other, we followed Fred and George closely. The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of witches around Mrs. Weasley's age. A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, saying, "Calmly, please, ladies... Don't push, there... mind the books, now..."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I squeezed inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. Barely able to reach the shelves, we each grabbed a copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 and sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasley's were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Percy and Ginny were there, too. But Percy was still reading the book that he had been reading in the Junk Shop.

Mrs. Weasley glanced over at us. "Oh, there you are, good," Mrs. Weasley said. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute." Ron and I exchanged a laugh at his mother's expense.

The room went almost silent and I glanced up. Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy blonde hair. I could see why women liked him. He was rather nice-looking. But also pompous. A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.

I leaned over to the others and spoke lowly. "He looks like an older Ken Doll," I said. Harry laughed softly at the comment. Hermione gave me a rough nudge that I responded to by stomping down on her foot. Ron didn't have a clue in the world as to who Ken was.

"Not a fan?" a familiar voice drawled in my ear.

Turning back, I smiled at Cedric, who was towering over me. He was over half a foot taller than me. "Hello, Giraffe," I said, pulling him into a somewhat awkward hug. There really wasn't that much room to move. "Not at all."

Cedric nodded at me. "Good. Dad always said that he was overrated," Cedric said.

I noticed that Hermione was smiling at her feet, Harry had tensed, and Ron was listening to our conversation curiously. I rolled my eyes at them. "He is. Look at him," I said, motioning to the offending man.

"Have you seen the price on these books?" Cedric asked disbelievingly.

"I'm trying not to look at that," I said guiltily. I could afford them, but there were so many people that couldn't. "I was debating on using the Floo to head back to the States and get them from the clearance section. That's still more than they're worth," I muttered.

Cedric laughed loudly, but the comment was not well-received. An older witch whipped around to glare at me before moving forward, closer to Lockhart's booth. "Making friends already, I see," Cedric teased.

"You know me, friendly as ever," I quipped back.

"I don't know, I like you just fine," he told me. Harry scoffed ahead of me and I nudged him with my knee to keep him quiet. A burning blush fell over my face. I was very grateful when Cedric spoke again. "Why are you covered in soot?" he asked.

Laughing awkwardly, I ran my hand through my soot-covered hair. "Well... Harry made a wrong turn when using Floo Powder for the first time and I followed him to keep him safe. We wound up in Knockturn Alley and had to have Hagrid escort us back. Scary place down there. Some freaky people," I answered.

Cedric merely stared at me for a few moments. "We haven't even gotten to Hogwarts and you've already started a disaster," he said. We both stared at each other before laughing. "I suppose life would be boring without the two of you," he said once he'd calmed down.

"It would be," I said proudly.

Cedric smiled at me and glanced over my head. I was standing right against one of the shelves with the schoolbooks on it. "Hand me The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4, will you?" Cedric asked me.

"Sure." I leaned over and grabbed one of the books. It was easier than having him try to maneuver around me. That wouldn't end up well. The moment that I had the book in my hands, a man roughly bumped into my arm, nearly making me drop the book. "Ouch! Watch where you're going!" I barked at him, not that he listened to me.

"You alright?" Cedric asked me, grabbing the book and checking on my arm.

Groaning softly, I cradled my arm. "You knew that he was coming," I teasingly growled at him.

"I did not!" he insisted, the both of us laughing softly.

Harry turned back to me. "Tara, you alright?" he asked.

"I'll be fine. Can I borrow your book?"

Harry shook his head and yanked the book out of my grasp. He knew exactly what I was planning to do. "No. I'm not hauling you out of prison for assaulting a photographer for the Daily Prophet," he said.

We both smiled at each other as I gave his shoulder a rough nudge. "You just have to suck the joy out of everything," I teased.

Cedric was watching us with a smile. "I'd bail you out," he told me.

Glancing back at him, I shook my head, trying to keep the pink tinge off of my cheeks. "I'm not sure that's how it works," I said.

"Out of the way, there," the same photographer that had knocked into me snarled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot. He stomped on Ron's foot roughly. "This is for the Daily Prophet."

"Big deal," Ron said, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it.

"I know how you feel," I muttered to him.

Our comments did not go unnoticed. Gilderoy Lockhart heard us. He looked up. He saw Ron - and then he saw Harry. The crowed had gone silent, wondering what could have caught Lockhart's attention. He stared. Then he leapt to his feet and positively shouted, "It can't be Harry Potter?"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly. I slapped a hand on my forehead. Harry would be mortified. It was bad enough the way that Ginny could barely speak to him. Now he was going to be on the cover of the Daily Prophet with the most pompous man that I knew of. Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front. The crowd burst into applause. Harry's face burned as red as Ron's hair as Lockhart shook his hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over us.

"Nice big smile, Harry," Lockhart said, through his own gleaming teeth. His voice was smooth and happy. "Together, you and I are worth the front page."

We all rolled our eyes. Not because of Harry. He had been forced into the picture. But at Lockhart. He was the one that clearly wanted all of the publicity. When he finally let go of Harry's hand, Harry began wringing his fingers. I assumed that Lockhart's grip was tight. Harry tried to sidle back over to the rest of us, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clamped him tightly to his side.

I groaned at the sight, wishing that I could try and do something to get him away from Lockhart's poisonous grip. "Harry looks absolutely thrilled, doesn't he?" Cedric asked me.

"Oh, he should be used to it by now," I said.

My comment drew Lockhart's attention away from the clicking cameras. I glanced up and saw that Lockhart's eyes were deadlocked on mine. My face began to burn. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Julia..." Lockhart muttered.

My heart dropped into my stomach. "Excuse me?" I asked weakly.

Lockhart shook his head, smiling at me, readopting his normally bright demeanor. "Pardon me, my dear, you look like an old friend of mine. Julia Robins," he said.

Friend? I wasn't aware that my mother considered them friends. "T - That's my mother," I stuttered.

Lockhart grinned at me, my stomach giving a strange lurch. I didn't like the way that he had suddenly become so jovial. I noticed that Cedric had grabbed my arm, tightening his grip on me. "My goodness, you look just like her." Cedric began to tug me into him, probably getting the same feeling that I was. "Come! Miss Robins," Lockhart called.

The photographer that had knocked into me and stepped on Ron grabbed my arm and ushered me up onto the stage. Cedric still hadn't let go of my arm. I turned back to him desperately to silently beg for help. "Uh - Tara? Maybe we should go," Cedric said.

His comment made no difference. The photographer yanked me from Cedric and shoved me up onto the stage. I sent Lockhart a nasty glare. "Nox. Tara Nox," I snapped.

"Marcus Nox your father, eh?" Lockhart asked.

"Yes?" I questioned.

Lockhart let out a little sigh. "Pity. There were better choices," he said.

"Did you know my mother?" I asked.

Lockhart grinned at me again. Harry had suddenly placed himself defensively in between Lockhart and I. "Very well," Lockhart said with a creepy smile. "Is this your boyfriend, then?" he asked, motioning to Cedric. "Looks a bit like Marcus did."

It was definitely loud enough that Cedric could hear. His face went slightly red, but nowhere near as red as mine did. "Oh my God, that is my friend and none of your business," I snarled at Lockhart, giving Cedric a very guilty look. He hadn't asked for this embarrassment. The photographer was trying to push me towards Lockhart again. "Hey, hey, get off of me!" I snapped.

Lockhart grabbed Harry under one arm and me under the other, smiling brightly into the camera. "Smile, dear. Your mother will love this." The flash nearly blinded me. I was sure that Mom was not going to enjoy this. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Harry and Tara here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, they only wanted to buy my autobiography -

"I actually needed the schoolbooks -" I put in, unable to finish my thought as Lockhart spoke over me.

"- Which I shall be happy to present them now, free of charge -" The crowd applauded again. "They had no idea," Lockhart continued, giving Harry and I a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose, "that they would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me."

"I don't want that," I said.

Once more, Lockhart ignored me. "They and their schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

My jaw dropped. "No way," I muttered.

Harry glanced around Lockhart's towering figure. "Is he serious?" Harry asked me.

Out in the crowd, I could see that Hermione, Fred, George, Lee, Ron, Percy, Ginny, and Cedric looked shocked. Hermione was the only one that looked happy at the news. "I think so... There's no way that Dumbledore would hire him," I said.

If Lockhart had heard me, he didn't say anything. The crowd cheered and clapped for the news that had clearly shocked everyone else in the shop that was Hogwarts aged. Harry and I found ourselves being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart a moment later. They were incredibly heavy. The two of us were staggering slightly under their weight. Lockhart told me to say hello to my mother for him, but Harry ushered me away before I could make a nasty retort, reminding me that Lockhart was going to be our teacher. We managed to make our way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Ginny was standing next to her new cauldron.

"You have these," Harry mumbled to her, tipping the books into the cauldron. "I'll buy my own."

While he handed her the books, I walked over to Cedric, my cheeks still burning from Lockhart's previous comment about him being my boyfriend. "I'm so, so, sorry about that," I said.

Cedric smiled, helping me rearrange the books in my arms. "Don't be, it was sort of funny. Gilderoy Lockhart is interested in your love life," Cedric said, giving me a gentle nudge, so not to make me drop the books.

"Nothing to be interested in," I muttered, trying not to sound too bitter.

"Not yet." There was something strange in the way that Cedric said that, something that I couldn't pick out. "I can see the excitement building in your eyes for getting him to teach you for an entire year," he continued.

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. "I think that I'll end up teaching him," I said.

Cedric smiled at me, but before I got the chance to say anything else, Amos Diggory appeared at our sides, looking irritated with the large crowd. "What in the world is all of this fuss about?" Amos asked.

"Gilderoy Lockhart was just here," I explained.

"Twat," Amos growled.

Cedric and I exchanged a bright smile. It was always funny to hear an adult speak poorly of another. It reminded us that they had once been our age, too. "You went to school with him, Mr. Diggory, didn't you?" I asked curiously.

He was about Mom and Dad's age. He was just slightly older than them, if I remembered correctly. "Only for a year, but it was the worst year that I can remember," he said. "Never saw a day as exciting as the day that he graduated. I was there for my younger sister's graduation," he explained. I nodded at him. "Lockhart had eyes for your mother, he did."

A sickened feeling sank into my stomach. "Really?" I asked weakly.

Amos nodded at me. "Yes. She always seemed quite... Bothered by it," he told me.

Suddenly the skin that was on my arms started to tingle in the same places that he had grabbed me. I didn't like the thought or having someone that had eyes for my mother years ago, now teaching me. "That's disturbing," I said, hoping not to puke everywhere.

A strange look crossed over Amos's face as he turned to Cedric. "Keep an eye on her at Hogwarts this year. You write me if Lockhart gets out of line, understood?" he asked his son.

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you, Mr. Diggory."

Amos nodded at me. "Of course, Tara. Say your goodbyes. We have an appointment to keep," he told his son.

"Alright," Cedric told his father as he marched off. Once his father was gone, Cedric turned back to me. "Sorry, I would have loved to get more time with you," he said.

Shrugging slightly, I tried to play off the little butterflies in my stomach. I would have liked to spend more time with him, too. "Well give it another few weeks and we'll be back at Hogwarts. You'll be sick of seeing me so much," I teased.

"I doubt that," he said playfully.

Cut it out with the butterflies! I was sure that they went hammering around in my stomach every time that the two of us spoke. "Mind if I come by one afternoon before we go back to Hogwarts? You still have my broom," I asked, trying to get my mind off of them.

Cedric smiled at me. "I've been treating it well. Come by whenever you want, Tara. You're always welcome at my house," he said.

"Tara! Come on!" Harry yelled impatiently from across the store.

"See you later," I said, turning back to Cedric. He moved into me and gave me a quick hug before stepping off to find his father. I turned back and was met face-to-face with Fred.

Jumping slightly, I tried to nudge past him. "Diggory your new boyfriend, aye?" Fred teasingly asked.

"Shut up," I growled, shoving the books into Fred's arms. His teasing smile dropped as he grabbed the books, giving me a questioning look. "Here. One of you take these. I'll buy them myself," I said stupidly.

The twins both stared at the books, Fred and George splitting carrying them. It felt much better having the books out of my arms. "Tara... Those are expensive. They're yours," George said, wanting to hand them back to me.

Shaking my head at them, I pushed the books back towards them. I'd much rather spend the money than have to keep them. "I don't want them from a man that still harbors a creepy crush on my mother," I said. Fred and George both looked disgusted at the thought. "One of you take them. Please."

"Thanks, Tara," Fred and George said.

"You're welcome."

We had barely exchanged the books when a voice rang out through the shop that was slowly emptying. "Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter? Nox?" a voice asked, that I had no trouble recognizing.

Harry and I both straightened up and found ourselves face-to-face with Draco Malfoy, who was wearing his usual sneer. He looked much bigger and badder now that he was away from his father. I stepped past Harry, glaring at him. "You want another drink on your head?" I asked nastily.

Malfoy sneered at me and stepped forward. "Watch your mouth, Nox," he warned me, Harry shoving me back. "Famous Harry Potter. Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page." Rolling my eyes at Malfoy's jealously, he then turned his nasty glare on me. "See that? Even Lockhart can call out your -"

My cheeks burned as Cedric reappeared at my side, speaking over Malfoy. "Mind your mouth, Malfoy," he warned lowly.

Malfoy made a move to step closer to Cedric, who had positioned himself protectively in front of me, but I wasn't sure what he would do. Cedric could kill him if he wanted to. Surprisingly rough, it was Ginny that made the first move. "Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" she said. It was the first time she had spoken in front of Harry. She was glaring at Malfoy.

The comment only amused Malfoy. "Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" he laughed before turning to me. "And you still haven't learned the difference between someone being friendly and being patronizing," Malfoy drawled.

Ginny went scarlet as Ron and Hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of Lockhart's books. I went to move forward but Cedric grabbed my arm, yanking me back. I was going to smash his teeth in. "What the hell is your problem?" I howled at him.

"He's trying to get a rise out of you," Cedric muttered in my ear, pulling me flush against himself.

"It's working," I hissed back.

"Don't let it."

Ron and Hermione had finally managed to fight through the crowd. Hermione came to stand by me as Ron went to stand by Harry. Cedric released me, Hermione giving me a concerned look. "Oh, it's you," Ron said, looking at Malfoy as if he were something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley. I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those," Malfoy retorted.

Ron went as red as Ginny. He dropped his books into the cauldron, too, and started toward Malfoy. Before he could make it too close, Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of his jacket. I made a move towards Malfoy, too, but Cedric once more grabbed me. This time he caught me around the waist, flinging me to his side, keeping a tight grip on me. Normally I would have been embarrassed beyond belief at the way that his hands were, but right now I was furious.

"Ron!" Mr. Weasley howled, struggling over with Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well - Arthur Weasley," Lucius Malfoy drawled.

The respect that he commanded was clear. People moved out of the way the second that they saw him. He made his way over to the ever-growing group, standing with his hand on Draco's shoulder, sneering in just the same way. "Lucius," Mr. Weasley said, nodding coldly.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear. All those raids. I hope they're paying you overtime?" Lucius asked. He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. He laughed softly. "Obviously not. Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"

My hands bunched, as did everyone else's. It was almost impossible to believe that people could be as cruel as they were. Mr. Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Ginny. "We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," he said.

"Clearly," Lucius said, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley. And I thought your family could sink no lower -"

His comment got no further. I was glad that Mr. Weasley did something, because I felt like I was about to. Although Cedric's tight grip on me was keeping me planted where I was. There was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spell books came thundering down on all their heads. I covered myself as Fred and George cheered for their father. Mrs. Weasley was shrieking for Mr. Weasley to stop the fight. The crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over. The assistant was desperately trying to break everyone up.

The rest of us were all cheering for Mr. Weasley. But, louder than anyone else, came Hagrid's voice. "Break it up, there, gents, break it up."

Hagrid was wading toward us through the sea of books. In an instant he had pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart. We all stepped back, away from Hagrid's hulking figure. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. I wished that it would have been his son. Lucius was still holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.

"Here, girl - take your book. It's the best your father can give you." My jaws clenched. He was such an ass. Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop.

Once they were gone, Hagrid turned to Mr. Weasley. "Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," Hagrid said, almost lifting Mr. Weasley off his feet as he straightened his robes. "Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that. No Malfoy's worth listenin' ter - bad blood, that's what it is - come on now - let's get outta here."

Our huge group made our way outside of the shop, knowing that we were probably about to be kicked out anyways. "Always causing mischief, yeah?" Cedric asked me as we walked.

"I had that handled," I muttered.

Cedric nodded at me. "I know you did. But you would have hit Malfoy and broken his nose and I would have been in the middle of it. Lucius Malfoy is a powerful name in the Ministry and you would have been in a ton of trouble. Not worth it. He'll get his," he told me.

"I'm just so sick of him talking to everyone like that," I growled.

"I know. What was he talking about earlier?" Cedric asked me.

The fact that you just patronize me because you know about my crush on you. The fact that you're too nice to tell me that you don't really like me that way. "Who knows? Just being an ass," I said.

Cedric nodded at me, not looking completely convinced by my answer. "Well that definitely makes sense. Take care, Tara. Try and behave yourself out there. I'll see you later," he told me.

Trying to force a small onto my face, I gave him a quick hug. "Bye, Cedric."

He moved off once more, going to stand with Amos, who was speaking quickly to his son. I assumed that he was wondering what all of the commotion in the store was about. The assistant looked as though he wanted to stop us all from leaving, but he barely came up to Hagrid's waist and seemed to think better of it. We moved away from the thick crowd quickly. We hurried up the street, the Granger's shaking with fright and Mrs. Weasley beside herself with fury.

"A fine example to set for your children... brawling in public. What Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought -"

I rolled my eyes. How was that what she was concerned about? "He was pleased. Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report - said it was all publicity," Fred told his mother. He then turned to me. "You alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I heard what Malfoy was saying."

Shrugging my shoulders, I played with the loose ends of my shirt. "Who cares?" I muttered.

"Apparently, not Diggory."

My head snapped over to him. "What?" I asked.

Fred shook his head at me and shoved my shoulder, making me stumble slightly. "Such a smart, yet stupid, girl." I narrowed my eyes at him, unsure of where he was going with this. "He likes you, you wanker," Fred told me.

"Stop," I snapped at him.

The look on Fred's face told me that he actually meant what he was saying. "I'm serious," Fred told me. I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore the stirring feeling in my stomach. "Wanna share a fireplace on the way back?" he teasingly asked me.

His comment made the smile return to my face as I laughed. We all headed back to the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron, where Harry, the Weasley's, myself, and all our shopping would be traveling back to the Burrow using Floo powder. We said good-bye to the Granger's, who were leaving the pub for the Muggle street on the other side. I hugged Hermione and promised to write as we came up to the beginning of the Hogwarts year. Mr. Weasley started to ask them how bus stops worked, but stopped quickly at the look on Mrs. Weasley's face.

One by one, everyone went back to the Burrow, leaving Harry and I to go through last. Harry took off his glasses and put them safely in his pocket - not wanting to break them again - before helping himself to Floo powder, myself going with him, much to his dismay. I was sure that we would never let him do it by himself again.


	23. The Whomping Willow

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly for my liking. Not that I didn't want to go back to Hogwarts. In some ways, it was the thing that I was looking forward to the most. Which was kind of sad, considering that it was school. For just a moment I felt like I was Hermione. Of course, she was excited for classes. I was excited for pranking, magic, and seeing all of my friends again, for more than a few hours at a time. Of course, I would miss my time here. The past month at the Burrow had been one of the happiest of my life. I knew that it wasn't just me. Harry was absolutely in love with living at the Burrow.

As much time as I did spend at the Burrow, I'd spent some time bouncing back and forth between my house, too. Mom and Dad were still working overtime at the Ministry. I felt terrible for them. I could tell how exhausted they were. Last week I'd spent back at Privet Drive, desperately avoiding Vermin and the Dursley's. Mostly at Mom and Dad's insistence. But it was nice. We'd gone to the cinema, mall, and even spent a day in Diagon Alley. I knew that it was their way of spending quality time with me before I had to go back to Hogwarts. During my visit, they'd also helped me bring my things for Hogwarts back to the Burrow - since the Weasley's would be taking me to King's Cross while Mom and Dad were working.

Two weekends ago, I'd gone and had a brief visit with Hermione. I'd just stayed for the weekend. The two of us had explained all about the Malfoy's to her parents. They'd warned us to stay far away from them, not that we needed the advice. I'd mostly gone to help her pack her trunk and remember all of her things. Not that I thought that she needed any of my help. She was bringing twice the amount of things that I was. Of course, hers were mostly schoolwork, while mine was mostly personal junk. We'd departed from each other, myself taking the Floo back to the Burrow, with a promise that I would find her on the platform with the boys.

In the past month I had visited Cedric a few times since the catastrophe at Flourish and Blotts. During my first visit back, I'd actually gotten my broom back. Amos Diggory was a little more open to having me in the house now, even without him around. He seemed to be warming up to me. We'd gone and done a few things together. One day he had taken me on a walk around the neighborhood that he lived near, we'd played Quidditch plenty of times, taken a trip to Diagon Alley, and sometimes we just sat together and talked. We had both since gotten over Lockhart's embarrassing comment that we were boyfriend and girlfriend. I was very grateful that he never brought it up. Although, I did want to know just how bothered he was by the comment.

The two of us had promised that this year we would have to find a time every week that we could get together and talk. He was determined that he would need time to take breaks from studying for his O.W.L.s. I'd almost forgotten that he had them. I agreed that I would help him as much as I possibly could. I'd had people tell me just how stressful they were.

In the meantime, back home, my parents had warned me to be careful around Gilderoy Lockhart. They had been absolutely beside themselves when they'd discovered that Lockhart would be teaching at Hogwarts. Mom had been so upset that she'd gone straight to her office and composed a very long letter to Dumbledore, asking why on earth he'd hired him. It had been almost funny watching Dad try to talk her down. They'd both warned me against becoming too friendly with Gilderoy Lockhart, telling me to either owl them or alert Dumbledore at once if something seemed odd.

Of course, I had told them that this entire year already seemed odd. Everything from Dobby's warning to Lockhart teaching. I was sure that there would be some new disaster that Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I would have to avert at some point. For right now, we were enjoying the night before departing to Hogwarts. Mom and Dad were here for dinner to say goodbye. They both had to work tomorrow, but wanted to be able to somewhat see me off for my Second Year.

We were all gathered around the table, crushed together, with barely any room. I was in between Harry and Dad. Fred and George were across from me, and I knew that they were debating on throwing something. They were still trying to get me back for leaving mashed potatoes in their pillows the other day. It was only in retaliation for putting firecrackers in my shoes.

"Thank you for bringing Tara with you, Molly, Arthur," Mom said, breaking the silence.

Mrs. Weasley smiled and reached over Harry, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Our absolute pleasure. We love Tara," she said.

Smiling brightly, I kicked out at Fred and George, who were both making retching faces. Together, Mom and Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry's favorite things. We wanted to make him happy, since we knew that he rarely got to eat like this with the Dursley's. It all ended with my favorite. A mouthwatering treacle pudding.

I was very grateful to find that the fireworks that Fred and George had bought - save putting them in my shoes - were not used to cause me some type of bodily harm. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster Fireworks. Of course, we didn't use them outside so to not alert the Muggle community. Instead, they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

As I finished off my hot chocolate, Mom and Dad pulled me to the side so that we could say a more private goodbye, away from the Weasley's and Harry. They had already said goodbye to him with the same promise, to write him if he ever needed anything. "You behave yourself, you hear me?" Mom ordered me.

"So much faith in me," I scoffed.

Mom smiled and brushed the hair off of my face. "I have all of the faith in the world in you, however, I know that you're your father's daughter. And that means that you both have a knack for doing some stupid things," she said. Dad and I exchanged a wicked smile. "Be good."

"I will," I said, knowing that I'd be in trouble in a matter of days. Before they could leave, I let slip a little comment that did not go over well. "Thanks for the unwanted attention from Gilderoy Lockhart by the way."

Dad stiffened to the point that I thought that he would break in half, and Mom's eyes flashed dangerously. He must have really been a problem for them. "I'm truly sorry about that sweetheart," Mom said.

Dad moved in front of her. "You let me know if Lockhart gets out of hand. About anything. You, your mother, anything," he said.

I nodded at him. "You're just looking for a reason to hex him," Mom put in.

"Damn straight," Dad agreed.

The three of us all said goodbye together for a few minutes. It was nice, getting the time to stand together rather than having to rush to get on the Hogwarts Express before it departed. Mom gave me a quick kiss on the cheek with a promise that I would write to them at least twice a week - down from last year. She had also left me with a whispered request to tell her about Cedric. I'd blushed madly and insisted that there was nothing to talk about. Dad gave me a kiss on the forehead and a promise to crush Slytherin again in Quidditch. I told him that I would in our good name. I'd stood with the Weasley's and Harry to wave off my parents.

Once Mom and Dad were gone, we'd walked back into the living room and said goodnight to each other. Percy had said goodnight to everyone before moving back into his room, leaving a lamp burning. I assumed that he had a girl that he was still writing to. The twins had both given me a good shove before heading into their room. I'd hugged Harry and Ron and said a quick goodnight to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley before heading upstairs with Ginny, telling her all about Hogwarts since she was too excited to sleep.

In the end, we barely got three hours of sleep. That was probably part of the reason that it took a long while to get started next morning. Everyone managed to get up at dawn, but somehow we still seemed to have a great deal to do. Even though we'd all packed the night before at Mrs. Weasley's insistence. Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and quills for all of her children. Harry and I switched our robes accidentally once, and Ginny and I had grabbed each other's clothes at least three times. It didn't help that we were so close to being the same size. Myself just a little bit bigger.

It didn't even end there. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Ginny, and I all mixed up our Lockhart books before Mrs. Weasley ordered us to write our names in them. As we moved back and forth, people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast in our hands. Fred had taken my hairbrush and nearly packed it away, thinking that it was his wand. The nine of us were all stumbling around, trying to gather our things and be on time for the train. It was much more disastrous than leaving the house with my parents. Twenty minutes after waking up, Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.

Once I'd gathered all of my things, I left them out in the front yard for Mr. Weasley to put in the car. I waited in the sun, slightly chilled by the cool weather, as Harry came up to me. "Ready to start our Second Year?" I asked, nudging him gently.

He smiled at me as I brushed bits of toast out of his hair. Ron had probably been eating over him. "Ready to see what disasters we can cause?" he quipped back at me.

"Are you joking? I think we've already started causing them."

Harry grinned at me before reaching around to his things. "Oh, here, your shirt somehow ended up with mine," he told me, handing me over a bright blue shirt.

"How did that even happen?" I asked as I grabbed it from him.

At that moment, Mr. Weasley called for everyone to get into the car. It seemed that we were finally ready to leave. Which was good, considering that we were a while away from King's Cross. I was just going to place my shirt in my trunk when something heavy landed on me. I collapsed on myself and hit the ground. Groaning, I began to wipe grass and dirt off of my jeans and black long sleeved shirt. What the hell was that? As I looked towards the car, I realized exactly what it was. Fred had trampled me to get the better seat in the backseat.

Standing upright, slapping Ron over the back of the head for laughing, I howled, "Fred Weasley!"

George ran past me and grabbed the shirt from my hands, launching it into my trunk and slamming it shut, hopping into the car. "Sorry, Tara! But we need the best seats," George grinned at me.

"I hate you both," I hissed at the twins. I glanced back and saw that both Ron and Harry were still having a very hard time not laughing. "Stop laughing!" I shouted.

Smacking them both, I walked towards the car. I'd been in it before, I knew just how big the Anglia was, but I couldn't imagine how we were all going to fit. There were so many more of us. Not only that, but there were the entire nine people, seven large trunks, three owls, and a rat that were all going to have to fit into one small Ford Anglia. But this was the Weasley's, and Arthur Weasley loved magic and Muggles. He must have put a charm on it and not told his wife.

"Not a word to Molly," Mr. Weasley whispered to Harry and I as he opened the trunk and showed us how it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fitted easily.

We both grinned and nodded to him that we would keep his secret. It took an entire ten minutes for everyone to get situated and get all of the luggage in the car. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley took up the front bench seat, with Ginny in between them. I did feel a tad bit bad for her. I knew that she wanted to be in the back with the rest of us. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and I were all crowded into the backseat, but it was comfortably roomy. I was in between Harry and Ron, insisting that I wanted to sit nowhere near the twins. I didn't trust being that close to them in a confined space.

Once everyone was seated and ready to go, Mrs. Weasley glanced into the back seat and said, "Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they? I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

At that comment, everyone grinned. I could see the sweat beading on Mr. Weasley's forehead. Thankfully, Mrs. Weasley said nothing. She merely grinned and talked about how wonderful Muggles could be when they really wanted something. Of course, Muggles were smart, but not quite that smart. Mr. Weasley started up the engine and we trundled out of the yard. It was a long drive out of the Burrow, but we didn't mind. It made for more time to look at the wonderful place. Harry and I turned back for a last look at the house.

It turned out that we barely had time to wonder when we'd see it again when we were back. George had forgotten his box of Filibuster Fireworks. Mr. Weasley had grumbled about forgetting things when we turned back and George dashed into the house. The moment that he'd clambered back into the house, we were off again. But it wasn't long before we'd stopped. Five minutes after that, we skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his broomstick. I'd whacked him over the head when we'd started off again. This time, we had almost reached the highway when Ginny shrieked that she'd left her diary. I was absolutely positive that Mr. Weasley was going to burst into flames.

By the time she had clambered back into the car, we were running very late, and tempers were running high. We weren't quite out of the yard when I turned to the others. "No one else has forgotten anything, have they?" I asked.

"No," everyone said at once, not wanting to irritate Mr. or Mrs. Weasley.

They'd all just gotten a rather bad berating for wasting time. Students were not supposed to miss the Hogwarts Express under any given circumstances. I could tell that everyone was getting nervous as it ticked close to eleven o'clock. Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife. "Molly, dear -"

"No, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley interrupted.

"No one would see. This little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed - that'd get us up in the air - then we fly above the clouds. We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser -"

"I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight."

No one spoke after that. No one wanted to push the tempers even higher. It was very obvious that everyone was upset with each other, particularly with Fred, George, and Ginny - the ones who had forgotten things. Percy looked beside himself with anger. I knew that he hated being late for anything. It came with being a Prefect. Fred and George looked nonplussed, but everyone else seemed concerned for the timing. But I had a feeling that we would still manage to get there with just a few minutes to spare.

And it turned out that I was right. We reached King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley dashed across the road to get trolleys for our trunks as we all hurried into the station. We were all shoving each other around to try and get everything onto our trolleys so that we could get moving. I shoved my trunk and two bags onto the extended rack. On top of that went my case with my toiletries, wand, and Hogwarts robes; Dai's cage went over that. Just as usual, we got lots of strange looks.

Once everyone's things were together, we all went dashing to the platform. "Percy first," Mrs. Weasley said.

She was looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed we had only five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier. At least we still had a few minutes until we needed to be there. They would hold the train as long as we came through the barrier in time. Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. I had a feeling that he would already be seated, complaining about the ride over, by the time that we got through. Mr. Weasley went next. Fred and George headed up to the barrier to follow.

Before they could go through, George turned back to me with a grin. "You can come with us if you're scared," he teased.

"Go, you idiots. We're late," I told them, scowling darkly.

They both winked at me before running through the barrier. Mrs. Weasley rolled her eyes before turning back to Harry, Ron, and I. "I'll take Ginny and you two come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told us, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye they were gone.

Once we made sure that no Muggles had seen the disappearing act, we turned to each other. "Let's go together, we've only got a minute," Ron said to Harry and me.

While Harry made sure that Hedwig's cage was safely wedged on top of his trunk, I checked to make sure that Dai's cage was looped into the cage hook on the front of it. Once I was sure that a small jolt wouldn't send him anywhere, I wheeled my trolley around to face the barrier. Harry and Ron did the same, once they were sure that Hedwig and Scabbers were secure. I felt perfectly confident; this wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as using Floo powder or Side-Apparating. This was no big deal. The three of us bent low over the handles of our trolleys and walked purposefully toward the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet away from it, we broke into a run. As Mrs. Weasley had once said, best to do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Or running late... Same difference.

But this time, running towards the barrier did nothing good for us. All three of the trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backward. I would have liked to say that that was the least of the damage. But it wasn't. The damage ended up being quite extensive. Ron and Harry's trunks were too close to each other's, so they locked together and went toppling over themselves, their things flying everywhere. Ron's trunk fell off with a loud thump and skidded across the floor.

Harry was knocked off his feet and collapsed to the floor. I fell over myself and landed on Ron's trolley, cringing at the pain that went through my backside at the heavy impact. My trunk flopped off of the trolley, nearly squishing Harry's foot, who was laying just beneath me. Hedwig and Dai's cages bounced onto the shiny floor, and the two owls rolled away, shrieking indignantly. The three of us all attempted to get back to our feet, but it was tough, considering that the three of us were sort of stuck together. My head was spinning as I sat up and realized that people all around us were staring.

A guard nearby yelled, "What in blazes d'you think you're doing?"

"Lost control of the trolley," Harry gasped, clutching his ribs as he got up.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me free from the two trolleys that were currently trapping me. I groaned at the pain that went through me. Ron ran to pick up Hedwig and Dai, who were causing such a scene that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the surrounding crowd. I felt terrible for the two owls as we began setting everything back onto the trolleys. It was harder work with the three of us in pain from the crash, but we managed. The second that we had all of our things together, I shoved the boys away from the scene. The last thing that we needed were the Muggle police coming to harass us about our strange packages and owls.

Once we were out of the sight of everyone, I pulled Ron and Harry close to me, keeping our voices low. Some people were watching us, muttering about irresponsible parents and meddlesome children. "What the hell just happened?" I asked them.

The horror quickly sank into us. We couldn't get through and the Hogwarts Express was about to leace and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley couldn't get back. What were the three of us going to do? We couldn't just miss out on going to Hogwarts and we couldn't just hang around here and wait. Things seemed hopeless at the moment. The bad things always seemed to happen to us... And things seemed to get worse and worse with the passing months. One normal year... I just wanted one.

"Why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron and I, once he was sure that we were out of earshot of the Muggles.

"I dunno." Ron looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still watching us. I grabbed the boys and pulled them away, closer towards the barrier so that we were hidden from prying eyes. "We're going to miss the train. I don't understand why the gateway's sealed itself," Ron whispered to us.

I'd never heard about the gate sealing itself. I wasn't even aware that it could do something like that. "Move," I told them. Harry and Ron stepped away as I gently pushed against the barrier. After a moment, I nudged a little harder. It still wouldn't move. I turned back to the boys, feeling sick to my stomach. "Oh Merlin. The gateway is closed. I can't open it."

Ron gently pushed me out of the way. "Let me try," he said.

Standing off to the side, I came to Harry's left side. The two of us looked up at the giant clock, and I felt a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. We were almost out of time. Ten seconds... nine seconds... We had to do something. Now. We had no more time to spare. Ron was still shoving against the now-solid barrier. Harry wheeled his trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the barrier and pushed with all his might. The metal remained solid. Three seconds... two seconds... one second...

Both boys stopped pushing at the same moment. The three of us sank back, staring at the wall in shock. It was gone. The Hogwarts Express was gone, and we weren't on it. What were we going to do? "We - We're stuck," I muttered dumbly.

For a brief moment, I thought that it might have all been a joke. This couldn't be real. It just couldn't. The Hogwarts Express had not left without us. We were not stuck behind the sealed barrier. "It's gone. The train's left," Ron said, sounding stunned. He turned back to Harry and I a moment later. "What if Mum and Dad can't get back through to us?" That was not what I was concerned about. "Have you got any Muggle money?"

Harry gave a hollow laugh. "The Dursley's haven't given me pocket money for about six years." I wasn't even aware that they had ever given him any pocket money.

"Tara?" Ron asked me.

I always had every type of money on me, in case of emergencies, but I couldn't see how money was getting us out of this pickle. "Yes... But... What do we do? Muggle money won't get us to Hogwarts," I told them desperately. "I can't write Mom and Dad. It will take me too long to get a response," I said mostly to myself.

Harry shook his head. We all knew that writing someone would take far too long. We didn't have the time. We had to be at Hogwarts Castle tonight. "No. That makes no sense," Harry agreed.

Running my hands through my hair, I began to pace back and forth, wondering how we were going to get out of this. "We can't Apparate. We aren't old enough. You can't Apparate onto Hogwarts ground anyways," I said, ignoring Harry's look of confusion. Hogwarts had protective enchantments so that someone couldn't simply appear on their grounds. "Can't take the Floo network either. And I don't know if there are any open fireplaces in Hogsmeade. The village near Hogwarts," I explained to Harry.

Ron pressed his ear to the cold barrier. "Can't hear a thing," he said tensely as he turned back to us. "What're we going to do? I don't know how long it'll take Mum and Dad to get back to us."

We couldn't wait. We had to get back to Hogwarts before classes started tomorrow. We couldn't just miss them. Waiting would take too much time. And we couldn't just take our brooms to Hogwarts. It was too far and we had too many things to carry with us. "We can't wait for Dumbledore or anyone like that. They could take days to get back to us. We'd miss the first week of classes," I muttered.

The three of us looked around, perhaps hoping to find someone that would help. Not that we would. People were still watching us, mainly because of Hedwig and Dai's continuing screeches. They were not happy with us. "I think we'd better go and wait by the car. We're attracting too much atten-" Harry started before being interrupted by Ron.

"Harry! The car!" Ron exclaimed, his eyes gleaming.

"What about it?" Harry asked.

I was on Harry's side. I couldn't imagine what the car had to do with anything. "We can fly the car to Hogwarts!" Ron said.

Both Harry and I exchanged a look with each other. That was a terrible idea. It sounded like something that Fred or George would come up with. "Absolutely not. We'll be expelled for sure," I barked, feeling very much like Hermione.

Hermione... Where was she when we needed her? It didn't matter though. We couldn't use magic on the barrier. Not around Muggles. Not with the warning that Harry and I had already gotten. Ron ignored my earlier comment. "But I thought -" Harry started before being spoken over again.

"We're stuck, right? And we've got to get to school, haven't we?" Ron asked us. We both nodded slowly. It was a bad idea. But it was starting to seem like the only option that we had. "And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if it's a real emergency, section nineteen or something of the Restriction of Thingy -"

"Your parents will kill us," I put in.

Mrs. Weasley hated that car enough. I couldn't imagine the looks on their faces if they came back to see what we had taken it to school. Flown it to school. "They'll understand if it's about school," Ron insisted.

"But your mum and dad..." Harry trailed off. I glanced over at him, thinking that we had already figured this part out. He pushing against the barrier again in the vain hope that it would give way. "How will they get home?"

"They don't need the car! They know how to Apparate! You know, just vanish and reappear at home!" Ron said impatiently. I rolled my eyes at him. Harry had been raised like a Muggle-Born. We had to remember that. The only reason Hermione knew everything was because she reads. "They only bother with Floo powder and the car because we're all underage and we're not allowed to Apparate yet."

Harry seemed to be getting excited at this thought. They clearly didn't see the ten thousand ways that this could go wrong. "Can you fly it?" Harry asked Ron.

I already knew that he could. I'd seen him do it myself. "No problem," Ron said, wheeling his trolley around to face the exit. "C'mon, let's go. If we hurry we'll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express."

Harry and I turned our carts as well and started following him. I leaned over to the two boys and spoke in a hushed tone. "We really shouldn't be doing this." They both ignored me. Suddenly another thought hit me. "Where are we even going to put the car?" I asked.

Ron stopped short, very nearly causing Harry and I to go crashing into him. I smacked him to move forward, not wanting to cause another scene. "We'll enchant it to go back home and leave a letter with them, telling them what happened and how desperate we got," Ron explained. I looked for a flaw in his plan, but I couldn't find one. If we did this correctly, no one would ever even know that we'd missed the Express. None of the teachers, anyways. "If we leave now, we'll be there before the Start-Of-Term Feast."

Glancing down at my Muggle watch, I nodded. As long as we followed the Hogwarts Express closely, we'd be right on time. "You two are sure about this?" I asked nervously.

"Absolutely," Ron said.

Harry seemed a little bit less sure of the plan, but I knew that he wanted to get to Hogwarts just as much as we did. "We have to get to Hogwarts, Tara," Harry insisted.

As we walked out to the car, I sighed, trying to pet Dai. All I earned was a rough nip at my fingers. He clearly wasn't happy with the change of plans. "I can't believe the things that the two of you drag me into," I muttered.

"We make your life more exciting," Harry said.

Rolling my eyes at them, I thought about Hermione, sitting on the Hogwarts Express, probably wondering where on earth we were. "Poor Hermione," I said.

"Can you imagine what she's going to say about all of this when she finds out?" Ron asked.

Actually, I could already see the berating that we were going to get. "Yes. She's going to call us all morons for not just waiting for your parents to take us to Hogwarts themselves," I told them both. They nodded, knowing that she'd have something to say about this. "Why did the barrier close itself off? And only to us..." I trailed off.

"Shush," Harry said as I drew a few wayward looks. "We'll talk about it later."

And we marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles. Some of them were pointing and whispering and I blushed, trying to ignore them. I had attention on me enough, I didn't need it from Muggles who thought that we were insane for the packages, crash, and strange owls sitting atop our trolleys. We quickly made our way out of the station and back onto the side road where the old Ford Anglia was parked. Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a series of taps from his wand. I cringed, waiting for him to receive a letter for underage magic, He never did. We heaved our luggage back in, put Hedwig and Dai in the back seat, and got into the front.

Ron was on one end in the driver's seat, I was in the middle of the bench, and Harry was on the passenger side. "Check that no one's watching," Ron said, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand.

Harry stuck his head out of the window to look at one side. I glanced out of the back to make sure that no one was walking around to see us. Traffic was rumbling along the main road ahead, but our street was empty. "Okay," Harry said, alerting Ron that no one was around.

The two of us made sure that no one was heading our way as Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The Invisibility Booster, as Fred and George had told me before. The car around us began to vanish - and so did we. It was a strange sensation. Different from being under the cloak. I could feel the seat vibrating beneath me, hear the engine, and feel my hands on my knees. My nails were digging into the skin nervously. It felt like someone could still see us. It was a moment later that we began floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars.

The sooner we were in the countryside, the better. "Let's go," Ron's voice said from my right.

Even though I couldn't see him, I knew that he was turning the wheel upwards, probably hitting the accelerator, too. That must have been how it rose into the air. After a few moments, the ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away, dropping out of sight as the car rose into the air. It was extremely wobbly. In a matter of seconds, the whole of London lay, smoky and glittering, below us. Then there was a popping noise and the car, Harry, Ron, and I reappeared.

My head snapped over to Ron. We couldn't be visible in downtown London. "Uh-oh," Ron said, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster. "It's faulty," he explained.

Whipping my head around to snarl at Ron, I jammed my finger into the button. I couldn't believe that we'd taken the car and flown it right over the city when the Invisibility Booster didn't always work. We should have waited until we were out of the city so we didn't need it. It wasn't just me, the three of us all took turns pummeling it. A few seconds later, the car vanished. We relaxed only for a moment before the car flickered back again.

"Hold on!" Ron yelled, and he slammed his foot on the accelerator.

The four of us were slammed back into our seats at the lurching car. This definitely was worse than traveling by Floo powder. At least I didn't have to worry about slamming into the ground and dying with Floo powder. We shot straight into the low, woolly clouds. My head was spinning as Ron straightened out the car. Hedwig and Dai were hooting angrily in the back. I'd be shocked if either one of them ever came back to Harry or I again. Up in the clouds, everything turned dull and foggy.

We waited for a few minutes in silence, ensuring that the Invisibility Booster would not give out, and that the car wouldn't drop from the sky. "Do you think anyone saw us?" I finally asked the others.

"Who cares?" Ron snapped back at me.

Glancing over to him, at least, I thought that it was him, I snapped back, "Well, Muggles aren't really accustomed to seeing flying cars, just so you know."

Despite not being able to see Ron, I had a feeling that he was blushing. "Now what?" Harry asked, blinking at the solid mass of cloud pressing in on us from all sides.

We were safe from peering Muggle eyes, but we had lost sight of the train. The Invisibility Booster was flickering off and on so badly that we decided to simply leave it off. It was easier this way. We just had to be quick about it if we needed to drop down. "We need to see the train to know what direction to go in," Ron said.

"Dip back down again - quickly," Harry said.

I spoke before Ron could move the car. "We can't be seen. Hogwarts is north," I told them.

Of course, I knew the problem here. We knew which way to go to Hogwarts, but we had no clue which way was north. I didn't have a compass, and I was sure that they didn't either. "Which way is north?" Harry asked.

Both boys glanced at me and I sighed. "Fine. Go for it," I conceded.

It went unspoken that we would have to make this fast. We couldn't afford any Muggles spotting us. Hopefully we would get out of this reasonably unscathed. Slowly, Ron dipped the car back beneath the clouds, just barely. He held the wheel steady as we all twisted around in our seats, squinting at the ground. It should have been easy to find, considering the color of the train.

We were spending far longer under the clouds than I would have liked. "I can see it!" Harry finally yelled. "Right ahead - there!"

Following Harry's line of sight, I briefly caught sight of the dashboard. There was a compass on it. I glared at the two of them. We should have just listened to me. Of course, I understood that they didn't want to risk going in the wrong direction and getting lost. It wasn't like we could get a map or ask for directions to Hogwarts. Finally, I saw it. The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below us like a scarlet snake. It was just about to leave the edge of metropolitan London.

"Due north," Ron said, checking the compass on the dashboard.

They both gave me guilty smiles. I rolled my eyes at them but nodded. It was best that we not fight in a confined space. "Okay, we'll just have to check on it every half hour or so - hold on," Harry said.

Ron pressed down on the accelerator once more and I was thrown back into my seat. Quickly, we shot up through the clouds. A minute later, we burst through the clouds and out into a blaze of sunlight. Slowly, my scowl turned to a smile. Maybe this was not a good plan, but it was a beautiful sight. It was a different world up here. No problems. The wheels of the car skimmed the sea of fluffy cloud, the sky a bright, endless blue under the blinding white sun.

Ron's voice brought me out of my daydream. "All we've got to worry about now are airplanes," he said.

The three of us all exchanged a look. For a while we just had our straight faces on. It only took a moment for the three of us to start to laugh; for a long time, we couldn't stop. I wasn't even sure what we were laughing about. Perhaps it was because we were already breaking the rules. Perhaps it was just the comical sight that this must have been. Either way, it was the nicest that I'd felt in a long time. We might not have started as the most traditional friends, we might have gotten in trouble for everything under the sun, and we might have been extremely different from each other, but we fit well. Right now, it was as though we had been plunged into a fabulous dream.

For right now, it felt like this should have been the only way for anyone to travel - past swirls and turrets of snowy cloud, in a car full of hot, bright sunlight, and with a fat pack of toffees in the glove compartment. As I leaned back onto the seat, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sun on my face. Harry even rolled down the window for me, knowing that I loved this weather. It reminded me of the days that I'd lived back in Florida. My mind wandered behind my closed lids. I smirked at the prospect of seeing Fred's and George's jealous faces when we landed smoothly and spectacularly on the sweeping lawn in front of Hogwarts castle.

Of course, that was assuming that we managed the impressive landing. We would cross that bridge when we got to it. We chatted together as we made regular checks on the train. I couldn't help but to wonder if anyone had spotted us in the car, or if anyone was wondering where Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Tara Nox were. Of course, Hermione was probably beside herself with worry, speaking with Fred, George, Ginny, and Percy, who all knew that we had been with them the last time that we'd been seen. The Gryffindor's probably knew that we were up to something and the Slytherin's were probably hoping that we were dead.

Staring off into the clouds, I could almost imagine Cedric shaking his head, wondering what spectacular disaster we'd already gotten ourselves into. As time passed, we flew farther and farther north, each dip beneath the clouds showing us a different view. It didn't take long for us to get completely out of London. It had been replaced by neat green fields that gave way in turn to wide, purplish moors, a great city alive with cars like multicolored ants, villages with tiny toy churches.

We had been silent for a long while when I glanced over to the boys. As much as I loved the ride, the closed barrier was still bothering me. "We should have been the ones to go through first," I said.

"Obviously it was us that the barrier wanted to keep out," Harry said. I nodded. It was probably Harry that it wanted to keep out. Ron and I had simply been sucked along with him. "Maybe it would have closed anyways."

"At least we would have had Mrs. Weasley and Ginny with us. We wouldn't have had to figure this out for ourselves," I muttered.

"It's a good plan, Tara," Ron said.

My head snapped over to him. This was actually a terrible plan, we were just in a state of calm right now. The calm before the storm. "When have any of us actually ever had a good plan?" I asked. His words seemed to fail him. "And if you say the Sorcerer's Stone, I'll kill you."

Ron laughed and shook his head. "Merlin no, that was a terrible plan."

The three of us laughed and relaxed back into our seats. Harry and I both offered to take turns with driving, but Ron kept saying no. I assumed that he was taking responsibility with the car. If anything happened to the car, he wanted it to be his fault. So we sat together for another hour. For a long time we didn't check on the train at my insistence. We were right over a Muggle community. I didn't want us to be caught. So we waited until we had cleared it to drop the car once more. Ron hit the brakes and dropped the car so that we were floating right over the tracks. The Hogwarts Express was nowhere in sight.

"Now all we need to do is catch up with the train," Harry said.

"We can't be far behind," Ron added.

We weren't far at all. About ten minutes ago I'd seen some of the steam rise up from the train when we'd flown a little too low. "We were just near it not that long ago. Where did it go?" I asked, trying to look off into the distance.

The tracks ahead of us were empty. Had the Hogwarts Express really gotten that far ahead of us? All of a sudden, I could hear the engine of the train. But I still couldn't see it. That didn't make any sense. "Do you hear that?" Harry asked curiously.

"There's the engine," I said, still searching for the train. "Where is it?"

"We must be getting close," Ron said excitedly.

Or maybe it was getting close. It was reasonably obvious that Harry had come to the same conclusion that I had at the same moment. "Hold on," Harry muttered, as the train whistle blew.

Not wanting to look back and see it, Harry, Ron, and I all looked at each other. Harry - as always - looked confused. Ron looked like he might cry. I was glaring at the both of them. "This is both of your fault, just so you know. I take no responsibility in this," I said.

They both nodded, knowing that this really was their fault. The whistle blew again, and this time I could tell just how loud it was. It was clearly getting closer. As Harry, Ron, and I turned back, I heard Hedwig and Dai both squeak in horror. We turned back slowly at my eyes widened at the sight. The Hogwarts Express was literally feet behind us. Harry, Ron, and I began screaming as we whipped our heads back around. Ron slammed on the gas but stayed down on the tracks.

The heat from the engine was nearly breathing down our necks. "Ah! Up! Up!" I screamed at Ron.

He did what I said, but he did not do it the way that I wanted him to. Instead of yanking the wheel up slightly, he completely ripped it to the side. Not what he should have done. The car went rocketing off of the tracks, floating through the air. I was thrown off to the side, slamming into Harry. The car flew about twenty feet away from the tracks when Ron pulled the wheel the other direction. The car rocked heavily to the other side, now throwing me against Ron, as we flew lower and underneath the bridge.

If I'd thought that things couldn't get any worse, I was dead wrong. The three of us continued to scream as the car went into a roll from Ron having pulled the steering wheel too hard. My hands went up to the roof of the car as the three of us, Dai, Hedwig, and Scabbers were thrown around. I quickly realized why Muggles insisted on wearing seat belts. We flipped over another two times as the car went underneath the bridge and back up to hover above the train. Harry was thrown back against the door when, to my horror, the door broke open. Harry was unable to right himself as he went toppling out of the car.

My screams of pain suddenly turned to screams of horror. Thankfully, Harry was able to catch onto the door and keep himself from falling to his untimely demise. "Harry!" Ron screamed as Harry managed to lock himself onto the door. "Hold on!" Harry's hand was slipping off of the door frame as the car flew higher and higher. His head was aimed down towards the train below us. I could have killed him. "Hold the wheel," Ron ordered me. I did so, moving so that Ron could get Harry. "Take my hand! Hold on!" Ron howled.

He had managed to grab Harry's hand once, but he'd let it slip a moment later. "I'm trying," Harry gritted out, barely managing to hang onto the door. "Your hand's all sweaty."

"Hang on, Harry!" I screamed.

The boys caught hands a few times, each time slipping again. I tried to angle the car upright, but it didn't help. It only made it harder for Ron to lean down and grab him. So I merely held the car steady and over the Hogwarts Express. At least if he fell, he would fall onto the roof of the train. Finally their hands locked, and Ron and I gave Harry a few strong tugs. He'd never seemed so heavy. It felt like an hour had passed when we finally managed to pull him into the car. I moved back into the middle, letting Ron straighten out the wheel as Harry closed the door.

We were all breathing heavily, glued to our seats. Ron floated the car back up towards the clouds, keeping the train in sight so that we didn't need to dip back down again. "I think we found the train," Harry said breathlessly.

"Yeah," Ron added.

Taking in a few deep breaths, I looked over at the boys with a nasty glare. "Well done, nitwits!" I shouted.

"Let's not ever speak of that again," Harry said.

"Yeah," Ron said. He seemed unable to say much more.

"Gladly."

It was almost an hour that we went without speaking to each other. Not really because we were angry, but because we were remembering just how close we had come to dying. It seemed to be a recurring theme between us. Finally, Ron commented about at least the breeze had been nice. That had broken the tense silence, and we'd all started to laugh. It wasn't long after that that we all started having fun again, laughing and chatting together. We ate the toffees and relaxed back into the seats, eventually forgetting about the near-disaster with the train.

Several uneventful hours later, however, I had to admit that some of the fun was wearing off. The toffees had made us extremely thirsty and we had nothing to drink. I'd brought one bottle of Gillywater, but we'd gone through it quickly. Harry and Ron had pulled off their sweaters a while ago. They'd been polite enough to hang up Harry's blanket while I hopped into the back and changed into a tank top and pair of shorts. The breeze was cool, but with the sun beating down on us and without air conditioning, it became quite warm in the car. I'd hopped back up into the seat and folded Harry's blanket back up.

It was about four hours into the ride that I started to unfold the Hogwarts robes. At some point on the journey, we would have to get changed so we could get into the castle unnoticed. In the meantime, sweat had soaked through my tank top. It was now was sticking to the back of my seat. I knew that Ron and Harry felt the same way. I felt particularly bad for Harry. His glasses kept sliding down to the end of his sweaty nose. Watching the clouds was no longer amusing. Instead, I was thinking longingly of the train miles below, where we could buy ice-cold pumpkin juice from a trolley pushed by a plump witch. Why hadn't we been able to get onto platform nine and three-quarters?

I would have much preferred to nap in one of the cool cabins. "Six hours has never seemed this long," I muttered, kicking my feet up on the dashboard.

Harry sighed and nodded at me, leaning up against me. It was hot, but it was also uncomfortable to stay seated for the entire time. We had to keep moving around. "I'll say," he muttered.

We went back to silence after that. "Can't be much further, can it?" Ron croaked, hours later still, as the sun started to sink into the floor of cloud, staining it a deep pink. "Ready for another check on the train?"

Glancing down at my watch, I did a quick count. We were almost to the six hour mark. "We're almost at six hours. Should be nearly there. Go for it. Let's stay off of the tracks this time," I added.

Ron grinned bashfully at me and dropped the car below the clouds. As expected, the Hogwarts Express was still right below us, winding its way past a snow-capped mountain. I smiled at the sight. Thankfully it was starting to get a little cooler again. We would be able to change into the robes soon. It was much darker beneath the canopy of clouds. Ron put his foot on the accelerator once we were sure that we were still following in the right direction and drove us upward again. The only problem was that as he did so, the engine began to whine. Harry, Ron, and I exchanged nervous glances.

It definitely didn't bode well that even Ron looked put-off by the sudden noise. "Is that normal?" I asked weakly.

Judging by the look on Ron's face, I assumed that this was not normal. "It's probably just tired. It's never been this far before..." Ron muttered.

Feeling like our voices might break the Anglia, we all fell into a tense silence. It was almost worse being quiet. Because at this point we all pretended not to notice the whining growing louder and louder as the sky became steadily darker. We would be lucky if we made it there in one piece. The car sounded like it was about to collapse. Stars were blossoming in the blackness and I tried to focus on them. Harry pulled his sweater back on and I curled into him, the cold now seeping into my bones. I didn't want to move more than I had to. The entire time, I was trying to ignore the way the windshield wipers were now waving feebly, as though in protest.

"Not far," Ron said, more to the car than to Harry or I, "not far now," and he patted the dashboard nervously.

We moved as slowly as possible as we all began putting our robes on. No one actually changed into the uniforms, for fear that while we were changing, the car would fall apart. So we merely threw the robes on. It was barely fifteen minutes later when we flew back beneath the clouds. It had become so dark that we had to squint through the darkness for a landmark that we knew. I could see that we were right above Hogsmeade, the lights the only thing that I could see, but I couldn't see Hogwarts.

Of course, Harry could. "There!" Harry shouted, making Ron, Hedwig, Dai, and I jump. "Straight ahead!"

He was right. My heart soared with excitement. "Oh, finally! We're here! And we haven't died!" I cheered.

Ron and Harry both smiled at me. "Welcome home," Ron said.

Silhouetted on the dark horizon, high on the cliff over the lake, stood the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts Castle. My heart was pounding as I prayed that the car would manage to make it the next half-mile to the castle. We were almost there. I had faith that we could make it. But just as I thought that, the car began to shudder and started losing speed. That wasn't even the worst part. We were beginning to make a descent, one that we didn't want to make yet.

Swallowing thickly, I heard Ron speak. "Come on," Ron said, giving the steering wheel a little shake, "nearly there, come on."

The reassuring words did nothing for the failing car. The engine gave a long and loud groan. Narrow jets of steam were beginning to pour out from under the hood. I found myself gripping the edges of my seat very hard as we flew toward the lake. The car was dropping quickly and rocking heavily. I could tell that Ron was trying his hardest to keep the car steady. The car gave a nasty wobble. Glancing out of the window, I saw the smooth, black, glassy surface of the water, a mile below. Ron's knuckles were white on the steering wheel. The car wobbled again.

We were so close. But were we going to make it. "Come on," Ron muttered.

"Maybe you should fly a little lower. Just in case," I put in.

Of course, the moment that Ron tried to lower the car, it gave a violent jerk. We all gasped as Ron raised the car up into the air slightly. We were right here. We couldn't die now. Not when we had a rather impressive tale to tell. And I really didn't want to have to have Hermione following around my ghost form, telling me that she told me so. A moment later we were over the lake - the castle was right ahead - and Ron put his foot down. There was a loud clunk, a splutter, and the engine died completely.

"Uh-oh," Ron said, into the silence.

My heart very nearly stopped. Not good. If the engine was dead, we wouldn't be able to do anything other than drive the car in a certain direction, and nothing seemed very appealing. Not a solid stone wall, or the ice cold lake, or a tree, or the solid oak doors in front of the castle. Not even the green grounds. They were still reasonably solid. The nose of the car dropped. And that was all that it took. Suddenly we were falling, gathering speed, heading straight for the solid castle wall.

The three of us started to scream. "Noooooo!" Ron yelled, swinging the steering wheel around.

We missed the dark stone wall by inches as the car turned in a great arc. I supposed that it was good that we didn't crash into the wall. But things went from reasonably okay, to absolutely terrible in a matter of seconds. We went soaring over the dark greenhouses, then the vegetable patch, and then out over the black lawns, losing altitude all the time. We were going to crash into the ground. That could still kill us. Ron let go of the steering wheel completely - causing the car to give a massive lurch - and pulled his wand out of his back pocket.

"Stop! Stop!" he yelled, whacking the dashboard and the windshield, but we were still plummeting, the ground flying up toward us.

The screams were only getting louder as we continued to drop. I had my eyes squeezed shut. "Watch out for that tree!" Harry bellowed, lunging for the steering wheel, but too late.

I opened my eyes and saw that we were about to smash into a heavy tree trunk. "Brakes, Ron, brakes!" I screamed.

All of the warnings fell on deaf ears. With an earsplitting bang of metal on wood, we crashed through the branches and landed on a thicker one with a heavy jolt. The car began to slip off of the branch and I let out an ear piercing scream as we fell backwards. Harry's arm was over my stomach as we hit one branch, slipping backwards off of it, and slammed into another. My head snapped forward as the back end of the car rested on one branch, and the rest of the car leaned up against another.

We were precariously perched on the branches as I let out a few deep breaths. My breathing was ragged, absolutely terrified of the near death experience. Steam was billowing from under the crumpled hood; Hedwig and Dai were both shrieking in terror; a golf-ball-sized lump was throbbing on Harry's head where he had hit the windshield; Ron let out a low, despairing groan. I was simply staring ahead, absolutely amazed that we were still alive. After a moment, I began rubbing the back of my neck. When it had snapped forward, it had seriously hurt.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked us urgently.

"Damn it, that hurt," I muttered.

"My wand," Ron said, in a shaky voice. "Look at my wand."

Harry and I both glanced over at it. It had snapped, almost in two; the tip was dangling limply, held on by a few splinters. The only chance that he had was either having someone manage to mend it up at the school - which would be very hard to explain how his wand would have gotten to be in that state in the first place - or he would have to get another one. I would have loved to see the look on Ollivander's face if Ron had to explain what we'd done to one of his precious wands. I opened his mouth to say that I was sure they'd be able to mend it up at the school, but I cut myself off with a different response.

"Be grateful that it's not your neck," I snapped.

It looked like Ron had something to say back to me, but he never got the chance. At that very moment, something hit Harry's side of the car with the force of a charging bull, sending him lurching sideways into me, and me into Ron. We both looked out the window to see what had happened, but it was too dark. Did something live in the tree? That was now attacking us. Wonderful. That figured. I was about to suggest that we hop from the tree when an equally heavy blow hit the roof.

"What's happening?" Harry asked, the panic in his voice evident.

"I don't know," I answered.

Ron gasped, staring through the windshield, and Harry and I looked around just in time to see a branch as thick as a python smash into it. The tree that we had hit was attacking us. This must have been the Whomping Willow. Of course. Why would it have been anything else? Its trunk was bent almost double, and its gnarled boughs were pummeling every inch of the car it could reach. We were all screaming loudly as the tree showed no signs of letting up on attacking the car.

As another twisted limb punched a large dent into Harry's door, one particularly large branch continued to smack onto the hood of the car. That wasn't it. A moment later, a smaller branch punched a hole in the back window. I yanked myself down just in time to avoid a hole in the head. As it pulled back out of the car, I began to scream again. The heavy barrage of branches on the car was shaking us. The car was going to fall. The windshield was now trembling under a hail of blows from knuckle-like twigs and the branch as thick as a battering ram was still pounding furiously on the roof, which seemed to be caving.

We would end up as a human sandwich if we didn't move soon. "Run for it!" Ron shouted, throwing his full weight against his door, but next second he had been knocked backward into my lap by a vicious uppercut from another branch, shaking the car. We all screamed again. "We're done for!" he moaned as the ceiling sagged, but suddenly the floor of the car was vibrating. Somehow the engine had restarted.

One branch hit the car was hard as I assumed that it could do. We all screamed as the car was hit so hard that it was pushed backwards from the tree. The three of us hit against each side of the car as it plummeted backwards through the branches. I thought that one would manage to catch us, but it never did. We slammed through all of the branches as the car straightened out and smashed into the ground. I groaned at the sudden pain that went through my head, barely able to look back up at the tree.

It was starting to lean back, ready to collapse on us. "Reverse!" Harry and I yelled, and the car shot backward.

We all screamed as we were thrown forwards in the seat. The tree came down completely, slamming into the ground so hard that it rattled the earth. I wondered if everyone in the castle had heard it. As we drove off, I glanced back towards the Whomping Willow. The tree was still trying to hit us as it straightened back out; it was easy to hear its roots creaking as it almost ripped itself up, lashing out at us as we sped out of reach. Despite having done no actual physical work - other than scream - we were all panting.

"That was close. Well done, car," Ron said.

The car, however, did not appreciate the compliment. It had reached the end of its tether. With two sharp clunks, the doors flew open and I felt my seat tip sideways. Harry and I were thrown from one side of the car, and Ron was thrown from the other. I landed on top of Harry, mumbling a weak apology. The trunk flew open and I watched as the car ejected our luggage from the trunk. It threw out Ron's, making a noise akin to someone blowing a raspberry. Hedwig and Dai's cages flew out next. Harry and I caught our owls, Ron catching Scabbers. The cages burst open; Hedwig and Dai rose out of them with angry screeches and sped off toward the castle without a backward look. I assumed that they would probably ignore us for the next few weeks.

Then, dented, scratched, and steaming, the car rumbled off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily. It seemed that everyone was angry with us. The three of us tried to follow it, but there was no way that we were going to catch up with it. It blazed off towards the Forbidden Forest and I stopped dead in my tracks. The last time that I'd been in the forest, Voldemort had very nearly killed me. I was not itching to return to it anytime soon. Or ever.

"Come back!" Ron yelled after it, brandishing his broken wand. "Dad'll kill me!" But the car disappeared from view with one last snort from its exhaust. "Can you believe our luck? Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get one that hits back."

"That's the Whomping Willow," I explained.

Both Harry and Ron whipped around to me. "You know what that thing is?" Harry asked.

I nodded at him. "Hermione kept nagging at me to read Hogwarts, A History, and one day I did. It's endemic to Scotland and the Forest of Dean. They're extremely violent. They attack anyone that disturbs the branches," I said, motioning to us. "They're rare and valuable. This one was planted in nineteen seventy-one."

Honestly, I wasn't sure why this one had been planted. "Of course this would be Dumbledore's idea," Ron said.

Despite everything that had happened, I laughed. I had a feeling that Dumbledore quite enjoyed harassing his students. An invisible barrier that you had to run straight towards, a three-headed dog guarding a powerful item, a giant squid in the lake, a forest filled with creatures that could kill you, and warnings about where not to go so that you won't die a very painful death. Not to mention, a tree that hits back. This was certainly a safe place to send children. I glanced over my shoulder at the ancient tree, which was still flailing its branches threateningly.

"Come on," Harry said wearily, "we'd better get up to the school." The three of us grabbed our trunks and bags and began awkwardly lugging them up the hill. "So a house-elf shows up in my bedroom, we can't get through the barrier to platform nine and three-quarters, and we almost get killed by a tree. Clearly someone doesn't want me here this year," Harry said.

Panting at the weight of all of my things, I glanced over at him. "And somehow we managed to get dragged into it," I snapped at him, motioning to Ron and myself. "Maybe Dobby's warning was real. No way that Malfoy could do all of this," I said.

Clearly someone really didn't want him here. But there was no way that Malfoy could seal the barrier. That was something that a full wizard would have to do. "I don't care. I just want food," Ron said.

"Of course you do," I rolled my eyes.

It wasn't at all the triumphant arrival that I had been picturing. We were stiff, cold, and bruised. For a while it felt like we would never feel right again. Sitting for so many hours, it felt awful to start moving again all of a sudden. Once more, we seized the ends of our trunks and began dragging them up the grassy slope, toward the great oak front doors. More than once I dropped mine, earning a loud bought of curses. But, finally, we managing to make our way to the front entrance of the school, where all of the other bags and trunks were.

Gratefully, I dropped my things together, knowing that someone would bring them up to my room, wiping a bead of sweat away from me. "I think the feast's already started," Ron said, dropping his trunk at the foot of the front steps and crossing quietly to look through a brightly lit window. "Hey - Harry, Tara - come and look. It's the Sorting!"

Not that it wasn't the same thing that we had seen last year, but at least it would be interesting to see again. This time we wouldn't be nervous about having to be Sorted ourselves. Harry and I hurried over and, together, the three of us peered in at the Great Hall. Innumerable candles were hovering in midair over four long, crowded tables, making the golden plates and goblets sparkle. My stomach growled. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and I was starving now. Overhead, the bewitched ceiling, which always mirrored the sky outside, sparkled with stars.

Through the forest of pointed black Hogwarts hats, I saw a long line of scared-looking First Years filing into the Hall. The Sorting hadn't actually started yet. Smiling, I leaned into the door, searching for Ginny. It didn't take me long to find her. She was easily visible because of her vivid Weasley hair. Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall, a bespectacled witch with her hair in a tight bun, was placing the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a stool before the newcomers.

Slowly, my smile fell into a snarl. Every year, this aged old hat, patched, frayed, and dirty, Sorted new students into the four Hogwarts Houses. Harry, Ron, and I had been Sorted one year ago today. I remembered perfectly, waiting, petrified, for its decision as it muttered aloud in my ear. I could still hear it talking about the darkness in me, the desire for power. All the while, Voldemort's words echoing in my ears. The questions that still remained. How was I linked to him? Why was I important? And what were the presents that I had been receiving? Who was sending them to me, and why?

Attempting to block those questions from my mind, I watched the kids file in. For a few horrible seconds last year, I had feared that the hat was going to put me in Slytherin, the House that had turned out more Dark witches and wizards than any other - but I had somehow ended up in Gryffindor, along with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasley's. It had been the best day of my life. Last term, the four of us had helped Gryffindor win the House Championship, beating Slytherin for the first time in seven years. Of course, we'd certainly made some not-so-good names for ourselves in the process.

A very small, mousy-haired boy had been called forward to place the hat on his head. My eyes wandered past him to where Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, sat watching the Sorting from the staff table, his long silver beard and half-moon glasses shining brightly in the candlelight. He was not smiling, but, as usual, he looked happy. Several seats along, I cringed when I saw Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in robes of aquamarine. He looked absolutely thrilled to be sitting up at the High Table. And there at the end was Hagrid, huge and hairy, drinking deeply from his goblet.

"Hang on. There's an empty chair at the staff table. Where's Snape?" Harry muttered to Ron and I.

Professor Severus Snape was pretty much everyone's least favorite teacher. Harry and I also happened to be Snape's least favorite students. For whatever reason, mostly because he still held a grudge against our parents. Not that we could really help it. So we merely tried to keep our heads down in his class. Not that it really ever worked. He was cruel, sarcastic, and disliked by everybody except the students from his own House; Snape taught Potions. Unfortunately, a class that I liked before him.

"Maybe he's ill!" Ron said hopefully.

I couldn't imagine Snape ever being sick. "Maybe he's left because he missed out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts job again!" Harry put in, a little louder than I would have liked.

"Doubtful. Maybe he's just patrolling," I said.

The boys seemed to still be enjoying their fantasies that Snape was not coming back to Hogwarts this year. "Or he might have been sacked!" Ron said enthusiastically. "I mean, everyone hates him -"

"Or maybe," said a very cold voice right behind them, "he's waiting to hear why you three didn't arrive on the school train."

Cringing slightly, I backed away from the wooden door and spun around. Ron and Harry did so at the same time. I couldn't even say that I was surprised to see him standing behind us. It was a movie moment. It was have been anticlimactic if he wasn't there. There, his black robes rippling in the cold breeze, stood Severus Snape. He was a thin man with sallow skin, a hooked nose, and greasy, shoulder-length black hair, and at this moment, he was smiling in a way that told me that the three of us were in very deep trouble. Clearly, he was hoping that he would finally be able to remove us from Hogwarts.

Clearing my throat, I prepared a lie that he would probably see right through. "See, Professor, we were on the train." He turned an evil glare on me. "We were simply in the bathroom so we had to grab another carriage. We got here a little late. So sorry about that. We just didn't want to go in and interrupt the Sorting," I tried to convince him.

His lip curled in a very unflattering movement. "Very kind of you," he snapped at me. I smiled, hoping that he might find it in his heart to forgive us. Of course, he didn't. "Follow me," Snape said.

It left no room for argument. Not daring even to look at any of us, Harry, Ron, and I followed Snape up the steps into the vast, echoing entrance hall, which was lit with flaming torches. I could almost feel the glee seeping off of him. He had been itching to get us kicked out of Hogwarts since day one. A delicious smell of food was wafting from the Great Hall, and my stomach growled again, but Snape led us away from the warmth and light, down a narrow stone staircase that led into the dungeons.

My stomach roiled painfully. I could only imagine what the punishment would be. Over the last year, we'd gotten in so much trouble that I wasn't even sure that we could get away with any more. Everyone had their limit. We'd set a boa constrictor loose at the Muggle zoo, we'd found out about the Sorcerer's Stone, we'd been caught out of bed after hours, we had entered the third-floor corridor without permission, I'd punched Malfoy more than once, we'd gone up on our brooms without permission, I'd been in the Astronomy tower out of class hours plenty of times, and so much more. It just seemed that we were never actually given that severe of punishments. But was our luck about to end? Probably, considering that Snape was the one that had caught us.

"In!" Snape barked, opening a door halfway down the cold passageway and pointing.

We entered Snape's office, shivering, still not daring to look at each other. The shadowy walls were lined with shelves of large glass jars, in which floated all manner of revolting things. I knew what most of them were, but I really didn't want to think about it. The only thing that I wanted to do was know when we had to pack our bags to head back home. At least last year we'd managed to make it a week before having expulsions threatened. We hadn't even made it an hour this time... The fireplace in the corner was dark and empty. Snape closed the door and turned to look at us.

He was much more intimidating when no one was around to stop him from killing us. "So," he said softly, "the train isn't good enough for the famous Harry Potter and his faithful sidekicks, Weasley and Nox. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we, kids?"

Not even ten minutes into the semester and he was already being an ass. Harry tried to explain, "No, sir, it was the barrier at King's Cross, it -"

"Silence!" Snape barked coldly. "What have you done with the car?"

Ron gulped. My stomach fell to the floor. Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair. This wasn't the first time Snape had given me the impression of being able to read minds. Perhaps he was a Legilimens. That would explain how he knew. Although the moment that he moved, I realized that he didn't need to be a mind-reader to know what we had done. Because, a moment later, I understood, as Snape unrolled today's issue of the Evening Prophet.

"You were seen," he hissed, showing us the headline: FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES. He began to read aloud: "Two Muggles in London, convinced they saw an old car flying over the Post Office tower at noon in Norfolk, Mrs. Hetty Bayliss, while hanging out her washing. Mr. Angus Fleet, of Peebles, reported to police. Six or seven Muggles in all. I believe your father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?" he asked, looking up at Ron and smiling still more nastily. "Dear, dear... his own son."

For a brief moment I wished that we were still stuck in the Whomping Willow, being walloped by one of its branches. That would have been better than the way that I was feeling right now. We hadn't thought about what would happen if anyone found out Mr. Weasley had bewitched the car. He could lose his job, or be thrown into Azkaban, or so many other things. If I'd thought that the Weasley's had money problems before... What would happen if the breadwinner lost his job?

Snape's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "I noticed, in my search of the park, that considerable damage seems to have been done to a very valuable Whomping Willow."

"That tree did more damage to us than we -" Ron blurted out.

"Silence!" Snape snapped again. We all jumped at the sudden raise of volume in his voice. "Most unfortunately, you are not in my House and the decision to expel you does not rest with me." I had to suppress a smile. "I shall go and fetch the people who do have that happy power. You will wait here."

The smile fell off of my face at those words. Maybe he couldn't expel us, but McGonagall could. And she probably would. Harry, Ron, and I stared at each other, white-faced. All thoughts of hunger had left my stomach. I now felt extremely sick. I tried desperately not to look at a large, slimy thing suspended in green liquid on a shelf behind Snape's desk. If Snape had gone to fetch Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, we were hardly any better off. She might be fairer than Snape, but she was still extremely strict.

Turning to the boys, I risked speaking. I couldn't imagine that we would make things any worse for ourselves. "How did this become our fault that the gate closed?" I asked them.

"We have to explain it," Harry said.

"How? Snape won't let us speak," Ron grumbled.

Thankfully there were other people that actually would listen to what had happened. Although, they might not like the story any more than Snape would. "Hopefully McGonagall will let us explain. Or even better, Dumbledore..." I said.

Feeling terrible about what was to come, we all fell into a strangled silence. Ten minutes later, Snape returned, and sure enough it was Professor McGonagall who accompanied him. I had seen Professor McGonagall angry on several occasions - no more than when she'd caught Malfoy, Neville, Harry, Hermione, and I out of bed last term, trying to get rid of Norbert - but this time was different. Either I had forgotten just how thin her mouth could go, or I had never seen her this angry before. I figured that it was more of the latter. She raised her wand the moment she entered; Harry, Ron, and I all flinched, but she merely pointed it at the empty fireplace, where flames suddenly erupted.

A little breath escaped me. She wasn't going to curse us, as much as she probably wanted to. "Sit," she said, and we all backed into chairs by the fire. "Explain," she said, her glasses glinting ominously.

Feeling bile stuck in my throat, Ron launched into the story, starting with the barrier at the station refusing to let them through. "- so we had no choice, Professor, we couldn't get on the train."

They had both been silent as they listened to our story. "Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe you have an owl?" Professor McGonagall asked coldly to Harry and I.

Gulping deeply, I nodded. This one was on me. I was the one that had thought that an owl was too slow. But now that I thought about it, it seemed rather stupid. They would have gotten us immediately, and helped us catch up if we'd missed anything. "We thought that it would take too long. We didn't want to miss classes," I muttered.

Professor McGonagall did not seem happy to hear that explanation either, despite the fact that I'd been thinking of school. "Kind of you to think about your education," she hissed at me.

"I - I didn't think -" Harry mumbled.

"That is obvious," Professor McGonagall snapped.

His mouth snapped shut. There was a knock on the office door and Snape, now looking happier than ever, opened it. There stood the Hogwarts Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore. At first I'd thought that having him here might help us out. He seemed to be able to look past the rules more than anyone else in the school. But not this time. My whole body went numb. Dumbledore was looking unusually grave. I did not like the look on his face. It told me that we weren't getting out of this with Gryffindor nerve. He stared down his very crooked nose at us, and once more, I found myself wishing that the three of us were still being beaten up by the Whomping Willow.

There was a long silence. Professor McGonagall said nothing, merely glared at us. Snape was grinning madly. He looked like the Grinch. Then Dumbledore said, "Please explain why you did this."

It would have been better if he had shouted. I hated the disappointment in his voice. It reminded me of the feeling that I'd had when Mom and Dad had written to me last year, telling me how disappointed they were in me for losing all of those points for Gryffindor and for being caught out of bed after hours. It didn't help that Dumbledore seemed like the grandfather that everyone wanted to have like them the most. For that exact reason, I was unable to look Dumbledore in the eyes. Harry seemed to feel the same way as he spoke instead to his knees.

This time it was him that told the story of what had happened. We spent a long time, sitting there and reciting the story once more. Harry told Dumbledore everything except that Mr. Weasley owned the bewitched car, making it sound as though the three of us had happened to find a flying car parked outside the station. It was pretty obvious that Dumbledore would see through this at once, but Dumbledore asked no questions about the car. I assumed that he probably liked Arthur Weasley from his day at Hogwarts, and wanted him in trouble about as much as we did. When Harry had finished, Dumbledore merely continued to peer at them through his spectacles.

It felt like there was no way out of it this time. It was pretty obvious that Ron and Harry felt the same way. "We'll go and get our stuff," Ron said in a hopeless sort of voice.

My stomach dropped as I went to stand. "What are you talking about, Weasley?" Professor McGonagall barked.

I tried very hard not to let the excitement creep into my eyes. They might have still been expelling us, we just had to wait for paperwork or something to go through. "Well, you're expelling us, aren't you?" Ron asked confusedly.

Harry looked quickly at Dumbledore. I followed his line of sight. "Not today, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said. I couldn't help it. I smiled brightly. But his next words made my smile fade. "But I must impress upon both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to both your families tonight. I must also warn you that if you do anything like this again, I will have no choice but to expel you."

Nodding slowly, I easily accepted the punishment. We had gotten off rather unscathed from what could have happened. I was extremely appreciative of that. "Thank you, sir," I barely managed to breathe out.

Snape looked as though Christmas had been canceled. I wanted to shove it in his face, but I knew that I needed to keep my mouth shut. He cleared his throat and said, "Professor Dumbledore, these children have flouted the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, caused serious damage to an old and valuable tree. Surely acts of this nature -"

"It will be for Professor McGonagall to decide on these kids' punishments, Severus," Dumbledore said calmly. "They are in her House and are therefore her responsibility." He turned to Professor McGonagall. "I must go back to the feast, Minerva, I've got to give out a few notices. Come, Severus, there's a delicious-looking custard tart I want to sample."

That time I couldn't stop myself. I grinned brightly, nearly laughing out loud. I managed to restrain myself from doing that. Snape shot a look of pure venom at the three of us as he allowed himself to be swept out of his office. For just a brief moment, I thought that I might have seen a little smile on the corner of Dumbledore's lips. Once they had gone, I found myself nervous once more, considering we were now alone with Professor McGonagall, who was still eyeing us like a wrathful eagle.

"You'd better get along to the hospital wing, Weasley, you're bleeding."

"Not much," Ron said, hastily wiping the cut over his eye with his sleeve. "Professor, I wanted to watch my sister being Sorted -"

I sent him a little glare. I couldn't believe that that was what he was thinking of. Of course Ginny would be in Gryffindor. They all were. "The Sorting Ceremony is over. Your sister is also in Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall told him.

We both smiled at him. "Oh, good," Ron said.

That made everyone in the Weasley family a Gryffindor. The same with the Potter's and Nox's. Just like the Malfoy's with Slytherin and Diggory's with Hufflepuff. "And speaking of Gryffindor -" Professor McGonagall said sharply, but Harry cut in.

"Professor, when we took the car, term hadn't started, so - so Gryffindor shouldn't really have points taken from it - should it?" he finished, watching her anxiously.

I would have smacked him if I wasn't afraid of being expelled. We had every right to have points taken away from us. I wouldn't have argued. Professor McGonagall gave him a piercing look, but I was sure she had almost smiled. Her mouth looked less thin, anyway. "I will not take any points from Gryffindor," she said, and my heart lightened considerably. At least we wouldn't already be making enemies by losing points this early on. "But you will all get a detention."

If all we got out of this was a detention and a note home, I could live. "Fair enough," I said.

Professor McGonagall's sharp eyes turned on me. "I'm glad that you agree, Nox."

My face flushed as I gave her a weak smile. This entire thing had gone much better than I had expected it to. Ron would probably get in a ton of trouble for the car. My parents would probably be beside themselves in fury that I had already gotten myself into trouble. Although I liked to imagine that they would be the slightest bit impressed with how we had managed to get away from the Whomping Willow. At least, Dad might be. When it came to Harry, I knew perfectly well the Dursley's would just be disappointed that the Whomping Willow hadn't squashed us both flat.

While I was thinking that we might have been some of the luckiest people on the face of the earth, Professor McGonagall raised her wand again and pointed it at Snape's desk. I watched curiously, wondering what she was doing. A second later a large plate of sandwiches, three silver goblets, and a jug of iced pumpkin juice appeared with a pop. I smiled softly, wanting to lean forward and grab them right away. I was starving now that I knew that we wouldn't be expelled.

"You will eat in here and then go straight up to your dormitory. I must also return to the feast," she said.

"Thank you, ma'am," I said.

She nodded at the three of us before turning and leaving the room. I almost immediately snatched up a sandwich. When the door had closed behind her, Ron let out a long, low whistle. "I thought we'd had it," he said, grabbing a sandwich.

"So did I," Harry said, taking one, too.

"Make that three," I said through a mouthful.

We were all so starving that none of us actually wanted to take the time to swallow before speaking. "Can you believe our luck, though?" Ron asked us thickly through a mouthful of chicken and ham. "Fred and George must've flown that car five or six times and no Muggle ever saw them." He swallowed and took another huge bite. "Why couldn't we get through the barrier?"

It was the question that we'd been asking ourselves since we'd been at King's Cross this morning. Was it just this morning? It felt like ages ago. Harry and I shrugged. "We'll have to watch our step from now on, though," Harry said, taking a grateful swig of pumpkin juice.

Glancing over at him, I rolled my eyes. "When don't we have to watch our step?" I asked.

"She has a point," Ron said.

Downing an entire cup of pumpkin juice, I glanced over at Harry. He still seemed a little forlorn. "Wish we could've gone up to the feast," he said.

I did, too. I wanted to see all of our friends and say hello to everyone in the other Houses before starting classes tomorrow, when it would be almost impossible to get to hang out with each other. "She didn't want us showing off. Doesn't want people to think it's clever, arriving by flying car," Ron said.

"Probably for the best," I commented dryly. I couldn't imagine that having flying cars would be good for Hogwarts. Brooms were bad enough half of the time. "Could you imagine what would happen if every year people started doing this?"

"I'd like to see the look on Snape's face," Harry said.

We all smiled and went back to eating our sandwiches. It took us a little over half an hour to eat and drink everything that we wanted. I would have liked dessert, but I was not going to complain about anything when I should have been on the Hogwarts Express on my way back home right about now. When the time came that we had finally eaten as many sandwiches as we could (the plate kept refilling itself), we rose and left the office. I had to convince Ron that it was for the best to leave Snape's office in peace, not wanting to see what he might do if we did something, although it might be funny.

So, begrudgingly, he left the office with us. We marched the familiar path to Gryffindor Tower. The castle was quiet; it seemed that the feast was over. Although, one familiar voice rang out through the hall. "Tara?"

Harry and Ron both turned back to the voice with me. Ron rolled his eyes and Harry ground his teeth together. "We'll wait for you at the top of the staircase," Harry said begrudgingly, pulling Ron away.

"Thanks," I called back to them. Once they were gone, I turned back and smiled at Cedric Diggory. "Hi, Giraffe."

He was giving me a knowing smile. I blushed, knowing that my hair was mussed, dirt and sweat was all over me, and my robes were covered in pieces of the Whomping Willow. Cedric walked up to me and pulled a piece of bark out of my hair. "What do you know that there are already rumors flying around about you, Harry, and Ron?"

"Are there?" I asked dumbly.

I didn't think that the rumors would spread that fast. "There was no sign of any of you three on the Hogwarts Express, platform nine and three-quarters, or at the Start-Of-Term Feast. All of a sudden there were all kinds of crazy rumors that you three were going to be expelled for flying a car onto Hogwarts grounds and crashing it into the Whomping Willow," he said.

"Well we aren't getting expelled. Only a detention..." I muttered.

Cedric merely stared at me for a while. There was no expression on his face. Finally he sighed and a little smile crossed his face. "I don't know why I'm even slightly surprised," he told me.

"It wasn't our fault," I insisted. This only earned me a disbelieving smile. "The gate closed a minute before the Hogwarts Express left. We couldn't get through so we decided to fly to Hogwarts. The Whomping Willow was an accident. The engine gave out..." I trailed off.

Cedric laughed at me and pulled me in for a hug. "Never change, Tara," he said.

"I'll try my hardest not to."

We both smiled at each other and stood together for a moment. The smile slowly faltered on Cedric's face. "What do you mean the barrier closed?" he asked me.

So it wasn't something that regularly happened. Not that I had thought that it was. "It was a solid wall. We couldn't get through and we panicked. I've never seen that happen before," I told him. He looked just as confused as I felt. "Oh well, we're here now and got off relatively unscathed. I thought Snape would kill us when he found us."

Cedric laughed once more and ran his hands through his hair. "You must be one of the luckiest people I've ever met," he told me.

"I was thinking along the lines of unlucky," I put in.

He shook his head at me. "I don't know. I think that I'm lucky to get to know you," he said. I blushed softly and glanced down at the ground. The sweet comment was broken by an impatient tapping. I rolled my eyes and stared furiously at Ron and Harry, who very clearly did not want me speaking to Cedric. "I think your friends are getting impatient waiting for you."

He looked amused by Ron and Harry. Sighing softly once more, I nodded at him. "Probably. That was a long ride. I'll see you around," I told him.

"Please don't get expelled."

Smiling at him, I nodded. That was still not in my plans. We'd see how that went. "I will try my absolute hardest. Goodnight, Cedric," I said. He bade me a goodnight as well, giving me a tight hug.

Once I had let go of him, with a promise that we would talk again soon, I walked off. Quickly climbing up the stairs, I tried to ignore the scathing stares that I was getting from Ron and Harry. They followed me as I stalked off towards the Gryffindor Common Room. "Still talking to Pretty-Boy Diggory?" Ron asked me.

Now he was using the same name that Fred and George had given him. "You sound just like your brothers," I told him. "Don't worry, Ron, one day a girl might get desperate enough to actually flirt with you. Jealously is not a pretty look on you, my friend," I teased.

Ron shoved roughly into me as Harry laughed. "Shut up, Tara."

Still smiling softly, we headed towards the Common Room, knowing that we had to hurry. It would be curfew soon, and I knew that Snape would be looking for any reason to get us into trouble. We walked past muttering portraits and creaking suits of armor, and climbed narrow flights of stone stairs, until at last we reached the passage where the secret entrance to Gryffindor Tower was hidden, behind an oil painting of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she asked as we approached.

"Er -" Harry said dumbly.

The three of us froze in our tracks. The Prefects were always the one that gave away the new password at the start of the year. We had missed it. And that meant that we didn't know the new year's password. I glanced around and saw that there were no Gryffindor Prefects standing anywhere around us. Where was Percy when you needed him? Thankfully help came almost immediately; we heard hurrying feet behind us and turned to see Hermione dashing toward them.

My relieved smile fell when I saw that glare that she was giving us. "There you are! Where have you been? The most ridiculous rumors. Someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying car -"

"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry assured her.

Hermione's face fell. "You're not telling me you did fly here?" she asked, sounding almost as severe as Professor McGonagall.

Grinning at her, I wrapped an arm over her shoulder. She rolled it off of herself almost immediately. "You know, we actually had a good reason," I tried to insist to her.

Hermione simply glared at me. "I highly doubt that," she said.

"Skip the lecture and tell us the new password," Ron said impatiently.

Hermione glared at us and we stayed silent for a moment, glaring at her as if to tell her that she had to open it or we would stand out here all night. "It's 'wattlebird,'" Hermione said impatiently, "but that's not the point -"

Her words were cut short, however, as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open. I rolled my eyes. Who came up with that name? It was stupid. My thoughts were abandoned when there was a sudden storm of clapping. It looked as though the whole of Gryffindor House was still awake, packed into the circular Common Room, standing on the lopsided tables and squashy armchairs, waiting for the three of us to arrive. I smiled brightly and laughed softly. It was the kind of greeting that I felt that I deserved. Arms reached through the portrait hole to pull Harry, Ron, and I inside, leaving Hermione to scramble in after us.

"Brilliant!" Lee Jordan yelled, grabbing me for a hug. I laughed into his arms. "Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a car right into the Whomping Willow, people will be talking about that one for years."

"Good for you," a Fifth Year that I had never spoken to said. I smiled at him and thanked him, trying to move away from the entrance to the Common Room. As I walked, I felt someone patting me on the back as though I'd just won a marathon.

It was a moment later that Fred and George pushed their way to the front of the crowd. They were taller than most of the other people in the Common Room, so it was reasonably easy. Once they came up to us, they said together, "Why couldn't we've come in the car, eh?"

Grinning madly at the twins, I shoved past Fred. "That's what you get for trampling me this morning!" I barked at him.

"Big baby," he said.

"Cry over the missed ride a little more, yeah?" I quipped back.

He glared at me and shoved into me. I stumbled, barely able to keep myself standing. I would have fallen had he not caught me. "Watch it, Tara, we'd hate for you to wake up with a new 'do," Fred warned playfully.

Shoving him off of me, I leaned into him. "You do that, I'll ensure you never take another breath," I snapped.

If they did anything to my hair, it would be the last thing that they would ever do. Ron was scarlet in the face, grinning bashfully, but I could see one person who didn't look happy at all. Percy was visible over the heads of some excited First Years, and he seemed to be trying to get near enough to start telling us off. Gulping lightly, I nudged Harry, who spotted the same thing that I did. In turn, Harry nudged Ron in the ribs and nodded in Percy's direction. Ron got the point at once.

The three of us started backing away from the Common Room. "Got to get upstairs - bit tired," Ron said, and the three of us started pushing our way toward the door on the other side of the room, which led to a spiral staircase and the dormitories.

"'Night," Harry called back to Hermione, who was wearing a scowl just like Percy's.

It took a while but we managed to get to the other side of the Common Room, still having our backs slapped. We marched up through the small hallway and gained the peace of the staircase. Together we hurried up it, right to the top, and I went one way as Ron and Harry went the other. I promised them that I would come and say hello to their other roommates in a minute. At last I reached the door of my old dormitory, which now had a sign on it saying Second Years. Smiling, I entered the familiar, circular room, with its five four-posters hung with red velvet and its high, narrow windows. My trunk had been brought up for me and stood at the ends of my bed.

Turning back, now that I was sure that my things were here, I saw that Hermione was standing in the doorway, her arms folded over her chest. "Come on, Hermione, smile!" I told her playfully.

Hermione merely scoffed at me. "I can't believe you three," she hissed.

Smiling at her, I gave her a gentle nudge. Judging by the look on her face, she did not find me funny right about now. "Honestly?" I asked her, unable to believe that she couldn't believe that we'd already done something terrible.

"Just when I thought that you might have learned from last year," she scoffed to herself.

Hermione whipped past me and into the room. Giving a bright smile at her retreating back, I walked back down towards the entrance to the boy's room, wanting to say a quick hello to Seamus, Dean, and Neville. They hadn't been downstairs. I met up with Ron and Harry just outside of the entrances towards their dorm. The girls went up one way, the boys went another. Ron grinned guiltily at Harry and I. "I know I shouldn't've enjoyed that or anything, but -"

The dormitory door flew open and in came the other second year Gryffindor boys, Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom. "Unbelievable!" Seamus beamed. I hugged him tightly.

"Cool," Dean said, giving me another hug.

"Amazing," Neville said, awestruck, earning me my third hug.

As I prepared to head back to my own room to try and explain to Hermione what happened, and why we had to do what we'd done - not to mention saying hello to our three other roommates, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, and Fay Dunbar - I couldn't help it. I grinned, too. It was not the start of the year that I had been expecting, but I couldn't really believe for a second that I'd thought that I might get a normal year. I wasn't sure that I even really wanted one.


	24. Gilderoy Lockhart

Things did not stay good for Harry, Ron, and I for a long time. In fact, things didn't even stay good for ten hours. I wasn't sure why I'd ever thought that things might actually stay good for us. That wasn't in my cards. In the years that were to come, I would never be able to understand how I hadn't lost my mind during my Second Year. I would have had every right to.

My cheeks were still hurting from smiling so much. Our first day of classes, however, I barely grinned once. Things started to go downhill from breakfast in the Great Hall. I'd managed to get dressed and make my way downstairs without a problem. Hermione was ignoring me, other than a quick good morning, and I knew that she was still upset about the flying car incident the night prior. I was still upset that the Whomping Willow had left a nice scar along the edge of my right hand. Writing today wouldn't be fun. Although Lavender had agreed that she would help me write my notes if it proved to be an issue. She thought that my trip into the Willow was hilarious.

Walking into the Great Hall, I looked around as I took my place at the Gryffindor table. People were already coming to sit at their places. Most kids still looked tired, happy to be back at Hogwarts, but not ready to start the semester yet. The four long House tables were laden with tureens of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast, and dishes of eggs and bacon. I grabbed a few pieces of bacon and swallowed them nearly whole, burning my throat with coffee immediately after. I tossed a piece of toast at Seamus, who had laughed and called me a Yank. He laughed as well as I turned my head up to the enchanted ceiling. Today it was a dull, cloudy gray. It matched my mood.

As happy as I was - I wanted to be back at Hogwarts - I did want to be back in bed. Everything that had happened to us yesterday was draining. Another day or two of rest would have been nice. Harry and Ron sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Hermione and I. I greeted them both happily. They looked about as tired as I was. Hermione had her copy of Voyages with Vampires propped open against a milk jug. I ignored the book, debating on lighting it on fire. But I knew that it would only make our little pissing contest even worse. So I decided to just let her be, and gripe to myself about having to deal with Lockhart.

When Hermione finally came around to greeting them, she didn't even bother looking up, and there was a slight stiffness in the way she said 'morning,' which told me that she was no happier with Ron or Harry than she was with me. But she was the only one that didn't seem happy with our display. Save Snape, that is. Which still made me happy. Neville, on the other hand, greeted us cheerfully. Smiling brightly at him, I allowed Harry to take a small sip of my coffee. He didn't like it, but I assumed that he wanted to try and wake himself up. I'd been right last year in thinking that Dumbledore only left the coffee out for me because I'd been raised in the States. No one else ever had it.

Although it was wonderful to have it, it did get old having everyone question me on how I could even drink it. "Mail's due any minute," Neville said, drawing my attention. "I think Gran's sending a few things I forgot."

Smiling at Neville, I patted him on the back. If there was anyone that would have forgotten something at home, it was Neville. He was extremely accident-prone and had a knack for forgetting everything. Even the Remembrall that his grandmother had sent him - the exact thing that had ensured that Harry and I ended up on the Gryffindor Quidditch team - didn't help. In fact, I was reasonably certain that Neville had somehow managed to lose the Remembrall.

Most of the others were still eating. Ron was still shoveling his face and Harry had just started on his porridge - Hermione was elbow-deep in Lockhart's book while I sipped on my coffee - when, sure enough, there was a rushing sound overhead and a hundred or so owls streamed in. I glanced up, although I wasn't sure why, there was no way that Dai was coming to visit me after everything that had happened. They all circled the hall and started dropping letters and packages into the chattering crowd. A big, lumpy package bounced off Neville's head and, a second later, something large and gray fell into Hermione's jug, spraying us all with milk and feathers.

We all jumped back in surprise. I brushed off a little bit of the milk from my sleeves. "Errol!" Ron groaned, pulling the bedraggled owl out by the feet. Errol slumped, unconscious, onto the table, his legs in the air and a damp red envelope in his beak.

Staring at the poor thing, I gently poked Errol on the stomach. He gave a little groan, but didn't make a move. "I think you need to give Errol up for retirement, Ron," I told my friend.

"I'd love to. The bird's a bloody menace," he said.

To my surprise, an owl did come straight for me. But it was not Dai. It was Hale, my old and extremely unfriendly owl. Hale swooped in through the window and whopped me over the back of the head with his wing. "Ow," I hissed, rubbing the back of my head and flattening out the hair where Hale had messed it up. "Come on Hale. What did I even do this time?" I asked him. The owl responded by stealing a bite of my bacon, knocking over my coffee, and flying off, whopping me over the head again. Groaning, I debated on throwing something after the owl. "Damn overgrown pigeon," I hissed.

If Hale had heard me, he ignored me. He flew off without bothering to come back to me to see if I wanted to send something back to the sender. Not that I cared. I had Dai. Of course, he might not want to send anything for me. For the next few weeks I might have to use one of the school owls. Once Hale had gone and I'd picked up my letter, I realized that there was only one person that could have sent this to me. Hale was ours. Mom and Dad had sent this. In horror, I turned over the letter, almost immediately letting out a deep breath. It was just a normal letter. Probably a very angry and berating letter, but not one that would shout at me.

Groaning, I pulled open the letter and slid out the yellow parchment. "Wonderful," I muttered.

Tara,

Keep your nose in your books, young lady! Do you understand me? I debated on sending you a Howler, but I wanted this letter here in time for your first day, and I didn't want to have to go and buy the proper parchment. You behave yourself, or so help me, Gilderoy Lockhart will be the least of your worries!

In the meantime, I still love you. Dad thinks that what you did is hilarious, it's the reason that he's now out front doing all of the gardening. I bet he wishes that he was a little bit better with counter curses now. Enjoy your first day of classes and do well. Try to keep yourself out of trouble. No detentions would be wonderful. But I know when being hopeful simply isn't enough. Anyways, tell your friends we said hello. Tell Cedric Diggory to keep an eye on you! I trust him.

Love Mom and Dad,  
Also, I'm sure that Dai will love you eventually, too. What did you do to him?

Had Dai flown back home? He must have. He probably wanted to be nowhere near the Whomping Willow, Ron, Harry, or me for a little while. Not that I blamed him. I figured that I probably shouldn't say anything to Mom and Dad about why Dai was so upset. They didn't need to be even angrier with me. I grinned at the letter. Thank Merlin we didn't have any of the Howler parchment. Mom had used the last of it to write an angry letter to her boss. My parents did make me laugh. Particularly Mom. She wanted Cedric to protect me, still wanted to know about my crush on him, and had ordered Dad to do the yard work because he thought that breaking the rules was funny.

Letting out a deep breath, I folded the letter back up and stuffed it into my bag. "Well, that could have been worse," I said brightly.

Hermione, who had been reading the letter over my shoulder, glared at me. "And you think that you've just managed to get off easy, now, do you?" she snapped at me.

Glaring at her, I shook my head. "Of course not. I did get a detention for that, in case you've forgotten. And let's not forget that I think that it's only taken me ten hours to get my parents disappointed in me this year," I snapped, angrier than I'd meant to be. "You know, I really didn't ask for the barrier to seal itself off."

"You should have written a letter," Hermione said.

That had been my first instinct, but I'd thought that it would take too long. I hadn't stopped to think that we would have been a priority. "It would have taken too long!" I barked back at her.

We had drawn some attention, but a moment later, all attention was on Ron. "Oh, no." Ron gasped.

I glanced over at Ron and saw that Errol hadn't moved. I was amazed that the bird was still actually alive. "It's all right, he's still alive," Hermione said, prodding Errol gently with the tip of her finger.

He fluttered slightly but remained otherwise still. "It's not that - it's that," Ron said.

His voice was breathless and I knew that this wasn't something that he liked. Ron was pointing at the red envelope that had just been delivered. When I'd first looked at it, I'd thought that it was just an ordinary letter. But a moment later, I realized exactly what it was. Just the thing that I had been grateful to avoid with my letter. Ron, Neville, and I were looking at it as though we expected it to explode. Which it sort of would. Harry and Hermione both looked confused that we were so startled by an ordinary letter.

At last, something magical that would surprise Hermione. She'd probably never read about these, since she wasn't a troublemaker. "Is that a Howler? Mom said that she almost sent me one," I said.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked curiously.

Ron was barely able to speak as he weakly held the letter in his hand. He had to open the letter himself, before it opened itself for him. "She's - she's sent me a Howler. This is a Howler, right, Tara?" Ron asked me faintly.

"Yes," I whispered.

The rest of the table began to slowly realize what Ron was holding. Lots of kids didn't seem to understand what it was, but a few either looked petrified for Ron or were grinning madly. Seamus was one of the ones that found this whole thing amusing. "Look, everyone. Weasley's got himself a Howler," he said.

All heads turned over to us. Ron, more specifically. There was a loud bought of laughter from the Gryffindor table, and even the Slytherin's. They all wanted to see a Gryffindor get it. Even the Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's turned back to look at us. The ones that were sitting near enough to hear Seamus's announcement. As far as I could remember, no one had gotten a Howler last year. Or, if they had, they'd been lucky enough to get one while they were either outside or in their dorms. This was the first one in public in a year. And it made it a little funnier that it was the first day of classes.

Even from here, I could see that Cedric had turned back to smile at us. "You'd better open it, Ron," Neville said in a timid whisper. "It'll be worse if you don't. My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and it was horrible." He gulped in fear. He was probably remembering his grandmother's wrath.

I'd never met Neville's grandmother, but she seemed absolutely terrifying. Harry looked from everyone's petrified faces to the red envelope. "What's a Howler?" he asked.

"You're about to find out," I muttered to him.

Some people had started to look away, thinking that the Howler wasn't going to be opened. Ron never answered Harry. His whole attention was fixed on the letter, which had begun to smoke at the corners. It was about to open itself. "Open it. It'll all be over in a few minutes," Neville tried to urge Ron.

Advising Harry and Hermione to close their ears, they both did so, looking at me like I'd lost my mind. Ron stretched out a shaking hand, eased the envelope from Errol's beak, and slit it open. That was usually all that someone had to do. Howlers kind of had minds of their own. Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears at the anticipation. A split second later, Harry and Hermione had clearly found out why. For a moment it sounded like the letter had exploded; that probably would have been better. A roar of sound filled the huge hall, shaking dust from the ceiling, and drawing everyone's attention.

"RONALD WEASLEY. HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR. I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE -"

Mrs. Weasley's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. I had been holding my mug of coffee, but I'd dropped it at her voice. I knew that Howlers were loud, but hers seemed louder than normal. People throughout the hall were swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen. Cedric was smiling, trying to suppress a laugh.

"- LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY AND TARA COULD ALL HAVE DIED -"

I had been wondering when Harry and I's names were going to crop up. As Ron sank lower and lower into the bench seat, Harry and I looked straight down at the wooden table. Laughter was now echoing throughout the hall as we'd been pulled into the scene. I could see Fred and George shaking with laughter, Percy rolling his eyes, and Ginny looking very shocked. Harry and I tried very hard to look as though we couldn't hear the voice that was making our eardrums throb.

"- ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED - YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."

A ringing silence fell. My ears were ringing loudly, feeling like they were about to explode. The red envelope, which had dropped from Ron's hand the moment that Mrs. Weasley's yells had started, stuck out a paper tongue, blew a raspberry at Ron, burst into flames and curled into ashes. Harry, Ron, and I sat stunned, as though a tidal wave had just passed over us. A few people laughed and, gradually, everyone began to laugh. Cedric was shaking his head, a huge smile on his face, as he looked back at his plate. It was a while that it took for the laughter to cease, and slowly, a babble of talk broke out again. Hermione closed Voyages with Vampires and looked down at the top of Ron's head.

Glancing over at Ron, I smiled weakly at him. I figured that it would take him a while to get over the embarrassment of receiving a Howler. "Well... That probably could have been worse," I said, breaking the stunned silence.

Hermione cleared her throat, barely looking away from her book. "Well, I don't know what you expected, Ron, but you -"

"Don't tell me I deserved it," Ron snapped.

After that, no one spoke much. At least, we didn't speak much to each other. I couldn't really think of anything to say. The rest of the Weasley's didn't seem the slightest bit surprised at the news. They didn't seem bothered that their father was facing an inquiry at work. Perhaps this was something that happened all of the time. Ginny was chatting back and forth with some of the other First Years that were sitting near her, probably trying to make new friends. Fred and George were laughing with Lee, probably still at Ron's expense. Percy was heading off with some other Prefects and Ron was still slinking down in his seat, grumbling angrily to himself.

They didn't seem to mind. But I did. And it was very obvious that Harry cared, too. Harry pushed his porridge away while I shoved back my goblet of water, wishing that I hadn't eaten anything before. My insides were burning with guilt. Mr. Weasley was facing an inquiry at work. After all Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had done for me over the summer... They'd essentially taken me in as another child while Mom and Dad had been so busy at work. And what had I done? Given Mr. Weasley an inquiry at work. It was pretty obvious that Harry felt just as bad as I did. I grabbed his hand under the table, letting him know that everything would be okay.

But would it? It didn't matter. We had no time to dwell on this; Professor McGonagall was moving along the Gryffindor table, handing out course schedules. She came over to us and scowled at Ron, Harry, and I before handing them to us. I took mine and saw that we had Double Herbology with the Hufflepuff's first. At least it wasn't the Slytherin's. Today we would also have Transfiguration, and, to my horror, Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'd never been dreading heading to that class so much. It was amazing that I could say that I would have rather had stuttering Quirrell - and Voldemort, in turn - teach me, over Lockhart.

A form fell behind me and I glanced back to see that Cedric was leaning over me, reading my schedule. I grabbed his out of the pocket of his robes and began to scan through it. He would be quite busy this year, in preparation for his O.W.L.s next year. Although I did notice that we both had a break at the same time on Wednesday. Not to mention that we would both be out of classes at the same time, bar Tuesday and Thursday, when he had his electives.

Once he was done reading over my list, he handed it back to me. After swiping it away playfully once, earning an annoying snort from Fred and George, I handed it back to Cedric. "You are so lucky that you didn't get a Howler," he teased me.

Next to me, I noticed Ron give a little flinch. I stood, moving slightly off to the side with Cedric, knowing that my friends still weren't his biggest fans. "We just didn't have any of the parchment for one, thankfully," I laughed.

Cedric smiled at me. "So what disaster can we all be expecting today?" he asked.

Laughing softly, I ran a hand through my hair, trying to keep the pink tinge out of my face as I saw Fred and George making kissy faces at me in the background. I was very grateful when Hermione began to tell them off, probably for being childish. "Oh, I don't know. Keep an eye out on the horizon of the greenhouses. You might see an explosion or two," I joked.

Once more, Cedric smiled at me. "Good luck with classes today," he told me.

I nodded at him. "You, too. See you later," I said, waving him off.

He nodded at me and turned back to the Hufflepuff table, gathering his friends to leave for class. As I turned back to harass Ron, Harry, and Hermione to leave for class, I was met with Fred Weasley. I jumped back, surprised to see him only a few inches from me. He was smiling so brightly at me that I knew that he had something to irritate me with.

Motioning for him to get on with it, he smiled, throwing an arm over his shoulder and gathering me into him. "You're so cute with him," he said happily.

"Shut your mouth," I snarled at him.

I should have known that showing him that he was bothering me would only make things worse. "I want to be invited to the wedding," Fred told me, smiling down at me. I rolled my eyes at him. He raised his voice and looked around to the rest of the Great Hall. "Hear ye, hear ye, all invited to the wed-"

Fearing that he wouldn't stop talking in time, I stomped down on his foot. "Shut up!" I shouted, drawing some attention to us. People laughed as I shoved Fred away from me, ignoring his laughter. "Merlin you're annoying," I muttered.

"It's just because I love you."

Scowling at him, I shook my head. "Love me a little less, yeah?" I asked.

Fred smiled at me and shook his head. "Never," he quipped back.

A kiss into my hair later - after I checked to ensure that he hadn't put anything in it - Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I left the castle together to head to Herbology. Of course, half of the way there, Ron and Harry berated me about my ever-growing friendship with Cedric. I rolled my eyes and attempted to speak with Hermione. But all she wanted to talk about was what Lockhart's lessons would entail. So I walked in a grumpy silence. We crossed the vegetable patch in silence, and made for the greenhouses, where the magical plants were kept. At least the Howler had done one good thing, Hermione seemed to think we had now been punished enough and was being perfectly friendly again.

If she mentioned one more thing about Lockhart, though, I was going to explode. Something about the man just set me on edge. Far more than the fact that he liked my mother. As we neared the greenhouses we saw the rest of the class standing outside, waiting for Professor Sprout. And, of course, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I had only just joined the rest of the class when she came striding into view across the lawn, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart. Professor Sprout's arms were full of bandages, and with another twinge of guilt, I spotted the Whomping Willow in the distance, several of its branches now in slings. It was very slowly moving back and forth, looking eons older than it really was.

The tree was just over twenty years old. Why did it look like that? Just because we'd smacked into it? I hadn't thought that we'd actually done any damage to it. As Ron had said last night, I thought that it did a little more damage to us. "Did we do that to the tree?" I asked Ron and Harry, ignoring Hermione's scathing glare.

She probably wanted to forget about the flying car incident. "What about what the tree did to us?" Ron snapped at me.

"We were fine," I snapped back at him. There were things that could easily heal us. Madam Pomfrey had healed Harry and I from an encounter with Voldemort. A Whomping Willow would be nothing. "A little rattled -"

"And nearly expelled -" Ron spoke over me.

"But we were fine," I insisted. Hermione was still glaring at me and I turned back to her. I loved plants and animals. I wasn't cruel. "I didn't mean to hurt the Whomping Willow. They're rare. And important. I can kind of see why Snape was so angry with us," I muttered.

The nasty glare on her face fell without warning. It looked like someone had dropped a bucket of ice-cold water on her. I very nearly laughed. "You're joking?" she asked me.

I shook my head proudly, earning laughs from everyone else. We all loved Hermione, but also loved putting her in her place. "I know how to take responsibility, thank you very much," I barked at her.

Professor Sprout was a squat little witch who wore a patched hat over her flyaway hair; there was usually a large amount of earth on her clothes and her fingernails would have made Horse-Face faint. I liked her well enough. She was very sweet and appreciated anyone that liked Herbology. She did love my mother, who had been fond of Herbology during her time at Hogwarts. She also loved Neville, who had a penchant for Herbology. Of course, Hermione would always be her favorite.

She was one of the few professors that had never given me a detention or taken away any points. Actually, she was the only professor that I had that had never taken away any points from me. Gilderoy Lockhart, however, was immaculate in sweeping robes of turquoise, his golden hair shining under a perfectly positioned turquoise hat with gold trimming. I rolled my eyes at the sight of him. He was strolling up with Professor Sprout, looking as pompous as ever.

Leaning over to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, I spoke under my breath. "The hell is Lockhart doing, helping Professor Sprout?" I asked.

"He understands Herbology," Hermione argued.

Turning to face her, I rolled my eyes. I wondered if I was as exasperated with her as she had been with me last year, before becoming friends with Ron and Harry. "I don't think that man understands anything more than how to smile for a camera," I hissed.

Unlike the moment that I'd realized that Snape was standing behind me and listening to what we'd said, I was not scared when I realized that Lockhart had just heard what I'd said. It didn't seem to have bothered him. He was merely smiling at me, probably thinking that it was a joke. "And it is very important, Miss Robins," Lockhart said.

"Nox," I growled the correction.

"Gesundheit," Lockhart said to me, absentmindedly.

Growling deep in my throat, I took a step closer to him. Not that I was sure what I was going to do. Hermione grabbed my arm and yanked me backwards. "Asshole," I snarled loud enough for him to hear me.

"Behave!" Hermione snapped at me.

The others in the class were watching the tense exchange closely. "Oh, hello there!" Lockhart called, beaming around at the assembled students, seemingly having just noticed them. "Just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is!"

"Don't worry, we didn't," I said.

Once more laughs were exchanged throughout the room. I did notice that Lockhart's smile faltered for just a moment. "As funny as your father was," he grinned at me before turning back to everyone else. I noticed the way that his jaw set when he mentioned Dad. "I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels."

"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" Professor Sprout called, who was looking distinctly disgruntled, not at all her usual cheerful self. I assumed that it had something to do with Lockhart being here.

There was a murmur of interest that rippled through the students. We had only ever worked in greenhouse one before - greenhouse three housed far more interesting and dangerous plants. Cedric had mentioned to me that we would be working in here this year. I was excited, Herbology was always a favorite of mine. Professor Sprout took a large key from her belt and unlocked the door. I caught a whiff of damp earth and fertilizer mingling with the heavy perfume of some giant, umbrella-sized flowers dangling from the ceiling. I wasn't quite sure what they were. Mom would have known the second that she saw them. She was good that way.

Harry and I were about to follow Ron and Hermione inside when Lockhart's hand shot out. It hit Harry in the stomach and I grunted as Harry threw me behind him protectively. No one seemed overly-fond of letting Lockhart within arm's reach of me. Literally. "Harry! Tara! I've been wanting a word." My stomach twisted as he looked at Professor Sprout. "You don't mind if he's a couple of minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?" he asked her sweetly.

Giving her a pleading look, I said as nicely as I could, "Professor Sprout, we have to get to work, don't we?"

She clearly caught the desperation in my eyes. "Right you are, Miss Nox," she said, urging me forward.

It wasn't just the fact that she knew that I was uncomfortable. Judging by Professor Sprout's scowl, she did mind. But Lockhart didn't seem to notice this. Instead, he said, "That's the ticket," and closed the greenhouse door in her face. Thankful that he didn't at least move us away from the greenhouse, I stood very close to Harry as Lockhart turned to us. "Harry," Lockhart tutted, his large white teeth gleaming in the sunlight as he shook his head. "Harry, Harry, Harry. And dear Miss Tara." Completely nonplussed, Harry and I said nothing. "When I heard - well, of course, it was all my fault. Could have kicked myself."

What the hell was he rambling on about? "Come again?" I asked.

Harry seemed to be about to say something else when Lockhart went on, "Don't know when I've been more shocked. Flying a car to Hogwarts! Well, of course, I knew at once why you'd done it. Stood out a mile. Harry, Harry, Harry." It was remarkable how he could show every one of those brilliant teeth even when he wasn't talking. "Gave you a taste for publicity, didn't I? Gave you the bug. You got onto the front page of the paper with me and you couldn't wait to do it again." Harry and I exchanged a shocked look. This was what he was pulling us out of class for? "Wanted your dear old Mum to be proud?" he asked me.

Setting my jaw, I prepared a nasty retort to him. "There are plenty of other things that I could do to make her proud. Appearing on the front cover with some -" I ranted until Harry stomped down on my foot to get me to stop talking. Maybe it was a good thing that he had done that. I wasn't sure where I was going with that, but it was nowhere good.

Whatever I was going to say, it probably would have earned me detention for a month. "Oh, no, Professor, see -" Harry tried to say before Lockhart spoke over him again.

"Harry, Harry, Harry," Lockhart said, reaching out and grasping his shoulder. Maybe he wouldn't have even realized if I'd said something nasty to him. "I understand. Natural to want a bit more once you've had that first taste - and I blame myself for giving you that, because it was bound to go to your heads - but see here, young man, you can't start flying cars to try and get yourself noticed. And you can't always follow him," he told me. I rolled my eyes and tried to resist throwing one of the oversized flower pots through his fat head. Harry's hand was on my leg, probably trying to keep me from doing just that.

Lockhart continued speaking, none the wiser to our dwindling patience. "Just calm down, all right? Plenty of time for all that when you're older. Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking! 'It's all right for him, he's an internationally famous wizard already!'" Not internationally... "But when I was twelve, I was just as much of a nobody as you are now." Harry and I exchanged a look. He was in hundreds of wizard history books and everyone in the Wizarding World knew his name. How was that a nobody? "In fact, I'd say I was even more of a nobody! I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven't they? All that business with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!" He glanced at the lightning scar on Harry's forehead. "I know, I know - it's not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row, as I have - but it's a start, Harry, it's a start."

For a long time, I couldn't think of anything to say to Lockhart. I'd never met someone as pompous and arrogant as he was. I didn't even know what I could say that wouldn't be overly rude. Not that I really cared about the way that he felt. His disturbing crush on my mother was bad enough, not to mention the odd way that he looked at me, almost like I reminded him of her. No, it got even worse when he considered himself a better person than Harry. Not only was Harry a better wizard - even Neville was - he was a much better person. I couldn't imagine him ever caring about Witch Weekly, whatever the hell is was.

Gritting my teeth, I couldn't help the nasty comment that I let slip. "Yes, how very unimpressive it is, defeating the greatest Dark Wizard that ever lived at the ripe old age of one," I sneered.

Lockhart looked over at me and smiled. He must have thought that I was joking. "Your mother was quick-witted, too, Tara," he told me.

"I know," I deadpanned.

Mom and Dad were always the only ones that could actually manage to keep up with me. Lockhart smiled at me. He moved forward to me but Harry stepped back, pushing me with him. "And you, my dear, have to slow down as well," Lockhart said. I raised my eyebrows, wondering what the hell he was talking about. "Getting all of the boys in Hogwarts wrapped around your finger. Just like your mother, my dear, just like her. Keeping young Harry here on a rope. Good girl."

My jaw literally dropped. Had I been watching it through a screen, I would have laughed at my reaction to what he'd just said. But I couldn't. My hand went to tighten around my wand, but I realized that it was in my bag, nowhere near me. I was going to kill him. I was actually going to kill him before the year was over? Was he really suggesting that I was attempting to seduce all of the boys in Hogwarts and keep them wrapped around my finger so that I could have them working hard for me? I was not some whore! And he had suggested that I was giving Harry hope that we would be together one day... That was disgusting!

The way that Harry was to me, was the same way that Ron was to Ginny. They were siblings. So were we. Hell, I'd asked my parents to adopt Harry plenty of times. "What the f-"

"Shut up!" Harry hissed at me, keeping me quiet. He knew that I was about to flip out. Lockhart merely smiled, probably thinking that I had Harry 'on the ropes' as he smiled. He gave Harry a hearty wink and strode off.

My knees were locked as I debated going after him and tearing his hair out. "What did he just say to me?" I hissed, partially to myself and partially to Harry. "I'm gonna kill him," I growled.

Harry's teeth were ground together. It was hard to make Harry mad, but I could tell that he was furious right about now. "Not if I get to him first," he snarled. It almost felt good to see Harry as angry as he was. He turned to me after a moment with an awkward gaze. "Did he just insinuate that I have a crush on you?" he asked me.

The two of us looked each other up and down for a long while. I supposed that Harry had nice... Eyes. His hair was okay. He was funny. But after a moment, we both let a disgusted look fall over our faces. "Eww," we said together.

It was a moment too late that I realized that that might have seemed a little rude. It seemed that Harry had come to the same conclusion. "I love you -" I awkwardly said before being spoken over.

"So do I -" Harry insisted.

"No offense -" I put in.

"None taken -" he responded.

"But -"

"Never," we both said together.

The two of us stood in silence for a moment before giggling slightly. It was rather funny the way that we'd done that. As much as I loved Harry, and vice versa, it was a sibling type of love, the same that I felt for Ron. I would never feel about Harry the way that I felt about Cedric. And I knew that he felt the same way about me. It was just the way that he felt about Hermione, too. We were both perfectly content teasing the other about their crushes.

"I think we should head inside," Harry said, once our laughter had died down.

Harry and I still stood stunned for a few seconds. I wasn't sure that anyone would ever make me react the way that Gilderoy Lockhart did. But we suddenly remembered that we were supposed to be in the greenhouse. The two of us turned back to the greenhouse, he opened the door, and we slid inside. Professor Sprout was standing behind a trestle bench in the center of the greenhouse. About twenty pairs of different-colored earmuffs were lying on the bench. She seemed to have been waiting for us to come back into the room. She gave me a guilty look but I smiled at her. There really wasn't any saying no to Lockhart. He didn't seem to understand the word.

The moment that Harry and I had taken our places in between Ron and Hermione, she said, "We'll be repotting Mandrakes today." I groaned. I'd had to do this with Mom once in the States, and it was awful. Mandrakes were terrible. Professor Sprout smiled at my obvious lack of enthusiasm. "Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" she asked.

To nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand was first into the air. I rolled my eyes at her, wondering if she would ever actually not know the answer to a question. Of course, that was probably the day that the earth would stop spinning. Professor Sprout smiled at her and motioned for her to speak as I angrily snapped closed Hermione's copy of Voyages With Vampires.

She was so busy answering that she hadn't even noticed my movement. "Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," Hermione said, sounding as usual as though she had swallowed the textbook. "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."

It was to cure a few cases of petrified children that Mom and I had been using them for. Professor Sprout beamed at Hermione. "Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor." We all smiled at her. Even the Hufflepuff's smiled at her. "The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"

I knew the answers to both of the questions, but I always let Hermione answer. Her hand narrowly missed Harry's glasses as it shot up again. "The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it," she said promptly.

Professor Sprout smiled once more. "Precisely. Take another ten points," she said.

The Gryffindor's were beaming at this. We were twenty points up already. And only on the first day of classes. But I knew that we weren't using full-grown Mandrakes. Their cry would kill someone. We couldn't risk that. Or, maybe with Dumbledore as Headmaster, we could. "Of course if they're babies they'll only stun you for a few hours," I said.

Professor Sprout glanced up at me and narrowed her eyes. She was still smiling at me, but she had to pretend to be upset, or no one would ever raise their hands again. "Hand, Miss Nox," she said.

"Sorry," I said through a blush.

The smile on her face told me that she wasn't really that upset with me. "But you are right. Two points to Gryffindor," she said. I exchanged a small smile with Hermione. We were normally the two that managed to get points given. Although I normally got quite a few taken, too. "Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young," Professor Sprout continued.

The moment that she had finished her thought, she pointed to a row of deep trays. We all looked over as everyone shuffled forward for a better look. At least we would be pulling them from one pot and placing them in another. When Mom and I had done this, we'd been ripping them out of the ground. They'd been adults with fatal cries. Not to mention that the roots had been way down into the ground. This would be no problem. A hundred or so little plants with small tufts sticking out of the tops, purplish green in color, were growing there in rows. I glanced over at Harry and smirked. I loved watching his reactions to magical things.

It was moments like these that made me so happy that he didn't read. "Everyone take a pair of earmuffs," Professor Sprout said. There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn't pink and fluffy. I managed to snatch a brown pair from Seamus, letting him have a bright red pair. "When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completely covered. When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Right - earmuffs on."

Everyone snapped the earmuffs over their ears. I didn't like the way that they shut out sound completely. I always liked being able to seat something. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be deaf. Professor Sprout put the pink, fluffy pair over her own ears, and rolled up the sleeves of her robes. All of the Muggle-Born's and some Half-Blood's watched excitedly. The Pureblood's and other Half-Blood's all looked like they'd rather be watching paint dry. Mandrakes were terrible and irritating. At least we weren't de-gnoming. Actually, that might have been easier. At least throwing them was entertaining.

Here, we had to be somewhat nice to the plants. I didn't need a point deduction from Professor Sprout for injuring the plant. She grasped one of the little plants firmly, and pulled hard. Harry let out a gasp of surprise - at least I assumed that it was a gasp - I could see him, but I couldn't hear him. Instead of roots, a small, muddy, and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. Unfortunately, this one was rather overweight. They all actually looked a little on the overweight side. Awesome. The leaves were growing right out of the Mandrake's head. It had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs.

It was just barely audible - the high-pitched scream. I could see a few kids cringing. It definitely didn't sound good. Others started slapping their hands over their earmuffs, trying to push them even tighter over their ears. Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it. It gave an indignant squawk at being manhandled the way that it was. She didn't hesitate before burying him in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. The screams ceased and I noticed just how relieved everyone seemed for it. Professor Sprout dusted off her hands, gave us all the thumbs-up, and removed her own earmuffs.

Everyone else followed suit. She waited until all of the earmuffs were off to speak again. "As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet," she said calmly as though she'd just done nothing more exciting than water a begonia. "However, they will knock you out for several hours, just as Miss Nox said, and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up. Four to a tray - there is a large supply of pots here - compost in the sacks over there - and be careful of the Venomous Tentacula, it's teething," she said.

Giving a startled jump, I stepped away. They were certainly not nice plants. Mom had dealt with plenty of their bites during her career as a Healer and had told me all about them, warning me to stay away from them. Professor Sprout gave a sharp slap to the spiky, dark red plant as she spoke, making it draw in the long feelers that had been inching sneakily over her shoulder. I was surprised that it even tried to maneuver towards her. Most of the plants feared and loved Professor Sprout, something that made me laugh. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I all sat together. Right next to us, at the next tray over, was a curly-haired Hufflepuff boy.

"Hey Justin," I said with a small smile.

We'd been decent friends over the last year - with the exception of the time that we'd lost two hundred and five points from Gryffindor one night - and I knew that he was close with Cedric. Cedric actually seemed to like quite a few of the younger Hufflepuff's. Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Ernie McMillan were among them. I wondered how close we would have been if I'd been Sorted into Hufflepuff. Or Slytherin... Would I have still been friends with Malfoy? Would I be friends with the Weasley's, Hermione, or even Harry? I didn't like to think about it.

"Hello, Tara," Justin said, waving to me. "Justin Finch-Fletchley," he said brightly, shaking Harry by the hand. "Know who you are, of course, the famous Harry Potter. And you're Hermione Granger. Always top in everything. Well, almost." Hermione beamed as she had her hand shaken too. "And Ron Weasley. Wasn't that your flying car?" Ron didn't smile. The Howler was obviously still on his mind. "That Lockhart's something, isn't he?" Justin happily as we began filling our plant pots with dragon dung compost. "Awfully brave chap. Have you read his books? I'd have died of fear if I'd been cornered in a telephone booth by a werewolf, but he stayed cool and - zap - just fantastic."

He continued to speak before I got the chance to say anything negative about Lockhart. "My name was down for Eton, you know. I can't tell you how glad I am I came here instead. Of course, Mother was slightly disappointed, but since I made her read Lockhart's books I think she's begun to see how useful it'll be to have a fully trained wizard in the family," he finished his small rant.

My curiosity was piqued though. Why had Justin almost gone to Eton? Not that it was a bad school. It was actually a Muggle school. I realized a moment later that he must have been a Muggle-Born. Eton College was a prestigious all-boys Muggle public school that was located near Windsor in Berkshire. It was well known for having many famous alumni, including eighteen former Prime Ministers of Britain and several members of the British Royal Family. I'd overheard Vermin talking about how Dudley should have gone there.

Still though, my focus was on just how much I hated our new Defense professor. "Lockhart is an ass," I hissed loudly enough so that he could hear me, but not so loudly that the ever-present Lockhart might.

Justin looked shocked at my comment. "Why's that?" he asked me.

Awkwardly shifting in my chair, I decided to tell him the truth. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't want everyone to know that Lockhart still held a torch for Mom. "He had some weird crush on my mother when they went to Hogwarts together, and now I think that he might be getting a little too friendly with me, too..." I said lowly.

The others sitting around us all looked horrified. Ron and Harry obviously hated Lockhart for the way that he looked at me. Hermione still believed that he was wonderful and there wasn't a thing that was wrong with him. She thought that I was overreacting. Justin looked disgusted at the very thought that something like that could possibly happen. His friends, the other Hufflepuff's, Hannah, Ernie, and Susan Bones all seemed put-off by the thought as well. His crush on my mother would be around the school by tonight.

"You should kick him in the jewels," Ron put in as I continued to fill my pot.

Snorting under my breath, I nodded. Ron seemed to slowly be getting in better spirits about his wand and the Howler. "I thought about it," I told him honestly.

I was reasonably certain that Mom and Dad would forgive that. "You can't attack a teacher!" Hermione chided.

"Don't worry, I won't, he doesn't teach anyways," I told her.

Laughs were exchanged along the table. At a slight distance, I could have sworn that I even saw Professor Sprout smile for a moment, too. "That's rude," Hermione told me over everyone else's laughter. I shrugged my shoulders at her. "He just likes getting the chance to speak to the child of an old friend of his."

"My mother hated him," I told her. "How are you so naive?"

She opened her mouth - presumably to give me a list of all of the reasons that she wasn't naive - when a clattering commotion drew our attention towards the other end of the room. My head snapped over and I saw that Neville was clearly not doing well with the Mandrakes. It was the first thing that he had not excelled in with Herbology. His hands were over the earmuffs but that didn't help. He wavered on his feet for a moment before dropping to the ground, passed out from the Mandrakes squealing.

Everyone leaned over to stare at him. He was fine, just lying on the ground, spread-eagle. A few people were snickering. Professor Sprout sighed and looked over to top of the table. "Longbottom's been neglecting his earmuffs," she groaned.

Seamus glanced down at his roommate. "No, ma'am, he's just fainted," he explained.

Professor Sprout stared at him for a moment before nodding and waving off the problem. "Yes, well, just leave him there," she said. I couldn't help it, I laughed. So did the others.

As terrible as we felt for Neville, no one was surprised that it was him that couldn't take the Mandrake scream. We did move him out of the way, but other than that we merely waited for him to wake up. It took almost the entire class for him to actually wake up, assisted out of the greenhouse by Dean and Seamus. After the incident with Neville, we didn't have much chance to talk. Our earmuffs were placed back on as tightly as they would go, we turned back to our desks. As much fun as we all had, this stuff was important in real life and just for the class. That meant that we needed to concentrate on the Mandrakes.

With everything else that Professor Sprout did, she had made it look extremely easy, but it wasn't. This was not the first time that I'd ever worked with Mandrakes before, but these were certainly worse than the first time that I'd worked with them. The Mandrakes didn't like coming out of the earth, but didn't seem to want to go back into it either. They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists, and gnashed their teeth. It meant that people continuously were bitten, shoving the Mandrakes into the pots roughly, many people bruising their fists with the force. Harry spent ten whole minutes trying to squash a particularly fat one into a pot.

The Mandrakes that I had gotten were just as unpleasant as the ones that everyone else had gotten. I was a little luckier to get thinner ones. But that didn't stay lucky for very long. Even though they were easier to shove into the pots, they moved very quickly. One in particular had a thin root that it was able to move. In time, it wouldn't be able to move it. The Mandrake had been so upset with me that it had whipped out the root, hitting me in the face. It had given me a small cut beneath my eye and I'd slammed it back into the pot so hard that I'd broken the ceramic. Professor Sprout let me finish early to get bandage myself up.

I was very grateful that the Slytherin's weren't in this class. I would have hated to see the look on Malfoy's face at my misfortune. By the end of the class, like everyone else, I was sweaty, aching, and covered in earth. Our group would all need good showers after that. Everyone traipsed back to the castle for a quick wash. I was very appreciative that Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, and Fay were all fast. We were in and out within fifteen minutes. I stayed in a little longer, washing out the cut on my face. I didn't want to spend the time going to Madam Pomfrey for it and I didn't want to do it myself. I knew the spell, but I didn't like using magic on myself.

Maybe I'd ask Hermione to take care of it later, if she knew how. Once we had cleaned ourselves off, the Gryffindor's hurried off to Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall's classes were always hard work, but today was especially difficult. Everything that most students had learned last year seemed to have leaked out of their heads during the summer. I assumed that most people hadn't been reading the spell books over the summer. Not that I blamed them. I knew that Harry hadn't, but that wasn't really his fault that the Dursley's had locked up all of his things. Maybe he'd get some pity points.

Today we were supposed to be turning a beetle into a button. It wasn't particularly hard. Leaning on my desk, I performed the spell over and over again. Professor McGonagall smiled at me, allowing me to stop halfway through the lesson. She knew that I'd gotten it. I could see how bitter Ron and Harry both looked. Hermione was the only other person that was managing well. A few others had gotten it, but nowhere close to the way that the two of us had. As I watched, after being relieved from my work, I saw that all Harry had managed to do was give his beetle a lot of exercise as it scuttled over the desktop avoiding his wand.

Ron was having far worse problems. His was definitely the worst in the entire class. He had patched up his wand with some borrowed Spellotape from me, but it seemed to be damaged beyond repair. He would have to get a new one. I'd already known that, but I'd wanted to give him some hope. His wand kept crackling and sparking at odd moments, and every time Ron tried to transfigure his beetle it engulfed him in thick gray smoke that smelled of rotten eggs. Unable to see what he was doing, Ron accidentally squashed his beetle with his elbow and had to ask for a new one. Professor McGonagall wasn't pleased.

By the time that we were finally allowed to leave, I was sure that I'd never been so exasperated. It felt like the life had been drained from me, and we weren't even done with the first day back yet. "I think you need a new wand," I told Ron as he poured over it sadly.

"They will not buy me a new wand," Ron said.

"I'll buy you one," I put in.

Ron looked over at me. "I don't need a handout," he snapped.

It was too late when I'd realized what I'd said. Wands - brand new from Ollivander's in Diagon Alley - were seven Galleons. When we'd been to the Weasley's vault in Diagon Alley, I hadn't even seen one. I hadn't meant to sound like I was offering him a hand-out. I knew that Ron tried to be proud about money. All of the Weasley's did.

"That wasn't what I meant..." I muttered awkwardly.

The moment that the lunch bell rang, I'd never been so excited. Even though nothing particularly awful had happened today, bar the strange encounter with Lockhart this morning, the day seemed to be dragging by and getting worse and worse. It seemed that I wasn't the only person that felt this way, something that I was very glad for. My brain felt like a wrung sponge and my temper was pressing as high as it could possibly go. And we still had Defense to get thought. Everyone filed out of the Transfiguration classroom except Ron, Harry, and I. Ron was whacking his wand furiously on the desk.

"That'll help," I told him.

Not that he was listening to me. Ron was clearly beside himself in anger that he'd probably have to use this thing all year long. "Stupid - useless - thing -" He was accentuating each word with another whack of the wand on the desk.

Harry decided to give the same suggestion that I had given just an hour ago. "Write home for another one," he suggested as the wand let off a volley of bangs like a firecracker. The three of us ducked behind the table, not trusting that it wasn't going to send a wayward spell to melt our eyebrows off.

"Oh, yeah, and get another Howler back," Ron said, stuffing the now hissing wand into his bag. If he had been in a better mood, I would have told him that putting a hissing wand into a bag with books and papers - all flammable - was a bad idea. "'It's your own fault your wand got snapped...'" he muttered to himself.

Harry and I both kept our mouths shut as we walked out of the hall. We knew that Ron was in a bitter mood. Half of the problem was definitely that the wand had kind of been his own fault. The other half was that he was still beside himself with embarrassment over the Howler from this morning. So, in a very thick silence, we went down to lunch. I sat gloomily at the table, picking at the hamburger on my plate, while I doodled on my parchment. I was not the only one in a sour mood. Harry was barely speaking and Ron's mood was not improved when Hermione showing us the handful of perfect coat buttons she had produced in Transfiguration.

For a moment I thought that Ron would knock them out of her hand. I couldn't imagine that doing so would have made things any better. I had left all of my buttons back in the room. It wasn't particularly thrilling to me. I would have rather been transforming into an animal or something. But I knew that becoming an Animagus was extremely difficult. Plus, I didn't want to have to go through the whole registration. You could do it illegally, but there was a big punishment for being caught.

"What have we got this afternoon?" Harry asked, hastily changing the subject.

There was absolutely no hesitating in the way that Hermione answered, "Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Groaning irritably, I shoved my head into the table. Harry laughed and patted me on the back. "Why," Ron demanded from Hermione, making my head shoot up from the table as he seized her schedule, "have you outlined all Lockhart's lessons in little hearts?" Hermione snatched the schedule back, blushing furiously.

Glancing over at the schedule, I saw that she had, indeed, outlined all of Lockhart's lessons with little hearts. Snatching Voyages With Vampires from her, I closed it, not bothering to mark her page, and began whacking her over the arm with is. "Why - do - you - like - him?" I howled, accentuating every word with a smack, drawing the attention of a few other people at the table. "He's - an - asshole - and - an - idiot!" I continued. Fred and George were laughing on the other side of the table.

Ron grabbed the book from me before I could do any permanent damage. Reaching over for Neville's copy of Travels With Trolls, I was stopped by a very concerned voice. "Uh - Tara?" Cedric called to me. I turned back to him, trying to keep the crazed look from my eyes. Hermione seemed very concerned for my well-being. "Are you alright?"

"I'm going to explode before I sit in a classroom with Gilderoy Lockhart all year long!" I barked.

Plenty of other people in the Great Hall began to laugh at my comment. The edges of Cedric's lips turned up in a small smile. "Ah... I understand," he told me. I twisted on the bench so that I was turned towards him. Harry and Ron's stances had suddenly become tense. "How about meeting me in the library sometime next week?" he offered.

Smiling softly, I nodded. "I'd like that. Say Wednesday? I've got a lighter day," I said, remembering spotting that we had the same break on his schedule when I'd swiped it from him this morning.

Cedric nodded back at me. "Wednesday works. Try not to kill Lockhart," he teased.

"I will not make that promise."

"Good," he said. I smiled at the comment and I noticed that a smile even threatened to pop up on Harry's face, despite the fact that it was Cedric speaking. He seemed to finally notice the mark on my cheek. "What happened to your cheek?"

"Mandrake root," I said, rolling my eyes at myself.

Cedric sighed and grabbed my hand, pulling me from the edge of the table. "Come here," he said.

I took his hand and allowed him to pull me into him. He pressed a hand underneath my cheek and I blushed softly. It didn't help that I could hear George making irritating girly noises. Cedric pushed my head upwards and gently ran a finger over the cut. When I twitched in a slight pain, I could see the guilt written across his face. I smiled at him, letting him know that I was okay. It was still just a little ginger. He pulled his wand from his robes with one hand and held my face still with the other. I was a little nervous to have a wand so close to my eye, but I trusted him. He gave me a look that was as if to ask me if this was alright, and I nodded.

He gave his wand a soft wave and said, "Episkey."

A slight warming sensation fell over my cheek and I raised my hand to it as Cedric released me. The raised skin was gone and no longer sensitive. "Thank you," I said softly.

Cedric smiled back at me. I ignored the gagging noises coming from the twins. "You're welcome. I'll let you finish your lunch in peace. See you around," he told me.

Waving him off, I took my seat back in between Harry and Hermione. She looked much less concerned that I would hit her with her book again. Although I noticed that she kept it slightly out of my reach. I gathered my hamburger again and began eating it, trying to ignore Fred and George reenacting the scene of Cedric fixing my cheek - slightly more dramatic than what had actually happened. Seamus and Dean were both laughing, teasing me along with Lee.

Rolling my eyes at them, I hid my face in my Herbology book. Harry looked over at me. I glanced up at him, wondering what he wanted. "Might want to do a Color-Change Charm on your face," he said.

"Shut up," I growled.

Thankfully the rest of lunch was made in relative silence. Only a few more comments were passed about my relationship status with Cedric before they dropped it. I did notice Cho Chang - a Ravenclaw that had hated me since I'd dropped ice cream on her new shoes before I'd started my First Year at Hogwarts - give me a nasty glare as she passed. I couldn't understand for the life of me why she had some issue with me already. It had taken a rather embarrassing comment from Angelina Johnson - one of the Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team - to make me realize. Cho Chang had a crush on Cedric Diggory, but he spent more time with me.

My cheeks still burning with embarrassment from the look on Angelina's face, we finished our lunches and went outside into the overcast courtyard. It was a nice enough day to spend some time in the fresh air before being stuck down with Gilderoy Lockhart for what I was sure would be a very painful first day of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione sat down on a stone step and buried her nose in Voyages with Vampires again. I did notice her shift a few inches away from me when my jaws locked together.

Everyone around us laughed. My stunt in the Great Hall had been seen by more people than I had thought that it had been. Clearly the kids that had already had Lockhart didn't like him. It was only the few students that hadn't had him yet, or the girls that loved him, like Hermione, who still believed that he was as good as his books said that he was. Harry, Ron, and I stood talking about Quidditch for several minutes. Ron seemed determined to try to get me to like the Chudley Cannons. He had admitted that the Stars were better during our last few days at the Burrow and he had since been trying to get me to understand that although they were good, the Cannons were, too.

We were in the middle of an argument about how they had lost every game that they'd played against the Stars when Harry made a quick turn of the head. I glanced over and followed his line of sight. It was obvious that he was being closely watched. I saw who was watching him and smiled. It was the very small, mousy-haired boy that I had seen trying on the Sorting Hat last night. He was staring at Harry as though transfixed. He was clutching what looked like an ordinary Muggle camera, and the moment Harry looked at him, he went bright red. He was very slowly moving over towards us.

He must have been a Muggle-Born that had found out who Harry was. "All right, Harry? I'm - I'm Colin Creevey," he said breathlessly, taking a tentative step forward. His voice was weak. "I'm in Gryffindor, too." Colin looked around and I smiled. I could assume that he definitely was a Muggle-Born, the way that he was smiling at Harry. His eyes then locked on me. I smiled sweetly at him. His face turned slightly pink. "H-Hello," he stammered, blushing madly now.

"Hi," I chirped back to him.

Colin blushed furiously. "Colin Creevey. Nice to - to meet you," he told me.

Off to the side, I could see Harry and Ron rolling their eyes at me. I thought that it was rather endearing. He was very obviously thrilled to be here. He clearly thought that Harry was the savior of the Wizarding World - which he kind of was - and it seemed that he'd already managed to find a crush. Me. It didn't bother me one bit. My eyes were already on someone else, but Colin seemed nice enough that I was sure that a little crush on me wouldn't be of any harm. Although I did wonder if his crush on me was as obvious as mine was on Cedric.

"Tara Nox," I told him, reaching out to shake his hand. It was slightly sweaty. "Good to meet you, too, Colin. First Year, eh?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Colin continued to blush. "Yeah. I love it already," he told me. I nodded as he turned over to Harry. He very nervously fingered his camera. "D'you think - would it be all right if - can I have a picture?" he asked, raising the camera hopefully.

"A picture?" Harry repeated blankly.

Covering my mouth, I looked away with Ron, fighting back laughter. It was sweet the way that Colin thought that Harry was so incredible. But that didn't mean that I didn't want to laugh at the way that Harry looked like Colin had just asked him to kiss the Venomous Tentacula from greenhouse number three.

"So I can prove I've met you," Colin said eagerly, edging further forward. "I know all about you. Everyone's told me. About how you survived when You-Know-Who tried to kill you and how he disappeared and everything and how you've still got a lightning scar on your forehead," his eyes raked Harry's hairline and I saw the boy in mention shift awkwardly, "and a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures will move." Ron and I both nodded. It was similar to the way that Muggles developed pictures, but wizards had a special potion that was made to make them move.

Colin drew a great shuddering breath of excitement and said, "It's amazing here, isn't it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hogwarts. My dad's a milkman, he couldn't believe it either. So I'm taking loads of pictures to send home to him. And it'd be really good if I had one of you," he said. I smiled at him. It was a little creepy, but the notion was sweet. He looked imploringly at Harry and said, "Maybe your friend could take it and I could stand next to you? And then, could you sign it?"

Harry looked like he was about to politely decline Colin's request of anything but a picture, when a voice called across the yard. "Signed photos? You're giving out signed photos, Potter?"

Loud and scathing, Draco Malfoy's voice echoed around the courtyard. I rolled my eyes and turned back to him. He looked as unpleasant as ever. I thought about making a nasty retort using something that I'd overheard his father say in Borgin and Burkes, but I decided to say nothing. I didn't want to get involved in that conversation. Malfoy had stopped right behind Colin, flanked, as he always was at Hogwarts, by his large and thuggish cronies, Crabbe and Goyle. Stupider than they were ugly, they were good enough to help terrorize most of Hogwarts.

"Everyone line up!" Malfoy roared to the crowd. "Harry Potter's giving out signed photos!"

"No, I'm not," Harry said angrily, his fists clenching. "Shut up, Malfoy."

Obviously things were about to get bad, as they always did whenever Malfoy was near. None of us could ever manage to actually be civil towards each other. "You're just jealous," Colin piped up, whose entire body was about as thick as Crabbe's neck.

I almost wanted to yank him back. He didn't need to be involved with them in any way. "Jealous?" Malfoy repeated, who didn't need to shout anymore: Half the courtyard was listening in. "Of what? I don't want a foul scar right across my head, thanks. I don't think getting your head cut open makes you that special, myself." Crabbe and Goyle were sniggering stupidly.

Stepping forward, I pushed myself in between Colin and Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle made a move towards me - making Ron and Harry move forward - but Malfoy held up a hand. They stopped in their tracks as Malfoy came to stand within a few inches of me. The courtyard had gone silent as they watched the confrontation. Hermione was still reading her book, but I noticed that her eyes had slowed down scanning over the pages, watching the two of us stare each other down.

"Coming to tease a First Year that doesn't know any better than to not be afraid of you?" I asked Malfoy. The flash of Colin's camera blinded me for a moment before I went on. "All bark and no bite."

Malfoy took another step forward. He was nearly pressed against me. "Watch what you say to me, Nox," he warned.

It was nothing that I'd never heard before. He was such an ass. And I was not afraid of him. "I've heard that warning all before. But nothing ever seems to happen. Grow a pair, Malfoy, and come confront someone yourself," I snarled. Crabbe stopped laughing.

Snickers echoed through the courtyard. Malfoy's face went pink at the insult. Harry and Ron both laughed as Colin's camera flashed again. "Why you little -"

"Eat slugs, Malfoy," Ron interrupted angrily. He grabbed me and shoved me back towards Harry. Crabbe started rubbing his knuckles in a menacing way.

Malfoy seemed much less thrilled to be speaking with Ron. "Be careful, Weasley. You don't want to start any trouble or your mommy will have to come and take you away from school." He put on a shrill, piercing voice. "If you put another toe out of line -" A knot of Slytherin Fifth Years nearby laughed loudly at this. I rolled my eyes at them as Malfoy smirked. "Weasley would like a signed photo, Potter. It'd be worth more than his family's whole house -"

Ron whipped out his Spellotaped wand, but Hermione shut Voyages with Vampires with a snap and whispered, "Look out!"

Everyone's head turned back to see what had happened. I glanced back and saw, with a twinge of horror, someone that I looked forward to seeing even less than Draco Malfoy. "You must be joking," I growled.

"What's all this, what's all this?" Gilderoy Lockhart was striding toward us, his turquoise robes swirling behind him. His smile was still plastered irritatingly across his face. "Who's giving out signed photos?" Harry started to speak but he was cut short as Lockhart flung an arm around his shoulders and thundered jovially, "Shouldn't have asked! We meet again, Harry! And Miss Nox, still instilling the wonders of young love." He winked at me.

Rolling my eyes at him, I prepared to embarrass both myself and Harry. The entire courtyard seemed even more interested with Lockhart now involved. "I already told you that Harry is like my -"

Lockhart shook his head at me with a toothy smile. I wanted nothing more than to punch his perfect teeth in. He went to wrap his spare arm around me, but, to my surprise, Malfoy was the one to shove me out of the way. I gave him a strange look, but it seemed that even he didn't like the way that the new teacher looked at me. I gave him a grateful nod, hoping that he would never do something like that again. It made me feel weird when he did things like that.

Lockhart seemed none the wiser to what had just happened. "Not Harry, my dear. Look at the smitten glance on Mr. Creevey," he said.

My jaw nearly dropped. The entire courtyard burst out into loud fits of laughter. They weren't laughing at me, well, maybe they were, but I didn't care. I could handle people laughing at me for a crush. I did that on a daily basis. What I really felt bad for was Colin. His face had turned tomato red as he attempted to hide from the entire Hogwarts student body. I noticed that Cedric had been walking past at the same moment, and he was frowning at Lockhart. He and his friends stopped to watch the scene.

It was pretty obvious that Colin was attempting to fight back tears at the very embarrassing scene. "You didn't need to say that out loud!" I shouted at the new teacher, ignoring the fact that it was very rude of me. I moved forward, debating on whether touching Colin would make things better or worse. "Oh, Colin, I'm so sorry about that," I muttered to him.

He shook his head at me, trying to give me a smile. "Or, of course, young Mr. Malfoy," Lockhart continued.

That was when the courtyard couldn't take it anymore. Laughter sounded so loudly that I thought that the castle might collapse. My face was burning, whether it was more from embarrassment or anger, I wasn't sure. "I'd rather claw my own eyes out!" I yelled at the same time that Malfoy yelled, "Not in a million years!"

The laughter only increased after that. The upper years were howling with laughter at the embarrassment of a few First and Second Years, as those closer to our age snickered, knowing the hated that Malfoy and I had for each other. We exchanged a very disgusted look with each other before Malfoy snarled at me and slid away from us, into the crowd. He clearly wanted nothing to do with this. I went to move as well, but I was unable. Lockhart reached out and pinned me to one side, Harry on the other, the both of us burning with humiliation. Harry from the picture debacle, me from the Malfoy and Colin comments.

Cedric looked like he was about to move forward to grab me away from Lockhart. "Ah, young love changes in time. Come on then, Mr. Creevey," Lockhart said, beaming at Colin. "A double portrait, can't do better than that, and we'll both sign it for you." Colin fumbled for his camera and took the picture as the bell rang behind us, signaling the start of afternoon classes. "Off you go, move along there," Lockhart called to the crowd, and he set off back to the castle with Harry and me. I gave Harry a desperate look, but it was clear that neither of us could do anything without being expelled for attacking a teacher.

A moment later, Cedric came up to my side with some of his friends, who looked just as concerned as he was. I assumed that the rumor of Lockhart's torch for my mother had already spread. "Professor Lockhart, I need to borrow Harry and Tara for just a few moments. Official Inter-House Quidditch business," Cedric explained.

Lockhart smiled at Cedric as we continued to walk. "Young love, Mr. Duggerly," Lockhart said, making me roll my eyes.

"Diggory," I corrected.

Lockhart ignored me. "Very kind of you to want to save young Miss Robins, as men normally do."

"Nox," I growled.

He ignored me. "But we must be on our way to the next class. Your first Defense class with... Me!" Harry and I exchanged a desperate look. "They will be able to speak afterwards. Come, kids." And Lockhart yanked us away from Cedric and his friends.

Thanks for trying, I mouthed back to him.

Even Harry looked grateful at the attempt. We were yanked out of their sight a moment later. "A word to the wise, Harry," Lockhart said as we entered the building through a side door. "I covered up for you back there with young Creevey - if he was photographing me, too, your schoolmates won't think you're setting yourself up so much."

No part of me could believe that Gilderoy Lockhart wasn't a figment of my imagination. How could someone actually be so pompous and arrogant? I hadn't even thought that it was possible. Harry attempted to say something, anything, but it wasn't working. Deaf to Harry's stammers, Lockhart swept the two of us down a corridor lined with staring students and up a staircase. Everyone seemed interested as to why we were on Lockhart's arms. I noticed some lingering gazes on me. Yep, the rumor has definitely gone around about Mom.

"Let me just say that handing out signed pictures at this stage of your career isn't sensible - looks a tad big-headed, Harry, to be frank. There may well come a time when, like me, you'll need to keep a stack handy wherever you go, but," he gave a little chortle as Harry and I stared, "I don't think you're quite there yet. And you, my dear, best to keep to one boy at a time," he told me. My jaw set almost painfully. "Not to worry, Harry, she'll see the brightness in you soon enough."

Trying to avoid Harry's gaze, I thought about digging my very-sharp nails into Lockhart's arm. Thankfully we had reached Lockhart's classroom right then. He let Harry and I go at last. Harry reached out for my arm, and ripped me away from Lockhart. It was almost painful but I allowed him to speed me down the hallway. As we walked, he let go of me and the two of us yanked our robes straight. Together, we headed for a few seats at the very back of the class, where we busied ourselves with piling all seven of Lockhart's books in front of us, so that we could avoid looking at the real thing.

Once we had managed to make our little castle, I turned to Harry. "Merlin, I'm so sorry," I said to him.

He shook his head at me and rearranged the books slightly. "Don't worry about it, Tara. He's a nightmare." Nightmare was about the nicest thing that I could say about Lockhart. The rest of the class came clattering in a moment later, all staring at Harry and I. Ron sat down on Harry's other side and Hermione sat down on mine.

"You could've fried an egg on your faces," Ron said. Harry and I both ignored him. "You'd better hope Creevey doesn't meet Ginny, or they'll be starting a Harry Potter fan club. And Diggory, oh man, should have seen the way that he tried to race to your rescue."

"Shut up," Harry and I snapped together.

The last thing that we needed was for Lockhart to hear the phrase 'Harry Potter fan club' or hear that Cedric had come racing after me. I kept my head very low, trying to pretend that I wasn't even in the class. Typically Defense Against the Dark Arts was my favorite class and I loved to speak up in it, but I intended to be dead silent and skip class whenever I could this year. It was absolutely pathetic to say that I would have rather had Voldemort teaching us again.

It didn't take long for everyone to find their seats. It turned out that we would have this class with the Slytherin's. Unfortunately enough. As Malfoy walked into the room, we briefly made eye contact, but quickly looked away. He sat himself right in front of me. Crabbe was at one side and Goyle was at the other. Pansy Parkinson - his sort-of girlfriend that hated me even more than Cho Chang - was in front of him. She gave me a nasty glare, probably having heard the earlier comment from Lockhart about us liking each other. I didn't want him. I was more than happy to let her have him. I had accidentally shoved the two of them together last year anyways.

The class filled up quickly. Even with Lockhart teaching, everyone still liked Defense. When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. I didn't look at him for a moment. I wanted to avoid his gaze for as long as I could. In the meantime, I rolled out a parchment and debated on writing a very nasty note to Mom. Not that Dai liked me enough to deliver it right now. When I finally looked up, I saw Lockhart reach forward and pick up Neville's copy of Travels with Trolls. I thought that he might talk to us about trolls - something that reminded me creepily of Professor Quirrell - but he merely held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.

Of course. "Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award - but I don't talk about that." You just did. "I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" I doubt you did it at all. He waited for us to laugh; a few people smiled weakly. "I see you've all bought a complete set of my books - well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about - just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in." When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said, "You have thirty minutes - start - now!"

Well, I supposed that a little quiz was better than him yammering on about himself for the next hour. I looked down at his paper and read:

1\. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?  
2\. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?  
3\. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?

"These are all about him!" I hissed at Harry.

Ron looked as stunned as I was. Harry didn't seem to have processed that this wasn't a joke yet. Hermione was scribbling away. Of course she knew the answers. "Zip it!" she snapped at me.

It seemed that no one else knew the answers either. "Do you know any of these?" Ron asked me.

"Yeah, right," I scoffed.

On Hermione's glare, I went back to my paper and began scribbling down answers that were probably going to earn me a big, fat, detention. On and on the parchment it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:

54\. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?

Not a single question on the paper had anything to do with the practical magic of Defense Against the Dark Arts. There were a few things about how he had done some things from the books, but nothing that didn't mention his name. Every single one of my answers were impolite, and I knew that Hermione would get on my case for them if she ever found out, but I didn't care. Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.

Lockhart seemed thoroughly disappointed. Although you could still see his gleaming teeth. "Tut, tut. Hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wanderings with Werewolves more carefully - I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples - though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky!"

Everyone seemed absolutely floored at the gall of the professor to make a quiz all about himself. Hermione was sitting stiffly, probably hoping to be praised for knowing his favorite color was lilac. "You also show your pigheadedness towards real human beings that happen to have fallen prey to lycanthropy," I spit out before I could stop myself.

Barks of laughter were exchanged from the boys in the class. Even Malfoy laughed. Many of the girls sent me little scowls. Ron and Harry both patted me on the knee. Lockhart turned to me with a smile. "Now, now, Miss Robins -"

"Nox -" I interrupted loudly.

As expected, he ignored me. "We have to remember just how dangerous that werewolves get on full moons. A man couldn't control himself. He could go on a killing rampage and end the lives of everyone in England," he said.

"Yet here we all sit," I put in.

Snickers were once more echoing through the room. I cringed as the heel of Hermione's shoe stomped down on my foot. "Stop it," she hissed at me.

Lockhart still didn't seem bothered at my words. He probably thought that I was just kidding. He gave us another roguish wink. Ron was now staring at Lockhart with an expression of disbelief on his face; Harry seemed about ready to fling Lockhart out of the window; Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, who were sitting in front, were shaking with silent laughter from my previous comment; Neville looked amused but like he'd really rather me stop before I got in trouble; Parvati and Lavender were both scowling at me; Fay seemed unperturbed. Hermione, on the other hand, was listening to Lockhart with rapt attention and gave a start when he mentioned her name.

"Now Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions. Good girl!" I rolled my eyes. He spoke of her like she was a dog. "In fact," he flipped her paper over, "full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?" Hermione raised a trembling hand. "Excellent! Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor!"

Although I did like earning another ten points for Gryffindor, I did not like the way that she was positively beaming at him. Way too young for him, Hermione. "For Merlin's sake," I muttered.

It was obviously not quiet enough. "Now, now, Miss Robins -"

"Nox -"

"Jealousy is not a pretty look," Lockhart continued. My cheeks burned as Malfoy grinned. "Shall we look over your paper?" he asked me.

Grinning slightly, I nodded. "Go for it."

Lockhart flipped the pages for a moment, his face contorting in strange motions. "Very funny, my dear," he said, clearing his throat as he turned back to the front page. "My favorite color is the same black as my soul, my secret ambition is to actually be successful at something other than lying, and my greatest achievement is being an overrated jerk who holds a torch for a married woman."

There was no more keeping the laughter down to little snickers and faces shoved in books to cover themselves. Roaring laughter echoed through the room. I smiled proudly at my answers, wishing that he would continue. I had some really good ones. Like what I thought that his best quality was and the legacy that he would leave. Lavender, Parvati, and Fay's mouths dropped. They probably couldn't believe that I'd done something like that. Seamus and Dean seemed about ready to fall from their chairs. Neville's face was twitching as he snorted into his books. Harry's head was on my shoulder, laughing so hard that he might wet himself; Ron was practically crying. Even the Slytherin's were laughing loudly. Hermione looked absolutely beside herself that I had dared to write that.

For a brief moment, I saw the corner of Lockhart's jaw twitch in irritation that so many people were laughing at him. My eyes twinkled as I smiled sweetly at him. "Just like your father," he said, effectively silencing the class. "Oh, my dear, as much as this pains me, five points from Gryffindor for your cheek."

Shrugging my shoulders, I glanced around the room. No one seemed particularly bothered, other than Hermione, who had just lost half of the points that she had gained. "So worth it," Seamus said.

Smiling at him, I nodded. As far as I was concerned, I'd only lost three, seeing as Professor Sprout had given me two. "Thank Merlin, I thought that he was going to give me a detention. I could not be in a room alone with him," I told Harry and Ron.

On my other side, Hermione was still scowling at me. "That was extremely rude, you know?" she said.

Glaring at her, I shoved her book away from me. "So is everything that he's said to me since the moment that he first laid eyes on me last month," I hissed at her. "Shut up."

And she did, probably knowing that I was not joking about my severe hatred for Gilderoy Lockhart. "And so, to business." Lockhart bent down behind his desk and lifted a large, covered cage onto it. "Now - be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."

His voice was so wondrous that I felt like I was watching one of those terrible Muggle drama movies. But, in spite of myself, I leaned around the pile of books that Harry and I had built for a better look at the cage. Not that there was probably anything impressive in it. I was just hoping that he would make an ass of himself again. Lockhart placed a hand on the cover. Dean and Seamus had stopped laughing now. Neville was cowering in his front row seat. Hermione looked like she might explode from excitement.

As for me, I was merely staring curiously. "I must ask you not to scream," Lockhart said in a low voice. "It might provoke them." As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover. "Yes," he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies." Seamus Finnegan couldn't control himself. He let out a snort of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror. I began to laugh right along with him. "Yes?" He smiled at Seamus.

Seamus was a Half-Blood. He presumably knew what Cornish pixies were. They were a pain in the ass. But they wouldn't kill you. "Well, they're not - they're not very - dangerous, are they?" Seamus barely managed to choke out.

"No. They're just annoying," I said.

We'd had an infestation in Ilvermorny once, and it had been up to the summer students to help get rid of them. It had taken hours but we'd managed. Not without lots of little bites. "Don't be so sure!" Lockhart chirped, waggling a finger annoyingly at Seamus and I. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!"

Well, duh. That was kind of the whole point of pixies. They were all nasty and clever. But they weren't dangerous. These kind of pixies were electric blue and about eight inches high, with pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. They liked to squeal in people's ears to try and distract them while they caused mayhem. That was mostly what they did. Destroy whatever they came into contact with. They were kind of like the Muggle equivalent of termites. The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them.

They also really liked to make fun of people. They always took things out of the weakest of the people that they could find. "Right, then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage before anyone could suggest otherwise.

It was pandemonium. A loud curse escaped my mouth the moment that he had. I'd never seen someone so foolish. The pixies weren't dangerous, they weren't going to kill anyone, but they'd certainly annoy us and cause problems. Unless he was going to round them all up in a moment, I couldn't see why he had actually done this. The pixies took no time in shooting off in every direction like rockets. They went as far from the cage as they could go. The only good thing was that the door was closed, so they couldn't get out of the classroom and into the rest of Hogwarts. Maybe that would have been for the best, though. Lockhart would have been tossed.

The pixies let out happy squeals as they burst from the cage. Immediately, kids stood and began rushing away from the madness. Hermione stood from the desk and ran off to the side, shoving her books with her. People were beating them off of themselves as they made a mad dash from the room. One of the pixies grabbed my hood and yanked it over my head. Two more shoved me backwards and I tripped, landing on someone else. We roughly shoved away from each other and I rolled my eyes when I realized that it was Malfoy. We stared at each other for a moment before he lunged towards me.

Was he going to attack me? I went to reach for my wand to keep him away from me, but I never got the chance. I was utterly shocked when he tackled me around the waist and shoved me backwards. The two of us went sprawling across the floor as a very large jar - just slightly smaller than me - smashed over where I had been a second prior. Malfoy was sitting just over me, and for a while we just stared at each other. I opened my mouth to thank him, but I didn't get a chance. Crabbe grabbed Malfoy and pulled him to his feet as Harry did the same with me. We were pulled in opposite directions, Malfoy towards the door and myself towards Ron and Hermione.

My thoughts of Malfoy saving me were but off when I saw that someone was much less fortunate than I was. Two of the pixies seized Neville by the ears and lifted him into the air. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. Hermione screamed and ducked out of the way of a large piece. I couldn't believe that our screaming wasn't alerting the rest of the castle to what was going on in here. Someone needed to get here and help us! There was no way that Lockhart knew what to do, and most of us were too panicked to actually think properly and do something.

In the meantime, the rest of the pixies proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhinoceros. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them - some of it getting across my face - shredded books and papers - most of them Lockhart's, making me laugh - tore pictures from the walls, upended the waste basket, and grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window. I was very grateful that I had my bag tucked under the desk where they couldn't get to it. Within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Neville was swinging from the iron chandelier in the ceiling.

Standing from under the desk, I brandished my wand to save him. "Neville! Hang on!" I shouted.

He looked terrified. "Come on now - round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted. I debated on throwing a book at him. He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"

It had absolutely no effect; one of the pixies seized his wand and took it with them. It flew up the floating Thestral skeleton over the top of the classroom that had always been there. It brandished the wand as it flew to the lock that kept it bolted in the ceiling. Everyone seemed to know what it was doing. Kids dove out of the way as the pixie tapped it against the bones. The chain broke and screams echoed as the skeleton went careening to the ground, one of the pixies that was riding on the spine started shouting like a cowboy. It hit the ground and the bones sprayed everywhere. The pixie that was still holding the wand threw it out of the window.

Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding being squashed by Neville. The chandelier gave way a second later and came crashing to the ground. It broke apart and I was very grateful that Neville had been thrown away from it when it crashed. He could have been seriously hurt. The pixies merely laughed and brought him back up, hanging him on the smaller chandelier in the back of the room. The bell rang and there was a mad rush toward the exit. The pixies were still flying back and forth, pinching and biting people that were running off. I was crouched in the front of the room with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Lockhart straightened up from his desk and caught sight of the four of us as we snuck towards the door, trying to avoid the pixies.

"Well, I'll ask you three to just nip the rest of them back into their cage," Lockhart said. My jaw dropped. He swept past us and shut the door to his office quickly behind him.

In that same moment a pixie flew over and caught Hermione by the hair. "Get off me!" she yelled, trying to pull away from it.

But it didn't want to give way. "Stop. Stop! Hold still!" Harry yelled, holding a book. She stopped moving and Harry reared back, whacking the pixie with the book. It went flying away from us.

"Can you believe him?" Ron roared as he batted more of them away with books. Another one bit him on the ear.

Hermione was ducking out of the way of two more. "He just wants to give us some hands-on experience," she said, immobilizing two pixies at once with a clever Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.

"Hands on?" Harry asked, who was trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out. "Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing."

"Rubbish. You've read his books - look at all those amazing things he's done -"

"He says he's done," Ron muttered.

And that was just about where I'd had enough. I stood up and brandished my wand. "Oh, enough of this! Immobulus!" I shouted. The blue light blasted from my wand and froze all of the pixies at once.

They began floating around the room, frozen. "Why is it always me?" Neville asked desperately.

Moving so that I was underneath Neville, I moved my wand out again. "Hang on, Neville, we'll get you down. Wingardium Leviosa," I said. He was lifted off of the chandelier and I slowly let him back down to the ground. Once he was back on his feet, he launched after me, giving me a tight hug. "You alright?" I asked.

Neville sniffled and moved away from me. He looked much better now that he was back on the ground. "Yes, I'm alright. Thank you, Tara," he said gratefully.

"You're welcome," I told him quickly, throwing my hair back over my shoulders and stuffing my wand back in my robes. "Well, that was a disaster. Goodbye children," I snapped.

Moving quickly, I snatched my bag up off of the ground and headed straight for the door. "Where are you going?" Hermione asked me as they began rounding up the frozen pixies and stuffing them back into the cage.

"As far away from Gilderoy Lockhart as I can get!" I shouted back, hoping that he could hear me.

Without bothering to wait and see if they would say anything back to me, I stormed through the hallway and headed back towards the Gryffindor tower. Making my way there, I saw that most of the students were curled up, talking about what had just happened in the Defense room. Not wanting to continue remembering the idiocy of Gilderoy Lockhart, I dropped my bag, grabbed an Astronomy book, and whipped back out of the tower, nearly crashing into Fred, George, and Lee. They asked me what was wrong, but I ignored them.

Not that it was their fault that my day was bad, but I didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment. I wanted to go somewhere nice and peaceful. Without any more classes for the day, my options were pretty open. I debated on going up to the Astronomy tower, but decided against it, in fear that a detention would land me with Lockhart for the night. I thought about heading to the ground, too, but it had recently started raining. So I headed into the library and made my way towards the empty tables in the back. I slammed the book down on the table and sat behind it. Naturally, Madam Pince had heard me and taken away two points from Gryffindor for the noise.

Once she had gone, I shoved my head into my hands. "Typical," I muttered to myself.

I wasn't alone for long. I whipped back and went to shout at whoever was bothering me, but the words died on my lips the moment that I realized that it was Cedric. He was smiling down guiltily at me. "I don't think that I've ever seen you quite as upset as you are right now," he said.

"I'm sorry, it's just Lockhart. It's been a day and I'm already losing my mind around him," I said.

"What's happened?" he asked, taking a seat next to me.

It was easy for me to rant about my entire day. Everything from the interruption in the greenhouses and Lockhart's insinuation that Harry and I had feelings for each other, to being whacked in the face by the Mandrake root, to getting cornered by him after lunch, to embarrassing poor Colin Creevey, to Lockhart's insinuation about Malfoy and I, Harry once more, and essentially every other boy at Hogwarts. I mentioned how he kept calling me Miss Robins, I told him about the pop quiz that was all about himself and my answers, and I launched into the full story of everything that had happened with the pixies.

We had talked about the pixies for a long time. Cedric had laughed and told me that now he understood why I looked as exhausted as I did. "You really wrote all of that?" he asked about the pop quiz.

"Yes."

Cedric laughed loudly. A second later, Madam Pince arrived, snarling at us to be quiet. "Sorry Madam Pince," he said. She disappeared with a glare a moment later. "You really do make me laugh. He's a horrible man. I haven't had him yet, but I can imagine that it'll be just as terrible," Cedric told me.

"I think it's just the way that he keeps bringing my mother into everything that bothers me so much," I muttered.

"Sorry I couldn't stop him earlier," he said.

Shrugging my shoulders, I shook my head at him. At least he'd tried. "No, it's fine. I appreciate you trying. But there was no way that he was going to let me go. Sorry about the way that he said your name," I said.

He laughed at me. "That's okay. Thanks for correcting him," he responded.

"Anytime," I said. "Not only that, but he thinks that I'm some... Whatever..." I trailed off, not wanting to say the word that I was thinking of. He seemed to understand. I was glad that he didn't say it for me. "That keeps trying to seduce all of the boys in Hogwarts. I'm not a damn siren," I hissed angrily.

Cedric sighed and placed a hand over mine. My entire body began to burn. I rolled my eyes at myself. "I know it doesn't sound good, but try to ignore him."

"It doesn't help that he seems to be everywhere," I said. He laughed at me and retracted his hand. Perhaps he was as afraid of Lockhart popping up as I was. "And I do not like the way that he looks at me," I added lowly.

A strange look passed over Cedric's face. It was something akin to anger. And I hadn't really ever seen him angry before. "There's only one person that should be looking at you like that. And it is not Gilderoy Lockhart," he said more to the table than me.

It didn't stop my head from snapping over to him. Maybe I thought that he was going to say Harry or Ron - which both would have been extremely disgusting - but he didn't speak after that. Not with the hiss we got from Madam Pince to stop talking or be kicked out. So I opened my Astronomy book and allowed him to help me get ahead of the classwork. The entire time that we worked, I desperately tried to look anywhere but at him. Because, as much as I tried to remind myself that Cedric thought of me as only a close friend, I couldn't help but to think that he thought that the only person that should be looking at me like that... was himself.


	25. Mudbloods and Murmurs

The next few days felt like one massive game of hide-and-seek. Harry and I were spending almost all of our time ducking out of the way of Gilderoy Lockhart any time that we saw him strutting happily down the halls. It had caused a few little problems in Hogwarts recently. One of my particular favorite moments was when I saw Lockhart coming up the same staircase that I was about to go down to get to breakfast. He had been trying to correct a Prefect on the proper way to brew the Forgetfulness Potion - something that First Years could do - as they walked. Of course, he'd been telling her the wrong way to do it.

The Prefect - Penelope Clearwater, the girl that I was reasonably certain had a crush on Percy - had managed to brush off Lockhart to get away from him. I'd been right at the top of the staircase, by myself, when he'd turned towards me. Panicking, I'd rushed off. Without thinking I'd gone straight down one of Fred and George's hidden pathways. What I hadn't been expecting was for the twins to actually be in it. The three of us had toppled over each other near the exit and had been spit out on the other side of the castle. We'd stumbled straight into one of the suits of armor and destroyed it, the three of us crashing into it and breaking small pieces off, much to its displeasure. I was grateful that most people were in class, keeping the clattering commotion between us.

It was one of the few things that I'd gotten away with, without a detention or any loss in points. Although the suits of armor now humphed at me and stalked off any time that they saw me coming. Fred and George liked to insist that it was my fault, which it probably was. None of the other students quite understood why the suits of armor suddenly seemed to hate me so much. They also didn't understand why the twins and I walked around like we were older than Dumbledore for a few days. Just like the incident with the Whomping Willow, I was sure that the suit of armor had done more damage to me than I had done to it.

Beside trying to avoid Lockhart - and injuring myself in the process - I spent a lot of time trying to avoid was Colin Creevey. It wasn't that I didn't like him. He was a sweet boy that really seemed to enjoy being a wizard. He reminded me a little bit of Hermione, maybe even more enthusiastic. Although I did avoid him as much as I could, considering that nearly every time that we would be found together, Lockhart wouldn't be far behind. It would only bring about the conversation about how I 'had every boy in Hogwarts wrapped around my finger' and needed to pick one. I was absolutely sure that Dumbledore had stepped in to ask how I liked the coffee one morning just so that I wouldn't dump it on Lockhart's fat head. It was the reason that I now tried to only speak to Colin in the Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry was trying to avoid the two just as much as I was. It had resulted in some disasters between us. Shoving each other to get down the flights of stairs to avoid Lockhart, stumbling into a functioning classroom to avoid Colin's camera (for which I was still hearing jokes for interrupting Cedric's Muggle Studies class), and nearly getting sick from shoveling down our food to get out of the Great Hall before either one could find us. It didn't always work, considering that Colin seemed to have memorized our schedule. Nothing gave Colin a bigger thrill than to say, 'All right, Harry?' six or seven times a day and hear, 'Hello, Colin,' back, however exasperated Harry sounded when he said it. He still hadn't stopped blushing furiously every time that I spoke to him.

Just like Dai was still angry with me, Hedwig was still angry with Harry about the disastrous car journey. Every morning Dai swooped in to hit me over the head with his wing, steal my food, and occasionally spill my drink. The damn bird held a better grudge than I did. Hedwig appeared less often, but had given Harry a nasty bite on the hand when he'd tried to pet her one morning when she'd come to eat his toast. We weren't the only ones still suffering. Ron's wand was still malfunctioning, surpassing itself on Friday morning by shooting out of Ron's hand in Charms and hitting tiny old Professor Flitwick squarely between the eyes, creating a large, throbbing green boil where it had struck. We were all shocked that he hadn't been given a detention for it.

It would have been nice if I could say that all of those things were the end of my disastrous first week back. But there had been smaller things, too. Fred and George had played a prank on me on Wednesday that had caused me to stick to my seat in the Great Hall at breakfast. After toppling backwards off of my seat to get myself unstuck - earning laughter from everyone in the Great Hall - I'd thrown a water goblet at their heads in a burst of frustration after a particularly embarrassing comment from Lockhart in class the previous day about how 'Dugglery' should have been old enough to not patronize someone as young as me.

The comment hadn't gone over well for anyone. I'd made a nasty retort asking him whether or not that sounded familiar to him and had received a twenty point deduction from Gryffindor. No one seemed angry, more shocked that I had dared to say something like that. I was just grateful that I hadn't gotten a detention. The flying water goblet had earned me another ten points from Gryffindor. Thankfully Fred and George had been given two detentions each from Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore had seemed almost amused at the whole situation. I remember thinking some not-so-flattering things about him at that moment.

My hatred for Dumbledore was ended very quickly when, later that day, he mentioned in a soft, passing, comment to Lockhart that my parents' anniversary was coming up in a matter of days, and since he had been so close to my mother, he should send them a present. It was the first time that I'd heard Dumbledore speak in something that wasn't an announcement to the school that was around so many students. I had a feeling that he had done it just because he knew how frustrated I was. It helped that Lockhart had gone red in the face and walked off, mumbling something about 'Can't get out to buy a present,' leaving Dumbledore to look at me with his ever-twinkling eyes.

That had been the highlight of my week. So with one thing and another, I found myself quite glad to reach the weekend. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were planning to visit Hagrid on Saturday morning. In the meantime I was trying to enjoy as much sleep as I possibly could. Being so irritable every second of every day was draining. But I'd managed to sleep pretty well so far. I should have known that it wouldn't stay that long. I was shaken awake several hours earlier than I would have liked by Angelina Johnson, one of the main Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Barely managing to peel my face off of the pillow, I stared at her. "Who died?" I asked groggily.

Angelina looked like I had slapped her. Parvati, Fay, Hermione, and Lavender were all still asleep. Lucky. "What? No one," Angelina told me, keeping her voice low so to not wake up the other girls in the dorm.

"Then go away," I told her, shoving my face back into the pillows.

Angelina grabbed my arm and began to pull me from the bed. I locked my arms around the bedposts, not ready to leave yet. "It's time for practice," she told me.

My head shot upwards. There was no way that it was seven in the morning. That was normally the earliest that Oliver had us out for practice. I glanced over at the Muggle alarm clock that Hermione always brought with her and immediately snapped my head back over to Angelina as I realized what time it was.

"It's four in the morning!" I hissed at her, a little louder than I would have liked, as Parvati hissed at me to go back to bed.

By the look on Angelina's face, I could tell that she didn't want this to be happening either. "Tell that to Oliver. He told us last night that we would have to come and get you this morning," she said.

"For the love of Merlin, Angelina, you can hide up here from Oliver, but I am not going down to practice this early. It's the crack of dawn," I told her, trying to curl in on myself as she ripped the blanket from my body.

"I'm not getting kicked off of the team for missing practice, and neither are you, come on," Angelina said.

Her hands were on my legs as she attempted to yank me out of the bed. I groaned and held onto the wooden post, trying to kick out at Angelina the same time. "Tara?" Hermione asked softly, barely raising her head from her bed.

She was one of the earliest risers that I knew, but even she wouldn't wake up at four in the morning. "Go back to bed, Hermione," I told her.

"What's happened?" she asked me.

"Quidditch practice," I explained.

Her eyes widened slightly, still riddled with sleep, as she glanced over at the alarm clock. She looked just as shocked as I had been a little earlier. "It's four in the morning," she said.

"Tell that to Oliver," I grumbled.

"Oh," Hermione said dumbly. "Have fun then."

And with that, she dropped her head back down onto the pillows and went back to sleep. I rolled my eyes at her and turned my head over to the window. I was squinting into the rapidly-brightening sky. There was a thin mist hanging across the pink-and-gold sky. Glancing downwards, I could have sworn that I already saw Oliver down on the Pitch. Now that I was awake, I couldn't understand how I could have slept through the racket the birds were making. Of course, they'd been much worse back in Florida. Yawning and shivering slightly, I weakly climbed out of bed and tried to find my Quidditch robes in my trunk.

Unfortunately they had been some of the first things that I had thrown in, and that meant that they were down at the bottom. "Good," Angelina said as she turned to leave. "Meet you on the field in fifteen minutes." I nodded at her, slowly drifting back over to the bed. "Don't you dare go back to sleep! I'll send Fred and George up here," she hissed, knowing what I was about to do.

"Go ahead," I told her, grinning wickedly. "There's an enchantment on the staircase."

Back when the founders had built Hogwarts - not just Godric Gryffindor, they all had - the four founders of Hogwarts had still believed the common myth that girls were more trustworthy than boys. Of course, that was probably true. Godric Gryffindor had enchanted the staircase up to the girl's dormitory to turn into a slide if any boy tried to walk up them. No enchantment was placed on the boys staircase, since back then, people believed that if a girl was heading up to a boys dorm, there would be no nonsense happening. It was very lucky for us, but not really lucky at all for the boys. Although it was definitely funny.

Judging by the look on Angelina's face, I assumed that she had already planned for this. "Or we could go and get Diggory to wake you up with a little kiss," she teased.

I was extremely grateful that none of the other girls heard her. "Shut up," I snapped at her, jumping up from the bed and slowly trudging around. "I'm up... I'm up..." I muttered.

She smiled at me and nodded at her own handiwork, turning and heading back downstairs. Moving deliberately slowly, I went to gather my things. It took me a while to find my team robes and pull them on. More than once I stumbled or ran into one of the beds. Once I had gotten them on, I yanked Fred's winter cloak over me. The morning air was definitely cold right now. Once I was sure that I had everything, I grabbed a quill and scribbled a note to Hermione that I would meet her as soon as practice was over. I gathered my hair together in a loop and went down the spiral staircase to the Common Room, my Nimbus Two Thousand over my shoulder.

Not surprising at all, Harry was already down there. He looked exactly the same as I did, perhaps even more tired than me. "So you've been woken up, too?" I asked him.

"Uh-huh. Oliver got me, you?" he asked.

Of course Oliver was the one to wake Harry up. Maybe I'd gotten off lucky, considering that he couldn't have gotten me, it had to be one of the girls. "Angelina," I said.

The two of us trudged towards the end of the Common Room, heading towards the back of the Fat Lady portrait, when Harry spoke again. "You know, I think between all of us, we could probably whack Oliver over the head to knock him out long enough for us to get a good night's sleep," he joked with me.

Grinning brightly at him, I nodded. "I'll gather Fred and George," I said jokingly.

It wasn't really that much of a joke. I was really tempted to beat in Oliver's head with my broom. We had just reached the portrait hole when there was a clatter behind us. We turned back to see who else was awake this early. It didn't take very long for us to find out. In an instant, Colin Creevey came dashing down the spiral staircase, his camera swinging madly around his neck and something clutched in his hand. He looked more like he was flying than running.

Perhaps he would be good at Quidditch. He was certainly fast enough. "I heard someone saying your name on the stairs, Harry!" Colin chirped breathlessly. "Look what I've got here! I've had it developed, I wanted to show you."

Harry and I looked bemusedly at the photograph Colin was brandishing under our noses. We both looked over it and I groaned. Even at four in the morning in the Gryffindor Common Room, Lockhart was still appearing all around me. The picture was a moving, black-and-white Lockhart was tugging hard on an arm that I recognized as Harry's. I was very pleased to see that Harry's photographic self was putting up a good fight and refusing to be dragged into view. It took me a moment to realize that we were waiting for Potions. A second later we could barely see Snape's robes sweep past and my own hair float through the photo, ducking away from Lockhart. As I watched, Lockhart gave up and slumped, panting, against the white edge of the picture.

Colin was grinning down at the photo. I assumed that he was very proud to have almost have gotten Harry Potter and Gilderoy Lockhart in the same picture. He looked up at us. He seemed to finally realize that I was standing with Harry. "Oh... Hello, Tara," he said.

As per usual when Colin saw me, his face went a brilliant scarlet. I smiled and waved at him. Colin wasn't really that bad. His crush was harmless. And I would have rather had ten Colin Creevey's than one Gilderoy Lockhart. Colin liked to appear at my side as frequently as possible. Although, he was barely able to maintain a conversation with me without turning into a stuttering mess. He had asked me for a picture a few days ago, telling me that he was going to send home pictures of his friends to his father. I could only hope that he hadn't included a letter with my picture about how I was his girlfriend. His father would have never known.

"Hi, Colin," I greeted, earning another brilliant blush. "What are you doing up this early?"

"Oh, I'm not much for sleeping in," Colin said.

My watch told me that it was just past four-thirty in the morning. Smiling softly at Colin, I shook my head. "Six o'clock is sleeping in?" I asked him with a teasing smile.

Colin blushed furiously and lost my gaze for a moment, probably too embarrassed to hold it. "It is for a milkman's son," he said. I nodded at him. That was true. Milkmen were probably up pretty early every morning to start delivering the bottles. Will you sign it, Harry?" Colin asked eagerly, pushing the picture towards him.

"No," Harry said flatly, glancing around to check that the room was really deserted. I stomped on his foot. Colin wasn't a bad kid, just a little eager. Harry groaned but realized that he really should have been a little nicer to the First Year. "Sorry, Colin, we're in a hurry - Quidditch practice."

Harry wrapped an arm around mine and yanked me with him. We climbed through the portrait hole. "Oh, wow! Wait for me! I've never watched a Quidditch game before!" Colin scrambled through the hole after us.

I glanced up at Harry, knowing that he did not want Colin coming to the practice with us. "It'll be really boring," Harry said quickly, but Colin ignored him, his face shining with excitement.

"You two were the youngest House players in a hundred years, weren't you, Harry? Weren't you?" Colin asked, trotting alongside us. I noticed that Harry picked up his pace, dragging me with him, probably hoping to lose Colin. "You both must be brilliant. I've never flown. Is it easy? Is that your own broom? Is that the best one there is? I heard that your dad was a professional player, Tara."

He said all of this very fast, and it was nearly impossible to know when he was going to stop. When he said nothing more, I assumed that he wanted the answer. I nodded at him. "Marcus Nox. United States Stars Head Chaser for eight years," I explained.

Colin was staring at me with wide eyes. He looked absolutely amazed that I not only knew a professional player, but I was related to one. "You must be just as good as him," he said.

"I like to think that I'm better," I joked.

Once more, Colin's face began to resemble a tomato. Harry rolled his eyes at us and I nudged him roughly, wanting him to play nicely. "I - uh - I can't wait to watch you play..." Colin trailed off, staring at the ground.

"First match will be in a few weeks," I answered him.

Harry leaned over to me as Colin looked at the ground. The younger boy wasn't paying any mind to us as Harry spoke lowly in my ear. "You're giving him hope," Harry hissed at me.

"Shut up," I snapped at him.

Our walk down to the Quidditch Pitch was not the nice and quiet one that I would have liked. Not that I was really expecting there to be a nice and quiet walk. There never was. Not at Hogwarts. But as we walked, it wasn't Peeves the Poltergeist, the suits or armor that now hated me, or any of the professors that were harassing us. Today it was Colin's endless questions about what it was like to fly, what it was like to play on a Quidditch team, and all of the rules that we had broken to actually get onto the team. Harry and I didn't know how to get rid of him. It was like having an extremely talkative shadow.

The entire time I kept trying to remind myself that it could have been Lockhart here with us. "I don't really understand Quidditch. Is it true there are four balls? And two of them fly around trying to knock people off their brooms?" Colin asked us breathlessly.

I glared at Harry, letting him know silently that he was the one that had attracted Colin's attention in the first place, and he was the one that needed to explain it. "Yes," Harry said heavily, resigned to explaining the complicated rules of Quidditch. "They're called Bludgers. There are two Beaters on each team who carry clubs to beat the Bludgers away from their side. Fred and George Weasley are the Gryffindor Beaters."

Colin looked fascinated. I put in, "I had two ribs broken by one last year."

His head whipped over to me with his eyes as wide as saucers. "Really?" he asked me. I nodded at him. "I'm glad that you're alright."

I decided that telling him that the Bludger had been aimed by Voldemort disguising himself as our old Defense teacher to kill Harry would probably not be a good idea. So I stuck with saying, "Thanks. Me too. Professor Dumbledore was there and saw it happen. He came and fixed them up for me."

Colin was hanging onto my every word. He looked shocked that I had been involved in something as violent as a few broken ribs. "I can't believe you aren't afraid to fly after that," he muttered.

Quickly, I shook my head at him. I would never want to stop flying or stop playing Quidditch. "Nah. I've had plenty worse. Broken fingers and toes, a nose and a few ribs. Easy fixes. No big deal," I said. The look on Colin's face told me that he thought that it was a very big deal. "Play long enough and you're sure to break something at some point or another."

Harry did not look grateful that I'd said that. He'd gotten off lucky so far, other than the whole part when Voldemort had tried to kill him by throwing him off of his broom. "You're amazing..." Colin trailed off. I smiled at him and covered my face, trying very hard not to laugh. Colin realized what he'd said a second later. "I - I mean - That's amazing!" He then turned to Harry. "And what are the other balls for?" he asked as he tripped down a couple of steps because he was gazing open-mouthed at Harry and I.

For a moment I'd thought that I'd have to catch him, but he managed to right himself. "Well, the Quaffle - that's the biggish red one - is the one that scores goals. Three Chasers on each team throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through the goal posts at the end of the pitch - they're three long poles with hoops on the end. Tara is our alternate Chaser, since we didn't have room for another main," Harry explained to Colin.

"When will you be on the normal team?" Colin asked me.

"My Fourth Year. Two years from now," I said.

Colin smiled at me. It was the most confident that I'd seen him around me yet. "Awesome. And the fourth ball," he prodded Harry.

He let out a small sigh. "- is the Golden Snitch, and it's very small, very fast, and difficult to catch," Harry said. "But that's what the Seeker's got to do, because a game of Quidditch doesn't end until the Snitch has been caught. And whichever team's Seeker gets the Snitch earns his team an extra hundred and fifty points."

Not too long ago, Harry had been just as lost as Colin when it came to Quidditch. But I decided not to say that, knowing that Harry wouldn't appreciate that. "And you're the Gryffindor Seeker, aren't you?" Colin asked in awe.

"Yes," Harry said as we left the castle and started across the dew-drenched grass. A few times I slid a little on the wet grass. "And there's the Keeper, too. He guards the goal posts. That's it, really," Harry explained to Colin.

"Our Captain, Oliver Wood, is the Keeper," I continued.

Harry looked very frustrated that I'd merely continued urging Colin to ask questions. Colin launched into asking us all about the other members on the team, how long they'd been on, and nearly everything else about them. I told him, hoping that he might start bothering them like he did with us. But Colin didn't stop questioning Harry and I all the way down the sloping lawns to the Quidditch Pitch. We were only able to shake him off when we reached the changing rooms. As we walked in, Colin called after us in a piping voice that he would go and get a good seat, before hurrying off to the stands.

The way that Harry rolled his eyes made me almost wish that his face had gotten stuck like that. I would have loved to see the look on the Dursley's faces. "Come on, it's kind of sweet," I tried to tell Harry.

He looked over at me with a very bored face. "It's annoying, Tara," he said.

"Don't be rude," I snapped.

Harry rolled his eyes at me again. I wondered if this was how Hermione felt when she was trying to talk us out of doing something. Or maybe if this was the way that she felt about my hatred of Lockhart. "At least I'm not like Lockhart," Harry said, bringing the offending teacher into the conversation.

Glancing around quickly, to ensure that Lockhart hadn't somehow heard Harry and I speaking about him and charged out to give us another lecture, I turned back to Harry. "If you ever become like Lockhart, Voldemort will be the least of your worries. I'll kill you myself," I snapped at him.

"I'll ask you to," Harry said.

We both laughed as we walked into the changing room. It was all open but there was a set of lockers separating the girl's side from the boys. The rest of the Gryffindor team was already in the changing room. Everyone was sitting on the boy's side. It was the larger one. It seemed that they were waiting for us. Oliver was the only person who looked truly awake. Fred and George were sitting, puffy-eyed and tousle-haired, next to Fourth Year Alicia Spinnet, who seemed to be nodding off against the wall behind her. The other Chasers, Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson, were yawning side by side opposite them. Angelina looked much less awake than she had twenty minutes ago.

Oliver glanced up at us as we walked in. "There you are, Harry, Tara, what kept you?" Oliver asked briskly.

Rolling my eyes at Oliver, I dropped onto the bench in front of Fred and George, Harry at my side. "Right. We should have been down here at three. I'll keep that in mind next time," I said. Oliver glared at me, but said nothing. "Oliver. It's the crack of dawn. Why are we down here?" I asked him.

"Exactly," he said excitedly. That was his only response to me. I loved Oliver a lot, but he could be a bit much for me. He was a tall and burly Sixth Year Quidditch enthusiast and, at the moment, his eyes were gleaming with a crazed enthusiasm. "It's part of our new training program. None of the other teams have started training yet; we're going to be first off the mark this year," he said.

"Shocking," I muttered.

The few people that remained awake laughed. "Knock it off," Oliver said. "Now, I wanted a quick talk with you all before we actually get onto the field, because I spent the summer devising a whole new training program, which I really think will make all the difference..."

Oliver was holding up a large diagram of a Quidditch Pitch, on which were drawn many lines, arrows, and crosses in different-colored inks. It was obviously the new routines that he had been telling me about when we'd sat together in the Leaky Cauldron one day. I groaned and leaned back, having already heard this. I should not have been woken up for this. Oliver took out his wand, tapped the board, and the arrows began to wiggle over the diagram like caterpillars. As Oliver launched into a speech about his new tactics, Fred's head drooped right onto Alicia's shoulder and he began to snore.

As much as I didn't want to hear everything, I really did try to listen. But it didn't last long. The first board took nearly twenty minutes to explain, but there was another board under that, and a third under that one. More were stacked up on the edge of the wall. After a few minutes I leaned back and fell asleep on Fred's stomach. His breathing was somewhat like a lullaby. Eventually his arm draped over me and I used it as a blanket. Harry slowly fell asleep on my arm as George fell asleep on my stomach. It wasn't long before everyone on the team was linked together, each person using a piece of another as a pillow.

For the entire time, Oliver was none the wiser. He droned on and on for hours. "So," Oliver said, at long last, jerking me from a wistful fantasy about what I could have been eating for breakfast at this very moment up at the castle. Coffee... Merlin I need coffee... Everyone quickly sprang up, pretending to have been awake the entire time. "Is that clear? Any questions?"

It was very obvious that everyone had questions, considering no one had really been listening. But no one said anything. "Yeah," I finally said. Oliver looked excited as he turned towards me. "Since when was a three-hour explanation quick?"

Fred's shaking stomach told me that he was laughing. "It was not three hours," Oliver huffed indignantly.

"Yes it was," everyone said at once.

If I had thought that Oliver might be ashamed at his overly-long explanation, I was dead wrong. He didn't seem to care that he had woken us up at four in the morning to drone on for three hours. "I've got a question, Oliver," George said, who had woken with a start. "Why couldn't you have told us all this yesterday when we were awake?"

Oliver wasn't pleased by our complaining. "Now, listen here, you lot," he said, glowering at us all. "We should have won the Quidditch Cup last year. We're easily the best team." He was right about that. We really should have won. "But unfortunately - owing to circumstances beyond our control -"

Harry and I both shifted guiltily in our seats. It was entirely our fault that Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup. It had been Ravenclaw, much to my disappointment. Cho Chang had rubbed it in my face. Not that it mattered, my comment about defeating Voldemort and saving the school was enough to shut her up. But, during our last match against Ravenclaw the prior year, Harry and I had been unconscious in the hospital wing after facing off with Professor Quirrell and Voldemort. As Dumbledore had said, we'd both suffered grievous injuries. That meant that Gryffindor had been a regular player short with no one to take his place. It also meant that we had suffered our worst defeat in three hundred years. No one had been that upset though, save Oliver. Most people had just been concerned on whether or not Harry and I were alive.

Everyone had said that the match wasn't that interesting anyways. Oliver took a moment to regain control of himself. Our last defeat was clearly still torturing him. "So this year, we train harder than ever before," Oliver said. We all nodded our agreement. "Okay, let's go and put our new theories into practice!" Oliver shouted, seizing his broomstick and leading the way out of the locker rooms.

Giving each other a long look, we knew that it wouldn't be worth the argument to ignore Oliver's call for us to leave. So, everyone had to fight to disentangle themselves from our massive human pillow. Stiff-legged and still yawning, the team followed. We had been in the locker room so long - three hours, just as I'd said - that the sun was up completely now. I groaned and dropped Fred's winter cloak on the lower stands. It would be too warm to wear it. He had given it to me last winter and I'd never given it back. Not that he'd asked for it. Remnants of mist still hung over the grass in the stadium. As I walked onto the field, I saw Ron and Hermione sitting in the stands.

It wasn't uncommon for people to come and watch the Quidditch practices. As long as they weren't in opposing Houses or on the other teams. Neville, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Fay, and Lavender had all come to a few of the practices, too. Ron and Hermione usually came to the ones that Harry and I went to on the weekends so that we could leave together afterwards.

Hermione nudged Ron to let him know that we were coming out yet. "Aren't you finished yet?" Ron called incredulously.

Harry and I exchanged a sad look. "Haven't even started," Harry called. We were both looking jealously at the toast and marmalade Ron and Hermione had brought out of the Great Hall. My stomach gave a nasty rumble. "Wood's been teaching us new moves."

As the team continued to move out to the center of the Pitch, I called out to Ron. "Oi, toss me a piece of toast!" I shouted.

It looked like Hermione was about to launch into a full explanation of why eating right before playing Quidditch would have been a bad idea - which I would have loved to throw in her face from last year when she'd tried to get me to ear before the first match - but Ron ignored her. Instead he gathered a piece of toast and tossed it down to me. I was about to catch it when a taller figure stepped in front of me and grabbed the bread from the air. I turned my glare on Fred, who was backing away from me while taking a bite of the toast. He sent me a little wink as he swallowed what she have been my breakfast.

"Fred!" I hissed angrily.

He grinned at me and moved forward, keeping the toast just out of reach. "We'll split it," he offered, beginning to make a tear in the middle of the slice.

"I'll give you the whole thing if you kill Oliver," I told him.

Fred laughed and split the piece of toast straight down the middle. I would have liked to have some of the jam that Hermione had with it, but beggars couldn't be choosers. "Here you go," he said.

He was trying to hand me the smaller piece that he had already taken a bite out of. I shoved it away. "Uh-uh, bigger piece, you prat," I snapped. Fred smiled and made no argument as he handed me the whole piece. "Thank you. You make a good pillow, by the way."

The two of us both quickly ate our pieces of toast. "You can always use me as a pillow," Fred teased.

He would live to regret that when I used him as a pillow whenever the two of us were around. "Don't make that promise, I'll take you up on it," I teased back, giving him a gentle nudge.

"Fred! Tara!" Oliver's voice echoed through the Pitch. We both groaned at him. "Let's go!"

Thankfully Oliver was giving us a little bit of time to get started since we were going to be spending so much of the day out here. The two of us both mounted our broomsticks - myself having to wrestle my broom from Fred as he attempted to snatch it - and kicked at the ground, soaring up into the air. I attempted to steady myself, still tired from the early wake-up call. One harsh quiver of the broom - and an impressive catch from Harry as I began to tilt off - and I was fully awake. The cool morning air whipped at my face as I rushed through the stadium. It didn't take long for me to start smiling, being absolutely thrilled to be back on the Quidditch Pitch.

We spent much of the first half an hour of practice having fun with each other. Oliver and I took turns racing at the other at full speed and then trying to cut the other off. I was definitely better at it, but I could see how Oliver was our Keeper. Even with the slower broom, he was really good. It was almost impossible to get past him. Later on, I joined Alicia, Katie, and Angelina at the far side of the Pitch, practicing dives and swoops away from the boys. Of course, after a while we'd stopped flying and started gossiping. Angelina was complaining about the unwanted attentions of Lee Jordan, Katie was just a year older than I was and liked to tease me about Cedric, and Alicia was close friends with Cho Chang and I was always grateful that she kept her out of conversations.

The four of us weren't soaring up in the air for very long before Oliver started howling at us to at least do something that was productive. It was either that or he was going to start making us run laps. And no one wanted to do that. So we all separated and I flew to the far end of the Pitch. I rocketed over Ron and Hermione, briefly nudging the two of them as I flew overhead. They both laughed as I turned and headed back to where Harry and the twins were. They seemed to be starting a race. George offered me to join and I did, flying up beside them. On Fred's mark, we began flying right around the stadium at full speed, racing each other for the win.

"What's that funny clicking noise?" Fred called as we hurtled around the corner.

There was indeed a funny clicking noise. As we flew over the Hufflepuff section I glanced down. There were only a few people that were sitting in the stands, save Ron and Hermione. Lee Jordan was there as well, and it seemed that Dean, Seamus, and Neville had recently come down, too. And it only took me a second to find the source of the clicking noise. Colin Creevey was sitting in one of the highest seats, his camera raised, and taking picture after picture; the sound strangely magnified in the deserted stadium.

It was so much different than when the stadium was full and the cheers rang out over the entire ground. "That's a Muggle camera. Taking pictures," I called to the twins.

Harry seemed to be looking anywhere but at Colin. "Do we have a school photographer?" George asked.

"Don't think so," I muttered.

The last thing that I wanted was for Colin to shout after us. Fred and George would never let it go. "Look this way, Harry! This way!" he cried shrilly.

"Who's that?" Fred asked.

Harry cringed. "No idea," he lied, putting on a spurt of speed that took him as far away as possible from Colin.

I laughed softly and prepared to follow him to the other end of the stadium when Colin's voice rang out again. "Hi, Tara!" Colin shouted.

Fred turned a wicked grin on me. Wonderful. "No idea, huh?" he asked.

Putting on a burst of speed, I raced away from Colin, pretending that I hadn't heard him. Fred merely followed me. I knew that he wouldn't stop harassing me until I told him about the new boy. So I slowed and flew alongside him. "He's a new Gryffindor First Year that's taken a liking to Harry and I," I muttered to the red-head.

Fred's lips turned upwards and I groaned. "Oh, he has a crush on you! That's adorable. We can go and tell him everything about you," he said, moving to turn the broom handle.

Grabbing his broom handle, I yanked it towards me. Fred wobbled but steadied himself. "You will do no such thing!" I hissed at him. Fred was smiling at me. "Lockhart embarrassed the poor boy enough by admitting his crush on me to the entire school. He's a little excited, but he's sweet. Leave him be," I demanded.

"Think Diggory will compete with him for your affections?" Fred teased.

"You keep your mouth shut," I hissed.

We weren't left in peace for long. Oliver seemed to have spotted the problem and flew up beside Harry, Fred, and I. "What's going on?" he asked. George was close behind him. "Why's that First Year taking pictures? I don't like it. He could be a Slytherin spy, trying to find out about our new training program."

"He's in Gryffindor," Harry said quickly.

"He's Harry's number one fan," I put in wickedly.

There were snickers exchanged through the other players. Harry's face brightened slightly as I smiled at him. "Shut up, Tara," he muttered.

Smiling at him, I wrapped my arm around him, being very careful not to knock both of us to the ground. "And the Slytherin's don't need a spy, Oliver," George said.

"What makes you say that?" Oliver asked testily.

"Because they're here in person," George said, pointing.

Everyone's heads whipped towards where George was pointing. He was right. The Slytherin team was already here, marching towards the entrance to the Pitch. I would have thought that Oliver was going to explode if he wasn't so determined to beat Slytherin into the ground. Several of their players in bright emerald robes were walking onto the field, broomsticks in their hands. I raised a brow. Their previous Seeker, Terence Higgs (who actually wasn't that bad of a person) had graduated at the end of last year. They would have needed a new one, but I couldn't see any new players with them.

Turning over towards Oliver, I raised my eyebrows. I couldn't believe that he hadn't booked the Pitch. He always did. "Did you not book the Pitch?" I asked him.

"Of course I did!" Oliver snapped at me.

Blushing slightly, I nodded at him. Oliver was never a good person to anger, and when it came to Slytherin and Quidditch, it became even worse. "Maybe they're just waiting for their turn," I offered.

Oliver shook his head at me. I hadn't thought so, but I'd been willing to go out on a limb. "Doubtful. I don't believe it!" Oliver hissed in outrage. "I booked the field for today! We'll see about this!"

"Wait. All day?" I asked.

As much as I loved Quidditch, I really didn't want to be out here all day. "Come on," Fred said, grabbing my arm and yanking me with him.

Oliver had completely ignored my question anyways. Without warning, Oliver shot toward the ground, landing rather harder than he meant to in his anger, staggering slightly as he dismounted. It was one of the most awkward landings that I'd ever seen him make. It wasn't long before Harry, Fred, George, and I followed. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia were watching from a distance. I had a feeling that they would be making their way down soon, too. Hermione and Ron had straightened up, curious as to what was happening.

"Flint!" Oliver bellowed at the Slytherin Captain. "This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!"

Marcus Flint was even larger than Oliver. He had very large front teeth that paired well with bushy eyebrows and seemed the type that would kick puppies for fun. He was always nasty and tried to get the girls out of the game as fast as he could. Last year he'd whacked a Bludger towards my head that I'd very nearly missed. Of course, it had been taken as an accident so nothing had happened. It didn't mean that I didn't avoid Flint as much as possible. He was in his later years at Hogwarts and I looked forward to the day that he was gone.

Currently he looked very proud of himself as he replied, "Plenty of room for all of us, Wood."

Just as I had suspected, the girls followed close behind us. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie had come over, too. They came to stand next to me as I stood just behind Oliver. There were no girls on the Slytherin team, who stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the Gryffindor's. It wasn't shocking. They wanted brute strength. It was probably the reason that they didn't win any of their games. They didn't have anyone that was thin and lean, easily able to wind in and out of the players.

Not that I would ever tell them that. "But I booked the field! I booked it!" Oliver hissed, spitting with fury.

"Ah. But I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape," Flint said, unrolling a small piece of parchment. He read off, "'I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker.'"

Unfortunately, if that note really was from Snape, and he'd given them special permission to train a new Seeker, just as Oliver had gotten special permission to train Harry and I last year from Professor McGonagall, there was nothing that we could do. "You've got a new Seeker? Where?" Oliver asked, looking around.

The rest of us followed suit in trying to find the new player. As far as I could see, there were only six players. Slytherin players never had an alternate on their team. They were too cocky to think that they might need one. Interrupting my thoughts, the six previous players on the team all separated to show us their new Seeker. The seventh, smaller boy, had a proud smirk all over his pale, pointed face. If I hadn't been so concerned that he would laugh, my jaw would have dropped. It was Draco Malfoy.

"You're joking," I said before I could stop myself. Malfoy had been smirking at Harry, but his gaze quickly turned to me. "You have to ruin Quidditch for me, too?" I snarled at him.

Katie's hand was on me, keeping me from moving towards him. "Should've let that jar crush you," Malfoy hissed back at me.

Of course, he was referring to the glass jar that the Cornish pixies had thrown in Defense on our first day that would have killed me had it landed on me. I had just been tripped by one of them a second prior and fallen over Malfoy. The two of us had been staring at each other when a few of them had tipped the jar over where I'd been sitting. Malfoy had sprung after me and tackled the two of us backwards, keeping me from becoming a human pancake. I still hadn't thanked him for it.

"Should've, would've, could've," I snapped back.

Not that he really seemed to mind that I hadn't apologized. He'd seemed shocked enough that he had risked his life to save mine. "Scared you might lose to me?" Malfoy asked me.

I scoffed loudly at him. "You wish. More concerned that we'll all have to lose a day of practice when we have to scrape you off of the ground after the first match," I told him.

There was scattered laughter from the girls behind me. "Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" Fred asked, looking at Malfoy with dislike.

The moment that I thought that Malfoy would make a nasty retort about the Weasley's money problems, Flint spoke. "Funny you should mention Draco's father," the whole Slytherin team smiled still more broadly. "Let me show you the generous gift he's made to the Slytherin team."

The Gryffindor's all seemed confused at these words. I certainly was. All seven of them held out their broomsticks. Seven highly polished, brand-new handles and seven sets of fine gold lettering spelling the words Nimbus Two Thousand and One gleamed under the Gryffindor's' noses in the early morning sun. I rolled my eyes. Dad had just pleaded with Mom to get him one. She had, with his promise that he would do the dishes and laundry for a month. They were incredibly expensive. Almost twice as much as the Nimbus Two Thousand and One's were. I immediately debated on sending Dad a letter, asking if I could borrow his for the year.

"Very latest model. Only came out last month," Flint said carelessly, flicking a speck of dust from the end of his own. "I believe it outstrips the old Two Thousand series by a considerable amount." He glared at Harry and I, who were both clutching our brooms tightly. "As for the old Cleansweeps," he smiled nastily at Fred and George, who were both clutching Cleansweep Fives, "sweeps the board with them."

It didn't matter. We would still win. "Good broom or not, you still won't win," I snapped.

"Willing to bet money?" Malfoy asked me.

"Sure," I said carelessly. His money didn't scare me. I could match it. "Like I said, we're going to win. So you had your father buy you a spot on the team?" I asked, finally realizing how he had made it onto the team.

Malfoy was very good at quickly recovering from his previous blush. "I got in on talent," he sneered at me.

"And the brooms simply happened to come with that?" I asked.

There was more laughter. This time the entire Gryffindor team laughed. Save Oliver, who was still too busy glaring at Flint to have even noticed the pissing contest between Malfoy and I. None of the rest of the Gryffindor team could think of anything to say for a moment. There really wasn't anything to say. They were right about one thing. The Nimbus Two Thousand and One was definitely better than any other broom on the market right now. Malfoy was smirking so broadly his cold eyes were reduced to slits.

"Oh, look. A field invasion," Flint said, drawing my attention away from the Slytherin team.

By now there were quite a few people that were out on the grounds. It was a weekend and people liked to hang outside. Plus, it was early in the year so few people were spending time studying in the library or Common Rooms yet. There was also the fact that the Slytherin and Gryffindor Quidditch teams - who had always been notorious for hating each other - were having a face-off. It was drawing quite a bit of attention. Even this early in the morning. In the meantime, Ron and Hermione were crossing the grass to see what was going on.

"What's happening? Why aren't you two playing?" Ron asked Harry and I. "And what's he doing here?"

He was looking at Malfoy, taking in his Slytherin Quidditch robes. "I'm the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley. Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team." I'd never heard Malfoy sound so smug. Ron gaped, open-mouthed, at the seven superb broomsticks in front of him. "Good, aren't they? But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I expect a museum would bid for them," he continued.

The Gryffindor's glared at him. It was the first time that I'd seen Fred and George look bashful at an insult. The Slytherin team howled with laughter. "At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," Hermione said sharply. I smiled at the echo of my words from earlier. "They got in on pure talent." The smug look on Malfoy's face flickered.

Leaning into him, I grinned. "Ah, see, it's not just me that thinks so," I said.

"Mind your manners like mummy and daddy taught you," Malfoy snapped at me. The comment was not received from Hermione as well as it had been from me. "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood," he spat.

There were only two people that didn't immediately react. Harry looked completely lost. He probably knew that it was an insult. But it was one in the Wizarding World, not the Muggle world. Hermione looked stunned, but not so offended. I had a feeling that she didn't know just how nasty the insult he'd thrown at her was. I had never heard it used before, other than to simply explain what it meant. Mom and Dad had told me about it once and had demanded that I never say it, to anyone. There was an instant uproar at his words. Flint had to dive in front of Malfoy to stop Fred and George jumping on him.

"You asshole!" I howled, drawing attention from all over the grounds.

Alicia shrieked, "How dare you!"

Ron plunged his hand into his robes, pulled out his wand, yelling, "You'll pay for that one, Malfoy!" and pointed it furiously under Flint's arm at Malfoy's face.

We all jumped as Ron actually sent a spell at Malfoy. He would be in a ton of trouble, but so would Malfoy. That was the worst insult that someone could say to a Muggle-Born. To anyone, really. A loud bang echoed around the stadium and a jet of green light shot out of the wrong end of Ron's wand, hitting him in the stomach and sending him reeling backward onto the grass.

I cringed, forgetting about the broken wand. "Ron!" I shrieked in a sudden panic, running after him.

"Ron! Ron! Are you all right?" Hermione squealed, running after him just as I had.

He was sitting up slightly, looking very dazed. Ron opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he gave an almighty belch and several slugs dribbled out of his mouth onto his lap. Hermione and I gasped and backed off. He had performed the same curse that he'd tried to perform the other day. The Slytherin team were paralyzed with laughter. Flint was doubled up, hanging onto his new broomstick for support. Malfoy was on all fours, banging the ground with his fist. The Gryffindor's quickly gathered around Ron, who kept belching large, glistening slugs. Nobody seemed to want to touch him.

Fred and George - who normally would have been beside themselves with laughter at their brother's misfortune - seemed very concerned with his well-being. "Is everything alright?" a voice called to me, very concerned.

It was Cedric, but for once, I completely ignored him. I was boiling with anger. So I straightened myself out, shoved Cedric and Oliver out of my way, and blew past Flint. "Hey, Malfoy!" I shouted.

Malfoy straightened up from his spot on the ground. He was still smiling. "What, Nox?" he asked me.

The people who had gathered around Ron were still worried about him, but every gaze had now turned to me. The Slytherin's were still shaking with laughter, but the Gryffindor's - and everyone else who had gathered around to see what had happened - had frozen. Malfoy grinned broadly at me, looking very proud of himself. I snarled. Every time that I thought that he might have been taking a step forward towards being a decent human being, he took a big step backwards. So I reared back and punched him straight in the eye, hoping that I would blind him. He fell backwards, the Slytherin team rushing to his rescue. I could already see a bruise on his eye as he straightened up.

Normally everyone would have laughed. But people were silent this time. "Just when I thought that you could stoop no lower," I hissed at Malfoy, ignoring Hermione's pleas for me to stop. "Calling someone a Mudblood? You deserved so much worse than that."

Turning back to the others, Cedric grabbed my arm and pushed me back to Harry, keeping me out of the way of Malfoy and the - very angry - Slytherin's. "Mr. Malfoy. Please bring yourself to Professor Snape. Head to the hospital wing afterwards. I believe your eye is bleeding. I'll be delivering this news to Professor Sprout as well. Your punishment will be in their hands," Cedric said, looking as furious as I'd ever seen him.

Malfoy stood, blood pouring from a cut above his eye. The edge of my Muggle watch had clipped his eyebrow, breaking the skin. "You'll pay for that one, Nox," he snarled at me.

"I'm sure," I said as the Slytherin team led him away. I turned back to Cedric, brushing back my hair. "Thank you."

Hermione was crying softly as I walked over to her, wrapping my arm around her. "Thank you..." she whispered to Cedric.

He looked very guilty over what had just happened. "You're both welcome." He then turned his gaze on Ron, as Ron threw up another slug. "That's a backfired spell, right there. I'm afraid you might have to wait it out," he offered.

"Thanks for trying," I told him, tightening my grip on Hermione before straightening up. "Go ahead. How many points?" I asked him.

As much as Malfoy had deserved what I'd done to him, I knew that fighting was still against the rules at Hogwarts. "None. You were well-within your rights to do that," Cedric told me. I smiled softly as he leaned down to Hermione. She was trying to brush the tears away, putting her focus on Ron. "Hermione, are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yes. Thank you," she said softly.

Cedric seemed to know that she wasn't much for talking right now. "Take him to Hagrid, he can at least make it a little more comfortable. Should be over in a little while," he told us. We all nodded, knowing that we had to get Ron somewhere quiet. "I've got to go and sort out some paperwork. You've got him?" he asked us.

I nodded at him. "We'll be fine. See you around. Thanks for that," I told him.

"Anytime."

With that, Cedric walked off, trying to clear the courtyard of onlookers. "Diggory's right. We'd better get him to Hagrid's, it's nearest," Harry said to Hermione and I. She nodded bravely, and the three of us pulled Ron up by the arms. We were very careful to not get any slugs on us.

"What happened, Harry? What happened? Is he ill? But you can cure him, can't you?" Colin had run down from his seat and was now dancing alongside us as we left the field. Ron gave a huge heave and more slugs dribbled down his front. Harry, Hermione, and I cringed. "Oh," Colin said, fascinated and raising his camera. "Can you hold him still, Harry?"

"Move, Colin!" I howled.

As much as I did like Colin, now was not the time. "Get out of the way, Colin!" Harry yelled angrily.

That was all that it took. Fred and George threw Colin out of the way to allow us to pass with Ron. They seemed to want to take the time to try and calm down the other members of the team. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie seemed determined to go and finish what I had started. Oliver was beside himself, wanting to demand to have Malfoy thrown off of the team. And probably out of Hogwarts. In the meantime, the three of us supported Ron out of the stadium and across the grounds toward the edge of the forest.

We were staggering the entire way there. Ron was heavier than he looked. Although, if we could carry Norbert all the way to the Astronomy tower, we could get Ron to the gamekeeper's cabin. "Nearly there, Ron. You'll be all right in a minute - almost there," Hermione was trying to assure him.

He said nothing, probably not wanting to risk vomiting slugs all over us. Which was definitely something that I appreciated. Mom and Dad would have a field day if I ruined yet another set of robes. We were within twenty feet of Hagrid's house when the front door opened, but it wasn't Hagrid who emerged. Gilderoy Lockhart, wearing robes of palest mauve today, came striding out. I groaned and halted in my tracks, the others following suit. Ron threw up another slug at the sudden movement.

"Not now!" I bit out.

"Quick, behind here," Harry hissed, dragging Ron behind a nearby bush.

Hermione was the only one that didn't move. I jumped out from behind the bush, grabbed her arm, and yanked her with me. "Get over here!" Hermione followed, somewhat reluctantly.

We were watching from behind the towering bush near the Forbidden Forest. "It's a simple matter if you know what you're doing!" Lockhart was saying loudly to Hagrid. "If you need help, you know where I am! I'll let you have a copy of my book. I'm surprised you haven't already got one. I'll sign one tonight and send it over. Well, good-bye!"

From the grunting that could be heard inside the cabin, I assumed that Hagrid had probably not appreciated the more than likely unsolicited advice. Without a response from Hagrid, Lockhart strode away toward the castle. We waited until Lockhart was out of sight, then pulled Ron out of the bush and up to Hagrid's front door. We knocked urgently, not stopping until Hagrid had appeared. Thankfully he was fast. Hagrid appeared at once, looking very grumpy, but his expression brightened when he saw who it was.

"Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me - come in, come in - thought you mighta bin Professor Lockhart back again."

He hadn't noticed what had happened yet. Harry, Hermione, and I supported Ron over the threshold into the one-roomed cabin, which had an enormous bed in one corner and a fire crackling merrily in the other. It took Hagrid a moment to see what had happened. Once he had, I'd almost thought that Hagrid would laugh, which probably wouldn't have gone over well. Hagrid didn't seem perturbed by Ron's slug problem, which Harry hastily explained as we lowered Ron into a chair.

"Better out than in," Hagrid said cheerfully, plunking a large copper basin in front of him. "Get 'em all up, Ron."

"I don't think there's anything to do except wait for it to stop," Hermione said anxiously, watching Ron bend over the basin.

"That's what Cedric said," I added.

That comment seemed to draw Hagrid's attention. He glanced over at me and I blushed at his piercing gaze. Not that I had a reason to. "Diggory?" he asked me.

"Well - Yes," I admitted, unable to see a way out of this.

Hagrid nodded. "Good boy, he is."

I was very grateful when Hermione spoke again, ending any conversation about Cedric Diggory that might have amassed. "That's a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand," she said.

While Ron slumped over, Hagrid was bustling around making them tea. His boarhound, Fang, was slobbering over Harry. "What did Lockhart want with you, Hagrid?" Harry asked, scratching Fang's ears.

Fang sat with Harry for a few seconds before moving off. I thought that he might simply lay his head in my lap, but I was dead wrong. Fang bounded over to me and launched himself into my lap. "Uh!" I groaned at the sudden weight. Fang began to slobber all over my lap as he laid himself over me. "Hello, Fang."

Smiling at the dog, I began petting his back. "Givin' me advice on gettin' kelpies out of a well," Hagrid growled, moving a half-plucked rooster off his scrubbed table and setting down the teapot. "Like I don' know. An' bangin' on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle."

Harry and I both laughed. Hermione looked very put-off by the comment. She was still determined that Lockhart was actually a good teacher, no matter what disasters happened in his classes. He did frequently like to mention his accomplishments, although any question on them and we would be told to revert to a page in one of his books. My thoughts were still on Hagrid's comment though. He even liked Snape. It was most unlike Hagrid to criticize a Hogwarts teacher.

"He's an idiot," I said, referring to Hagrid.

Hagrid nodded at me. His gaze became very sharp and I wondered what I'd done wrong. "I heard 'bout everythin' that's happened with him and yeh. Yeh stay away from him, hear me? Had eyes fer yer Mum, he did," Hagrid told me.

It only made one more person that was determined to keep me away from Lockhart. "I know," I said.

"Yeh three keep an eye on her," Hagrid warned the others.

"We are," Harry quickly put in.

Hermione, however, said in a voice somewhat higher than usual, "I think you're being a bit unfair. Professor Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job -"

"He was the on'y man for the job," Hagrid spoke over her, offering us a plate of treacle toffee, while Ron coughed into his basin. I groaned as a rather large slug came up. "An' I mean the on'y one. Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted long fer a while now."

"I knew there was a reason that Dumbledore hired him!" I said excitedly.

Despite the trouble that Hermione had just been through with Malfoy, I shot Hermione a prideful smirk. She merely rolled her eyes at me. "That explains a lot," Harry muttered.

We were only silent for a few seconds. "So tell me. Who was he tryin' ter curse?" Hagrid asked, jerking his head towards Ron.

"Malfoy called Hermione something - it must've been really bad, because everyone went wild," Harry said.

Hagrid didn't seem to understand. Harry and Hermione clearly didn't know what it meant. "Think the worst Muggle insult that you could. It's worse than that," I explained to them both, not really wanting to go more into detail.

"It was bad," Ron said hoarsely, surprising me slightly, as he emerged over the tabletop looking pale and sweaty. "Malfoy called her 'Mudblood,' Hagrid -" Ron dived out of sight again as a fresh wave of slugs made their appearance.

As I looked away from Ron, Hagrid looked outraged. "He didn'!" he growled at Hermione.

"He did. But I don't know what it means. I could tell it was really rude, of course -"

"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of," Ron gasped, coming back up. "Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who is Muggle-born - you know, non-magic parents. There are some wizards - like Malfoy's family - who think they're better than everyone else because they're what people call Pureblood."

"But not all Pureblood's are bad," I put in quickly, not wanting Hermione to become offended with the idea of us. "The Weasley's, Longbottom's... Nox's," I said. She smiled at me and nodded. "Mudblood essentially means dirty blood. Creature of dirt," I explained. Hermione cringed and I swore that I heard her sniffle. "Sorry, Hermione," I said quickly.

Hermione shook her head. "It's alright."

In the meantime Ron gave a small burp, and a single slug fell into his outstretched hand. He threw it into the basin and continued, "I mean, the rest of us know it doesn't make any difference at all. Look at Neville Longbottom - he's Pureblood and he can hardly stand a cauldron the right way up."

"Yet he has a better mark in Herbology than you do," I commented dryly.

The glare on Ron's face told me that he did not appreciate my comment. But he threw up another slug before he got the chance to retaliate. "An' they haven't invented a spell our Hermione can' do," Hagrid said proudly, making Hermione go a brilliant shade of magenta.

We all smiled at her. "It's a disgusting thing to call someone," Ron said, wiping his sweaty brow with a shaking hand. "Like Tara said. Dirty blood, see. Common blood. It's ridiculous. Most wizards these days are Half-Blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd have died out." He retched and ducked out of sight again.

"He's right. In England there are only twenty-nine truly Pureblooded families anymore. Hence, Sacred Twenty-Nine," I explained.

Nearly ninety percent of the Wizarding World were Half-Blood's. "Well, I don' blame yeh fer tryin' ter curse him, Ron," Hagrid said loudly over the thuds of more slugs hitting the basin. "Bu' maybe it was a good thing yer wand backfired. 'Spect Lucius Malfoy would've come marchin' up ter school if yeh'd cursed his son. Least yer not in trouble."

He was right about that. And we all knew that Lucius Malfoy was a powerful figure. If he wanted someone in trouble, trouble they would be in. "Cedric Diggory came and ordered Malfoy to Professor Snape to explain what had happened and leave the punishment with him. He said he'd relay it to Professor Sprout as well... Just to ensure that he found out," Hermione explained.

"Did he?" Hagrid asked.

"He's got eyes for Tara," Harry said, making Hagrid smile and myself blush furiously. Hermione smiled as well. "He'll come to her - or her friends' - rescue any day."

"Shut up," I snapped at Harry, who grinned back at me.

"Good man," Hagrid said.

It seemed that the adults (embarrassingly enough, many seemed to know about my crush) were all for Cedric. The kids - Harry and Ron in particular - were not fond of him. Probably simply because he liked me and they all thought that I was too young. I took a small piece of a treacle toffee to try and distract myself from having to talk about Cedric. It was a conversation that I liked to avoid as much as possible. Mostly because everyone knew about the crush, and they knew the exact ways to embarrass me about it. Although I quickly regretted this decision; Hagrid's treacle toffee had cemented my jaws together.

"Harry," Hagrid said abruptly as though struck by a sudden thought. "Gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I've heard you've bin givin' out signed photos. How come I haven't got one?"

A loud barking laugh escaped my mouth. Harry glared at me. "I have not been giving out signed photos," he said hotly. "If Lockhart's still spreading that around -" He trailed off as he realized that Hagrid was laughing.

Hagrid smiled and started chuckling. "I'm on'y jokin'," he said, patting Harry genially on the back and sending him face first into the table. I gasped and yanked Harry back up, glad to see that he wasn't bleeding and had no sign of a bruise. "I knew yeh hadn't really. I told Lockhart yeh didn' need teh. Yer more famous than him without tryin'."

We all laughed at that. "Bet he didn't like that," Harry said, sitting up and rubbing his chin.

"Don' think he did. An' then I told him I'd never read one o' his books an' he decided ter go." I barked madly with laughter. That was why Hagrid was one of my favorite adults here. "Treacle toffee, Ron?" he added as Ron reappeared.

"No thanks. Better not risk it," Ron said.

Hagrid nodded and looked over at me. "Told him teh stay away from Miss Tara, too. Told him tha' Marcus Nox wouldn' like knowin' that his daughter's bin gettin' eyes from a teacher," he said.

"Thank you, Hagrid."

Of course, if Lockhart had any brains at all he would know to stay away from me. There were far too many people that were looking out for me. "Can't promise it'll do anythin', but it migh'." I nodded appreciatively anyways. "Come an' see what I've bin growin'," Hagrid said.

Harry, Hermione, and I finished the last of our tea. I was the only one that took lemon in mine. Harry and Hermione both said that it was too bitter. I ignored them. Ron had opted not to have anything to drink, probably not wanting to risk it tasting like slugs. Definitely couldn't blame him for that. Once we were done we headed back into the garden. In the small vegetable patch behind Hagrid's house were a dozen of the largest pumpkins I had ever seen. Each was the size of a large boulder.

Hagrid seemed very proud of his pumpkins. They were huge. Much larger than any natural ones. "Gettin' on well, aren't they? Fer the Halloween feast... should be big enough by then," he said.

"They look good," I said.

Hagrid grinned at me, puffing his chest out slightly. I had to turn away for a moment to keep myself from laughing. "Thank yeh," Hagrid told me.

"What have you been feeding them?" Harry asked.

I rolled my eyes at him. There was no way that these pumpkins were as large as they were just by some love and nurturing. Hagrid had done something to them. Hagrid looked over his shoulder to check that we were alone. "Well, I've bin givin' them - you know - a bit o' help," he said nervously.

Of course. Looking over at him, I noticed Hagrid's flowery pink umbrella leaning against the back wall of the cabin. Just as I had thought. When we'd gone to Ollivander's last year to get our own wands, he had asked Hagrid about getting his wand snapped. Hagrid had mentioned that he'd kept the pieces. But he had grasped the pink umbrella tightly when Ollivander had scolded Hagrid that he was not supposed to be using them. He must have been keeping the pieces inside it so that he could do magic from time to time. Hagrid wasn't supposed to use magic. He had been expelled from Hogwarts in his Third Year, as he'd told Harry and I when we'd met him. But we had never found out why - any mention of the matter and Hagrid would clear his throat loudly and become mysteriously deaf until the subject was changed.

"I doubt that Dumbledore would mind," I told Hagrid honestly.

In fact, I was sure that Dumbledore actually knew that Hagrid's wand was in the umbrella. I doubted that there was much that got past the old wizard. "Still best not ter say anythin'," Hagrid said.

"An Engorgement Charm, I suppose?" Hermione asked. Hagrid smiled proudly at her. She was halfway between disapproval and amusement, probably because she appreciated a correctly done spell. "Well, you've done a good job on them."

"That's what yer little sister said," Hagrid said, nodding at Ron. "Met her jus' yesterday." Hagrid looked sideways at Harry, his beard twitching in amusement. "Said she was jus' lookin' round the grounds, but I reckon she was hopin' she might run inter someone else at my house." He winked at Harry. "If yeh ask me, she wouldn' say no ter a signed -"

"Oh, shut up," Harry said.

It didn't seem that Hermione was amused by the comment, but I laughed loudly. And it wasn't just me. Ron snorted with laughter and the ground was sprayed with slugs. "Watch it!" Hagrid roared, pulling Ron away from his precious pumpkins.

My laughter only increased tenfold. "Alright, you gotta admit, that's pretty funny," I told Ron, trying to stop laughing.

Ron only groaned and knocked me away from him. "Shut up, Tara."

It was nearly lunchtime as we walked through the rest of the garden. Hagrid had found his Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent and it had worked like a charm. Literally. My stomach eventually began to growl, Harry's not far behind mine, since I had only had a bit of toast and one treacle toffee since dawn. I knew that we were both keen to go back to school to eat. So we said goodbye to Hagrid and walked back up to the castle, Ron hiccoughing occasionally, but only bringing up two very small slugs. The curse that had backfired seemed to be ending.

Like Cedric and Hermione had both said, it was just waiting it out. It really was too bad it hadn't happened to Malfoy. I could only imagine that the trails that the slugs left would match their ugly robes. And I would have loved to hear about Parkinson getting a slug on her head. We had barely set foot in the cool entrance hall when a voice rang out.

"There you are, Potter - Weasley - Nox." I groaned and turned back. Professor McGonagall was walking toward us, looking stern. I had really been hoping that she would forget about the detention. But - just like last year after the Norbert debacle - she had remembered. "You will all be doing your detentions this evening."

We all nodded at her. "What're we doing, Professor?" Ron asked, nervously suppressing a burp.

No part of me wanted to have to explain to Professor McGonagall why Ron was throwing up slugs. "You will be polishing the silver in the trophy room with Mr. Filch," she told Ron. Harry and I exchanged a look. Were we all doing something different? Damn. "And no magic, Weasley. Elbow grease." Ron gulped. Argus Filch, the caretaker, was loathed by every student in the school.

He had a particular affinity for fondly remembering the days of torture whenever he watched over a detention. It was the main reason that I always prayed that whenever I got a detention, it would not be with him. "And you two, Potter, Nox, will be helping Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail," Professor McGonagall told us.

My heart sank into my stomach. I noticed Harry's body deflate and Ron stiffen. I couldn't find my voice to try and debate it. "Oh no - Professor, can't we go and do the trophy room, too?" Harry asked desperately.

"Certainly not," Professor McGonagall said, raising her eyebrows in surprise at Harry's request. "Professor Lockhart requested you two particularly. Eight o'clock sharp, all of you."

Moving forward before she could stalk off, I began to plead my case and potentially make things much worse. "Professor, please, there's an... odd history with my mother and Professor Lockhart." Professor McGonagall's eyebrows rose to her forehead. "I'll take three detentions with Professor Snape. Please. Just don't send me to Professor Lockhart."

She looked shocked that I had actually said that I would rather have three detentions with Snape. They were notoriously hard work. She did seem slightly sympathetic, but I could tell that she wouldn't bend on this one. "You're perfectly safe with a Hogwarts professor, Nox. Potter will be with you anyhow. Eight o'clock," she said.

"But -"

"Should I tack on another with Professor Lockhart?" she asked me sternly.

"No ma'am," I said quickly.

That was the absolute last thing that I wanted. Together, Harry, Ron, and I slouched into the Great Hall in states of deepest gloom the moment that Professor McGonagall had stalked off. I groaned to myself and marched towards the table. Hermione was right behind us, wearing a well-you-did-break-school-rules sort of expression. The only thing that made me feel any better was that Malfoy was at the Slytherin table with a nice black eye. He sneered at me and immediately shot from the Great Hall, probably back towards the Slytherin Common Room. I noticed Hermione give me a grateful smile.

But we were not left in peace for very long. Following Malfoy out of the Great Hall was Pansy Parkinson. She stopped right behind me and I sighed, turning back to her. "What, Parkinson?" I asked.

"Think you're funny, do you?" she snapped at me.

"Actually I think that I'm hilarious," I responded.

The Great Hall was so loud that her comment had gone mostly unnoticed. It wasn't uncommon to see Parkinson storm up to me, angry for something that I'd said or done. "You'll pay for what you did to him," she said.

Whipping around to her with an angry glare, I noticed her step back slightly. "Go ahead, Parkinson, make your move," I barked at her. It drew some attention from the Gryffindor table. Parkinson did not move. "What's the matter? Lose your nerve with all of the teachers watching you?" I asked her. There were a few professors that were watching the tense exchange. "Or maybe you don't know which spell to use," I teased.

The grin on my face never faded as Parkinson flushed a soft pink. She stormed off without another word to me. I was sure that she would try to attack me later, but I couldn't really care. I'd manage whatever she threw at me. I did hear a few nasty curses thrown my way as she stormed off. Even with everything that had happened with Parkinson, and the black eye that I'd given Malfoy, I didn't enjoy his shepherd's pie as much as I had thought that I would. Ron, Harry, and I all felt they we had all gotten the worse deal. But I knew that I could have gotten off worse. I could have been alone with Lockhart.

A few minutes later, Ron sighed. "Filch will have me there all night. No magic! There must be about a hundred cups in that room. I'm no good at Muggle cleaning," Ron said heavily.

Harry spoke before I could snap at Ron that he had it easy. He probably knew that I had nothing nice to say. "I'd swap anytime. I've had loads of practice with the Dursley's. Answering Lockhart's fan mail... He'll be a nightmare..." Harry said hollowly.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. "Excuse you both, Lockhart has a crush on my mother!" I shouted. It drew some attention from the other tables and I dropped my head, not wanting to draw any more attention. "And now he's got... me," I muttered.

"He's a teacher, Tara, he won't do anything to you," Hermione argued.

Turning over to her, I grabbed the copy of Year with a Yeti and slammed it closed. She did not look happy with me for doing so. "You have got to get over your crush on him," I told her.

She blushed furiously. "I do not have -"

"Yes you do," Ron, Harry, and I said at the same time.

After our comment, Hermione didn't seem to want to talk to us anymore. She opened her book - leaning over towards where Ginny was sitting - and began reading it once more. I rolled my eyes and looked away from her. I was debating on doing some work, but I didn't have anything with me. So I simply sat and picked at the shepherd's pie. It wasn't long before we all decided to leave and go back to the Common Room. At least I could sit in front of the fireplace and enjoy the warmth. There was definitely a good chill running through the Great Hall. We all gathered our things and stood to leave. I didn't make it very far before running smack into Cedric. I smiled weakly at him.

Harry rolled his eyes, but said nothing, considering the help that Cedric had come to our aid earlier today. "See you in the Common Room," Harry told me. I smiled at him, grateful that they weren't going to hang around.

"How are you feeling, Ron?" Cedric asked.

Ron looked very bothered to have to say something to him. "Better... Thanks..." he muttered before dragging Harry off with him. Hermione rolled her eyes and patted me on the arm before heading after them.

Cedric watched them walk away with a somewhat amused smile. He turned back to me and motioned for me to follow him. I did and we walked right out towards the entrance hall. "I don't think that your friends like me very much," he said as we walked.

"It's not you," I insisted. He raised his brow at me. "It's just that..." I trailed off when I realized that the proper explanation was that they didn't like him because I had a crush on him. "Never mind. Don't mind them, they're weird," I said quickly.

Cedric laughed at my suddenly very tense stance. "That's alright," he said as we continued to walk through the halls. "You all doing alright?"

"Fine. Hope Malfoy's got some serious brain damage," I snarled.

Even though we'd let it go - mostly so that Hermione wouldn't dwell on it - I was still furious that he had dared to call her a Mudblood. Cedric's mouth twitched in anger. "He does not, although I think Madam Pomfrey intends to leave his black eye the way that it is. She found out what he said. She won't be fixing that anytime soon," he said.

I laughed, remembering how angry he'd looked in the Great Hall with a bruise over his eye. "Good," I said.

Cedric smiled at me. He placed an arm behind my back and led me up a back staircase. "Professor Snape gave him two nights detention for it and thirty points from Slytherin," he told me.

"Really?" I asked, feeling very surprised. I would have thought that Snape would have taken a few points away. He loved Malfoy. I would have thought that he'd push it off to kids being kids or something like that. "I can't believe that Snape actually took that much from him."

"As awful as he can be, I'd never seen him so angry for hearing that Malfoy called someone that," Cedric said.

I nodded absentmindedly, wondering why Snape had been so upset. He hated Hermione just as much as Malfoy did. Evidently not quite as much. "Well... I suppose I could thank him for that. Thank you for coming to my rescue. Well, not really mine, theirs," I corrected myself.

He grinned. "Always."

My stomach gave a little flip as we turned a corner. I jumped in surprise when Colin was standing right there, messing with his camera. "H - Hi, Tara," he stuttered, smiling at me.

"Hello, Colin. How are you?" I asked.

"Good. How's Ron?"

"Better."

His gaze finally turned and he seemed to realize that Cedric had been standing with me. Cedric, who was an entire foot taller than Colin and twice as wide. He gave Colin a little smile and I saw the younger boy pale. "I - I'll be off. See you!" Colin said to me awkwardly before running off.

Was it because he had been embarrassed over me, or had Cedric intimidated him? Cedric chuckled as we continued to climb the stairs. "So I hear that Harry's giving out signed photos?" he asked me.

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head. "Don't let him hear you say that," I warned.

Cedric laughed right along with me. "I'm just kidding," he said. "I've seen how horrified he is whenever Creevey brings it up." We walked in silence for a while longer before Cedric turned to me with a little smile. I raised a brow at the look on his face. "So... If I ask Creevey for one of his many pictures of you, will you sign it?"

"Stop," I said, shoving into him.

He laughed at me as we turned down one of the many hallways in the upper turrets of Hogwarts. "If Creevey gets a signed photo, I want one," he continued.

"Shut up," I snapped through my laughter.

My face was burning with embarrassment as I glanced down at the ground. He was just joking. I had to keep remembering that. "So what are you doing for the afternoon?" he asked me after a moment.

I sighed as we walked past one of the windows. You couldn't see Hogsmeade village from here, but I knew that we were close. And I knew that there was another year until we could go. "Wishing that I could go to Hogsmeade," I mumbled.

Sometimes the weekends did get a little boring in the beginning of the year, with barely any work and no classes to keep our attention. "You'll get to go in at some point next year. I could show you my favorite places," he offered. My head snapped over to him and I saw that he was running his fingers through his hair awkwardly.

Had he just asked me on a date next year? A whole year away... Or was he just offering as a friend? The moment that I wished that I was a Legilimens... "Ah. You say that to all the girls?" I asked teasingly, not wanting to make him feel any more awkward.

Cedric smiled at me. "Only the special ones," he said.

My cheeks burned furiously, the heat spreading over my neck and chest. It was plural, you idiot, you aren't the only one that he's offered that to. "I'm actually finally serving that detention that we got for flying the car into the Whomping Willow," I said, trying to distract the conversation.

Cedric laughed and shook his head at me. "I've never heard someone so nonchalant about flying a car into a Whomping Willow," he said.

"We had it handled," I retorted.

Yes, it was brilliant the way that the car threw you onto your ass after the Whomping Willow attempted to kill you. "I'm sure," Cedric said disbelievingly. I scowled at him. "No one can ever manage to get themselves into disasters quite as quickly as you four." I smiled guiltily at him. "McGonagall give you the detention?"

"Yes," I said with a small scowl, "but Lockhart personally requested that I serve it with him."

"You're not going alone, are you?" he asked sharply.

I shook my head at him, almost smiling at the protective way that he said it. "No, no. Ron has to go polish the trophies in the trophy room, but Lockhart requested that Harry be there with me," I told him. Cedric relaxed slightly, probably glad that it wouldn't be just the two of us. "He's already agreed to keep me away from him."

"Good."

The two of us walked in silence through the rest of the pathways. The further upstairs that we got, the less people that we ran into. We did pass Cho Chang near one of the turrets. I could only assume that the Ravenclaw Common Room wasn't too far from where we were. Either that, or she had just been up in the Owlery. She had glared at me before stopping to chat with Cedric for a few minutes. I was very glad that he politely brushed her off, telling her that he would see her later. It was very hard to suppress a laugh. We had eventually made our way all the way to the top turret of the school, popping out in the Astronomy tower.

It was the one place that anyone could find me after a stressful day. I'd always found it peaceful up here. "Should have figured that this would be where we were going," I said softly.

Cedric smiled at me as we took a seat near the open railing that dropped all the way to the courtyard below. Kids were running all over the place below us. No one ever came up here. It was forbidden to be here except for classes. Not that it meant anything to me. "This is where you like to go whenever you're upset or irritated about something," Cedric said. I smiled, having not known that he really understood that about me. "It's a good place to go and clear your head. Figured it'd be good to head here before a detention with Lockhart."

"You were right," I said softly. I sat near the opening, Cedric right next to me. "The weather is perfect."

And it really was. There was a slight chill in the air, but my Quidditch robes were long enough to keep me warm. And now that the sun was up, it was beating down on me. It felt good. It reminded me of the long Florida summers back in the States. The two of us sat together for a long time, talking and laughing. I had a slight feeling that someone was going to catch us and give me another detention from how loud we were being, but no one ever did. It was a long time before our conversation slowed, my head lolling back against the stone wall.

"You alright?" Cedric asked.

The sun was starting to sink, the sky remaining was a brilliant orange. "Wonderful. Oliver wanted us to wake up at four this morning just to give us a three hour talk about new Quidditch moves," I said.

Cedric laughed. "Sounds like you've had an eventful first week," he told me.

It was my turn to laugh. "Not so sure that eventful would be the right word for it," I said.

We both laughed at that one. My first week had been one for the books. I'd been blocked off from coming to Hogwarts, illegally flown a flying car and been spotted by Muggles, crashed into the Whomping Willow, earned a name for myself with Gilderoy Lockhart, and punched Malfoy in the face. His first week had been much less eventful. It was around dinnertime - neither of us were hungry - when I finally couldn't stay awake anymore. I began nodding off, despite not wanting to seem rude to Cedric, my head leaning back against the stone wall, and was out like a light a moment later.

It didn't feel like that much longer when I felt my shoulder being shaken. Cedric's Care of Magical Creatures book was open on his shins. He must have been reading it while I was taking a nap. It was nice of him to not just leave me here to my own devices. But why was the book seated almost in front of me? It was right then that I realized that I must have shifted while I was asleep. My head was tucked right underneath Cedric's chin, on top of his chest. Immediately my entire body began to burn with embarrassment. I was leaning into him, my body tucked into his side. His arm was looped around me.

"Tara... Tara..." he muttered. I slowly looked up at him, ashamed at myself. He didn't seem bothered. He was smiling at me. "Hate to wake you up, Sleeping Beauty, but it's a little after seven. You should probably head to your detention soon," he said.

Disentangling myself from him, I tried to avoid his gaze. I helped him gather his things before turning to leave the tower. As we walked downstairs I glanced at him, wanting to lighten the mood. "How much trouble do you think that I'd get in for skipping it?" I asked.

He laughed at me. "A lot." And he was right about that. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah."

I turned to head back to the Common Room when I was stopped by his voice once more. "Did you know that you drool in your sleep?" he asked. I whipped back around to him and saw that he was smiling brightly. My hand shot up to my mouth. I had never been so mortified. "Don't worry, it's cute," he added.

"I am so sorry," I told him.

He waved me off. "I do, too," he admitted. We both laughed and I smiled, feeling a little bit better about myself. "You're more than welcome to fall asleep on me whenever you'd like."

Once more, my face burned. I smiled at him and said goodbye, promising that I would see him again soon. I walked through the portrait hole, smiling at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were sprawled out on the couches. "Where have you been all day?" Harry asked sharply.

Laughing loudly, I ignored Harry and went upstairs to get changed. I slid my robes off as Hermione came upstairs with me. We invited Ginny to come into the dorm room, too, recounting to her everything that had happened, and ending with my afternoon with Cedric. Even the embarrassing end. Ginny had squealed, saying that there was no way that he didn't like me. To my shock, Hermione had actually agreed. The three of us had eventually headed back downstairs where Harry and Ron were still complaining about detention. Although I thought that I might have heard 'Pretty-Boy Diggory' thrown in once or twice. And finally our last hour of freedom seemed to melt away.

There was no more time that we could spare. Harry, Ron, and I had to leave, letting Ginny and Hermione enjoy their time together in the Common Room. In the meantime, we headed downstairs. Harry and I said goodbye at the entrance to the trophy room and we continued down the hall, ignoring Peeves, who looked quite excited to see how downtrodden we were. It was five minutes to eight, as Harry and I were dragging our feet along the second-floor corridor to Lockhart's office.

"I can't believe that we have to do this," I muttered to him.

Harry seemed as much in despair as I was. "You sit on my other side, away from Lockhart," he told me.

"Thanks."

We were just outside of the entrance to Lockhart's office when Harry stopped me, keeping his voice low. "You gonna be alright?" he asked me.

"I can deal with one irritating professor," I said.

Harry rolled his eyes. "This is way beyond irritating," he said.

And he was right about that. We nodded at each other before moving begrudgingly forward. As much as we wanted to run off and ignore the detention, we knew that things would only become worse. So we gritted our teeth, moved forward to the door, and knocked. The door flew open at once. I nearly jumped back, having been expecting the answer to have at least taken a few seconds. Lockhart beamed down at the two of us. He looked even more annoying today than he normally did. Maybe I was biased.

"Ah, here's the scalawags!" he cheered brightly. Harry and I exchanged a bored glance. "Come in, Harry, Tara, come in."

He motioned us forward and we stepped in. His office looked more like a post office than it did an actual office. I'd been in Professor Quirrell's office a few times - something that still unnerved me to this day - and his had always seemed so normal. A few animals and plants in jars, test papers scattered everywhere, and some personal artifacts and books that were lined up on the shelves. Lockhart's office was quite different. Shining brightly on the walls by the light of many candles were countless framed photographs of Lockhart. He had even signed a few of them. Another large pile lay on his desk.

How was he even a real human being? He couldn't have been. There was no one that was really that self-centered. "You two can address the envelopes!" Lockhart told Harry and I, as though this was a huge treat.

"Lucky us," I hissed before I could stop myself.

Harry grinned; so did Lockhart. He didn't seem to understand that my comment had been sarcastic. "Aren't you?" Lockhart chirped back to me.

"Couldn't imagine a better way to torture us for detention," I said.

That time he did see the insult. He turned back to me and smiled. "Funny, funny, girl," Lockhart said. He led us over to his desk and showed us two chairs. One was right next to him, the other next to that one. Harry shoved me into the furthest one before Lockhart could say anything. Lockhart brandished the first letter and showed it to us. "This first one's to Gladys Gudgeon, bless her - huge fan of mine."

All I could imagine was that, somewhere in this massive pile of letters, was one from Mrs. Weasley. The thought made me smile. Harry didn't seem to understand what I could possibly find amusing at a time like this. Although my amusement over Mrs. Weasley's letter quickly died down. Lockhart seemed to want us to read them, but I didn't. I merely poorly copied Lockhart's signature and jammed the photos into the return address. The minutes snailed by. It felt like this detention would never end. At least the one where we'd run into Voldemort had been fun in the beginning... I let Lockhart's voice wash over me, ignoring him and only grunting something when he would stop speaking.

Most of the time it sounded like Lockhart was either trying to tell Harry about what life was like being a celebrity, or saying something about the massive amounts of boys that were also outside of Hogwarts that I would need to look at. His comments had led to two snapped quills on my part. Lockhart laughed and said that I was getting too enthusiastic. He didn't seem to understand that after hearing that he thought that I was leading on Harry, Ron, Colin, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Oliver, Cedric, Fred, George, and Malfoy that I was very frustrated with him. I was absolutely positive that Harry was going to smash Lockhart over the head with the ink bottle.

More than anything I wished that I had a set of Muggle headphones to drown him out. "Your mother will probably think this is all wonderful, her daughter in a detention with her old friend," Lockhart said.

"Doubt she cares. It's date night with Dad," I muttered.

In all actuality, no part of what I'd said was the truth. I knew that she cared very much about every time that I got a detention. I would always get a question about what had happened and who the detention was with. If she knew that I was having a detention with Gilderoy Lockhart, she would be beside herself. And as for the date night, they never had date nights. Any time that they went out, they always took me with them. They didn't need a date night. They essentially had date nights every night that I was gone while I was here at Hogwarts. But that comment had the exact effect that I'd been hoping for.

Lockhart went pink in the face. "Yes... Well..." he trailed off. I heard Harry laugh next to me. "Ah, Jean Warbeck," Lockhart suddenly seemed very interested in a letter sitting off to the side, "a huge fan. Related to Celestina Warbeck, did you know?" Harry and I both grunted, tuning him out once more.

The candles burned lower and lower, making the light dance over the many moving faces of Lockhart watching us. I hadn't brought my Muggle watch. How had I been so stupid? I wanted to know what time it was. I wanted to know just how long this stupid detention was. We had to have been here for hours. If I'd been a little hungrier I would have thought that we'd been here for weeks. I moved my aching hand over what felt like the thousandth envelope. I was probably getting quite a few of the addresses wrong. I was probably spelling their names - and his - wrong, too. It had started as a joke. But now I couldn't really bring myself to care.

Lockhart had thankfully stopped speaking a long time ago. He was very focused on writing an actual letter back to one of his fans. But something that was definitely not Lockhart's haughty voice made every muscle in my body tense. Because I had heard something - something quite apart from the spitting of the dying candles and Lockhart's continuing prattle about his fans. It was a voice, a voice to chill the bone marrow, a voice of breathtaking, ice-cold venom.

"Come... come to me... Let me rip you... Let me tear you... Let me kill you..."

I jumped farther than I had in the haunted house Mom and Dad had brought me to a few years ago. "What?" Harry asked loudly.

"Ah!" I yelled in horror. Knocking my knee on the bottom of the table, I managed to spill the bottle of ink all over a few sheets of blank parchment.

"I know! Six solid months at the top of the best-seller list! Broke all records!" Lockhart cheered.

Harry and I exchanged a horrified look. He'd heard it. So why hadn't Lockhart? "No. That voice!" Harry said frantically.

"Sorry?" Lockhart asked, looking puzzled. "What voice? Are you two alright?"

The two of us were breathing very quickly, wondering what had just said that. "There was a voice... An angry voice..." I muttered. Lockhart looked stunned as Harry looked slightly relieved. "You heard it, too?" I asked him.

Harry nodded at me. "Yes." He then turned to Lockhart. "That - that voice that said - didn't you hear it?"

Lockhart was looking at Harry and I in high astonishment. "What are you talking about, Harry, Tara? Perhaps you're getting a little drowsy?" There was no way that I'd heard that just because I was a little drowsy. That had been real. And it had seemed so close. "Great Scott - look at the time! We've been here nearly four hours! I'd never have believed it - the time's flown, hasn't it?" he asked us.

For a long time, Harry and I stayed silent. Partially because I didn't want to have to talk to Lockhart anymore and partially because I was trying to hear something... Anything... I had to block out his prattle about how keeping up with all of those Hogwarts boys was making me exhausted. I sat in my chair and strained my ears to hear the voice again. I wanted to hear the voice, to be able to tell if I'd ever heard it before, or if I could pick out where it had come from. But it was long gone. There was no sound now except for Lockhart telling us that we mustn't expect a treat like this every time we got detention.

Feeling very dazed, Harry and I left. It was already after midnight, and I wanted to sprint back to Gryffindor tower. No part of me wanted to meet the owner of the voice. "You heard it?" I asked him weakly.

Harry nodded at me, looking just as bothered by the voice was I was. "Yes. What'd it say?" he asked me. "Let me..."

"Let me rip you. Let me kill you," I said, remembering the voice perfectly. It felt like I'd been plunged into ice-cold water. It made the Sorcerer's Stone seem like child's play. "What the hell, Harry?"

"I don't know. But I'm glad that you heard it, too. Come on. We should tell Ron and Hermione," he said.

Nodding at him, the two of us sped up slightly. Neither one of us wanted to be caught in the dark corridors by the owner of the voice. The voice that I knew would be haunting my nightmares. And just when I'd started to sleep normally again... We got back to the Gryffindor tower quickly. It was so late that the Common Room was almost empty. Harry and I went straight up to the dormitories. I told him to head back down after he got changed, letting him know that I would grab Hermione. It seemed that Ron wasn't back yet. I pulled on my pajamas - trying not to wake up Parvati, Fay, and Lavender - and moved over to Hermione's sleeping form.

Keeping my voice low, I nudged her shoulder. "Hermione. Wake up," I whispered.

She whined at me and shoved her head into the pillows. "I am not on your Quidditch team. Wake me up later," she hissed at me.

"Please, Mione, it's important," I begged.

She shot upright, nearly knocking heads with me. Hermione looked wide-awake by now. She knew that the desperation in my voice meant that something bad had happened. "Alright. Come on," she said. She sprung from her bed and ran downstairs with me. Harry was in his pajamas and sitting on one of the couches. "What's happened?"

"We're waiting for Ron. We'll tell you both together," I told her.

She nodded at me and took a spot on the couch. It was a few minutes before the Common Room emptied completely. I was glad. I really didn't want to explain the mystery voice to anyone else. They thought that Harry and I were crazy enough. Hermione seemed very concerned for our well-being. It didn't help that Harry and I were twitching nervously at every creak and whistle of the wind through the rafters of the castle. After nearly half an hour, Ron came in. He smelled very strongly of polish.

Ron immediately started complaining. "My muscles have all seized up. Fourteen times he made me buff up that Quidditch Cup before he was satisfied. And then I had another slug attack all over a Special Award for Services to the School. Took ages to get the slime off... How was it with Lockhart?" he asked us.

Ron seemed a little surprised to see that Hermione was down here, too. She was the one of us that always went to bed early. It was rare to find her awake after midnight. Unless she was studying, that is. Keeping our voices low so as not to alert anyone that we were talking about something that could be very dangerous, Harry and I told Ron and Hermione exactly what we had heard.

They were both silent for a long time. We had been hoping for a normal year. Clearly we were not going to get one. "And Lockhart said he couldn't hear it?" Ron asked. We both nodded. I could see him frowning in the moonlight. "D'you think he was lying? But I don't get it - even someone invisible would've had to open the door."

"I know. I don't get it either," Harry said, leaning back on the couch.

Hermione finally spoke. "But you both heard it?" she asked.

"Yes," we said together.

Hermione seemed to think on that for a long time. "You're sure that you weren't just dozing off?" she asked.

Angrily, I snapped at her. "Yes. How would we have heard the exact same thing at the exact same time in our imaginations?" I asked. She said nothing in response. "It was there, Hermione. It was almost like it was echoing through the castle. Far away. Sounded a lot like hissing."

Hermione was obviously trying to reason why this had happened. "No one else heard it," she said.

"I know."

And that was what made the whole thing so unnerving. We heard something like that, and no one else had. "You haven't heard it since?" Hermione asked us.

"No," we said together again.

Both Ron and Hermione were nodding at us. Unfortunately, there was really nothing that we could do since we hadn't heard the voice again. The only thing that we could do was sit and wait. "We should wait to see if you both hear it again. In the meantime, Hogwarts is safe. Probably the safest place to be with Dumbledore here," Hermione said.

Maybe that was the truth. But what if Dumbledore couldn't hear it either? What if Harry and I were the only ones? "She's right. The biggest menace here is Lockhart," Ron put in.

But there was something in my mind that told me that Lockhart was not the worst thing in this school. It seemed that Harry agreed with me. That voice... The low and chilling way that it spoke. Almost like it wasn't even human. As I walked back up to the dorm, I couldn't help but to remember the warning that Dobby had given us. Terrible things were going to happen at Hogwarts this year. What if it wasn't just a prank from Malfoy? After all, he hadn't seemed to know what Ron was talking about when he'd asked if Malfoy was surprised to see Harry in Flourish and Blotts last month. Cedric was right. Here we were, barely a week into the year, already in the middle of a disaster.


	26. The Deathday Party

October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Fred had managed to get back his winter cloak for a few days after the disastrous Quidditch practice that had resulted in Ron's vomiting slugs for hours. But, once more, it was mine to use. The grounds had become ice cold once more. And that meant that I was almost always found curled up in his. I had a feeling that he would end up just giving it to me anyways. He had gotten a little taller and needed a bigger one anyways. It worked for me, since that meant that I was now able to curl up in the two of the thick winter cloaks that I had.

Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden rush of colds among the staff and students. I was very thrilled to have gotten out of that one. Her Pepperup Potion (one that Mom frequently tried to get me to use) worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. That was why I attempted to always avoid having to use it. Ginny Weasley, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by Percy. The steam pouring from under her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire. I'd tried to ask her if she was feeling alright, but she'd merely nodded at me quickly and sprinted away.

It wasn't the first time that I'd wondered if there was something wrong with her. She'd been doing so well for the first few weeks of school. She always seemed so happy. She'd been making some friends in her own year and had even been making some friends in our year. But lately I'd noticed that she'd stopped speaking to everyone. Hermione and I included. She had been losing all of the color that she had and seemed to have been losing weight, too. I'd tried to get her to go to Madam Pomfrey, but she'd merely smiled weakly at me and told me that she was nervous for a Transfiguration test. Knowing that I couldn't press her, I'd merely smiled and told her to come to me anytime she wanted to talk.

As much as I wanted to continue checking on her, I knew that I couldn't. There were other things that I needed to take care of. And there were the weather problems that we all had to deal with. It was half of the reason that so many people were getting sick. With all of the time that I spent outside, I was shocked that I hadn't been sick. Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Things with Lockhart had calmed down for a while, but very recently they'd stirred back up again.

Just the other day I'd slipped and fallen out near the greenhouses on my way to Herbology. It had seriously hurt. I'd already been running late to class, after having been cornered by Colin, who had been asking me about Dittany. Probably just his excuse to talk to me. My uniform hadn't really been on straight - I'd forgotten my tie and sweater - leaving me in only the robes, skirt, and white button-down. I'd been soaked to the bone within seconds, and it had made my shirt a little see-through. Cedric had been walking by at the time and he'd stopped to help me, checking to make sure that I was alright.

As mortified as I'd been at the thought that he could see right through my shirt, he'd been nice enough to pretend that he couldn't. And maybe he hadn't. He wouldn't just be looking. He wasn't that type. It didn't matter. Lockhart had been walking by and - after ensuring that I was alright - had scolded me for attempting to 'show off' to an older boy. I'd been so mortified that I hadn't been thinking straight. I'd tossed one of the rolls that normally had parchment wrapped around them - very heavy and wooden - straight at Lockhart's head. I'd gotten twenty points taken away and two night's detention for it from Lockhart, with Hagrid, which was much better. Hagrid had allowed Cedric to come in and help tend to the pumpkins and keep me company. I had a feeling that he felt guilty for what had happened.

It did provide me great amusement to see Gilderoy Lockhart walking around with a lump the size of a tea plate on his head for a few days. I had a feeling that Madam Pomfrey refused to help him. It gave me even greater amusement to tell the others what had happened - omitting little pieces of the story. Hermione had been absolutely horrified that I'd done something like attack a teacher. I'd noticed that there were a few more chocolate eclairs - my favorite - on the platters that evening for dinner and the professors seemed particularly upbeat.

Lockhart seemed to have calmed down since then. He rarely looked in my direction anymore. But that didn't mean that my troubles were over. Oliver Wood's enthusiasm for regular training sessions were not dampened. We were out in the pouring rain every single day working as hard as we could. It meant that every day I could be found soaking wet, freezing, and grouchy. On the bright side, I had learned to stop wearing white. Oliver seemed to have been determined that we were going to beat Slytherin - which would be next to impossible with their brooms. As lousy as Malfoy was, he did have the faster broom.

His new training sessions were exactly the reason as to why Harry and I were to be found, late one stormy Saturday afternoon just over a week before Halloween, returning to Gryffindor Tower, drenched to the skin and splattered with mud. It was just two days before my birthday. I would be thirteen this year. As the oldest of the Second Year Gryffindor's (both male and female), I was the first person to turn thirteen. It would be my first year of being an official teenager.

Chattering and trying to wrap Fred's sopping cloak closer around me, I glanced over at Harry. He looked just like I did. A drowned rat. "How if Oliver the only person that doesn't seem to be affected by the weather?" I growled.

"Tara, there's no part of his brain that's wired to anything but playing Quidditch," Harry responded.

And he was right about that. Harry's arm fell over me and I tucked myself into his side. We were both cold. My blood was cold, my bones were cold, my brain was cold, and even my hair was cold. Even aside from the rain and wind it hadn't been a happy practice session. Fred and George, who had been spying on the Slytherin team, had seen for themselves the speed of those new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. They reported that the Slytherin team was no more than seven greenish blurs, shooting through the air like missiles. Our only hope was to try and play as best as we could, praying that the fact that they were still terrible players would help.

The two of us were walking quickly. Each one of us were desperate to get back upstairs and clean ourselves off. The only thing that I wanted was to get into my pajamas and toss my thick blankets over me before curling up in front of the fireplace. It was days like these that made me miss the warm air of Ilvermorny Castle. As Harry and I squelched along the deserted corridor we came across somebody who looked just as preoccupied as we were. I held out a hand to stop him.

Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, was staring morosely out of a window, muttering under his breath, "... don't fulfill their requirements... half an inch, if that..."

He looked even less happy than we were. The two of us inched forward. I wasn't sure if we could startle ghosts or not. "Hello, Nick," Harry said softly.

Nick gave a little start and turned back to us. "Hello, hello," he said, still looking sad.

Maybe angry. Ghost emotions were a little hard to understand. Nearly Headless Nick wore a dashing, plumed hat on his long curly hair, and a tunic with a ruff, which concealed the fact that his neck was almost completely severed. He was dressed to the nines, just as he always was. I assumed that he was probably rather dashing in his living days. For the time period, anyways. He was pale as smoke, and I could see right through him to the dark sky and torrential rain outside.

He glanced over at us and frowned. "You look troubled, young Potter and Nox," Nick said, folding a transparent letter as he spoke and tucking it inside his doublet.

"So do you," Harry said.

Nick gave a heavy sigh. "Ah," Nearly Headless Nick waved an elegant hand, "a matter of no importance... It's not as though I really wanted to join... Thought I'd apply, but apparently I 'don't fulfill requirements.'" In spite of his airy tone, there was a look of great bitterness on his face. Probably something to do with the Headless Hunt. "But you would think, wouldn't you," he erupted suddenly, pulling the letter back out of his pocket, "that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?"

I knew that it had something to do with the Headless Hunt. He had wanted to be a part of it for years. Centuries, really. But he kept getting denied. The last thing I'd heard was something about how he hadn't been properly beheaded. His hand hung on by just a few threads. He had showed us last year that he could pull it off of his shoulders, but that it was still connected by a piece of skin on the left side. It meant that he wasn't truly headless, hence his nickname.

He was still watching us. "Oh - yes," Harry said quickly, realizing that we were obviously supposed to agree.

Smiling at Nick, I had to suppress the urge to place my hand on Nick's shoulder. Touching a ghost was like going in an ice bath. "If it makes any difference, I would have voted for you, Nick," I said sweetly.

Nick turned to me with somewhat of a smile. "Thank you, my dear." I nodded at him. "I mean, nobody wishes more than I do that it had all been quick and clean, and my head had come off properly, I mean, it would have saved me a great deal of pain and ridicule." Harry and I exchanged a disgusted glance. "However-" Nearly Headless Nick shook his letter open and read furiously.

"'We can only accept huntsmen whose heads have parted company with their bodies. You will appreciate that it would be impossible otherwise for members to participate in hunt activities such as Horseback Head-Juggling and Head Polo. It is with the greatest regret, therefore, that I must inform you that you do not fulfill our requirements. With very best wishes, Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore.'"

Well... It sounded kind of nice to me. As nice as declining someone for a Headless Hunt could be. Fuming, Nearly Headless Nick stuffed the letter away. "Half an inch of skin and sinew holding my neck on, kids!" I cringed, feeling absolutely disgusted by the thought. I certainly hoped that when I went, it wasn't by beheading. And if it was, I wanted it done properly. "Most people would think that's good and beheaded, but oh, no, it's not enough for Sir Properly Decapitated-Podmore." I couldn't help but to snort. Nearly Headless Nick took several deep breaths and then said, in a far calmer tone, "So, what's bothering you? Anything I can do?"

In all honesty, there were quite a few things that were bothering me. Some of them were smaller things, leftover thoughts from last year. I wanted to know what I meant to Voldemort and why he seemed to know me. I also would have loved to know who had sent me the three unmarked presents, which were still unaccounted for. But I tried to ignore those, since I hadn't heard a word from Voldemort since, and there had been no more boxes. But that didn't mean that there were no things that were bothering me now. As always, there were plenty of things that were causing me trouble.

One of the biggest things was the horrible relationship that I had with Gilderoy Lockhart, I was going to flip out and kill him in a matter of days. The water goblet would be nothing. I was also just about sick of Draco Malfoy. He'd kept his head down in the weeks since I'd given him a black eye for calling Hermione a Mudblood, but he was starting to make noise again. The constant Quidditch practices and days spent soaking wet and freezing cold were driving me up the damn wall, too. Classes were beginning to get harder and the work was starting to pile up. Plus there was still the fact of the murderous voice that only Harry and I had heard during our detention with Lockhart.

It seemed that no one had heard it other than us, and neither of us had heard it since. Not for lack of trying. Every time that I walked through the corridors I would strain my ears to see if I could hear anything that would show me that the voice was back. But nothing ever did. I couldn't hear the voice ever again, and there was nothing indicating that the voice that I'd heard wasn't a figment of my imagination, as Hermione thought, save for the fact that Harry had heard it, too.

I decided to give it a try. Perhaps there was a chance that ghosts could hear things that most people couldn't. "Wouldn't happened to have heard any strange voices lately?" I asked.

Nick glanced over at me, seemingly very briefly distracted by his pity over being denied for the Headless Hunt again. Harry glanced over at me and shook his head. We had agreed to drop the hearing voices thing, not wanting to sound like we were losing our minds. I had debated on writing Mom and Dad but I didn't want to worry them, or end up with a Howler telling me to stop getting myself into things that weren't my concern. Not that I could help this one. For a while I had even debated on going to Dumbledore and telling him what I had heard. But Harry had convinced me that it was the best to say nothing.

Our argument ended with the agreement that even in the Wizarding World, hearing voices wasn't good. "I hear all sorts of strange things. Comes with being a ghost," Nick finally said. I nodded at him. Of course. A voice saying that it wanted to rip and kill wouldn't have sounded strange. "As evidently the Headless Hunt does not..." he muttered, back on his previous predicament.

"No," Harry said, angrily yanking at his own muddy Quidditch robes. We were the ones that had decided to run back to the castle, rather than wait it out with the others. But we'd known that it wouldn't stop anytime soon. "There's nothing that you can do for us to make it better. Not unless you know where we can get seven free Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones for our match against Sly-"

The rest of Harry's sentence was drowned out by a high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles. Glancing down, I saw that I was gazing straight into a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. It was Mrs. Norris, the skeletal gray cat who was used by the caretaker, Argus Filch, as a sort of deputy in his endless battle against students. She wasn't particularly unfriendly. Merely creepy. But usually she would be followed closely by Mr. Filch the second that she appeared. And that never meant anything good for the students. He was always looking for some reason to get the students into detention.

Nick seemed just as unnerved by her sudden appearance as Harry and I were. "You'd better get out of here, Harry, Tara," Nick said quickly. "Filtch isn't in a good mood. He's got the flu and some Third Years accidentally plastered frog brains all over the ceiling in dungeon five." How the hell had they managed that? "He's been cleaning all morning, and if he sees you two dripping mud all over the place -"

"Right," Harry said.

Grabbing onto my arm, Harry started yanking me away from the scene. We were backing away from the accusing stare of Mrs. Norris, but not quickly enough. Not that I shouldn't have seen that coming. Nothing seemed to have been going right for me this year. Drawn to the spot by the mysterious power that seemed to connect him with his foul cat, Argus Filtch burst suddenly through a tapestry to our right. Harry and I both rolled our eyes at the obvious ending. Filch was wheezing and looking wildly about for the rule-breaker. There was a thick tartan scarf bound around his head, and his nose was unusually purple.

He was very clearly sick and I took a step back, not wanting to be involved in that cold. "Damn it," I muttered.

I shouldn't have spoken. I'd drawn Filch's attention right towards me. "Filth!" he shouted, his jowls quivering with the shout, and his eyes popping alarmingly as he pointed at the muddy puddle that had dripped from Harry and I's Quidditch robes. I tried to flick them behind me, but I only made it worse as a splatter of mud shot off of my robes and onto the carpet. "Mess and muck everywhere! I've had enough of it, I tell you! Follow me, Potter! Nox!"

"We weren't breaking a rule!" I shouted back.

"Did I ask you?" Filch howled.

"I'd be shocked if you asked me anything - actually making this fair..." I muttered.

My comment was not well-received. Harry stomped on my foot to get me to be quiet as Filch whipped around to me. "Detention! Tonight at eight o'clock. Cleaning out the trophy room!" he hissed.

Groaning under my breath, I moved forward and walked with Filch. Harry and I waved a gloomy goodbye to Nearly Headless Nick. He looked very guiltily as we walked off with Filch. A few students spotted us and cringed, some sending us reassuring looks. Everyone knew how much it really sucked to get caught breaking the rules by him. We followed Filch back downstairs, doubling the number of muddy footprints on the floor. The whole time Filch was practically growling at anyone that came too close to him. He looked absolutely furious that he even had to be here today. Or any day. I knew how angry the students made him. Not that he made us any happier.

Neither Harry nor I had ever been inside Filch's office before; it was a place most students avoided. The room was dingy and windowless, which didn't surprise me in the slightest, and it was lit by a single oil lamp dangling from the low ceiling. A faint smell of fried fish lingered about the place. It almost smelled good. I groaned as my stomach gave a harsh growl. I had been planning to get something to eat soon. Oliver had made me run four laps on the field for shoving Fred off of his broom when he'd laughed at a missed throw. It had definitely burned off everything that I had eaten earlier.

Wooden filing cabinets stood around the walls. Labels were scrawled across the front. My eyes scanned over them. The ones in the far corner of the room seemed to have older students. I could have sworn that I very briefly caught sight of a drawer that contained James Potter and Marcus Nox. There was even a scrawled plate for Sirius Black. I shuddered slightly and moved along. He was not someone that I wanted to think about. These were clearly the details of every pupil Filch had ever punished. I snorted when I saw that Fred and George Weasley had an entire drawer to themselves. My own name was in the new section. My piece of the drawer already took up about a fifth of it. Harry and Ron's files were also stuffed in with mine.

A highly polished collection of chains and manacles hung on the wall behind Filch's desk. It was common knowledge that he was always begging Dumbledore to let him suspend students by their ankles from the ceiling. He had wanted to do the same thing to us after he'd caught us trying to deliver Norbert to Charlie's friends in the Astronomy tower after curfew last year. Filch grabbed a quill from a pot on his desk and began shuffling around looking for parchment.

Filch certainly did not look happy. Harry and I exchanged a worried look, knowing that this wasn't going to end well for us. I'd already gotten myself a detention. "Dung... great sizzling dragon bogies... frog brains... rat intestines... I've had enough of it... make an example... where's the form? Yes..." He retrieved a large roll of parchment from his desk drawer and stretched it out in front of him, dipping his long black quill into the ink pot. "Names... Harry Potter... Tara Nox... Crime..."

"It was only a bit of mud!" Harry exclaimed.

I could have slapped him. I had made things bad enough. He didn't need to make things worse. "It's only a bit of mud to you, boy, but to me it's an extra hour scrubbing!" Filch shouted, a drip shivering unpleasantly at the end of his bulbous nose.

Cringing slightly at the sight, I shouted back, "We'll clean it up!"

"Shut it!" Filch howled at me. Blushing slightly, I sank back into my chair and watched as he went back to the papers. "Crime... befouling the castle... suggested sentence..."

The two of us exchanged a look once more. Filch was always nasty towards the students and usually gave extremely long punishments for simple things like tracking in mud or standing in the halls for too long. Dabbing at his streaming nose, Filch squinted unpleasantly at Harry and I. I'd already managed myself one detention, now it was a matter of seeing how many more he would tack onto that. If nothing else, Filch usually didn't take points away. I supposed that it was the one good thing that could be said for the nasty man. Filch smiled nastily as he lowered his quill and I cringed, knowing that he had come up with some terrible punishment, when there was a great bang on the ceiling of the office, which made the oil lamp rattle.

The three of us all jumped at the sudden noise. I grinned. For once, Peeves had actually been helpful. "Peeves!" Filch roared, flinging down his quill in a transport of rage. "I'll have you this time, I'll have you!"

Seemingly forgetting about us, and without a backward glance at Harry or I, Filch ran flat-footed from the office, Mrs. Norris streaking alongside him. Peeves was the school poltergeist, a grinning, airborne menace who lived to cause havoc and distress. No one particularly liked him, but it couldn't be denied that the way that he got Filch going was funny. Peeves didn't take orders from anyone, save the Bloody Baron, and it was the only reason that we'd been able to get past him when trying to save the Sorcerer's Stone last year. Hopefully, whatever Peeves had done (and it sounded as though he'd wrecked something very big this time) would distract Filtch from another punishment.

"Good timing on Peeves's part," I said to Harry.

"Never been so grateful for him," Harry replied. "Should we wait for him?"

As much as I would have loved to run for it, I knew that we were better off staying and waiting. "We should probably stay and wait. Filch knows us and knows where we live. If we make a run for it, it'll only make things worse," I said.

"Damn," Harry muttered.

"Well said."

The two of us laughed softly as we took a step backwards. We'd been standing very carefully away from Filch. Everyone knew to keep their distance from him, particularly when he was angry or sick. Harry sank into a moth-eaten chair next to the desk. He motioned for me to squeeze into it with him, considering that there was only the one chair. I glanced over at his desk. There was only one thing on it apart from his half-completed form: a large, glossy, purple envelope with silver lettering on the front. I raised a brow but didn't do anything. I merely laid back in the chair. With a quick glance at the door to check that Filtch wasn't on his way back, Harry picked up the envelope.

Stopping him before he could grab the letter, I laid a hand over his. "We shouldn't read that," I said.

Harry shrugged his shoulders at me. "It's an envelope. Who cares?"

He was sounding more and more like Ron every day. I knew that it was just an envelope, but it might have had sensitive information in it. Although... I was curious. "It's not ours," I argued, although it was very weak.

Despite not wanting to read something that was Filch's and not wanting to make him even angrier with us than he already was, I assumed that he would be busy with Peeves for a little while. The two of them normally got into shouting matches for a long time. So I let go of Harry's arm and allowed him to pick up the letter. The two of us read over it together.

KWIKSPELL  
A Correspondence Course in Beginners' Magic

Harry gave me a look and I shrugged my shoulders. I'd never heard of Kwikspell before. Of course, there were still lots of things in the Wizarding World that I'd never heard of. I was only twelve, after all. Almost thirteen. Intrigued, Harry flicked the envelope open and pulled out the sheaf of parchment inside. He gave me another look and I nodded at him. We'd already started. Might as well know what we were looking at. More curly silver writing on the front page looked like an advertisement.

Feel out of step in the world of modern magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork?

There is an answer!

Kwikspell is an all-new, fail-safe, quick-result, easy-learn course. Hundreds of witches and wizards have benefited from the Kwikspell method!

Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes:

"I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke! Now, after a Kwikspell course, I am the center of attention at parties and friends beg for the recipe of my Scintillation Solution!"

Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says:

"My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!"

Harry gently laid down the envelope and glanced over at me. He seemed to have realized that I was reacting to the letter. He clearly knew that I understood something. It was horrible. Perhaps this was exactly the reason that Filch was as nasty as he was. If he was a Squib... Well... I couldn't blame him for hating everyone in the castle. To be born into a magical family to have no powers of your own. Yeah. I could imagine that something like that would have made me incredibly bitter, too. At least, in the event that he was a Squib and not just a lousy wizard, Dumbledore had allowed him to come and work at Hogwarts.

"Merlin, I wonder if Filch is a Squib," I muttered under my breath.

Harry looked at me. "A what?" he asked.

"Think opposite of Muggle-Born."

"Pureblood?" he asked dumbly.

Glancing up at him, I shook my head. We didn't have the time to talk about it right now. I wanted to read through the letter. "I'll explain later," I promised him, looking back at the letter.

The two of us were both fascinated. Leaning over Harry's shoulder, I watched as he thumbed through the rest of the envelope's contents. Why on earth did Filch want a Kwikspell course? The only thing that I could think was that he was a Squib. Or a really lousy wizard. I'd never seen him with a wand. Then again, I hadn't seen Snape with a wand either, but I knew that he could perform magic. I'd never seen Professor Sinistra or Madam Pince with wands either. They didn't need them. But Filch... It could definitely be a possibility. We were just reading 'Lesson One: Holding Your Wand (Some Useful Tips)' when shuffling footsteps outside told us that Filch was coming back.

Shoving at each other in panic, Harry stuffed the parchment back into the envelope. Harry threw it back onto the desk just as the door opened. The two of us jammed ourselves back into the chair and tried to look as though we hadn't just discovered what could have been a very embarrassing secret. Filch was looking triumphant. He must have made some headway in his quest to get Peeves banished from the school. I was watching very nervously, hoping that he wouldn't be able to read our guilty faces.

"That vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!" Filch was saying gleefully to Mrs. Norris. "We'll have Peeves out this time, my sweet -"

He seemed to have finally remembered that someone else was in the office. My heart nearly stopped, even though nothing had happened yet. His piercing eyes fell on Harry and I - seemingly noticing that we had moved - and then darted to the Kwikspell envelope. Oh no. He knew. And as I looked over, I realized that it was very obvious that we had read it. The envelope was lying two feet away from where it had started. Filch's pasty face went brick red. Cringing softly - knowing how angry Filch would be for someone seeing it - I braced myself for a tidal wave of fury. Filch hobbled across to his desk, snatched up the envelope, and threw it into a drawer.

When he turned back to us, I was sure that it was the angriest that I had ever seen him. "Have you - did you read -?" he sputtered.

"No," Harry lied quickly.

Filch's knobbly hands were twisting together. I was absolutely positive that he was going to ring our necks. "If I thought you'd read my private - not that it's mine - for a friend - be that as it may - however." Harry and I were both staring at him, alarmed; now I knew that Filch had never looked madder. His eyes were popping, a tic was going in one of his inflamed cheeks, and the tartan scarf didn't help. "Very well - go - and don't breathe a word - not that - however, if you two didn't read - go now, I have to write up Peeves' report - go -"

Knowing that we needed to leave before making things any worse, the two of us stood up and shoved each other towards the exit. Filch was muttering angrily to himself. I was absolutely amazed at our luck. Sure I'd gotten the one detention, but we'd managed not to make things any worse. Harry and I sped out of the office, up the corridor, and back upstairs. The two of us didn't slow down until we were two floors up from Filch's office. Once we did, we turned to each other and laughed. To escape from Filch's office without punishment - since my official punishment had been given in the hallway - was probably some kind of school record.

"Harry! Tara! Harry! Did it work?"

The two of us turned from each other to see who was calling for us. Nearly Headless Nick came gliding out of a classroom. My eyebrows rose. I thought that Peeves was the one who had done something? Nick rarely did anything other than say hello to the Gryffindor's that happened to be passing him. Sometimes the other Houses, but never Slytherin. Behind him, I could just see the wreckage of a large black and gold cabinet that appeared to have been dropped from a great height.

Had he done that? "I persuaded Peeves to crash it right over Filch's office," Nick said eagerly. "Thought it might distract him -"

"Thank you!" I spoke over him excitedly.

He had definitely saved us a lot of trouble. "Was that you? Yeah, it worked, I didn't even get detention," Harry said gratefully.

"Yeah. You didn't get a detention..." I muttered.

Harry turned towards me and rolled his eyes. "If you'd watch your mouth you'd stop getting detentions," he said.

"Careful, your Hermione is showing," I teased.

Harry laughed under his breath and shoved into me. Nick smiled at us both. I'll drop by the trophy room and help you out, my dear. Ghosts can be quite good about cleaning," Nick offered.

Shocked that he would actually help out, I grinned brightly. That would definitely make things easier. "Thanks!" I exclaimed.

I'd never been as grateful for the Hogwarts ghosts as I was right now. "And thanks for the distraction, Nick!" Harry added. Together we set off up the corridor. Nearly Headless Nick was still holding Sir Patrick's rejection letter. I felt terrible for him. Even in death, he still couldn't get everything that he wanted. "I wish there was something we could do for you about the Headless Hunt," Harry said.

"Can we petition for you to join?" I offered.

Nearly Headless Nick grinned at me. I assumed that we probably couldn't petition. I doubted that the ghosts cared anything about what two living children thought. But something seemed to have triggered in Nearly Headless Nick. He stopped dead in his tracks and Harry and I walked right through him. The moment that I had, I wished that I hadn't. It was very obvious that Harry felt the same way. Walking through a ghost was like stepping through an icy shower.

Nick seemed clueless to our distaste. "But there is something you could do for me," Nick said excitedly. "Harry - Tara - would I be asking too much - but no, you wouldn't want -"

We exchanged a look and nodded. Nick had done something very nice for us. The least that we could do was repay the favor. "What is it?" Harry asked.

"You helped us. Let us help you," I said sweetly.

Nick gave something that I assumed was a blush. His cheeks became a little paler. "Well, this Halloween will be my five hundredth deathday," Nearly Headless Nick said, drawing himself up and looking dignified.

Harry and I exchanged a look with each other. Was that something to be happy or sad about? I couldn't really tell. But Nick seemed very happy about this. "Oh. Right," Harry said.

"Congratulations?" I asked more than said.

Nick didn't seem to catch that we weren't sure about this. "Thank you, dear, Tara," Nick said. I nodded at him. "I'm holding a party down in one of the roomier dungeons." Ah, yes, the dungeons. A wonderful place for a cheerful gathering. "Friends will be coming from all over the country. It would be such an honor if you would attend. Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger would be most welcome, too, of course - but I daresay you'd rather go to the school feast?" he asked.

He watched Harry and I on tenterhooks. Immediately I understood that Nick really wanted us to come, but also didn't want us to feel guilt-tripped into coming. "Of course not!" I said.

"No," Harry said quickly once I had agreed, "We'll come -"

"My dear boy! Harry Potter, at my deathday party! And Miss Tara Nox! Pretty and bright," Nick said sweetly. I smiled softly and blushed at the ground. And," he hesitated, looking excited, "do you think you two could possibly mention to Sir Patrick how very frightening and impressive you find me?"

"Of - Of course," Harry said.

"Not a problem," I added.

Nearly Headless Nick beamed at us. I smiled, knowing that we had done something very nice for someone that had done something very nice for us. It felt good. Although... I couldn't help but to be a little sad. The Halloween Feast was always something to be loved. Everyone in the school always looked forward to it. The food was incredible and the decorations were lovely. I had missed most of the feast last year, considering Ron's nasty comment about Hermione earlier in the day had called her into the bathroom all day to cry. The time that had been spent in the Great Hall had been irritable, considering that I'd been furious with Ron for saying what he had. Afterwards we'd nearly been squashed by Quirrell's troll.

He had set the thing to come and distract the teachers so that he could get into the third-floor corridor but had been headed off by Snape. In the meantime, Harry and Ron had accidentally locked it the bathroom with us. We had all barely managed to defeat it. But the disaster had done one thing. It had cemented the friendship between the four of us. I had really been looking forward to experiencing a happier Halloween Feast this year. But we couldn't back out. We'd already promised. It would be nasty of us to back out only minutes after we'd said yes. And Nick had seemed so excited...

We said goodbye to Nearly Headless Nick as we started heading towards the Gryffindor tower near the top of the school. "What's a Squib?" Harry asked me softly once Nick had gone.

I'd nearly forgotten, considering the new plans for the deathday party. "Remember last year when we first met Neville in the Great Hall? He was talking about the ways that his family had been getting him to show his powers?" I asked. He nodded slowly at me. "He got all sheepish when he was saying that they hoped that he wasn't... And then he trailed off."

Harry seemed to be thinking back to that day, well over a year ago. "Yeah. What about it?" he asked.

"Squibs are basically the polar opposite of Muggle-Born's. They're witches and wizards that are born into a magical family but display no magical powers of their own," I said. Harry looked shocked. "They're very rare. They can usually see some magical things like... They can look past enchantments and see magical creatures, but they can't cast spells or anything like that. Muggle-Born's are descended from Squibs who married Muggles. The magical ability unexpectedly resurfaces after a lot of generations."

Harry was silent for a long while. I understood. It had taken me a long time to understand what Squibs were when Mom and Dad had taught me about them. I'd never actually met one before. But maybe I had... Maybe we all had. "That's horrible. To be raised in a magical family to have no powers of your own," Harry finally said.

It was one of the worst things that could happen to someone from a magical family. "They're considered disgraces to the Wizarding World. The Ministry doesn't even keep records of their birth because they don't consider them related to us in any way. For all intents and purposes, they're Muggles. Most of them choose to live cut-off from the magical world because it's too painful for them," I continued to explain.

"I guess we know why Filch is so nasty to the students," Harry muttered.

I nodded at him. I certainly wouldn't be happy working around people that had the same skills that had been robbed from me. "Can you blame him?" I asked.

"No," Harry said quickly. We began climbing the final staircase that led up to the Gryffindor Common Room. "So... Hermione?" Harry asked me softly as we walked.

Glancing over at him, I nodded. "Yeah." At one point, her family had been magical. But it wasn't until Hermione that the magic came back. "At some point there was magical blood in her family, a long time ago. But then there was a Squib, and that Squib eventually married a Muggle. Her great-great-great-great-whatever. Either her mother or father are descended from a once-magical family."

"That's how we got Muggle-Born's, then?" Harry asked.

Tapping my nose gently, I nodded at him. "Exactly. There isn't like a mutation or something that causes the magical gene. It comes back after years of lying dormant. That's why my parents told me to never be cruel to Muggle-Born's. At one point, they were just as magical as we are. Don't mention that to her," I added.

"I won't," he said quickly. I didn't want her thinking that her family wasn't as good because she happened to have a Squib in it somewhere. "Is that why people like Malfoy hate Muggle-Born's?"

"Kind of. They're just considered to be, not true magical people. They're biased, trust me. People like Malfoy aren't even overly-fond of Half-Blood's. But they'll deal with them, considering that's what most witches and wizards are. Most of Slytherin is Half-Blood," I said. Most of every House was Half-Blood's. "Very few are Muggle-Born."

I hadn't actually even heard of a Slytherin Muggle-Born. I was sure that there was one, but I hadn't met them yet. "Magic just gets more and more confusing with each passing day," Harry muttered.

Laughing softly at him, I gave a little nudge. "And you're only two years in." We both laughed as I gave the Fat Lady the password and we walked into the Common Room. Ron and Hermione were doing their Potions homework on the couches as Harry and I walked over to them. "Guess where we're going on Halloween?" I asked as I took a seat next to Hermione.

"Where?" Ron asked, barely looking up from his essay.

"Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party," I said.

Both Ron and Hermione dropped their quills and essays. Harry and I exchanged a little grin. They looked completely dumbfounded. "What?" Ron asked.

Laughing slightly, I leaned back into the chair and explained. "It's a way to celebrate the day that someone died. Ghosts do it," I explained when I realized that Hermione was staring at me like I'd lost my mind. "Nick invited Harry and I and told us that we could extend the invitation. It's his five hundredth deathday."

Ron still looked like I'd asked him to kiss the Venomous Tentacula. "A deathday party?" Hermione asked keenly. I knew that if anyone would be excited about the whole thing, it would be Hermione. "I bet there aren't many living people who can say they've been to one of those - it'll be fascinating!"

"Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?" Ron asked. He seemed to be about halfway through his Potions homework and it had clearly made him grumpy. As Potions homework seemed to do to everyone. "Sounds dead depressing to me..."

Almost snorting at the dead joke, I managed to keep my straight face and glared at him. "Shut up. It's important to Nick," I snapped.

That was the end of that conversation. The four of us all agreed to go to the deathday party and miss the feast. There was always a chance that we would be able to see the end and get some dessert. In the meantime, the four of us sat together and started going through our Potions essay. I'd already written mine and was allowed Hermione to compare the two. Mostly I was letting her check over the grammar and spelling. Snape was one of the few that took off for it. McGonagall being the other.

Rain was still lashing the windows, which were now inky black, and it made me want to drift off to sleep. I'd always liked letting rain lull me to sleep. But the inside was a much different scene. All looked bright and cheerful. The firelight glowed over the countless squashy armchairs where kids sat reading, talking, or doing homework. In my case, attempting to take a nap. Which was a bad idea, considering if I did that, I would probably never be able to get to bed. It didn't matter, Harry's voice was keeping me awake. He was retelling the story of our Quidditch session, Filch's nasty attitude, and the Kwikspell letter. As much as I thought that it wasn't our business, I didn't want to argue to keep the secret.

It wasn't just that, which was hard to listen to and try to fall asleep. Fred and George were currently trying to find out what would happen if you fed a Filibuster Firework to a salamander. I'd argued with them for half an hour about how it was cruel before Fred had tossed me over his shoulder, George had held my legs, and had tossed me back down on the couches on the other side of the room. I'd asked Percy what had happened and he'd told me that Fred had 'rescued' the brilliant orange, fire-dwelling lizard from a Care of Magical Creatures class. I was watching them through lidded eyes and saw that it was now smoldering gently on a table, surrounded by a knot of curious people.

Harry had just gotten to the point of telling Ron and Hermione about Filch and the Kwikspell course when the salamander suddenly whizzed into the air, emitting loud sparks and bangs as it whirled wildly round the room. I gasped and jumped up from my chair. I was going to kill the two of them. That was so horrible! It wasn't just me that was annoyed with the twins. Percy was bellowing himself hoarse at Fred and George. The disasters didn't end there. There was a spectacular display of tangerine stars showering from the salamander's mouth, and the salamander had had enough. It made a marvelous escape into the fire, with accompanying explosions, getting far away from the Weasley twins.

Standing from the couches, I walked over and whopped both of the twins in the head, joining Percy in screaming at the twins. "That's so horrible!" I shouted at the two of them.

"Relax, its fine," George said.

Fred grabbed me pushed me away from the crowd, followed closely by George. "So was shoving me off of my broom earlier!" I grinned to myself. Seeing him go face-first into the muddy ground had definitely been the highlight of my day.

"Quit whining, you big baby," I told Fred. He whacked me over the head as we sat back down with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Fred was on one side of me and George was on the other. I glanced over at Fred as he brought out a deck of cards and moved towards him. He twitched away from me and I rolled my eyes. "Come here. You have mud in your hair."

Fred batted my hand away. "I know. I'm saving it," he said.

My eyebrows rose. "For what?"

George leaned towards me and showed me a plastic bag filled with mud. "Got detention with Filch tonight," he said. I smiled brightly. Maybe that meant that we could hang out together. I hated detentions with Filch alone. It creeped me out. "Gonna spread some mud over the castle carpets on our way back afterwards."

Snorting under my breath, I nodded as Hermione berated them for making his job harder. "Cleaning the trophies?" I asked Fred as George tried to defend their decision to destroy the carpets.

"You too, huh?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Wanna help?"

The two of us were grinning at each other as I nodded. "You know it," I said brightly.

For most of the earlier part of the evening, we sat together and enjoyed the nice air of the Common Room. Things were still reasonably simple in classes and it meant that my homework wasn't driving me insane yet. Plus, Hermione hadn't even started howling at us to make study charts. I knew that Ron and Harry were dreading the day that she did. I could only imagine how much she would want to go to Lockart's office hours to get him to help her studying. I intended to stay far away from her when that time came. I'd explode if I had to be in his office ever again. I was personally enjoying the absence of Gilderoy Lockhart over the last few days.

Finally the time came that Fred, George, and I had to go downstairs for our detention with Filch. I'd found out that they'd gotten detention for accidentally letting the Venomous Tentacula out. It had ended up biting two Sixth Years. I'd laughed but scolded them, for what could have been a big deal. Professor Sprout had been beside herself in fury. Evidently Lockhart had been up in the hospital wing all day, trying to insist that he knew the cure, which Madam Pomfrey knew just as well. It explained why I hadn't seen the offending man in a while.

It ended up being a great deal for us to get detention with Filch. He'd left us to go hunt down Peeves - probably for the vanishing cabinet destruction earlier - and left us to our own devices. It meant that the three of us could play with the cards that we'd taken from Ron earlier. Much more entertaining than cleaning the trophies. George had borrowed Lee's wand, so we were able to clean up the trophies with a flick of the wand and spend the rest of the time playing Exploding Snap. Nearly Headless Nick had even come in and we'd explained to him how to play. Filch had come back within the hour and let us go, unable to find anything wrong with the spotless room.

Not long after he'd let us go, the three of us had gone traipsing through the castle, being very careful to duck into the secret passages whenever we saw one of the ghosts, Mrs. Norris, or Filch. We'd gone through the entrance hall and spread the mud everywhere. On the carpets, paintings, and walls, before heading back upstairs and sitting with everyone else once more. Hermione thought that I'd been proud that we'd cleaned the trophies so fast. She'd found out what we had really been so happy about when Filch's screams had echoed through the castle, waking everyone up the next morning, shouting about dirt and mud.

A few days after my detention with Fred, George, Nearly Headless Nick, and Filch, I was shaken awake by Hermione. She was standing with Lavender, Parvati, and Fay. Each of the girls was shouting a greeting at me, wishing me a very happy birthday. I'd smiled brightly and leapt from the bed, rushing downstairs with them. Fred and George had swiped a cake from the Hogwarts kitchens that we'd all shared. Everyone had been there. Fred, George, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Lavender, Fay, Ginny, Percy, Oliver, Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Colin, and Lee. There were some other Gryffindor's there, too, that were celebrating with us.

There had been a few presents that they'd gotten me, and I really had appreciated it. Harry had gotten me another few pictures that I could add to the photo album. One of my favorite pictures that he'd given me was one that Colin had actually taken. We were rushing through the wind and rain, Harry and I, and the picture was of us racing, lightning flashing in the background. Hermione had gotten me a few books and cute pair of socks that changed color with my mood. Ron had given me some candy from his own stash. Mrs. Weasley had even sent me a chunk of homemade fudge. Mom and Dad had sent a letter that said that my presents were at home.

And so had gone the beginning of my birthday. I'd been heading down to the Great Hall to grab myself a small breakfast pastry or something, and to enjoy the nice weather in the meantime. It was the first day in weeks that it wasn't raining. I liked to think that it was a good sign for the day. Some people that were passing by me wished me a happy birthday. I'd smiled and thanked them all as I walked by. The Slytherin's had merely sneered at me, not that I cared. I was going to have a nice day. If nothing else, I was thinking about sunbathing by the Black Lake for a little while or going down to have tea with Hagrid. He had invited me to drop by on my birthday.

My quiet walk was not quiet for long. I was interrupted by a pair of arms being thrown over my shoulder, scaring the daylights out of me. "Happy birthday!" a familiar voice shouted.

Turning back, I laughed and wrapped Cedric in a hug. "Merlin, you scared me," I said. He smiled, probably not feeling very bad. "Thank you!" I chirped happily.

Just a week prior, it had been Cedric's birthday. We'd been in classes on his, but I'd still managed to do a few little things for him. Thankfully Dai no longer hated me. He didn't seem overly thrilled with me, but he would come close enough to me to take a few Galleons back home with a request for Mom to send me a present for Cedric. This year I'd gotten him a carving kit. He had been talking about how he loved his broom, but always managed to lose it in the Hufflepuff locker room. They all had the same broom. He'd thanked me profusely for it and laughed when he'd seen that I slipped in a Stars pendant. I'd noticed with a deep blush that it was now on his bag.

"So, what are you doing today?" Cedric asked me, distracting me from my thoughts.

Shrugging my shoulders, we started walking towards the Great Hall. "Not much, actually. Fred and George both got detentions. Everyone has Quidditch practice today. Oliver let me have the day off to enjoy my birthday. Ron has to work on a Transfiguration essay that Hermione was going to help him with. I figured that I'd head out to the grounds and see if Dean and Seamus wanted to kick a soccer ball around or something like that. Or maybe go to Quidditch practice anyways," I said.

Cedric held out a hand to stop me and I glanced over at him. "How dead set are you on those plans?" he asked.

Raising my eyebrows, I shook my head at him. If he wanted to do something, I would definitely like to spend the day with him, considering that everyone else had something to do. "Not very..." I said slowly.

Cedric grinned and grabbed me by the hand, yanking me with him. "Good. Come on," he said.

I laughed and followed him through the halls. We headed straight towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and I stopped dead in my tracks. After promising that he wasn't taking me to see Lockhart, I nodded and allowed him to drag me along again. We were very close to the classroom when he stopped me and motioned to the statue of a one-eyed witch. I grimaced, the statue had always creeped me out. But Cedric brought out his wand, muttered something that sounded like Dissendium, and I watched as the statue moved, showing me a passageway that it was covering.

Laughing softly, I kept a lookout as Cedric sat on the ground and dropped himself into the narrow passageway. Thankfully no one was coming. The weather was reasonably nice today so almost everyone was outside. And there were no classes, so we didn't have to worry about anyone coming around the corner and seeing us. Cedric held out his hand and motioned for me to follow him. I sat down on the edge of the opening and dropped down. He caught me around the waist and I blushed, breaking eye contact with him when the passageway over us closed, plunging us into darkness.

Considering that it was a weekend, I didn't have the Hogwarts robes or anything like that on. But I had worn some thicker clothes, which was good, since it was very cold in the dark and damp passage. Tightening my white coat over my form, I leaned down and snatched my wand out of my brown boots. It was where I normally kept it when I didn't have my robes on me. I was very glad that I'd worn a scarf and thicker pants today. If we were going outside, I needed to be covered. It was cold.

"Lumos," I muttered, letting the wand light up the dark passage.

Cedric noticed that I was glancing up towards where the passage had closed. He smiled at me and grabbed my hand. "Don't worry. It will open when we come back. We don't need a password to get back," he said.

I nodded and allowed him to pull me along. I was glad that it was as dark as it was, considering that I was blushing softly. "I thought that I was with Cedric Diggory, not Fred and George Weasley," I teased.

"Being in class with them helps sometimes," he said.

Laughing softly, I nodded and attempted to keep my footing. It was very rocky in the pathway and I was sure that I was going to fall over myself. His grip was tight on me, though, ensuring that I didn't fall over myself. It made me blush that one of his hands was right around my waist. The other was leading us along the passage. I kept my wand raised so that we could see ahead of ourselves. For a few minutes we stayed in silence. I wasn't sure if anyone would be able to hear us if I spoke.

But eventually, I decided to give it a try. I knew that Cedric would tell me to be quiet if we couldn't speak down here. "How long have you known about this?" I asked him.

Part of me couldn't help but to wonder if I was the first person that he had ever brought down here. First girl, that is. "Just a few months. Only tried it once," he said. The blush brightened slightly. He'd only been down here once, presumably to give it a test, by himself. I was the first person that he'd brought here. Thank you, Fred and George. "Come on and be quiet. It'll let us out in the cellar of Honeydukes," he said.

"Hogsmeade?" I asked, even though he'd just told me to be quiet.

Cedric nodded at me with a little smile. "Weren't you saying just the other day that you wanted to go to Hogsmeade?" he asked.

He was right about that. The day that we'd spent up in the Astronomy tower, I had mentioned that I really wanted to go to Hogsmeade. "Best birthday present ever," I said softly.

He laughed at me as we made our way through the passage. About ten minutes later he mentioned for me to put the light out. I did so and made my way up through the passage. I realized a moment later that the passage into the Honeydukes cellar must have been very old. Perhaps it had been one of the first things that was made. A way in and out of the castle without having to go through the front gates. I assumed that it would be a good way to get back and forth in the case of an emergency.

We arrived in the cellar of Honeydukes a moment later. Cedric pressed on the wooden pallet above us and very carefully peeked out. He glanced around twice before pushing it up gently and pulling himself out. He pulled himself out and handed me an arm down towards me. I grabbed his hand and let him pull me out of the passage. He gently closed the wooden trapdoor and I nearly laughed. It looked just like the one that Fluffy had been standing on. But this one was much different. We headed up the stairs and very carefully slid past the counter. Thankfully the owners were not paying us any mind as we slid out of the door.

The two of us gently shoved each other out onto the street. We probably shouldn't be out here right now, considering that it was not a Hogsmeade weekend up at the school, but if we were careful we wouldn't be caught. The first Hogsmeade weekend was actually next Saturday. Plus, I couldn't really bring myself to care. I was already having a good time out here. It was Saturday, so the village was full of people, but there were no school-age kids. There were older people that were clearly past Hogwarts age, and younger kids, that weren't old enough.

Hogsmeade itself was gorgeous. Even though we were still months away from Christmas, Hogsmeade looked like a Christmas card. There were little thatched cottages and shops were all covered in a layer of crisp snow. It was almost comical. It wasn't snowing up at the school yet, but it seemed like somewhere like this, it never stopped snowing. Cedric was looking at my wide-eyed reaction with a bright smile. He clearly knew that bringing me here was the best thing that he could have done for my birthday. There were holly wreaths on the doors and strings of enchanted candles hanging in the trees.

Cedric grinned at me bright-eyed reaction and gave me his hand. "Willing to trust me?" he asked.

"I think that now would be a bad time for me to tell you that I didn't trust you," I joked.

He smiled at me and held out his hand once more, I took it and allowed myself to loop my hand around his arm. Come on," Cedric said, pulling me down the snow-covered road with him.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Cedric smiled at me once more. "I'm going to show you my favorite places," he said.

We passed through all sorts of shops as Cedric pointed out some of the places that he'd visited last year. There was Dervish and Banges, which sold and repaired pretty much anything that you could think of. Dogweed and Deathcap was a Herbology shop that Cedric said was one of Professor Sprout's favorites. There was a hairdressing place, post office, and even the station - where the Hogwarts Express brought us in for each new year of school. There was J. Pippin's Potions, which I was sure that Snape visited frequently. Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop was near the end and I poked my head in quickly. It looked like Scribbulus in Diagon Alley.

We had passed most of the shops without going in. He merely pointed them out to me. I knew that he was saving the shops that he liked the most to actually bring me in at the end. There was Dominic Maestro's Music Shop. I remembered seeing a trophy with his name on it in the trophy room at Hogwarts. While we were in there we'd played on some magical drums and learned that Cedric was not a good guitar player. When he'd been playing one of them, the chord had snapped, whacking him painfully in the fingers, before zipping back into their place. Dominic put it back on the shelf and we settled on merely watching from a distance.

It was very obvious that Cedric was not someone that should ever play a musical instrument in real life. He didn't exactly have good rhythm. I'd teased him and told him that he had probably offended the guitar. He told me that I probably actually had offended it. We went to Gladrags Wizardwear after that. It had all sorts of novelty clothing in it. We had greatly enjoyed trying on sweaters that reflected the face of the person who was looking into it. When it reflected the face, it would greatly distort it. It had turned me purple and given me orange polka-dots. It had made Cedric bald and given him thick wrinkles.

We'd laughed so hard that we'd been chased from the shop for causing a commotion. So we'd headed along down the street when Cedric pulled into a store called Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. He didn't seem thrilled to be in here but he clearly thought that I would want to come in. I rolled my eyes. This was such a girly shop. The windows were all steamed up from the heat of the tea, the gaudy tables and chairs were being taken up by younger couples, and the decorations were very pink and frilly. The bell chimed very sweetly as we walked in and Madam Puddifoot led us to a table. The round tables were decorated with lacy napkins and china sugar bowls, and cramped up the small shop.

It wasn't long before Madam Puddifoot came back and brought Cedric a cup of regular tea and myself a cup of black coffee. She looked a little confused at us before heading off. "Well... This is..." I trailed off, unsure of what to say.

Cedric looked mortified that he had taken me here. Most girls probably thought that it was cute. But it was definitely overwhelming. Maybe a kid would like it. A little girl that still liked faeries. "Overheard my mates saying that girls liked it here," Cedric said abashedly. He ran his hands through his hair and I laughed. "It's a little..."

"Vomit-inducing?" I offered.

Cedric smiled and shook his head as he sipped on the tea. "Well it's not that bad," he said. I raised a brow at him. He laughed and shook his head. "Okay, yes it is. Alright I'm sorry about this one."

Smiling at him softly, I blew at the coffee to get it to cool down. "It's adorable. You tried," I said, gently nudging him with my leg. "But I'd much rather be at a Quidditch store."

"Good," Cedric said.

Blushing slightly under his gaze, I went back to my coffee cup. We ended up not staying for very long. The two of us were laughing so loudly and kept teasing the other couples in the store. All of the tables were so close together that someone had overheard us and complained to Madam Puddifoot. She'd frowned and sent us on our way. It didn't bother us. As we walked out of Madam Puddifoot's we'd been in stitches laughing about Cedric's very poor attempt to impress me. I appreciated it, though. It had almost felt like he was trying to take me on a date. This entire thing actually felt very much like a date...

Despite the fact that we weren't holding hands or anything like that. But I almost liked it. It didn't feel like there was so much pressure. It just felt like we were having fun together and my crush wasn't a big deal. It still was there, but it could have been worse. We went to Tomes and Scrolls afterwards, it was a specialty bookstore. Cedric merely smiled and followed me around the store as I pointed out the books that I'd always loved. I thought that I might have been boring him, but he seemed to enjoy just watching me be happy. He had even laughed when I'd admitted that The Fountain of Fair Fortune was my favorite story as a child.

We'd gone to what I could only imagine was Fred and George's favorite shop afterwards. It was Zonko's Joke Shop. Cedric said that it was one of the most popular stores in Hogsmeade. It carried everything that could be in even Fred and George's wildest dreams. I could only imagine that they would want to model their own shop after it. It carried Dungbombs, Hiccough Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap, Sugar Quills, Nose Biting Teacups, and everything else under the sun. I'd gotten a particular kick out of watching a Screaming Yo-Yo go around a loop to come back and whack Cedric in the face.

The last thing that we'd done was head over to the Three Broomsticks Inn. It was supposedly older than Hogsmeade itself. We'd sat together and had two Butterbeer's. It was a Hogwarts favorite. Students frequently came here. It was warm, crowded, and quite a bit smoky, but it still managed to be clean and inviting. It was owned by a sweet and pretty witch named Madam Rosmerta. She had given us a long look but at Cedric's winning smile, she'd shaken her head, taken our orders, and walked off. The two of us ended up sitting together and chatting for hours. It was peaceful, the air in the pub much warmer than outside.

The sun was starting to set by the time that Cedric - on his insistence as a birthday present - had paid the tab and we'd left. Not that we'd really made it that far. We'd simply started milling around the outside of the pub. It wasn't snowing but the air had turned cold and icy. I was chilled to the bone, wishing that I'd brought Fred's clock with me. We were still walking slowly, not wanting to go back to school. The day had been so nice that the last thing that I wanted was to head back to a school full of poltergeists, nasty teachers, and murderous voices.

We were just passing the edge of the Three Broomsticks when I found myself asking a question I'd been trying to keep to myself. "Can I ask you something? It's kind of a strange question." Cedric raised his eyebrows but nodded for me to continue. "Have you ever seen Filch actually do magic?"

The moment that I said it, I wished that I could have taken it back. "You're right. That is a strange question," he said. I smiled guiltily, wanting to tell him to forget it. "I can't say that I have. Although I've definitely had him threaten to hang me from my toenails in the dungeon."

My head turned over to him. Cedric rarely broke the rules - except, it seemed, with me. "What for?" I asked curiously.

Cedric shrugged his shoulders. "Something about tracking in too much mud after one of our Quidditch sessions," he admitted.

Snorting under my breath, I nodded. So it appeared that Harry and I had only been the most recent victims of Filch's demand for a cleaner castle. "Ah, Harry and I got harassed for the same thing. He tried to give us a detention for it," I said.

"Sounds like Filch. Why were you asking me if I'd ever seen him perform magic?" Cedric asked.

Coughing awkwardly, I debated on whether or not I should tell him. As much as I hated Filch, I didn't want to embarrass him. "Well... I don't want to give away his secret. But I trust you not to say anything." Cedric nodded his agreement. "He had an envelope for something called Kwikspell on his desk. It sounded like something that a Squib would use."

Cedric's eyes widened. Being a Squib was not something to be taken lightly. "It does kind of sound like something that a Squib would use. He might be. It would explain why I've never seen him with a wand or anything like that. That's a little sad," he said.

"Can you imagine? Being born into a magical family but having no powers yourself?" I asked.

Cedric shook his head. I imagined that no one would ever want to think of something like that. "If that's the case, it's nice that Professor Dumbledore actually let him come and work for Hogwarts. No sense in just telling him that he couldn't be involved in the Wizarding World."

Nodding at him, I slowly kicked at some of the grass that we were walking past. "No. That'd be cruel," I told him. "Maybe that's why Filch is as mean as he is."

"It would make sense." We walked together for a little longer before I gave a nasty shiver. "Cold?" Cedric asked.

Blushing slightly, I tried to play it off, but my chattering teeth gave away the truth. "A little. It's fine," I said. But he didn't just let it go. Cedric wrapped an arm around me and I blushed, tucking myself into him. He was much warmer than I was. "You know, I think that this is the most fun that I've ever had on my birthday," I told him.

Cedric smiled down at me. "I'm very glad to hear that," he said.

"Thanks for this," I said, motioning around us.

"Figured that this would be a fun way to get out of school for a little while."

"It was."

For a moment we just stood and smiled at each other. It was right then that I realized that staggering height difference between us. He must have recently gone through a growth spurt. He was well over five and a half feet. Probably nearing five-foot-ten. Definitely tall for his age. Here I was, not even five feet yet. His voice had deepened since the last year and he looked a little older now, too. His hair was longer and curled a little less, now it fell more in a swoop. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that he was a Fifth or Sixth Year. He began to move again and myself, still standing under his arm, was pulled along. I didn't want to go back, but it was time.

We'd barely made it before a heavy rain began to fall, the wind whipping the rain at us like bullets. "Oh!" I cried, preparing to make a run for it. It made no difference. We were soaked within seconds. "That's typical."

"At least Lockhart isn't around this time," Cedric quipped back.

The two of us had to speak loudly over the roar of the rain. But it felt very intimate. No one was standing around us. Everyone had fled the rain, other than us, considering that we were already soaked to the bone. I was blushing deeply for the earlier comment about Lockhart. I'd prayed that he hadn't noticed, but maybe he had. So the two of us merely laughed and stood together, the rain falling over it. The wind had died down and now the rain was simply falling around us. For a moment I could have sworn that he'd moved into me, and for a moment, I could have sworn that I'd taken a step closer. Is Cedric Diggory really about to kiss me?

It was like a scene out of a romance movie. But like any good romance, there had to be a few near-misses before the final kiss. "Tara? Diggory? What're yeh doin' out here?" Hagrid's voice called, shattering the moment.

Cedric and I jumped back from each other, petrified at the voice. I assumed that he, like me, had not been expecting anyone to be around here. And if they had, they would have left us alone. I turned back, noting that Cedric's face was burning red, and smiled awkwardly at Hagrid. "Oh, Hagrid! Hello," I chirped.

Despite barely being able to see through his beard, I knew that Hagrid was smirking at me. He was standing under the Three Broomsticks overhang, motioning us out of the rain. "Out fer an afternoon stroll, then?" he asked.

Blushing softly, I grinned at Hagrid. He seemed to be chuckling lightly. ""What are the chances that you won't repeat this to Harry? Or Ron? Or Hermione? Or anyone, actually?" I asked.

Hagrid nodded at me. I knew that he wouldn't tell them if I asked him not to. Besides, I'd tell them. If something happened. Which it wouldn't... "Won' be half bad if yeh head back up teh the school now. Yeh two aren't s'posed to be out here. 'Specially not yeh, Tara. Yeh aren't old enough yet," Hagrid told me.

"I know. Sorry, Hagrid, just a little birthday trip."

Hagrid smiled at me and pulled me into him. His hug was so crushing that I was sure that my ribs were going to snap. But I smiled and laughed, knowing that Hagrid meant well. "Happy birthday, Tara," he said.

Without warning, Hagrid let me down. I stumbled backwards slightly, caught by Cedric. "Thank you."

"Go on back now, no detours!"

"Promise!" I called back.

The two of us waved off Hagrid before turning back to leave. I was sure that I could hear Hagrid laughing as we walked off. Cedric's arm went back around me and I blushed. The rain was slowing now, simply drizzling. "Well if there's any Hogwarts employee to be caught by in Hogsmeade, underage and not on a visiting weekend, it's Hagrid," Cedric commented.

I nodded at him. If there was ever a Hogwarts personnel to catch a student doing something against the rules, it would always be Hagrid. "Definitely. He knows that I won't go straight back up to the castle. He just doesn't want to be held liable if I get caught. Likes to think that he's tried to do the right thing," I said.

The two of us smiled at each other as we walked back through Honeydukes. Cedric bought us a Chocolate Frog to share, and mostly so that the owner of she shop would have to restock and the chest. He left to the back storage room and Cedric and I jumped into the back, dashing down to the cellar and out of sight before the owner could spot us. Cedric opened the trapdoor and jumped down into it. I turned back to make sure that the owner was still pawing around in the front of the store before jumping into Cedric's arms. He closed the trapdoor behind us and I lit up the tip of my wand.

For a while we walked in silence, until we were far enough away from Honeydukes. Cedric split the Chocolate Frog as we walked. Once we were far enough away from the store, I glanced over to Cedric. "I think that you might be breaking even more rules than me. And that's saying something," I teased him.

He laughed at me and shook his head. "No, I don't think that anyone will be able to dethrone you on that," he teased me back.

Chatting the entire way back, I smiled at the day. We'd broken quite a few rules heading out to Hogsmeade without anyone knowing, but I'd really enjoyed myself today. And I would have enjoyed myself even more if Hagrid hadn't interrupted us... But as my mind was burning with the memory of the near-kiss, Cedric seemed perfectly content. Maybe he hadn't really meant it. Maybe it wasn't really going to happen. I could have been overreacting. As we arrived back at the entrance to Hogwarts, Cedric gave me a boost up into the Defense Against the Dark Arts hallway and I reached a hand down, helping him up.

The two of us made our way out of the hallway as quickly as possible, grinning brightly as we walked through the halls. I understood how Fred and George were always in such high spirits. Breaking the rules really did make you excited. "Thank you for today, Cedric. I really had a lot of fun," I said as we headed upstairs.

Even though the Hufflepuff Common Room was downstairs, he would walk me upstairs towards Gryffindor tower. "Glad that you did. Here's hoping that I can top it next year," Cedric said.

How about a real kiss? Not that I would ever dare say that out loud. "You'll think of something," I said brightly. Of course, I felt terrible. He had done so much for me, and I'd barely done anything for him. Just a stupid Carving Kit for his broom. "Here's hoping that maybe one year I can actually compete with something that you do," I added.

Cedric smiled at me and briefly squeezed my hand. He seemed almost reluctant to let it drop a moment later. "You don't need to compete. You're good enough," he told me.

That time I was sure that we both blushed. Cedric was normally very good about keeping his face under control. He never seemed to feel anything other than amusement when it came to the two of us. But I knew it when I saw it. He was embarrassed for saying something like that. It didn't help the furious flush that fell over my face. Deciding that it wasn't that big of a deal, I leaned up and pressed a small kiss against Cedric's cheek. His skin was cold from the icy rain. He grinned at me as I got off of my tip-toes and smiled at the floor.

"I'll see you soon," I said softly.

Cedric smiled at me and grabbed my arm, pressing a small kiss to my cheek. If it was at all possible, my face burned an even brighter red. "Happy birthday, Tara," he told me.

The two of us - both vaguely resembling Hagrid's tomatoes - smiled at each other and waved before stalking off. My feet hurriedly carried me to the Gryffindor tower. I did not want to run into Peeves and have him shout to the entire castle that I'd broken the rules. As if I wasn't on bad enough terms with Filch these days. So I headed straight to the Gryffindor Common Room, ignoring the Fat Lady's question about where I'd been all day, and walked in. Ron and Harry were nowhere to be found. I was definitely glad about that. But Hermione was. She was sitting by the fireplace and tapping her quill against her chin.

It only took her a second to realize that I was here. She turned back to me and gave me something in between a smile and a scowl. "Where have you been?" Hermione asked me.

"Where are Ron and Harry?" I asked, ignoring her question.

Her eyebrows knitted together. "They're in their room. They absolutely refused to work at their Transfiguration essay anymore," she said. I nodded. That figured. I wondered if they'd been curious as to where I'd gone. "How could they ever expect to pass their exams if they aren't studying? I know, you don't care. Wanna go get them?"

Grinning at her correct assumption that I didn't care about studying or Transfiguration, I shook my head and grabbed her hand. "No. Let them be boys." She looked surprised. We normally were always with the boys. "I have to talk to you," I told her.

"About?"

"What I did today. Come on!" I called to her.

Grasping her hand tightly, I yanked her from her chair and motioned for her to gather her things. "You're soaking wet," Hermione noted as she started putting her things away.

Rushing her to gather all of her things, Hermione scolded me for not properly putting all of her papers away, telling me that she would never be able to find them the way that I had placed them. I'd been quick to tell her that I didn't care. So we'd sprinted up the stairs. I'd dropped all of my things and she'd dropped hers on the bed. Hermione hopped up onto her bed as I dashed back and forth through the room, telling her everything that had happened today. From the moment that he'd found me, to everything that had happened in Hogsmeade, to the near-kiss that had been interrupted by Hagrid.

The two of us sat in silence for a long time as Hermione processed everything that I had told her. She'd smiled brightly at the comment that I was sure that he'd been about to kiss me, but it seemed that her smile had since faded. I raised my eyebrows at her, wondering what had bothered her now. I would have thought that she'd be happy for me.

"You snuck out of Hogwarts!" she hissed at me.

"Are you kidding?" I asked her with a very bored tone. I would kill her! She had to be girly with me from time to time. When she'd get her first crush, I'd be girly with her. "Be happy for me!" I shouted at her.

Hermione sighed and hopped onto my bed. "I am happy for you. But you snuck out!"

"And I wasn't caught."

"Hagrid caught you."

Well I supposed that technically I had been caught, but I knew that Hagrid wouldn't say anything about me being down there. Hagrid liked me well enough to never rat me out for something like that. "Could have been Snape," I told her with a small shrug.

"You wouldn't still be here if Snape had caught you," Hermione pointed out.

She was right about that. Ever since the incident with the Whomping Willow last month, Snape had been itching to find any reason to kick Harry, Ron, and I out of Hogwarts. Not much worked. He'd taken plenty of points from us and was constantly harassing us in his class but he'd had no true issues with us. Not enough to get us kicked out of Hogwarts. Although, if he'd found out that I'd snuck out of the castle, underage, on an unaccompanied trip, he would have had me out of here in a heartbeat.

And, as Dumbledore had said, he would have had no choice but to expel me. Hermione was right. I'd risked a lot to go out there. But I'd been so happy that I hadn't been thinking about it. "Fair point," I mumbled to her, not wanting to admit that she was right.

Hermione sighed and began to smile at me. "That was really sweet of him to be willing to risk all of that to actually take you out somewhere for your birthday," she said. I smiled at her and nodded, not wanting to tell her that I was actually the one that was risking more. "You should have kissed him, you moron!" she shouted after a second.

My jaw dropped. Every now and again, Hermione said something that really did surprise me. "What was I supposed to do? Hagrid was right there!" I tried to defend myself.

"Why didn't you do that afterwards?" she asked.

Because I'm too much of a baby to risk the friendship. I'd rather just stew in my annoying and very obvious crush. "I just... I got nervous," I muttered, picking at the dirt under my nails.

"Tara, he likes you."

"No he doesn't, Hermione, he's just my friend."

I'd figured that Hermione would argue the point with me. What I hadn't figured was that she would pick up a very large - and leather-bound - copy of Moby Dick and begin whacking me with it. "Don't - be - an - idiot! He likes you!" she shouted at me.

It was just the way that I had hit her on the first day of classes when I'd seen that she'd outlined Lockhart's lessons with hearts. "Ouch, damn it!" I barked, snatching the book away from her and tossing it onto the ground. She smiled bashfully at me as we rolled onto our stomachs to talk. "You really think that he likes me?" I asked her softly.

She rolled her eyes at me, something that Hermione didn't do very often. "Every single person in Hogwarts knows that you both have feelings for the other, save each other," she said.

My cheeks burned awkwardly. "Well... That's embarrassing," I muttered.

Hermione leaned forward and patted me on the back. "Do something about it," she told me. I groaned and shoved my face into the bed. "Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but eventually."

"I will think about it. Thanks, Mione," I said.

"You're welcome." A second later, Hermione jumped up onto her knees and yanked me with her. "So, tell me everything!"

Rolling my eyes at her, I nodded and jumped upright. "Hang on, I'm gonna get Ginny and get her in here, too. She told me to tell her whenever something happened between Cedric and me," I said.

Hermione nodded at me and came with me down into the First Years girl's dormitory. It seemed so weird to think that we were no longer First Years. It still felt like we were the little guys. But we were slowly making our way up. Of course, we didn't have the credit that the Sixth and Seventh Years had, but we were better than the First Years. We ran into Ginny's room - saying a quick hello to her roommates - and yanking her with us. She'd seemed completely shocked that we were harassing her into coming with us into our room. But she'd come with us anyways, the three of us cramming onto my bed and gossiping long into the night.

It was a good thing that Parvati, Lavender, and Fay were spending most of the night in the library. That night was the happiest that I'd seen Ginny since starting Hogwarts a month and a half ago. I assumed that maybe she had just been missing home, as she seemed to straighten up the moment that I introduced Hermione to her and began gossiping with them. It was nice to see her in better spirits. She still seemed a little twitchy and sometimes seemed to stare off into space, but she seemed a lot happier. Being away from her mother had to be weird. And it probably didn't help that her brothers all already had friends. She was kind of left alone for a while.

Over the next week and a half, school passed in mostly a blur. As expected, the day after my birthday, Ron and Harry had caught Hermione and I down in the Common Room and had asked where I'd gone all day. I'd lied and told them that I'd hung out with some of my friends in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw before meeting up with Hermione and spending the day together in our room. They looked a little suspicious of my answer, but they'd let the conversation drop. I'd never tell them what had actually happened that day. Not until the day that we were going to die. It would stay between Hermione, Ginny, Cedric, Hagrid, and I forever.

Speaking of Cedric, things hadn't really changed on that front. I wasn't sure whether to be happy or bothered by this. The near-kiss hadn't seemed to affect him as much as it had affected me. Perhaps he really hadn't been leaning in to kiss me. Maybe I'd imagined the entire thing. I really hated that. But things were still good. We tended to laugh whenever we saw each other, making Ron and Harry roll their eyes every time. Of course, Hermione normally smiled brightly. I hadn't spoken to him much, but we didn't really have that much free time when we were together. Came from being in two different years.

Things were not good with Ginny in the meantime. She seemed to have felt a little bit better while we had talked to her on my birthday and she had seemed a little bit better for a few days afterwards. But, once more, she seemed to have lost her peppy spirit. It had led her to have been bullied into taking another Pepperup potion from Madam Pomfrey. She seemed a little bit better, but not much. Hagrid seemed to always be around these days, giving me a pointed glare whenever Cedric seemed to be a little too close to me. I rolled my eyes, knowing that I had gotten another brotherly/fatherly figure to keep boys away from me.

By the time Halloween arrived, ten days after my unauthorized trip to Hogsmeade, I knew that both Harry and I were regretting our rash promise to go to the deathday party. The rest of the school was happily anticipating the Halloween feast; the Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumors that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment. We'd commented all of this to both Ron and Hermione. Ron seemed all for skipping the party (of course) but Hermione wouldn't hear a word of it.

"A promise is a promise. You both said that you'd go to the deathday party," she told us bossily.

That ended the brief conversation that maybe we should tell Nearly Headless Nick that we weren't going to be able to make it. In all fairness, I was glad that she'd said that. I couldn't imagine having to go to Nick and tell him that we wouldn't be able to make it to his deathday party. So we trudged around the Common Room on Halloween morning - which had fallen on a weekend this year - before heading down to the Great Hall for lunch. If nothing else, there was some of the food at lunch that would be at dinner, too. So it was something. I knew that as much as Hermione didn't want us to break the promise, she, too, wanted to be at the feast later.

We were halfway through our lunches when someone came up behind me. I turned back and smiled when I saw that it was Cedric. I stomped on Harry's foot when I heard his scoff. "Hey, Tara," he greeted.

As per usual, Fred and George were making kissy faces at each other in the background. "Oh. Hi, Cedric," I said.

"You going to be at the feast tonight?" Cedric asked.

I shook my head at him. "Actually - no."

"Better plans?" he teased.

Better would probably be a very bad word to use. I couldn't imagine that a deathday party was particularly fun. "Different plans," I said. Cedric's brow rose. "A few weeks ago Filch caught Harry and I coming into the castle after a Quidditch practice. We were covered in mud so he brought us to his office to give us a detention. Nearly Headless Nick created a distraction for us, and in response, we agreed to go to his deathday party tonight," I explained our plans.

It wasn't against the rules, so I didn't mind talking about it in the middle of the Great Hall with anyone being able to listen in. "Well..." Cedric said, probably not sure of what else to say. "That was nice of you both."

In all fairness, I hadn't been sure what to say either. "It was a little too rash," I said, earning a small smile from Cedric. "Save me a few pasties, will you?"

"Not going to eat the ghost food?" he teased.

Was there even such a thing as ghost food? Of the many things that I knew, whether or not ghosts ate was not one of them. "Do ghosts even eat food?" I asked him.

Cedric seemed to think on it for a moment. "Fair point. No problem with the pasties," he told me. I smiled brightly. At least we would have part of the feast. "Have fun at your... party."

I knew that he wanted to laugh. "Go on. Laugh," I told him.

He quickly shook his head at me. I knew that he didn't want to offend me, and it didn't. I knew that we had been a little foolish to actually agree to go to a deathday party without a second thought. "No, it's very sweet," he tried to insist.

"Why don't you come along?" I asked with a little smirk.

I knew that he would say no. If he'd asked me, I would have said no. It was more of a joke. Cedric waved me off carelessly. "Oh, you know, I would but I've already made a promise to someone that I'll be at the feast," he said.

I couldn't help the little burn of jealousy that sank into my stomach for a moment. "Who?" I asked, trying to pretend that I didn't care.

"My stomach," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

At that, I laughed very loudly, feeling better for the first time that day. Shaking my head at him, I gently nudged him away from the table. "See you later," I called after him as he walked away.

We all enjoyed our lunches together, Fred and George both teasing me about 'Pretty-Boy Diggory' for most of the time until I'd gotten sick of them and left. Harry and I had spent much of the afternoon with Dean, attempting to teach Ron how to play soccer. He really didn't understand it and thought that it was boring, since the ball didn't fly and there was only one. We'd even taught Oliver, but he seemed to much prefer Quidditch. Hermione had watched us, sitting under one of the trees by the Black Lake and reading one of her books. By the end of the afternoon, Seamus, Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Fred, and George had been playing with us, too.

It had definitely been a good way to lead up to the party that none of us were looking forward to. It was pushing six o'clock when we had all made our way back upstairs. I'd showered and changed, meeting the others down in the Common Room. As mostly everyone was already at the feast, we wouldn't have to worry about being headed off. So at seven o'clock, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I walked straight past the doorway to the packed Great Hall, which was glittering invitingly with gold plates and candles. Ron and I let out hearty sighs as Hermione shoved us past the doorway. Instead, we directed our steps instead toward the dungeons.

The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick's party had been lined with candles, too, though the effect was far from cheerful. These were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over our own living faces. I had to admit that I was a little unnerved to come down here. I'd never been overly-fond of the whole 'death' thing. The temperature dropped with every step that we took. I wished that I had more than just my robes. I should have brought Fred's winter cloak. I drew my robes tightly around myself and strained my ears. What is that?

Something that sounded very much like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard was echoing through the hall. "Is that supposed to be music?" Ron whispered.

It certainly sounded like something that dead people would want to listen to. Perhaps that was why dead people were always so sad. They couldn't even pretend to be somewhat happy. Of course, I might be a little upset if I was dead, too. Particularly if I'd been whacked on the back forty-some-odd times by someone and then not been properly decapitated. We turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes. He didn't look happy. Was I expecting him to look happy?

Keeping my voice low so that Nick couldn't hear me, I spoke in hushed tones. "It's a deathday party, it's not exactly going to be happy," I told Ron, in reference to his comment about the music.

"My dear friends. Welcome, welcome... So pleased you could come..." Nick said mournfully.

Clearing my throat, I attempted to put on my most earnest smile. "You look nice, Nick," I said.

A semblance of a real smile appeared on his face. "Thank you, dear," he said.

He swept off his plumed hat and bowed us inside. We moved in, closely together. We didn't want to get too far away from each other. Not at a party full of ghosts. It really was an incredible sight. Not quite like the Great Hall, but no less impressive. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a raised, black-draped platform. Everything that either black or pearly-white. It made me feel a little strange in the scarlet robes. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight-blue with a thousand more black candles.

It didn't take long for our breath to rise in a mist before us; being in here was like stepping into a freezer. "Merlin it's cold in here!" I hissed, drawing my robes around myself even tighter.

The others seemed to agree with me, but no one said anything. "Shall we have a look around?" Harry suggested.

"No," I said almost immediately.

Hermione glanced over at me and scowled. I could see her lips and nose turning a pale blue. "You were the one that said that you would go," she told me.

"I wasn't thinking," I argued weakly.

The four of us slowly moved away from the middle of the dance floor. I did not want to be near any more of the ghosts than I had to be. "Careful not to walk through anyone," Ron said nervously, and we set off around the edge of the dance floor.

There were ghosts everywhere. It was very difficult to completely avoid them. Although I hadn't stepped through one yet. We passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Cedric had mentioned that the Fat Friar was quite nice; some people even forgot that he was a ghost. I wasn't surprised to see that the Bloody Baron, a gaunt, staring Slytherin ghost covered in silver bloodstains, was being given a wide berth by the other ghosts. Even Malfoy didn't like him.

"Oh, no," Hermione said, stopping abruptly. "Turn back, turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle -"

"Is she here?" I spoke over her.

Myrtle never left the bathrooms. Why was she here? I hadn't even seen her. And she was normally very hard to avoid. "Who?" Harry asked as we backtracked quickly.

Beside Gilderoy Lockhart and Severus Snape, one of my least favorite people at Hogwarts was Moaning Myrtle. Not that she was really a person. She was a ghost. Her real name was Myrtle Warren - as I'd found out from a Fifth Year Ravenclaw - and she'd died when she was only fourteen. She had apparently been a Ravenclaw herself. She skulked around the lavatories, always complaining about how someone was teasing her, wearing her old school robes. She appeared to have died somewhere in the forties, as that was the style that her robes resembled. I'd never gotten up the courage to ask her how or when she'd died.

"She haunts one of the toilets in the girls' bathroom on the first floor," Hermione explained.

"She haunts a toilet?" Harry asked.

Both he and Ron looked shocked that a ghost actually haunted a toilet. "Yes. It's been out-of-order all year because she keeps having tantrums and flooding the place. I never went in there anyway if I could avoid it; it's awful trying to have a pee with her wailing at you," Hermione explained to the boys.

They looked disgusted. That was exactly why I always held it. "Pretty sure that she died here. Of course, considering her attitude and clumsiness, I wouldn't be surprised if she went toppling down a flight of stairs in her own day," I muttered as we fled the scene.

"That's cruel," Hermione told me.

Glancing over at her, I cocked my eyebrows and placed my hand on my hips. "I'm sorry, do you like Moaning Myrtle?" I asked her.

Hermione flushed slightly. "Well -"

"Look, food!" Ron exclaimed.

"Saved by the bell," I said as I rolled my eyes.

Ron was pointing to the far side of the dungeon. I was surprised to see that there was any food in the dungeons. Perhaps Nick had asked for some food to be brought up for us. That would have been nice. Although, wouldn't that be offensive to the dead guests that couldn't eat? On the other side of the dungeon was a long table, also covered in black velvet. We approached it eagerly, all starving, but next moment we had stopped in our tracks, horrified. The smell was quite disgusting.

The food that was sitting on the table was nothing that anyone would actually want to eat. Large, rotten fish were laid on handsome silver platters; cakes, burned charcoal-black, were heaped on salvers; there was a great maggoty haggis, a slab of cheese covered in furry green mold and, in pride of place, an enormous gray cake in the shape of a tombstone, with tar-like icing forming the words, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington died 31st October, 1492. I raised my hand over my mouth to keep from puking. I watched, amazed, as a portly ghost approached the table, crouched low, and walked through it, his mouth held wide so that it passed through one of the stinking salmon.

Suddenly I was glad that we hadn't suck some food from the feast. I would have thrown it up. "Can you taste it if you walk through it?" Harry asked the ghost.

"Almost," the ghost said sadly, and he drifted away.

My hand was over my mouth as I turned away from the table. "I expect they've let it rot to give it a stronger flavor," Hermione said, pinching her nose and leaning closer to look at the putrid haggis.

"That's disgusting," I muttered.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one that was sickened by the sight of the food on the table. "Can we move? I feel sick," Ron said.

Not waiting for them to give an answer, I immediately walked off and tried to get as far away from the table of rotten food as I could. But I didn't get very far. Only a few steps. The others had followed me, but someone else had cut us off. A little man swooped suddenly from under the table and came to a halt in midair before us.

"Hello, Peeves," Harry said cautiously.

We all shifted to look at each other. There was never anything good that was coming if Peeves the Poltergeist was anywhere near you. Unlike the ghosts around them, Peeves the Poltergeist was the very reverse of pale and transparent. Since he was not really a ghost, he was not transparent and wore very brightly colored clothing. He could turn invisible at will though. Tonight he was wearing a bright orange party hat, a revolving bow tie, and a broad grin on his wide, wicked face.

"Nibbles?" he said sweetly, offering us a bowl of peanuts covered in fungus.

Taking a step back, I allowed the others to handle this one. "No thanks," Hermione said.

"Already ate, thank you, Peeves," I muttered.

Peeves was not going to allow us to pass unseen. "Heard you talking about poor Myrtle," Peeves said, his eyes dancing. I groaned at him, knowing that he had some type of plan that definitely wouldn't be good for the rest of us. "Rude you was about poor Myrtle." He took a deep breath and bellowed, "Oi! Myrtle!"

"Peeves! What the hell?" I hissed at him.

"Oh, no, Peeves, don't tell her what I said, she'll be really upset," Hermione whispered frantically, shaking her hands to stop him. "I didn't mean it, I don't mind her - er, hello, Myrtle."

We all turned very slowly, Hermione and I already knowing what was going to happen. All of the girls at Hogwarts knew who Moaning Myrtle was, and we all tried to avoid her at all costs. The squat ghost of a girl had glided over. I turned back and gave her a once-over. She looked just like she always did. Gloomy, pimple-faces, sunken-in eyes, with big, rimmed, glasses sitting over her depressed gaze. Today her lank hair was falling over her face. As usual, she was in her old Hogwarts robes.

"What?" she asked sulkily.

Taking in a deep breath, I attempted to smile at Myrtle. "You look lovely, Myrtle," I told her.

"Liar!" she shouted at me.

Hermione gave it a try next. Myrtle had always seemed to like Hermione a little more than she'd liked me. "How are you, Myrtle?" Hermione asked in a falsely bright voice. "It's nice to see you out of the toilet." Myrtle sniffed.

Perhaps that was a better thing to say than to try and tell her that she looked nice. Myrtle never took compliments very well. "Misses Nox and Granger were just talking about you," Peeves said slyly in Myrtle's ear.

"Just saying - saying - how nice you look tonight," Hermione said, glaring at Peeves.

"See, Myrtle, I told you that you look nice," I said.

Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say. She looked like she thought that I was insulting her intelligence. Myrtle eyed Hermione suspiciously. "You're making fun of me," she said, silver tears welling rapidly in her small, see-through eyes.

Hermione and I both shook our heads. "No - honestly - weren't we just saying how nice Myrtle's looking?" Hermione asked Harry and Ron, nudging them both painfully in the ribs.

"Oh, yeah -"

"They were -"

"Don't lie to me," Myrtle gasped, tears now flooding down her face, while Peeves chuckled happily over her shoulder. I groaned and rolled my eyes. That was not going to help. "D'you think I don't know what people call me behind my back? Fat Myrtle! Ugly Myrtle! Miserable, moaning, moping Myrtle!"

"You've forgotten pimply," Peeves hissed in her ear.

Moaning Myrtle burst into anguished sobs and fled from the dungeon. None of the other ghosts seemed particularly bothered. Peeves shot after her, pelting her with moldy peanuts, yelling, "Pimply! Pimply!"

"Well that was rude," I commented.

"Oh, dear," Hermione said sadly.

We weren't left in peace for long before Nearly Headless Nick drifted toward us through the crowd. "Enjoying yourselves?"

"Oh, yes," we lied together.

Nick was glancing around the crowd and I smiled at him. At least he seemed to be having a good time. I supposed that was the important thing. "Not a bad turnout. The Wailing Widow came all the way up from Kent..." Nearly Headless Nick said proudly. "It's nearly time for my speech, I'd better go and warn the orchestra..."

"Good luck," I called after him.

But he never got the chance to go warn them or leave our side. The orchestra had stopped playing at that very moment. The four of us, and everyone else in the dungeon, fell silent, looking around in excitement, as a hunting horn sounded. Judging by the look on Nearly Headless Nick's face, I assumed that the ghosts of the Headless Hunt were coming.

"Oh, here we go," Nearly Headless Nick said bitterly.

Through the dungeon wall burst a dozen ghost horses, each ridden by a headless horseman. The assembly clapped wildly; Harry and I started to clap, too, but stopped quickly at the sight of Nick's face. He was obviously not happy. The horses galloped into the middle of the dance floor and halted, rearing and plunging. At the front of the pack was a large ghost who held his bearded head under his arm, from which position he was blowing the horn. The ghost leapt down, lifted his head high in the air so he could see over the crowd. Everyone laughed as he strode over to Nearly Headless Nick, squashing his head back onto his neck.

Grimacing at the sound that came from the head, I watched as the ghost walked over to a very gloomy Nick. "Nick! How are you? Head still hanging in there?" he asked.

He gave a hearty guffaw and clapped Nearly Headless Nick on the shoulder. "Welcome, Patrick," Nick said stiffly.

So this was the Sir Patrick that Nick had been talking about a few weeks ago. Patrick grinned before looking over to us. "Live 'uns!" We all backed off at the sudden feeling that he would do something to us. He gave a huge, fake jump of astonishment, so that his head fell off again. The crowd of ghosts howled with laughter.

"Very amusing," Nearly Headless Nick said darkly.

"Don't mind Nick!" Sir Patrick's head shouted from the floor. "Still upset we won't let him join the Hunt! But I mean to say - look at the fellow -"

"I think," Harry said hurriedly, at a meaningful look from Nick, "Nick's very - frightening and - er -"

"Ha! Bet he asked you to say that!"

Knowing that Harry was next to useless at trying to convince anyone of anything, I took a step forward. "Well I'll tell you one thing!" I howled, drawing the attention of the ghosts. "I'd be much more terrified to run into Nearly Headless Nick in the back of a dark alley than I would, you. Who would be afraid of a ghost named Patrick?"

There was scattered laughter from the ghosts as Nick smiled at me and Patrick floated off, muttering incomprehensibly. Once he had gone, Hermione looked over at me. "Would you stop insulting dead people?" she snapped.

"They're dead. And he's rude," I told her. After a moment, I grinned at her. "Bet you never thought that you'd be saying that two years ago, huh?"

She rolled her eyes at me. Before she got the chance to say anything, Nick began shouting through the dungeon. "If I could have everyone's attention, it's time for my speech!" He was striding toward the podium and climbing into an icy blue spotlight. "My late lamented lords, ladies, and gentlemen, it is my great sorrow..."

But nobody heard much more. Sir Patrick and the rest of the Headless Hunt had just started a game of Head Hockey and the crowd were turning to watch. I felt absolutely terrible that the ghosts were stealing the one moment of limelight that Nick had. Nearly Headless Nick tried vainly to recapture his audience, but gave up as Sir Patrick's head went sailing past him to loud cheers. There was nothing that could be done. He floated in vain from the podium, looking very forlorn.

By this point I was very cold by, not to mention hungry. Thankfully Ron saved me the trouble of looking heartless. "I can't stand much more of this," Ron muttered, his teeth chattering, as the orchestra ground back into action and the ghosts swept back onto the dance floor.

"Let's go," Harry agreed.

"I think I've done enough here," I added.

Even Hermione couldn't say anything against leaving. There was nothing more that we could do, we had proven that we were there, we were starving, and freezing. There was no point for the four of us to stay in our own misery. I had a feeling that Nick had lost control of the party anyways. It would probably be over soon. We backed toward the door, nodding and beaming at anyone who looked at us, including smiling at a sad look that was cast our way from Nick, and a minute later we were hurrying back up the passageway full of black candles.

"Pudding might not be finished yet," Ron said hopefully, leading the way toward the steps to the entrance hall.

There was a chance that we could be back in time to eat some of the food. At least have some pumpkin juice and take the pasties that Cedric had promised to save. "I asked Cedric to save me a few pasties. We can share them," I told the others.

We were smiling at the prospect of heading back towards the Halloween Feast when I heard it. "... Rip... Tear... Kill..."

Against my own will, I screamed. Ron and Hermione jumped in horror to turn and look at me. Harry was the only one that had reacted the same way that I did. He hadn't screamed but he had stumbled along to the edge of the stone wall. He was clutching it. He looked like he might have been in pain, but I could tell that he was trying to listen. It was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice that we had heard in Lockhart's office. It was back. And it sounded closer this time. I was desperately whipping back and forth, looking around, squinting up and down the dimly lit passageway, to find the owner of the voice.

Glancing back at Ron and Hermione, I could tell that they hadn't heard it. "It's back!" I shouted.

Hermione moved forward very carefully. "Harry, Tara, what're you -?"

"It's that voice again - shut up a minute," Harry said.

"Stop talking!" I shouted when I started to hear the hissing voice again.

"... So hungry... For so long..."

It wanted to eat something. It hadn't eaten in a long time. Was it going to eat a person? "Can't you hear that?" I asked Ron and Hermione desperately. They both shook their heads.

"Listen!" Harry said urgently, clearly as irritated as I was that they couldn't hear the voice. Ron and Hermione had frozen, watching us.

"... Kill... Time to kill..."

Kill? There was no way that I was going to let that thing kill someone! Harry had frozen in fear. "It's gonna kill someone! Come on!" I yelled.

"Tara! Come back!" Hermione yelled.

But it was too late. I had already darted off. I had no idea who the voice belonged to, or what, but there was no way that I was going to let someone die. Particularly if they couldn't hear the owner of the voice, as it seemed that no one but Harry and I could. Perhaps I was running towards something very dangerous, but I had to get there in time. The voice was growing fainter. It was still muttering about food and eating. It had to be moving away - moving upward. A mixture of fear and excitement gripped me as he stared at the dark ceiling as I ran; how could it be moving upward? Was it a phantom, to whom stone ceilings didn't matter?

It had to be invisible. It had sounded right next to us. But now it was moving up. "This way," Harry shouted.

He was running at my side, seeing as we were the only two that could hear the voice, with Hermione and Ron trudging behind us, looking very concerned for our mental state. We began to run, up the stairs, into the entrance hall. Harry and I were taking two of the stairs at a time. It was no good hoping to hear anything here, the babble of talk from the Halloween Feast was echoing out of the Great Hall. I wanted to shout at them to shut up. Harry was smart enough to make another move. He sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, myself immediately following, with Ron and Hermione clattering behind us.

"Harry, Tara, what're we -" Hermione tried to ask.

"Shh!" Harry hissed at her.

We stopped moving for a moment to see if we could hear the voice again. I raised a hand to Hermione and Ron to keep them from speaking. I strained my ears as far as I could. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter still, I heard the voice again. "... I smell blood... I smell blood!"

My stomach lurched. It was right there. It was about to find someone and kill them. "Floor up, go!" I yelled.

"It's going to kill someone!" Harry shouted.

Ignoring Ron's and Hermione's bewildered faces, we ran up the next flight of steps three at a time. Harry and I were running in the same stride, both desperate to save the person that the voice was preparing to kill, trying to listen over my own pounding footsteps and heartbeat - we hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione panting behind us, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage. We stopped, trying to control our breathing to keep it soft, and hear the voice again.

"Harry, Tara, what was that all about?" Ron asked, wiping sweat off his face. "I couldn't hear anything..."

"Shut up!" I shouted at him. Just like before, I couldn't hear the voice. It had gone. And it had very possibly just killed someone... "Do you hear it?" I asked Harry.

He shook his head. "No. It's gone..." he muttered.

But Hermione gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor. "Look!"

Our heads whipped around. Hermione and Ron were about to start believing that Harry and I were hearing voices. Something was shining on the wall ahead. My legs quivering at the knowledge that the owner of the voice had very likely just been here, we approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Why was it always us? Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches. It appeared to have been written in blood. My stomach lurched.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

What was the Chamber of Secrets? "What is that?" I asked softly.

"I don't know..." Hermione muttered.

And if Hermione didn't know what something was... That couldn't have been a good thing. "What's that thing - hanging underneath?" Ron asked, a slight quiver in his voice.

It was the most terrified that I had ever heard him. I was terrified, too. Harry and I were the ones that had heard the voice. As we edged nearer, I almost slipped - there was a large puddle of water on the floor. Harry had caught me, but then nearly slipped himself. Ron and Hermione grabbed him, and we all righted each other. Once we had steadied ourselves, we inched toward the message. My eyes suddenly fixed on a dark shadow beneath it. I realized what it was at once and leapt backward with a splash. So did the others. Mrs. Norris, the cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring. For a few seconds, we didn't move.

Had that voice killed Mrs. Norris? "Let's get out of here," Ron said.

"Shouldn't we try and help -" Harry began awkwardly.

"Trust me. We don't want to be found here," Ron said.

But I couldn't just leave the cat like this. I hated both Mrs. Norris and Filch, but she was an innocent creature. "She's not dead. I don't think so, anyways," I said. I wasn't sure how, but I knew that she was still alive.

Slowly, I began taking a step towards her. "Tara, get away from her!" Harry shouted at me.

"I'm trying to make sure that she's not dead!" I barked back.

None of the other three made a move to follow me forward. Not that I had really been expecting them to. I wouldn't have if anyone else had been willing to check that the cat was alive. As I got closer, my hands began shaking in fear that the owner of the voice would jump out and kill me, too. But nothing ever happened. With Harry, Ron, and Hermione watching, I moved forward. My hand very gently pushed onto Mrs. Norris. I cringed at her bony body. I'd never touched the cat before. No student had. She was ice cold. But she was not dead. Very faintly, I could feel her heartbeat.

Whatever was wrong with her, she seemed to be frozen in time. "She's not dead. I can feel a heartbeat," I told the others.

The second that I was about to walk back to the others and suggest that we leave was the same second that I realized that it was too late. A rumble, as though of distant thunder, told me that the feast had just ended. Myself feeling just as frozen as Mrs. Norris, I watched helplessly, knowing that running would look worse. From either end of the corridor where we stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.

The chatter, bustle, and noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight. Chatter broke out loudly as their eyes followed the warning on the wall and my hand on Mrs. Norris. Everyone looked horrified as they began to whisper that I had killed her, with the help of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Not far from me, I could see Cedric staring at the scene in horror. I realized too late that my hand, on a cat that looked very dead, probably didn't look very good. Just as I was about to let go of her cold body, someone shouted through the quiet.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

As the person who always seemed to pop up at the worst of times, the voice belonged to Draco Malfoy. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless face flushed. His eyes briefly passed over us, looking thrilled at the sight of me being the closest person to Mrs. Norris, actually touching her, and he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat.


	27. The Writing On The Wall

"What's going on here? What's going on?"

Attracted no doubt by Malfoy's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Just like Mrs. Norris, I was frozen in place, as much as I knew that I should move. But I couldn't. Harry was straight behind me, with Ron and Hermione hanging behind him. Filch didn't seem happy that so many students were standing and milling about in a hall that he would have to clean later. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked.

For a moment he whipped back and forth. It was like the only thing that he could see was the cat hanging lifelessly from the lamp. I wanted to plead my case and tell him that she was still alive, but my mouth felt like it was glued shut. It didn't take long for his popping eyes to fall on Harry and I. They scanned over my arm, down to my hand, only to realize that I was touching the lifeless form of Mrs. Norris.

My heart lodged itself in my throat as I finally managed to rip my hand away from the cat. I felt even colder than the cat. "You! You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her!" Filch shouted at me, his voice echoing up and down the hall. "I'll kill you! I'll -"

He was only steps away from me as I backed away towards the wall. "No, please! Mr. Filch, I saw her hanging up like that and was checking on her!" I shouted at him, desperate for him to believe me.

The few smiles that were on the faces of the Slytherin's had faded. They were now watching with a slight curiosity. "Liar!" Filch yelled back at me.

"I'm not! She was already hanging up," I yelled back.

"You killed her!"

"I didn't! I was checking her! She has a heartbeat! She's alive!"

It did not seem that Filch believed me that Mrs. Norris was alive. As much as I tried to tell him to put his hand on her chest, just to prove that she was still alive, he refused to listen to me. Shocking me - and everyone else that was standing in the hall - Filch leaped after me and knocked me to the ground. I fell, whacking my head on the wall, as his hands went around my throat. Okay, I know you love your cat, but this is so unnecessary. I tried to fight back against him, but Filch was stronger than he looked.

"Tara!" Hermione screamed in panic.

Even through the blurry vision that was becoming darker with every passing second, I could tell that Ron was holding her back from getting involved. "She didn't do it!" Harry insisted.

He had his hands on Filch's arm, trying to wrench him away from me. "Mr. Filch, she's just a Second Year!" a voice called through the chattering and screaming crowd. It sounded vaguely like Cedric.

"Argus!" an authoritative voice called, cutting across the crowd. Everyone silenced themselves and turned back. Filch's arms relaxed over my throat and I leaned over, coughing and trying to get air back into my lungs. "Please remove yourself from Miss Nox."

Almost immediately - and very begrudgingly - Filch removed himself from me. He stood and I coughed, allowing Harry and Ron to pull me to my feet, the both of them handing me back to Hermione, who began fussing over me. Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. Madam Pomfrey looked horrified, Professor McGonagall was giving Filch a very stern talking-to, Lockhart looked shocked, and Snape seemed calm and collected. In seconds, Dumbledore had swept past Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I to detach Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.

He was holding her as gently as he possibly could. I noticed Cedric looking very tempted to take a step forward, but I shook my head, knowing that it was best to keep away from us right now. "Come with me, Argus," Dumbledore said to Filch. "You, too, Miss Nox, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly. Despite Filch having just nearly suffocated me, I would still rather be near him than Lockhart. "My office is nearest, Headmaster - just upstairs - please feel free -"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," Dumbledore said.

The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I followed. I kept my head low as we walked. The last thing that I wanted was to see all of the staring faces and whispering voices. I knew that people were talking about me. Us. Whatever. I could hear the conversations all around us as we walked. I could hear some people saying that I had killed her, others saying that I was trying to sacrifice her, and a few Slytherin's wishing that Filch had been a little faster. Fred and George were watching from the edge of the crowd, both looking like they were about to move forward to see if I was alright.

Harry grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him, keeping me somewhat out of sight. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape. Madam Pomfrey stayed behind to clear out the corridor. As we entered Lockhart's darkened office, myself still shaking badly, there was a flurry of movement across the walls; I saw several of the Lockhart's in the pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. Had the situation been any less serious, I would have laughed. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore laid Mrs. Norris on the polished surface of his desk and began to examine her.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching. Was I about to be expelled for a crime that I didn't commit? Dumbledore had said that he would have no choice but to expel me... But I didn't do it. Was there a way to prove that I hadn't done it? Filch seemed determined that I had, but there were no witnesses to what had really happened. Not even us. She had already been like that. So... That was a good thing. Right? They couldn't do anything to me - to any of us - unless someone had actually seen us do something to her.

The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris's fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. He seemed to understand what was happening. Professor McGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. They seemed to be having a silent conversation with each other. I was grateful that no one was looking at us. It seemed like they weren't suspicious of us. Snape loomed behind the two, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her - probably the Transmogrifian Torture - I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very countercurse that would have saved her..."

There was nothing that he knew other than how to sell himself. "She's not dead, you nitwit!" I snapped, unable to stop myself. No one looked at me other than Filch and Lockhart. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were looking, too, Hermione very obviously wishing that I hadn't spoken. "I already told you! I checked her heartbeat. She had one."

"Shut your mouth, murderer!" Filch yelled, speaking for the first time since he had tried to kill me.

Once more, I found myself unable to keep my mouth shut. Things were always happening to me, and I did nothing to earn them. "Murderer? Shouldn't that be you? You tried to kill me!" I shouted back at him.

"You did kill my cat!" Filch yelled back.

It felt like we were two, five year olds, fighting back and forth about something of no significance. "Miss Nox... Argus... Please..." Dumbledore muttered, effectively silencing us.

Not that we were speaking anymore, but we both gave a long, scathing glare, towards each other before glancing towards our laps. Lockhart's continuing comments were punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs. He had gotten over his anger towards me - at least for the briefest of moments - and was now back to mourning his cat. That isn't dead... He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. And I hated the twinge of guilt that shot through my stomach. I hadn't done anything to her. I'd been checking on her. But I still felt like it was my own fault.

And as much as I detested Filch, particularly after the old caretaker had attacked me, I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him. I knew that he loved his cat. I understood. I'd be absolutely beside myself if something like this happened to Dai. Although, as sorry as I felt for Filch and Mrs. Norris, it wasn't nearly as sorry as I felt for myself. If Dumbledore believed Filch, I would be expelled for sure. He had told me enough a few weeks ago. And now I was genuinely concerned. Dumbledore had no reason not to believe Filch. I had been standing right there, my hand on the dead-looking cat, and everyone knew that I hated Filch. Of course, everyone did. But still...

It was no secret that Filch was the one person that I might have gotten more detentions from, save Snape, than anyone else. But I hoped that people would see that as much as I really didn't like Filch, it was not a good enough reason to kill Mrs. Norris. And I couldn't even kill her. I knew the spell, nearly everyone did, but I would never use it. Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs. Norris with his wand but nothing happened. She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed. Bile formed in my throat. If he couldn't bring her back, would that make me automatically guilty?

Lockhart continued to mutter unhelpfully. "... I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadogou, a series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once..."

"No one's read your autobiography," I muttered.

Professor McGonagall glanced up from Mrs. Norris with a very stern look. Although, I could have sworn that the edges of her lips made a little twitch. "Nox. Now is not the time," she warned.

A few of the pictures of Lockhart glanced over at me and glared. I was absolutely positive that one of the photos from his youth blew a raspberry at me. The photographs of the older Lockhart on the walls were all ignoring me, and nodding in agreement as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hair net. I couldn't help it. That time I actually laughed. Hermione quickly stepped on my foot to get me to stop. At long last, Dumbledore straightened up.

The little movements around the room had stopped. Everyone wanted to know what had happened to Mrs. Norris. "Miss Nox is correct. She's not dead, Argus," Dumbledore said softly.

Even though I knew that it wouldn't look very good for my case, I smiled brightly. Partially because there was now no evidence that I'd killed her, and partially because I was glad to hear that Mrs. Norris wasn't dead. Filch looked somewhere in between horrified and happy. Snape and Professor McGonagall were nodding. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked relieved. Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented. I'd never been so happy for silence.

Filch's head snapped up, he was just barely looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "Not dead? But why's she all - all stiff and frozen?" he barely managed to choke.

"She has been Petrified," Dumbledore explained.

"Ah! I thought so!" Lockhart exclaimed, startling me slightly.

Glancing over at him, I growled under my breath. We were here for Mrs. Norris and Filch, but somehow Lockhart still wanted to make himself the center of attention. "You thought that she was dead," I said.

"Nox! Enough," Professor McGonagall said.

Blushing slightly, I nodded at her, noting that Lockhart was still ignoring me. He seemed to always ignore me whenever I made him look like a fool. "But how, I cannot say..." Dumbledore muttered, ignoring the biting remarks that we were exchanging.

"Ask her!" Filch shrieked, startling me, as he turned his blotched and tear-stained face towards me.

My jaw dropped. I thought that we'd gotten over the fact that I had not done this. None of us had done this. "I didn't do it!" I barked back at him.

Dumbledore held up a hand to stop Filch or I from saying anything more. "No Second Year could have done this," Dumbledore said firmly. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced -"

Even Dumbledore's reassurances did nothing for Filch. "She did it, she did it!" Filch spat, his swollen face turning purple from anger. "You saw what she wrote on the wall!" My jaw dropped again. I definitely had better handwriting than that. "Maybe you both did it!" he added, now rounding on Harry. "They found - in my office - they know I'm a - I'm a -" Filch's face worked horribly. "They know I'm a Squib!" he finished.

Whoever had done this was a genuinely evil person, not just someone trying to nastily prank a Squib. "I couldn't care less!" I shouted at him. And I really couldn't. His being a Squib didn't affect or offend me. "And I didn't do anything! I was making sure that she was alive!" I tried to reason with the other teachers in the room - save Lockhart, who was useless.

"We never touched Mrs. Norris!" Harry said loudly, uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at us, as I'd realized now included all the Lockhart's on the walls. "And I don't even know what a Squib is."

It was a lie, but I knew that he was trying to make things better. Maybe it would be a little easier if we pretended to have no motivation for doing anything like what had happened to Mrs. Norris. "Rubbish! They saw my Kwikspell letter!" Filch snarled.

"You can check my handwriting, it's nothing like that!" I shouted.

Whoever had wrote the note did not have nice handwriting. I liked to think that I did. At least, it wasn't the kind of scrawl that was on the wall. "If I might speak, Headmaster," Snape said from the shadows. My sense of foreboding increased; nothing Snape had to say was going to do either of us any good. "Potter, Nox, and their friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. I almost smiled. He'd helped us. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor at all? Why weren't they at the Halloween feast?"

Well that certainly went downhill fast. But it didn't take long for Harry, Ron Hermione, and I to all launch into an explanation about the deathday party. We started with coming back from Quidditch practice in the rain, being dragged to Filch's office, where I admitted that we had seen the letter but thought nothing about it, to heading back upstairs and meeting up with Nearly Headless Nick, to telling him that we would attend the deathday party to try and get Nick into the Headless Hunt, to actually being at the party.

Most of the professors look convinced that we'd been there. Harry was still finishing his part of the explanation. "... there were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there -"

"But why not join the feast afterward?" Snape asked, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?" Harry and I exchanged a look, as Ron and Hermione looked at the two of us.

"Because - because -" Harry said awkwardly.

What could we say at this point? Should we admit that we'd been hearing a murderous voice that was planning on killing someone, that seemingly was only audible by Harry and I? Probably not. It was never good hearing voices. Not in the Muggle world and not even in the Wizarding World. I didn't want either of us to end up in St. Mungo's. My heart was thumping very fast as I attempted to figure out what I could say. But we couldn't. Saying that we'd been led there by a mystery voice - that we literally had no proof actually existed since no one else could hear it - would not be a good excuse.

"Because we were tired and wanted to go to bed," Harry finally said.

Not a great excuse, but better than sitting here in silence. "Without any supper?" Snape asked, a triumphant smile flickering across his gaunt face. It was a valid excuse. I'd skipped meals before. Everyone had skipped at least one meal before. "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."

"We weren't hungry," Ron butt in loudly just as his stomach gave a huge rumble. Snape's nasty smile widened.

Of all the times that his stomach could have rumbled... We were only making ourselves sound guiltier and guiltier. "Actually, I really wanted to ask Professor Lockhart's position on Boggarts," I said, trying to push Lockhart's proudly smiling face out of my peripherals. "I'd heard that we'd be learning about them next year and I was just so hopeful that he would stay." Once more, Lockhart looked very pleased with himself. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. "We were on our way here, as a matter of fact."

Snape did not seem to enjoy my pathetic excuse. "The same professor that you have been known to dislike? The same professor that you threw a parchment roll at, last week?" he asked me smartly.

Why had I done that? Stupid... "I was coming to apologize. They were just coming with me because we'd all been coming from the same place. We were about to head back upstairs," I said.

"I suggest, Headmaster, that Nox is not being entirely truthful. It might be a good idea if she were deprived of certain privileges until she is ready to tell us the whole story," Snape said. Once more, my jaw dropped. What had Dad done that had made Snape hate me so much? "I personally feel she should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until she is ready to be honest. Perhaps Potter, too, since he doesn't seem eager to explain either."

Both Harry and I were about to argue the many reasons that Snape was wrong and we should still be on the Quidditch team. "Really, Severus," Professor McGonagall said sharply, "I see no reason to stop the kids from playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter or Nox have done anything wrong."

For a moment, I smiled gratefully at Professor McGonagall. Whether or not she believed that we had done something wrong, I knew that she didn't want us off of the Quidditch team. Mostly because she knew that if there was any chance of us beating Slytherin with their new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones, it was with Harry and I on the team. The only brooms that might be able to keep up with them were our Nimbus Two Thousands. And we were already good players, which helped. Plus, she had just gotten used to beating Slytherin and Snape in Quidditch, she didn't want it to stop now.

In the meantime, Dumbledore was giving Harry and I a searching look. His twinkling light-blue gaze made me feel as though he were learning every secret that I held. And with each passing day, it felt like there were more, and that they were getting more dangerous. "Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly.

A big breath flew out of my lungs. We were safe, at least, for now. Snape looked furious. So did Filch. "My cat has been Petrified! I want to see some punishment!" Filch shrieked, his eyes bulging.

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," Dumbledore said patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes." I cringed, remembering the pain-in-the-ass lesson with the Mandrakes on the first day. "As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in.

Scoffing under my breath, I shook my head. "Mrs. Norris will be Petrified forever," I muttered.

That time I was sure that Professor McGonagall smiled. And unless I was losing my mind, Dumbledore and Snape seemed to have been a tiny bit amused as well. "One more word, Nox, and I'll give you detention for a month," Professor McGonagall said, as much as I assumed that she really didn't want to.

Lockhart was completely oblivious going on and on about his own achievements. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep -"

"Excuse me," Snape said icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."

The air of the room became thick as Lockhart flushed. There was a very awkward pause. We all shifted in our chairs, eager to get away from the tense room. "You may go," Dumbledore said to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I.

Without giving in to the urge to sprint as far and as fast from the room as I could go, I stood with the others and nodded my thanks to Dumbledore. He was the very reason that I wasn't on my way home right now. We went, as quickly as we could without actually running. I was at the forefront of the pack, not wanting to be anywhere near Lockhart, Filch, or the place where Mrs. Norris had been hanging. When we were a floor up from Lockhart's office, Harry held up a hand and motioned us with him. We turned into an empty classroom and Harry closed the door quietly behind us. We had to squint through the dark to see each other.

It was very hard, considering that it was very late, and there was no moonlight to illuminate ourselves. "You're asking to be expelled," Hermione told me, shattering the silence.

"He was going to kill me for something that I didn't do!" I barked at her.

There was no way that I was apologizing for defending myself against Filch. If I was going to be killed, it would be for something that I had done, not for Petrifying his stupid cat. "What you said to Lockhart!" she clarified.

I rolled my eyes at her. There was definitely no way that I was apologizing for what I'd said to Lockhart. "You saw McGonagall, she was smiling, she wouldn't have done anything to her," Ron said.

"D'you think we should have told them about that voice we heard?" Harry asked, interrupting our conversation.

"No," Ron said, without hesitation. Sighing softly, I shook my head. As much as I wanted to tell someone else, I knew that it wasn't smart. The only person that it might make sense to tell would be Dumbledore. But we had been around too many people. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the Wizarding World."

There was almost something that sounded disbelieving in the way that he'd said it. Did they not believe that we were hearing the voice? It seemed that Harry had heard the same thing in Ron's voice, as he asked, "You do believe us, don't you?"

"It was there," I snapped a little harsher than I'd meant to.

"'Course I do," Ron said quickly, realizing that we thought that he was doubting us. "You're both hearing it. Not like it's just one of you. But, you must admit it's weird..."

Seemed that the weird things were always happening to the two of us. Not that I should be surprised. "I know it's weird. The whole thing's weird," Harry said. I nodded as he grabbed my hand, tightening his grip slightly, knowing that I was very unnerved about the whole thing. "What was that writing on the wall about? 'The Chamber Has Been Opened.' What's that supposed to mean?"

Chamber... Dad had mentioned something about it once. Chamber of Mystery or something like that. "You know, it rings a sort of bell, I think someone told me a story about a secret chamber at Hogwarts once... might've been Bill..." Ron said slowly.

"That's a rumor. Mom and Dad told me about it," I said.

"But there are secret passageways all around Hogwarts, aren't there?" Hermione asked me sharply.

I knew that it was a little hit at my telling her about my trip to Hogsmeade through the secret passage near the Defense classroom last week. "Yeah, but that one's something that Slytherin built or something like that. Supposed to be like a lair for the Dark Arts. I don't know. It's been so long that no one really knows," I told her.

It wasn't just a passage out of the school. The chamber that they were talking about was something that was supposed to be huge, hidden deep inside the school. "You were right, Tara. He is a Squib," Harry said slowly.

It made perfect sense that Filch was a Squib. It explained why he was so bitter and why he cleaned everything the Muggle way. He couldn't do real magic. To my surprise, Ron stifled a snigger. "Well - it's not funny really - but as its Filch," Ron barely got out.

Gritting my teeth together, I shoved against Ron. "It's not funny at all, Ron. It's cruel," I snapped at him. He flushed slightly. Being a Pureblood, I assumed that he would always think that it was a little funny, having no powers, but I'd always believed that it was a cruel fate. "No wonder the man hates the students so much."

"What's a Squib?" Hermione asked.

I had to admit that it was rather surprising, having her ask. I would have thought that she would know. "A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but they, themselves, don't have any magical powers. Kind of the opposite of Muggle-Born wizards. Squibs are very rare," I explained to her.

"It would explain a lot. Like why he hates students so much," Ron said as he gave a satisfied smile. "He's bitter."

"Wouldn't you be?" I snapped at him.

Before he got the chance to respond to me, a clock chimed somewhere in the distance, echoing throughout the castle. "Midnight," Harry said. "We'd better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else."

We headed back upstairs towards Gryffindor tower. None of us wanted to give Snape another reason to want to try and expel us. So we headed quickly through the halls, trying to get back to the relative safety of the Common Room. As we walked in, I noticed that nearly everyone was still awake and talking. The conversations died as we walked in. After reassuring Fred and George that I was fine - they seemed the most serious that I'd ever seen them, probably because they knew that I was rattled - I muttered a goodnight to Harry and Ron, heading back upstairs. I didn't want all of those sets of eyes on me.

As I walked into the dorm room that I'd come to love, I found my opinion of it quickly changing. Hermione dropped into bed and almost immediately fell asleep. I could hear her soft snoring within seconds. Parvati, Lavender, and Fay had stayed downstairs. I assumed that they didn't want to be anywhere near me tonight. Not that I really could blame them. As I changed into my pajamas and headed back towards the bed, my heart sank into my stomach and I collapsed to the floor. Right on the center of the bed was the one thing that I'd prayed that I would never see again. There was a perfectly wrapped, black box, sitting there.

With shaking and sweating hands, I pulled the wrapping off of the box. Sitting inside was something that made me clap my hand over my mouth. It looked like a fang. A huge fang. The entire thing was about the length of my forearm. Engraved into the largest part of the fang was the same number, eighty-three. Not wanting to touch the fang, I reached around and pulled out the card that was underneath it. It was written in the same hand as the others had been. Time is short. Shoving the entire thing into my bedside table, I launched myself into bed, closing my eyes, desperately trying to push the new box out of my mind.

Over the next few days, I spoke very little, and slept even less. All of my friends knew that something was wrong but they seemed to think that the problem was with Filch and Mrs. Norris. And that was part of the problem. But what was even worse was the box. The warning... I hadn't told anyone yet, as much as I knew that I should. I'd sworn Harry that I'd tell him if I got another, and I'd gotten two since then. But it had been so long since I'd gotten one that I'd almost forgotten about it. Now the box was back, with an eerie warning.

Time is short... What did that even mean? Was something terrible going to happen if this wasn't solved in a matter of time? Probably. I could only imagine that the attack on Mrs. Norris had just been the beginning. A warning for what was to come. And someone knew exactly what was coming. The same person who knew that I'd met Voldemort before. Could it be the Heir of Slytherin? Was that the person who had been sending me the box? I'd looked all over the place for days, but nothing made sense. I couldn't tell whether or not anyone was watching me any closer than they normally did. Most people were always looking at me, probably wondering when I was going to attack again.

For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. There were questions everywhere about what had really happened. Some people asked me how I'd done it, which usually sent them running away after I went into a fit of rage over being blamed for something that I hadn't done. Most merely whispered and pointed to me as I walked. The First Years now seemed in between being terrified and fascinated with me. Older students were all saying things like how they'd always known that there was something weird about me, or that I had always been had news. Even the Slytherin's were joining in, saying that it was my way to beg them to take me into their House.

I was very grateful that Cedric and Percy put down those rumors nearly every time that they heard them. I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to either one of them, but I knew that it was their doing. Some people thought that the rumors that I was the Heir of Slytherin were hilarious. Fred, George, and the rest of the Quidditch team had laughed them off, asking me that I was indeed the Heir, if I would Petrify the Slytherin's brooms. It was the first time that I'd laughed in days. Other students, mainly Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's seemed unnerved by me and avoided me desperately. Namely the younger ones.

Not helping my case at all, Filch kept the attack fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where Mrs. Norris had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. If they were smart, they'd keep their heads down for a while. I had seen Filch scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. It was rather unnerving to know that the message might remain there forever. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like breathing loudly and looking happy.

Over the past five days I couldn't even count the amount of times that one of the professors had had to free me from a detention or give back points that I'd lost to Gryffindor from Filch. He'd tried to get me for loitering around - when I was waiting for Charms to start - sneezing, laughing, falling - when Fred had jokingly tripped me - and for merely walking too slow. The most recent of the ways that he'd attempted to get back at me for Mrs. Norris was yesterday, when he'd tried to give me three nights' detention for accidentally dropping a book in the hallway and making a racket. Percy had been forced to bring me to Professor McGonagall to undo the detentions.

After that, I had a feeling that she'd told Filch to lay off of me. He'd stalked around me angrily afterwards, but hadn't tried to give me another detention since. The only person that might have been more disturbed by the attack was Ginny Weasley. The attack seemed to have affected her the most. She had come to me crying the day after the attack, telling me that it wasn't my fault. I'd been stunned but had assured her that it wasn't my fault, and it certainly wasn't hers, either. Ron had said that she was a great cat lover. Which made sense, seeing as Ginny had a cat of her own back at the Burrow.

We were sitting at breakfast one morning, Ginny in between Ron and I, as we tried to console her. "But you haven't really got to know Mrs. Norris. Honestly, we're much better off without her." Ginny's lip trembled. "Stuff like this doesn't often happen at Hogwarts. They'll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to Petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking -" Ron added hastily as Ginny blanched.

Moving closer towards her, I grabbed her sweaty hand. "Ginny, you know that this isn't your fault, right?" I asked her. She quivered slightly and a tear slipped out. "Not mine, not Harry's, and not yours. Not a single person except the one that did it."

"W- What if it happens again?" she asked weakly.

"Don't worry, Ginny, it won't," I said, ignoring the voice that was telling me that any attack could come at any moment now.

Unfortunately there was little else that we could do to console her. I sighed, knowing that this was the wrong way to start Ginny off at Hogwarts. The attack had also had an effect on Hermione. It was quite usual for Hermione to spend a lot of time reading, but she was now doing almost nothing else. She read all through classes, in the Common Room, in the dormitory, and in the library. I was almost shocked that she could still find time to do her work. Harry, Ron, and I could never get much response from her when we asked what she was up to. It wasn't until the Wednesday after the attack that we found out.

We were in Potions when it all began. We had been learning about tubeworms, much to the student's dismay. They were boring and rather gross. They were more of a general group of any worm-like aquatic creatures that could secrete a mineral tube around their body that they could curl into for protection. I was writing all of that lazily as Snape spoke. My head was on my hand and I knew that I was about to drift off to sleep. But I couldn't help myself. I hadn't been sleeping well since the attack on Mrs. Norris and the night that the box had appeared. So, within a few minutes, I was fast asleep.

The hall that I was standing in was blurred. Actually, everything was blurred. The figures that moved around me were muted and very hard to make out. It looked like I might have been in Hogwarts, but I couldn't be sure. It felt like I was watching the world through Harry's glasses, which completely distorted my vision. All I knew was that it was very cold in here. And as I turned back, I realized that someone could see me. A boy. He, too, was blurry. I couldn't make him out, but he seemed to be tall.

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice sounding more like an echo than anything else.

"A friend," he responded, sounding amused.

Glancing around us, I realized that the boy was watching me closely. And he might not have been a boy. His voice sounded a little old. In fact, it sounded very similar to the voice that had helped me in the History of Magic exam last year. I found myself very unnerved, desperate to see his face. "Where am I?" I asked him.

"You know this place," he told me.

Was I in Hogwarts? There was a chance. "No... I don't. I mean, it looks like Hogwarts, but what is this? I was in Potions. How did I get here?" I asked him.

Even though I couldn't see him, I knew that the man was smiling at me. "A dream," he whispered. I rolled my eyes. I had managed to gather that one. "There are terrible things happening in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Things that have happened before."

My heart skipped a beat. This had happened before. And this man knew what was happening. "This has happened before?" I asked wearily.

"Yes."

"Please tell me," I begged. The man stayed silent. "Sir, please tell me. I've heard this voice... Twice. Each time that I've heard it, it's been trying to kill someone. Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, she was Petrified. Who's doing this?" I asked him desperately.

The man didn't respond to me, but did sound shocked. "You can hear it..." he muttered.

The voice? Was it really that rare that I could hear it? Harry and I both could. Maybe no one else could hear it. Maybe he could. "Can you?" I asked him.

"No," he said, deflating the hope in my chest. "Very few can."

Few... That meant that there was more than just Harry and I. There had to be other people that could hear the voice. We weren't crazy. "There are others?" I asked him.

"Few," the man said carelessly. I wanted to hit him. He paced around me for a moment before he stopped directly in front of me. He was no clearer than he had been before. "It won't end until one has died. That will only be the beginning."

"Please, do you know who did this?" I asked.

"I did."

Did? Was that supposed to mean that the person who had done this was dead? That didn't make any sense. But it sounded like he had once known them, and now he didn't. I hate dreams... They can't ever just be straightforward. "Tell me. They're looking at me. Did I do this?" I asked him nervously.

"Do you think that you did?" he asked.

"No..." I whispered.

In some way I did feel responsible. It was the same way that had kept me awake all hours of the night. Was it possible to do something and not remember it? Was it possible for someone to take control of me? Had I ordered someone to do it without even knowing it? I wanted to think that it was just all of the rumors getting to me, but I really did feel like I had something to do with this. Perhaps it was just because I could hear the voice. I'd known that it would do something. Did Harry feel the same way?

"In a way, I suppose that you are responsible," the man admitted.

But what had I done? "I didn't do that," I argued with him.

The man stopped pacing and stopped in front of me. "No," he said, and I let out a breath. I hadn't hurt Mrs. Norris or ordered someone to do it. "But you can stop it. The clues are right in front of you. Look harder."

His previous comment was still burning into me. "You said that I was responsible, in a way. What does that mean?" I asked him. He said nothing. "Sir! Please!" I hissed. He still said nothing. It was like he was waiting for something. And then I remembered. The boxes... "Are you sending me those boxes?"

Suddenly the man's mouth came into view. It was the only part of him that I could see clearly. It turned upwards into a small smile. "No."

Without warning, it felt like I had been shot from the dream. I bolted upright in the chair and very nearly toppled out of it. I would have, had Harry not caught me at the last second. Snape was glaring at me as the Slytherin's howled with laughter. "Miss Nox, kind of you to join us again," Snape hissed at me.

"I - I'm sorry, Professor Snape," I muttered.

No point in trying to defend myself, he'd only get angrier. "I'm sure you are. You may stay behind to scrape the tubeworms off of the desks afterwards," he said. I nodded at him, not having the energy for a fight. "Mr. Potter may join you, since he felt no need to wake you."

Both of our heads sprung up at the added punishment. We had no chance to argue it as Snape turned back and began speaking again. "Sorry," I muttered to him.

"Sorry for not 'feeling the need to wake you,'" Harry told me. I smiled softly. "You alright?"

Should I tell him? Probably. But not here. Not now. "Yeah. Just tired. Haven't been sleeping well," I said.

"Me either."

By the end of lesson, Snape had settled on his punishment for us. I'd really been hoping that he would change his mind. But, no, Harry and I had to scrape the tubeworms off of the desk. It had taken us nearly thirty minutes to actually manage to get all of the tubeworms off of the desk. They had essentially cemented themselves onto the desks. But we were finally allowed to leave and Harry and I sprinted out of the classroom before he could demand that we do it better. Ron had told us that he would meet us in the library before History of Magic, so Harry and I went down to eat lunch together.

When we'd finally gotten down to the Great Hall and gathered our food, most people were gone. Everyone was either doing some work before class, enjoying time off, or simply trying to avoid the two of us. "Harry?" I asked. He hummed at me through a mouthful of potatoes. "I need to tell you something."

He swallowed harshly. "What?" he asked.

"I got another one of the black boxes," I admitted quickly.

Harry's eyes widened. He checked to make sure that no one was standing or sitting near us before turning back to me. "When?" he asked in an urgent whisper.

"The night of Mrs. Norris's attack."

"Is that the first one that you've gotten since?"

Guiltily, I shook my head. Harry looked furious. "No. I got one the day after last semester ended. But I didn't want to tell you because it was just a note. 'Well done.' That's all that it said," I tried to reason with him.

"And what was in this one?"

"A fang," I answered, receiving a strange look. "I don't think it was real. I was looking at it the other day, and it almost looks like it was carved out of wood. It was about the size of my forearm. Had the same number, eighty-three, etched into it."

Harry was silent for a long while as he tried to process this information. I had thought about it for days. I couldn't understand what a fang had to do with anything. "Did it come with a note?" he finally asked.

"Yeah. 'Time is short.' What does that mean?" I asked him.

Harry thought on it for a long time. The two of us sat and nursed our water goblets for a while. "Time until another attack?" Harry finally suggested.

That was the only thing that had made any sense to me. "That's what I was thinking," I said.

"Do you think that it's the Heir of Slytherin that's sending you these things?" Harry asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I picked apart the apple tart that was sitting in front of me. "I wish that I knew. When I dozed off in Potions, I had a dream. Everything was fuzzy. I couldn't see straight. But a man was talking to me and saying that this had happened before. He said that he knew who'd done it but he wouldn't tell me who. I asked him if he was the one sending me these things, but he said no," I told Harry.

He looked very shocked that I had been dreaming about that. I had been, too. The man had seemed so real, but I couldn't imagine who he was. I didn't know him. I'd never heard the voice before. I was positive. But still... They had known what this was. He said that he'd seen this before, that he knew who was doing it. If I knew who that man was, we could figure all of this out. But I hadn't seen his face and I hadn't been able to figure out where I was.

"Did he say anything else?" Harry asked me after a beat.

Taking a moment to compose myself, I nodded. "He said that in a way, the attack was my fault," I admitted.

Harry shook his head and grabbed my hand. "Tara, the attacks are not your fault. You didn't do anything," he told me.

"What if I have and didn't even know it?"

Harry's grip on my hand tightened almost painfully. "I've known you for years, Tara. You're the best person that I know. You wouldn't do anything like that," he argued.

Maybe... "But what if I couldn't help it?" I asked.

"You're not the Heir of Slytherin," he barked at me. Of course not... I couldn't be the Heir of Slytherin. It was all of the rumors. They were starting to take a toll on my mental health. Maybe that was what the dream had been about. "Should I take a wild guess and say that you don't want to tell Ron and Hermione about this?" Harry asked me after a while.

He was right on that account. I really didn't want them to start panicking about me. Which I knew that they both would. "Hermione's off in her own world these days anyway. But Ron, I mean, I know that he loves us, but you saw the look on his face. He thinks that we're nuts, hearing that voice. Until we understand a little more... Let's not worry them," I said.

Harry nodded. "Okay."

It wasn't long before we both pushed our plates away and decided to head back to the library. Any part of me that had been hungry had died the moment that I'd started thinking about the black box and the dream. Sadly, I stood with Harry and headed out of the Great Hall. I knew that he was trying to cheer me up by talking about Quidditch, and I appreciated it, but I could hear the hollowness in his voice as we walked. He was too caught up in the warning on the wall and the dream to think straight. We weren't far from the library when I saw Justin Finch-Fletchley walking straight towards us.

I smiled softly and waved to him. "Hi, Justin," I called. He glanced up at me, gave a terrified look, and turned on his heel, darting back away from us. "Goodbye, Justin," I muttered, turning to Harry. "What was that about?"

"Not a clue. I thought that Justin liked you," he said.

"I thought that he did, too."

The two of us exchanged a funny look, knowing that we were about to be in for another year where the rest of the student body hated us, before turning and leaving the hallway. We walked into the library and quickly made our way away from Madam Pince. She was one of the few staff members that didn't seem bothered by the Mrs. Norris incident. She was still simply protecting her books. Harry and I found Ron at the back of the library, measuring his History of Magic homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three-foot-long composition on The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards, due today.

Ron spotted us walking over to him and began to complain. "I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short," he said furiously, letting go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll. "And Hermione's done four feet seven inches and her writing's tiny."

My eyes sprung open. How had she written that much? I mean, it was a vast subject, but still, didn't she get bored? "There's so much to write, Ron," I told him.

"How long is yours?" he asked.

"Three-foot-six."

I'd been finishing up on my argument of how Medieval Europe had affected modern-day wizardry, but it had been longer than I'd meant, so I'd gone half a foot over the required length. "How?" Ron asked disbelievingly.

Rummaging through my books, I grabbed History of Medieval Europe, a book that I had, and tossed it over to Ron. "Here. Try this book," I told him. Ron immediately opened the book and started scribbling away.

"Where is Hermione?" Harry asked, grabbing the tape measure and unrolling his own homework.

Leaning back in my own chair, I listened to their conversation. I'd finished my essay a few nights ago when I couldn't sleep. "Somewhere over there," Ron said, pointing along the shelves. "Looking for another book. I think she's trying to read the whole library before Christmas."

"We all know that she could do it," I put in.

While we sat together, I looked over Ron's essay and began pointing out the mistakes that he'd been making. He looked absolutely beside himself when I told him that an entire paragraph had been incorrectly recounted. As I tried to help Ron fix the many inconsistencies, Harry told Ron about Justin Finch-Fletchley running away from us. It didn't take long for Ron to lose interest in his essay and become involved with Harry's story. Although, one smack on the arm got him back to writing.

"Dunno why you two care. I thought he was a bit of an idiot," Ron said, scribbling away, making his writing as large as possible. I rolled my eyes at him and told him to write smaller. The larger writing would only get more points taken off for trying to cheat. "All that junk about Lockhart being so great."

Shaking my head at him, I helped him reorganize some of his thoughts. "Justin's got some issues, but he is nice. And you should have seen him. He looked terrified of us. He's been my friend since last year," I added.

"Ask Diggory. Bet he'd know," Ron suggested.

Actually, that really wasn't a half-bad idea. But he seemed so busy lately, it was hard to get him alone. Hermione emerged from between the bookshelves as I thought about where to find him. She looked irritable and at last seemed ready to talk to us. "All the copies of Hogwarts, A History have been taken out," she said, sitting down next to the three of us. "And there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."

Rolling my eyes at the fact that she hadn't thought to just bring it in another bag, I leaned towards her. "You know, if you'd bothered to ask I would have told you that I have one right upstairs... In the room that we share!" I barked at her. A second later Madam Pince was around the corner, hissing at me to be quiet. "Sorry Madam Pince."

Once she had gone, Hermione looked sideways at me. "You have a copy?" she asked.

I nodded at her. It wasn't really mine, it was Mom's, but I'd been using it since I was nine. "Battered and beaten, but yeah, I have one. I do read, you know," I told her.

She looked like she was about to tell me that she knew that I read, but she never got the chance. "Why do you want it?" Harry asked before she could say anything else.

"The same reason everyone else wants it, to read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."

"What's that?" Harry asked quickly.

"That's just it. I can't remember. And I can't find the story anywhere else -" Hermione said nervously, biting her lip.

Rolling my eyes at them, I stepped in. "It's not in there. I've read through that book a thousand times before. There's nothing in there about the Chamber of Secrets," I told her. It was all about the formation of the school and eventual split. There was nothing about the Chamber of Secrets. "It's a fairy tale. Mom and Dad told me something about it once. There's no actual proof that it exists."

"Evidently, it does," Harry said.

I'd gotten to my wits end with the Chamber of Secrets and Heir of Slytherin nonsense. Someone was trying to make Harry and I look bad. With our past track record, it wasn't very hard. "Or someone's just being an ass and trying to get the whole school to hate us again," I said.

"This is a little more than losing two hundred points," Harry put in.

"Hermione, let me read your composition," Ron said desperately, checking his watch.

It broke Harry and I's concentration from each other. I glanced over at them and rolled my eyes. "No, I won't," Hermione said, suddenly sounding very severe. "You've had ten days to finish it -"

"I only need another two inches, come on -" Ron pleaded but it was obvious that she was not going to give in. "Tara?" he asked me.

"No."

There was no way that I'd stayed up until five in the morning doing that damn essay just to let Ron copy it. The bell rang before Ron could beg me for it. We left the library, Harry and I trailing behind, as Ron and Hermione led the way to History of Magic, bickering the entire way. We had stayed a few feet back and laughed the entire time. I still stood by what I'd said during our First Year. They were going to end up together. There was no way that they wouldn't. I could tell that they really did care for each other. We took our seats in History of Magic, Harry and I together and laughing, as Ron and Hermione sat at the table next to us, still fighting.

As much as I loved listening to them fight, I really did wish that we were in any class other than History of Magic. History of Magic was the dullest subject on anyone's schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was the only ghost teacher in the entire school, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead. I believed that. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.

It was the exact reason that most people used the class as time to either take a nap, play games, or do other homework. Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. My hand moved automatically over the page as I daydreamed about being back in Hogsmeade with Cedric. Professor Binns had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand. Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.

No one, not once, had ever asked a question before. "Miss - er -?" Professor Binns stuttered awkwardly.

It was something to be said that he didn't even know our names. "Granger, Professor." He nodded at her to continue. I was staring at her, wondering what she could have possibly had a question on. Even Hermione hated this class. "I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," she said in a clear, unwavering, voice.

This request completely stunned the class. The few people that had been interested in Hermione's question suddenly became the entire class. Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville Longbottom's elbow slipped off his desk. Harry, Ron, and I all snapped to attention. My thoughts of Hogsmeade went out the window. Professor Binns blinked.

"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with, facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers -" He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again. "Miss Grant?"

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"

Once more, the classroom waited in a stunned silence to see what was going to happen. I was sure that this was the most interested that I'd ever seen anyone in this class before. And I was sure that, no matter what happened, the entire school would know about this conversation within the hour. Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement that I found myself sure that no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.

Professor Binns let out what appeared to be a breath. "Well, yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale -"

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word. It was no secret that the entire school had been attempting to find out everything that they could about the Chamber of Secrets over the past two weeks. People had written home to their parents, checked out every book that they could, and had even resorted to asking Harry and I about it. Professor Binns looked dimly at us all, every face turned to his. It was very obvious that he was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.

Deciding that someone had to convince him, I took a breath and leaned forward. "Please, Professor Binns, no professor would be as adept at the history of Hogwarts as you are. You're the only person that could possibly tell us correctly," I said.

It was the first words that I'd ever spoken to him, and I had a feeling that they would be the last. Professor Binns sighed but nodded anyways. "Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see... The Chamber of Secrets... You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain - by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued. "For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

Everyone exchanged looks at this. It made sense why the Slytherin students seemed to hate the Muggle-Born's so much, even showing issues with Half-Blood's. Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise. "Reliable historical sources tell us this much. But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was an uncomfortable silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns's classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed. I couldn't believe it. Well.. The whole bit with Slytherin I could believe. But to have something down there. Something in a Chamber of Secrets... Something that could kill people. Or Petrify them... Was it the horror within that had Petrified Mrs. Norris, or was it the Heir? And where could the Chamber of Secrets have even been? Very well hidden if the founders had never found it, I supposed.

"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course. Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible," Professor Binns continued.

I spoke before raising my hand, something that seemed to bother Professor Binns. "And they've checked everywhere? There are hidden passages all over Hogwarts. It's one of the things that it's known for," I said.

Professor Binns looked shocked that I had the gall to ask that. "Well... Yes... But every inch of the school has been searched. You can be rest assured of that," he told me.

Hermione's hand was back in the air. "Sir - what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

I was glad that she'd asked. "That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control." The class exchanged nervous looks. "I tell you, the thing does not exist," Professor Binns said, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."

But what if there was a monster? What if something had managed to live for that long? "If it is a monster down there, it would have had to survive this long. A thousand years. Is there anything that could?" I asked him.

The Care of Magical Creatures professor probably would have been a better option, but I didn't know who that was, where their office was, or have a good reason to go there and ask. "No, Miss Nolan, there isn't." I rolled my eyes, at least Nolan was better than Robins. "Precisely why the story is just that, a story."

"But, sir, if the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?" Seamus asked.

Professor Binns shook his head. I was sure that by now he was wishing that we'd all been dozing off through his lesson, barely able to keep our eyes open. "Nonsense, O'Flaherty," Professor Binns said in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts Headmasters and Headmistresses haven't found the thing -"

What if it took someone with a certainly ability? Like hearing a voice that no one else could... "But, Professor," Parvati piped up, "you'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it -"

"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't, Miss Pennyfeather," Professor Binns snapped. Professor Dumbledore was a perfect example. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore -"

"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't -" Dean began, but Professor Binns had had enough.

"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"

He said nothing more on the subject and went back to his droning voice, telling us the history that we couldn't have cared less about. It was no shock that within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor. By the end of class I'd taken no notes and my mind was locked onto the thoughts of Salazar Slytherin, the Chamber of Secrets, the Heir of Slytherin, and Salazar Slytherin's Monster. When the bell finally chimed for us to leave for the day, I slowly slipped out of the room with Ron, Harry, and Hermione behind me.

We weren't far from the edge of the classroom when Ron spoke. "I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron told us as we fought our way through the teeming corridors at the end of the lesson. We wanted to drop off our bags before dinner, as we normally did. "But I never knew he started all this Pureblood stuff."

"You're honestly surprised?" I asked.

Ron seemed to think on it for a moment before shaking his head. "Well... No," he said. I nodded as we headed up to Gryffindor tower. "I wouldn't be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd have got the train straight back home..." Ron complained the entire way.

Hermione nodded fervently, but Harry and I said nothing. I assumed that he must have been considered for Slytherin. Hermione was the only one that had ever admitted that she'd been considered for another House - Ravenclaw. Ron had only ever been considered for Gryffindor, given his family. But Harry and I had never said what had happened to us under the Sorting Hat. My stomach had just dropped unpleasantly at Ron's words. That very thing had happened to me.

The burning memory of the Sorting Hat came back to me full-force. I could remember, as though it were yesterday, the small voice that had spoken in my ear when I'd placed the hat on my head a year before. It had startled me, but I'd been far more nervous to see where I would end up. The Hat had told me that I was too impatient for Hufflepuff, too lazy for Ravenclaw, but it had thought that both Gryffindor and Slytherin were good matches. It had said that I had a fondness for power and a great darkness inside of me. But I had been desperate to not be in Slytherin, I'd begged the Hat to put me in Gryffindor. And so it had, with one final warning: Make no mistake, Miss Nox, I would have preferred to place you in Slytherin.

The four of us dropped off our bags before heading back down to the Great Hall. The entire time I kept thinking about the Sorting Hat, wondering why it had wanted to place me in Slytherin so badly. Had it thought that I was the Heir of Slytherin? Was I? I didn't think so, but there could have been a chance. Anyone could have been the culprit. Even someone unwilling. Magic worked in strange ways sometimes. All I knew was that this Chamber of Secrets business was probably not what Mom meant about me staying out of trouble. Perhaps this time I would be allowed a pass, seeing as this time, it literally wasn't my fault.

Dinner was unusually loud tonight. As I'd been expecting, the entire school had found out about Professor Binns, telling us the story of the Chamber of Secrets, within the hour. I could hear people recounting the story left and right. Everyone had the details right, but now the rumors were starting to fly. Some of my favorite was that the Chamber of Secrets was actually a code name for one of the teachers and that Salazar Slytherin's Monster was a giant robot.

By the time that we left dinner, a large crowd had formed to head back to their Common Rooms. As we were shunted along in the throng of people, Colin Creevey went past. "Hiya, Harry!" he yelled over the crowd.

"Hullo, Colin," Harry said automatically.

"Harry - Harry - a boy in my class has been saying you're - Actually, they've been saying it about you more, Tara - That you're -" But Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of people bearing him toward the Great Hall. I was very grateful that he was cut off, and no one heard was he was going to say. I could barely hear him squeak, "See you, Harry!" and he was gone.

Letting out a breath, Harry and I exchanged an irritated glance. "What's a boy in his class saying about you two?" Hermione wondered as we walked back towards the Common Room.

"That either one of us are Slytherin's heir, I expect," Harry said. The hamburger that I'd eaten roiled around in my stomach as I suddenly remembered the way Justin Finch-Fletchley had run away from us at lunchtime.

"Typical," I muttered.

Both Ron and Hermione looked like they definitely felt bad for Harry and I. "People here will believe anything," Ron said in disgust. The crowd thinned and we were able to climb the next staircase without difficulty. A thousand people in such a huge school, you'd think that traffic jams wouldn't be a problem... "D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked Hermione and I.

We both shrugged. The only way to actually know would be for someone to find it. "I don't know," Hermione said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be - well - human."

"Might not be. Could be a Dark Creature," I put in. Everyone's heads whipped over to me. The more that I thought about it, the less sense that it made that it was actually a human that had Petrified Mrs. Norris. "Petrifying someone is quite difficult, you know."

It had been confused with the Full Body-Bind Curse and the Hardening Charm before. But that wasn't the case. Petrification stayed until a Mandrake potion could undo the process. There was a chance that there was a curse that caused Petrification, but I'd never heard of it. The only other thing that I knew that was actually proven to cause Petrification was the gaze of a Gorgon. They were magical creatures very closely related to the tale of Medusa. There weren't many that I actually knew of, rather than Medusa and her two sisters. I wasn't even sure if they were actually real, or, at least, if they lived anywhere other than Greece.

As I thought about the disgusting creatures, we turned a corner and managed to find ourselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack had happened. I stopped and looked around. No part of me wanted to continue to move. I wanted to turn back, not having very good memories in this hallway. But still, we stopped and looked. The scene was just as it had been the night of the attack, except that there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket and no one dared come here for fear of running into Filch. An empty chair stood against the wall bearing the message The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened.

"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.

With a long gaze, we all looked at each other. I knew what they wanted to do. It was in their blood. The corridor was deserted, after all. "Can't hurt to have a poke around," Harry said, getting to his hands and knees so that he could crawl along, searching for clues.

I rolled my eyes and clapped my hand on my forehead. This was exactly why we were always getting into trouble. "Are you kidding? The last time that we were in a hallway by ourselves, Filch nearly strangled me for thinking that I murdered his cat," I said.

As per usual, they ignored me. "Scorch marks! Here - and here -" Harry pointed out.

"We're gonna get busted for this."

Once more, they ignored me. "Come and look at this! This is funny..." Hermione said.

"No one listens to me." Shockingly enough, I was once more ignored.

Harry got up from his feet while Ron and I crossed to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane. My gaze followed her finger and I finally realized what she had been pointing to. There were around twenty spiders that were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside. What were they all so desperate to get away from? Spiders loved hanging around Hogwarts with all of the dark and damp places to hide. I was always catching them in my things.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione asked wonderingly.

Glancing around, I realized that they were fleeing from something. A Gorgon? No. Spiders didn't fear them... So maybe it wasn't a creature. Maybe it was just someone casting a Dark Spell. "They're scared of something," I said.

"You're right," Hermione muttered.

"No," Harry said in reference to Hermione's earlier question, "have you, Ron? Ron?" The three of us looked over our shoulders. Ron was standing well back and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run. "What's up?"

"What's your problem?" I asked curiously. Was he afraid of spiders?

Ron didn't make a move to come any close towards us. "I - don't - like - spiders," he said tensely.

"I never knew that," Hermione said, looking at Ron in surprise. I raised my brows at him. I hadn't known that he was afraid of spiders either. Although, I did remember on the train when I'd asked Fred and George if they were planning on putting a spider in my hair. They'd said that they were planning on doing it to Ron and he'd panicked. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times."

The twins would have been a good reason for him to be scared of spiders. I imagined that they'd done something horrible to him with spiders when he was younger. "I don't mind them dead," Ron said, as he was carefully looking anywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move." Hermione giggled. "It's not funny," he snapped at her, fiercely.

Grinning slightly, I gave Ron a little nudge. "It's a little funny," I said.

I was deeply resisting every urge in me to take one of the spiders and bring it closer to him. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick..." Ron explained. I nodded, so I was right that it was the twins that had done it. Well, Fred, but that counted. "You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and..." He broke off, shuddering. Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh.

Part of me wanted to laugh, but, at the same time, if someone had dropped a snake on me when I was a child, I would be even less fond of them than I was now. "Remember all that water on the floor?" Harry asked, changing the subject. "Where did that come from? Someone's mopped it up," he pointed out.

And he was right about that. All of the water that had been on the floor had been mopped away. Probably by Filch. "It was about here," Ron said, recovering himself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing. "Level with this door."

The three of us followed behind him. It was the doorway to the bathroom that Moaning Myrtle haunted. Hermione and I exchanged an irritated glance. Ron had just reached for the brass doorknob when he suddenly withdrew his hand as though he'd been burned. "What's the matter?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Can't go in there. That's a girls' toilet," Ron said gruffly.

Rolling my eyes, I shoved him out of the way. "Don't be a baby," I snapped at the two boys.

They looked very bothered to be heading into the girl's lavatory. "Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there," Hermione said, standing up and coming over with us. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."

Ignoring the large out of order sign, I opened the door and stepped in. Of the many bathrooms that were in Hogwarts, this bathroom was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom in the entire place. The mirror was large and cracked, spotted in any place that was not fractured. There was also a row of chipped sinks. And they were not chipped from a twelve foot mountain troll's rampage. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders. The wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched. The one that Myrtle hung out in was dangling off its hinges. Hermione put her fingers to her lips and set off toward the end stall.

Deciding that it was probably for the best, I let her go first, knowing that Myrtle had always liked Hermione a lot more than she'd liked me. When she reached it she said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?"

I wasn't standing far behind her. Harry and Ron came to look behind us. Moaning Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking at a spot on her chin. "This is a girls' bathroom," she said, eyeing Ron and Harry suspiciously. "They're not girls." She then turned to me. "Come to Petrify me?" she asked.

The grin on my face told me that she really did enjoy making fun of me, since apparently people had been so awful to her while she was alive. "I didn't -!" I shouted, cut off by Hermione.

"Shush!" she hissed at me before smiling at Myrtle. "No," Hermione agreed about Myrtle's comment that Ron and Harry were not girls. "I just wanted to show them how - er - nice it is in here." She waved vaguely at the dirty old mirror and the damp floor.

Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Harry mouthing, Ask her if she saw anything, to Hermione.

"What are you whispering?" Myrtle hissed, staring at Harry.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly. "We wanted to ask -"

"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" Myrtle yelled, in a voice choked with tears. I rolled my eyes at her. Here we go again... "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead -"

"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you," Hermione said, trying to avoid the water-works. "Harry only -"

Myrtle gave her no chance to fix what Harry had accidentally done. "No one wants to upset me! That's a good one! My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!" Myrtle howled. I raised an eyebrow at her. Was there really a way to ruin death? Wasn't death kind of... already ruined?

Hermione tried one more time. "We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately. Because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween," she told her.

Glaring at Hermione, I leaned back against one of the stall doors and began picking at my nails. Hadn't we already realized that Myrtle knew what had happened? She had asked me if I'd come to Petrify her. She must have at least heard of what had happened. "Did you see anyone near here that night?" Harry asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "I wasn't paying attention. Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself," Myrtle said dramatically. I wanted to chuck something through her head. She was the most dramatic ghost that I'd ever met. And I knew the Bloody Baron. "Then, of course, I remembered that I'm - that I'm -"

Her voice began to crackle with tears. "Already dead," Ron offered helpfully.

Myrtle gave a tragic sob at being reminded of her immortal state. Leaning very close to the boys, I whispered, "Have you ever seen a ghost with that many issues?"

"Be quiet!" Hermione hissed as Ron and Harry laughed.

Myrtle gave another tragic sob, similar to the one that she just had. But I could tell that there would be no more talking for her. She rose up high into the air, gave a piercing scream, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet. I stepped backwards just in time to avoid her splashing water all over the others and vanishing from sight. Ron, Harry, and Hermione looked disgusted at their now drenched robes. It had happened to me enough times that I knew to take a step back when she went into one of her almighty dives. From the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U-bend.

For a long time, Harry and Ron stood with their mouths open, but Hermione shrugged wearily and said, "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle..." I nodded at her. It was, actually. "Come on, let's go."

Usually she went on a shouting match with herself about people making fun of her. Something about throwing things at her and some girl named Olive Hornby that used to make fun of her glasses. Something like that. The four of us turned, unable to do anything more to make Myrtle happy again, and turned to leave. We slipped out of the room and motioned for Harry - who had come out last - to close the door. Harry had barely managed to close the door on Myrtle's gurgling sobs when a loud voice made all four of us jump.

"Ron!"

All four of us cringed at the voice. But I was sure that Ron and I made the worst faces. I groaned at the voice, having heard it quite enough times over the summer. Percy Weasley had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, Prefect badge agleam, and an expression of complete shock on his face. Not that he should have been surprised. We were always getting ourselves into trouble. And, honestly, he grew up with Fred and George. What had he really been expecting?

"That's a girls' bathroom!" he gasped. "What were you - ?"

"Just having a look around," Ron shrugged through his pathetic explanation. He didn't seem concerned. "Clues, you know -"

Percy swelled in a manner that reminded me of Mrs. Weasley when she'd found out that we'd taken the car. "Get - away - from - there -" Percy hissed through clenched teeth.

He came striding toward us and starting to bustle us along, flapping his arms. I was sure that he looked like a bird. I was barely able to look back. Every time that I did, Percy merely ushered us along again. I wondered if they'd had other people poking around here. Probably, considering how determined the teachers were to keep the students out of this hallway. Although, there were quite a few students that didn't want to take a step out here.

"Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone's at dinner -"

"Why shouldn't we be here?" Ron said hotly, stopping short and glaring at Percy. I was surprised. I'd never heard Ron seriously fight with any of his siblings. "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"

It seemed that Percy actually didn't believe that we'd done anything wrong. "That's what I told Ginny," Percy said fiercely, "but she still seems to think you're going to be expelled, I've never seen her so upset, crying her eyes out, you might think of her, all the First Years are thoroughly overexcited by this business -"

"You don't care about Ginny," Ron said, whose ears were now reddening. Harry, Hermione, and I exchanged a tense look. "You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy -"

"Five points from Gryffindor!" Percy barked tersely, fingering his Prefect badge. "And I hope it teaches you a lesson! No more detective work, or I'll write to Mum!"

Without another word, he strode off, the back of his neck as red as Ron's ears. The four of us stood together in an awkward silence for a little while. It wasn't long before Ron walked off, grumbling lowly in his throat. I felt terrible for him. To have Percy acting like a prat like that. He was right. Percy might have loved his little sister, but being Head Boy would always take precedence as long as nothing earth-shattering was happening to his family. That was just the way that he was. So we walked in a tense silence, heading back up to Gryffindor tower. But I couldn't bring myself to keep walking.

Things had been so awkward in the Common Room lately. I was always getting stared at, and I didn't want to sit there as Ron steamed tonight. So I stopped walking, drawing the attention of the other three. "Hey, I'll see you guys a little later," I said.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked quickly.

It was obvious that he didn't want me to go anywhere that I would be on my own. "Just gonna go on a little walk. Try and clear my head," I said honestly, although I wouldn't be going on a walk.

I knew exactly where I was going, and thankfully it wasn't a very far walk from the Gryffindor tower. "Be careful," Hermione warned me.

"I will. Won't be more than an hour," I said.

The three of them waved me off as I turned to leave. It didn't take me long for my feet to bring me to the same place that they always did when too much was on my mind. I slipped into the Astronomy tower - after making sure that no one else was in here - and headed towards the open air window. I sat at the edge of the tower and let my legs hang over, staring off into the distance. The sun was setting and painting the grounds a magnificent pink, the lake glittering softly. I breathed in the cool early evening air, wishing that things would stay this quiet for the rest of the year.

I wasn't there long before a reddish-brown owl swooped into the Astronomy tower. I stared at it for a moment, as it landed on my leg, before smiling. "Oh - Hello, Rusty," I greeted the owl.

Rusty was Cedric's Barn Owl that he'd gotten a year before coming to Hogwarts four years ago. I smiled at the owl and petted over his feathers. He'd always seemed to be a little fond of me. Sometimes it was hard to chase him off whenever I wanted him to bring back a letter to Cedric over the summer. His beak went into my hand and I laughed, pulling away a letter that looked like it was from Amos Diggory. I grabbed it and placed it off to the side, figuring that I would give it to him tomorrow. Rusty hopped into my lap and settled in, warming me in the cool air. I smiled and gently ran my fingers through his feathers.

"I was wondering where he went," Cedric's voice rang through the tower. I jumped slightly and sighed as Rusty started, squawking at his owner. Cedric grinned and walked forward. "He always did like you."

Grinning back at him, I raised my arm and allowed Cedric to grab his owl. "I believe this is yours," I said.

"Thank you." Rusty nipped at Cedric's fingers for a few seconds before flying off. Once he was gone, I reached back and handed Cedric the letter from his father. He took it and seated himself next to me. "He was just coming to deliver the letter when he flew off at the last second. I assumed that he found something more fascinating."

Laughing softly, I watched as Rusty's feathers glistened with the sun beating off of them as he flew back to the Owlery. "Yes, I suppose that fascinating is the right word for me right now," I muttered.

"I don't think it's quite enough," Cedric said.

Suddenly it felt like it was my birthday a few weeks ago. My cheeks burned at the memory of slipping out of Hogwarts for the day to head down to Hogsmeade. It was illegal and very stupid, but it was the best birthday present that I could have asked for. We'd felt different for that day, hell, we'd nearly kissed, but things had gone back to normal after that. He merely smiled at me, made a few passing comments, and stopped to chat with me from time to time. I'd thought that it had been a mistake, the way that he'd acted in Hogsmeade. But now, the little comments like that - flirtatious - were back.

Blushing softly, I decided to not have a repeat of the embarrassment of that day when we'd been caught red-handed by Hagrid. Instead, I asked, "Justin Finch-Fletchley. He's in your House. Do you know him?"

Cedric looked a little surprised, but he nodded anyways. "Yeah. He's in your year. Nice boy," he said.

From the Sorting last year, I barely remembered Justin going to sit next to Cedric with Hannah. "You wouldn't happen to know why he ran from Harry and me earlier?" I asked.

Cedric ran a hand through his hair, a surefire sign that he felt awkward. "Tara -"

"So you do?" I asked.

I'd been around enough people to know that when they said your name like that, after you'd just asked them a question that might give an answer that you wouldn't like, they were trying to spare you the answer. "It's not important," Cedric said.

He was trying to spare me whatever nasty rumors were already spreading about Harry and I. It was nothing new to me. It had happened last year, too. Although those had been a little more childish. "Go ahead. I can handle it," I told him.

"It sounds like you already know why he ran," Cedric pointed out.

Smiling slightly, I nodded. He was right about that. I did know why he'd run from us, but, honestly, I really just wanted to hear someone say it my face. They'd all been whispers so far. No one could ever just man up and say it. "I'd still like to hear it. Just so that I really do know. No need to go jumping to conclusions," I said.

"Well... I think you know," he said, running his hands through his hair again. I blushed softly. It looked nice when he did that. "It didn't look very good with your hand on Mrs. Norris down in the corridor. And the rumor about the Heir of Slytherin spread like wildfire -"

"So people do think that I'm the Heir of Slytherin. Harry, too, I'm assuming?" I interrupted.

It still appeared that he was trying to make things a little bit easier for me to understand. Not that it mattered. If people thought that I was the Heir of Slytherin - or Harry - there was no changing that unless we could give solid evidence that we weren't. "Well -" Cedric attempted, cutting himself off when I glared at him. "Yes."

Exactly what I'd thought. Suddenly my eyes narrowed as I glanced over at him. "Do you?" I asked slowly.

Please say no. "Of course not," Cedric said quickly.

I couldn't help it, the smile broke over my face. At least there were a few people that believed that I hadn't Petrified Mrs. Norris. Come on... I would have attacked Malfoy if I could... "Good. Because I didn't," I said determinedly. "I was just checking to see if she had a heartbeat."

Cedric nodded at me and briefly grabbed my hand. It felt better, to have someone that wasn't just Harry, Ron or Hermione, that believed that I hadn't done something terrible. "I know. Tara, I've known you for a year and a half. You've never done anything that would make me think that you could do something like that," he said. I smiled and nodded gratefully at him. That felt a little bit better. "And it's the Heir of Slytherin. Have any of your family been in Slytherin?"

For a moment I thought back. Everyone that Mom and Dad had ever told me about was in Gryffindor. "Well... No," I muttered. But I'd come up with a theory for that. "But I was thinking about it. Whoever this is, it doesn't necessarily have to be a Slytherin. Not currently. It just has to be someone that's directly descended from Salazar Slytherin. It could be anyone."

That was the same reason that so many people thought that it was Harry or I. Nox... Potter... They were both old families. Old enough that their ancestors did date back to the Hogwarts founders era. "It's also someone that could do something that cruel. That complicated. No matter how smart you are, I doubt that you know how to Petrify someone," Cedric said.

He was right about that. Of the many things that I did know how to do, Petrifying someone was not one of them. "I don't. There are lots of things that I don't know," I begrudgingly admitted.

"Don't worry, Tara. It will pass," Cedric assured me.

Maybe... But this was so different from last year. People had hated me because I'd lost Gryffindor the House Cup. Now they were terrified that I was going to kill them. "This isn't just losing some House points. This is... dangerous," I muttered under my breath.

"Which you are not," he pointed out.

No, I wasn't dangerous. I was a pain in the ass that frequently broke the rules, but I wasn't dangerous. At least, I liked to think that I wasn't dangerous. As I swung my legs back and forth, I glanced over to Cedric. "Can I ask you something?" He hummed for me to continue. "When you were Sorted four years ago, where you considered for another House?"

Cedric nodded at me. "Briefly. The Sorting Hat considered me for Gryffindor for a little while, but with Dad having been in Hufflepuff, and I guess I was more loyal than brave, it decided that Hufflepuff was for me," he said.

I smiled softly. I wondered what it would have been like if Cedric had been placed in Gryffindor. Maybe we would have been closer. Or maybe we wouldn't have been friends at all. Maybe he would have been furious with me for losing the House points. "Well you're definitely loyal. Case and point," I said, motioning to myself. He smiled at me. "But I think you're pretty brave, too."

"Thank you," he said softly. I nodded at him. For all of the crap that Hufflepuff got, I'd rather be there than Slytherin. "Were you considered for another House?" he asked after a beat.

"All of them," I admitted. Cedric looked over at me in surprise. "It actually asked me where I wanted to go."

"And you said Gryffindor," he reasoned.

Once more, I nodded. But it hadn't been that easy, even though I wished that it had. "Yeah. But it wanted to go through all of the Houses. It thought that I was loyal - almost to a fault - but it also thought that I was too impatient." He grinned at that. "Then it went to Ravenclaw. Smart, but a procrastinator. It wanted to put me in Slytherin. I begged it not to," I said softly.

The Sorting Hat had seemed very irritated with me that I was so determined to be a Gryffindor. "You're more of a Gryffindor than anyone that I know," Cedric said.

I liked to think that, but I did have a habit of being nasty towards people that I didn't like, a definite Slytherin trait. "The last thing that the Hat said to me was 'Make no mistake, Miss Nox, I would have preferred placing you in Slytherin,'" I admitted. Cedric looked very surprised by that as I glanced out towards the Black Lake. "I've never told anyone that."

"Thank you for trusting me," he said, placing a hand on my leg. I smiled and leaned into him slightly. "Tara, you are not the Heir of Slytherin. Are you anything like Draco Malfoy? Or anyone in Slytherin?" he asked.

"Maybe," I muttered.

"You're not," he snapped at me.

Salazar Slytherin had lived a thousand years ago. No one knew his direct descendants. It was possible that anyone in Hogwarts could be. "What if it's possible that I did do that? Or maybe not me... I don't know. If I made something do it. Could I do something like that and not even remember it?" I asked him softly, knowing that I was being annoying.

It wasn't like I was looking for pity, but if people said something so many times, it became hard to think that it was just a rumor. It started to become hard to ignore it. "You're letting a stupid rumor get to you," he told me.

"Hard not to," I muttered.

And it really was. "I know. But I trust you. You would never do something like that," he said. I smiled slightly, glad to know that he trusted me. "The Sorting Hat isn't exactly very nice. It says things to make you doubt yourself so that it can really find out what you're like. But Tara... Even if you asked it to put you in Gryffindor, it wouldn't have if it thought that you were only worthy of Slytherin. You've got something brave in you," he said.

Suddenly, I realized that he was right. As much as people begged, the Sorting Hat didn't place people in the Houses that it thought that they weren't worthy of. If it had placed me in Gryffindor, it had done so because it did think that I was worthy of being one. It would have placed me in Slytherin if it didn't see anything worthy of a Gryffindor in me.

Grinning up at Cedric, I found myself in the best mood that I'd been in for days. "I'm not so sure that it's brave, maybe stupid," I joked.

He laughed at me and nodded. "Well if it makes you feel any better, you definitely entertain me," he teased.

Blushing slightly, I nodded. "Oh I'm glad that my misery provides you some amusement." We both laughed as another owl fluttered towards us. I smiled as my owl landed in between Cedric and I. "Hello, Dai, are you speaking to me now?" I asked him.

He stared at me with his brilliant yellow eyes for a moment. He gently nudged my hand, allowing me to pet him for the first time in weeks, before hopping over to Cedric. He seemed much happier to see him. "What's happened to your owl?" Cedric asked as he gently ran his fingers through the owl's feathers.

"He was angry with me for weeks about flying the car into the Whomping Willow. He got a little shaken around during the flight. Hedwig was mad at Harry, too," I answered.

"Well, I can't say that I blame them," Cedric laughed.

Immediately I shook my head. If things had been any different, I wouldn't have spoken to Harry or Ron either. "Oh, I didn't." We were in silence for a few seconds before I looked at him once more. "Hey, do me a favor?" I asked.

"Anything," he said quickly.

Taking a deep breath, I hoped that I wasn't about to sound like a madwoman. "Be careful around here. I - I just get the feeling that something weird is happening," I said. I didn't want to admit about the voice that Harry and I were hearing, but I wanted him to know that things weren't good. Although he did laugh at me, probably for the very obvious comment that something weird was happening. "You know, I don't think that the attack on Mrs. Norris will be the last one."

He nodded at me. The way that voice had sounded, it was hungry. It would be back. In time. And the note. Time is short... It would only be so long before the next attack. "You be careful, too. And try not to let those rumors get to you. You haven't done anything wrong," he said.

"Thanks," I said softly, glad that at least someone believed that I hadn't done anything. "I should get going. I told everyone that I'd be back soon."

Cedric nodded at me. "See you later," he said.

The two of us stood up, ensuring that we weren't about to go tumbling to the ground below, before heading out of the Astronomy tower. We were very careful in slipping out of the tower - ensuring that no one saw us there - before heading down the stairs towards our respective House Common Rooms. I stopped at the staircase that led to the Gryffindor tower and gave Cedric a quick hug, telling him goodnight, before heading up the stairs and giving the password to the Fat Lady. She looked very irritated that I had dared bother her 'beauty rest'. I'd had to bite back a nasty comment that there wasn't enough time in the world for that.

The Common Room was reasonably crowded as I hunted for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were in the back of the Common Room and I headed over to sit with them. They all looked relieved that I had come back in one piece. I noted that they'd chosen seats as far as possible from Percy. Hermione had my things with her and I rolled my eyes as I pulled out my Charm homework. Ron was still in a very bad temper and kept blotting his Charms homework. When he reached absently for his wand to remove the smudges, it ignited the parchment. Fuming almost as much as his homework, Ron slammed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 shut.

I felt terrible for him. His exam results were going to be terrible if he had to use that wand. To my surprise, Hermione followed suit. The air had become very tense. "Who can it be, though?" Hermione asked in a quiet voice, continuing the conversation about the Heir of Slytherin. I assumed that they'd been walking about it before I'd come back. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggle-Born's out of Hogwarts?"

Anyone over in the Slytherin House. "Let's think," Ron snapped in mock puzzlement. "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-Born's are scum?"

He looked at Hermione. Hermione looked back, unconvinced. It was pretty obvious to know that he was talking about Malfoy. "If you're talking about Malfoy -"

"Of course I am!" Ron snapped at her. I raised my brows. As much as I hated Malfoy, this was not him. "You heard him, 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' Come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him -"

"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" Hermione asked skeptically.

It only took a moment for Harry and me to close our books as well. "Look at his family. The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin; he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough," Harry said.

"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries! Handing it down, father to son..." Ron exclaimed.

For a moment I thought that Hermione would be on my side, but it seemed that she, too, thought that it could have been Malfoy. "Well, I suppose it's possible..." she said slowly.

Rolling my eyes at them, I shook my head. "I know that Malfoy's not very nice, but you're talking about someone very powerful that's doing this. Malfoy's not a half-bad wizard, but he's nowhere near good enough to Petrify someone. This is not something that a Second Year could do. That's full-grown wizard stuff. And you're talking about someone risking more than just an expulsion. Someone would be sent to Azkaban for attempted murder. This is something by someone genuinely bad... Not just rude," I said. They still looked unconvinced.

So I took a deep breath and continued my argument. "And there are plenty of families that have been in Slytherin for generations. Parkinson, Nott, Greengrass, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini... The list goes on and on. Plus, we're talking about someone that's directly descended from Salazar Slytherin. He lived a thousand years ago. His Heir doesn't necessarily need to be in Slytherin, they just have to be related to him. It could be anyone. Malfoy could have let that jar that the pixies dropped in class the first day kill me. But he didn't. He saved my life. He's an ass, but he's not a murderer," I argued.

For a long time, the three of them were silent. I didn't like Malfoy, and I was sure that he thought that all of this was hilarious, but I didn't think that he was capable of something like this. "Tara's right..." Hermione finally said.

"One good thing that he did doesn't change the fact of who he is, Tara," Harry said.

"He's an evil git," Ron put it.

Once more I rolled my eyes at the two of them. They were so hateful of him that they couldn't see past the obvious facts. "You're so biased by your hatred of him that you refuse to understand what you're doing. You're fitting the crime to the person. Not the person to the crime. It means that you're twisting the facts of what's happened just so that it fits with Malfoy," I told them both.

It appeared that I had gotten Hermione on my side. "She's right. We might hate him... That doesn't help matters," Hermione said.

But there was a chance that he might know who it was. "How would we know for a fact? Say that you're right and he's not the Heir of Slytherin," Harry said, seemingly slowly shifting to my side that it wasn't Malfoy.

Ron was the only one that was still determined that it had been Malfoy. Probably because of the slug curse the other week. "Or say that you're wrong and he is," Ron put in.

Ignoring him, I glanced back over at Harry. "Let's not forget about the voice that we heard. I think that's what made the attack." It certainly made sense, since we heard the voice and immediately after Mrs. Norris was Petrified. "And there was no way that it was Malfoy. You two didn't hear it, but, Harry? It wasn't him, was it?" I asked him.

Harry sighed and shook his head. "Well... No... I don't think so," he said slowly.

I could have punched him. He was so determined that it was Malfoy that he was ignoring the facts. They all were. "It wasn't! You know that it wasn't," I argued with him.

"Either way, how would we prove it?" Harry asked darkly.

As far as I could think, there really wasn't a way unless we could get Malfoy to tell us. "There might be a way," Hermione said slowly, dropping her voice still further with a quick glance across the room at Percy. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect -"

"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" Ron asked irritably.

They couldn't get along for more than ten minutes. "All right," Hermione said coldly. I was looking at her curiously. In the time that she'd been friends with Harry, Ron, and I, she'd become much more relaxed on breaking the rules. "What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin Common Room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realizing it's us," she said.

Well there went the thought that she'd been smart about this. There was no way that we could do that. "But that's impossible," Harry said as Ron laughed.

"No, it's not. All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion," Hermione said sharply.

My eyebrows shot to the top of my forehead. That wasn't what I was expecting. I hadn't even thought about something like that. She was right. It was breaking a lot of rules. "That's seriously dangerous. Mom's used it before. That stuff takes forever to brew and it's really hard to brew correctly anyways," I pointed out.

Clearly Ron and Harry didn't know what it was. "What's that?" they asked together.

"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago -"

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" Ron muttered.

To be fair, I hadn't heard him either. I probably hadn't been listening. The only reason that I knew it was because Mom was pretty good with brewing it. "It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into four of the Slytherin's." That was an unpleasant thought. "No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin Common Room right now, if only we could hear him," she said.

There went thinking that Hermione didn't believe that it was Malfoy. "He is not the Heir of Slytherin. If anything, it's probably a Sixth or Seventh Year," I told them.

"Then we'll overhear them. Or maybe Malfoy knows who it is and he'll tell us," Harry put in.

Now that I could believe. That he at least knew who it was. "This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me. What if we were stuck looking like three of the Slytherin's forever?" Ron asked, frowning.

"It wears off after a while," Hermione said, waving her hand impatiently.

"Barely lasts an hour. That's what Mom said," I put in.

It meant that we would only have a very short amount of time to get the answer. "But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library," Hermione said.

We all groaned. That would be harder than brewing the actual potion. There was only one way to get out a book from the Restricted Section: You needed a signed note of permission from a teacher. "Hard to see why we'd want the book, really, if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions," Ron said.

"I think that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..." Hermione said slowly.

"What about the cloak?" I asked.

It wasn't a bad idea, but we didn't have the best track record with the cloak. "We didn't exactly have the best of luck with that. Is there a teacher that we could ask? We can use the cloak as a last resort," Harry said.

At least we had a plan if we weren't able to get a note from a teacher. "Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that. They'd have to be really thick..." Ron said impatiently.

My lips turned upwards. "I know just the person to go to," I said. Finally, something good came from having Gilderoy Lockhart at Hogwarts.


	28. The Rogue Bludger

Since the disastrous episode of the pixies, Lockhart had not brought live creatures to class. Everyone, including the Slytherin's, were very grateful for this. It was probably for the best, considering that no one wanted anything else to attack them. The Cornish pixies weren't really that dangerous. Not as dangerous as something could have been. He could have brought a Bogart or something like that. In fact, two Defense Against the Dark Arts classes had been cancelled, considering that it had taken so long to rearrange the classroom. The students could barely tell that anything had ever happened. In the meantime, it was much better that he stuck to something a little less... alive.

Instead, he had begun reading the passages from his books to us. It had turned into story time. In my terms, nap time. Very frequently I slept through Lockhart's classes. I couldn't imagine what the exams at the end of the year would be like. The only parts of his class that were somewhat amusing were when he would sometimes reenact the more dramatic bits. The first time that Lockhart had tried to use me for a demonstration, it had not ended well. I'd laughed for well over two minutes before telling him that I'd rather swallow a Cornish pixie whole. The class had laughed and I'd been given a detention - thankfully with Snape, who needed help cleaning out the storage closet.

Lockhart had never tried to use me for a demonstration again. It was something that I was grateful for, since I really didn't want to have another detention with Snape. I tried to avoid him whenever possible. So that meant that, now, Lockhart usually picked Harry to help him with these reconstructions. There had only been once when he'd gotten most of the class to assist in a large-scale battle reenactment. So far, Harry had been forced to play a simple Transylvanian villager whom Lockhart had cured of a Babbling Curse, a yeti with a head cold, and a vampire who had been unable to eat anything except lettuce since Lockhart had dealt with him.

I'd never seen Harry as embarrassed as when he had to get up and assist Lockhart with the demonstrations. It provided me great amusement. Harry was hauled to the front of the class during our very next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, just two days after we'd decided to attempt the Polyjuice Potion, this time acting a werewolf. I could tell that he wanted to refuse Lockhart's request, but we had a very good reason for Harry needing to keep Lockhart in a good mood.

So Harry flopped up to the front of the classroom as Ron and I watched on in amusement. I did feel a little bit bad that even Malfoy was watching and laughing with his friends. "Nice loud howl, Harry," Lockhart ordered. Harry sighed but gave a very loud howl. Ron and I had to slam our heads on the desk to keep from laughing. "Exactly! And then, if you'll believe it, I pounced - like this." Lockhart jumped over to Harry and knocked him to the ground. I couldn't take it. I began laughing and snorting at Harry's misfortune. Ron and the rest of the class followed closely behind me. Harry looked mortified. "Slammed him to the floor - thus - with one hand, I managed to hold him down - with my other, I put my wand to his throat," Lockhart followed the movements with the story.

The rest of the class was howling with laughter. Hermione was the only one that looked serious about the whole thing. "I then screwed up my remaining strength and performed the immensely complex Homorphus Charm - he let out a piteous moan - go on, Harry." Harry moaned very softly, glaring at me as I laughed. "Higher than that." Harry moaned a little louder. "Good - the fur vanished - the fangs shrank - and he turned back into a man. Simple, yet effective - and another village will remember me forever as the hero who delivered them from the monthly terror of werewolf attacks," Lockhart finished.

At this point I was nearly in tears from the laughter. Ron and I were leaning against each other, barely able to remain upright. "Oh man, I wish that I had a camera. Where's Colin when you need him?" I asked Ron.

Ron was wiping his eyes to dab away the tears. Malfoy was practically on his butt laughing. "Come on, Tara, we need way more than a camera to remember this," Ron said.

That was true. We needed one of those Muggle video cameras. "Oh come off it, Lockhart is only trying to show us the practical way of how to defeat a werewolf," Hermione tried to defend the useless teacher.

Rolling my eyes at her, I leaned forward to argue with her. "If you did something like that in front of a man that was transformed, you would end up human lunch meat," I told her. There was no way to fight with a werewolf that was transformed. That was why you had to keep them away from people until they were back to their human form. "Hermione, he's putting on a two-man show. He belongs on Broadway, not in a school," I snapped.

That seemed to get Ron's attention. He stopped laughing long enough to look over at us. "What's Broadway?" he asked curiously.

How, exactly, could I explain what Broadway was? It seemed that Hermione knew, but I wasn't sure if Ron would understand. "It's like a piece of New York City - a city in the United States - that's dedicated to stage shows," I weakly explained.

"Sounds girly," Ron said.

I'd seen a few plays and musicals over on Broadway when I was younger. I really liked it. "It's actually quite fascinating. Mom and Dad used to take me when I was younger," I told him.

Lockhart seemed to have finally noticed that he did not have the undivided attention of everyone in the class. "Miss Robins -"

"Nox -" I growled.

As per usual, Lockhart ignored my argument about my proper surname. "Is there something that you would like to share with the entire class?" Lockhart asked me with a small smile.

Should I say something? Why not? It might be fun to let him know what I really thought. "Sure," I said with a small smile. Everyone looked over at me, knowing that if I had something to say to him, it wouldn't be nice. "I love your demonstration of Wagga Wagga Werewolf, but I really think that you should be the one playing the werewolf."

Lockhart was very clearly surprised. "Oh, why's that?" he asked.

The Homorphus Charm really only brought a werewolf back down to human size. There was no cure for lycanthropy. "Because I would love to see someone perform the Homorphus Charm on you. Perhaps it would be nice to see someone shrink your head back down to size," I told Lockhart with a sweet smile.

His eyes flashed slightly as the rest of the class began to laugh. "Ten points from Gryffindor for your very funny suggestion," Lockhart told me. I shrugged my shoulders, already used to Lockhart taking points from me for saying rude things about him. "Once I was actually thinking about joining -"

He never got a chance to finish his thoughts, something that made me very happy. I hated hearing everything that he had to say about things that had never really happened. Or to have him brag about things that he very obviously did not understand. A moment later, the bell rang and Lockhart got to his feet. The entire class began to flood from the room. No one liked hanging around Lockhart for longer than they had to. It was why he normally had to yell the homework after us.

"Homework," Lockhart started and I groaned, knowing that his homework's were always pointless, "compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf! Signed copies of Magical Me to the author of the best one!"

Why the hell would we need to do something like that? It wasn't anything to do with actually learning about Defense Against the Dark Arts. That was what his homework assignments were always about. Something about how wonderful we could make him sound. I couldn't understand why. It wasn't helping us learn anything. Perhaps it was why I had such a low grade in homework. I was always either ignoring the homework assignments or writing something rude about him in them. We'd see how insulting I could make his defeat of Wagga Wagga the Werewolf. I was in the mood to write something nasty about him.

As we began packing up our bags, I glanced over to Ron. "When is he going to realize that no one wants his stupid autobiography?" I asked him under my breath.

"You know that we need him to like us right now?" Hermione asked me.

"He likes her just fine," Ron snapped at her.

My skin rose with goosebumps at his words. The last thing that I needed was for Lockhart to actually like me. That was why I spoke the way that I did in his class. I really wanted him to not like me. I didn't need him looking at me like a blast from the past sort of thing. The class began to leave as quickly as possible. Being our last class of the day, everyone was ready to head back to their dorms. Harry returned to the back of the room, ignoring my poor duplication of his reenactment of Wagga Wagga the Werewolf. Harry rolled his eyes at me and shoved me to the side. Ron was still laughing as Hermione glared at me.

"Ready?" Harry muttered to us.

I could tell that he was still burning with embarrassment from reenacting the scene earlier. "Wait till everyone's gone," Hermione whispered nervously. "All right..." she muttered once everyone was gone.

The few people that were waiting for the doorway to clear glanced back at us curiously. Malfoy gave me a little snarl and I rolled my eyes. He hadn't spoken to me directly since the slug incident - save when Mrs. Norris had been found - and that was just fine by me. I really didn't particularly enjoy listening to him run his mouth. After a moment, the rest of the room cleared. With a glance between us, we all walked over to Lockhart's desk, allowing Hermione to go first. She approached Lockhart's desk, a piece of paper clutched tightly in her hand, Harry, Ron, and I right behind her.

"Er - Professor Lockhart?" Hermione stammered. I rolled my eyes at her as he looked up. She was embarrassed to speak to him. "I wanted to - to get this book out of the library. Just for background reading." She held out the piece of paper, her hand shaking slightly. "But the thing is, it's in the Restricted Section of the library, so I need a teacher to sign for it. I'm sure it would help me understand what you say in Gadding with Ghouls about slow-acting venom's -"

And that was all that it took. As expected, the moment that she mentioned one of his books, he launched into a conversation about himself. "Ah, Gadding with Ghouls!" Lockhart exclaimed, taking the note from Hermione and smiling widely at her. "Possibly my very favorite book. You enjoyed it?"

"Oh, yes," Hermione said eagerly. "So clever, the way you trapped that last one with the tea-strainer -"

A tea-strainer? Was that even possible? "Well, I'm sure no one will mind me giving the best student of the year a little extra help," Lockhart said warmly. I rolled my eyes at him. Lockhart was the only reason that Hermione had a better grade in Defense than I did. It was always Harry and I that were the top students in that class. After a moment, he pulled out an enormous peacock quill. My eyebrow quirked. That was an odd thing to use for a quill. "Yes, nice, isn't it?" he asked, misreading the revolted look on Ron's face. "I usually save it for book signings." No one said anything. He scrawled an enormous loopy signature on the note and handed it back to Hermione.

Before we could leave, Lockhart spoke again. "So, Harry, Tara," Lockhart said excitedly, while Hermione folded the note with fumbling fingers and slipped it into her bag. "Tomorrow's the first Quidditch match of the season, I believe? Gryffindor against Slytherin, is it not?" We both nodded. "I hear you're both useful players. I was a Seeker, too. I was asked to try for the National Squad, but preferred to dedicate my life to the eradication of the Dark Forces. Still, if ever you two ever feel the need for a little private training, don't hesitate to ask. Always happy to pass on my expertise to less able players..."

If my jaw would have hit the floor, I wouldn't have been surprised. Had he really just said that Harry and I were less able players? We were the first players that had been allowed on the team as First Years in a century. We had broken the rules to get onto the team. With the two of us playing, we'd never lost a match. The only one that we'd lost so far was the one that Harry and I had been absent for. And here he was... Once more talking about something that he didn't understand anything about. I couldn't ever believe that he was asked to try out for the National Squad. That was reserved for the best players.

Unable to keep my mouth shut, I began to speak. "Mom and Dad said that you were useless when it came to Quidditch. That you tried out twice and were denied both times. And just so you know, my father is a professional player. He handed down his skills to me. It really impresses Mom," I hissed under my breath.

Before Lockhart could say anything more, I turned and swept from the room. He was such as ass. I refused to be near him any longer. Harry was clearly just as shocked at the nerve of Lockhart as I was. A second later, he followed me out of the room. Exchanging a nasty glare between the two of us, we hurried off after Ron and Hermione. They had heard the comment, too. Ron looked absolutely beside himself and Hermione looked like she could kill me - as she normally did.

"Did you have to say that?" Hermione asked me.

Actually, yes, I really hadn't been able to keep my mouth shut with that one. "He was insulting the way that we played Quidditch!" I barked at her. I knew that she didn't really think that Quidditch was that important, but it really was. At least, to the players. And most of the school. "If someone showed him a broom, the only thing that he'd know how to do was sign it."

Ron nodded along with me. "She makes a fair point," he said.

Interrupting our discussion on whether or not I was in the right for what I'd said to Lockhart, Harry spoke up. "I don't believe it," he said as he showed the three of us the signature on the note. "He didn't even look at the book we wanted."

Of course not. That was because we'd started talking about him. He never paid any attention to anything but himself. It wasn't exactly surprising. "That's because he's a brainless git," Ron said, earning a little smile from Harry and I. Hermione seemed bothered by the comment. "But who cares, we've got what we needed -"

"He is not a brainless git," Hermione said shrilly as we continued our half ran toward the library.

I couldn't believe that after all of this time and all of the things that we had learned about Lockhart, that she was still actually under the impression that he knew half of what he was talking about. "Yes he is, Hermione," I argued with her.

It was rather obvious that with each passing day, it was becoming harder and harder to defend Gilderoy Lockhart's obvious shortcomings as a teacher. "No he isn't," she said.

This time it was Ron that argued with her, "Just because he said you were the best student of the year -"

We didn't get a chance to say much more than that. The last thing that we needed was to get kicked out of the library before we were able to get the book. We walked into the library and took it a lot slower, trying to look like we weren't doing anything suspicious. It sounded like Ron and Hermione were still arguing about Lockhart and his teaching style, but I could barely hear them as we entered the muffled stillness of the library. Slowly we headed towards Madam Pince's desk in the front of the library. I'd never come up here, and it made me quite nervous to do it now. Madam Pince, the librarian, was a thin, irritable woman who looked like an underfed vulture.

She glanced up at us through her sharp eyes. For a while, we merely stood there nervously. Finally I nudged Hermione, getting her to show Madam Pince the note. She did so, and Madam Pince leaned over it. "Moste Potente Potions?" she repeated suspiciously, trying to take the note from Hermione, but Hermione wouldn't let go.

"I was wondering if I could keep it," Hermione said breathlessly.

Rolling my eyes at her, I gave Madam Pince a very apologetic smile and kicked Hermione. She cringed in pain and released her grasp on the note. I smiled at them both, pretending that nothing had just happened. "She's kidding," I told the nasty librarian.

"Oh, come on," Ron muttered under his breath. He noticed that Hermione was looking after the note wistfully. "We'll get you another autograph. Lockhart will sign anything if it stands still long enough." I raised my brows at him. He was right about that. Lockhart had signed most student's books, as they lay open on the desks. Not that anyone had asked him for it.

Madam Pince held the note up to the light, as though determined to detect a forgery, but it passed the test. It took nearly ten minutes for her to finally begrudgingly nod. I knew that all three of us let out a breath once she had gone. We were so convinced that she wasn't going to believe it. She probably didn't like that Lockhart was the one to sign the note, but she had no argument against it. She stalked away between the lofty shelves and returned several minutes later carrying a large and moldy-looking book. It looked absolutely disgusting. Actually, it looked like it was about to fall apart. We thanked Madam Pince and headed away from her quickly. The others were about to walk over to one of the tables, but I held out a hand to stop them.

They looked at me like I had lost my mind. "Wait, we shouldn't read it in here," I said softly.

It definitely wouldn't look good if they opened the book to the Polyjuice Potion and someone walked by to see it, wondering what four Second Years were doing, looking at a potion like that. "She's right," Hermione said after a moment. The boys nodded as we walked towards the exit. "Where should we go?"

Only one place that guaranteed that no one would come in and bother us. "Myrtle's bathroom. Come on," I told them. No one looked particularly happy about the news, but nodded anyways.

The four of us turned around and started heading towards the exit to the library. As we walked, Harry, Ron, and I covered Hermione. Hermione put the book carefully into her bag and we left the library, trying not to walk too quickly or look too guilty. Not that it really worked. Considering who we were, we would probably always look guilty. As we walked I noticed that most people weren't around. I was very grateful for that. Slipping into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom wasn't something that we could risk anyone seeing. As we walked we spotted Professor McGonagall - making us duck out of sight for a moment - but no one else that was concerning.

Five minutes later, we had managed to barricade ourselves in Moaning Myrtle's out-of-order bathroom once again. Hermione had argued with Ron for most of the way downstairs. He seemed dead set against coming here. But Harry and I had agreed that this was the best place to go. It was the one place in the school that no one in their right minds would go, so we were guaranteed some privacy. The only other place that we could have gone was Harry and Ron's dorm, but there was a chance that Dean, Neville, or Seamus would come inside. Moaning Myrtle was crying noisily in her stall, but we were ignoring her, and she us. Clearly something had happened to her today. Not our problem.

Once we were seated and ready to begin, we all nodded at Hermione. Pulling the book out from her bag, Hermione opened Moste Potente Potions carefully, and the four of us bent over the damp-spotted pages. It was clear from a glance why it belonged in the Restricted Section. Some of the potions had effects almost too gruesome to think about, and there were some very unpleasant illustrations, which included a man who seemed to have been turned inside out and a witch sprouting several extra pairs of arms out of her head. My stomach roiled and I found myself very glad that I hadn't eaten much at lunch.

For a while, the four of us flipped through the pages. As much as we needed to get to the Polyjuice Potion page, we were too curious to see what the rest of the book held. There were the nicer ones that were the Beautifying Potion and Shrinking Potion - although that one was depicted showing a shrinking human head. There was an Ageing Potion - that was being shown to age someone to right as they died - Amortentia - a love potion - Confusing and Befuddlement Draught, and Veritaserum - which made me cringe, knowing that Mom had used a less powerful version of it on me before.

Then there were the less appealing ones. There was a page for Garotting Gas. It wouldn't kill someone, but it would knock them out for a few hours. I made a note to borrow this from Hermione before giving it back to Madam Pince. Some of these might come in handy. There was even the Draught of Living Death. No wonder students weren't supposed to take this out. Felix Felicis was buried near the end of the book. It was widely considered the hardest potion to brew. There was a Girding Potion - which gave the user extra endurance for a few weeks. There were even antidotes to poisons in the back.

Ron did not seem fond of a picture of a woman with a spider growing into the back of her head. "This is disgusting," I commented as we flipped the pages. "Think we should tear out a page and show it to Dudley?" I asked Harry.

He grinned at me and nodded, his hand lingering on a page for the Laxative Potion. "Definitely. Never said that we couldn't brew potions over summer break," Harry muttered as we went to searching for the Polyjuice Potion.

The two of us, and Ron, all laughed. Hermione did not seem thrilled to hear our suggestion. "That's horrible," she said.

"So is Dudley Dursley," I pointed out.

It wasn't another five minutes before Hermione seemed to have found what she was looking for. "Here it is," Hermione said excitedly as she found the page headed The Polyjuice Potion.

The pages were splitting and very dirty, but it was clear enough to read it. The words weren't the things that were bothering me. It was the pictures that were all around it. They made me sick to my stomach. I'd heard that transforming with the Polyjuice Potion wasn't comfortable, but I was praying that it wasn't this painful. The book was decorated with drawings of people halfway through transforming into other people. There were what looked like boils on their faces. I sincerely hoped the artist had imagined the looks of intense pain on their faces.

"What's it say?" Harry asked as we read over it. He and Ron couldn't read it. They were sitting on one end of the bathroom - opposite the book - as Hermione and I sat on the other.

Clearing my throat, I read what the book had to say to the others: "The Polyjuice Potion, which is a complex and time-consuming concoction, is best left to highly skilled witches and wizards. It enables the consumer to assume the physical appearance of another person, as long as they have first procured part of that individual's body to add to the brew (this may be anything - toenail clippings, dandruff or worse - but it is most usual to use hair). The idea that a witch or wizard might make evil use of parts of the body is an ancient one, and exists in the folklore and superstitions of many cultures. The effect of the potion is only temporary, and depending on how well it has been brewed, may last anything from between ten minutes and twelve hours. You can change age, sex, and race by taking the Polyjuice Potion, but not species."

I was certain that I wasn't imagining the green tinge on Ron's face. "Species?" he asked weakly.

I nodded slowly at him. Good thing we didn't want to transform into a cat or anything like that. "Means that we can't use it to transform into an animal or anything like that. Human transformation only," I said.

As I explained everything to the boys, Hermione was reading over the instructions on how to brew the potion. "This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen," Hermione said as she scanned the recipe.

Leaning over her shoulder, I nodded at her. It would definitely not be easy. But we had to do something, and I had to prove to them that it wasn't Malfoy doing all of this. "Part of what makes this so complicated is the ingredients. A lot of these are rare," I said.

"Can we find them?" Ron asked worriedly.

There was no doubt that we could find them, but there was a chance that it would take a fair bit of time. Or something highly illegal. "In an Apothecary and for a lot of money, sure," I said slowly.

"This has to be one of the hardest potions to brew," Hermione said under her breath. The two of us looked over the book and read the instructions slowly. It would be a problem - and it would definitely take a lot of time - but I had a feeling that the two of us would be able to figure things out. With time. Unfortunately, as the note said, time was short.

Part 1: Step One

1) Add 3 measures of fluxweed to the cauldron (must have been picked on a full moon).  
2) Add 2 bundles of knotgrass to the cauldron.  
3) Stir 4 times, clockwise.  
4) Wave your wand then let potion brew for 80 minutes (for a Pewter Cauldron. A Brass Cauldron will only require 68, and a copper one only 60.)

Part 1: Step Two

1) Add 4 leeches to the cauldron.  
2) Add 2 scoops of lacewing flies to the mortar, crush to a fine paste, then add 2 measures of the crushed lacewings to the cauldron.  
3) Heat for 30 seconds on a low heat.  
4) Wave your wand to complete this stage of the potion.

Part 2: Step One

1) Add 3 measures of boomslang skin to the cauldron.  
2) Add 1 measure of bicorn horn to the mortar, crush to a fine powder, then add one measure of the crushed horn to the cauldron.  
3) Heat for 20 seconds at a high temperature.  
4) Wave your wand then let potion brew for 24 hours (for a Pewter Cauldron. A Brass Cauldron will only require 1224 minutes, and a copper one only 18 hours.)

Part 2: Step Two

1) Add 1 additional scoop of lacewings to the cauldron.  
2) Stir 3 times, counter-clockwise.  
3) Split potion into multiple doses, if desired, then add the pieces of the person you wish to become.  
4) Wave your wand to complete the potion

By no means was the potion easy, and it would definitely take a lot of time, but we would have to do it. And there were potions that were worse. If Mom could do it, we could, too. "Oh, no. Felix Felicis is worse," I said under my breath. Hermione and Harry glanced at me curiously, but I didn't want to take the time to explain it. "There's just a lot of steps in this one. We can manage as long as we're thorough. Like I said, it's the ingredients that will be a problem."

Hermione was nodding absentmindedly with me. "You're right about that. Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass," she murmured, running her finger down the list of ingredients. "Well, they're easy enough, they're in the student store-cupboard, we can help ourselves..." I nodded at her. Those were in our kits. Easy enough. Oh, look, powdered horn of a bicorn - don't know where we're going to get that - shredded skin of a boomslang - that'll be tricky, too - and of course a bit of whoever we want to change into."

So many of these things were rare. They would be in Snape's storage closet, I'd seen them all before, but we couldn't risk stealing from him. "We'll need to go to an apothecary for some of this. A lot of this stuff isn't in the school cupboard," I said to the others.

"Why?" Harry asked.

Taking my best guess, I said, "Because a lot of these potion ingredients are used in the Dark Arts. They're not going to put it in a school," I said. I noticed the defeated looks on Ron and Harry's faces. Hermione still didn't seem too bothered by the fact that this was going to be a problem. "Anyways, I can do most of this."

Earning her attention for the first time since we'd started looking over the potion, her head snapped over to me. "You?" she asked.

My eyes narrowed at her. So maybe I wasn't Snape's favorite student, but even he couldn't deny that I was good at Potions. "You are aware that I have a higher mark in Potions than you do?" I asked her. She scoffed at me. "Mom's a master, I've been watching and making potions since before I could walk."

Hermione didn't look like she wanted to admit that I did have a better mark than her in something, but she nodded anyways. "I suppose that you're right. We can sneak in here and do it together," she put in.

We both nodded. It would be best for us to take care of this. The boys would simply have to wait and take our word for it. Ron: "Excuse me? What d'you mean, a bit of whoever we're changing into?" Ron snapped, earning my attention. Hermione hadn't even heard him. "I'm drinking nothing with Crabbe's toenails in it -"

"Hair, genius, not toenails," I said.

If he'd been listening to me, he would have heard that. Ron still didn't look particularly happy that he was going to have to drink something with hair in it. I didn't bother telling him that the hair would be the easiest part to swallow. "That's not better," Ron muttered.

"Well there's no other way," I told him.

He looked no happier about things, but he didn't continue arguing with me. Harry had started leaning over the book as well, trying to see what we were attempting to do. Hermione continued as though she hadn't heard either of us speaking. "We don't have to worry about that yet, though, because we add those bits last..."

Ron turned, still speechless, to Harry. He put in the other problem that we were having. "Do you realize how much we're going to have to steal, Hermione? Shredded skin of a boomslang, Tara's right, that's definitely not in the students' cupboard. What're we going to do, break into Snape's private stores? I don't know if this is a good idea..."

Hermione shut the book with a snap. I was rather impressed with the way that she had bristled. "Well, if you two are going to chicken out, fine," she said. There were bright pink patches on her cheeks and her eyes were brighter than usual. "I don't want to break rules, you know. I think threatening Muggle-Born's is far worse than brewing up a difficult potion. But if you don't want to find out if it's Malfoy, I'll go straight to Madam Pince now and hand the book back in -"

"Stop it," I snapped at her. We wanted to keep her safe, and this was one of the few things that we could do to keep her - and the other Muggle-Born's - that way. "And it's not Malfoy," I added. As much as I hated him, it was not him that was doing this. "If we can wait a while, I can go to Diagon Alley over the Christmas break and get it."

But I knew that we couldn't wait a month and a half to get the ingredients for a potion that would take a month itself to make. "We can't wait that long," Harry said exactly what I'd been thinking.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be persuading us to break rules," Ron told Hermione. Her angry face had dropped as she smiled slightly at him. "All right, we'll do it. But not toenails, okay?"

Suddenly I remembered something that I couldn't believe that I had been stupid enough to forget about in the first place. Just the other week - on my birthday - Cedric had shown me a way out of the castle that only two other people knew about. No one would be watching and no one would spot me if I slipped out of the castle for a while. Plus, I remembered exactly where the Apothecary was in Hogsmeade. They might think that it was a little strange, a Hogwarts age student trying to buy things like that, but they wanted to make money, too. They would sell it to me and I would be back within twenty minutes.

No one would get in trouble for it. A small smile fell over my face. "Actually, I think I've got a way to get some of these ingredients. No one has to risk breaking into Snape's storage," I said.

Harry and Ron looked over at me in surprise. Hermione seemed a little surprised, too, but a pointed smile in her direction made her grin just like me. She remembered what I'd told her. About the day that Cedric and I had taken a little unsanctioned field trip to Hogsmeade. Her eyes were bright, despite the fact that she really hadn't been happy when I'd left the castle the first time last month.

"You do?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

Nodding at him, I prepared to explain. "Yep. I know a way out of the castle to get into Hogsmeade without going through the front gates. I won't get caught. If someone can keep a distraction going long enough for me to get out there and get into the apothecary out there, I can be back with the ingredients in twenty minutes," I told them.

Slowly, Ron and Harry started nodding with Hermione. It was risking a lot, sneaking out of the castle again, but it was worth it. "How do you know a way out of the castle?" Ron asked me.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I found myself unwilling to admit that it had been Cedric to show me the passage. So I decided with a half-truth. "You're aware that your brothers are Fred and George?" I asked. Ron still looked like he was curious how I'd gotten it out of them. "Overheard them talking about it."

"You're sure that it works?" Harry asked me.

I nodded at him. "Yes. And it's better than risking stealing from Snape," I said.

Harry nodded at me. Anything would be better than risking stealing something from Snape. If he caught us, we'd be done for. "Someone should go with you," Harry said after a beat.

Maybe it would help, but it would also hinder me. I could make a run for it if I went alone. "No," I said immediately, earning some strange looks. "Hermione's going to need to stay here and keep watch over the potion, you're too easily recognizable, and Ron is already in deep trouble with his mom." Although they weren't the best reasons, Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded. "I'll go alone. I'll be there and back without anyone knowing. Trust me."

Harry still looked unconvinced. "You're absolutely positive?" he asked me.

I nodded at him. "I promise, I'll be fine. I'll do it in a few days," I said.

Everyone nodded. I was rather impressed. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought that it might be. "How long will it take to make, anyway?" Harry asked Hermione. She looked much happier as she flipped open the book again.

It would definitely take a long time. And that was part of the problem. Plus, a month would only be if it came out correctly. "Well, since the fluxweed has got to be picked at the full moon and the lacewings have got to be stewed for twenty-one days... I'd say it'd be ready in about a month, if we can get all the ingredients," Hermione said.

"A month?" Ron asked disbelievingly. "Malfoy could have attacked half the Muggle-Born's in the school by then!" But Hermione's eyes narrowed dangerously again, and he added swiftly, "But it's the best plan we've got, so full steam ahead, I say."

Rolling my eyes at them, I whopped Ron over the back of the head with the book. He groaned as I glared darkly at him. "It's not Malfoy, you prats," I hissed.

Hermione clearly wanted nothing more to do with anything about the bathroom or the Polyjuice Potion. Not until we would be able to start making it. She turned away from us, packed away the book, and headed towards the door to see if we could leave. She was taking her time to ensure that no one was watching. We didn't need a repeat of the Percy situation from the last time that we were in here. We were about to leave when Ron looked over to Harry and I.

"It'll be a lot less hassle if you can just knock Malfoy off his broom tomorrow," he said.

Rolling my eyes at Ron, I brushed by him. "It's not him," I snapped.

That was the last thing that we said of the Polyjuice Potion for a while. No one wanted to discuss the very difficult impending potion-making. So we went back to the Common Room and sat with the rest of the Quidditch team. Harry and I sat with Oliver and the others and discussed all of the moves that we were planning to use tomorrow. There was a chance that none of them would work, but we were going to try our hardest. There was no way that we were just going to hand the win over to Slytherin tomorrow. And there was a chance that we would win. I knew that Harry was ten times the player that Malfoy was. By the time that we finally went to bed, I was no longer thinking of the Polyjuice Potion. The only thing that was on my mind was how to beat Slytherin in the game tomorrow.

It was no surprise that I woke early on Saturday morning. I'd barely been able to sleep, thinking of plays and movements that we could make. Dad had written me a letter, letting me know any moves that I could use on a broom that was faster than mine. They were all good ideas, but the problem was that I never had raced a broom that was faster than mine. So far, it was all theory. And that was what made me nervous. It didn't help that I was concerned at the thought of what Oliver would say if Gryffindor lost. As much as I hated Slytherin, I had never wanted to beat them so badly. After half an hour of lying there with my insides churning with nerves, I got up.

The small dinner that I'd taken in last night was rumbling around in my stomach. My Quidditch robes and pads were downstairs out in the locker room, so I merely put on something that I could wear under them. I grabbed a tight white shirt and a pair of black compression pants that would go underneath the slightly looser robes. Once I had everything on, I turned to head down to breakfast early. As much as I was convinced that I was going to throw up, I was also starving from the lack of food last night.

As soon as I was to the door, Hermione's sleep-riddled voice called out to me. "We'll be rooting for you," she said.

"Thanks, Hermione. See you later," I whispered to her, not wanting to wake the other girls up. I gently slipped from the room and headed down the stairs. Nearly at the portrait was Harry. He clearly heard my footsteps as he turned back to me and smiled. I could that he, too, looked a little sick. "Ready?" I asked him as I walked up.

"No," he answered honestly.

Laughing softly, I followed him out of the portrait hole. "Me either," I said honestly. He looked like he felt a little bit better since I had said that. "But we'll manage this. There's no way that I'm letting Malfoy rub it in my face that he's a better Quidditch player. I'll eat my own foot before that happens," I snarled to myself.

Harry laughed as we began marching down the stairs to the Great Hall. It was very quiet, considering the early hour. "But the brooms -" Harry started before I spoke over him.

"But we're better players," I spoke over him. He smiled weakly at me. "The most important thing is the player, not the broom that they're on," I said, repeating what Dad had told me a million times before.

It was something that had always made me feel better. And it made sense. As much as I loved Neville, he was useless on a broom. If we put him on a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, he would collapse to the ground and break his neck. That was exactly the reason that he wasn't on the Quidditch team. Malfoy was a halfway decent player, but he wasn't good enough. He was not good enough to beat the Gryffindor team. Not with everything that we had been doing for training, not with the instruction of Oliver Wood, and not with Harry and I determined to keep Malfoy's mouth shut.

By the time that we got to the Great Hall, I noticed that we weren't the only ones on the team that hadn't been able to sleep. We found the rest of the Gryffindor team huddled at the long, empty table, all looking uptight and not speaking much. But as Harry and I walked up and sat with them, I engaged Oliver in a conversation about the plan for the game. That seemed to get people talking. Not particularly happy about what could very well be a nasty beating, but it did get people more determined. I noticed that even as time ticked away, those that walked into the Great Hall didn't sit with us. Even Ron and Hermione steered clear. Gryffindor House itself probably wanted us to win more than we did. So they let us sit and plan together in hushed tones.

The plan for the game was relatively simple. Oliver was planning on using Alicia, Katie, and Angelina to keep the Slytherin Chasers separated. Something that had been my plan. If only one of them was coming up to the goals, it would be a lot easier keeping track of one Chaser, rather than three. It would be difficult to keep them apart, but if we could manage it, we could keep Slytherin from scoring too often. Fred and George had been instructed to whack the Bludgers in front of wherever the Slytherin team was flying. We hoped that the Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones were a little slow to stop, since they were so fast. As for Harry, it was the same as when Snape had been refereeing. Ignore Snape and get the Snitch as fast as possible. I was to be another set of eyes unless - until - I was needed.

As eleven o'clock approached, the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium. It was very easy to hear how excited people were. The Slytherin's were looking forward to beating us to make up from last year, and the Gryffindor's were eager to show Slytherin that money wasn't everything. As I walked from the Great Hall, I took a moment to exchange a small smile with Cedric. He was clearly rooting for Gryffindor, as all of Hufflepuff was. Outside, it was a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the air. Hopefully the rain could hold off. That only made things harder.

Ron and Hermione came hurrying over to wish Harry and I good luck as we entered the locker rooms with the rest of the team. "Good luck!" Hermione called as they were ushered into the stands.

"You've got this," Ron added.

"Thanks, guys," Harry and I called after them.

A moment later, they were swept away by the crowd. But a second after them, Cedric appeared. He was much larger and had an easier time fighting through the crowd. "Good luck today, Tara," he told me.

"Thank you. I'll need it with their new brooms," I muttered to myself mostly.

As confident as I liked to pretend to be, I really was nervous about the upcoming game. As good as we were, speed was very important in Quidditch. "Nah, even with the brooms, you're worth ten of them," Cedric said.

A small smile appeared over my face. "I needed to hear that. Thank you. I'll see you later," I said, waving him off.

Some of his friends cheered on Gryffindor as I walked into the locker room. I joined Angelina, Alicia, and Katie in putting on our robes. The four of us nervously shifted around everyone helping each other, but no one speaking. As much as I would have liked to talk about the game, it really wouldn't have been anything too reassuring. My confidence had died the moment that I stepped towards the field. It didn't help that I could hear the Slytherin's cheering loudly for their team and booing the Gryffindor's. Once we had everything together, we turned and checked that the boys were ready. They shouted for us to join them.

We sat down on the benches together and began listening to Oliver's pre-match pep talk. "Slytherin has better brooms than us. No point denying it. But we've got better people on our brooms. We've trained harder than they have, we've been flying in all weathers -"

"Too true. I haven't been properly dry since August," George muttered.

Despite the tense air, the rest of us laughed. "- and we're going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime, Malfoy, buy his way onto their team." Chest heaving with emotion, Oliver turned to Harry, who still looked very nervous. "It'll be down to you, Harry, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we've got to win today, we've got to."

My stomach twisted. Telling Harry to die doing something wasn't really a good idea. Because he definitely would. "So no pressure, Harry," Fred said, winking at him.

Oliver ignored them before turning to me. "And be prepared, Tara, you know how nasty Slytherin is," he said.

Everyone knew that Slytherin would try to knock out our Chasers as fast as possible. It was a surefire way to make their jobs just a little easier. I wrung my hands together and nodded. "Trust me, I'm looking for any reason to punt-kick Malfoy across the Quidditch Pitch," I snarled under my breath.

That earned laughs from everyone else. "That's the spirit!" Oliver cheered.

And with that, the whistle signaling the teams to emerge onto the field blew. We stood together and gave one, last, cohesive nod before heading out. As we walked out onto the field, a roar of noise greeted us; mainly cheers, because Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were anxious to see Slytherin beaten, but the Slytherin's in the crowd made their boos and hisses heard, too. I could spot Cedric and his friends cheering wildly with the rest of the school. I smiled, spotting that they were wearing red and yellow clothes. Most of the school was, to show their support for Gryffindor. Madam Hooch, the flying teacher and usual referee, asked Flint and Oliver to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather harder than was necessary.

Before they could all kick off and begin to game, I walked over to them. "Good luck guys," I called out before settling back on the bench reserved for the alternates.

"On my whistle. Three... two... one..." Madam Hooch called loudly.

She was so loud that she was one of the few people that didn't need a megaphone to be heard. With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. The Quaffle was thrown up and it was automatically caught by the Slytherin team. It was almost impossible to see who was who. All I could see was the Slytherin team zipping back and forth, already scoring once. Harry flew higher than any of the rest of the team members, squinting around for the Snitch.

I started looking with him, knowing that no good could come from watching the game that was already going downhill. "All right there, Scarhead?" Malfoy yelled, shooting underneath Harry so that he could show off the speed of his broom.

Rolling my eyes at him, I scanned through the crowd and the game. There was nothing that I could see that was the Snitch. Every time that I thought that I might have seen it, by the time that I'd managed to focus my eyesight, it was gone. I couldn't understand how Harry did this. But Harry himself had no time to reply to Malfoy's nasty comment. At that very moment, a heavy black Bludger came pelting toward him; I cringed in fear that it would hit him. It seemed faster than they normally did. He avoided it so narrowly that I could see it ruffle his hair as it passed through the air, heading back into the game.

"Harry! Be careful!" I yelled up to him.

I did not want to have to explain to Mom and Dad that Harry had been killed by a Bludger. "Close one, Harry!" George yelled, streaking past him with his club in his hand, ready to knock the Bludger back toward a Slytherin.

Watching out of the corner of my eye, I was slowly realizing that something was wrong here. The other Bludger was shooting back and forth, choosing its targets at random. But not that Bludger. It headed towards Harry again and again. It never went for anyone else. Not once. George gave the Bludger a powerful whack in the direction of Flint, the Captain and one of the Chasers, but the Bludger changed direction in midair and shot straight for Harry again. Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and George managed to hit it hard toward Malfoy. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry's head.

My jaw dropped as I watched the game. The other players seemed to have noticed that something was going on, but it wasn't their job to do anything. They had to keep Slytherin from scoring more. Harry put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the field. It didn't seem to do anything. The Bludger was whistling along behind him. It didn't change direction. It was like it had locked onto Harry. What was going on? Bludgers never concentrated on one player like that; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible... So what had happened to that Bludger? Had it been tampered with?

"Madam Hooch! There's something wrong with that Bludger," I yelled out to the referee.

She was now watching closely as well. But, unfortunately, she couldn't do anything unless we called a time out or forfeited the match. Quidditch could get dangerous... Plus, it was their job to try and knock out a player, but it was never just the one. Still, there was nothing that she could do. Thankfully Fred was waiting for the Bludger at the other end. Harry ducked as Fred swung at the Bludger with all his might; the Bludger was knocked off course from Harry. Hopefully for the last time.

"Gotcha!" Fred yelled happily, but he was wrong.

Just like beforehand, as though it was magnetically attracted to Harry, the Bludger pelted after him once more. Harry couldn't even focus on his job with the Snitch. He was too busy with the Bludger. And Fred and George were currently unable to protect the other members of the team. Harry was forced to fly off at full speed towards the other end of the field. It wasn't long after that, that it started to rain. I groaned. It would not be easy to deal with all of this in the rain. There were heavy drops falling onto my face. I slipped my goggles onto my face, which were part of the uniform in case of rain, but it was still almost impossible to see.

Just like I could assume was happening with Harry, I didn't have a clue what was going on in the rest of the game until I heard Lee Jordan, who was commentating, say, "Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero."

My stomach gave a painful lurch. If they continued to score like that, it wouldn't even matter if Harry somehow managed to catch the Snitch, we would still lose. The Slytherin's superior brooms were clearly doing their jobs. There was no way that any of us could fly fast enough to get away from them and Oliver was too slow to be able to catch any of the throws that they made. Meanwhile the mad Bludger was doing all it could to knock Harry out of the air. Fred and George were now flying so close to him on either side that I imagined that Harry couldn't see anything. He was never going to find the Snitch. We were losing this game, and we were losing it fast.

Not far above me, I could see a flash of scarlet. I glanced up and spotted that it was Alicia. She was currently in possession of the Quaffle. But the three Slytherin Chasers were not far behind her. They'd overtake her in a matter of seconds. It didn't matter. Fred and George - who were so preoccupied with Harry and his Bludger - had been slacking with the rest of the team. The second Bludger rocketed out of thin air and whacked into Alicia's broom. It snapped off the top half and she went slamming into one of the stands, collapsing into the stands, knocked unconscious. The Slytherin's all cheered as they took possession of the Quaffle once more.

"Alicia!" I shrieked in horror.

"Nox! Get in here!" Madam Hooch shouted as Alicia was dragged off of the field.

She was bleeding a little, but I imagined that she would be alright in a few minutes. The game would be over by then. The only chance that we stood was scoring a few points so we could at least stand a chance to win the Quidditch Championship if we managed to beat both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I shot up into the air, trying to forget about Alicia. It was almost impossible to see anything. I could just barely see the Slytherin members appearing like bullets on the other end of the field. So I shot after them just as they made another goal. Angelina and I both dived down towards the ground for the Quaffle but we were cut off by another Slytherin. They were gone before I could identify them.

The two of us exchanged a look and decided that we would employ the same idea that we'd had before. Separate the Slytherin players. It was our only chance to keep them from scoring. The two of us turned back and motioned for Katie to join us. We were about halfway through the field when the Bludger came soaring towards us. I ducked out of the way at the last second and continued on. That was when I realized that it was the same Bludger that had been going after Harry for the entire game. I let out a breath. It was going back to normal. But I thought that a little too soon. It had merely picked a new target.

Harry was given a moment to regain himself before searching for the Snitch. But I did notice him hesitate as he realized that the Bludger had merely picked someone new to attack. Of course it would be me. I tried to catch back up to Angelina and Katie, but I didn't get the chance. The Bludger came back towards me and I barely was able to duck out of the way as it shot straight towards me again. The Bludger shot past me, soared after Harry, who barely missed it, before it turned back to me. The Bludger was tracking the two of us. It came roaring after me and I was just barely able to avoid it taking my head off.

"Tara!" I could hear Fred shout.

There were other screams in the stadium as people began to realize that the Bludger was fixed, but I refused to let them distract me. I was going to be fine. I'd been hit with Bludgers before. They hurt, but they weren't going to kill me. The Bludger shot after Harry and skimmed his torso before it zoomed under him and pelted back towards me. I managed to jam my broom upwards, nearly unseating myself, just in time to avoid it. Fred soared underneath me to whack the Bludger in the other direction.

That time it went after Harry. I shook off the fear of the Bludger and headed back into the game. I was just barely able to catch the Quaffle as one of the Chasers threw it to another. They shouted in anger that they had missed it and sent their Chasers after me. I could hear the whistling of the Bludger behind me. In panic, I knew that I had a limited amount of time to solve this. So I put on a burst of speed, soared downwards to avoid the Bludger, ducked to avoid George's Beater club, and soared back upwards. With the Quaffle still in hand, I flew up to the goalposts and threw. Unfortunately, the Bludger, which was still locked on me, flew in front of the Quaffle.

It hit the Quaffle off path and I groaned as it dropped back to the Slytherin players. The Slytherin's in the crowd howled with laughter as the other Houses began to shout that it wasn't fair. Every move that I tried to make was interrupted by either one of the Slytherin players of the rogue Bludger. It was still chasing after Harry and I, taking turns trying to attack one of us. It was impossible to play the game with Fred and George trying to protect us. My movements were too jerky and I was already barely able to see in the rain. The game was already lost to us. I'd already heard Lee comment that the score was now seventy to ten. I couldn't even recall us scoring the once.

About ten minutes into the game, I managed to catch the Quaffle from Katie. The two of us shot towards the goalposts, refusing to miss this one. I'd reared back to throw when Fred had shouted for me to duck. I had - and barely missed a paralyzing blow from the Bludger - but I had also missed my shot. One of the Slytherin Chasers shot up from underneath me and knocked the Quaffle out of my hands. It had very nearly unseated me. With the rain I'd slipped from the broom. Without Angelina I would have fallen. The only good thing that could be said was that Gryffindor was given a penalty shot that Katie had made, sending the score from ten to twenty, still with Slytherin in favor at seventy.

Another two minutes after that was the next chance that I'd gotten to steal the Quaffle. I'd grabbed it from Flint, elbowing him across the jaw, and shot off with it. The Slytherin players were hot on my trail. I shot past Harry - who seemed to have been recovering from a blow from the Bludger - when I realized something. Where was the Bludger? It had been almost thirty seconds since it had tried to murder me. And Fred and George had left my side in the relative safety.

The Bludger had taken my momentary second of weakness against me. With one hand wrapped firmly around the handle, and the other wrapped around the Quaffle, I was unable to defend myself from the attack. As much as I tried to avoid the Bludger - missing the shot in the meantime, easily blocked by Adrian Pucey, when the Bludger caught me off guard. Fred and George hadn't been able to get to me in time as they'd been defending Harry from a near-miss. The Bludger came straight over my hand and cut some of the skin from the pointer finger. I grunted in pain, feeling a few snaps, as I flew awkwardly towards the ground. I was reasonably certain that it had broken my finger.

It was throbbing in pain and nearly impossible to move. George grabbed my arm and brought me back into the sky, keeping me in between Fred and himself for protection as I attempted to move past the pain. I glanced down at my finger and cringed when I saw the position of the finger. It was beginning to swell and had an ugly purplish color. The joint was slightly crooked in the middle of the finger. I realized quickly that it really was broken. Damn it. We didn't have another alternate to step in.

"Someone's - tampered - with - this - Bludger -" Fred grunted, swinging his bat with all his might at the Bludger as it launched a new attack on Harry and me.

Cradling my finger gently, I could hear murmurs breaking out through the crowd. They'd seen it hit me but they couldn't tell that it had actually done some damage. "I think it broke one of my fingers," I said.

"You alright?" Oliver called to me.

We weren't too far from the goalpost that he was lingering by. "Better than Alicia," I called back. She was still out cold. I felt terrible for her. "Can't quit now, don't have another alternate to step in."

"We need time out," George said, trying to signal to Oliver and stop the Bludger from breaking Harry's nose at the same time.

Oliver had obviously gotten the message. Just as Madam Hooch's whistle rang out, Fred knocked away the Bludger from giving me another broken appendage. I thanked him silently. Harry, Fred, George, and I dived for the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger. The crowd was now chattering loudly, trying to figure out what was happening. The Snitch and Bludgers remained in the air - thankfully no longer trying to kill Harry or I - as Madam Hooch caught the Quaffle. Angelina, Katie, and Oliver made their way over to us. The Slytherin team were grinning brightly, knowing that they were almost guaranteed to win.

"What's going on?" Oliver asked as the Gryffindor team huddled together, while Slytherin's in the crowd jeered. I rolled my eyes at them. Even in mortal danger, the Slytherin's still thought that it was funny when the Gryffindor's were in trouble. "We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina scoring?"

"We were twenty feet above her, stopping the other Bludger from murdering Harry and Tara, Oliver," George snapped angrily. His hand was around me tightly as Fred bandaged my finger. "Someone's fixed it - it won't leave either one of them alone. It hasn't gone for anyone else all game. The Slytherin's must have done something to it."

Shaking my head, I wiped off some of the sweat from my forehead. Rain was still pouring down, although it had slowed slightly. "No, I understand why it would go after Harry. He's the Seeker. He could end the game," I said. If the Slytherin's had fixed it, that made total sense. "But why's it going after me?"

"No offense, Tara, but the Slytherin's kind of just hate you," Fred put in.

That was definitely a fair point. But how could they have fixed them? "But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with them then..." Oliver said anxiously. Then he spotted my finger. "What's happened to your finger?"

"The Bludger broke it," I said carelessly.

The looks on Angelina and Katie's faces told me that they were taking it as a much bigger deal than I was. "There's no way that we're sending you back out there," Angelina said.

"You have to!" I shouted over the rain. "If you don't, we can't keep playing. We have an appointed alternate. I have to be in the game, or it ends and Slytherin wins. Alicia isn't awake yet. It's just a broken finger and it's not on my throwing arm. I'll be fine for a few more minutes."

Those were the rules. All players must be in the game, unless completely incapacitated, or the game ended. Slytherin had no alternates, so if one was injured and had to be taken out, they would be allowed to keep playing. But if I went out when I was still able to fly we would end up forfeiting the game. Madam Hooch was walking toward us as we all argued about what to do. Over her shoulder, I could just barely see the Slytherin team jeering and pointing in our direction.

"Listen," Harry said as she came nearer and nearer, "with you two flying around me all the time the only way I'm going to catch the Snitch is if it flies up my sleeve. Go back to the rest of the team and let me deal with the rogue one."

"Don't be thick. It'll take your head off," Fred said.

But it wouldn't... Not if Harry and I could work together. "No it won't," I said, drawing attention to myself. "Not if I protect him. That Bludger is taking turns going between us. If I can step in and keep it distracted, I can keep it away from Harry long enough for him to catch the Snitch. Angelina and Alicia can score," I said.

It was basically a self-sacrifice, but they had to be made sometimes. Just like with Ron during the chess game last year when we were heading towards the Sorcerer's Stone, I had to do this if we wanted to win. I wasn't too afraid. The Bludger might hit me again and it would break something else. It would probably hurt like mad, but I wouldn't die. Either Dumbledore or Madam Pomfrey would be able to fix me up and I'd be back to practice tomorrow. No one seemed to like that plan, but one glance between Harry and I was all that it took. He would do the same for me. We couldn't deny that it was the best course of action.

In the meantime, Oliver was looking from Harry and I to the Weasley's. "Oliver, this is insane," Angelina said angrily. "You can't let Harry and Tara deal with that thing on their own. Let's ask for an inquiry -"

"If we stop now, we'll have to forfeit the match! And we're not losing to Slytherin just because of a crazy Bludger! Come on, Oliver, tell them to leave us alone!" Harry argued.

"We are not losing! Harry and I can deal with it. We'll keep it away from the rest of the team," I added.

Oliver seemed like he might have been swayed to let us back into the game, but the others on the team did not seem as willing to let it go. "Tara, it's already broken your finger, we're not letting it break your skull," George told me.

I rolled my shoulders at him and shook off Fred, letting him tie the bandage off. "I'll manage. Wouldn't be the first time that I've ever been hit by a Bludger," I said.

The comment did not go over well. "This is all your fault," George said angrily to Oliver. "'Get the Snitch or die trying,' what a stupid thing to tell him and now it has rubbed off on -"

He didn't get a chance to finish the thought. Madam Hooch had joined us. "Ready to resume play?" she asked Oliver.

As much as Oliver loved Quidditch, he did not want one of us dying. But since we were arguing for it, I knew that he would let us play. Oliver looked at the determined look on Harry and I's faces. "All right. Fred, George, you heard Harry - leave them alone and let them deal with the Bludger on their own," he said.

Fred and George looked beside themselves with fury. Angelina and Katie looked petrified for us. But Harry and I nodded, stalking off ahead of the rest of the team. "Keep it away from the rest of the game. Stay near me, alright?" he asked me.

"No problem," I said.

The rain that had momentarily slowed was falling more heavily now. The teams scattered back onto the field and got ready to fly. On Madam Hooch's whistle, I kicked hard into the air and hovered for a moment. I could head back into the game from time to time. I couldn't just linger around Harry. But that was at the exact same time as I heard the telltale whoosh of the Bludger behind me. It was following the two of us. Exchanging a look, we knew what we had to do. Split up. It would only be able to follow one of us. I could just hope that it would choose to follow me and let Harry get the Snitch to end this thing.

Higher and higher Harry and I climbed. The Bludger weaved in and out of us, each time we were just barely able to dive out of the way of the Bludger. The two of us had to go back and forth as we looped and swooped, spiraled, zigzagged, and rolled. It didn't take long for me to become very dizzy from all of the movement. It didn't matter. Nevertheless I managed to keep my eyes wide open. The rain was streaking back and forth and coming very close to making me slip off of my broom as I dodged the Bludger again. Out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted Harry as he hung upside down, avoiding another fierce dive from the Bludger.

Even though I couldn't see them, I could hear laughter from the crowd. He did look rather stupid, but the rogue Bludger was heavy and couldn't change direction as quickly as Harry or I could. The two of us began a kind of roller-coaster ride around the edges of the stadium, squinting through the silver sheets of rain to the Gryffindor goal posts, where Adrian Pucey was trying to get past Oliver. I was trying to get the Quaffle at least once. Just so that I felt like I was doing something other than providing as cover for Harry.

But it didn't last for long. A whistling in my ear told me that the Bludger had just missed me again; I turned right over and sped in the opposite direction, desperate to get away from it. To my complete surprise, the Quaffle was soaring right towards me. Flint had thrown it, unable to see in the rain, right towards me. I barely managed to catch it and smirked. I had an idea to keep the Bludger busy for a moment, and maybe take a Slytherin out of play.

Putting on a burst of speed, I narrowly missed a sideways blow from the Bludger. I spun out of the way, almost dropping the Quaffle and banging my broken finger painfully on the broom, as I sped through the Pitch. Just as expected, the Bludger was following me again. I headed straight towards the goals, but the wrong ones. I could hear the other players screaming for me to turn around, but I had an idea. Flint was flying straight towards me, as I knew that he would. As we were just a few feet away from each other, I dropped the broom down, letting the Bludger soar straight towards Flint. At the same time, I threw the Quaffle up to Angelina, who tossed the Quaffle to Katie, who made the goal. I smiled broadly. Even better, judging by Flint's screams, I could tell that the Bludger had broken his nose, but not knocked him out of play.

Can't win them all... "Training for the ballet, Potter?" I could hear Malfoy yell.

Turning back, I saw that the Bludger was not focusing on Flint for a second longer than it had to. It had gone back to Harry. He was forced to do a stupid kind of twirl in midair to dodge the Bludger, and he fled, the Bludger trailing a few feet behind him. He turned back long enough to make me nervous that the Bludger would use his momentary weakness against him. But as he flew, glaring back at Malfoy in hatred, I knew that he saw it - the Golden Snitch. I could tell by the look on his face that he had spotted it.

Glancing backwards, I saw it, too. It was hovering inches above Malfoy's left ear - and Malfoy, busy laughing at Harry, hadn't seen it. "Move!" I shouted, wanting to end the match.

For an agonizing moment, Harry hung in midair, not daring to speed toward Malfoy in case he looked up and saw the Snitch. It was at that moment that I knew that I would be too slow to warn him. Seemingly appearing from thin air, the Bludger rocketed towards Harry. Just as I had feared, he had stayed still a second too long. The Bludger had hit him at last, earning at least one of its targets, smashing into his elbow. Even from here and through the rain, I could tell that it was broken. Judging by the way that he was flying drunkenly, I could tell that there was a searing pain in his arm.

The Bludger came pelting after me and I barely managed to slide out of the way. We were even. Harry had a broken arm and I had a broken finger. Neither one of us needed anything worse. I could see him slide sideways on his rain-drenched broom, one knee still crooked over it, his right arm dangling uselessly at his side. Just like it had with me, the Bludger came pelting back for a second attack, this time aiming at his face. Holding my breath, I was very grateful to see Harry swerve out of the way. Even with the broken arm, he clearly had one idea in mind. To get the Snitch.

"Keep going!" I yelled.

Knowing that I was very well asking to be whacked again by the Bludger, I did something very stupid. Interrupting a well-placed attack on Harry, I flew up in front of him, desperate for him to get the Snitch and end this. He looked back in horror, just long enough to see it. The Bludger was slightly off course, but sensing that I was the easier target, it flew after me. I tried to fly down to avoid it, glad that I had gotten it away from Harry, but this Bludger was faster than normal. The Bludger came rocketing straight towards me and slammed into me. The only thing that made it better was that I'd dived to the side at the last moment. Instead of breaking every bone in my face, it broke the collarbone, jamming the sharpened bone back into the muscle.

"Shit!" I yelled in a sudden agonizing pain, ignoring the fact that Mom would have been appalled with my language.

Oh Merlin that hurts. That hurts so badly. Ribs, finger, leg, arm, toe; those were nothing compared to the collarbone. Screams echoed through the stadium. I could only imagine that it was probably visible in some disgusting way. My broom was spinning slightly from the hit. Slowly I was heading towards the ground. But I forced myself back up. The Bludger was still following after Harry, and I knew that it would come back after me within a few seconds. I did not get hit for nothing. Make a damn goal.

"Tara!" I heard Cedric yell from somewhere in the stands.

"No!" Hermione yelled over Ron's incomprehensible scream.

Through the haze of rain and pain, I soared back over towards the main game. The Slytherin's thought that I was out of it. They didn't realize that I was not going to give up until the game was over. As I flew towards the other end of the Pitch, I saw that Harry was still trying to play the game through the pain, just like me. He dived for the shimmering Snitch. I could see Malfoy's sneering face below him. To my great amusement, his eyes widened with fear. Malfoy thought Harry was attacking him. Nothing would have made me happier right now than to see the Bludger break his... everything.

"What the -" Malfoy gasped, careening out of Harry's way.

At the same time, I spotted one of the Slytherin Chasers flying past me with the Quaffle in hand. No way that I got a broken collarbone with only one assist. I was making a goal. As I flew past him, I slammed into him, jamming my collarbone back even farther. My scream of pain echoed through the stadium. But I had done my job. I caught the Quaffle that he dropped and flew alongside Katie. She looked very concerned for me, but said nothing. I faked a throw to her and she understood immediately. We'd done this in practice. She hunched over, pretending to be carrying the Quaffle. Miles Bletchley flew in front of her to stop her and she smirked, revealing her empty arms. He panicked, but it was too late. Crying out in pain from the movement, I threw the Quaffle through the furthest goal, making the score.

The crowd was roaring. I was sure that it was the first time that anyone had ever made a goal with a broken collarbone. As I flew awkwardly to the ground, I glanced up. Harry was still after the Snitch. He took his remaining hand off his broom and made a wild snatch. I cheered after him as his fingers closed on the Snitch. He was now only gripping the broom with his legs. The roars from the crowd became deafening. Harry headed straight for the ground near me. I had collapsed into the sand, breathing heavily through the pain. With a splattering thud, Harry hit the mud and rolled off his broom. My finger was still disjointed and Harry's arm was hanging at a very strange angle. Even through the pain, I could hear a good deal of whistling and shouting. I focused on the Snitch clutched in Harry's good hand.

The two of us looked a mess. Harry leaned over to me and smiled. We grabbed each other in a very awkward and painful hug. "Aha. We've won," he muttered. And then he fainted.

Gasping in shock was stupid, as it sent a wave of searing pain through me. Leaning over Harry, I tried to breathe heavily through the pain in my chest. "Oh, Harry, Harry, come on. Wake up, Harry," I hissed. But he didn't move. "Help!"

That was all that it took. In a panic and frenzy, the cheers stopped and the stands started emptying as people came sprinting towards us. I knew that I didn't look good. I could see all of the bruising already forming around my shoulder as I slipped the edges of my robes off. The bone itself was jutting against the skin, causing a lot of the pain that I was feeling. The other end of the bone was jammed back into the muscle. It was making it very hard to breathe. It took a few seconds of smacking him, but Harry came around. He looked past me and, slipping onto my backside, I saw what he was looking at. At first it was just a glitter of teeth.

Then I realized who it was. My collarbone suddenly seemed to hurt even more. The last person that I wanted here right now was him. "You were not what I meant by help," I hissed at Lockhart.

"Oh, no, not you," Harry moaned.

"Don't know what they're saying," Lockhart said loudly to the anxious crowd of Gryffindor's pressing around us. I could see a few scattered Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's, too. "Not to worry, Harry. I'm about to fix your arm. And Tara, you've got a finger and collarbone to work with."

"No! I'll keep it like this, thanks..." Harry said quickly

My stomach gave a painful lurch at the thought of what Lockhart could end up doing to us. "Professor Dumbledore fixed my ribs last year, I'll wait for him. Or, even better, Madam Pomfrey," I said loudly, hoping that one of them would somehow hear me.

Harry looked over at me. "Are you alright?" he asked.

He seemed to be doing mostly alright. I supposed that we both could have gotten off much worse. I could have broken my skull. At least I'd have a good story to tell Mom and Dad when I got back home for the holidays. "It's - It's hard to breathe. The bone. It's about to go through the skin," I said breathlessly.

The two of us were still on the ground. I was sinking into the mud, but a little dirt was the least of my problems right about now. Harry and I both tried to sit up so that we could limp to the hospital wing. I could see Cedric and his friends fighting to get over to us, but the crowd around us had now become very thick. The pain in my chest and finger was now unbearable that the adrenaline had worn off. I heard a familiar clicking noise nearby. I glanced over and cringed at the pain shooting through my entire torso by now. Colin was standing right over us and taking pictures of the gruesome scene rapidly.

"I don't want a photo of this, Colin," Harry said loudly.

"Not now, Colin," I snapped.

A few older Gryffindor's shoved Colin away from us. "Lie back, Harry, Tara. We can do your arm and her finger together. The collarbone will be trickier but I can manage that, too. It's a simple charm I've used countless times -" Lockhart was saying in a voice that I assumed could have been counted as comforting.

"Why can't we just go to the hospital wing?" Harry asked through clenched teeth.

"Screw this. I'm leaving. Fred! George! Help me up," I shouted. But no one walked up to me. Where the hell had the twins gone? "Where did they go?" I asked desperately.

A moment later, Oliver walked up to us. "They should really, Professor," Oliver said. There was mud all over him, almost completely covering him. He clearly couldn't help grinning even though his Seeker and alternate Chaser were injured. "Great capture, Harry, really spectacular, your best yet, I'd say. And Tara, that goal at the end, even with the broken collarbone and arm -"

The last thing that I wanted to talk about was the goal. The only thing that I wanted right now was for the Bludger to come back and whack me in the head. I would appreciate being unconscious for a while. Through the thicket of legs around the two of, I spotted where Fred and George had gone. They were currently encompassed with trying to wrestle the rogue Bludger into a box. It was still putting up a terrific fight. I assumed that it wanted to finish off Harry and me.

The thought kicked me into gear. "Oliver, help me up please," I begged.

Oliver nodded and walked over to me. He was about to grab my hand with Lockhart dove in front of us. "Stand back," Lockhart said, while he was rolling up his jade-green sleeves.

"No - don't -" said Harry weakly, but Lockhart was twirling his wand and a second later had directed it straight at Harry's arm.

"If you touch me, I'll -" I said before the argument died in my throat.

Lockhart grabbed my finger and straightened it out, earning a piercing scream as he obviously didn't know how to handle someone with a broken bone. He backed away nervously and muttered something that sounded very nonsensical to me. A strange and unpleasant sensation started at my wrist and spread all the way down to my fingertips. I glanced over at Harry to see that he obviously felt the same way. It felt as though my entire hand had been deflated. For a moment I didn't dare look at what was happening. I shut his eyes, my face turned as far away from my hand as I could. My worst fears were realized as the people above us gasped and Colin Creevey began clicking away madly. On one hand, my finger didn't hurt anymore - nor did it feel remotely like a finger.

"What's happened?" I asked everyone. No one answered me. That was when I turned back and saw a very disturbing sight. Harry's arm looked like it was made out of rubber. "Your arm!" I screamed.

"Your hand!" Harry shouted back at me.

Glancing down, I saw that my entire hand vaguely resembled Harry's arm. It looked like it was made out of rubber. He had damaged more than the things that had been damaged in the first place. I turned a heated glare on Lockhart. "Thank Merlin you did the finger first! Nitwit! What have you done?" I shouted at him.

Lockhart turned a brilliant shade of pink. "Ah. Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, Tara, just toddle up to the hospital wing. Ah, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, would you escort them? Madam Pomfrey will be able to - er - tidy you up a bit," he said sheepishly.

"You are the most useless wizard I've ever seen!" I howled, the shout echoing over the Quidditch Pitch and the entire grounds.

Laughter erupted not long after. Glad that someone is enjoying themselves... "Poor girl is delirious with pain," Lockhart said.

"I hate you," I groaned.

Thankfully Harry was able to bring himself to his feet. People began to scatter out of the way so that the two of us could bring ourselves to our feet. Harry tried to bring his arm down to me, but it was useless. I rolled my eyes and tried to shove myself to my feet, but I couldn't. One side of me was rubber, making myself completely useless to try and stand, and the other was too painful with the broken collarbone. I still couldn't breathe, but now anger had been added to the reasons as to why I couldn't. I tried to move my fingers, but nothing happened. Lockhart hadn't mended Harry or my bones. He had removed them. I couldn't imagine having to tell Madam Pomfrey about this.

A second later, Hermione and Ron were trying to hoist me to my feet without hurting me. It wasn't really working. "I hate your boyfriend, Hermione. Thank God he didn't do the collarbone," I muttered.

"Oh, are you alright?" Hermione asked me desperately.

She looked like she wanted to touch my collarbone, but I'd end her life if she laid one hand on me. "Once I murder Gilderoy Lockhart, I'll feel much better," I hissed at her.

She was not going to say anything back to me. "Tara!" Cedric yelled.

Groaning, I looked up to him with hazy eyes. He was leaning down at my side, Hermione and Ron taking a breath from trying to raise me off of the muddy sand pit. "Did you know that breaking your collarbone is quite painful?" I asked him.

Cedric smiled weakly at me. "It looks painful." He then turned to Hermione and Ron. "I can take her," he said.

"Thanks," Ron said.

Without warning, Cedric pushed his hands underneath me and lifted me up. I cried out in pain but was grateful that at least someone was able to move me. And I had a feeling that this felt a lot better than walking myself up. Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed. Hermione was standing next to Cedric speaking softly to me. Ron was standing on his other side, ready to catch me in case Cedric accidentally let me slip. But I knew that he wouldn't. He never would. Not if it meant that it would hurt me. We quickly made our way up to the hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey was absolutely beside herself as Hermione and Ron explained what had happened.

If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought that she might have gone and killed Gilderoy Lockhart herself. I would have loved to see that. She ordered Harry and I into the hospital wing, pushing out anyone with lesser injuries. Apparently regrowing bones was not fun and not easy. Something that didn't make me feel better. Harry was helped into bed by Hermione and Ron. Cedric leaned over the bed next to Harry - that had been pushed close together like after our adventure with the Sorcerer's Stone - and gently placed me down. I couldn't help the hiss of pain that escaped my mouth. I was grateful, but I was still in a lot of pain.

Cedric, Ron, and Hermione stepped back as Madam Pomfrey fussed about. Cedric was standing at the side of my bed that she wasn't fluttering around. "My hero," I told him jokingly.

"You alright?" he asked me concernedly.

I shook my head at him as much as I could. I had to almost immediately stop. It hurt me to move my head too much. "Not really. Hard to breathe," I said through a cough.

"You should have come straight to me!" Madam Pomfrey raged, holding up the sad, limp remainder of what, half an hour before, had been a working arm. She looked at my floppy hand a moment later, sighing heavily to herself. I couldn't feel anything in it. "I can mend bones in a second - but growing them back -"

My head shot upright. Pain shot through me as I dropped back to the pillows. She would be able to, right? "You will be able to, won't you?" Harry asked desperately.

"I'll be able to, certainly, but it will be painful," Madam Pomfrey said grimly, throwing Harry and me two pairs of pajamas. "You'll both have to stay the night..."

Cedric seemed to know that this was his moment to bow out. "I'll see how you are tomorrow," he said.

"Thanks for everything."

"Feel better," he told me, brushing the hair off of my forehead. "Both of you," he added, turning to Harry.

"Thank you," I said.

"Thanks," Harry muttered afterwards.

As much as he didn't always like Cedric, he had to admit that he was there when we needed him, and was a perfect gentleman. After a moment, Madam Pomfrey drew a thin curtain around Harry and I's beds. He was just barely separated from mine. Ron stayed in Harry's to help him into his pajamas as Hermione stayed to help me into mine. I had to be careful until I was actually able to get my collarbone fixed. Hopefully Madam Pomfrey would do that soon. I was sure that my body was slowly failing me, the pain getting worse and worse with every possible second. How did Muggles manage having to wait for weeks for their bones to be fixed?

"Help me, yeah?" I asked Hermione so that she could do up the buttons. It hurt too much to try and rotate my shoulder. I had a feeling that the Bludger might have shattered some of the bones in it, too.

"How can you stick up for Lockhart now, Hermione, eh?" Ron called through the curtain as Hermione gently moved the sleeve over my shoulder. "If Harry and Tara had wanted deboning, they would have asked."

"Anyone can make a mistake. And it doesn't hurt anymore, does it, you two?" Hermione asked.

Harry took the defense much better than I did. "No," Harry said as he climbed into bed. Hermione helped me into bed, ignoring the pain in my chest. "But it doesn't do anything else either."

Hissing through clenched teeth, I said, "Hermione, I will kill you. Lockhart is useless. It's not even my middle finger so that I could show Lockhart what I really think of him," I snapped at her.

My legs were easier to shove into the bed. I did find myself grateful that it wasn't my foot or anything like that. At least it was just my hand and it wasn't the hand that I wrote with. If it couldn't be fixed immediately, I would be able to write with my other hand. As I swung myself onto the bed, my hand flapped pointlessly. I noticed that Harry's arm was doing the same thing as the curtain was taken down. Madam Pomfrey came around the curtain as Hermione and Ron backed off slightly.

She stood over me first. "Straighten up, dear. The hand will take the night to heal, but I can take care of the collarbone right now," she said.

"Thank Merlin," I muttered.

Madam Pomfrey held her wand over me. "Ferula," she whispered. A wrapping and splint formed over my chest, extending over to my other shoulder. I cringed, feeling the bones stretch. Although it automatically made me feel a little bit better. She then tapped her wand gently on my again. "Iugularem Emendo." A warming feeling spread over my body. "Don't move around too much. The bones will be brittle for a few days. Take the next week or so off of Quidditch. You, too, Potter," she ordered. We both nodded. "Better, dear?" she asked me.

Unable to say anything, I nodded at her. I didn't feel perfect but I did feel much better. Just like after Dumbledore had fixed my broken ribs. The collarbone still tingled slightly, but I felt much better. It helped that the bone was now longer pressing and stretching the skin or pressing into my lungs and muscle. I took in a deep breath for the first time in nearly an hour. Madam Pomfrey disappeared for a moment before reappearing. I groaned when I saw that she was not alone. She was holding a large bottle of something labeled Skele-Gro. Mom had it at home. I'd never used it but I'd heard bad stories.

Leaning over to Harry, I said under my breath, "Mom's used that on people. She said it's disgusting."

Harry looked very put-off. "Better than being without bones. You two are in for a rough night," she said, pouring out a steaming beaker full and handing it to him, and another to me afterwards. "Regrowing bones is a nasty business."

We exchanged a look before clinking the glasses together and taking a long sip of it, wanting to get it down in one foul swoop. It turned out that regrowing bones wasn't the only nasty business. So was taking the Skele-Gro. It burned my mouth and throat as it went down, far worse than Firewhisky, making me cough and splutter. I very nearly ended up spitting the liquid all over the place. Then, still tut-tutting about dangerous sports and inept teachers, Madam Pomfrey retreated, leaving Ron and Hermione to help Harry and I gulp down some water.

Once we had it down, Ron and Hermione took the chair by our beds. "We won, though," Ron said, a grin breaking across his face. "That was some catch you made. Malfoy's face... he looked ready to kill..."

"I want to know how he fixed that Bludger," Hermione said darkly.

Shaking my head at them, now that I could, I made my point of view known. "It's just like the broom last year. It would take someone far beyond a Second Year to do something like that. If anything, it was one of the others on the team," I said.

They all seemed to be able to buy that. Even I could believe that one of the Slytherin team members had somehow fixed the Bludger. "We can add that to the list of questions we'll ask him when we've taken the Polyjuice Potion," Harry said, sinking back onto his pillows. "I hope it tastes better than this stuff..."

"Oh no, it'll taste worse," I promised him.

That much I knew. "If it's got bits of Slytherin's in it? You've got to be joking," Ron said, seemingly on my side.

The door of the hospital wing burst open at that moment. Harry and I both glanced up to see what had happened. Rarely did people just burst into the hospital wing. Most people tried to avoid it. Filthy and soaking wet, the rest of the Gryffindor team had arrived to see Harry and I. I smiled weakly at them. Fred and George headed straight for me. Angelina and Katie hung around the foot of the bed, smiling softly at us. Oliver still looked thrilled that we had won. Alicia was awake once more, a bruise forming across a good portion of her forehead. I was happy to see that she was awake again.

"Unbelievable flying, Harry, Tara. I've just seen Marcus Flint yelling at Malfoy. Something about having the Snitch on top of his head and not noticing. Malfoy didn't seem too happy," George said.

"Good. I hope they've beaten him over the head with his own broomsticks," I said. "Or shoved them -"

"Tara!" Hermione yelled at me.

Shrugging my shoulders at her, I immediately wished that I hadn't. They were still sore from the bone being broken only minutes before. "We'd be happy to do it for you," Fred offered, making me smile.

"Thanks."

"How's the collarbone?" Alicia asked guiltily.

I showed her the wrappings. "Recently fixed. It'll be weak for a few days. But I'll be better. We'll just need a few days off. But, at least Lockhart didn't get to it. Hey, don't feel bad," I said when I realized that she thought that it was her fault. "You got knocked out. It's my job to step into the game when something happens to another player. How's your head?" I asked her.

"Not broken," she said, pointing down to my hand.

Shaking my head at her, I waved off the panic and guilt. We would be fine. Most of the issue had been with Lockhart, not with the Bludger. "We should be fine by tomorrow. Overnight stay is all," I said.

With that, we all tried to get off of the topic of the bones that we were going to have to regrow. It turned out that I was very glad that the team had showed up. They had brought cakes, sweets, and bottles of pumpkin juice. It was somewhat of a little party that we had won an already difficult game with two severely injured players against a full team of the best racing brooms in the world. It would be one for the record books. Everyone gathered around our beds and were just getting started on what promised to be a good party when Madam Pomfrey came storming over to us. I groaned, knowing that she would kick them out.

She didn't even give us a chance to ask if they could stay. She was shouting, "These two need rest, he's got thirty-three bones to regrow! She's got twenty-seven! Out! Out!"

They didn't need anything more than that to tell them that they needed to go. They all gave us a guilty look before heading out. If nothing else, at least we were left with each other and the things that they had brought. But it was still early in the day and we didn't even have a deck of cards to amuse ourselves with. The worst part was that it meant that we had nothing to distract ourselves with. It didn't take long for the searing pains and stabs of what felt like needles to start in my hand. It wasn't as bad as the pain that I had felt around Voldemort, but this was prolonged. For hours it went on.

Harry and I chatted back and forth for most of the day. But eventually we silenced ourselves, nearly overcome with the pain. "I'm gonna kill Lockhart," I said, cradling my hand.

"Make sure that I'm there when you do," Harry said, making me smile.

"Well this hurts like hell, can't imagine how you feel," I said, motioning to his arm.

If growing back the bones in my hand was bad, I couldn't imagine what the arm was like. His bones were much bigger, while the ones in the hand were smaller. "I hope that you never do. Sorry about the collarbone. How's it feel?" Harry asked.

I shrugged my shoulder about the collarbone comment. It could have been worse. I could have had to regrow that. "Much better now that Madam Pomfrey took care of it. I should write to Mom and Dad. They'll be beside themselves. They very well might kill Lockhart themselves," I said, smiling at the thought.

"I'll go get you a quill and parchment," Harry offered quickly.

The two of us both laughed, echoing in the nearly empty hospital wing. "Well, if nothing else, at least for a little while we haven't been the monsters of Hogwarts. People were quite impressed with the way that you caught the Snitch with a broken arm," I said.

Harry shrugged his shoulders and motioned over to me. "Says the one that made a goal with a broken finger and collarbone," he said.

Smiling softly at him, I nodded. "We make quite a team, huh?" I asked with a little laugh.

"That's one way of putting it," he said.

The two of us laughed together once more. We spent much of the night together, but it wasn't as fun as the night after beating Quirrell and Voldemort. We'd had all of the presents and most of the pain had been gone after that had happened. We had burned through the pumpkin pasties and pumpkin juice quickly and were left with water and plain turkey sandwiches. They were alright, but they certainly didn't detract from the pain. It meant that we could barely move to look at each other without feeling any pain. It wasn't long before we fell asleep, unwilling to stay away through the pain any longer.

It was hours and hours later when I felt it. A sharp pain shot through my hand to the point that I shot up and awake. My collarbone was at a dull throb, feeling much better, but my hand was boiling with pain. I hissed and flexed it slightly. It felt like the bones were about halfway regrown. It wasn't two minutes later when Harry woke quite suddenly, startling me slightly. We both sat in the pitch blackness as he gave a small yelp of pain. I glanced over at him. My hand now felt like it was full of large splinters.

Harry was panting slightly. "You alright?" I asked him.

Harry jumped slightly, probably having not been expecting me to be awake, before nodding. "Pain," he muttered.

I nodded at him and made a move to go back to bed. But that was when I spotted something at the foot of Harry's bed. And it was not his foot. "There's something on your bed!" I yelled in a panic.

"Get off!" Harry shouted loudly. It was a moment later that he added, "Dobby!"

My jaw dropped. Had Dobby really returned? Was he the one that had fixed the Bludger on Malfoy's order? That was the only reason that I could imagine that he was here. I leaned up slightly to see that Harry was right. The house-elf's goggling tennis ball eyes were peering at Harry through the darkness. I glanced over at him and sighed. It was just the house-elf, thankfully. It could have been something much worse. A single tear was running down his long, pointed nose.

"Jesus, Dobby, you scared the hell out of me!" I hissed.

Dobby glanced over at me with sad eyes. "Dobby is sorry, miss. Harry Potter and Tara Nox came back to school," he whispered miserably. Harry and I exchanged a look. Of course we had. Was Dobby's warning real? Now it seemed like it was. "Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter. Ah sir, why didn't you heed Dobby? Why didn't Harry Potter go back home when he missed the train?"

Harry heaved himself up on his pillows and pushed Dobby away. I sat up as far as I could without the burning pain in my collarbone. "What're you doing here? And how did you know I missed the train?" Harry asked.

Because he was the one that had done it. "Was that you?" I asked disbelievingly.

From here I could hear Harry take in a deep breath. Dobby's lip trembled as Harry moved towards him. "It was you!" he said slowly. "You stopped the barrier from letting us through!"

"Indeed yes, sir," Dobby said, nodding his head vigorously, ears flapping. I was going to go to Azkaban for murdering a house-elf and Hogwarts teacher in the same night. "Dobby hid and watched for Harry Potter and sealed the gateway and Dobby had to iron his hands afterward," he showed Harry and I ten long, bandaged fingers, "but Dobby didn't care, sir, for he thought Harry Potter was safe, and never did Dobby dream that Harry Potter would get to school another way!"

Overcome by anger at the house-elf's flippant disregard for our education and our lives, I howled, "You could have gotten us expelled! We could have been killed by the Whomping Willow!"

Dobby let out another tear at my words. "Dobby never meant to hurt miss." He was rocking backward and forward, shaking his ugly head. "Dobby was so shocked when he heard Harry Potter was back at Hogwarts, he let his master's dinner burn! Such a flogging Dobby never had, sir..."

Harry slumped back onto his pillows. "You nearly got Ron and us expelled," he said fiercely. "You'd better get lost before my bones come back, Dobby, or I might strangle you."

Dobby smiled weakly. "Dobby is used to death threats, sir. Dobby gets them five times a day at home."

We already knew that Dobby belonged to the Malfoy's. And for a brief second, despite how angry I was about everything that had happened, I couldn't help but to feel bad for him. I felt bad for anyone that had to take orders from Lucius Malfoy. At the same time, I saw Dobby blow his nose on a corner of the filthy pillowcase he wore, looking so pathetic that I felt all of my anger ebb away in spite of myself. I could save his murder for a few days, I supposed...

"Why d'you wear that thing, Dobby?" Harry asked curiously.

"This, sir?" Dobby asked, plucking at the pillowcase. "'Tis a mark of the house-elf's enslavement, sir. Dobby can only be freed if his masters present him with clothes, sir. The family is careful not to pass Dobby even a sock, sir, for then he would be free to leave their house forever." Dobby mopped his bulging eyes and said suddenly, "Harry Potter must go home! So shall Tara Nox! They are not safe!"

"When are we ever safe?" I muttered.

Dobby shook his head and hopped onto my bed. "You will be safer at home, miss." Probably, but so went life at Hogwarts. "Dobby thought his Bludger would be enough to make -"

My jaw dropped. He had almost killed us. "Your Bludger?" Harry asked. I knew that both of our anger was rising once more. "What d'you mean, your Bludger? You made that Bludger try and kill me?"

"You broke my finger! And my collarbone! A fall could have killed us!" I hissed angrily.

Dobby looked horrified that we suggested that he wanted to kill us. "Not kill you, sir, never kill you miss!" Dobby defended himself, shocked. "Dobby wants to save Harry Potter's life! Better sent home, grievously injured, than remain here, sir! Dobby only wanted Harry Potter and Tara Nox hurt enough to be sent home!"

"Oh, well if that's all, sorry about being angry with you," I snapped at the house-elf. "But you could have gotten us in a wheelchair if we'd fallen the wrong way!"

Harry seemed to share my sentiment. "Oh, is that all? I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you wanted us sent home in pieces?" Harry asked him.

"Ah, if Harry Potter only knew!" Dobby groaned, more tears dripping onto his ragged pillowcase. "If he knew what he means to us, to the lowly, the enslaved, we dregs of the magical world! Dobby remembers how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the height of his powers, sir! We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir! Of course, Dobby is still treated like that, sir," he admitted, drying his face on the pillowcase. I cringed at the sight.

"But mostly, sir, life has improved for my kind since you triumphed over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Harry Potter survived, and the Dark Lord's power was broken, and it was a new dawn, sir, and Harry Potter shone like a beacon of hope for those of us who thought the Dark days would never end, sir... And now, at Hogwarts, terrible things are to happen, are perhaps happening already, and Dobby cannot let Harry Potter stay here now that history is to repeat itself, now that the Chamber of Secrets is open once more -" Dobby froze, horror-struck, then grabbed Harry's water jug from his bedside table and cracked it over his own head, toppling out of sight. A second later, he crawled back onto the bed, cross-eyed, muttering, "Bad Dobby, very bad Dobby..."

Of course. The moment that we were going to actually get anywhere, Dobby started abusing himself. "So there is a Chamber of Secrets?" Harry whispered. "And - did you say it's been opened before? Tell me, Dobby!"

Leaning forward, I knew that I would have to plead with the house-elf if we wanted answers. "Dobby, if you want to help us, you have to tell us what's going on. Dumbledore can help, but we need to know what the plot is and who's doing it," I whispered to him.

Harry seized the elf's bony wrist as Dobby's hand inched toward the water jug. "But I'm not Muggle-born - neither one of us is - how can we be in danger from the Chamber?" he asked.

"Tara Nox will always be in danger, but never mortal. It is worse that miss is here."

Once more, I found myself at a complete loss for words. I would always be in danger, but never mortal. So I would be in danger, but never of dying? Why did everyone have to talk in riddles? Was a straight answer really that hard? "What does that mean? Dobby, tell me what that means," I begged.

"Ah, sir, miss, ask no more, ask no more of poor Dobby," stammered the elf, his eyes huge in the dark. "Dark deeds are planned in this place, but Harry Potter and Tara Nox must not be here when they happen - go home, Harry Potter, go home. Harry Potter must not meddle in this, sir, 'tis too dangerous -"

"Who is it, Dobby?" Harry asked, keeping a firm hold on Dobby's wrist to stop him from hitting himself with the water jug again. "Who's opened it? Who opened it last time?"

All I could remember was the man's warning in my dream. This had happened before. And people knew who it was. But no one would tell us. "Dobby can't, sir, Dobby can't, Dobby mustn't tell! Go home, Harry Potter, go home!" he squealed.

"I'm not going anywhere!" Harry yelled fiercely. "One of my best friends is Muggle-Born; she'll be first in line if the Chamber really has been opened -"

"Harry Potter risks his own life for his friends!" moaned Dobby in a kind of miserable ecstasy. "So noble! So valiant! But he must save himself, he must, Harry Potter must not -"

"Please, Dobby, so much of the school is Muggle-Born, they'll all be attacked within weeks if you don't tell us," I pleaded with him.

We were all desperate. Dobby wanted us to go home as Harry and I were desperate to know what was going to happen. We all wanted different things, but we couldn't all win. Dobby suddenly froze, his bat ears quivering. I heard it, too. There were footsteps coming down the passageway outside. Someone was coming into the hospital wing, and we were about to lose the traction that we had made with Dobby.

"Dobby must go!" breathed the elf, terrified.

"No!" I hissed.

But it was too late. There was a loud crack, and Harry's fist was suddenly clenched on thin air. We stared at each other before groaning to each other. This was over. We could continue it in the morning, when we were able to talk. The two of us slumped back into our beds, and I leaned over. My eyes were on the dark doorway to the hospital wing as the footsteps drew nearer. It was only seconds before I saw that Dumbledore was backing into the dormitory, wearing a long woolly dressing gown and a nightcap. He was carrying one end of what looked like a statue. Professor McGonagall appeared a second later, carrying its feet. Together, they heaved it onto a bed four down from me.

"Get Madam Pomfrey," Dumbledore whispered.

For whatever reason, we both knew that it would be best for us to remain silent. Professor McGonagall hurried past the end of my bed and out of sight. I didn't dare move as I pretended to be asleep. Off in the distance I could hear urgent voices, and then Professor McGonagall swept back into view, closely followed by Madam Pomfrey, who was pulling a cardigan on over her nightdress. They were clearly trying to be quiet enough not to wake us. I was having a hard time not saying something or looking up to get a better look at what was going on. A second later I heard a sharp intake of breath.

Something wasn't good. "What happened?" Madam Pomfrey whispered to Dumbledore, bending over the statue on the bed.

"Another attack. Minerva found him on the stairs," Dumbledore said.

My stomach roiled in my chest. I knew that Mrs. Norris wasn't the last. Someone else had been attacked. "There was a bunch of grapes next to him. We think he was trying to sneak up here to visit Potter or Nox," Professor McGonagall said.

Immediately I feared the worst. Had it been Cedric? Had he been coming back to see if I was alright? No. They were attacking Muggle-Born's. They wouldn't have hurt him. Still though... Whoever had been hurt had been hurt because of us. Slowly and carefully, I raised myself a few inches so that I could look at the statue on the bed. It was obvious that Harry was doing the same thing. A ray of moonlight lay across its staring face. It was Colin Creevey. My stomach gave another painful lurch. Colin... His eyes were wide and his hands were stuck up in front of him, holding his camera.

"Petrified?" Madam Pomfrey whispered.

"Yes," Professor McGonagall said. "But I shudder to think... If Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate - who knows what might have..." The three of them stared down at Colin. Then Dumbledore leaned forward and wrenched the camera out of Colin's rigid grip. "You don't think he managed to get a picture of his attacker?" Professor McGonagall asked eagerly.

Both Harry and I stiffened in the beds slightly. We were about to find out who the Heir of Slytherin was. We were about to find out what was causing all of these attacks. Perhaps the voice, too. Dumbledore didn't answer her as he turned the camera over. I could only hope that they said the name and that I recognized it. This was all about to be over. It made me feel like the boneless hand was no big deal. That was, until, he opened the back of the camera.

"Good gracious!" Madam Pomfrey cried.

Something - someone - had fried the inside of the camera, much to my horror. A jet of steam had hissed out of the camera. Whoever had caused the attack was going to get away with it. I could tell that Harry was as disappointed as I was. Whoever was causing the attacks was smarter than anyone wanted to give them credit for. I caught the acrid smell of burnt plastic as Dumbledore set the camera down.

"Melted. All melted..." Madam Pomfrey said wonderingly.

"What does this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked urgently.

He was only silent for a moment as my stomach stirred. "It means that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again." Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonagall stared at Dumbledore.

"But, Albus... surely... who?" she asked.

The butterflies in my stomach that were normally reserved for Cedric were now hammering against my stomach in fear. This was the last thing that anyone wanted to happen. All of the teachers had been trying to convince us that it hadn't happened. "The question is not who," Dumbledore said, his eyes on Colin. "The question is, how..."

And from what I could see of Professor McGonagall's shadowy face, she didn't understand this any better than I did. It seemed that Dumbledore knew who had once done this. And perhaps that was part of the problem. Was he thinking of their child? Or did they not have a child? That would have made things a lot worse... No real theories if that was the case... The only thing that I could tell by the way that they were looking was that they were both terrified. And that terrified me.


	29. The Dueling Club

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I cringed, thinking that the pain would be unbearable. It turned out that it really wasn't that bad. The hospital dormitory was blazing with winter sunlight and my hand had grown all of the bones back. It was no longer painful but it was still very stiff. I could see that Harry was waking up, too, and testing out his arm. I sat up quickly - my head spinning slightly - and looked over at Colin's bed. It was now blocked from view by the high curtains that Harry and I had changed behind yesterday. I glanced over at him and smiled softly. Madam Pomfrey saw that we were awake and came bustling over with a breakfast tray.

She had barely reached us when she began bending and stretching our arms and fingers, switching back and forth between Harry and I. "How are you feeling?" I asked Harry as Madam Pomfrey worked.

"Better. A little stiff and sore, but better. You?" Harry asked.

"Much better," I said. Madam Pomfrey moved away for a moment and I leaned towards Harry. "Merlin. Poor Colin..." I muttered. The poor boy had been here because he'd wanted to see us. I could tell that Harry felt just as bad as I did. "To think that the last thing that we did was snap at him to leave us alone..."

Harry sighed at me and grabbed my hand. "It wasn't our fault, Tara. He's a Muggle-Born and he was walking around after curfew. It was basically begging to be attacked, as horrible as that is," he said.

And he was right. It was very obvious that Colin would be attacked. I couldn't believe that he had been hanging around after hours without anyone else around. "We need to tell Hermione and Ron. And we need to get the Polyjuice Potion started," I said desperately, keeping my voice low. "I still don't think that it's Malfoy, but there's a good chance that he might know who it is, considering how connected Lucius Malfoy is."

"Maybe..." Harry muttered.

It was obvious that they were still thinking that it was Malfoy, but I was still convinced that it was someone stronger. The man said that it was all right in front of us. What was in front of us? "We were wrong about it being Snape last year, maybe we're wrong about it being Malfoy," I said, wishing that the man would come back to me and tell me if we were hot or cold.

"But what if we're right?" Harry asked.

Did I want to be right? It would be easier if we were right. We would know who it was and be able to expose him for all of the terrible things that he had done. I would also love to watch Malfoy be dragged off to Azkaban so I wouldn't have to deal with him. And being able to rub that in Parkinson's face would make me laugh. But did I really want that? Not really. Malfoy was a jerk and he'd said something absolutely terrible to Hermione, but I didn't think that he was a murderer. I did have a little more faith in him than that. After all, he had saved my life in Defense Against the Dark Arts on the first day of class.

But what if I was wrong? What if it was Malfoy that was doing all of this? "Then I'll happily admit that I was wrong and it was him," I told Harry honestly.

A few minutes later, Madam Pomfrey bustled back over as Harry and I shoveled some oatmeal into my mouth. I wanted to leave so that we could tell Ron and Hermione what had happened. "How are the two of you feeling?" Madam Pomfrey asked us.

Swallowing the food that I had been eating, I smiled at her. "Better. Thank you," I said.

Harry swallowed his own mouthful of oatmeal and smiled at her. "A little stiff, but good, other than that," she said.

His arm was still bandaged and I still had the wrap over my shoulders and chest, my hand bandaged, too. "All in order. When you've finished eating, you may leave," Madam Pomfrey told us. Harry was clumsily shoving the oatmeal in his mouth with his left hand as I just decided to forgo it. I couldn't eat without my right hand.

"Ready to go?" Harry asked me once he finished his food.

Nodding at him, I swung myself out of the bed. My clothes - that Hermione had brought me earlier this morning - were sitting over the edge of the bed. "Not hungry enough to finish. Let's go," I said.

Standing on each side of the dressing curtain, Harry and I changed back into normal clothes. I grabbed a pair of jeans and awkwardly stumbled into them, taking almost two minutes to button and zip them. I was very grateful that the shirt was looser and easy to throw over my head. We stepped out together and nodded, hurrying off to Gryffindor Tower. We were both moving as fast as possible, desperate to tell Ron and Hermione about Colin and Dobby. My arm was hurting from the quick movements, but I didn't want to slow down. Although the two of us stopped short when we saw that they weren't there. We checked our dorms, too, but they were there either.

So we left to look for them, wondering where they could have got to. I couldn't help but to feel slightly hurt that they weren't interested in whether or not our bones grew back. "They're not here... Where are they?" I asked, thinking that we should maybe go and check the library.

"Myrtle's bathroom?" Harry suggested. I nodded at him. There was a chance that they could be there, getting to work on the Polyjuice Potion. "That's the only other place that I could think."

"Yeah. They're probably starting the Polyjuice Potion. Come on," I said.

The moment that I had my hand around Harry's shirt to pull him with me, a call echoed through the castle. "Tara."

I turned back and smiled when I saw that it was Cedric. He was smiling and waiting for me at the end of the hall. I assumed that he was heading to check on me. "I'll wait for you," Harry muttered to me.

"Thanks," I told Harry before turning back to Cedric. "Hey."

He moved towards me and gave me a very gentle hug. I smiled softly. I wasn't in that much pain, but it was sweet that he was concerned about me. "How are you?" Cedric asked.

He was giving my hand a scrutinizing gaze and I held it up, flexing the bones. "Better, thank you. Madam Pomfrey fixed my collarbone with a spell almost immediately. She used Skele-Gro on Harry and I. Tastes horrible and super painful but I feel better. Just gotta take a week or so off of high-intensity Quidditch practices," I explained to him.

Cedric smiled at me. I could tell that he was trying to get a look at my shoulder to see if it was alright. "Glad that you're feeling better." I smiled at him, but noticed that there was a guilty look on his face. "Sorry that Lockhart got to you before anyone else could," he muttered.

Smiling softly at him, I grabbed his hand with my previously boneless one, showing him that it was back to normal. "Oh, its fine, I'm actually excited to write Mom and Dad and tell them what happened," I said. Cedric raised an eyebrow. "Mom will be here within the hour to rip into Lockhart for what he did to the two of us."

He laughed very loudly at that. I could only imagine what everyone would think if Mom came here just to rip into Gilderoy Lockhart. "Make sure that everyone is around to watch that," he told me. I nodded, wanting to see it for myself. "Played a hell of a game yesterday. Fixed Bludger flying after you, broken finger and collarbone, and you still made a goal."

Smiling at the compliment, I nodded. It really kind of had been impressive. "Thank you. I hope that Dad would be proud. And I will," I said, referring to making sure that he was around to see Mom lay into Lockhart. We stood in silence for a moment before I decided that I might as well tell him what had happened. He would find out anyways. "There was another attack, you know."

Cedric's face dropped. I knew that it would. People had been hoping that there would only be the one attack. But now where had been another. It was going to become very real very fast. "There was?" he asked weakly.

He seemed to be turning a little green. Not that I'd blamed him. My stomach had turned over when I'd realized who had been attacked. "I overheard them last night, talking about it. They thought that Harry and I were asleep. We were pretending to be. It was Colin Creevey, the Gryffindor First Year," I told him.

Cedric sighed and shook his head. "Oh, Tara, I'm sorry. I know that he liked you, and you were usually sticking up for him," he said softly.

I shook my head at him. Things could have been much worse. He could have been dead rather than Petrified. "I'm just glad that he's Petrified and not dead," I said.

"I knew that it wouldn't be the last attack," Cedric said.

Nodding at him, I saw Harry standing at the end of the hallway, tapping his wrist where a Muggle watch would be. "Me, too. Look, I'd love to stay and chat, and maybe later?" I asked with a small smile. He nodded at me. "But I'm a little busy at the moment. I wanted to go and let Ron and Hermione know that my bones and back intact. And let Hermione know that Lockhart is still useless..." I muttered angrily.

Cedric laughed softly at me and nodded. "Well I wouldn't want to stop you from doing that. I'll see you later," he said, giving me another soft hug. I turned back to leave when he called after me. "Glad that your bones are back."

"Me too!"

We both laughed once more as I walked down the hall to stand with Harry. He was picking at the dirt underneath his fingernails, clearly bored with having to wait for me. "Ready to go?" he asked as I walked up.

Nodding at him, the two of us set off down the halls. For a long time we didn't run into anyone that we really knew. There were a few people that passed and smiled at us. Some even complimented us on the game and wished us well. Of course, we were both grateful that people seemed so excited at the win. We were, too, considering that it put Gryffindor in first place. But we also had other things to worry about in the time being. As Harry and I passed the library, Percy Weasley strolled out of it, looking in far better spirits than last time we'd met. He caught sight of us and smiled.

"Oh, hello, Harry, Tara. Excellent flying yesterday, really excellent. Gryffindor has just taken the lead for the House Cup - you two earned sixty points!" Percy exclaimed happily.

"Thanks, Percy," I said.

Harry nodded his thanks before asking, "You haven't seen Ron or Hermione, have you?"

Percy seemed to think on it for a moment before shaking his head. "No, I haven't. I hope Ron's not in another girls' toilet..." Percy told us slowly, his smile fading a little.

Giving each other a sideways glance, Harry and I forced a laugh, watched Percy walk out of sight, and then headed straight for Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. We let out a little laugh, knowing that it was Percy's fear that was exactly what was coming true. That was the only place that I could imagine that they would be. We had checked everywhere else. I couldn't see why Ron and Hermione would be in there again, but they must have had a reason. Harry and I quickly made our way there and I kept watch for Filch or any of the Prefects as Harry opened the door. I could hear their voices coming from a locked stall.

"It's us," Harry said, closing the door behind us.

The voices from beyond the stall had ceased for a moment. I almost laughed. They were so terrified of being caught but they certainly would have been caught if someone other than the two of us had just walked in. There was a clunk, a splash, and a gasp from within the stall and Harry and I exchanged a little smile. It would look awful to anyone else if they saw what was happening. A second later I saw Hermione's eye peering through the keyhole.

"Harry! Tara!" she cried out, opening the door for us. "You two gave us such a fright - come in - how's your arm? And your hand?"

The stall was something akin to the Muggle handicapped stall. It was large enough to fit the four of us and a cauldron, but it worked well enough. "Fine," Harry said, the two of us squeezing into the stall.

"Better," I said.

We sat down on the edge of the floor. I knew that I would have to burn these all later. I didn't really like having to sit on the floor in my clothes. Although this really was the best place that we could have gone. An old cauldron was perched on the toilet. It looked like Ron's. Harry, Hermione, and I all had brand new ones. We weren't really willing to risk using one of ours. There was a crackling from under the rim of the toilet that told me that they had lit a fire beneath it. Conjuring up portable, waterproof fires was a specialty of Hermione's. She did it for the two of us out in the courtyard all of the time when it was cold.

"We'd have come to meet you two, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion," Ron explained as Harry, with difficulty, locked the stall again. Hermione and I were on the floor. I was looking over what she had done with the potion, ensuring that it was all correct. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."

"It definitely is," I put in.

Once I nodded at Hermione, letting her know that everything was done correctly, Harry stepped in. He started to tell them about Colin, but Hermione interrupted. "We already know - we heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning," she said. Well, that made that easier. "That's why we decided we'd better get going -"

"The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better. D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quidditch match, he took it out on Colin," Ron snarled.

Shaking my head at them, I leaned up my legs over Ron. They were doing the same thing. Blaming Malfoy just because they hated him. It was the same principle of people blaming Harry and I for the attacks, just because we'd been there when Mrs. Norris was attacked. "No. Colin was hanging around in the corridor and waiting to see Harry and I. It was after curfew anyways. He's a Muggle-Born, everyone knows that. He was practically asking to be attacked," I told them.

"There's something else," Harry said, watching me grab the knotgrass and handing it over to Hermione. She tore up the little bundles before throwing them into the potion. "Dobby came to visit us in the middle of the night."

Ron and Hermione looked up, amazed. We had all thought that the last time that Dobby had visited us - the disastrous episode with the violet pudding - had been the last time that we would ever see the house-elf. We had been shocked enough to see him again. Harry told them everything Dobby had told us - or hadn't told us. I even mentioned his comment that I would always be in danger, but never mortal. Hermione seemed to think that this was a good thing. As dangerous as things got, I would never be in danger for my life. Hermione and Ron listened to the whole story with their mouths open.

It was a long time before one of them managed to speak again. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione finally asked.

Harry looked over at me. "Tara..." he practically pleaded.

I took in a deep breath and nodded, ignoring the confused look on Ron and Hermione's faces. I had never told them about the dream. I hadn't wanted to get them all paranoid. I hadn't even wanted to tell Harry, but I knew that I couldn't keep it to myself. It was something that I'd had to tell him. And now it had gotten to the point that I had to tell Ron and Hermione, too.

"I know. I need to tell you both something." The two of them nodded. "Remember when I fell asleep in Potions the other week?" I asked. Hermione nodded immediately; Ron gave a little grin before nodding as well. "I had a dream. This man - he was all fuzzy, I couldn't make him out - he was telling me that the Chamber had been opened before," I said.

Their mouths dropped open in surprise. We now had two guarantees that someone had opened the Chamber before. "And someone died last time." The color drained from their faces. "He was saying that they won't stop until someone dies this time. He - He seemed to know, or at least, be surprised that I could hear the voice. The one that Harry and I can hear. He told me that he was my friend. He was saying that he couldn't hear the voice, that there were very few people that can, but there are others. I asked him if I did it, and he said that in a way, I was responsible," I said, my voice dropping into a shaking whisper at the end.

Ron leaned forward and grabbed my hand. I squeezed it gently, feeling just the slightest bit better. It was nice to know that I wasn't alone. "You are not doing this, Tara," he told me.

But what if it was possible? People sleepwalked. What if I went into some type of trance when I did it? "It's possible to do things and not even remember. But, I don't think that I could. I was asleep in the hospital wing when Colin was attacked," I tried to convince myself. But another nasty thought popped into my head before I could convince myself of my innocence. "But Harry... the only possible witness... was asleep. He wouldn't have known if I'd gotten up and done it."

Hermione leaned forward and shook her head at me. "Stop it. It was just a dream, Tara. It means nothing. It's your subconscious playing tricks on you," she snapped.

Feeling sick to my stomach, I took a deep breath. "There's something else. He told me that the clues were right in front of us. We just have to look harder," I said. The three exchanged a look between themselves. They then looked back at me, wondering if anything else had happened. I shook my head. "That was the last thing that he told me before I woke up..."

"He's right. And that's why we're doing this," Hermione said.

"You're fine, Tara, you didn't do this. In fact, this just solidifies who did do it," Ron said. I knew that he was thinking that it was Malfoy getting into my head or something like that. And right in front of me... That could have been him.

It looked like Ron was about to say something else, but I spoke over him before he could. I needed to get everything out there. "There's one more thing. I got another box," I said.

At this new revelation, Ron dropped the book that he was holding open for Hermione, and Hermione herself dropped the ladle that she was using to stir the potion. "What? You told us that you would tell us!" she shouted. I blushed guiltily, knowing that I should have told her when it happened. "When did this happen?" she asked, quieter this time.

Thinking back, I said, "A few weeks ago. I got one at the beginning of summer but I didn't tell anyone. It just had a note with it. 'Well done.'" Hermione glared at me, realizing that I'd been keeping this to myself for a long while. "This one came with something. A wooden piece carved into a fang. It had the same thing, eighty-three, carved into it. It came with another card. 'Time is short.' It's a warning. It was a warning. Colin... Time is short. Someone will be killed in no time," I said quickly.

The looks on their faces devastated me. If I'd told them about the note, maybe we could have stopped the attack on Colin. No... We still didn't know what the monster was. We couldn't kill something that we didn't even know what it was. But the fang... And the number... What the hell was with that number? Eighty-three was clearly very significant to someone. But who? And why? A year didn't make sense to me and there was nothing else that I could think that eighty-three could deal with. The number of attacks the first time? Why would it have been carved into the presents from last year though? Every time that I thought about it, it made my head hurt.

We were silent for a long time as Hermione tried to fix the little mistake she'd made with the potion. "Have you ever seen Lucius Malfoy's handwriting?" Ron finally asked me.

That was when I realized that he thought that Lucius Malfoy might have been sending it to me. And he might have. I'd never seen his writing before. But would he really do something like that? "Well... no," I muttered, realizing that I didn't have an argument against it.

"This settles it," Ron said in a triumphant voice. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear old Draco how to do it." The man... If only I could have asked him when he'd done it. "It's obvious. Wish Dobby had told you two what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around the school."

That was the number one question; what could it be that was attacking the students at Hogwarts? What could Petrify people and take orders from someone else? "Maybe it can make itself invisible," Hermione said, prodding leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself - pretend to be a suit of armor or something. I've read about Chameleon Ghouls -"

"You read too much, Hermione," said Ron, pouring dead lacewings on top of the leeches. He crumpled up the empty lacewing bag.

Those were the easy parts. But we needed the more difficult things. And we only had the week to get them. "So, when do I need to go to Hogsmeade?" I asked, changing the subject slightly.

Hermione and Ron exchanged a nervous glance. I assumed that something had happened with that part of the plan. We can't risk that anymore, Tara. They're monitoring the hallways too closely now, with Colin attacked. We can't risk it," Hermione said. I sighed but nodded anyways. If I got caught trying to sneak out of Hogwarts, I'd be expelled for sure. "We'll just have to steal from Snape."

I wasn't quite sure that stealing from Snape was safer, but at least we would be on Hogwarts ground. "It's more dangerous but... we've come this far. We can't stop now," I said.

Everyone nodded their agreement. We had already started. There was no turning back now. "So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm and your finger and collarbone..." Ron shook his head. "You know what, guys? If he doesn't stop trying to save your lives he's going to kill you." The tense air was broken as we all laughed loudly.

The happy air of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom didn't linger for long. The news that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now lying as though dead in the hospital wing had spread through the entire school by Monday morning. The air was suddenly thick with rumor and suspicion. The First Years were now moving around the castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone. It didn't help that people seemed to think that Harry and I were the ones with the motive to hurt Colin. They seemed to either think that we hated the constant pictures or the constant harassment.

There were very few people that seemed to not think that Harry and I were the Heirs of Slytherin. Or one or the other. The Prefects still believed - of course - that nothing was wrong. They would yell at the other students to leave Harry and I alone. The Slytherin's were always laughing and helping along the rumors. I assumed that they were still bitter that they had lost to us in Quidditch. Malfoy still seemed beside himself with fury. The Hufflepuff's seemed to be a smidgen nervous around Harry and I, but I had heard Cedric defending me to some of the younger students, saying that I had never been anything but nice. I smiled that at least someone believed me that I wasn't.

My issues went beyond the rumors that surrounded Harry and I. Daily I was checking myself over for any signs that I might have been sleepwalking, and I'd even set traps around my bed - which had tripped me up in the morning a few times - but nothing was ever triggered. Every night I was having terrible dreams where I would wake up in cold sweats. Bright yellow eyes would normally flash at me before I woke up, sometimes shouting in surprise. I hadn't dreamed of the man since that Potions class, but sometimes I swore that I heard his voice, whispering to me as I walked through the halls. It had made me very jumpy.

One of the worst things that I had been dealing with was the constant surveillance of Argus Filch. He seemed dead-set on proving that I was the Heir of Slytherin. He, of course, was still determined that I had been the one to Petrify Mrs. Norris, even with the assurance from Dumbledore that I hadn't. So he now followed me around, determined to catch me doing something that I shouldn't have been doing. In the meantime, the professors kept having to tear up his detention slips that he was writing to me for everything from taking too long in the bathroom to staring too intensely at other students.

Ginny Weasley, who sat next to Colin Creevey in Charms, was one of the most distraught people over his Petrification. Fred and George had been trying to cheer her up, but I felt like they were going about it in the wrong way. They were taking turns covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statues. It was probably a better way to cheer someone up from a bad breakup, not the attempted murder of their friend. They only stopped when Percy, apoplectic with rage, told them he was going to write to Mrs. Weasley and tell her that Ginny was having nightmares. Fred and George insisted that they were only trying to help.

They were some of the few people that managed to find the slightest bit of humor in the situation. Meanwhile, hidden from the teachers, a roaring trade in talismans, amulets, and other protective devices was sweeping the school. I rolled my eyes, pointing out to everyone that nothing that they were selling would actually work. This only increased the rumors that I was Slytherin's Heir. They seemed to think that I was trying to make it easier to take them out. I swore that I'd seen a few people motioning necklaces and charms towards me in the halls. Neville bought a large, evil-smelling green onion, a pointed purple crystal, and a rotting newt tail before the other Gryffindor boys pointed out that he was in no danger; he was a Pureblood, and therefore unlikely to be attacked.

He didn't believe that Harry or I had done it, but that only made him even more nervous. "They went for Filch first. And everyone knows I'm almost a Squib," Neville said fearfully.

Everyone felt terribly for him. Neville was not the worst wizard that I'd ever seen. He certainly wasn't the most useless either. He had his moments. He certainly wasn't good at Defense Against the Dark Arts or Charms. But, with practice, I had faith that he could get better. He might have been better at Potions if he didn't have Snape breathing down his neck all of the time, waiting to see how he managed to mess up. But he wasn't bad with History of Magic, and his mark in Herbology was quite good. It was one of the better ones of the First Years; Hermione, Malfoy, and myself the only ones that bested him.

Things did get better as the days dragged on and there were no more signs of any attacks. People were getting a little calmer without a sign of an attack and the rumors died slightly. It didn't mean that whispers and pointed fingers didn't follow me around wherever I went, but people were starting to talk to me again. It helped that Harry and I were the heroes of the last Quidditch game. Oliver couldn't have been more clueless to the attacks. He just seemed to be thrilled about the win that we'd had over Slytherin. Unless we lost against both Hufflepuff and Slytherin, it would be almost impossible for us to lose the Quidditch Inter-House Championship.

My nerves were starting to feel a little less frayed these days. There was no evidence that I was getting out of bed and attacking the other students, even without my own knowledge. The dreams had stopped, too, and that made me feel much better. The man in my dreams was probably trying to help me, but it did little more than make me even more nervous. The fang still sat in my desk and on the nights that I couldn't sleep - which were most of them - I would poke at the tip, trying to figure out why the sender had thought that this was important. And, in the back of my mind, I was wondering when the fatal attack would happen.

In the meantime, there were things to keep that off of my mind. In the second week of December, Professor McGonagall came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I signed her list. A few days earlier, we had heard that Malfoy was staying, which, I had to admit, did strike me as suspicious. Especially considering the way that he'd made such a big stink about feeling sorry for people that weren't wanted at home for the holidays last year. It also helped that the holidays would be the perfect time to use the Polyjuice Potion and try to worm a confession - or admission of someone else's guilt - out of him.

For a while, I had thought that staying at school would prove as an issue with my parents. But it hadn't, much to my pleasure. Mom and Dad hadn't minded that I was deciding to stay at school. They thought that it was good that I had so many friends that I wanted to be around. Plus they were still working overtime at the Ministry. They had promised to send my gifts and that we would take a major vacation at some point this summer. It worked out for everyone. Plus, it would be nice to spend Christmas with Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

Once we were all sure that we would be able to stay for the holiday, we had turned back to the potion. So far there were no issues, but we were only halfway there. Unfortunately, the potion was only half finished and there was no way to move on until we had all of the ingredients. We still needed the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin, and the only place that we were going to get them was from Snape's private stores. Or the apothecary in Hogsmeade, but we had agreed that doing that would be only in the event of an emergency. I knew that all of us - with the exception of Hermione - I felt that I'd rather face Slytherin's legendary monster than let Snape catch us robbing his office.

He was already looking to expel us. Thursday afternoon's Double Potions lesson was looming closer. We only had another day to figure out what to do. We knew that we had a plan forming, but we needed to actually figure out the details. "What we need is a diversion. Then one of us can sneak into Snape's office and take what we need." We were sitting in the Common Room, speaking in hushed tones. The three of us looked at her nervously. "I think I'd better do the actual stealing. You three will be expelled if you get into any more trouble, and I've got a clean record. So all you need to do is cause enough mayhem to keep Snape busy for five minutes or so."

"That's no safer than actually stealing the ingredients," I pointed out to her.

"It's the only chance that we have," she argued.

And she was right about that. So I smiled feebly. Deliberately causing mayhem in Snape's Potions class was about as safe as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye. But, that evening, I had figured out the perfect distraction to cause. And it started with getting Fred and George out of their room. Harry and Ron kept them busy - thankfully with a very panicked Ginny - trying to cheer her up. In the meantime, I slipped up the staircase to the boy's dormitory as Hermione chatted with Lee. Thankfully their other roommates were nowhere to be found. I burst into the room and looked around. For the most part, it looked like a normal dorm.

But as I opened their trunks - the only place that I could think that they would be hiding it - my jaw dropped. How much time did these boys use to make pranking devices? I must have been right about them wanting to open their own joke shop after Hogwarts. They had something that looked like a toy flying car prototype, two plastic ears attached by a string, a hat - that I didn't want to know what its purpose was - what appeared to be a trick wand, and something that appeared to house a mini snowstorm. There were also a whole bunch of things that looked like fireworks. I was very careful not to touch them. I did grab what I was looking for, stuffed at the very bottom. Their last box of Filibuster Fireworks. It seemed like they had enough.

Quickly shutting the trunk - after convincing myself that I shouldn't take anything - I headed back downstairs. It seemed that the twins were none the wiser about what had happened. But it didn't stay that way for long. As I was going up to bed, they both stopped me, warning me to light the fireworks in a confined space if I was trying to cause a distraction. I'd smiled and thanked them, earning a promise that one day they would demonstrate everything that I had seen in the trunk.

Then it was finally time for the Potions lesson that we had been waiting for. I'd never wanted to go to Snape's classroom so badly. Potions lessons took place in one of the large dungeons. It was always freezing cold and echoed badly. Thursday afternoon's lesson proceeded in the usual way. Twenty cauldrons stood steaming between the wooden desks, on which stood brass scales and jars of ingredients. Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish remarks about the Gryffindor's' work while the Slytherin's sniggered appreciatively. Draco Malfoy, who was Snape's favorite student, kept flicking puffer fish eyes at Ron and Harry, who knew that if they retaliated they would get detention faster than you could say unfair. He merely glared at me, probably hoping for another Bludger to break my other collarbone.

Snape came by my cauldron towards the end of class and I backed away, letting him look at the Swelling Solution. He merely scowled at it for a while - since I'd made sure that nothing was wrong with it - before telling me that I hadn't worked fast enough. I rolled my eyes as he wanted over to Harry. His Swelling Solution was far too runny. I knew that he was too busy waiting for Hermione's signal. Snape paused to sneer at his watery potion, Harry mostly ignoring him. When Snape turned and walked off to bully Neville, Hermione caught Harry and I's eyes and nodded. Then I gave Ron a nod.

Ron called over Snape to ask him a question about the potion. It was mostly so that we could keep Snape looking away from what we were doing. Giving Harry a little nod, he ducked swiftly down behind his cauldron. I watched carefully as he quickly pulled the last of Fred's Filibuster Fireworks that I had stolen last night out of his pocket, and gave it a quick prod with his wand. The firework began to fizz and sputter. The two of us stepped back and I motioned to Goyle.

I would have much rather thrown it in Malfoy's potion, but Goyle was an easier target. Harry straightened up, took aim, and lobbed it into the air at my insistence. Snape seemed to be getting fed-up with Ron. It landed right on target in Goyle's cauldron. Goyle's potion exploded, showering the whole class. People shrieked as splashes of the Swelling Solution hit them. Malfoy got a face-full and his nose began to swell like a balloon; Goyle blundered around, his hands over his eyes, which had expanded to the size of a dinner plate. Snape was trying to restore calm and find out what had happened. Through the confusion, I saw Hermione slip quietly into Snape's office.

Thankfully we'd been under the desk when it had happened, so nothing got on us. "Silence! Silence!" Snape roared. "Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draught. When I find out who did this -"

If he ever knew that we had done it, I was absolutely sure that he would murder us in our sleep. Harry tried not to laugh - but failed - as we watched Malfoy hurry forward, his head drooping with the weight of a nose like a small melon. I couldn't help it. I burst into loud a bought of laughter, many of the remaining Gryffindor's following. As half the class lumbered up to Snape's desk, some weighted down with arms like clubs, others unable to talk through gigantic puffed-up lips, I saw Hermione slide back into the dungeon, the front of her robes bulging. I couldn't help it. I let out a huge breath. We'd done it.

It was a long time that Snape had to take care of everything that had happened. He was very quick about ushering the students around, everyone standing back from Goyle's cauldron. When everyone had taken a swig of antidote and the various swellings had subsided, Snape swept over to Goyle's cauldron and scooped out the twisted black remains of the firework. There was a sudden hush. Even my echoing laughter from Malfoy's predicament had stopped. I knew that Snape was going to have the head of the person that had done it. Hopefully he would never find out that it was us.

"If I ever find out who threw this. I shall make sure that person is expelled," Snape whispered.

Despite the fact that I knew that none of the students had done it, I saw that they all looked terrified. No one wanted to be wrongly accused by Snape. Even being rightly accused by Snape was torturous - case and point, the Whomping Willow incident. Harry and I arranged our faces into what I hoped were puzzled expressions. But it didn't look like it. We still looked guilty. Snape was looking right at Harry, and the bell that rang ten minutes later could not have been more welcome. Everyone sprinted from the room faster than I'd ever seen before.

We were dashing back to the bathroom as we began speaking, glad to be out of Snape's reach. "He knew it was me," Harry told us as we hurried back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "I could tell."

Unless he had a video camera - which wizards were too stupid to understand were actually useful - there wasn't a problem. "There's a problem..." Hermione said. Well, there went that idea.

Our heads snapped back to her. "What?" I asked quickly.

Hermione sighed deeply. "He was out of bicorn horn. It had a little note attached to it. Get more this weekend. We can't wait that long!" she hissed under her breath as we pushed into the empty corridor and slipped into the bathroom. Myrtle was crying, but, as usual, she left us in peace. "If we wait we'll have messed this batch up and have to start again. And if we try again to distract Snape we could get expelled. Plus it will be after the Christmas holidays and that was our best bet," she continued.

Dropping my bag with Ron, he caught it and watched what I was doing out of the corner of his eyes. I slipped out of my Hogwarts robes. I'd worn Muggle clothes in the event that this happened. Hermione and Harry were over at the cauldron as I straightened out my jeans and black sweater. I reached into the bag that Ron was holding and slipped out the white winter coat that was over it. Seeing as classes were over for the day, if I was spotted in these clothes, it would be nothing abnormal.

Ron was looking at me like I had lost my mind as we walked over to Harry and Hermione. I was slipping on my scarf. "We've still got a plan. Hogsmeade. I'll go. It was the plan in the first place anyways," I said.

There was nothing else to do. Hogsmeade had always been a good plan. Now we were going to have to enact it. Hermione threw the new ingredients into the cauldron and began to stir feverishly. She would have to be careful until we got the bicorn horn. "It'll be ready in two weeks as long as you can get the bicorn horn today," she said happily.

"I will. Give me half an hour and I'll be back here," I told them.

Hermione watched as I slipped off the Mary-Jane's that we had to wear for classes, and slid on my boots. Harry was going through my bag to get the coin purse. "Snape can't prove it was you. What can he do?" Ron asked Harry reassuringly.

"Knowing Snape, something foul," Harry said as the potion frothed and bubbled.

"Keep the potion brewing! I'll be right back!" I shouted at them as I ran out.

"You have money?" Harry called after me.

Jangling my money pouch at him, I nodded. "Got it," I said.

Slipping out of the bathroom, I sprinted down the hallways. Thankfully most students were already out of class and were hanging around in their Common Rooms or the Great Hall until dinner. No one would spot me. I dashed into the hallway off of the Charms classroom and gave the hallway two long looks before standing in front of the one-eyed witch statue. Glancing around once more, I slipped my wand out of my boot and muttered the password, watching as the statue moved out of my way. I sat down on the edge of the trapdoor that was underneath it and was about to slide into it when I heard a cough come from behind me.

My heart stopped. How had someone seen me? I'd checked that no one was here. I turned back slowly and prepared for any excuse that I thought that I could have given the person who had caught me. But, when I saw who it was, I laughed. "Well, if there's someone that could have caught me here, I'm glad that it was you," I said.

Cedric Diggory smiled at me and leaned down. "I show you this passage out of the goodness of my heart and the next time that you slip out of here, you do it without me. I'm offended, Tara," he said playfully.

"Shut up," I snapped at him, laughing anyways. "I'm actually here for an academic purpose."

"Oh?"

"I need to go to the apothecary," I explained plainly.

Of the many things that I could imagine that Cedric was thinking that I wanted to do in Hogsmeade, I could tell that going to the apothecary was not one of them. "You are aware that we have a student cupboard?" he asked me slowly.

I nodded at him. "Sure. But what I need isn't there," I said.

Cedric nodded at me slowly and I had to resist being rude and telling him that I needed to be off. "Well, what do you need? Maybe I have it," he offered. I hadn't thought about asking someone if they had it...

"I need a bicorn horn," I said hopefully.

The look on his face told me that he definitely didn't have one of those. I groaned. "Well... I definitely don't have that. What kind of potion are you making that you need something like that?" he asked me. I prepared a lie, but I couldn't find one. It turned out that I didn't need to. He held up his hand to stop me from speaking. "Actually, no. No, no, no. I don't want to know. I don't want to be accessory to whatever you and your friends are doing," he said.

Laughing softly, I shook my head at him. "No faith," I teased.

"I have lots of faith. Mind if I tag along?" he asked. I was a little surprised that he was asking me. "I'm not meeting my friends in the library for another half an hour and I have nothing to do in the meantime."

Well, he was the one that had showed me this passage in the first place. And some company might have been nice. "Sure. Come on. I gotta be fast," I said quietly. Cedric nodded and motioned me down.

Quickly I jumped into the passage. I grunted a little as I scraped my knees on the fall. I stepped back and motioned for Cedric to follow me down. He closed the trapdoor behind us and motioned for me to light my wand. I did so and blushed slightly as he started to change his clothes. He - like me - wanted to look like he was not coming from Hogwarts. He dropped his bag and robes on the ground, leaving them for when we came back. He pulled off the sweater vest that he was wearing and the tie. He unbuttoned two of his buttons on the white shirt and showed me his clothes. The pants looked a little like a uniform, but it looked better.

Nodding at him, I motioned for him to walk with me. We went quickly through the passage before heading into Honeydukes. Cedric brought himself up first and checked around before helping me up. The two of us quickly stumbled backwards as we dashed out of the room. We stumbled out onto the street of Hogsmeade and I smiled at Cedric. He was obviously very cold. The two of us were getting some strange stares and I blushed softly. They all knew that we were in Hogwarts. So Cedric thought quickly on his feet. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into him, allowing the two of us to appear like a young couple. I was glad that my hat and hair were covering my face. It made me look a little older than thirteen. Maybe not seventeen, but Cedric definitely passed for that old.

The two of us walked quickly down the street, chatting with each other and pretending to be having a nice outing. It was nice, actually, but it didn't change the fact that I was nervous. Letting go of my hand, the two of us walked into J. Pippin's Potions and quickly ducked towards the back of the store. Cedric was the first of us to spot it. The bicorn horn was on the top shelf. He grabbed it and handed it down to me. I thanked him and walked back over to the cashier, smiling at her and handing over the bicorn horn.

"Five Galleons," the cashier said.

"Five Galleons?" I repeated dumbly.

The young woman scowled at me and nodded, wrapping it up and taking the five Galleons from me. "Yes. They're expensive because they're rare," she snapped. She stared at us for a moment before narrowing her eyes. "Aren't you two Hogwarts age?"

My heart lodged itself in my throat. I hadn't thought about what we could say in the event that someone asked about that. Thankfully Cedric was fast on his feet. "We're home-schooled. This is my sister. We're making a run for Mum and Dad," he said, smiling and grabbing my shoulder sweetly.

The cashier smiled at him. "Sweet of you two. Have a nice day," she said, handing me over the package.

"You, too!" I called back to her as the two of us fled the shop and turned back towards Honeydukes. We were halfway there when I glanced over at him and found my mouth running faster than my brain. "Sister, huh?"

Cedric shook his head at me. "Trust me, you're nothing like my sister," he said.

Cheeks flaming like mad, the two of us sprinted back towards the passage in Honeydukes. Cedric provided a little distraction, asking the owner to get something from the top shelf, as I dove into the back room and opened the passage. I felt a little badly for distracting the older man, but he would manage. The two of us flung ourselves into the passage and slammed the trapdoor just as the owner walked back to check if we had tried to distract him to steal something from the back. In a sudden panic, the two of us darted through the passage, not wanting to be caught. We didn't stop until we were back at the trapdoor under the one-eyed witch statue.

Cedric was pulling his robes back on as we tried to even out our breathing. "Quick thinking back there," I told him, referring to when he had told the cashier that we were siblings.

He smiled at me, his face slightly flushes. "Well one of us had to do something," he teased me. I smiled softly as we opened the passage. Cedric climbed up first before allowing me through. "Don't blow up Hogwarts with whatever you're doing."

The moment that the passage closed I let out a deep breath. I wasn't going to be caught. We weren't going to get caught. "Oh, I won't. I promise. Thanks for the help!" I called, giving him a quick hug before turning back to the bathroom. "And for not asking questions..."

"Anytime, Tara. Good luck."

Even as I darted off, I could hear Cedric laughing at me. Not really at me, just at the fact that he knew that I was doing something that I really shouldn't have been doing. Without stopping for the few people that called for me, I slid off my coat - hot from all of the running - and sprinted back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Judging by the timing on my Muggle watch, I had been gone for just over twenty-five minutes. I ran towards the bathroom and quickly opened the door, jumping into it. I could see Harry, Ron, and Hermione jump in surprise as I collapsed to the ground, completely out of breath.

"Did you get it?" Hermione asked me.

Ron and Harry came over to help me back to my feet, allowing me to sit on one of the sinks. "G - Got it," I stuttered heavily, pulling the package that contained the bicorn horn out of my pocket.

Harry grabbed it and handed it off to Hermione as I leaned back against the mirror. "Well done, Tara!" Ron shouted, grabbing me for a hug.

"Thanks guys," I smiled, appreciating the thanks for all of the effort that I'd put into grabbing the horn. "Alright, I need a nap."

Thankfully I had managed to get my nap in. In fact, I'd slept until well after one in the afternoon the next day. Hermione had let me, telling our teachers that I was sick. I really did love her for that. The four of us kept a close eye on the Polyjuice Potion, but until it was ready, there was very little that we could do. We just had to wait and see what happened. If nothing else, it took a lot of the pressure off of us that had been building over the past few weeks. We had finally managed to do something right.

It was a week later that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were walking across the entrance hall after class when we saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas beckoned us over, looking excited. It took a few minutes for us to manage to push through the crowd and actually get to the front. I still couldn't see over most of the excited heads that were reading the notice.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"They're starting a Dueling Club! First meeting tonight!" Seamus said excitedly. I raised an eyebrow at him. "I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days..."

"Dueling? Who's teaching it?" I asked.

As far as I knew, there were never any dueling lessons that were taught at Hogwarts. Not outside of the dismantled Dueling Club that the upper years used to be a part of. "Doesn't say," Seamus told me.

"Well that's cool," I commented.

Ron leaned over to us. "What, you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" he asked, but he, too, read the sign with interest. "Could be useful," he said to us as we went down to dinner. "Shall we go?"

For a while we all looked at each other. But finally we all agreed. Ron wasn't so sure about it but I really wanted to go and it seemed that Harry and Hermione agreed with me. So at eight o'clock that evening we hurried back to the Great Hall. It seemed that most of Gryffindor had come with us. Even the twins had come. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more. It seemed that most of the school had decided to come and check out the dueling club, all carrying their wands and looking excited.

A voice in my ear made me jump slightly. "So you decided to come, too?" Cedric asked me.

I turned back to him and smiled. I wasn't really surprised to see him. "The curiosity got the better of me. Seems that it got the better of you, too," I said, motioning to the wand in his hand.

"It did," he said. I could see that most of his friends were positioned behind him. So were the other Hufflepuff's. They seemed to all love him. Not that I could blame them. Cedric leaned into me and dropped his voice a little so that no one could hear him. "Hogwarts isn't blown up yet so I can assume that your potion worked?"

Smiling at him, I shook my head. "It's not done brewing yet. But, have faith, we haven't messed it up yet," I teased.

Giving me a small laugh, Cedric waved me off. "I wonder who'll be teaching us?" Hermione asked as we edged a little closer into the front of the chattering crowd. "Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young - maybe it'll be him."

Shrugging my shoulders at her, I nodded. I wondered if it might even be Dumbledore. That would be amazing. He was considered one of the best wizards of all time. "That would make sense. Even if it was Snape, I hear he's pretty good with hexes and jinxes," I said.

"As long as it's not -" Harry began, but he ended on a groan.

Following his line of sight, I rolled my eyes. Of course, of all of the many teachers in Hogwarts, it would be him. Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black. They hopped up onto the stage and I nearly smiled. Snape looked beyond furious that he had to be here. The one good thing was that I would have loved to watch Snape hand Lockhart's ass to him. Lockhart quickly undid his cloak that he was wearing and tossed it into the crowd. It was caught by a gaggle of upper year girls, giggling and whispering to each other.

"How is he always around?" I groaned loudly.

Harry and Ron looked about as thrilled to see Lockhart as I did. "He works here," Hermione pointed out.

"Don't remind me," I hissed. A few students behind me laughed.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me?" Excited nods were exchanged through the crowd. "Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions - for full details, see my published works." I couldn't help myself, I gave a very dramatic eye-roll.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart continued, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin." I had a feeling that it was just because he wanted to get a chance to flatten someone after what we had done in his class last week. "Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry - you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

Moving over to Ron and Harry, I spoke lowly. Hermione was too entranced with Lockhart to pay me any mind. "I think Snape would kill him before Lockhart could even move." Both boys snorted at me. "Personally - and this is as much as I hate Snape - I'm rooting for him," I said, giving the offending teacher a long look.

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered in our ears. We both laughed at the thought.

While we spoke, I noticed that the two up on the stage were facing each other. Snape's upper lip was curling. He did not look happy. Or maybe he looked a little too happy. I couldn't help but to wonder why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at me like that I would have been running as fast as I could in the opposite direction. He looked like he was going to eat Lockhart for lunch. Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands dramatically, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"He's talking too much. Snape is going to pounce on him," I muttered to the others.

Hermione looked a little afraid for our teacher, but Harry and Ron looked as excited as I felt. "As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. We all nodded. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth.

"He'd be the one that we'd be burying," I commented softly.

The twitch of Lockhart's jaw told me that he might have heard me. But, to his credit, he stayed focused as he counted down to the first spells. "One - two - three -" Lockhart called.

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape got to it first as he cried, "Expelliarmus!"

It was one of the most popular for non-fatal combative curses. There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor. Malfoy and some of the other Slytherin's cheered. Most of the students were silent with shock. But some of the people that really didn't like Lockhart - myself, namely - were laughing quite loudly. I wished that I could have hugged Snape. And that was saying something. Hermione was dancing on tiptoes.

She did not look happy that our Defense teacher seemed to be very stunned for the time being. Snape seemed unfazed by the whole event. "Do you think he's all right?" Hermione squealed through her fingers.

"Who cares?" Harry, Ron, and I said together.

It was easy to hear the laughter in our voices. As I glanced around, I saw that more and more students were laughing now that they knew that Lockhart wasn't dead. I could see Cedric and his friends laughing loudly at what had happened. He was one of the people that looked the happiest to see Lockhart get knocked onto his ass. In the meantime, as if oblivious to the laughter at his mishap, Lockhart was rising unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end. He began to walk with the assistance of some of the girls standing near him. Some of the boys looked like they wanted to shove him to his feet.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm - as you see..." he trailed off and patted himself. We were all watching him curiously, wondering what his problem was. "I've lost my wand," he said. Everyone went to looking for it. It was a few moments before Lavender Brown - one of my roommates - found it and handed it to him. He smiled at her. "Ah, thank you, Miss Brown," he said before turning back to Snape. He looked like he was about to fall asleep from boredom.

Lockhart cleared his throat and flashed a toothy smile. "Yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy - however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..." Most of the students were scoffing at him. Snape was now looking murderous. It was not a look that I would have wanted flashed at me. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come among you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me."

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were standing close together. We would all make good partners. Although Ron and Harry would have to be careful, considering that his wand was such a problem these days, ever since the Whomping Willow incident. Hermione and I would make a fair pair. She would probably think her moves through a little more, but I was faster and knew the more vicious ones. Not that I would dare to really hurt her. Lockhart teamed Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchley, but Snape reached the four of us first.

We groaned, knowing that he wouldn't let us be together. "Time to split up the dream team, I think. Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Potter -" Harry moved automatically towards Hermione and I. "I don't think so," Snape said, smiling coldly. "Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter." We all scowled at him. "And you, Miss Granger - you can partner Miss Bulstrode. And Nox, you may have Miss Parkinson."

Not far from me stood a snarling Pansy Parkinson. My face turned upwards. That went well. And there went the thought of not being vicious. "With pleasure," I snarled, walking to meet Pug-Face.

Between Harry, Hermione, and I, we had gotten very unlucky with our partners. Or maybe lucky, depending on how you looked at it. I glanced around. The six of us were lined up, Harry and Malfoy on one side of me, Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode on the other. Malfoy strutted over, smirking. Behind him walked a Slytherin girl who reminded me of a picture he'd seen in Holidays with Hags. She was large and square and her heavy jaw jutted aggressively. She was the one that had saved Parkinson when I'd given her a Jelly-Legs Hex last year. Hermione gave Millicent Bulstrode a weak smile that she did not return.

It was a moment later that Parkinson stood across from me. She didn't look happy to see me, but she was twirling her wand eagerly. I grinned. She wouldn't even get to use one spell on me. "That Bludger will be nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you, Nox," Parkinson snarled at me.

"Terrifying. Honestly," I snapped back at her.

"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"

Very few people actually bowed to each other. Ron and Seamus did, so did Cedric and the boy that he was partnered with. But they were some of the few that did. Hermione bowed slightly, but Millicent Bulstrode merely glared at her darkly. Harry and Malfoy barely inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other. Parkinson and I didn't dare to move. If anything, I merely straightened out my back, refusing to show Parkinson even the slightest bit of respect.

"Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents - only to disarm them - we don't want any accidents," Lockhart shouted to everyone in the hall. Screw disarming her... "One... two... three!"

"Anteoculatia!" I shouted.

I'd made sure to say it before Parkinson even for a moment to gather herself. I'd already been ready and already swinging down the second that Lockhart had made it to two. It was absolutely hysterical. As a red light blasted from my wand, Parkinson stumbled backward and hit the ground. She was unable to pull her head up, exactly what I'd been wanting. She was screaming in fury, missing me by a mile on her retaliation, as a pair of antlers now weighed her down. But I wasn't done.

"Depulso!"

The next spell hit her just as hard as the one before that had. It was the Banishing Charm, one of my personal favorites. It wasn't learned until the Fourth Year, but Mom had taught it to me, just in case. The bright white light flashed out of my wand before Parkinson flew backwards. It was essentially the opposite of Accio - the Summoning Charm. She shot backwards and knocked over Millicent Bulstrode. The two remained locked together at Parkinson's antlers. Hermione and I laughed for a good few seconds before the two were able to untangle themselves and Parkinson stumbled back to me.

"Impedimenta!"

She looked furious that I had dared cast another spell at her without her getting a chance to move. I noticed that she no longer had her wand in hand. It had been knocked out. Good. As Parkinson dove for her wand the spell took effect. She slowed down to the point that looked like she was moving in slow motion. The turquoise light was still sitting over her body as I grinned, searching through my mind for another fun hex of jinx or charm that I could use on her.

"Titillando!"

Deciding that I had best use something just to annoy her, I settled on a rather peaceful last hex. Parkinson bent over double, her antlers scraping probably painfully against the ground, as she began laughing in hysterics. It definitely made me laugh as she went through it with screams of profanity. The purple hand-shaped ribbons were tickling all around her and she looked like she was about to lose her mind.

As Parkinson was incapacitated, I looked around. Harry swung his wand high, but Malfoy had already started on his spell. I didn't hear what he said, but his spell hit Harry so hard that it looked like he'd been hit over the head with a saucepan. I gasped slightly and wished more than anything else that he would hit Malfoy back. Not even with a spell. I wanted someone to break Malfoy's jaw. Or nose. Or everything. Harry stumbled backwards, but seemed otherwise unharmed.

Wasting no more time, Harry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy and shouted, "Rictusempra!" A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach and he doubled up, wheezing.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the battling crowd, as Malfoy sank to his knees. Harry had hit him with a very similar Tickling Charm to the one that I had just used on Parkinson.

Smiling at him, I watched as the others battled in the Great Hall. It looked like Madam Pomfrey would be having a busy night in the hospital wing. As if she didn't hate Lockhart enough... Malfoy could barely move for laughing. Harry hung back. I knew that he was trying to be the good guy and not bewitch Malfoy while he was on the floor, but this was a mistake.

Gasping for breath, Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry's knees, choked, "Tarantallegra!" and the next second Harry's legs began to jerk around out of his control in a kind of quickstep.

"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart screamed, but Snape took charge.

"Finite Incantatem!" he shouted.

It was rather amusing the way that everything happened. My laughter at Parkinson's situation halted, Harry's feet stopped dancing, Malfoy stopped laughing, and everyone found themselves able to look up. A haze of greenish smoke was hovering over the scene. Both Neville and Justin were lying on the floor, panting; Ron was holding up an ashen-faced Seamus, apologizing for whatever his broken wand had done; but Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode were still moving; Millicent had Hermione in a headlock and Hermione was whimpering in pain; both their wands lay forgotten on the floor. Harry leapt forward and pulled Millicent off. It looked very difficult.

In the meantime, I walked over to Parkinson. She was still howling curses as she tried to get up. I kneeled down in front of her. "You're right. That Bludger was nothing. How do those antlers feel?" I asked her happily.

She tried to swipe out at me with her fist, but I stepped backwards and she missed. "Dear, dear," Lockhart said, walking through the crowd, looking at the aftermath of the duels. "Up you go, Macmillan. Careful there, Miss Fawcett. Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second, Boot - I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells. Parkinson perhaps a trip to the hospital wing will do you well." I grinned to myself as she was taken away by Millicent Bulstrode. Lockhart looked very flustered standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you -"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Snape said, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Neville's round, pink face went pinker. I growled under my breath. "How about Malfoy and Potter?" Snape offered with a twisted smile.

Lockhart didn't see Snape's malicious intent. "Excellent idea!" he said brightly, gesturing Harry and Malfoy into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room.

Hermione, Ron, and I stood towards the front, not far from Harry. "Break his leg for me," I muttered as Harry walked towards the platform.

"I'll try," he said.

Lockhart leaned forward to Harry as Snape leaned towards Malfoy. I could just hear them. "Now, Harry. When Draco points his wand at you, you do this." He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoop. My wand is a little overexcited," he laughed awkwardly. Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too.

Harry looked up nervously at Lockhart and said, "Professor, could you show me that blocking thing again?"

"Scared?" Malfoy muttered, so that Lockhart couldn't hear him.

"You wish," Harry said out of the corner of his mouth.

Neither Snape nor Lockhart had heard what had just happened. They were both too busy ensuring that their champions would win. Lockhart cuffed Harry merrily on the shoulder. "Just do what I did, Harry!" he cheered.

"What, drop my wand?" Harry asked, making me laugh.

Taking a step closer to him, I muttered, "Redactum Skullus."

Harry nodded at me, knowing that I was trying to help. It would shrink Malfoy's head the size of a pea without causing any permanent damage. I was that that Lockhart wasn't listening. Neither was Snape, and Malfoy still looked too excited to beat Harry in the duel. "Three - two - one - go!" Lockhart shouted.

Harry raised his wand to repeat my spell - which I realized too late that he might not have been able to replicate - but it didn't matter. He wasn't fast enough. Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "Serpensortia!"

Cringing slightly, I realized that I should have known that Snape would tell Malfoy to do something with a snake. Probably thinking that it would either scare Harry or make him look like a fool when he didn't know what to do about it. The end of Malfoy's wand exploded. This was the spell that made Muggles think that there were such things as Snake Charmers. I watched, aghast, as a bright white light flashed through the air and a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between the two boys, and raised itself, ready to strike. Gross. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor. I was one of the few people that remained.

None of the teachers would let it hurt us. Malfoy looked very pleased with himself as Harry stood, stunned. "Don't move, Potter," Snape said lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it."

"Allow me!" Lockhart shouted.

Once more, I rolled my eyes. All Lockhart was going to do was make the snake angry with him. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang. It definitely sounded like something had gone wrong. The snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. There was some scattered laughter, but I noticed that most people were still a little freaked out. The crowd was gradually backing off from the small stage. Enraged from having a spell shot at it, and hissing furiously, the snake slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

A pang of fear shot through me at the idea of what the snake was about to do to Justin. But so did a memory.

Back when we were in Florida, when I was barely old enough to stand, I'd been sitting out in the yard. A Black Racer - a very common snake - had slithered towards me. My parents had called me away from it. They weren't dangerous, but they also weren't exactly friendly. But I'd merely sat and smiled at the snake. And then, despite the fact that I wasn't speaking more than a few little words, I'd held a conversation with it. My parents had looked shocked, eventually grabbing me and yanking me away from the animal. They'd ordered me to stay away from snakes, instilling fear in me at how dangerous the animals were, and I'd never spoken to one again. Not until last year, when we'd gone to Chessington's World of Adventure.

That snake from when we were back in Florida had been about to bite my parents when they'd grabbed me, but I'd told it not to, saying that they were my family. And it had listened to me. It was years ago. I'd never remembered it. Not until this moment. And that was probably exactly the reason that made me do it. Ron and Hermione both grabbed at my arms to stop me, but I didn't. I shoved them off of me and walked forward. And it appeared that I wasn't the only one that had decided to do something about the snake.

Harry had moved forward as well, shouting, "Leave him alone!"

"Get away from him!" I added.

The snake looked shocked. Somehow - inexplicably - the snake slumped to the floor. It turned its head on me before slowly slithering forward. I was just a few feet away from Justin as it slid to the floor, off of the platform where it had been a moment before. Despite the imposing look of the snake, I knew that it was as docile as a thick, black garden hose. The snake gazed back and forth between Harry and I. Somehow I felt the fear drain out of me. I knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now, though how I knew it, I couldn't have explained. It was just like the snake in the garden, back in Florida. It was listening to me.

The snake raised its head slightly, giving Justin another long look, but I stepped forward. "Go back to the stage. Leave him be," I said.

And the snake inclined its head before slithering back up near Harry. It was positioned in between us, almost looking like a little dog who had been scorned by its owners. I gave Harry a little smile, knowing that we had saved Justin and anyone else that the snake might have attacked, and received a smile in return. A second later I looked over at Justin, grinning, expecting to see Justin looking relieved, or puzzled, or even grateful. I was about to tell him that he was welcome, but the words died on my tongue. Justin looked angry and scared. It wasn't just him. Everyone in the small hall were staring at Harry and I like they'd just watched us try to use the Killing Curse on Justin.

The Great Hall was silent. "What do you two think you're playing at?" Justin shouted, breaking the tense silence, and before I could say anything, Justin had turned and stormed out of the hall.

What was his problem? To my absolute shock, everyone was backing away from me. Whatever had just happened, Justin wasn't the only person that was bothered by it. Everyone was. Snape stepped forward, the only one that could manage to get over his shock, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. I almost felt bad for the little snake... large snake. It hadn't done anything wrong. It had been listening to us. We'd stopped it. So what was the issues here?

The issue was that everyone was looking at us like we'd done something terrible. Snape was looking at Harry and I in an unexpected way. It was a shrewd and calculating look, and I didn't like it. The muttering was starting to echo through the room. I couldn't hear any of the voices. All I was aware of was the fact that something bad had happened. Seamus, Dean, and Neville had all stumbled backwards. Parvati and Lavender looked like they were about to faint. Fay was clinging onto her other friend. Hermione and Ron looked like they'd just watched me kill someone. And it wasn't just them. The upper years had hands clapped over their mouths while the First Years looked stunned. Even Malfoy had backed away from us. Parkinson and the other Slytherin's were chattering away quickly. The color had drained from Cho Chang's face.

Every single person in the Great Hall was reacting. But for what? Fred and George were the only ones that didn't look overly-bothered. In fact, they were just staring. In the background, I could see Cedric staring at me with wide eyes. His friends were staring and pointing. I'd seen Cedric look upset with me before, but I had never seen him look almost scared of me before. The moment that I opened my mouth to ask what had happened, a hand grabbed onto the back of my robes. I jumped backwards and saw that it was Ron. His hand reassuringly clasped around mine.

Maybe I had missed something. Maybe it wasn't me. "Come on. Move - come on," Ron said to me.

His hand was also on Harry's robes. Ron steered the two of us out of the hall, Hermione hurrying alongside us. As we went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. I didn't have a clue what was going on, and neither Ron nor Hermione explained anything. Harry and I gave each other a very concerned look. I knew that he was going to ask me what had happened, but, for once, I didn't know what had happened. I was a Pureblood, I should have known about kind of problem that we might have had, but I didn't know about whatever this was. Hermione and Ron didn't let us slow down until we reached the empty Gryffindor Common Room. Ron pushed Harry and I into an armchair.

The two of us fell weakly together. I could feel Harry reach for my hand, and I clasped it tightly around his. "You two are Parselmouths. Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked.

My heart dropped. What the hell was that? "I'm a what?" Harry asked.

"Huh?" I repeated.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione seemed surprised that I didn't know what we were talking about. Ron: "A Parselmouth! You can talk to snakes!" Ron exclaimed impatiently.

"I know. I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once - long story - but it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to. That was before I knew I was a wizard. Tara was talking to it, too," Harry pointed out.

I nodded along with him. "Yeah. I saw that she was one, too. A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron repeated faintly.

"Yes," I said.

"So? I bet loads of people here can do it. Tara can," Harry pointed out.

I had managed to put together enough to realize that this was not a common gift. Not judging by the way that they were looking at us earlier. "Oh, no they can't," Ron said before looking at me. "Tara, why did you never tell him not to do that in front of people?"

"Do what?" I asked.

Ron's jaw dropped. "Do you not know what a Parselmouth is?" he asked me.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I shook my head. "Obviously not," I snapped.

Ron walked back and forth through the Common Room. His hand was placed against his forehead. "You're a Pureblood, how could you -?" He cut himself off and looked back at me. "Your parents never told you... They never knew that you could do it..."

"How would they have known? Just because a snake seemed a little interested in the way that I was moving my jaws?" I snapped. I was sick of people looking at me like I'd lost my mind. I hadn't done anything!

"It - It doesn't sound like normal speaking," Ron said.

He looked very unnerved. So did Hermione. Harry still looked just as confused as I did. Well what exactly did it sound like? I'd heard Harry speaking perfect English. "What? I told it to get away from him," I said.

"That's what you said?" Ron asked. I nodded, not understanding how someone couldn't hear what I was saying. "Tara, it sounds more like you're hissing at them."

Hissing? I didn't do that. "But - I couldn't even hear that..." I muttered.

"No. To you two it sounds like you're still speaking perfect English," Ron told me. I couldn't believe that. We were speaking another language without even realizing that we were. And yet we could hear each other speaking perfectly normal. "It's not a very common gift. Harry, Tara, this is bad."

"What's bad?" Harry asked. Judging by the snappy tone in his voice I could assume that he was starting to feel quite angry. I couldn't blame him. This was infuriating. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin -"

"Oh, that's what you said to it?" Ron asked.

"You heard him!" I shouted.

"What d'you mean? You were there - you heard me -"

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue," Ron interrupted. "Snake language. You could have been saying anything. No wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something." Harry and I exchanged a panicked look. We were trying to save Justin's life. "It was creepy, you know -"

Harry gaped at him. "I spoke a different language? But - I didn't realize - how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?"

It didn't surprise me that Ron shook his head. Both he and Hermione were looking as though someone had died. It seemed that everyone was reacting that way. This was clearly something that no one had ever seen before. Maybe they'd heard of it, but they'd never seen it. I couldn't see what was so terrible. Maybe it sounded a little creepy, but we hadn't done anything.

Looking over to Harry, I curled my knees up to my chest. "I heard what you were saying. You told it to leave him alone," I told Harry.

He nodded at me, laying a hand on my knee. "And you said to get away from him," he said. I nodded at him. "D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head? What does it matter how we did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?" Harry snapped at the others.

"It matters," Hermione said, speaking at last in a hushed voice, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

Of course. I couldn't believe that I hadn't known that. Harry's mouth fell open. My stomach gave a horrible lurch. If the rumors had died down that Harry and I were the Heirs of Slytherin, they were about to churn back up full-force. "Exactly," Ron said. "And now the whole school's going to think you're his great-great-great-great-grandchildren or something -"

"But we're not," Harry said.

The both of us seemed to have had a little panic settle into our chests. I was not a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. Neither was Harry. "I'm not. I'm a Nox. And a Robins. Not a Slytherin," I snarled at Ron.

"You'll find that hard to prove. He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be," Hermione said softly.

Glancing over at Harry, I found another question bouncing around my head. "Are - Are we related?" I asked Harry. He merely stared at me curiously. "If it gets passed on through families, and my mother and father can't do it, and we don't know if yours could, is there a chance that we could be related?" I clarified.

Ron was the one that answered me. "The Nox's and Potter's are both old families. You might be," he said.

That wasn't what bothered me. It might be kind of cool to be related to Harry. I had asked my parents plenty of times when I was younger if we could adopt Harry and permanently make him my brother. They'd always laughed it off. But what if we were related? There was a chance that we could be tenth cousins or something like that. So many wizarding families were related anyways. Distantly, but they were. We ended up not sitting together for that long. Harry and I both felt sick to our stomachs and we went upstairs. I knew that Parvati, Lavender, and Fay were staying in the other girls' dormitory. Hermione came with me, but didn't speak, knowing that I wasn't in the mood.

Once Hermione turned off the light, I tried to go to bed. But I couldn't. I laid awake for hours that night. Nothing that I did helped me get to sleep. Through a gap in the curtains around my four-poster bed, I watched snow starting to drift past the tower window and wondered. Was there a chance that I could be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin? As much as I hated to think it, I might. I didn't know how old the Nox's were. There was as much of a chance that I was, just like anyone else. Even more so now, considering the Parselmouth thing. Quietly, I tried to say something in Parseltongue. The words wouldn't come. Whenever I did say something, it was in English. Maybe I had to be face-to-face with a snake to do it.

But I'm in Gryffindor. The House of the lion, not the House of the serpent. The Sorting Hat wouldn't have put me in here if I had Slytherin blood... But the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin. It wanted to put me there. It had told me that much. But it wouldn't have put me in Gryffindor if it thought that I didn't belong there. My stomach was churning painfully and I wished that I hadn't eaten at dinner. I turned over impatiently. I'd see Justin the next day in Herbology and I'd explain that I'd been calling the snake off, not egging it on. Which any fool should have realized, honestly, stupid kids.

Finally, I realized that I was not going to get to sleep. I stood from my bed and walked towards the door. "Tara?" Hermione asked sleepily.

"Can't sleep. I'm just going to sit in the Common Room for a while," I told her.

Before she got the chance to say anything back to me, I left the room and headed down into the Common Room. I wasn't there long. I kept shifting on the couches, trying to push myself into a more comfortable position. But there was nothing. So I stood and left the Gryffindor Tower, heading up towards the Astronomy tower. I didn't have the invisibility cloak with me, but I couldn't really bring myself to care. Even if I was caught. What would they do? Take a bunch of points from me? Like that hadn't happened before... And I wasn't afraid of something attacking me either. I was a Pureblood. And maybe the Heir of Slytherin. Things were just getting better and better.

Moving into the tower, I sat at the edge. It looked like a class had just left here recently. The door opened behind me, but I didn't move. "Sorry, Professor Sinistra, I just forgot -" a voice called before dropping off. "Oh. Tara." It was Cedric. "They must have all left. I - uh - I just forgot my book," he said. I heard him shift around for a moment before coming to stand behind me. Fourth Year lessons must have been tonight. "What are you doing up here? You'll be in a lot of trouble if you're caught up here."

Laughing humorlessly, I shook my head at him. "Whatever... I can't really bring myself to care. I don't think that things could get much worse for me," I said. Unlike normally, Cedric didn't sit next to me. He merely stood behind me. I couldn't help the little stab of disappointment that shot through me. What were you expecting? "I won't Petrify you. Although I couldn't blame you for leaving," I mumbled to him.

I heard the sigh that Cedric let out. A moment later, he took a seat next to me. He dropped his bag on his other side, staring at me. I probably looked a little silly in my pajamas. "I'm not scared of you, Tara. A little confused... very confused... but I'm not scared of you," he said.

"You're one of the few," I said.

Cedric smiled weakly. I could only assume that he was a little unnerved, learning something like this about me. "What - What did you say to it?" he asked after a beat.

"I told the snake to get away from Justin. Harry told it to leave him alone. Then I told the snake to go back to the stage and leave Justin be," I tried to explain to him.

He would have to take my word for it. As far as I knew, there wasn't really a way that he could understand me. "Oh," Cedric said dumbly. I smiled bitterly. "So you can understand him when he speaks like that?"

Turning over to Cedric, I nodded. "Honestly it doesn't sound any different from English to me. It just sounds... normal," I said. He nodded at me, but didn't seem to understand how I didn't even realize that it wasn't a human language. "I didn't even know that I could do it. I mean, I knew that I could talk to snakes."

"You did?" Cedric asked, sounding very confused.

Nodding at him, I almost smiled at the memory. It was rather funny now that we looked back on it. "I didn't know about this Parseltongue business or anything like that, but a year and a half ago Harry and I went to the zoo with his family. We went to the reptile house after a few hours and Harry and I were standing around the boa constrictor. It was huge. But it wasn't doing anything. It was just sleeping. Until Harry started to talk to it. Sounded like English to me. I was going to tell him that the snake couldn't hear him until it raised its head. I asked it if it could understand me and it nodded."

Cedric seemed very interested at this. I had been, too. I hadn't understood how the snake could understand us. Mostly I'd thought that it was just fascinated as it watched us. We weren't being annoying. "Long story short, Harry's cousin made him angry and he accidentally made the glass vanish. The boa constrictor escaped and thanked us for letting it go. It was going back to Brazil," I said. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that Cedric smiled a little bit. "I didn't know about being a Parselmouth... I really didn't. I didn't even know that this was a thing."

He still seemed caught up on the previous announcement that we had let a boa constrictor out of the zoo to get back to Brazil. "You two let a boa constrictor out?" Cedric asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I nodded. "It was an accident. And I felt bad for it. It was actually quite nice," I said.

That time I knew that Cedric smiled a little. "Well that was... nice of you both," he said, probably unsure of what else he should say.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced over at Cedric and admitted the one thing that I had never admitted to anyone before. The thing that I'd never even remembered had happened. "I did it again back in Florida. I didn't even remember until the snake faced Justin. I was out in my yard when a snake slithered up to me. My parents had told me to come back in but I didn't. I just sat there and talked to it. They came out and yanked me away from it. I thought that the snake might bite them so I told it to leave them alone. It listened to me," I said softly.

"But you didn't know about being a Parselmouth?" he asked curiously.

I shook my head at him. I couldn't believe that my parents had never told me about this. They had to know... "No. My parents never told me about it. If I'd have known, I would have told Harry to never speak to snakes in front of people. I can't understand why they kept it from me... They must have known. They saw me do it," I muttered softly.

We sat in silence for a long while before Cedric looked over at me and grabbed my hand. It felt better. For once, I wasn't thinking of my crush on him, it just felt better to have someone around me. "It sounds like they did know. Maybe they didn't tell you because they didn't want you to worry," he offered.

"The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin. Maybe this is why," I said.

Cedric shook his head and pushed back my slightly tangled hair. I smiled at him, wishing that I was in more than a tank top and pair of black stretch pants. "You're a Gryffindor through and through. I know that you are. So do your parents." I smiled at him. "Just because you've got this... talent," he tried to put in gently, "it doesn't mean that you're a Dark Witch. You're just a little different."

"And evidently the Heir of Slytherin," I put in.

"No you aren't," he snapped at me.

But what if I was? There was a chance that I was. And being a Parselmouth, it only cemented the idea. "So... You can hear it?" I asked him, wondering just what it sounded like.

"Yes," he told me. It must not have been good if everyone could hear us. "You can't tell that you're speaking in another language?"

"No. Sounds normal to me," I said automatically. When I heard Harry speaking, it sounded just like language to me. "What do you know about it?" I asked him after a few beats.

It seemed that he might know. And I wanted to know everything about being a Parselmouth that I could. "It's incredibly rare in any family not descended from Salazar Slytherin. It's normally hereditary," he told me. I nodded at him. That was why people were about to start thinking that we were his Heirs. But did my parents have it? Maybe... Did Harry's parents? "You can't learn it. You can learn to understand it - although that itself is almost impossible - but you can't learn to speak it. They have absolutely terrible reputations because of the Slytherin connection. It's possible to weakly imitate it, but that's hard, too. Just enough so that a snake could possibly understand what you're saying."

That was interesting. You could learn to weakly mimic it and even understand it. But never truly speak it. It was a gift that you were born with. "It can be incredibly hard to speak it if you aren't trained. I think that's what happening with you. You were saying that you could only understand it as English and didn't know that you could do it unless you were in front of a snake. You're untrained. You can't switch back and forth easily. If you learned it, you and Harry could speak to each other in it. Like I said, it's like a foreign language. The two of you could theoretically speak in it if you could learn to control it," he continued. That would be interesting. To converse with Harry in Parseltongue. "You can influence the will of some snakes, too."

That must have been what happened when I told the snake to get away from Justin and to get back onto the stage. "How do you know about all of that?" I asked Cedric after a few beats of silence.

"Read a book on it once. Found it fascinating," he told me. I nodded. His father had probably gotten the book somewhere. I couldn't help but to hope that the parents never found out. They'd petition for Harry and I to be removed from Hogwarts. "When you and Harry steered the snake away from Justin, it was the first time that I'd ever heard it."

"What does it sound like?" I asked curiously.

Ron had said that it sounded like hissing, but I couldn't imagine that it was only hissing. It had to be something else. I could feel my lips moving. "Kind of like a low hissing noise but I can tell that there are some words. They all kind of string together with the hisses," he said. I raised my brows. I couldn't even imagine what that sounded like. "Honestly, it's a little on the creepy side," he admitted.

"Sorry," I muttered.

Cedric shook his head at me and tightened his grip on my hand. "Do you want to try it?" he asked me.

Did I? Kind of. I wanted to see if I could actually learn to control it and not just need to be in front of a snake. I also wanted to be aware of when I did it. "Not going to creep you out?" I asked him.

"Probably," he admitted. We both laughed at the blunt honesty. "But Dad always said that there was no point in fearing something that we can't understand. We can't run away from some things. We can only learn to control them. So... control it."

Smiling at the good advice, I nodded. "Okay." I took a few deep breaths before speaking, "Does it work?"

Cedric smiled and shook his head. "English," he said.

"Damn," I muttered. I couldn't imagine how I would actually be able to manage this. I tried to picture the snake from earlier. "How about now?"

"English."

"Still nothing?"

"English."

"Can you still understand me?"

"English." I groaned and shoved my head into my hands. Cedric sat directly across from me and smiled. "Take a deep breath. Focus. Picture a snake if you need to. Should make it a little easier," he said.

Take a deep breath, Tara. That was exactly what I did. I took a deep breath and followed with a few more. My heart had been heating rapidly and I took a moment to slow it down. Once it was no longer pounding, but beating in a steady rhythm, I closed my eyes. Taking narrow breaths, I pictured the snakes that I had spoken to before. The little black racer in my front yard all of those years ago, the boa constrictor from the zoo, and the snake that had just appeared in the Great Hall.

My eyes slowly opened and I noticed Cedric watching me closely. "How about this time?" I asked.

His hands tensed around mine and I saw the shock settle in his eyes. I knew that I'd done it. "Y - Yeah... That was it..." he muttered.

"What did it sound like?" I asked.

It wasn't an easy question, but Cedric took a breath and tried to explain. "Like you're hissing at me. There's some discernible sound, but it mostly sounds like you're slurring all the words together. Maybe like a really low and jammed together French, with a deflating balloon on top, and - no offense - kind of an evil tone on top of that," he said.

Despite myself, I laughed. That was quite the description of what Parseltongue sounded like. "Well that's disturbing." Cedric nodded slowly. And suddenly a question came to mind, one that I hoped wouldn't freak him out that much. "Could you maybe mimic one word?" I asked awkwardly.

When I thought that he would say no, he surprised me. "I could try," he offered.

Taking a deep breath, I spoke again. "Three," I said.

Cedric cleared his throat and said, "Tensi."

His voice did have somewhat of a hiss to it. It was low and jammed together. I assumed that it was even worse when I did it. But it was creepy enough when he did. Maybe that was why so many people had seemed so freaked out when I had done it. "You're right. That is kind of creepy. And I imagine it sounds even different when I do it. I never knew that I could do all of that," I muttered awkwardly.

"What did you say?" Cedric asked after a beat.

"Three," I said.

He nodded at me and moved to sit next to me. His arm wound around me and I smiled, tucking myself under his arm. "Thank you for being here for me. I wouldn't have blamed you if you wanted to never speak to me again," I said.

He shook his head and I felt his hand tighten over mine slightly. "You're one of my best friends, Tara." I smiled softly at his words. "I would have no right to run away just because I don't understand something that you can do. Just because it's a little creepy and not something that I particularly love, doesn't mean that it affects my feelings towards you."

"People are going to hate me because of this," I muttered.

He shook his head at me, but I noticed that it was a little hesitant. "They might be a little scared of you for a while, particularly after everything that's happened, but you're a good person. Just because people don't understand Parseltongue and Parselmouths doesn't mean that we have a right to hate them. It just means that it's a rare gift, something that people don't understand. It's human nature to fear the things that we don't understand," he explained.

Smiling softly, the urge to make things a little lighter came over me. "I don't think that you need to be in Hogwarts. I think that you can make a living being a motivational speaker," I teased.

Cedric laughed at me. "I'll take that as a compliment," he said.

"It is," I promised. After a beat of comfortable silence I found myself asking, "Do you believe that I'm doing this?"

"No, Tara," he immediately said. "Absolutely not. I don't think that you're doing it and I don't think that Harry is doing it."

"I'm glad to hear that," I whispered.

Cedric gave me a sweet smile and handed me his scarf, knowing that it was cold out here and I wasn't that covered. I wrapped the Hufflepuff scarf around my neck. "I'll always be here for you, Tara. Always." I smiled and pressed a small kiss against his cheek. "But right now it's getting late and you should go to bed. Try and get to sleep and forget about this. In time, the rest of the school will, too."

"Thank you. For everything," I told him. Cedric smiled as he gave me a hand up and walked with me back towards Gryffindor Tower. He never let go of my hand and I appreciated it. "Goodnight, Cedric." He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before allowing me to walk back into the Gryffindor Common Room. I quickly slipped upstairs, and feeling so much lighter, I fell asleep quickly, the Hufflepuff scarf hanging over the back of my chair at my desk.

By next morning, however, things were no better. I felt sick to my stomach, considering that no one was sitting near me or speaking to me. Outside, the snow that had begun in the night had turned into a blizzard so thick that the last Herbology lesson of the term was canceled. Professor Sprout wanted to fit socks and scarves on the Mandrakes, a tricky operation she would entrust to no one else, now that it was so important for the Mandrakes to grow quickly and revive Mrs. Norris and Colin Creevey. It didn't really bother me. I wasn't in the mood to work.

Between Harry and I, things were not going well. People were giving us funny looks and they didn't seem happy to sit anywhere near us. So Harry and I fretted about this next to the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room. There was nothing to do considering that most of our homework wasn't due until we were done with the break. So we were left to stew in our own worry. I did want to talk to Justin and Herbology had been my chance. Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione used their time off to play a game of wizard chess.

"For heaven's sake, Harry, Tara," Hermione groaned, exasperated, as one of Ron's bishops wrestled her knight off his horse and dragged him off the board. "Go and find Justin if it's so important to you."

"Come on," I told Harry.

He nodded at me and the two of us headed out of the Common Room. For a moment we debated on where Justin would be. I suggested heading down towards the Hufflepuff Common Room, but considering that we didn't know the password, it didn't make that much sense. So we settled on heading towards the library. The castle was darker than it usually was in daytime because of the thick, swirling gray snow at every window. Shivering, Harry and I walked past classrooms where lessons were taking place, catching snatches of what was happening within. Professor McGonagall was shouting at someone who, by the sound of it, had turned his friend into a badger. We both laughed and walked by, resisting the urge to take a look.

A group of the Hufflepuff's who should have been in Herbology were indeed sitting at the back of the library, but they didn't seem to be working. Between the long lines of high bookshelves, Harry and I ducked down and watched them. We were about to walk over, but they seemed to be having a tense conversation and I wanted to hear what they were talking about. Their heads were close together. We were standing pressed together, straining our ears to hear. I couldn't see whether Justin was among them. We were about to walk towards them when the content of their conversation stopped me dead in my tracks. We paused to listen, hidden in the Invisibility section.

Ernie Macmillan was speaking. "So anyway, I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, if Potter and Nox have marked him down as their next victim, it's best if he keeps a low profile for a while." Harry and I exchanged a bewildered glance. "Of course, Justin's been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let slip to them he was Muggle-Born. Justin actually told them he'd been down for Eton. That's not the kind of thing you bandy about with Slytherin's heirs on the loose, is it?"

"You definitely think it is Potter and Nox, then, Ernie?" Hannah Abbott asked anxiously.

"Hannah, they're Parselmouths. Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark witch or wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-Tongue." There was some heavy murmuring at this, and Ernie went on, "They're probably working together." Harry and I scoffed at this. "Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. They had some sort of run-in with Filch. He gave her a detention. Next thing we know, Filch's cat's attacked. That first year, Creevey, was annoying Potter and Nox at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of them while they were lying in the mud. Next thing we know, Creevey's been attacked."

It actually wasn't half-bad reasoning, but we hadn't done it. "They always seemed so nice, though," Hannah said uncertainly, "and, well, he's the one who made You-Know-Who disappear. He can't be all bad, can he?"

So they were reasoning out why Harry couldn't have been the Heir of Slytherin. But what about me? They weren't saying anything about why I couldn't have done it. Ernie lowered his voice mysteriously, the Hufflepuff's bent closer, and Harry nodded at me to edge nearer so that we could catch Ernie's words.

"No one knows how he survived that attack by You-Know-Who. I mean to say, he was only a baby when it happened. He should have been blasted into smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that." He dropped his voice until it was barely more than a whisper, and said, "That's probably why You-Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first place. Didn't want another Dark Lord competing with him. I wonder what other powers Potter's been hiding? And what about Nox?" My eyebrows rose. "Everyone knows that she gets away with more than any other student. The way that she speaks to Professor Lockhart, crashing that car into the Whomping Willow, and everything else. She's got to be performing some serious Dark Magic to keep them all out of her hair."

My jaws set together. I hadn't done a damn thing to anyone. Everyone got away with a whole bunch of things at Hogwarts. The only way that someone would get expelled from Hogwarts was if they actually murdered someone. Harry and I couldn't take anymore. Clearing his throat loudly, he stepped out from behind the bookshelves. I walked a little bit behind him, keeping my dark glare set. If I hadn't been feeling so angry, I would have said something in Parseltongue. And I might have found it funny. Every one of the Hufflepuff's looked as though they had been Petrified by the sight of us, and the color was draining out of Ernie's face.

"Speak a little louder next time, kids, I don't think that the whole class could hear you," I hissed at them through clenched teeth.

"Hello. We're looking for Justin Finch-Fletchley," Harry said.

They looked like they were going to run screaming. The Hufflepuff's' worst fears had clearly been confirmed. They all looked fearfully at Ernie. "What do you want with him?" Ernie asked in a quavering voice.

"We wanted to tell him what really happened with that snake at the Dueling Club," Harry said.

Ernie bit his white lips and then, taking a deep breath, said, "We were all there. We saw what happened."

Obviously Harry was just as upset about this whole thing as I was. Maybe even more so. "Then you noticed that after we spoke to it, the snake backed off?" Harry asked nastily.

"All I saw," Ernie said stubbornly, though he was trembling as he spoke, "was you two speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake toward Justin."

"We didn't chase it at him!" Harry yelled, his voice shaking with anger. "It didn't even touch him!"

"I got it off of the ground away from him!" I shouted.

"It was a very near miss. And you got it up level with him so that it could bite him in a fatal spot," Ernie said. "And in case you're getting ideas," he added hastily, "I might tell you that you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks and my blood's as pure as anyone's, so -"

"I don't care what sort of blood you've got! Why would I want to attack Muggle-Born's?" Harry asked fiercely.

"I've heard you hate those Muggles you live with," Ernie said swiftly.

"It's not possible to live with the Dursley's and not hate them. I'd like to see you try it," Harry said.

Ernie shrugged his shoulders and turned towards me. "Come on, Nox, everyone knows that you're one of the oldest Pureblooded families. You must hate all of this disgracing wizard kind with diluted blood," he said.

"The only person here that disgraces wizard blood is you," I snapped.

Grabbing onto Harry's clothes, I yanked him afterwards, not wanting to hear anything else to upset me. Together we stormed out of the library, earning ourselves a reproving glare from Madam Pince, who was polishing the gilded cover of a large spell-book. We didn't even stop to apologize to her. Instead, Harry and I blundered up the corridor, barely noticing where we was going, we were in such a fury. The result was that Harry walked into something very large and solid, which knocked him backward onto the floor. I leaned back and grabbed Harry to help him back to his feet.

"Oh, hello, Hagrid," Harry said, looking up.

I smiled at the half-giant, unable to bring myself to say anything to him. I was still steaming over what Ernie had been saying. Hagrid's face was entirely hidden by a woolly, snow-covered balaclava, but it couldn't possibly be anyone else, as he filled most of the corridor in his moleskin overcoat. A dead rooster was hanging from one of his massive, gloved hands. I cringed slightly and wanted to back off. That was disgusting. Why did he have a dead rooster?

"All righ', Harry, Tara?" he asked, pulling up the balaclava so he could speak. "Why aren't yeh in class?"

"Canceled. What're you doing in here?" Harry asked.

Hagrid held up the limp rooster. "Second one killed this term. It's either foxes or a Blood-Suckin' Bugbear, an' I need the Headmaster's permission ter put a charm around the hen coop." Both Harry and I cringed. Hagrid peered more closely at Harry and I from under his thick, snow-flecked eyebrows. "Yeh sure yeh're all righ'? Yeh look all hot an' bothered -"

I knew that neither of us could bring ourselves to repeat what Ernie and the rest of the Hufflepuff's had been saying about us. "It's nothing. We'd better get going, Hagrid, it's Transfiguration next and we've got to pick up our books," Harry explained.

We walked off from Hagrid with a little wave and a promise that we would come see him soon. We were halfway down the hallway when I glanced over at Harry. "We're not doing this," I said, feeling less convinced about it.

"I know," Harry said.

It didn't sound like he was convinced either. The two of us walked off, my mind still full of what Ernie had said about us. "Justin's been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let slip to them he was Muggle-born..." We weren't doing this. We couldn't have been. I stamped up the stairs and turned along another corridor, which was particularly dark; the torches had been extinguished by a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane. I shivered and moved in closer to Harry. We was halfway down the passage when we tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.

The two of us groaned as Harry helped me back to my feet. What the hell had we fallen over? I turned to squint at what we'd fallen over. I wished that I hadn't almost immediately. It felt as though my stomach had dissolved. Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight I had ever seen. And I'd seen many. It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and trans- parent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

My hand clasped over my mouth. "Oh my God, they've been Petrified. It's getting worse," I muttered to Harry.

My hands were shaking. "We have to help him," Harry said.

Grabbing onto his arm, I stopped him. We had to leave. We couldn't stay. Not with everything happening. "We have to leave. Harry, someone else will find them. But you and I, things are too bad already, we can't risk hanging around here. They're fine. We need to leave," I told him, panicking slightly.

"Tara, they're hurt," Harry said.

I shook my head at him. I felt terrible, but we had to leave. "We'll be expelled if we get caught here. We're in enough trouble," I said.

But I couldn't bring myself to leave. My breathing fast and shallow, my heart doing a kind of drum-roll against my ribs, I took a step towards Justin and Nick. I looked wildly up and down the deserted corridor and saw a line of spiders scuttling as fast as they could away from the bodies. Just like the other night. The only sounds were the muffled voices of teachers from the classes on either side. I knew that we should run, but I couldn't. But if we were caught... Would anyone believe that we hadn't had anything to do with this? As we stood there, panicking, a door right next to us opened with a bang. Peeves the Poltergeist came shooting out.

I jumped slightly and glared at Peeves. "Why, it's potty wee Potter! And foxy Nox!" Peeves cackled, knocking Harry's glasses askew as he bounced past us. "What are Potter and Nox up to? Why's Potter lurking -"

Peeves stopped, halfway through a midair somersault. Upside down, he spotted Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He flipped the right way up, filled his lungs and, gave me just enough time to say, "Please don't, Peeves."

"Attack! Attack! Another attack! No mortal or ghost is safe! Run for your lives! Attaaaacckkk!"

Peeves's bellow called forth nearly the entire castle. Door after door flew open along the corridor and people flooded out. For several long minutes, there was a scene of such confusion that Justin was in danger of being squashed and people kept standing in Nearly Headless Nick. Harry and I were pinned against the wall as the teachers shouted for quiet. Maybe we wouldn't be blamed. Professor McGonagall came running, followed by her own class, one of whom still had black-and-white-striped hair. She used her wand to set off a loud bang, which restored silence, and ordered everyone back into their classes. Everyone disappeared begrudgingly.

No sooner had the scene cleared somewhat than Ernie the Hufflepuff arrived, panting, on the scene. "Caught in the act!" Ernie yelled, his face stark white, pointing his finger dramatically at Harry and I.

"We just found him!" I shouted.

"That will do, Macmillan!" Professor McGonagall said sharply.

There were a few students that were lingering at the door of their classrooms. To my horror, I saw Cedric. He shook his head at me, but it wasn't like he was disappointed in me, it was more like he was telling me to keep calm and not rise to the bait. Peeves was bobbing overhead, now grinning wickedly, surveying the scene; Peeves always loved chaos. As the teachers bent over Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, examining them, Peeves broke into song, as he usually did when things were bad.

"Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done, oh Nox, sly as a fox, oh what have you done, you're killing off students, you think it's good fun -"

"That's enough, Peeves!" Professor McGonagall barked, and Peeves zoomed away backward, with his tongue out at Harry and I.

My stomach threatening to spill itself onto the floor, I watched closely. Justin was carried up to the hospital wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Nearly Headless Nick. In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan out of thin air, which she gave to Ernie with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs. This Ernie did, fanning Nick along like a silent black hovercraft. It was almost comical. It now left Harry and I alone together with Professor McGonagall.

"This way, Potter, Nox," she said.

"Professor," Harry said at once, "I swear I didn't -"

"We would never -" I tried before being cut off.

"This is out of my hands, Potter, Nox," Professor McGonagall said curtly.

Harry and I exchanged a horrified look with each other. This wasn't our fault. There was no way that we could have done this. We hadn't even been around Justin. But... What if? What if we had been so angry about everything that we'd somehow set the monster loose on Hogwarts and Justin? Could we have even done that? No. There was no way... We marched in silence around a corner and stopped before a large and extremely ugly stone gargoyle that I'd never seen before.

"Lemon drop!" Professor McGonagall said.

It must have been the password, because the gargoyle sprang suddenly to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two. Even full of dread for what was coming, I couldn't fail to be amazed. Behind the wall was a spiral staircase that was moving smoothly upward, like an escalator. Professor McGonagall stepped onto it, motioning Harry and I behind her. We both nodded and stepped on. I heard the wall thud closed behind us as the staircase continued to spin. We rose upward in circles, higher and higher, until at last, I saw a gleaming oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin. My stomach sank. We were about to be expelled. This was Dumbledore's office.


	30. The Polyjuice Potion

It felt like the staircase spun for all eternity. Finally, after what felt like ages, we were allowed to step off the stone staircase. It stopped spinning at the top and I found myself feeling very sick. I didn't know anyone that had ever been sent to Dumbledore before. No one came up here unless they had done something incredibly terrible, and, right now, everyone thought that Harry and I had done something terrible. My stomach gave another lurch as Professor McGonagall rapped on the door. It opened silently and we entered together.

Barely giving us a look, Professor McGonagall told us to wait and left us there, alone. As much as I knew that I should have sat down and pretended that I was ashamed in myself, I didn't. I began to pace around the office. Harry and I looked around as we both looked back and forth. One thing was certain, and it was not my faith that we would be kicked out. Of all the teachers' offices that I had visited so far this year, and last, Dumbledore's was by far the most interesting. If I hadn't been scared out of my wits that we were about to be thrown out of school, I would have been very pleased to have a chance to look around it.

The place itself was fascinating and it was larger than any of the other offices that I had been in. "Wow," I whispered as we walked back and forth. "This is where Dumbledore lives."

"Look at all of this stuff," Harry said as we walked back and forth.

More than anything, I just wanted to see what was here. I wanted to know what it was that made Albus Dumbledore tick. He was such a strange character. We were standing in a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames. The only one that I knew was Armando Dippet, the previous headmaster of Hogwarts that Dumbledore had succeeded. There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk that I assumed was where he normally sat.

Stumbling around the room, I found myself standing at the edge of Dumbledore's desk. I couldn't help myself, I peered over it. Most of it was paperwork of students and many, many, letters from the Ministry of Magic. But - in a barely open drawer - there was a picture. They looked very pleased with themselves in the picture. They were dressed very similarly and it seemed to be very old. They appeared to be brothers, but I could have been wrong. I assumed that one of them was Dumbledore, but I would have never been able to tell which. He looked so different now. Of course, if one of them was Dumbledore, it looked to have been taken right after his Hogwarts years.

"Tara," Harry's voice called.

Glancing back at him, I very gently pushed the picture back into its place, closing the drawer just the way it had been before, and walked back over to him. "What?" I asked.

Harry was pointing up towards a stand just behind Dumbledore's desk. "The Sorting Hat. It's right over there," he said.

Neither one of us should have been surprised. After all, I knew that someone would have to keep it safe during any time other than the Sorting Ceremony. But, still, I was surprised to see it here. Harry was looking at the Hat with the same hesitance that I was. With all of this Heir of Slytherin nonsense, it had made us both doubt that we should be in Gryffindor. He wanted to try on the Sorting Hat again. And, honestly, would there really be a problem with that? Harry cast a wary eye around the sleeping witches and wizards on the walls. He walked quietly around the desk, lifted the hat from its shelf, and lowered it slowly onto his head. It was much too large and slipped down over his eyes.

"Harry..." I whispered.

"I just want to see," he argued with me.

He was standing right next to the stand that it had been on a moment before. I came to stay at his side, curious as to what it would say. "I want to see it when you're done," I told him.

Harry nodded very slowly at me, probably not wanting to knock the Sorting Hat off of his head. "Bee in your bonnet, Harry Potter?" I could just barely hear the Sorting Hat say, since the room was silent and I was so close.

"Er, yes," Harry muttered stupidly. "Er - sorry to bother you - I wanted to ask -"

As the Sorting Hat lost its patience with Harry, I rolled my eyes. "You've been wondering whether I put you in the right House," I could just barely hear the Sorting Hat say to him. "Yes... You were particularly difficult to place. But I stand by what I said before. You would have done well in Slytherin -"

Harry didn't let the Sorting Hat say anything else. He reached up and grabbed the point of the Sorting Hat and pulled it off. I felt a little bit bad for him. I knew that he was hoping that it would say something else. He wanted some type of confirmation that he wasn't related to Salazar Slytherin. But, I couldn't help thinking, that neither one of us would ever get that answer. The Sorting Hat hung limply in his hand, grubby and faded. Harry pushed it back onto its shelf, probably thinking about telling me not to use it.

"You're wrong," he said aloud to the still and silent Sorting Hat. It didn't move. Harry backed away, watching it. "Go for it," he told me.

I moved forward and grabbed the Hat, slipping it over my eyes. When the Sorting Hat spoke, I could hear the amusement in its voice. "Two perturbed young ones in one day," the Sorting Hat said.

"You know what I'm here for," I said impatiently.

The Hat let out a little breath, making the hair around my face flutter slightly. "Just like Mr. Potter, I stand by what I said to you that day. I do not make mistakes. I would have not placed you in Gryffindor if I felt that you showed no promise there, but it was always a second choice. I wanted to put you in Slytherin. But I did not, because I knew that you would fight against it the entire time," the Sorting Hat told me.

My heart sank into my stomach. It had only placed me in Gryffindor because it thought that I would be annoying and hateful if it placed me in Slytherin... The exact House that I belonged in. The only condolence that I had was the fact that the Sorting Hat wouldn't have shouted Gryffindor if it thought that I showed no promise. If nothing else, there was at least part of me that did belong where I was. But I still couldn't get it out of my head. I would have been better off in Slytherin. It wanted to place me there. So maybe I really was the Heir of Slytherin. Harry could be, too. But we weren't attacking the students. We couldn't be...

Clearing my throat, I blinked back the tears that were rising to the edge of my eyes. "Well... Thank you for at least taking my preference into consideration," I said, unable to think of anything else to say.

Ripping the Sorting Hat off of my head - messing up my hair in the process - I slammed the Sorting Hat back onto the shelf, rudely hoping that I had hurt it. "Still says Slytherin?" Harry asked me sadly.

"Yes," I muttered.

The two of us simply stood there for a moment before moving forward into a tight hug. We moved back and smiled weakly at each other. Harry straightened out my hair as we stepped back. It looked like he was about to say something, but right then a strange, gagging noise behind us made the two of us wheel around. We wasn't alone after all. Standing on a golden perch behind the door was a decrepit-looking bird that resembled a half-plucked turkey. Harry and I stared at it and the bird looked balefully back, making its gagging noise again. I moved forward slowly, myself feeling terrible for the poor thing. It looked very ill. I couldn't believe that Dumbledore had a bird like this. Maybe he felt bad for it. Its eyes were dull and, even as we watched, a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.

That was when I realized what the bird was. It wasn't just a sick songbird. It was a phoenix. It must have been close to its Burning Day. They were normally large swan-sized scarlet birds with red and gold plumage, along with a golden beak and talons, black eyes, and a tail as long as a peacock's. The scarlet feathers would glow faintly in darkness, while the golden tail feathers are hot to the touch. They would live to an immense age and were incredibly powerful. They could even be reborn from a Killing Curse. This was the only domesticated phoenix that I had ever seen. They were incredibly hard to domesticate. The only other that I knew of was Sparky, the New Zealand mascot.

"It's coming to the end of its life," I told Harry.

Harry glanced up at me with wide eyes. I could tell that he didn't know what the bird was and was tempted to do something to save it. He didn't realize that this was kinder. Sit and do nothing. "Should we do something?" Harry asked me.

I shook my head and said, "No."

It looked like Harry was about to tell me that leaving the bird here to die was cruel, when the bird burst into flames. Harry yelled in shock and backed away into the desk. I nearly laughed. He thought that he had killed the bird. It wasn't really funny, but it kind of was. With all of the panic, we should have figured that today would be the Burning Day for the phoenix. Harry was looking feverishly around for something. Maybe water. The bird, meanwhile, had become a fireball; it gave one loud shriek and next second there was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash on the floor. Harry's face had gone from white to green.

He moved back to do something, maybe try and find something, but I grabbed his arm. He was staring at me desperately. "It's fine, Harry! It's fine. The bird is fine. It's a phoenix," I tried to tell him.

Harry looked at me like I had lost my mind. "It just died, Tara! I'm not getting blamed for killing it!" he shouted at me.

"No, you don't understand -" I didn't get to finish my thought because at that exact moment, the office door opened. Dumbledore came in, looking very somber.

If the situation wasn't so serious, I would have laughed at the look on Harry's face. He looked like he was about to cry. "Professor," Harry gasped. "Your bird - We couldn't do anything - he just caught fire -"

To Harry's astonishment, and my amusement, Dumbledore smiled. I was about to laugh when Dumbledore spoke again. "About time, too. He's been looking dreadful for days; I've been telling him to get a move on." He chuckled at the stunned look on Harry's face. Harry probably thought that we had both lost our minds. Dumbledore was smiling at me, obviously aware that I knew what the creature was. "Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch him..."

Leaning over to Harry, we stood over the ashes. "That's what I was trying to tell you. They don't die. Just live another life. I've never seen one on a Burning Day," I said softly.

Actually I'd never really seen one before. I'd seen a few phoenixes in pictures and things like that, but I'd never actually seen one in real life. I couldn't believe that Dumbledore had one. Of course if anyone could domesticate a phoenix, it would be Dumbledore. Harry and I looked down and I smiled. The phoenix was coming back as a newborn. It was only a minute after it had burned when a tiny, wrinkled, newborn bird poke its head out of the ashes. It was quite as ugly as the old one, but it would be gorgeous in a few days, when it reached adulthood again.

"It's a shame you did have to see him on a Burning Day," Dumbledore said, seating himself behind his desk. Harry and I followed him over, standing awkwardly at the edge of the desk. "He's really very handsome most of the time, wonderful red and gold plumage. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers, and they make highly faithful pets."

For a moment I thought that I might have seen Dumbledore's eyes flicker to the drawer with the photo in it, but I was sure that I was just being paranoid. In the shock of Fawkes catching fire, and seeing a phoenix for the first time, I had forgotten what we were there for, but it all came back to me as Dumbledore settled himself in the high chair behind the desk and fixed Harry and I with his penetrating, light-blue stare. My throat closed itself as I looked for something to say. But what could I say? Was there anything to say? There was nothing to do other than to plead that we hadn't done anything and we just had the worst timing of anyone that someone could ever meet.

But the moment that I opened my mouth to try and argue the many reasons that I could think of that Harry and I should not be expelled, Dumbledore opened his mouth. Mine immediately snapped shut. It would probably be better for him to speak anyways. I wasn't really sure where I could go with this. Before Dumbledore could speak another word, however, the door of the office flew open with an almighty bang and Hagrid burst in, a wild look in his eyes, his balaclava perched on top of his shaggy black head and the dead rooster still swinging from his hand. All three of us turned back in shock at the new addition.

It was only Hagrid that seemed to not understand the strangeness of his appearance. Here he was, in Dumbledore's office, holding a dead rooster, looking wild and crazed. Lovely. "Hagrid?" I asked slowly.

He ignored me and began to go on a rant. "It wasn' Harry or Tara, Professor Dumbledore!" Hagrid yelled urgently. I almost smiled. At least someone was willing to stand up for us. "I was talkin' ter them seconds before that kid was found, they never had time, sir -" Dumbledore tried to say something, but Hagrid went ranting on, waving the rooster around in his agitation, sending feathers everywhere. "- it can't've bin them, I'll swear it in front o' the Ministry o' Magic if I have to -"

"Hagrid, I -" Dumbledore tried before being spoken over once more.

"- yeh've got the wrong kids, sir, I know Harry an' Tara never -"

"Hagrid!" Dumbledore said loudly but not impatiently. He still looked nonplussed, merely wanting to get in a word edgewise. "I do not think that Harry or Tara attacked those people."

The breath went out of my lungs. We were safe. Be damned what everyone else in the castle thought, we were safe since Dumbledore didn't think that we were doing it. "Oh," Hagrid said dumbly, the rooster falling limply at his side. "Right. I'll wait outside then, Headmaster."

And he stomped out looking embarrassed. Despite myself, I smiled a little bit. It was rather amusing. Finally Harry spoke. "You don't think it was us, Professor?" Harry repeated hopefully as Dumbledore brushed rooster feathers off his desk.

"No, Harry, I don't," Dumbledore said, though his face was somber again.

"Well that's a relief," I breathed out.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled slightly but the somber look on his face hadn't faded yet. "But I still want to talk to you both," he told us.

We both nodded. Even if Harry and I had wanted to leave straight away, there was no way that we could walk out on the Hogwarts Headmaster. That was asking to get kicked out. So we stood back and waited nervously while Dumbledore considered us, the tips of his long fingers together. It felt a little bit better knowing that we weren't going to get expelled, but that didn't change the fact that I was nervous. There were lots of things that could still happen to us. Maybe he would tell us that we really were the Heirs of Slytherin and we were summoning the monster somehow. That would have been the highlight of my day.

But he said none of those things. I was actually a little bit surprised by what he did say. "I must ask you, Harry, Tara, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me. Either one of you. Anything at all," Dumbledore said gently.

My first reaction was to laugh. There were so many things that I could have asked him. We would be here until our Fifth Year if I asked him everything that was on my mind. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know if there was anything to say. There was simply too much on my mind. I thought of the smaller things. The moment when Malfoy had shouted that we would be next, the ways that he called us Mudbloods, the Polyjuice Potion simmering away in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, the disembodied voice that we had now heard twice, all of the rumors and the whispers that everyone was saying about us, and my growing dread that I was somehow connected with Salazar Slytherin.

That wasn't even everything. And that was why I had enough questions to fill a phone book. There were so many questions. I thought about everything that was bothering me. What significance did the number eighty-three mean and who was it that kept sending me the packages. I wanted to ask about the dreams that I'd had of the faceless man, the way that I was connected to Voldemort, if he knew who had opened the Chamber of Secrets the first time, if he had any clue what the monster was, how I had become a Parselmouth, and so many other things. There were too many things that were on my mind. It was probably half of the reason that I couldn't sleep these days.

We were taking far too long and I knew that. "No. There isn't anything, Professor," Harry finally said.

"No, Professor," I added.

Dumbledore gave us a long glance; perhaps he was wondering if we were being truthful or perhaps he was giving us a chance to change our answer. But we said nothing, and finally, he nodded. "Then you may both leave," he said.

We thanked him for believing us and headed out of Dumbledore's office as quickly as we could without running. The breath was coming out of me in ragged gasps. I was shocked that we had gotten out of that with nothing worse than a little chat about whether or not we had anything that we wanted to tell him. Harry and I stood with Hagrid outside of Dumbledore's office for a little while and thanked him for coming to our rescue. He'd smiled at us with the promise that he would always be there. We hadn't stood together for long before Hagrid had sent us on our way, warning us to stay with each other and out of trouble in the meantime.

With the promise that we would, Harry and I headed back to Gryffindor Tower. We were nearly there when Harry glanced over at me. "Should we have said something?" he asked.

"I don't know..." I muttered under my breath. Maybe. Or maybe we would have just made ourselves look even more suspicious. But Dumbledore was always so helpful. "Probably," I admitted.

The two of us sighed at each other before heading back towards Gryffindor Tower. We arrived quickly and ran into Hermione and Ron, who were still playing wizard chess. They'd barely glanced up at us to ask what had happened and why we'd taken so long. It took the admission that Nearly Headless Nick and Justin had been the latest victims of the attack. The moment that we had said that, we'd drawn their full attention. We'd explained everything that had happened and even told them about the trip to Dumbledore's office, telling them that he clearly didn't think that we were doing anything wrong.

It appeared that Ron thought that this was a good thing. He told us that we should be proud of ourselves for at least having Dumbledore believe that we hadn't done anything. Hermione kept telling us that while it might mean that we weren't going to be expelled, we still had to be careful. In her words, which were correct, Dumbledore wouldn't claim our innocence in front of the school. As relieved as I was to know that I wasn't going to be expelled for something that I hadn't done, she was right that the entire school were now going to believe that we had attacked Justin. And I couldn't rely on Cedric to tell all of Hufflepuff House that we hadn't done anything.

Before Transfiguration that day had ended, things were absolutely terrible. People were now sprinting away from Harry and me in the corridors, and the rumors only got worse as Christmas drew nearer. The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had hitherto been nervousness into real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? People were asking that to each other - and Harry and I - all day long. What terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas.

It made me sick to my stomach to think that something was this dangerous and deadly. "At this rate, we'll be the only ones left. Us, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. What a jolly holiday it's going to be," Ron told us one day as classes drew to a close.

Crabbe and Goyle, who always did whatever Malfoy did, had signed up to stay over the holidays, too. It wasn't surprising. More Slytherin's were staying than anyone else. I had a feeling that it was because they were hoping to see another attack. It would leave very few people in the school. But Harry and I were both glad that most people were leaving. I was tired of people skirting around me in the corridors, as though I were about to sprout fangs or spit poison. That wasn't everything, though, people were absolutely terrible. Those that were afraid of me would start muttering, pointing, and hissing as I passed. Those that weren't would ask me where the Chamber of Secrets was, how many generations were between myself and Slytherin, what creature I was setting on the students, and how I'd managed to Petrify Nearly Headless Nick.

There were so many more questions than that. But those were just some of my favorites. Today I'd already been asked how many times a week I went down to the Chamber of Secrets and if there was a method to who I was choosing. Someone else had even had the gall to ask me if I was simply waiting to drive up the tension before I chose to murder the first student. I'd screamed so loudly that I'd gotten twenty points taken from Gryffindor for the interruption. I was also reasonably certain that no Ravenclaw would ever talk to me again. It was one of their students that had asked me. Cho Chang had been forced to take the girl away from me, crying. She'd been screaming that she would be my next target.

Jaws ground together, I'd moved along, trying to ignore the scathing glare that was being sent my way by the Ravenclaw students. Thankfully there were people that were able to make light of the situation. I'd never been so happy to have Fred and George Weasley around in my life. Fred and George, against everyone else in the school, found all this very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry and I down the corridors, shouting different things to make the two of us smile. It had even made some other students come to Harry and I's side, seeing that if Fred and George found our being the Heirs of Slytherin funny, so should they.

Today as we'd been walking towards the Great Hall, they had been following Harry and I, making little gestures above our heads. "Make way for the Heirs of Slytherin, seriously evil witch and wizard coming through..." It helped that I happened to be angrily munching on a Sugar Quill. The twins had stolen it.

While some people thought that it was funny, Percy was deeply disapproving of this behavior. "It is not a laughing matter," he said coldly.

"Oh, get out of the way, Percy. Harry and Tara are in a hurry," Fred said.

"Yeah, they're off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with their fanged servant. That evidently has a sugar tooth," George said, taking the rest of the Sugar Quill in one bite, chortling at the put-out look on my face. I had been eating that...

It turned out that it wasn't only Percy that was bothered by the twins' behavior. Ginny didn't find it amusing either. "Oh, don't," she wailed every time that they made a new comic routine.

They each had their own questions for both Harry and I. It had impressed me that they were so good at coming up with them on the spot. It also made me wonder when they managed to find time to study for their exams. After all, they did have their O.W.L.'s next year. But they didn't seem bothered by that. Instead, they spent their free time messing with Harry and I. Fred would ask Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, and George would pretend to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they met. When it came to me, Fred would ask me if a kiss would save him from Petrification, and George would offer to be my slave if I would tell him the secrets.

They had no idea what it really meant to me that they were making fools of themselves to make me feel just a little bit better. As Ginny and Percy stomped off, I glanced over at the twins. "Thanks, you two. It feels a little better knowing that someone believes that I didn't do anything," I said softly.

Fred and George wrapped their arms around me, crushing me in between the two of them. "No way you're smart enough to figure out how to open the Chamber of Secrets," Fred teased me.

Snorting softly, I shook my head. "Thanks. I think..." I muttered.

Fred leaned into me and dropped his voice so that only George and I could hear him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were standing just a little ways off. "You wouldn't happen to be able to speak to spiders, too?" Fred asked.

"Leave your poor brother alone," I told them.

They'd also thought that it was very funny that I could speak to snakes. They thought that going to India and showing Muggles how I could control snakes would earn me a fortune. They'd even offered to be my manager. I hadn't laughed so hard in days. "Oh, come on, you know that it would be funny," George argued with me.

"Goodbye, boys," I said, heading back to the others.

It didn't really bother me at all that the twins thought that Harry and I being the Heirs of Slytherin were completely ridiculous. I would much rather be related to... well... anyone. But not Slytherin. Not with the terrible reputation that he had. So I merely smiled and laughed as the twins made their jokes. I knew that Harry felt better that their antics were causing the panic in the school to turn some people over to laughter. The only person - besides Percy - that it really seemed to be bothering was Draco Malfoy. He looked increasingly sour each time he saw them at it. Even right now I saw his gaze narrow into little slits at their words.

As we walked, the four of us were glaring at him. "It's because he's bursting to say it's really him. You know how he hates anyone beating him at anything, and you two are getting all the credit for his dirty work," Ron said knowingly.

My eyebrows narrowed. As much as I hated Malfoy, I still couldn't believe that it was him. He had looked so shocked when he learned that Harry and I were Parselmouths. Maybe it was because he was now thinking that it was us. "Not for long. The Polyjuice Potion's nearly ready. We'll be getting the truth out of him any day now," Hermione said with a proud tone.

"I still can't believe that it's him. I think he's bothered because he knows that it's not us," I said.

Ron shook his head at me. "You have too much faith in him," he said.

I shook my head back at him. "I have almost no faith in Malfoy, which is exactly why I don't think that he did it. He's not powerful enough to open the Chamber of Secrets," I retorted.

The moment that Ron opened his mouth to rebut the argument, Cedric's voice called out through the hallway. "Hey, Tara." I turned back and smiled at him. "Can we talk?" he asked me, looking at my friends.

"Sure. I'll see you guys later," I said. Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded at me before strutting off, leaving Cedric and I mostly alone in the hallway. He was one of the few that didn't seem scared to be alone with me. "If you're about to ask me how I Petrified a ghost - which, by the way, you would be the ninth person today - I'm going to lose my mind," I warned him.

To my surprise, Cedric smiled. "I was not intending on asking you that, although, that is a good question." I nodded at him. It was curious to know how something had managed to Petrify a ghost. "I just wanted to ask you how you're doing."

Laughing humorlessly, I knew that I shouldn't have done that. It was rude. So I smiled awkwardly. "About as good as someone who's being blamed for attempted murder could be," I muttered.

Cedric gave me a guilty smile as I blushed. Here he was, trying to be nice, and here I was, being a brat about the whole thing. "Are you going home for the holidays?" he asked me after a few beats.

Shaking my head at him, Cedric looked a little surprised. "No. I'm staying here with Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley's." Just like last year, Fred, George, and Percy would be staying. Ginny, too. "Mom and Dad are busy at the Ministry these days and I might enjoy the castle a little more if I'm left in peace," I explained.

It also helped that I didn't really want to face my parents right now. Maybe eventually I would get the answer out of them for why they'd kept the Parseltongue ability from me, but for right now, we were in a good place and I didn't want to do anything to change that. My parents were good people and I assumed that they hadn't told me because they'd wanted to protect me. It was sweet in their own way. They didn't know that I would accidentally reveal the incriminating ability in front of all of Hogwarts.

"Then I'll send your present here," Cedric told me, interrupting my thoughts.

Shaking my head at him, I prayed that he wouldn't send me something. Because I didn't have a chance to get him anything. Unless I wrote home to ask Mom and Dad to get something. "Don't. Because I can't get you anything this year," I said softly.

Cedric smiled at me and shook his head. "I don't need anything. You're good enough," he said.

A heavy blush flooded my face. "Charming," I said softly, not wanting to say anything more that might make me sound like an idiot. "I suppose that you aren't suspicious that I did something to Justin?" I asked after a few seconds of silence.

He almost immediately shook his head at me. I had figured that he didn't, but it still made me feel a little better. I had been slightly afraid, considering that Justin was in Hufflepuff. "You were friends with Justin. You stopped the snake from attacking him that day. I think that you have the worst timing of absolutely anyone that I know, but I don't think that you did anything wrong," he said.

He was definitely right about the timing comment. It was why I laughed and nodded at him. "I'm really glad to hear that," I said honestly. "So you're going home over the holiday?"

Cedric nodded at me with a small smile. I imagined that he was happy to head back home and see Amos Diggory for a few days. "Yeah. Dad wanted me to come home and celebrate the holidays with him." I smiled at him. "We've got a few spare rooms. If you want to get away from the castle for a few days you could always stay with us," he offered sweetly and somewhat awkwardly.

He seemed to be very bashful about asking me. Laughing softly, I blushed a little. If we weren't going to use the Polyjuice Potion, I would have taken him up on it. "I really do appreciate that a lot. But I do have some reasons to stay here," I said. Cedric nodded at me. "Hopefully doing something that will clear my name. From more than just you and Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, and the few other people that actually believe that we didn't do anything."

He raised his brows at me and I smiled innocently. He wouldn't get me in trouble, but it was probably for the best that he didn't know what was happening. "Try not to get yourself into any more trouble than you are already in," Cedric teased.

Laughing softly, I shook my head. Somehow I was sure that I'd always be in trouble about something or another. "I'm not so sure that that's possible. Have a happy holiday," I told him.

"You, too, Tara."

We gave each other a quick hug and I was about to turn and walk away when I remembered something. Stopping dead in my tracks, I turned back to Cedric. "Wait!" I called after him. He turned back to me and raised an eyebrow curiously. "Let me give you your scarf back."

Cedric merely smiled at me. "Keep it for now. It looks better on you anyways," he said, turning and walking away before I could say anything back. The stupid blush on my face was tell enough how I felt about that.

At last the term ended, although my embarrassment over the fact that I couldn't take a compliment didn't, and a silence deep as the snow on the grounds descended on the castle. Everyone had gone back home, leaving less than twenty people in Hogwarts. I found it nice and peaceful rather than gloomy, and enjoyed the fact that Hermione, Harry, the Weasley's, and I had the run of Gryffindor Tower. We were the only Gryffindor's that had stayed. It meant that we could play Exploding Snap loudly without bothering anyone, and practice dueling in private. I'd blasted off Fred's eyebrows the other day, much to my own amusement. Fred, George, and Ginny had chosen to stay at school rather than visit Bill in Egypt with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

It was probably because things were a lot more fun here. Apparently hanging out with Bill in Egypt was nice, but they talked about adult things a little too much and that got boring. Percy had stayed, too. But he didn't like to have fun with us. He disapproved of what he termed our childish behavior and didn't spend much time in the Gryffindor Common Room. Not that it really bothered us. He could really be a prat sometimes. He had already told us pompously that he was only staying over Christmas because it was his duty as a Prefect to support the teachers during this troubled time.

No one really cared what he thought. We did hope that he would at least spend some time with us on Christmas morning. And, when I woke up on that exact day, I found myself unperturbed by the Chamber of Secrets and the Heir of Slytherin for the first time in months. The snow was falling and I bounced out of bed, ready to go harass the others awake. Hermione was gone and I stood from the bed, ready to hunt her down and see where she was.

But it was the moment that I started to gather my clothes together that Hermione walked into the room. She was already fully dressed and carrying presents. "Merry Christmas, Hermione!" I chirped.

She smiled at me as she spotted that I was awake. I could see the little roll of her eyes. "The one day of the year that you actually wake up on time." We both laughed as she ran forward and hugged me. "Happy Christmas, Tara!"

"Let's go get the boys. We can all open presents together," I told her, grabbing the few presents that I had by the foot of my bed.

Christmas morning was cold and white as I changed into my clothes for the day. I wore a pair of black stretch pants and a white oversized shirt. I wanted my pajamas, but I knew that I should at least try and look like a normal human being. Once I pulled my hair up, I nodded at Hermione and we tottered down the stairs, walking back up to Harry and Ron's room. They were the only ones left in their dormitory. I could hear the boys groan at the opened door, but they merely rolled over in bed.

"Wake up," Hermione said loudly, pulling back the curtains at the window.

The boys still didn't move. I rolled my eyes at the two of them and tossed a shoe at Harry, watching as he covered his head and grunted in pain. I plopped myself on Ron's back, shouting at him, "Get up!"

"Hermione - Tara - you're not supposed to be in here," Ron said, shielding his eyes against the light.

Rolling my eyes at him, I chirped in surprise as Ron tipped me off of him. I sat with my knees folded up next to him on the bed. "We missed you, too. Come on, we're going downstairs and opening presents," I told the boys.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," Hermione snarled at him, throwing him his present. I whacked it out of his hand as he attempted to open it. We would all be doing that together, not the second that we woke up. "I've been up for nearly an hour, adding more lacewings to the potion. It's ready," Hermione announced.

So that was where she had been this morning... Harry sat up, suddenly wide awake. "Are you sure?" he asked her.

"Positive," Hermione said, shirting Scabbers the rat so that she could sit down on the end of Ron's four-poster bed. "If we're going to do it, I say it should be tonight."

My jaw dropped. No way. Today was supposed to be a day to celebrate. And that wasn't really a celebration that I wanted to do tonight. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after. "It's Christmas!" I howled at her.

"I'm with Tara on this one," Ron said.

"It's the best day to do it, " Hermione argued.

The two of us exchanged a little look and I sighed. She was right. As much as I wanted to just enjoy the day, she was right. We had to do it before we risked the potion getting diluted or weaker. If it was ready today, we had to use it today. "Alright..." I muttered, Ron and Harry nodding their consent as well. "Better have gotten me a damn good present," I snapped.

The four of us smiled and hugged each other before heading downstairs into the Common Room. We were all crowded together in front of the fireplace as we waited for the rest of the Weasley's to join us. It wasn't long before Fred and George came bounding down, bringing their own presents. There was a small stack of presents over by the fireplace. Fred plopped himself in my lap and I groaned at his weight, shoving him onto George and kicking them away from me. The others laughed as we fathered around. The twins told us that Percy was already gone, but had left us our presents. We laughed at the thought that he couldn't even be here for Christmas presents.

At that moment, Hedwig and Dai swooped into the room, Hedwig carrying a very small package in her beak, and Dai a much larger one that seemed to be weighing him down. I laughed and walked over to the window, grabbing the present from his beak and allowing him to take the weight away from him. It was a second later that, unsurprisingly, Rusty followed them into the room. I smiled at him as he hopped around with Dai. The two seemed to have become fast owl friends.

"Hello," Harry said happily as Hedwig landed on his bed. "Are you speaking to me again?"

I assumed that he hadn't seen her since we had arrived at Hogwarts almost four months ago. Poor Harry. "Hi, Dai. And Rusty," I chirped as both owls hopped over to me, nudging against me. "Hello, boys."

Harry glanced over at me and suddenly spotted the additional owl. "Whose owl is that?" he asked.

"Cedric's..." I said awkwardly.

Both Fred and George began making kissy noises, not that it shocked me. Hermione gave me a small smile as Rusty dropped a parcel with me. Harry glared at me and I rolled my eyes. "Of course," Ron muttered.

Rolling my eyes, I looked around at everyone else to see what was going on. Fred and George must have snuck some breakfast pastries out of the kitchens because they were passing them around. Ginny seemed the most relaxed that I had seen her in weeks. It seemed that Hedwig loved Harry again as she was nibbling on his ear in an affectionate sort of way, which was a far better present than the one that she had brought him, which turned out to be from the Dursley's. They had sent Harry a toothpick and a note telling him to find out whether he'd be able to stay at Hogwarts for the summer vacation, too. We had laughed for twenty minutes at their generosity.

We glanced around as the presents that everyone else got from the rest of us. I watched Harry open his presents enthusiastically. These were much better than his Christmas's with the Dursley's. It turned out that the rest of Harry's Christmas presents were far more satisfactory. Hagrid had sent him a large tin of treacle toffee, which he decided to soften by the fire before eating. Ron had given him a book called Flying with the Cannons, which I'd made a big fuss about, a book of interesting facts about his favorite Quidditch team, and Hermione had bought him a luxury eagle-feather quill. Harry opened the last present to find a new, hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake.

My own presents were a smidgen more extensive. I'd gotten a large package from my friends back in the States - whom I kept in somewhat regular contact with - that contained photos of them. Some were old with me in them and others were new, ones from new memories. They were put together in a scrapbook for me to comb through, with a note to not ever forget them. And I wouldn't. They had been my first friends. I was glad that I'd sent them all little things. There was also an invitation to stay with them over the summer. At some point I was sure that Mom and Dad would take me back for a week or so.

I glanced through the rest of my presents quickly. Hagrid had sent me a pack of my favorite tea that he used, Hermione had given me a supposedly indestructible quill, Ron had jokingly gotten me a Chudley Cannons blanket - which I had to admit was very soft. Percy had gotten me a new roll of parchment that didn't re-roll itself while you weren't pressing on it, since I was always complaining about that. Ginny had gotten me what appeared to be a handmade bracelet. Fred and George had pooled their money to get me a shirt made for me. I would have yelled at them had I not been so busy laughing. It read Heir of Slithering on it and had a screened image of me slithering across a Quidditch Pitch. It had made me feel much better.

That was about the extent of my presents this year. It appeared that quite a few people still thought that I was the Heir of Slytherin. Although Harry had gotten me a new set of knee pads - since I'd broken mine a few weeks ago during a practice - and Mrs. Weasley sent me some homemade fudge and a Weasley sweater that I happily pulled on. Mom and Dad had gone with one gift between the two of them. It was a rather nice set of bed sheets, with the Stars emblem on them, and the Gryffindor colors around it. I'd smiled brightly. And then I turned to the last present that I could see. The one from Cedric. I read the card first.

Elephant,

Some people have strange things about themselves that they can't explain. Things that they might be ashamed of. The things that other people might say don't affect us. The only thing that matters is what we think of ourselves.

And I, for one, think the world of you.

I hope that the day comes soon that you think the same thing of yourself.

Love always,  
Giraffe.

Blushing like mad, I stuffed the card away someplace safe and opened the package. It was a book. A Theory and Brief History of the Parseltongue Language. It was the book that he had told me about. I smiled at the worn book and gently slid it out of sight. I was happy that he had sent me something like that, but I didn't really want the others seeing. I intended to read the book through one day. There was something else stuffed at the bottom of the package that I pulled out. Smiling softly, I realized what it was. It was a picture of the two of us. Yellow, scarlet, black, and gold stripes went around the edge of the frame. On the inside was a picture - that I realized with a sudden pang of guilt - which Colin Creevey must have taken. Cedric and I were sitting together by the lake. I was in the middle of a laugh and he was looking at me with a bright smile. Engraved into the bottom were the words: There's always something to smile about.

Trying to get my mind off of the overly-sweet present, and feeling terrible that I'd only managed to get him some of the extra candy that I loved and a new pair of Quidditch gloves, I read over Mrs. Weasley's card again. The moment that I did, though, I wished that I hadn't. Because the card came with a fresh surge of guilt. I kept thinking about Mr. Weasley's car. The Ford Anglia hadn't been seen since its crash with the Whomping Willow. It still had a warning out to look for it. And here we were, never learning our lesson, about to break more rules.

"We'll be back in a few minutes," Fred and George announced together.

"Where are you two going?" I asked.

"Going to go see if Percy got our Dungbombs," George called back to me.

Grinning to myself, I called after them, "Take pictures!"

Probably wanting to give us some time to ourselves, Ginny bounced off after them to see her brother. I smiled and packed some of my new things away, cleared up the mess, and checked to see if I'd missed anything. Other than a small letter from my old Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Ilvermorny, there was nothing that I had missed. And then, to my horror, another package seemed to have materialized out of thin air. Bile rose in my throat - I found myself very grateful that we'd skipped breakfast - as I spotted the perfectly-wrapped black box sitting towards the edge of the fireplace.

Just like a year ago, today, the present from the mystery sender appeared. "Oh my God..." I muttered to myself. The others were entranced with their packages. "Harry, Ron, Hermione; get over here!"

The shout echoed through the Common Room as the other three vaulted over to me. "What's happened?" Hermione asked.

"Are you alright?" Ron asked.

Harry bounded over a second later, holding my arms. "You okay? Are you okay?" he asked me.

"T - The box... I've gotten another..." I whispered weakly, pointing to the box that was placed in front of me. They all stared at it curiously. None of them had actually seen one of the boxes, only heard about them.

Harry moved forward towards it. "We'll open it," he said.

"No!" I shouted, yanking his hand back. He stared at me curiously as I took a deep breath. "No. I don't know what happens if someone else opens the presents. No one else has ever opened one. Just... don't leave," I muttered.

"Never," Ron said, placing a hand on my knee.

"Go on," Harry urged.

My hand was very gently on the edge of the box. I had a feeling that it might have just been a letter, considering that the box itself was very light. Slowly moving it into my lap, I picked off the top. It turned out the box wasn't empty. I let out a little scream along with Hermione and dropped the box to the floor. Harry and Ron both hissed in surprise. But, after a moment, I moved forward and grabbed the box once more. There was a relatively small snake skin in it. My hand clapped to my mouth, forcing myself to keep the bile down. It looked like someone had taken a knife to it and carved something into the skin. The same number. Eighty-three...

"Merlin..." I muttered.

Pushing aside the snake skin, feeling a little sick while doing it, I spotted a note down at the bottom of the box. "This is horrible," Hermione said as I pulled the card out.

"Is there a note?" Harry asked me.

"Yes," I said, showing the note to everyone:

Merry Christmas,  
Happy Anniversary.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed a little surprised at the content of the note. I was, too. They rarely sent me anything that wasn't mildly helpful. "Anniversary?" Harry finally asked me.

"The first present that I got from this person was on Christmas day of last year," I told him.

Ron grabbed the box from me and I let him take it, cringing at the sight that he was poking around with the snake skin, holing it up to the light. "Snake skin... Do they know that you're a Parselmouth?" Ron finally asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I pulled my knees underneath me. I didn't even know the name of the person that kept sending me these things. "Only makes sense. Why else would they have sent me something like this?" I asked. They all nodded, knowing that it was the only reason. "But who is this person? They know everything that I do. But... Can it really be someone at school?"

Hermione seemed to be very deep in thought. Everyone did. That was the million Galleon question. Who was sending me these things? And what could their purpose have been? "It has to be someone that's stayed here over the holiday," Hermione said.

Shaking my head at her, I was very grateful when Harry put the snake skin back into the box. "Not necessarily. I've gotten these delivered at home before, too, and once I saw an old black owl deliver one of them," I told them.

"I - It's Christmas. Put that thing away, Harry. Today isn't a day that we should be thinking about that," Ron said. Harry tucked away the snake skin, pushed the note into my pile, and tossed the rest of the present into the trash. "Come on. Let's go get Fred and George and Ginny and do something together," Ron said, yanking me upwards.

It was a good thing that Fred and George were so good with distracting me. We ran back and forth through the Hogwarts grounds, messing around with each other. We had even gone out to the Quidditch Pitch. It was too cold to stay out for a long time but we had spent enough time teaching Ginny and Hermione how to play. That was before our fingertips started to turn blue and Hermione had forced us back inside. So we'd gone back up to the Gryffindor Tower and enjoyed ourselves for the hours leading up to the feast. Fred and George had been a nightmare for me, harassing me and trying to tie my hair in a knot.

Even on Christmas the twins couldn't behave themselves. But they did get a little nicer as we headed downstairs to the Great Hall at six o'clock to enjoy dinner. I was in a much better mood from the previous box incident, having gotten another little letter from Mom and Dad. It was a picture of Harry and I when we were babies. It must have been my second Christmas, and Harry's first. It was cute. We were lying together on the floor, each one of us playing in the boxes and layers of wrapping paper, laughing with each other. I'd smiled and showed it to Harry. He had placed it in his photo album, of course, not before the twins could point out that I was only wearing a diaper in the picture.

It would be years before they got over that one. It didn't matter. No one, not even someone dreading taking Polyjuice Potion later, could fail to enjoy Christmas dinner at Hogwarts. The Great Hall looked magnificent. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led us in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed. Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his Prefect badge so that it now read Pinhead, kept asking us all what we were sniggering at.

It was very hard to not lose my mind and spoil the joke. I'd even noticed that a few of the teachers were smiling at the somewhat rude joke. Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling at the amusing joke. The Ravenclaw Prefect that I'd seen with Percy a few times - Penelope Clearwater - was the only person that didn't seem amused by the joke. Not that anyone cared. I'd wound up with a little bit of pudding in my hair throughout the feast - from the twins throwing it - and a piece of pie in my lap - from the twins messing with me while I tried to eat it. I could have sworn that I'd heard Lockhart say something about 'just like dear old mum' when I'd started messing back with them. But it helped that Hagrid was singing so loudly and jovially that when he swung backwards, his goblet knocked Lockhart in the head, sending him flying to the floor.

Someone would have thought that the entire population of Hogwarts was in the Great Hall by the level of laughter. It was one of the best Christmases that I could remember. I didn't even care that Draco Malfoy was making loud, snide remarks about his new sweater from the Slytherin table. With a bit of luck, Malfoy would be getting his comeuppance in a few hours' time for aiding and abetting the true Heir of Slytherin. I still didn't think that it was him, but he could get in a ton of trouble for not revealing what he knew. We had barely finished our third helpings of Christmas pudding when Hermione ushered us out of the hall to finalize our plans for the evening.

We'd smiled at Fred, George, Ginny, and Percy, letting them know that we would be back later, we just wanted to have a little time with each other. They were too busy with each other to even notice the slightly guilty looks that we had on our faces. Once we had walked out of the Great Hall, we pressed each other back against the walls, nodding for Hermione to get on with it.

"We still need a bit of the people you're changing into," she said in a matter-of-fact tone, as though she was sending us to the supermarket for laundry detergent. "And obviously, it'll be best if you can get something of Crabbe's and Goyle's; they're Malfoy's best friends, he'll tell them anything. And we also need to make sure the real Crabbe and Goyle can't burst in on us while we're interrogating him. "I've got it all worked out," she went on, ignoring Harry's and Ron's stupefied faces. She held up two plump chocolate cakes. "I've filled these with a simple Sleeping Draught. All you have to do is make sure Crabbe and Goyle find them. You know how greedy they are, they're bound to eat them. Once they're asleep, pull out a few of their hairs and hide them in a broom closet."

Harry and Ron looked incredulously at each other. I was nodding at her, ready to get my own hairs from the person that I was going to use. I hadn't figured out who, yet. "Hermione, I don't think -" Harry started before being spoken over by Ron.

"That could go seriously wrong -"

But Hermione had a steely glint in her eye not unlike the one Professor McGonagall sometimes had. I smiled at her. She could get pretty terrifying when she wanted to. "The potion will be useless without Crabbe's and Goyle's hair. You do want to investigate Malfoy, don't you?" she asked them sternly.

"Oh, all right, all right. But what about you? Whose hair are you two ripping out?" Harry asked us.

I shrugged my shoulders. I hadn't really thought about it yet. If I needed to, I could always hunt down a Slytherin boy. I was just hoping for a girl to make the transformation a little less painful. The more similar that you looked to the person that you were transforming into, the less painful that it would be. That was what Hermione and I had read one day that we were working on the Polyjuice Potion.

"I've already got mine!" Hermione said brightly, pulling a tiny bottle out of her pocket and showing us the single hair inside it. "Remember Millicent Bulstrode wrestling with me at the Dueling Club? She left this on my robes when she was trying to strangle me!" I laughed at her. Of course she'd managed that. "And she's gone home for Christmas, so I'll just have to tell the Slytherin's I've decided to come back."

That wasn't actually a half-bad idea. And I couldn't imagine that Millicent Bulstrode was very well liked by her parents, so it probably wouldn't be shocking that she stayed back at Hogwarts. Hermione gave us a last minute warning to be careful and ensure that the real people wouldn't walk in on us interrogating Malfoy before bustling off to check on the Polyjuice Potion again. Ron turned to Harry and I with a doom-laden expression. I assumed that they were very nervous. But as long as everyone knew what they were doing, there wouldn't be any issues.

"Have you ever heard of a plan where so many things could go wrong?" Ron asked us. I smiled and shook my head. The Sorcerer's Stone could have gone very wrong. We could have died. "Who are you going for?" Ron asked me after a moment.

Shrugging my shoulder, I looked over at them. "Which Slytherin girls are left here?" I asked.

Harry and Ron both thought about it for a moment before Harry said, "Only Pansy Parkinson, I think."

A wicked grin spread over my face. "Perfect," I said.

The three of us headed out of the bathroom afterwards with a promise that we would be as quick as humanly possible. Harry and Ron went down into the entrance hall to wait for Crabbe and Goyle to come out of the Great Hall. I glanced back to wait for Pansy Parkinson. I could see her standing up from the table, giving Malfoy a long grin, before heading out. She was fluffing her hair as as she walked out and I slipped into the bathroom right off of the Great Hall. If I was lucky, she would never even remember this and I wouldn't have to drag her that far. Which was good. She wasn't very heavy, but I still didn't want to have to drag her around.

Standing over by the mirrors, I started to pretend to fix my hair. As Parkinson walked into the bathroom she scoffed at the sight of me before heading into the toilet. I waited over by the mirrors, trying to be patient. I assumed that waiting for Crabbe and Goyle would take the boys a little longer, so I didn't have to be too fast. Finally Parkinson slipped out of the stall, looking very irritated that I was still here. As she washed her hands - two sinks down from me - I turned to her, fingering the Sleeping Draught from Hermione. She had merely given me a vial of it, rather than the cupcakes that she'd given the boys.

"Hey, Parkinson," I called to her.

She turned back to me with a dark glare. I grinned, noticing the little marks from where Madam Pomfrey had removed her antlers from the duel. "What do you want, Nox?" she snapped at me.

"This."

It was very obvious that Parkinson didn't understand what I was talking about. And that was exactly what I wanted. Before she could ask me what I was talking about, I reared back and punched her in the face. Parkinson never even got the chance to scream. She was tiny and I wasn't very surprised that she fell to the ground. Her eyes were fading and her head was rolling. Her eyes fluttered once or twice before fluttering closed. I knew that she was out like a light. She wouldn't wake up for a while, but I couldn't risk having her show up in the Slytherin Common Room while we were in there. So I grabbed Parkinson under the arms and started to drag her away.

It was a little harder than I would have thought that it was. I dragged her into the larger stall in the back of the bathroom and dropped her roughly to the ground, grinning when her head smacked against the stone floor. I plucked a hair from Parkinson and slipped her the Sleeping Draught, which became a little hard as some of it dribbled back out of her mouth. I placed the hair into the vial before leaning down and grabbing her shoes. Her feet were a little bigger than mine. Leaning down slightly, I slipped my wand out of my robes and had to ignore the urge to give her antlers again.

"Obliviate," I whispered, hoping that she wouldn't remember me hitting her.

Actually, maybe I did want her to remember me hitting her. But I wasn't really sure. It could get me in a lot of trouble for attacking another Hogwarts student, even if that student deserved it. So I closed the bathroom stall door and slipped out of the bathroom. I headed back towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, hoping that the boys were already done. As I walked back, I noticed that Harry and Ron were walking straight back towards me. They both looked a little concerned. I smiled at them and walked on their sides.

"How'd it go?" I asked them.

It turned out that to their utter amazement, stage one of the operation went just as smoothly as Hermione had said. Just like with Parkinson and I, things weren't that hard. They had lurked in the deserted entrance hall after Christmas tea, waiting for Crabbe and Goyle who had remained alone at the Slytherin table, shoveling down fourth helpings of trifle. I groaned, feeling a little sick. How could people eat that much? Harry had perched the chocolate cakes on the end of the banisters. When they spotted Crabbe and Goyle coming out of the Great Hall, Harry and Ron hid quickly behind a suit of armor next to the front door. They'd both been thrilled when Crabbe gleefully pointed out the cakes to Goyle and grabbed them, stuffing the cakes whole, into their mouths.

Apparently for a moment, both of them chewed greedily, looks of triumph on their faces. Then, without the smallest change of expression, they both keeled over backward onto the floor. Harry and Ron agreed that by far the hardest part was hiding them in the closet across the hall. Once they were safely stowed among the buckets and mops, Harry yanked out a couple of the bristles that covered Goyle's forehead and Ron pulled out several of Crabbe's hairs. They also stole their shoes, just as I had done with Parkinson, because their own were far too small for Crabbe and Goyle size feet.

The three of us grinned at each other and sprinted back towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. We were sure how long our spells would work for. Once I walked into the bathroom I coughed. That wasn't what I was expecting. I could hardly see for the thick black smoke issuing from the stall in which Hermione was stirring the cauldron. Pulling our robes up over our faces, Harry and Ron knocked softly on the door, myself standing back just a little bit.

"Hermione?" Harry called.

The bubbling of the cauldron was echoing all around the bathroom. I let out a little breath. At least, after this, we wouldn't have to be risking expulsion to make the Polyjuice Potion. Although it might be kind of hard to explain how we'd found out who the Heir of Slytherin was. We'd cross that bridge when we came to it. I heard the scrape of the lock and Hermione emerged, shiny-faced and looking anxious. Behind her I could just barely see the bubbling, glutinous potion. Four glass tumblers stood ready on the toilet seat. I cringed at it. The potion wasn't a normal liquid; it looked more like tar.

"Did you get them?" Hermione asked breathlessly. Harry showed her Goyle's hair as I showed her Parkinson's. "Good. And I sneaked these spare robes out of the laundry," Hermione said, holding up a small sack. "You'll need bigger sizes once you're Crabbe and Goyle. And we can't slip into the Slytherin Common Room wearing Gryffindor robes."

The four of us stared into the cauldron. Close up, the potion looked like thick, dark mud, bubbling sluggishly. It definitely looked like tar. I suddenly regretted eating all of the pie and cookies that I had during the feast. I was sure that any moment now I was going to manage to throw it up. I couldn't imagine that I was even going to be able to keep down the potion. It was pretty obvious that none of us really wanted to try and drink it... Eat it? Gross.

"I'm sure I've done everything right," Hermione said, nervously rereading the splotched page of Moste Potente Potions. "It looks like the book says it should... once we've drunk it, we'll have exactly an hour before we change back into ourselves."

Smiling at her, I nudged her on the shoulder gently. "I've looked over your work; everything was done right," I said.

"Now what?" Ron whispered.

Hermione, who looked sick for the first time since we'd started this, moved towards the glass tumblers. "We separate it into four glasses and add the hairs," she said.

Hermione ladled large dollops of the potion into each of the glasses. It was coming out in chunks. The bicorn horn. If only Cedric knew what I'd been planning to do with that... Then, her hand trembling, she shook Millicent Bulstrode's hair out of its bottle into the first glass. For a moment I stepped back, hoping that the potion wasn't about to explode. And it didn't. The potion hissed loudly like a boiling kettle and frothed madly. A second later, it had turned a sick sort of yellow.

It looked like someone who had some sort of liver disease. "Ugh. Essence of Millicent Bulstrode. Bet it tastes disgusting," Ron said, looking at the potion with disgust.

"Add yours, then," Hermione snapped.

Moving forward, we all dropped the hairs into our potions, ensuring that we wouldn't mix them up. Harry dropped Goyle's hair into the middle glass and Ron put Crabbe's into the one next to it. Harry shoved me to drop Parkinson's hair in the glass. All of the glasses hissed and frothed. Goyle's turned the khaki color of a booger, Crabbe's a dark, murky brown. It was a moment before Parkinson's started to turn color. It didn't have very far to go. It went pure black, probably just like her soul.

My stomach churned painfully. "That's disgusting," I muttered, hand over my mouth.

"Hang on," Harry said as Ron and Hermione reached for their glasses. I was waiting as long as possible before having to drink it. "We'd better not all drink them in here. Once we turn into Crabbe and Goyle we won't fit. And Millicent Bulstrode's no pixie. You'll be a little better off, Tara, but still, you're shorter than her," Harry told me.

He was right. We'd be jammed up against the walls if we tried to transform in here. "Good thinking," Ron said, unlocking the door. "We'll take separate stalls."

Careful not to spill a drop of our Polyjuice Potion, we slipped into the other stalls. Hermione stayed in the one with the cauldron, Ron went on her left, Harry on her right, and myself next to Harry. Once we walked in, I warned everyone to take off their clothes. It had occurred to me that as we shifted, our clothes would not shift with us. Hermione had called back that it was a good idea. I slid out of my robes, clothes, and shoes, leaving the Slytherin uniform over the door to the stall.

"Ready?" Harry called.

"Ready," Ron, Hermione, and I said together.

"Bottoms up," I called to them.

Harry's voice began to countdown. "One - two - three -"

Pinching my nose tightly, praying that it might taste a little better than it looked, I drank the potion down in one huge gulp, very nearly suffocating myself in the process. It tasted no better than it looked. The nicest thing that I could say for it was that it tasted a little bit like overcooked cabbage that had been dipped in poison. Immediately, my insides started writhing as though I'd just swallowed live snakes. The tumbler dropped from my hand, shattering on the tile floor. Hermione's, Ron's, and Harry's, quickly following, smashing glass all across the bathroom. I doubled over, sure that I was going to be sick and throw the potion back up, making this all for nothing.

But then a burning sensation that spread rapidly from my stomach to the very ends of my fingers and toes. I dropped onto my knees, positive that I was going to explode. As if the burning wasn't bad enough, there then came a horrible melting feeling, as the skin all over my body bubbled like hot wax. If I wasn't worried about throwing up the potion, making this all for naught, I would have screamed. If felt terrible. I couldn't believe that we'd done this. And it wasn't even close to being done with. I hadn't even started changing.

But just as I thought that, the actual transformation started. Groaning lowly, I felt myself begin to change into Pansy Parkinson. Before my eyes, my hands began to grow slightly, the fingers thickened a little, and the nails began to push back into my fingertips. The pain was excruciating. I damned her over and over again for clipping her nails. My shoulders stretched painfully as I began to rearrange myself to her size. The bones in my legs felt like they'd been placed on a taffy stretcher as I grew another two inches or so. My hips began to crunch inwards slightly. Pansy had not yet gone through her feminine growth and, as such, didn't have the small curves that I did.

The worst part was the feeling of being punched in the chest by a battering ram. My chest shrank to absolutely nothing - making me whine just the slightest bit. That better come back... I watched the blonde tips of my hair that trailed down my back turn to a dark brown, shrinking and shrinking until it hung at my shoulder blades. My face began to burn as my bones shortened and become a little tenser. I groaned in pain as my teeth shifted slightly and my nose crunched upwards. The bones in my feet stretched apart before coming to a rest.

As suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. It felt like I could finally breathe again. I took in a few deep breaths as I forced myself upright. Everything felt weird. Pansy Parkinson was very bony with barely any muscles on her. It felt like what I imagined a newborn horse felt like when it was trying to stand for the first time. I grabbed the Slytherin robes and began to pull them onto myself. She was so thin that nothing really held a shape. I scoffed to myself, wondering how I'd ever managed to fill out clothes before the last summer. I pushed on my new shoes, listening to Myrtle gurgle in the toilet next to me. I reached back and brushed her irritatingly short hair out of my eyes. It tickled my neck in the place that it hung. It was much greasier than it looked.

Stretching myself out, I groaned at the feeling of being Pug-Face Parkinson. How did she deal with this? "Are you three okay?" I heard Goyle - Harry? - rasp out from the stall next to me.

"Yeah," came the deep grunt of Crabbe from my right.

It was definitely creepy. I opened the stall and stumbled out, feeling a little dizzy from everything. "Merlin, when's the last time that Parkinson bathed?" I asked. My voice was nasally and high-pitched. "And how does she deal with her voice being like this? It feels like someone's stuffed a nose plug up it," I complained.

Unlocking my door, I stumbled out and stepped in front of the cracked mirror. I was almost shocked to see Goyle next to me. We merely stared at each other for a while. He was the perfect replica. I glanced at myself in the mirror. Or, rather, Parkinson. It was the longest that I'd seen her without sneering at someone. Ron's door opened and I turned back to him. We all stared at each other. Except that he looked pale and shocked, Ron was indistinguishable from Crabbe, from the pudding-bowl haircut to the long, gorilla arms. My hand went up to my mouth - Parkinson's - and I immediately retracted it. I didn't really like touching her.

"This is unbelievable," Ron said, approaching the mirror and prodding Crabbe's flat nose. "Unbelievable."

I looked back into the mirror and groaned. How did she live like this? "Oh, I'm hideous," I complained before turning back to Ron and Harry. "So are you two!"

They didn't seem offended because they knew that Crabbe and Goyle were no gems. "We'd better get going," Harry said, loosening the watch that was cutting into Goyle's thick wrist. "We've still got to find out where the Slytherin common room is. I only hope we can find someone to follow."

My jaw dropped. That was stupid. How had we not realized that we would have to find out where the Slytherin Common Room? "Why did we not do that first?" I asked them.

If nothing else, at least there were more Slytherin's that had stayed at the castle than any other House. "You don't know how bizarre it is to see Goyle thinking," Ron said. A moment later he turned to me. "And you have no idea how weird it is to see Parkinson with her mouth shut." I smiled at him as he banged on Hermione's door. "C'mon, we need to go -"

A high-pitched voice answered him. "I - I don't think I'm going to come after all. You go on without me," she called.

My eyebrows rose. Had she not done it? She still sounded an awful lot like Hermione. I'd heard Millicent Bulstrode speak before and she had a reasonably deep voice. "Oh you can't look worse than me," I called back to Hermione.

"Hermione, we know Millicent Bulstrode's ugly, no one's going to know it's you -" Ron tried to argue before she spoke over him again.

"No - really - I don't think I'll come. You three hurry up, you're wasting time -"

"Get out here!" I shouted, pounding on the door to her stall.

But she didn't move. Harry looked at Ron, bewildered. "That looks more like Goyle. That's how he looks every time a teacher asks him a question," Ron told him.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked through the door.

"Fine - I'm fine - go on -"

Whipping my wand out of the Slytherin robes, Harry looked at his watch at the same time. Five of our precious sixty minutes had already passed. Harry stopped me from unlocking the door. We didn't have the time to fight with her. We had to leave. "We'll meet you back here, all right?" Harry called to her.

Giving her stall one, last, long look, I turned back and walked from the bathroom. Harry and Ron opened the door of the bathroom carefully, myself stepping out first and nodding to them. Once we were sure that the coast was clear, we set off. The three of us didn't really speak. I wasn't sure how close Parkinson was to Crabbe or Goyle, so I kept quiet. I knew that Parkinson walked with a haughty step to her movements and I tried to duplicate it, but I felt like I just looked spastic, so I stopped and settled for walking normally.

Mostly I was hoping that no one watched Parkinson walking that closely. "Don't swing your arms like that," Harry muttered to Ron.

"Eh?"

"Crabbe holds them sort of stiff..."

"How's this?" Ron asked us he began barely moving. He looked much like a gorilla.

Although that was an insult to the very intelligent primate. "Yeah, that's better..." Harry said before turning over to me. "Act a little snippier. And less intelligent," he said.

Glaring at him, I muttered, "I hate this."

And I really did hate this. I felt ridiculous. It felt like at any moment someone would jump out and expel us for pretending to be someone else. But I couldn't say believe that someone would really notice that we weren't them. Other than some personality differences, we were carbon copies. We went down the marble staircase and came to a halt. All we needed now was a Slytherin that we could follow to the Slytherin Common Room, but there was nobody around. I had a feeling that they were somewhere towards the dungeons, but I didn't know. Too bad we weren't spying on someone from Hufflepuff or Gryffindor.

"Any ideas?" Harry muttered.

"The Slytherin's always come up to breakfast from over there," Ron said, nodding at the entrance to the dungeons. We both nodded and started to make our way over. The words had barely left his mouth when a girl with long, curly hair emerged from the entrance. "Excuse me," Ron said, hurrying up to her. "We've forgotten the way to our Common Room."

I could have slapped him. That was Penelope Clearwater, a Ravenclaw. Not a Slytherin. "I beg your pardon?" Penelope asked stiffly. "Our Common Room? I'm a Ravenclaw."

She walked away, looking suspiciously back at us. I shoved the boys ahead of me, knowing that Penelope would probably send someone after us to see what was wrong. Harry, Ron, and I hurried down the stone steps into the darkness, their footsteps echoing particularly loudly as Crabbe's and Goyle's huge feet hit the floor. My own footsteps were clumsy and unmeasured. Parkinson had long and gangling limbs that were very hard to not trip over. It didn't help that her feet were the size of Jupiter. I grumbled to myself, getting the sinking feeling that this wasn't going to be as easy as any of us had hoped.

As we walked, I turned a little glare on Ron. "Nice one. That's Penelope Clearwater," I snapped at him.

Ron looked very stupid. Well, Crabbe looked very stupid. Not that it was very surprising. I'd never thought that he looked particularly intelligent. "Oh," he muttered.

We walked back and forth, up and down the hallways, trying to search for the Slytherin Common Room. But, like all of the House entrances, it was very hard to find unless you knew where it was. It didn't help that the labyrinthine passages were deserted. We walked deeper and deeper under the school, constantly checking our watches to see how much time that we had left. After a quarter of an hour, just when we were getting desperate, we heard a sudden movement ahead. We had to hurry up. We barely had forty minutes left.

"Ha! There's one of them now!" Ron said excitedly. The figure was emerging from a side room. As we hurried nearer, however, my heart sank and I stopped dead in my tracks. It wasn't a Slytherin, it was Percy. "What're you doing down here?" Ron asked in surprise.

I rolled my eyes at him, which probably was something that Parkinson would have done. That was not his brother right now. Percy looked affronted. "That is none of your business," Percy said stiffly. Had we caught him doing something that he shouldn't have been doing? Of all the times to not be Harry, Ron, and Tara... "It's Crabbe, isn't it?"

"Wh -" Ron stopped when I stepped on his foot. "Oh, yeah."

"Well, get off to your dormitories. It's not safe to go wandering around dark corridors these days," Percy said sternly.

"You are," Ron pointed out.

Harry and I groaned to ourselves. Ron was treating him like he was his brother, not some kid that he barely knew. "I," Percy said proudly, drawing himself up, "am a Prefect. Nothing's about to attack me."

That time I couldn't contain myself. I laughed very loudly. Parkinson's laugh was extremely irritating. It was high-pitched and sounded very much like a donkey braying. As Percy turned to say something to me, a voice suddenly echoed behind the four of us. Draco Malfoy was strolling toward us, and for the first time in my life, I was pleased to see him. He would get us away from Percy, into the Slytherin Common Room, and then, hopefully, give us some answers.

"There you are," he drawled, looking at us. "Have you two been pigging out in the Great Hall all this time? I've been looking for you; I want to show you something really funny. Pansy, what were you doing?" My voice failed me. Thankfully Malfoy didn't focus on me for very long. He glanced witheringly at Percy. "And what're you doing down here, Weasley?" he sneered.

Percy looked outraged. "You want to show a bit more respect to a school Prefect! I don't like your attitude!" he snapped at Malfoy.

Malfoy sneered once more and motioned for Harry, Ron, and I to follow him. We all stared at each other before nodding, knowing that we had to follow him like dogs. That was the way that they treated him. Like a god. I almost said something apologetic to Percy but caught myself just in time. I felt absolutely terrible for Percy. He could be a real prat sometimes but he did care about the well-being of the students and the school. And he wanted to better his own life. Who could blame him for wanting a better life? Not me. Harry, Ron, and I hurried after Malfoy.

Just as we turned into the next passage, Malfoy sneered, "That Peter Weasley -"

"Percy," Ron corrected him automatically.

I stepped down on Ron's foot to get him to not say anything more about Percy. No one here was a Weasley and no one here cared for them. "Whatever. I've noticed him sneaking around a lot lately. And I bet I know what he's up to. He thinks he's going to catch Slytherin's heir single-handed," Malfoy said.

It wasn't something that I particularly loved, but at least he was going to be open about the Heir of Slytherin. Malfoy gave a short, derisive laugh. Harry, Ron, and I exchanged excited looks. Even if he wasn't the Heir of Slytherin, it was nice to hear that at least it seemed like Malfoy knew who it was. We walked in silence for a few moments before Malfoy leaned back to me and wrapped his arm over my shoulder. I had to push my hands into my robe pockets to keep from breaking his arm. Malfoy paused by a stretch of bare, damp stone wall.

"What's the new password again?" he asked Harry.

"Er -" Harry said.

"Oh, yeah - Pureblood!" Malfoy said, not listening, and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open.

Of course their password was Pureblood. Harry, Ron, and I exchanged an exasperated look as Malfoy marched through it, his arm still around me, Harry and Ron following us. The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of us, and several Slytherin's were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs. There was a large window in the back of the fireplace and I smiled. Their Common Room was underneath the Black Lake. That was actually pretty cool.

The Giant Squid fluttered past the window and I couldn't help myself. I walked forward and grinned at it. That was the best thing that I'd ever seen. I'd never seen the Giant Squid that close up. It stopped in front of the windows and looked at me. I gave it a little wave. The squid stared at me for a moment before blowing little bubbles at me and shooting off. I laughed softly and walked back over towards the other three. Harry and Ron were watching me with even stares and Malfoy was looking at me like I'd lost my mind.

"What are you doing?" Malfoy snapped at me.

"Saying hello to the Giant Squid," I said.

"I thought that you hated it?" I merely shrugged my shoulders. "Wait here," Malfoy said, motioning us to a pair of empty chairs set back from the fire. "I'll go and get it - my father's just sent it to me."

Wondering what Malfoy was going to show them, Harry and Ron sat down, doing their best to look at home. I followed them, hanging off of the edge of Harry's chair. Malfoy came back a minute later, holding what looked like a newspaper clipping. He thrust it under Ron's nose before turning back and plopping himself down on a much larger couch that sat across from us.

"That'll give you a laugh," Malfoy said.

Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Ron's eyes widen in shock. Leaning in between the two boys, the three of us read the article with our heads pushed together. Ron read the clipping quickly, gave a very forced laugh, and handed it to Harry and I. It had been clipped out of the Daily Prophet, and it said:

INQUIRY AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for bewitching a Muggle car. Mr. Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the enchanted car crashed earlier this year, called today for Mr. Weasley's resignation. "Weasley has brought the Ministry into disrepute," Mr. Malfoy told our reporter. "He is clearly unfit to draw up our laws and his ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately." Mr. Weasley was unavailable for comment, although his wife told reporters to clear off or she'd set the family ghoul on them.

My stomach settled painfully in my throat. Fifty Galleons... There hadn't even been one Galleon in their vault when we'd seen it in Diagon Alley. "Well?" Malfoy asked impatiently as Harry handed the clipping back to him. "Don't you think it's funny?"

"Ha, ha," Harry said bleakly.

Knowing that Malfoy wanted us to say something more, I plastered a very fake smile on my face. "That's hilarious, M - Draco," I caught myself from not saying his last name over his first.

"What are you doing sitting over there?" Malfoy asked me after a moment.

She must have sat with him on a regular basis. My stomach flipped a little as I tried to figure out what to say to him to get myself out of that. "Oh - I - I thought that I might have been getting sick," I said weakly.

Malfoy looked very bored with me. "Come here. Just use the potion upstairs if you feel that bad." I nodded and walked over, taking a seat next to Malfoy. I was perched next to him, stiff as a board, not that he noticed. "Arthur Weasley loves Muggles so much he should snap his wand in half and go and join them. You'd never know the Weasley's were Purebloods, the way they behave." Ron's - or rather, Crabbe's - face was contorted with fury. I felt my own fists clench. "What's up with you, Crabbe?" Malfoy snapped.

"Stomachache," Ron grunted.

"Well, go up to the hospital wing and give all those Mudbloods a kick from me," Malfoy said, snickering. Scoffing softly under my breath, I tried to play it off as a snort when Malfoy looked over at me. "You know, I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't reported all these attacks yet," he went on thoughtfully. "I suppose Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. He'll be sacked if it doesn't stop soon. Father's always said old Dumbledore's the worst thing that's ever happened to this place. He loves Muggle-Born's. A decent headmaster would never have let slime like that Creevey in," he said.

My jaws clenched together. Dumbledore was the reason that Harry had been saved as an infant and the reason that I hadn't been expelled the other week. Malfoy started taking pictures with an imaginary camera and did a cruel but accurate impression of Colin. "'Potter, can I have your picture, Potter? Can I have your autograph? Can I lick your shoes, please, Potter?'" He dropped his hands and looked at Harry and Ron. "What's the matter with you two?" He then turned to me. "And why are you so quiet?"

"Just thinking," I muttered.

"About?"

What could I say that would get Malfoy off of my back? I couldn't think of anything that made sense. So I stuttered for a moment, earning a very irritated expression. "That miserable Nox," I finally said quickly.

Malfoy scoffed at me and rolled his own eyes. "Disgrace to her own name," he snarled. My fists clenched together as Ron and Harry both tensed on the other end of the room. "She should have been in Slytherin. You saw how long the Sorting Hat took last year."

I was not supposed to be in Slytherin. "Maybe it was trying to look for a reason to send her back home," I said awkwardly.

It wasn't the best response that I could have come up with, but I couldn't think of anything else to say to him. Malfoy merely nodded and leaned back against the couch, keeping me against his arms. Far too late, Harry and Ron forced themselves to laugh, but Malfoy seemed satisfied; perhaps Crabbe and Goyle were always slow on the uptake.

"It should've. Saint Potter, the Mudbloods' friend. He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that jumped-up Granger Mudblood," Malfoy hissed. Every piece of me had to resist reaching over and throttling him. "And people think he's Slytherin's heir! Or, even better, Nox! What rubbish."

My heart soared. He was about to tell us. We were about to find out who Slytherin's Heir truly was. He was just seconds away. But then, "I wish I knew who it is. I could help them," Malfoy said petulantly.

My heart fell into my stomach. He didn't even know who it was... I was right that it wasn't him, but I wasn't as happy as I thought that I would be to hear that. Ron's jaw dropped so that Crabbe looked even more clueless than usual. Fortunately, Malfoy didn't notice, and Harry, thinking fast, said, "You must have some idea who's behind it all."

"You know I haven't, Goyle, how many times do I have to tell you?" Malfoy snapped. "And Father won't tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened either. Of course, it was fifty years ago, so it was before his time, but he knows all about it, and he says that it was all kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. But I know one thing - last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So I bet it's a matter of time before one of them is killed this time... I hope it's Granger," he said with relish.

"Not a chance," I snapped before I could stop myself.

Malfoy's head turned to me faster than I thought was possible. I realized far too late that I had made a big mistake on defending Hermione. "What did you just say?" he asked me harshly.

Thank Merlin that Parkinson was so pale because I was sure that I lost all of the color in my face. "I mean - What if it was Nox? Wouldn't that be better?" I asked awkwardly.

There was a shadow that passed Malfoy's face, and I found myself very curious to hear his answer. "For all of her many faults, at least she's a Pureblood." Well that was nice... sort of. "No need to kill someone like that. Proper breeding. She won't be attacked anyways. She provides a perfect scapegoat for whoever is," he explained.

Ron was clenching Crabbe's gigantic fists. Malfoy was talking about me like I was a dog rather than a human being. I could imagine that Harry was feeling that it would be a bit of a giveaway if Ron punched Malfoy, so he shot him a warning look and said, "D'you know if the person who opened the Chamber last time was caught?"

"Oh, yeah... whoever it was, was expelled. They're probably still in Azkaban," Malfoy said.

"Azkaban?" Harry asked.

"Azkaban - the wizard prison, Goyle," Malfoy said, looking at him in disbelief. "Honestly, if you were any slower, you'd be going backward." I couldn't help it, I laughed. Malfoy grinned at me and tightened his grip slightly. "Father says to keep my head down and let the Heir of Slytherin get on with it. He says the school needs ridding of all the Mudblood filth, but not to get mixed up in it. Of course, he's got a lot on his plate at the moment. You know the Ministry of Magic raided our manor last week?" he asked us.

It was exactly what we'd overheard them talking about in Borgin and Burkes. "That's terrible," I said, when no one else spoke.

"Yeah... Luckily, they didn't find much. Father's got some very valuable Dark Arts stuff. But luckily, we've got our own secret chamber under the drawing-room floor -"

"Ho!" Ron exclaimed.

My stomach curled in horror. He was happy about Malfoy spoiling where all of the Dark Arts things were hidden in the manor. Malfoy would live to regret saying that at some point very soon. Malfoy looked at Ron. So did Harry and I. Ron blushed. Even his hair was turning red. His nose was also slowly lengthening. Harry and I both jumped in horror. Our hour was up, Ron was turning back into himself, and from the look of horror he was suddenly giving Harry and I, we must have been, too. We all jumped to our feet. My hair seemed to be getting a little longer and little lighter.

"Medicine for my stomach," Ron grunted.

Knowing that I had to come up with a good excuse, I quickly said, "I'll make sure they don't get lost."

It was a pathetic excuse, but thankfully Crabbe and Goyle were so dense that Malfoy didn't even seem confused. "Alright." We turned to leave before Malfoy called back to me, "Where are you going? Come here."

"What?" I asked, my heart thumping.

Despite everything, I walked towards him. My hands were sweating as I stood just a few inches away from him. I was slowly turning back into Tara. Malfoy was looking at me with sharp eyes. He knew... He had to know. "Have your eyes always been that color?" he asked.

"Y - Yes," I stuttered stupidly.

Parkinson's eyes were a muddy brown that looked almost black. Mine were a soft amber with little hints of blue. A strange, but pretty, combination. "They're nice," Malfoy said.

Just as I opened my mouth to thank him, I found myself cut off in a way that wasn't with words. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest it was hammering so fast. Malfoy moved forward and very quickly pressed his own lips against mine. For a moment, I simply stood there, stunned out of my mind. As I glanced back, I saw that Harry and Ron were looking more like Crabbe and Goyle more than they ever had. They looked stupefied. My legs very nearly gave out. There went having a nice and romantic first kiss...

"Have you been eating strawberries?" Malfoy asked curiously.

"C - Ch - Chapstick..." I whispered pathetically.

Malfoy's brows knitted. "Isn't that a Muggle thing?" he asked.

"I - I guess. Tastes good," I said.

"Yeah. It does," he agreed.

Unable to say anything else, and unwilling to look at Malfoy a moment longer than I had to, I turned on my hell and whipped away from him. I wrapped my arms around Harry and Ron's robes and dragged them with me. Together we sprinted the length of the Slytherin Common Room, hurled ourselves at the stone wall, and dashed up the passage, hoping against hope that Malfoy hadn't noticed anything. I could feel my body shrinking and my hair now flowing around me. I'd even felt the curves start to return. We crashed up the steps into the dark entrance hall, which was full of a muffled pounding coming from the closet where they'd locked Crabbe and Goyle. Leaving their shoes outside the closet door, we sprinted in our socks up the marble staircase toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I simply threw Parkinson's shoes in the hall.

We had been so close to getting caught. I would have to avoid Malfoy for a few weeks, not that I ever wanted to see him again after that. But those eyes weren't Parkinson's. And no one else had eyes quite like mine. He would know that it was me if I got too close to him. My stomach curled in pain. Not from the Polyjuice Potion wearing off, but from the kiss. Draco Malfoy had given me my first kiss! Disgusting! No, no. I would scratch this one off and my first real kiss would be from someone, anyone, else. Just not him. Never him.

As we ran, I wiped my lips over and over again, debating on boiling them. "Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time," Ron panted, closing the bathroom door behind us as we crashed in. "I know we still haven't found out who's doing the attacks, but I'm going to write to Dad tomorrow and tell him to check under the Malfoy's' drawing room. I can't believe he kissed you, Tara!"

"That's golden!" Harry added in hysterics.

I hadn't realized that they were laughing at me the entire way back to the bathroom. They were clearly enjoying that. "Shut up! That was my first kiss! It was supposed to be special!" I howled in fury.

I'd punch Malfoy as hard as I could the next time that I saw him. No explanation. Just for what he'd done. Not that he'd known that it was me. He probably would have been just as horrified. "Nothing will ever be more special than that," Harry told me.

"Oh I wish I'd had a camera to show you your reaction!" Ron howled.

"Stop!" I shouted at the both of them. "You will never speak of this!"

The only people that I could ever tolerate knowing was them. And, perhaps, Hermione. I figured that they would tell her if I didn't. "I'm so glad that happened to you," Harry laughed.

"I should've made you take Parkinson's hair," I hissed at them.

We walked into the bathroom once more. I checked my face in the cracked mirror and was very relieved to find myself back to normal. Thank Merlin. I would hate to be stuck as Pansy Parkinson forever. At least transforming back wasn't as painful. As the boys ran over to bang on Hermione's stall door, I washed my mouth out underneath the sink. I could still hear the boys laughing at my unfortunate circumstance.

"Hermione, come out, we've got loads to tell you!" Harry shouted.

"We have to tell you about what happened to Tara!" Ron added.

"Shut up!" I howled.

"Malfoy -" Harry started before being cut off by Hermione.

"Go away!" Hermione squeaked.

Harry, Ron, and I looked at each other. All thoughts of what had just happened to me down in the Slytherin Common Room went away. "What's the matter?" Ron asked. "You must be back to normal by now, we are -"

But Moaning Myrtle glided suddenly through the stall door. I had never seen her looking so happy. It looked like she hadn't been crying in almost an hour. A new record. "Oh, wait till you see. It's awful," she said gleefully.

Through Myrtle's laughter, I heard the lock slide back and Hermione emerged, sobbing, her robes pulled up over her head. What had happened to her? "What's up? Have you still got Millicent's nose or something?" Ron asked uncertainly.

Was there a chance that the Polyjuice Potion had lasted a little longer than we had thought for her? It was twelve hours, maximum. Hermione would be back to normal by the morning. But when she let her robes fall, I realized that it wasn't just about hiding her face as Millicent Bulstrode. Ron backed into the sink in shock. My jaw dropped. Her face was covered in black fur. Her eyes had turned yellow and there were long, pointed ears poking through her hair.

I moved forward and placed a hand on her furry paw. "Oh, Hermione, what happened?" I asked her, pulling her into a hug.

Well, Malfoy might have kissed me, but at least I hadn't turned into a cat. "It was a c-cat hair! M-Millicent Bulstrode m-must have a cat! And the p-potion isn't supposed to be used for animal transformations!" she howled.

"Uh-oh," Ron said.

We would figure something out. We had to figure something out. "You'll be teased something dreadful," Myrtle said happily.

"It's okay, Hermione," Harry said quickly. "We'll take you up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions."

It took a long time to persuade Hermione to leave the bathroom. There were all sorts of questions that she had. She was worried that Madam Pomfrey would find out what we had done. But, to the old witch's credit, she never really asked questions. She just wanted to make sure that all of the students were healthy. She was also afraid of someone catching her. But I pointed out that the castle was nearly empty and we would keep her in between us, just to make sure that no one spotted her. I could imagine that the Slytherin's would never let it go if they found out that Hermione had accidentally turned herself into a cat.

In the end, she allowed us to take her, considering that if she didn't go, she'd be this way forever. Moaning Myrtle sped us on our way with a hearty guffaw. She had always liked when other people were laughed at. "Wait till everyone finds out you've got a tail!" she squealed.

Hermione gave a little whimper and continued to cry. As we walked up to the hospital wing, I held her close to me and dropped my voice to a whisper. "Well... If it makes you feel any better... I just had my first kiss..." I muttered awkwardly.

Hermione perked up almost right away. "With who?" she asked curiously.

"Malfoy!" Harry and Ron shouted before I could tell her. I'd never seen a cat looked shocked before. Harry and Ron were still in absolute hysterics, barely able to keep up with us. I sighed deeply, knowing that the kiss wasn't going away anytime soon.


	31. The Very Secret Diary

Hermione remained in the hospital wing for several weeks afterwards. We were very lucky that Madam Pomfrey never asked what had happened to her. She'd merely gone into a tizzy about students using magic that they didn't understand and had immediately gone to the proper course of action to heal her. We'd almost immediately ran from the hospital wing that first night, knowing that we'd been very lucky, and hadn't visited Hermione until the next day. She was in better spirits once she knew that she wouldn't look like a cat for the rest of her life. Although we did have to give a few stupid excuses as to where Hermione had gone.

There was a flurry of rumor about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived back from their Christmas holidays, because of course everyone thought that she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face. No one knew what had happened for a long time, and Cedric had even come to tell me that he was so sorry about what had happened. I'd laughed upon seeing him and had shaken my head, telling him that it was just a Transfiguration spell gone wrong - sort of true - over the break and that she'd be back to normal as soon as possible.

It didn't help that for the first few days, Lavender Brown seemed to think that I had done something to Hermione. She wouldn't even come within feet of me. Most people wouldn't, until the rumor had ended and people had realized that she was just sick, not Petrified. Lavender still didn't seem overly-thrilled to see me. Not that it really bothered me. I spent most of my time with Hermione in the hospital wing, anyways, whenever I got the chance. In the meantime, Harry and Ron would come along and with me to visit her every evening.

Things even got better when I saw Pansy Parkinson the day after the attack. She had seemed completely out of it the day afterwards. She was wearing a huge bandage over her eye. I could see some dried blood and a large black eye on her. I'd laughed for most of the day about it. I was glad to see that it was days before the swelling on her eyes had finally gone away. She still hated me, but not because she remembered what had happened. It was very clear that she didn't know at all what had happened.

It wasn't long ago that I'd overheard Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson talking about that night. Crabbe and Goyle were dense as ever, but the moment that Malfoy commented that he liked Parkinson's use of strawberry Chapstick I'd noticed that she straightened up and smiled, and now wore it on a regular basis. It had made me laugh like a loon. Even better was that I'd overheard Malfoy telling Parkinson that her eyes looked so much duller in the light. The put-out look on her face was almost worth the mortification that I still bore any time that Malfoy looked my way or the kissy noises that Ron and Harry would make when they saw him.

Of course this didn't change the fact that I couldn't look Malfoy in the eye anymore. He seemed surprised that I wasn't speaking to him anymore - well, insulting was probably a better word for it. He had seemed particularly confused the day after we'd used the Polyjuice Potion when he'd cornered me in the Great Hall, asking if I liked his new watch. I'd merely stared at him for a moment before walking off, my cheeks burning. I wondered if he would be as confident around me as he was if he knew that it was my eyes that he liked or if it was my Chapstick that he liked, not Parkinson's. But I didn't want to know that badly, so I tried to avoid him at all costs. Thankfully it was pretty easy.

When the new term started, we all brought Hermione each day's homework. She had nothing better to do, so she was always excited when the time came for us to bring her more schoolwork. I did feel bad for her. There wasn't even a Muggle television or something to keep her amused. She just had schoolwork and books. From time to time Madam Pomfrey would play her music, but she was always playing Celestina Warbeck. I would have gouged my ears by now.

"If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work," Ron said, tipping a stack of books onto Hermione's bedside table one evening.

"Don't be silly, Ron, I've got to keep up," Hermione said briskly.

There they go bickering like an old married couple again. Rolling my eyes at them, mostly Hermione, I cut into the argument. "Has anyone really actually been thinking about the upcoming exams with all of this happening?" I asked her.

"Of course!" Hermione said.

Judging by the looks that Harry and Ron were giving each other, I assumed that Hermione was alone in being prepared for exams in a few months. I hadn't been studying nearly as much for exams this year as I had been for exams in the previous year. That probably wasn't a good thing, considering that Hermione was now getting back to her normally studious ways. Her spirits had been greatly improved by the fact that all the hair had gone from her face and her eyes were turning slowly back to brown. Madam Pomfrey had reassured us that she would be out of the hospital wing in another week or two.

I was sure that Hermione had never looked so grateful for news. "I don't suppose you've got any new leads?" Hermione added in a whisper, so that Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear her.

"Nothing," Harry said gloomily.

As helpful as pieces of the meeting with Malfoy had been - and detrimental to me - we had lost the one lead that we might have had. "I was so sure it was Malfoy," Ron said, for about the hundredth time.

Rolling my eyes at them, I kicked up my boots on the edge of Hermione's bed. She looked disgusted at the mud at them, which only made me grin. "You were convinced! I knew that it wasn't him," I snapped at him, for about the two hundredth time.

Ron rolled his eyes and tossed a bandage roll at me. "Yes, yes, you're so brilliant," he muttered.

Smiling at him, I picked up the bandages, placing them back on the nightstand. We sat in silence for a moment, myself going through my Potions homework, when Harry shattered the silence. "What's that?" Harry asked, pointing to something gold sticking out from under Hermione's pillow.

Both Ron and I leaned forward to see it. "Just a get well card," Hermione said hastily, trying to poke it out of sight. My eyebrows narrowed at her. She had them all sitting on the bedside table. So why was she trying to hide that one? Thankfully Ron was too quick for her. He pulled it out, flicked it open, and read aloud, myself hanging over his shoulder.

"To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award."

Grinding my teeth together to the point that I was sure that I was going to break them, I snatched the card from her and rolled my eyes, reading it over before tossing it to the floor. Hermione looked very offended with me. "Even on a get-well card he has to advertise himself!" I hissed irritably.

Hermione turned slightly pink. "It's just his signature," she argued softly. I rolled my eyes at her. There were four extra things that he put on the card just to advertise himself. I particularly liked that he included the five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award.

It appeared that I wasn't the only one that couldn't understand Hermione's love of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Ron looked up at Hermione, disgusted. "You sleep with this under your pillow?" he asked her.

Her cheeks were now even brighter than they had been before. I could imagine that she had no clue what to say to us. I found myself almost curious to ask whether or not Ron was jealous about her affections before deciding that I would stay silent. No need to embarrass her even more. Maybe later, but not tonight. Hermione ended up being spared from answering any questions by Madam Pomfrey sweeping over with her evening dose of medicine. It meant that it was time for us to leave. We bade her a quick goodnight with a promise that we would come by and visit her again tomorrow.

We had just left the infirmary when Ron spoke. "Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you've ever met, or what?" he asked, standing in between us, as we started up the stairs toward Gryffindor Tower.

As much as I would have loved to stay and chat with Hermione, I had a ton of Potions homework to get done before the next Potions lesson. "I'd like to kick-drop him off the Astronomy Tower," I growled under my breath.

"Please make sure that I'm there to watch," Ron said.

Laughing loudly, the three of us marched up the staircase towards Gryffindor Tower. Harry had started the homework, I was getting close to being done, Hermione was done, and Ron had barely started. Snape had given us so much homework, that it seemed likely that we were going to be in our Fifth or Sixth Year before we finished it. It didn't help that I had Astronomy homework piling on top of it. I would have to hunt down Cedric to help me soon. Ron was just saying how he wished that he had asked Hermione how many rat tails you were supposed to add to a Hair-Raising Potion when an angry outburst from the floor above reached our ears.

The three of us stopped dead in our tracks and turned back towards the noise. "Three, for future reference," I mumbled about the rat tails as we slowly backtracked.

"Thanks," Ron said.

It went unspoken that we wanted to see what was happening. "That's Filch," Harry muttered as we hurried up the stairs and paused, out of sight, listening hard for what the problem was.

"You don't think someone else's been attacked?" Ron whispered to us tensely.

Please don't be another attack. "But it's been so long since one," I muttered back.

Things had been so good at the school lately. The rumors were dying down and there had been no sign that anything was amiss. Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been the last attack, well over two months ago. And Harry and I hadn't heard the voice since before that. There was no sign that anything terrible had happened. Other than Filch's howling, but that was nothing abnormal. We stood still, our heads inclined toward Filch's voice, which still sounded quite hysterical.

"- even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't got enough to do! No, this is the final straw, I'm going to Dumbledore -"

Obviously he was walking back and forth. His footsteps receded along the out-of-sight corridor and I heard a distant door slam. I could only assume that he was either going back to his own office or to go find some innocent student to start harassing. He loved doing that ever since what had happened to Mrs. Norris. Slowly creeping towards the place that Filch had just been, we poked our heads around the corner. Filch had clearly been manning his usual lookout post. It was his favorite place in the castle these days. We were once again on the spot where Mrs. Norris had been attacked. He seemed to think that the attacker would be foolish enough to return.

But nothing strange had happened since that first attack. The words still shone brightly on the walls and the place where Mrs. Norris had been hanging still seemed a little intimidating. We saw at a glance what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor, and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I rolled my eyes at her. Of course she had flooded the bathroom. It was the third time that she'd done it this year. Now that Filch had stopped shouting, we could hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.

"Now what's up with her?" Ron asked.

Giving a little shrug, I started moving towards the bathroom. "Maybe she remembered that she was dead," I suggested. Ron laughed as Harry moved towards me. "She floods the bathroom whenever she's upset about something."

"How is the school not underwater?" Ron asked.

Chuckling softly, Harry pushed Ron and I forward. "Let's go and see," he said.

We must have been the only people crazy enough to actually willingly go and speak to Moaning Myrtle. Holding our robes over our ankles we stepped through the great wash of water to the door bearing its out of order sign, ignored it as always, and entered. All of the sinks were running and I groaned, slipping and sliding over to the handles. Between Harry, Ron, and I, we were able to turn them off quickly. Moaning Myrtle was crying, if possible, louder and harder than ever before. She seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet. It was dark in the bathroom because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.

Once I was sure that the school wasn't about to be turned into an aquarium, I turned and headed towards Myrtle. She was in tears with her head buried in her arms. "Hi, Myrtle," I called to her quietly.

"What's up, Myrtle?" Harry said loudly.

Myrtle's cries briefly stopped. "Who's that?" Myrtle hiccupped miserably. Was it even possible for a ghost to hiccup? "Come to throw something else at me?"

Had someone thrown something at her? I had to admit that the thought was rather funny. Harry waded across to her stall, Ron and I following. "Why would I throw something at you?" Harry asked her.

As usual, a question asked towards Myrtle did not go well. "Don't ask me," Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto the already sopping floor. The three of us stepped backwards as she zoomed over to us, stopping right in front of Ron. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me..."

At least Myrtle wasn't like the Bloody Baron. She was annoying and whiny, but she wasn't dangerous or scary. "But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," Harry asked. I rolled my eyes at him. He probably thought that the comment was perfectly reasonable. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?" he asked, making the situation no better.

Just as I expected, Harry had said the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked, "Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it!" She flew angrily down in front of Ron and I watched as he stared at her in horror. "Ten points if you can get it through her stomach!" she yelled, punching through Ron's stomach. He looked either horrified or furious. "Fifty points if it goes through her head!" she shouted, now throwing a fist through his head. He looked very scared as she floated backwards. "Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"

The three of us were silent for a while before Harry spoke again. "Who threw it at you, anyway?" Harry asked.

It didn't seem that Ron could think to say anything to Myrtle. I wouldn't have been surprised if he never spoke to her again. "I don't know," Myrtle said with a little mopey tone. "I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head," she continued, glaring at us like both the book and her death were our fault. "It's over there, it got washed out..."

Glancing over, I saw the shadow where the book was laying. Raising a brow at her, I shook my head. "I don't think that someone was trying to throw this at you," I told her slowly. Myrtle stopped crying and merely stared at me. "I think that someone was trying to throw this away. They didn't know that you were in the U-bend," I tried to reason.

If someone had come in here to throw the book away... That didn't make any sense. Why would someone come all the way to an out of order restroom, that no one, save a mopey ghost, ever set foot in, just to throw away a book? There were so many other things that someone could do. They could simply throw it away, toss it in the lake, or burn it. Why go through all of this trouble to dispose of the book? I did not like the feeling of the book. A sharp shiver that had been going through me at the cold suddenly seemed to turn a little more sinister. There was something wrong with the book. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew.

"Well they should have thought!" Myrtle shrieked at me, distracting me from my thoughts.

Rolling my eyes at her, I ground my teeth together. No wonder no one mourned her death. She was such a brat about everything. "Of course. That's the first thought of most people that are trying to flush away a book. Maybe a ghost is in the toilet and will be upset if it goes through their body," I muttered mostly to myself.

Both Harry and Ron laughed, but Myrtle did not like the comment. She screamed at me with a little cry before flying upwards and swooping back down into the toilet. The water sloshed out of the toilet and soaked the floor once more. I groaned and took a step backwards. Even though no one used this bathroom, it was still disgusting. Once she was gone, I pointed over to where the book was sitting. Harry and Ron looked straight where I was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. It looked more like a diary than anything else. We all stepped forward, but Harry was the one that leaned forward to pick it up. Before he could, Ron suddenly flung out an arm to hold him back.

"What?" Harry asked Ron.

Even I was a little curious as to what Ron thought was so terrible about Harry touching the book. Maybe germs. "Are you crazy? It could be dangerous," Ron said.

"So you got that weird feeling, too?" I asked.

Now both Ron and Harry were looking at me like I'd lost my mind. "What? No," Ron said.

Well now I certainly couldn't understand why he didn't want Harry touching it. That would be the only reason that I wouldn't want him to touch it. "Dangerous?" Harry repeated, laughing. "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"

"You'd be surprised," Ron said. He was still looking apprehensively at the book. "Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated - Dad's told me - there was one that burned your eyes out." My hand briefly grazed my cheeks, right below my eyes. I was rather fond of them. "And everyone who read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives." I was unable to stop myself from laughing. That was actually rather funny. "And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed," Ron exclaimed.

"Sounds like Hermione's kind of book," I cut in.

Harry laughed at the comment, but it went unfazed by Ron as he tried to continue, "And -"

"All right, I've got the point," Harry said, stopping Ron from continuing the stories of everything that could go wrong. That was Hermione's job. The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy. "Well, we won't find out unless we look at it," Harry said.

Watching closely, hoping that nothing terrible would happen, Harry ducked around Ron and picked it up off the floor. The three of us scooted in close together to look at it. It was very clearly something that had once been a diary, and the faded year on the cover told me it was fifty years old. My stomach clenched with the memory of sitting in the Slytherin Common Room with Malfoy. The Chamber of Secrets had been opened fifty years ago... Was there something in there? Was that why I felt so strange about it? Harry opened it eagerly. On the first page I could just make out the name T. M. Riddle in smudged ink.

Riddle... Riddle... Did I know anyone named Riddle? Not that I could think of. "Hang on," Ron said, as he approached cautiously and started looking over Harry's shoulder. "I know that name... T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."

Both Harry and I turned back to him. Award for special services to the school. What for? I would have paid money to know what T.M. Riddle had done to get themselves known. I even thought back to every book that I'd ever read about witches and wizards - good and bad - but I was sure that I'd never come across that name before. I'd even read through Hogwarts, A History before. There was no mention of anyone by the name of Riddle, and it had been added to recently, going up to about thirty years ago. If Riddle had done something that amazing, shouldn't their name have been mentioned in the book?

"How on earth d'you know that?" Harry asked Ron in amazement about the award.

"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention. That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you'd wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it, too," Ron explained resentfully.

As Harry began to pull at the pages to the diary, I found myself feeling a little sick. There was something wrong with this diary. There was something wrong with this entire thing. Who was T.M. Riddle? I didn't like the sound of it. After debating for a moment, Harry peeled the wet pages apart. They were completely blank. We looked over every single one, both Ron and I giving it a try as well. Unless there was a protective enchantment, which it didn't seem that there was, there wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of the pages. Not even something as insignificant as a birthday or an appointment to the dentist or a class schedule.

"He never wrote in it," Harry said, obviously disappointed.

"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it away?" Ron asked curiously.

But there was now something else that was bothering me. Something more than just his name and why he didn't show up in any history books. It was the age of the diary. "How did a fifty-year-old diary end up in Hogwarts?" I asked.

There had been no sign of the diary before this year. I'd combed through the library shelves a thousand times and never seen it. That was the only place that housed books. No one had a reason to bring a fifty year old diary, that it seemed no one was related to, just to throw it away. The only place that I could think that it might have been hidden was in the Restricted Section of the library, and I didn't like that idea too much either. Harry turned to the back cover of the book and I glanced at it. In very small writing, I could see the printed name of a variety store on Vauxhall Road, London.

If only it hadn't been that long ago. We could have gone during the Easter holiday and asked about it. "He must've been Muggle-Born. To have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road..." Harry said thoughtfully.

I shook my head at him. There were lots of Muggle things that I had. There were quite a few things that Harry had that were Muggle items, too. "You have things that were bought from Muggle shops. Are you a Muggle-Born?" I asked Harry. He merely glared at me. "Am I? I use some Muggle things," I argued my point a little more.

"Oh, yes, like that Chapstick that Malfoy is so fond of," Ron put in.

Harry laughed as my face burned all the way to the roots of my hair. "Shut up," I snapped at Ron.

Once everyone was done laughing at my misfortune, we made our way out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "Well, it's not much use to you," Ron said. He dropped his voice a second later. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose." I laughed loudly and egged Harry on, but he didn't, instead, he pocketed it.

After our little debacle with the diary from T. M. Riddle, there wasn't much of interest. The school had started to calm down with it having been so long since the last attack. And, by now, everyone seemed to have realized that Hermione wasn't Petrified. My marks were top of the class - only battling with Hermione for that spot - and I spent a lot of time preparing for exams with her. Now that things had calmed down, it was easier to start getting ready for the upcoming exams. I was excited. In just a few weeks we would be picking our electives for next year. Hermione and I were both thrilled. I was positive that Ron and Harry hadn't even thought about it yet.

We had a pretty good choice of the things that we wanted to take. From the electives there was Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies, and Study of Ancient Runes. I knew that I wanted to take everything except Muggle Studies, and I wasn't really sure if I would give Divination a try or not. There were also the extra-curricular activities that would be available. I definitely wanted to take Music and maybe even Ancient Studies. It would be rather fun picking them all out. I'd have to ask Cedric which ones he was partial to. I trusted him not to put me into any stupid classes.

In the meantime, we were all thrilled when Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less, and fur free. It was the beginning of February and the air had turned from brutal ice to slightly less brutal snowstorms. Quidditch practices were terrible, often making me feel like I had frozen all the way down to the bone. I was sure that Oliver was going to kill me if I came to practice in Fred's winter cloak one more time. On Hermione's first evening back in Gryffindor Tower, Harry wanted to immediately show her T. M. Riddle's diary. He hadn't wanted to bring it to the hospital wing for fear that someone might catch him and take it. He quickly passed into a very animated version of the story of how we had found it.

Unlike Ron and I, Hermione was on my side with excitement for the diary. "Oh, it might have hidden powers," she said enthusiastically, taking the diary and looking at it closely.

I wasn't sure what she was expecting. Maybe that it would bite her or slap her in the face. "If it has, it's hiding them very well. Maybe it's shy," Ron said. I laughed softly. The two of us had no good thoughts about what was going on with the diary. "I don't know why you don't chuck it, Harry."

"I wish I knew why someone did try to chuck it. I wouldn't mind knowing how Riddle got an award for special services to Hogwarts either," Harry said wistfully.

"Could've been anything. Maybe he got thirty O.W.L.s or saved a teacher from the giant squid," Ron put in. Once more, I laughed. Ron seemed to honestly think that T.M. Riddle had just done some impressive spell or something of the likes. "Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've done everyone a favor..."

Once more, I laughed. Hermione did not like the comment, but even Harry smiled. Myrtle was a terrible annoyance. I could only imagine why someone would want to kill her. Not that I really cared that much. She was clearly from another generation. But I couldn't tell which one. Hogwarts robes never really changed that often, and it wasn't like she was going around telling everyone exactly how and when she had died. The laughter quickly ceased and I glanced around at the others. I could tell from the arrested look on Hermione's face that she was thinking what Harry had been thinking, and the thought that had crossed my mind when we'd first found the diary.

"What?" Ron asked, looking from one of us to another.

Both Harry and Hermione shifted awkwardly in their chairs. I picked at the dirt under my nails, playing with the quill in my hands. "Well, the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, wasn't it? That's what Malfoy said," Harry pointed out.

It was very obvious that we were going to have to spell this out for Ron. As much as I loved him, and as intelligent as he could be at moments, there were also moments that he was incredibly dense. "Yeah..." Ron said slowly.

"And this diary is fifty years old," Hermione helped him along, tapping it excitedly.

"So?" Ron asked.

Losing my patience with this entire thing, I looked over at Hermione. "For heaven's sake, just tell him. We'll be here until Seventh Year if you try and make him guess," I snapped at her.

"Oh, Ron, wake up," Hermione snapped. He glared at both of us, probably not happy for the way that we were essentially calling him an idiot. "We know the person who opened the Chamber last time was expelled fifty years ago. We know T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago. Well, what if Riddle got his special award for catching the Heir of Slytherin? His diary would probably tell us everything - where the Chamber is, and how to open it, and what sort of creature lives in it - the person who's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want that lying around, would they?"

The room was silent for a long while. It was all a wonderful plan. The perfect idea would be if we could ask the person that had bought the diary everything that had happened. We could ask them where the Chamber of Secrets was and how exactly we were able to open it. Even more helpful would have been if we could talk to the person that had been killed. We could ask them what had killed them and ask if they knew who had set the monster on them. But that was in a perfect world. And this was far from perfect.

Apparently Ron shared my thoughts. "That's a brilliant theory, Hermione, with just one tiny little flaw. There's nothing written in his diary," Ron pointed out to her.

But Hermione was pulling her wand out of her bag and ignoring him. "It might be invisible ink!" she whispered excitedly. She tapped the diary three times and said, "Aparecium!" It was a revealing spell that was very helpful in most cases. But nothing happened. Undaunted, Hermione shoved her hand back into her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a bright red eraser. "It's a Revealer, I got it in Diagon Alley," she said. She rubbed hard on January first. Once more, nothing happened.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing to find in there. Riddle just got a diary for Christmas and couldn't be bothered filling it in," Ron argued when he saw the defeated look on Hermione's face.

Rolling my eyes at them, I threw down my quill and jumped up. "Oh, enough of this. Someone had this diary and it creeped them out to the point that they couldn't just throw it away. They flushed it down a toilet to try and destroy it. This thing is bad news," I snapped at them. It looked like Hermione might have argued with me, or maybe even Harry, but I was not going to give them a chance. There was not going to be any more of this crap. "Toss it," I barked at Harry, grabbing the diary before he could stop me.

Grabbing the diary turned out to be a huge mistake. It felt like I had been grabbed by a ghost or something like that. An ice-cold feeling seeped into my bones and it felt like I had been ripped off of my feet. I didn't even get a chance to scream. My throat closed itself off and I was sure that I was going to die. I couldn't get air into my lungs. But that was until the world rearranged itself. I was dropped onto my feet, standing in what appeared to be a dark chamber. Was I now T.M. Riddle? Was I seeing the world through his eyes? Could that have happened? A low hissing noise came from behind me and I turned back to see what it was. But, right behind me, were a pair of huge, brilliant, yellow eyes. An order to kill someone - maybe me - echoed through the air.

Before I was able to figure out what had happened, the world changed once more. There were flashes of images shooting through my mind. It all went too fast for me to make out much of what I was being shown. There was a decrepit building that appeared to be an orphanage, the ruin of a small street, a young man with dark hair, a serial number on a cloth, a glowing fire that was flickering back and forth between red and blue, a dark room with a blue light emanating from a hallway, something that appeared to be a prison cell, a flash of green light on a tall tower, and - the most horrifying sight - Hogwarts... burning to the ground.

Finally it felt like I was dropped out of the sky. With a sharp scream and a shooting pain, I hit the ground. It was a stone floor, and after a second, I realized that I was in Hogwarts. There were people walking back and forth, but no one seemed to notice me lying there. No one, not one, with the exception of a young man with dark hair. He was definitely handsome as he walked towards me. I glanced around, but none of the students that were walking around seemed to notice what was happening.

Despite the fact that there was no introduction between the two of us, I knew that this was T.M. Riddle, and he clearly knew who I was. "Tara Nox... Come to me," he said lowly.

Backing away on my hands and feet, I shook my head at him. Screw what Harry and Hermione said, I didn't want to be anywhere near this guy. I had a terrible feeling about him. "Stay away from me," I snapped at him. Respectfully, he stayed where he was and inclined his head. I weakly stood up and looked around. "Where am I? What have you done with me?" I asked him.

T.M. Riddle took a step closer to me but stayed at least a little ways back. "Look closer. Look at my diary," he said. I raised a brow. Look at the diary... There was nothing in the diary. "Remember me."

My head snapped over to him. "I don't know you," I hissed at him.

Before either one of us got the chance to say anything back to the other, the scene shifted. Once more, I fell into the scene. I groaned as I hit the ground, coughing. Oh, come on, can't just shift the scene? It looked like I was standing on some type of old fashioned street. I couldn't tell exactly where I was. I walked back and forth, trying to find someone, but there was no one anywhere near me. It took a few moments before a figure finally appeared at the end of the street. Their hands were knitted together as the man took a step closer to me. My legs locked in their place. It was the same man from my dream in Potions.

"Who did it?" the man asked me.

I knew what he was asking me. He was asking me who it was that had opened the Chamber of Secrets. I wished that I knew who had done that. "I - I don't know," I stuttered, unsure of who he wanted me to say.

"You do," he goaded.

"I don't!" I insisted.

There was no part of me that knew who had opened the Chamber of Secrets. It wasn't Harry or I, I was sure of that, and it wasn't Malfoy, the only other thought that we had. "Think harder," he said.

My brain was going to explode if I thought any harder. Then I remembered the exact thing that had sent me here. "The diary, the diary, will it help us?" I asked him desperately.

He was silent for a long while. I thought that he wasn't even going to answer my question. "In time," he finally answered.

Unless I was losing my mind, I had a feeling that there was something somber in his voice when he spoke, rather than the normally amused tone. "This T.M. Riddle... Can we trust him?" I asked.

The amusement in his voice returned. "There is no one that you can trust. You will never be able to trust anyone," he said.

My chest puffed out indignantly. "I trust people. I trust my friends," I said.

"You shouldn't."

"Then who should I trust?" I asked, sensing that it was exactly that question that he wanted me to ask.

Once more, I was able to see the smile on his face. "Me," he answered.

I could have slapped myself. Of course he was going to say himself. "Who are you?" I asked.

The man merely shook his head at me. He walked up to me until he was standing nearly pressed against me. Try as I might, I still couldn't make out the details of his face. "Find the truth," he whispered to me.

That was when I knew that the end of the conversation was coming. The man walked towards me and gently placed a hand on my shoulder. The moment that touched me, my head began to spin. I passed out and jolted myself back into reality. Forcing myself upright, holding back a scream that threatened to tear itself from my throat, I nearly knocked my head on the table. I was on the floor of the Gryffindor Common Room still, Harry, Ron, and Hermione surrounding me. The diary was on the table.

Panic was clear in my eyes. I could see it in the reflection of Harry's glasses. He was holding my hand tightly and pulling me into him. "Tara. Tara," he said, snapping his fingers, trying to snap me out of it. "Are you alright?" he asked me.

My head was still spinning. Too much... That was too much... "What was that?" Ron asked me, placing his hand on my leg.

Hermione dashed off quickly before sprinting back towards me. There was a bottle of Gillywater in her hands. "Here. Get some water," she urged. I drained about half of it before looking back up at her, my heart still thumping in my chest. "What happened?" she asked me.

Allowing them to help me back into my chair, I placed my head in my hands. "A dream," I whispered breathlessly. "It was a dream. I don't - I don't understand what it was about. I saw the man that owns the diary, I think. Riddle. He told me to remember him and to read it. Then the scene changed and I saw the man from my dream in Potions. He said to find the truth. He asked me who did it and I told him that I didn't know. He says that I do. I don't think that he wants us to trust the diary."

The others exchanged a look as I tried to take a few more deep breaths. "It's just a diary, Tara. There's nothing in there that's actually written. We'll be fine. You'll be fine. It was just a dream," Hermione tried to reassure me.

"Hell no!" I barked, startling them. "That thing is cursed. Get rid of it."

It seemed that Hermione and Harry were hesitant to get rid of it. But Ron was on my side. "Tara's right. There's something wrong with that thing. Get rid of the diary, Harry," he said.

It didn't take me long to realize that Harry had not gotten rid of the diary. I knew that he hadn't. He'd told Ron and Hermione that he was just keeping it safe, but I knew that he was using it, trying to figure out what it meant. It didn't make any sense to me, but I could feel it. There was something heavy about the air that was around the diary. It felt like I was lightheaded and I could have sworn that I heard little whispering voices every time that I got close to Harry with his bag, the diary tucked inside.

I'd had to confront him about it, angry and curious as to why he had kept it. His excuse hadn't been a good one. Harry couldn't explain, even to himself, why he didn't just throw Riddle's diary away. He had admitted to me that he kept absentmindedly picking it up and turning the pages, as though it were a story he wanted to finish. I'd told him that there was something wrong with it, maybe a Binding Spell, and that was exactly the reason that he had to get rid of it. He was getting attached to it. Maybe there was nothing wrong with the diary. Maybe it was natural and maybe I was just a freak, but maybe there was something dangerous about it.

We had been through enough danger to last ourselves a lifetime. I didn't want to be the dummy that had had died because of an enchanted diary. Weirdly enough, I was absolutely positive that I had never heard the name T. M. Riddle before, it still seemed to mean something to me. It was almost as though Riddle was a friend that I'd had when I was very small, and had half-forgotten. He seemed special to me. Some part of me wanted to protect him. But even more of me, and the man in my dreams, warned me that Riddle was dangerous. All of this was absurd. It felt like I was a dog, chasing my tail around in circles and never catching it.

It seemed that both Harry and I felt like we knew T.M. Riddle from somewhere. Ron and Hermione insisted that we must have heard the name somewhere, but I was positive that I hadn't. It just felt like I knew him. Somehow, somewhere, I knew who this person was. And it felt like I was close to them at some point. Because, as much as I hated the diary and as much as I wanted it gone, some part of me felt immensely protective over it. It was exhausting me. The tug-of-war between whether I wanted to keep the diary or dispose of it. It just felt like I adored Riddle, and the diary seemed like it was a part of him.

Nevertheless, even without the diary, Harry and I found ourselves determined to find out more about Riddle. So the next day at break, we headed for the trophy room to examine Riddle's special award, accompanied by an interested Hermione and a thoroughly unconvinced Ron, who told them he'd seen enough of the trophy room to last him a lifetime. We dragged him with us anyways. Riddle's burnished gold shield was tucked away in a corner cabinet. It didn't carry details of why it had been given to him. It struck me as odd, considering that every other award had details of what the said award had been given for.

"Good thing, too, or it'd be even bigger and I'd still be polishing it," Ron said, in reference to Harry's commenting that it didn't have a reason for being awarded.

As we walked around the trophy room, I found myself scanning the lists of names. I saw quite a few names that I recognized from current students and smiled. I spotted James Potter, Marcus Nox, and Sirius Black on one of the Quidditch trophies and sighed. One day Harry would find out the whole story. Maybe one day I'd even find out the whole story. But today was not the day. There was even a trophy for Quidditch with Amos Diggory on it. I smiled, wondering if Cedric had ever seen it. As we walked, we found Riddle's name on an old Medal for Magical Merit, and on a list of old Head Boys.

Whoever this was, it seemed like he would have grown up to be a great wizard, not someone that peaked in Hogwarts. "He sounds like Percy," Ron said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Prefect, Head Boy... probably top of every class -"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Hermione said in a slightly hurt voice.

Glancing around the room, I made sure that no one else was standing near us. They shouldn't have been, it was still very early. "Has anyone noticed that Riddle kind of disappeared from the books after his Seventh Year? He was such a huge figure and then, all of a sudden, he kind of disappears," I pointed out.

That didn't seem to mean anything to the others. "Maybe he just didn't do anything worthwhile afterwards," Hermione suggested.

"After potentially catching the Heir of Slytherin?" I asked her with a bored expression. It was the only thing that I could think that he had done to get himself an award like that. Hermione merely shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, right." We stood in silence for a moment longer before something popped into my head. "You know, something just occurred to me. Sure, Armando Dippet -"

"Who?" Ron interrupted.

"The Headmaster at Hogwarts before Dumbledore took over," I explained. Harry and Ron nodded. I assumed that Hermione had known. "Anyways, he would have appointed the Head Boy and Head Girl. He would have been the Headmaster during those days. Dumbledore doesn't do anything without purpose, and I've heard tell that Dippet was always leaning on Dumbledore for advice. That's why the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress is normally very close to the Headmaster. Hence, Dumbledore and McGonagall," I explained.

"Your point?" Ron asked irritably.

Glaring at him, I was glad that Hermione and Harry both shushed him, allowing me to continue. "I'm getting there. Shut up. Dumbledore would have had say in who the Head Boy was. Sure, maybe he placed Riddle as the Head Boy because he trusted him, or maybe he placed him as the Head Boy to keep an eye on him," I said.

It was a way out-there idea, but there was no student in the school that was under a more watchful eye of the Hogwarts Headmaster than the Head Boy and Girl. They had to make sure that the Head students were behaving in an exemplary matter. And we had to remember that the attacks had suddenly stopped because someone was expelled. Maybe it was because the real culprit had been caught. But maybe it was because Dumbledore was still suspicious. He would have had no evidence that Riddle had done anything wrong, but putting him as Head Boy where he was able to keep a close eye on him... that would have ensured that Riddle was never able to make another big move at Hogwarts.

"That's really far-fetched," Hermione finally said.

Waving my hand at her, I nodded. "I know. I know... But I just - I have a gut feeling that I'm right," I said honestly.

There was something in me that I couldn't explain. It was a constant tug-of-war. One second I was terrified of the idea of T.M. Riddle, and the next it felt like he was the light of my life. All I knew was that none of those feelings had been with me before the diary. That was why I was so fond of the idea to get rid of it.

"And is there any proof to back up those feelings?" Hermione asked me.

Raising my arms, I motioned all around us. "Look at the other trophies. They all say what the person did to receive them. But Riddle's doesn't. What if he wasn't given the trophy as a reward, but almost to serve like a warning? He was at the top of his game... There was nowhere to go but down," I said.

It wasn't the best explanation that I had in the world, but it was better than nothing, and it was better than blindly trusting a diary. "You really don't trust him?" Hermione asked me.

After a moment of hesitation, I shook my head at her. "Not him, I don't know him. The diary. There's something wrong with it. I can feel it," I told her. It was one of those gut feelings. "And someone - namely Riddle - placed some kind of spell on it."

We were silent for a long while before Harry finally said, "You would have made a good private eye." That was all that it took. We dissolved into laughter and headed out into the Great Hall for breakfast, myself feeling much better.

In the days that followed, I felt myself feeling quite a bit better. The diary had scarcely been mentioned and the weather was beginning to turn back to somewhat habitable temperatures. The sun had now begun to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had still been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, and Madam Pomfrey was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning that they were fast leaving childhood. It seemed that they would be ready for the potion in a matter of two or three months.

One afternoon that we'd been walking towards Herbology, we'd overheard Madam Pomfrey speaking to Filch. "The moment their acne clears up, they'll be ready for repotting again. And after that, it won't be long until we're cutting them up and stewing them. You'll have Mrs. Norris back in no time," she told him sweetly. It had to be the nicest that I'd ever heard someone speak to Filch.

Perhaps the Heir of Slytherin had lost his or her nerve. It was a definite surprise that no one had been attacked. Things were getting to bad for a while, and now, nothing. It was like the Heir knew that things were getting too dangerous to do anything. Of course that made sense. It must have been getting riskier and riskier to open the Chamber of Secrets, with the school so alert and suspicious. Perhaps the monster, whatever it was, was even now settling itself down to hibernate for another fifty years.

But there was one thing that still bothered me. Salazar Slytherin himself had placed the monster there a thousand years ago. We didn't know if the Chamber had been opened until fifty years ago, and now it was on the loose again. What lived for that long? Nothing that I knew of. There was a chance that the monster could have been breeding, but that would mean that there would be multiple things to control and no way to control how many there were. They would have been attacking students left and right, as babies never really had no impulse control.

Still though, no one had been attacked, and that was a definite positive. Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff didn't take this cheerful view. He was still convinced that Harry and I were the guilty ones, and that we had given ourselves away at the Dueling Club. It was nice to hear the few times that Cedric stepped in and warned Ernie to give it a rest. Although, even with Cedric's attempts, Peeves wasn't helping matters; he kept popping up in the crowded corridors singing his little song about Harry and I killing the students, now with a dance routine to match. It was quite impressive and, had I been anyone else, I would have laughed.

Just like the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, it seemed that Gilderoy Lockhart had been hibernating lately. There wasn't much heard from him for weeks. Mostly his stupid remarks in class and joyous reactions to signing anything that lingered in front of him for too long. Since the attacks had stopped, Lockhart seemed to think he himself was the one that had made things that way. He clearly didn't see the eye-rolls or looks of disbelief from the people that were standing around him.

We had all overheard him telling Professor McGonagall so while the Gryffindor's were lining up for Transfiguration. "I don't think there will be any more trouble, Minerva," he said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking. "I think the Chamber has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him. You know, what the school needs now is a morale-booster. Wash away the memories of last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the thing."

He tapped his nose again and strode off. My stomach twisted itself in knots, fearing the worst for myself. I didn't want to know what Lockhart would do to try and boost morale. He hadn't told me that I was wrapping the Hogwarts boys around my finger lately, so maybe that would be coming back. It turned out that I was very wrong. Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fourteenth. I hadn't had much sleep because of a late-running Quidditch practice the night before and that had ended up making me late for the day, which was not good, considering that Transfiguration was first.

Leaping up from my bed, I leaned over to the clock and spotted it almost immediately. I was late. Almost half an hour late. Hermione had tried to wake me up but I'd ignored her, begging for five more minutes. "Oh, damn, I overslept!" I hissed at myself, sprinting from the bed and changing into my robes as quickly as possible.

Quidditch practice the night before had been a good one. We would be playing Hufflepuff in a matter of a few weeks, and that meant that we had to be ready. Oliver was still fanatical since we had lost the Quidditch Cup last year, mostly because of Harry and I not being there during the last game. After the first impressive game of the season, we had a lot to stand for during this game. And that meant that we trained all night long and in any weather. I had been soaking wet, freezing, and covered in mud by the time that we had come in from practice last night. I'd flopped right into bed, barely bothering to get changed.

I was ruing that right now. Hopefully no one noticed that there was some dried mud in my hair. Sprinting down the stairs, I could hear some clattering coming from the Second Year boy's dorm. It was Harry. It had to be him. "Harry! Move it!" I shouted at him.

He came down the stairs a second later. He was trying to yank on his robes with one hand and straighten out his books in his bad with the other. "Oliver had us there until midnight. Come on, that's got to be a valid excuse," Harry argued as we walked out.

"You tell that to Professor McGonagall. Hurry up!" I shouted at him.

The two of us sped upwards and sprinted out of the Common Room. The Fat Lady scolded us for running in the hallways and one of the portraits chastised me for my muddy hair, but I ignored them. One of these days, just one of these days, maybe there was a chance that Oliver would calm down about Quidditch... The thought made me laugh. Harry and I sprinted towards the Great Hall with just enough time to get a quick bite to eat before heading down to Transfiguration. I was glad that I'd gotten the homework for Professor McGonagall done last night and not waited until this morning, like I'd originally been planning.

Harry placed his hand on the door and gently pushed it open. I thought, for a moment, that we'd walked through the wrong doors. "What the hell?" I muttered at the sight.

"What is this?" Harry asked.

Leaning over to Harry, I dropped my voice into a low whisper. "And you thought that the Chamber of Secrets being opened was scary..."

The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. The plates were full of little hearts and impersonal valentines, and it looked like most of the food had been dyed with pink food dye. There went any chance that I'd been slightly hungry. I was not eating anything like that. The mostly black robes stood out awkwardly against the pink that was plastered on every surface in the Great Hall. Harry and I went over to the Gryffindor table, where Ron was sitting looking sickened, and Hermione seemed to have been overcome with giggles.

"What's going on?" Harry asked them, as we sat down. I took a moment to wipe the confetti off my bacon. It was one of the few things that seemed to have escaped the dye.

Ron pointed to the teachers' table, apparently too disgusted to speak. I glanced over and had to keep my jaw from dropping. Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-faced. From where I sat, Harry could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro. Dumbledore merely sat contently, his eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. I assumed that he was rather amused by the reaction of everyone in the Great Hall.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. Everyone gave awkward grins. Some of the girls looked happy and giggly with their boyfriends, who looked like they'd rather be gouging out their eyes. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all - and it doesn't end here!"

Leaning over to Hermione, I kept my glare set on my face, not even pretending to be amused. "Let me take a wild guess and say that you were one of the people that sent him a card," I snarled at her.

Blushing madly, Hermione dropped her head down to her plate. "Shut up," she mumbled to me.

The other three of us exchanged a triumphant smile. I knew that she would do something like that, as sick as it made me. Lockhart didn't need anything more to stroke his ego. It was already so big that I was shocked that he could walk around with the weight of his fat head. Lockhart clapped his hands together and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Dwarfs weren't really like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Dwarfs were kind of mean and really didn't like people that much. And there weren't just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps, kind of like the Muggle cupid.

They looked like they'd rather bite off Lockhart's hands than be doing this. I felt terrible for them. This was the worst thing that I had ever seen someone do to a little creature. "Oh that's cruel," I muttered to the others at the table.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids! They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines!" Lockhart beamed.

"Valentines?" I asked dumbly.

There was some laughter scattered throughout the hall, but it died almost immediately when the dwarfs started to look from person to person. "Did you want us to send you a valentine?" Fred asked me from across the table.

"No!" I hissed immediately, knowing that if they did something, it would be awful.

"We're hurt," George said, covering his heart.

I rolled my eyes at them as Lockhart continued speaking. "And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

The professors looked like they would have sooner died than let any of those things happen. Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands in embarrassment. I felt terrible for the little wizard. He was so nice, and here Lockhart was, making him look like an idiot. It was rather sad that Lockhart couldn't even let himself be the only one to look like an ass. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison. I was hoping that someone would get up the gall to ask him. I wanted to see how that would go over.

The rest of the Great Hall went into an awkward silence afterwards. There seemed to be a few people that were enjoying the little decoration for Valentine's Day. There were even more people that looked like they wanted to slam their heads into the wooden tables. Lockhart walked up and down the aisles, smiling at the students and trying to wish couples a happy Valentine's Day. It didn't take him long to make his way over to the Gryffindor table. I immediately stood, yanking Ron and Harry with me. I did not want to speak to Lockhart at all.

Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough. Lockhart stepped in front of us with a toothy smile. I could have sworn that Hermione melted in her place. "So Miss Robins -"

"Nox -"

"Which young man is lucky enough to be on the receiving end of your affections this Valentine's Day? There are so many to pick from, after all! Good girl, not settling down with just anyone. There's a wide pool of men out there, after all," Lockhart beamed.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared a nasty answer. "I am not as arrogant as you, needing forty-six letters to tell me how wonderful I am. My friends are all that I need. No men, no one wrapped around my finger, nothing! If you ever -" I ranted until Hermione grabbed me and yanked me away.

"She didn't get enough sleep. Long Quidditch practice last night," she said with a little laugh, driving me out of the Great Hall. "The day is going to come that he gets sick of you speaking to him like that," Hermione scolded me.

"And what about the day that I get sick of him speaking to me like that?" I shouted at her.

Her face turned a slight reddish color as we stormed from the Great Hall to get to class. "Please, Hermione, tell me you weren't one of the forty-six," Ron begged her. Hermione suddenly became very interested in searching her bag for her schedule and didn't answer.

My teeth were grinding together as we walked. A moment later, Cedric came walking up next to me and I fell back slightly, smiling weakly at him. "I should have gotten one of those to follow you around all day," he teased me as a cupid walked by us.

"If you do that, it will be the last thing that you ever do," I warned him.

"I think they're a little funny," Cedric said as we watched one of the cupids literally wrestle a Fifth Year Slytherin to the ground.

Despite thinking that it was a little cruel to do that to the dwarfs, I laughed at the sight. At least they could take out their frustration on the students. "I hope one of them follows you around all day," I told him.

Cedric laughed and shook his head. He'd probably just stand there and take it with a grain of salt. That was the kind of person that he was. "Think you're going to get one from Lockhart?" Cedric asked me.

My face probably turned slightly green at the thought. "I hope not," I said seriously, earning a little laugh from Cedric. I couldn't imagine how terrible that would be. "So how are you spending your Valentine's Day?" I asked curiously after a moment.

Please don't figure out that I'm trying to ask you if you have a valentine... Cedric grinned at me and said, "In classes." I couldn't help but to smile. He didn't have a valentine this year. Or maybe he just didn't want to tell me about it to spare my feelings. "I don't have a Valentine's this year. I think that it's all a little silly. All of this fuss for a day not unlike any other," he admitted.

The smile that fell over my face was probably a little embarrassing. I couldn't tell if he was sad or not. And I really didn't want to say anything stupid. So I decided to go for humor. "Sounds like someone got turned down for a Valentine's," I teased.

Cedric narrowed his eyes at me in a playful manner. "Now that's uncalled for," he said. We both laughed softly as we headed towards class. I was reasonably certain that he was heading towards Charms. "I think the person that I would have asked would have laughed in my face if I'd tried to do anything for Valentine's Day," he admitted.

Ouch. So he was going to ask someone. "Then she's smart," I muttered dumbly.

Cedric nodded at me. "Very much so. She's not too good at Astronomy though," he told me with a smile.

Don't be stupid, Tara. The way that he was smiling at me made a monstrous blush form on my face. He didn't mean me. I wasn't that smart... Despite the fact that I had some of the best marks of the Second Years. I was pretty terrible at Astronomy, but so were lots of other people. I wasn't the only one. And I was a Second Year. He probably had a crush on some pretty Fourth Year with him.

I'd never been as grateful for Harry as when he called for me. "Hurry up, Tara! We gotta go to class!" he shouted at me.

Taking a deep breath, I smiled at Cedric and willed myself not to make myself look like an idiot. "Can't be late for Transfiguration. See you later," I said, turning to head down the Transfiguration hallway as he headed up the staircase. Before he could get too far, I turned back to him and shouted, "By the way, I think that you'd look adorable dressed up as one of the cupids."

The smile over his face told me that he wasn't bothered that I had reacted stupidly to what he'd said. "Shut up," he snapped playfully at me. "See you around!" he called after me.

Last year I'd barely noticed that we had passed Valentine's Day. Normally it was just a day that was spent with friends. It really didn't become a thing until we were a little older. But this year, it was almost impossible to not remember that it was Valentine's Day. All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, much to the annoyance of the teachers. It was rather embarrassing for some of the students. As I walked past the Potions room to go to the bathroom, I was absolutely positive that Snape was murdering one of the dwarfs. Late that afternoon as the Gryffindor's were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarfs caught up with Harry.

"Oi, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I whipped around to see the dwarf trying to follow us. I laughed loudly and watched as Harry started to turn as red as Ron's hair. He very obviously did not want this to happen. I hoped that whoever had sent it had made it as embarrassing as possible. It really didn't help that he was being given a valentine in front of a line of First Years, which happened to include Ginny Weasley. Harry tried to escape by running quickly away from the dwarf. I grinned madly. I'd seen them tackle at least ten students. He wouldn't get away from them. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached him before he'd gone two paces.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.

"Not here," Harry hissed, trying to escape.

"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.

"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging.

Hermione looked shocked at the turn of events as Ron and I laughed as his misfortune. With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, wand, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything. I groaned, feeling a little bit bad for him now. I moved forward to help him pick everything up. I had spares that he could use in the meantime. Harry scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

The two of us were grabbing all of his things as quickly as possible. "What's going on here?" came the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.

My heart skipped a beat. There had been a time not long ago that I would have snarled at Malfoy to get away from us and maybe hit him, but those days were gone. Now I was careful to keep a good distance between us and never look him in the eyes. If I had it my way, he would never know that he had kissed me, and I could pretend that it hadn't ever happened. I'd rather my first kiss be with Neville in front of everyone than admit that it had been Malfoy. Harry and I started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away before Malfoy could hear his musical valentine or spot me.

"What's all this commotion?" another familiar voice asked as Percy Weasley arrived.

This was ridiculous. Why were there so many more people here today than there normally were? It seemed like the hallways had never been this crowded before. It was obvious that Harry felt the same way. I could feel the panic in his stance. Harry tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor. I gasped, debating on whether or not I should do something to help him. Was there anything that I could do? I didn't want to get bitten by the dwarf.

"Right," the dwarf said, sitting on Harry's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,  
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.  
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,  
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord."

It didn't take long for me to dissolve into fits of laughter. That was a masterpiece. Leaning over myself, I began to howl with laughter. "Remind me to congratulate whoever sent that to you," I told Harry.

"Shut up, Tara," he muttered.

Judging by the look on his face, I assumed that Harry would have given all the gold in Gringotts to evaporate on the spot. To his credit, he was trying valiantly to laugh along with everyone else. Taking my extended hand, he got up, shook out his numb feet from the weight of the dwarf, and mumbled a thanks to me as I handed him back his bag. The dwarf stalked off, probably trying to go terrorize his next victim. Percy Weasley did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.

"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now," he said, shooing some of the younger students away. "And you, Malfoy -"

Glancing back at them, I saw that Malfoy still hadn't left. And he was now standing with his two cronies. At least Parkinson was nowhere to be found. Harry and I, glancing over, saw Malfoy stoop and snatch up something. Leering, he showed it to Crabbe and Goyle. It took me a moment to realize that he'd gotten Riddle's diary. It clearly didn't affect him the way that it had affected me. He was laughing and going to flip through it.

"Give that back," Harry said quietly.

I knew that he felt just as strangely attached to the diary as I did. "Wonder what Potter's written in this?" Malfoy drawled.

Rolling my eyes at him, I stood with my hip cocked out to the side slightly. For all of the moments that he had shown that he wasn't a total moron, there were moments like this that I wondered how he'd even managed to pass through First Year. He was leering at it. How could he have possibly not noticed the year on the cover or the name? He obviously thought he had Harry's own diary, who was way too lazy to ever keep one himself. A hush fell over the onlookers. Ginny was staring from the diary to Harry, looking terrified.

"Hand it over, Malfoy," Percy said sternly.

"Hand it back you moron," I snapped at Malfoy. He glanced over at me and I could have sworn that he gave me a scrutinizing stare, almost directly pointed at my eyes.

He looked away from me a moment later. "When I've had a look," Malfoy said, waving the diary tauntingly at Harry.

Percy started to say, "As a school Prefect -" but Harry had lost his temper.

He pulled out his wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and just as Snape had disarmed Lockhart, so Malfoy found the diary shooting out of his hand into the air. Ron, grinning broadly, caught it.

Some of the students in the hallway were shocked. Harry rarely acted out like that so deliberately in somewhere in such wide sight of the school. "Harry! No magic in the corridors. I'll have to report this, you know!" Percy cried loudly.

It was pretty obvious that Harry didn't care. Hermione looked just as bothered as Percy was. Ron was still grinning with the diary in hand. Some of the other Second Years were laughing. Harry was once more one-up on Malfoy, and that was worth five points from Gryffindor any day. Malfoy was looking furious, and as Ginny passed him to enter her classroom, he yelled spitefully after her.

"I don't think Potter liked your valentine much!"

My jaw dropped. How cruel could someone get? That was such a despicable thing to do to someone that had only meant the best. Ginny was a sweet girl with a little crush. Harry treated her very much the same way that I treated Colin. Nicely enough to let them down without hurting their feelings. Ginny covered her face with her hands and ran into class, past my arms, as I tried to get her to stop and talk to me for a moment. Snarling, Ron pulled out his wand, too, but Harry pulled him away. Ron didn't need to spend the whole of Charms belching slugs.

The two of them fled into the classroom with Hermione on their heels, but I remained in my place. "Asshole!" I snapped at him.

Malfoy's victorious smirk failed as he looked over at me with a little snarl. "What's the matter, Nox? No one give you a valentine? Not your precious Diggory?" he asked me.

The other students began to flee from the corridor, leaving Malfoy and I as the only ones left. "Did your precious Parkinson?" I snapped at him.

"Jealous?" Malfoy asked.

Trying very hard not to make a comment about how I could find someone that was a much better kisser, I settled for something a little less obvious. "Trust me, I'm not," I hissed.

Grabbing my things off of the floor, that I had dropped when I'd been laughing at Harry's valentine, which, I realized, I would have to apologize to Ginny for later, I went to head past him. The last thing that I wanted to do was be late for Charms because Malfoy had been holding me up. But the moment that I walked by him, his hand went out to the strap on my messenger bag. As I should have seen coming, the strap tore and my things went scattering all across the stone floor.

Turning to Malfoy with a very irritated face, I snapped, "Nice one!"

Malfoy rolled his eyes at me. "Shut up, Nox. I didn't mean to do that," he snapped back at me. He leaned down and started helping me pick my things up.

"You can leave. I can manage," I hissed, not wanting him near me any longer than necessary.

"Fine."

He went to leave the hallway as I muttered a spell to sew up the little damage on the strap on my bag. Giving it a little tug to ensure that it was secure, I started pushing all of my things back into the bag. I had almost everything shoved back into my bag when I realized that Malfoy hadn't left yet. I glanced up to see what he was waiting for, knowing that he was going to be late for his own class, when I realized that he was holding something of mine. It was hanging limply from his hand, giving it a scrutinizing look. It was the strawberry Chapstick that I always used. I could have died. Of course that was the one thing that he would have picked up. It was the same damn one that I was wearing when he'd kissed me.

Swallowing my pride, I marched over to Malfoy and held out my hand. "Give it back, you idiot," I snapped at him. He placed it in my hand, trying to look at my eyes. I kept them focused away and turned on my heels the moment that he had released his grip. "Thank you."

The moment that I was out of his sight, I practically sprinted from the halls and into Professor Flitwick's class. I took my usual spot in between Harry and Hermione and kept my head down. I noticed that Harry wasn't watching the lesson either, and I glanced over at him. He had all of his things laid out on the desk to dry. All his other books were drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was as clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. My eyebrows rose. Maybe a protective enchantment over it to keep it safe from spills? But, why, if nothing was written in it? He tried to point this out to Ron, but Ron was having trouble with his wand again; large purple bubbles were blossoming out of the end, and he wasn't much interested in anything else.

"Did the ink fade on that?" I asked Harry curiously.

"I think it did," Harry muttered.

That night we all stayed down in the Common Room for a while. No one wanted to fall prey to the dwarfs that were still prowling the halls, so most everyone sprinted back to their Houses the moment that classes were done. Harry went to bed before anyone else in the dormitory that night. Not that I really blamed him. Ginny had gone to bed early, too. He was mortified that Fred and George kept singing the valentine over and over again, very loudly and off key. It was also partly because Harry very obviously wanted to examine Riddle's diary again. He never could, considering Ron thought he was wasting his time and he knew that I was uncomfortable around it.

Still, I wanted to check if he was okay, so I headed upstairs to the boy's dormitory. I walked into Harry's dorm and saw that he was sitting on the bed, flicking through the diary. I closed the door and sat on the edge of his bed. "Hey. You alright?" I asked him.

"Just embarrassed," he admitted.

Smiling at him, I crossed my legs and sat in front of the diary with him. "Well I had my first kiss with Draco Malfoy disguised as Pansy Parkinson after punching said Parkinson in the face," I told him.

"Well that was funny," Harry argued.

"And so was the valentine," I pointed out. He smiled at me and laughed softly. I glanced down at the diary and sighed. "Harry, put that thing away. You're not going to learn anything from it."

"But what if we do?" he asked me.

I shook my head at him and resisted grabbing the diary. I hadn't touched it since the first time a few weeks ago. "There's something wrong with that diary. I know that there is. It seems so dangerous. We should get rid of it. Someone else got rid of it," I told him.

"Writing one thing won't hurt," Harry said.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," I muttered.

But still, he began to flip through the pages. Even I had to admit that it was a little weird that not one of which had a trace of scarlet ink on it. It was a few minutes later that Harry pulled a new bottle out of his bedside cabinet, dipped his quill into it, and dropped a blot onto the first page of the diary. We both watched carefully to see if anything would happen. The ink shone brightly on the paper for a second and then, as though it was being sucked into the page, vanished. Excited, Harry loaded up his quill a second time and wrote.

My name is Harry Potter.

My stomach twisted in knots. I didn't think that admitting to someone's haunted diary that they were the savior of the Wizarding World was such a wonderful first thing to say. The words shone momentarily on the page and they, too, sank without trace. Perhaps that was why nothing was in the diary. Maybe they had put a spell on it so that nothing would ever stay on the pages. It could be a way to vent without leaving anything permanent. Then, at last, something happened. Oozing back out of the page, in his very own ink, came words Harry had never written.

Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?

Both Harry and I gasped. Something, nothing good, was writing back to him. Of the many magical things that I had ever seen happen, I'd never heard of a diary that wrote back to you. Perhaps if there was a ghost attached to it, but this was the person that owned the diary writing back to us. How was that even happening? These words, too, faded away, but not before Harry had started to scribble back.

I grabbed out at his arm and stopped him from writing anything more. The diary was creeping me out. Something didn't sit right with me about this thing. "Harry, I don't like this. Please, don't write back," I told him.

"It's just a diary, Tara," he told me. It wasn't long before more words appeared on the page.

Is someone else with you?

We both stared at each other. The blood had drained from my face and my hands started to shake. This wasn't right. Something was wrong here. A man that was at least sixty years old was writing to two children through a diary. And somehow this person now knew that Harry wasn't alone. I shook my head as Harry stared at me for a moment. But he looked down and wrote again.

My best friend is here. Her name is Tara Nox.

I could have slapped him for giving my name away. But, I had to admit, I was rather curious about the diary now, too. We were about to learn who this person was. More writing formed a moment later.

Hello, Tara Nox.

Harry offered me the quill to write something back but I shook my head. I didn't want to touch the diary ever again. I was perfectly content to just watch Harry and Tom Riddle write back and forth. Harry wrote again.

About your diary, someone tried to flush it down a toilet.

The two of us waited eagerly for Riddle's reply. As much as I didn't like this, I did have to admit that if someone was going to help us find out about the Chamber of Secrets, I was all for that.

Lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting way than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read.

What do you mean?

Harry scrawled across the page, blotting the page in his excitement. Maybe I should have been writing. His handwriting was almost impossible to read. But I still didn't want to touch the diary.

I mean that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things that happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

That's where we are now. I'm at Hogwarts, and horrible stuff's been happening. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?

Now I had to admit that I was rather happy that Harry had written in the diary. My heart was hammering. Were we about to solve the mystery? As much as I thought that we should bring the diary to Dumbledore, those thoughts faded when the reply started. Riddle's reply came quickly, his writing becoming untidier, as though he was hurrying to tell all he knew.

Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my Fifth Year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned.

My head was spinning with the sudden influx of information. "That's why the trophy wasn't engraved with what he'd done!" Harry exclaimed excitedly, knowing that it was one of the things that had made me suspicious of Riddle in the first place.

"How do we know that he's not lying?" I asked Harry.

"What reason would he have to lie to us?" Harry asked.

There were lots of reasons that he might have had to lie to us. "To convince us to trust him. There could be all sorts of reasons. Honestly, think a little bit, this doesn't strike you as odd?" I tried to reason with him.

"It strikes me as convenient," Harry said.

"Exactly."

But, as per usual, when Harry got excited he wasn't going to listen to anyone for anything. Harry nearly upset his ink bottle in his hurry to write back. I would have been thoroughly amused if he'd soaked his sheets with ink.

It's happening again now. There have been three attacks and no one seems to know who's behind them. Who was it last time?

I can show you, if you like. You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him.

To my immense relief, Harry hesitated, his quill suspended over the diary. What did Riddle mean? How could we be taken inside somebody else's memory? Although I was sure that the diary had shown me something before. But it had seemed more like the future than the past. Harry glanced nervously at the door to the dormitory, which was growing dark with the sinking sun. I followed his gaze and then looked back at the diary. There were fresh words forming.

Let me show you.

Harry paused for a fraction of a second before looking at me. "What do you think?" he asked.

Quite a bit of me was trying to convince myself that it was a bad idea. But, at the same time, I knew that we should at least see what had happened. I wanted to get some idea of things. "We should at least see what he has to say. Go for it," I conceded.

OK.

Immediately the pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. Mouth hanging open, I saw that the little square for June thirteenth seemed to have turned into a minuscule television screen. His hands trembling slightly, Harry raised the book to press us as close against the little window as he could. Before I knew what was happening, I was tilting forward. The little window was widening and I felt my body leave Harry's bed, and I was pitched headfirst through the opening in the page, into a whirl of color and shadow. I didn't even get the chance to scream of shout at Harry that this was his fault.

It wasn't long before I felt my feet hit solid ground, and stood, shaking, as the blurred shapes around me came suddenly into focus. Harry was standing at my side and I grabbed onto his hand, the two of us standing very close together. I knew immediately where we were. This circular room with the sleeping portraits was Dumbledore's office - but it wasn't Dumbledore who was sitting behind the desk. A wizened, frail looking wizard, bald except for a few wisps of white hair, was reading a letter by candlelight.

Leaning over to Harry, I kept my voice in a low whisper. "That's Armando Dippet. Previous Headmaster of Hogwarts," I said.

Harry nodded weakly. "I'm sorry. We didn't mean to butt in -" But the wizard didn't look up. He continued to read, frowning slightly. Harry drew nearer to his desk and stammered, "Er - We'll just go, shall we?" Still the wizard ignored him. He didn't seem even to have heard him. Harry raised his voice, probably thinking that the man was deaf. "Sorry I disturbed you. I'll go now," he half-shouted.

Walking over to Harry, I grabbed onto his arm and pulled him away. "It's a memory, Harry, they can't hear you. It's like watching a movie," I told him.

Harry nodded at me, looking very stunned. Armando Dippet folded up the letter with a sigh, stood up, walked past Harry and I without glancing at us, and went to draw the curtains at his window. I had to admit that it was a little weird standing in a memory where no one seemed to know that we were here. He was completely ignoring us. The sky outside the window was ruby-red; it seemed to be sunset. Armando Dippet went back to the desk, sat down, and twiddled his thumbs, watching the door.

The two of us went to looking around the office. No Fawkes the phoenix - no whirring silver contraptions. The office seemed a little less friendly than it did currently. But I might have been a little biased, considering that I was so fond of Dumbledore. We weren't standing in the silent office alone for long. There was a knock on the office door.

"Enter," Dippet said in a feeble voice.

A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver Prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was much taller than Harry and I, but he, too, had jet-black hair like Harry. I took a long time looking over him. This was clearly Tom Riddle. He was a handsome boy and I very nearly smiled at him. I could imagine that the girls during his time here probably had quite the crush on him.

That was the same moment that I realized something. "He was in my dream! He asked me if I remembered him..." I said.

"It was just a dream, Tara," Harry said.

"You're useless!" I snapped at him. "There's something wrong here," I muttered a little quieter.

"Ah, Riddle," Dippet said.

So I was right in assuming that this was Tom Riddle. "You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?" Riddle asked. If I was right, he definitely looked a little nervous.

"Sit down. I've just been reading the letter you sent me," Dippet said.

Harry and I moved right behind Tom Riddle. Riddle: "Oh," Riddle said quietly. Was he ashamed of something in the letter? He sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.

"My dear boy, I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?" Dippet asked kindly.

My eyebrows rose. Did he really hate his family that much? Riddle: "No," Riddle said at once. "I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that - to that -"

"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" Dippet asked curiously.

For a moment I felt a little twinge of pain for Riddle. He was an orphan. Like Harry, being at Hogwarts must have been the highlight of his year. "Yes, sir," Riddle said, reddening slightly.

"You are Muggle-Born?"

"Half-Blood, sir. Muggle father, witch mother."

My eyebrows rose. A witch mother had given him up to a Muggle adoption agency? Why not a magical one? A few existed. That seemed a little strange to me. "And are both your parents - ?"

"My mother died just after I was born, sir." My stomach twisted. He had lost both of his parents. Actually, it sounded more like his father had abandoned him and his mother had died. That had to hurt. "They told me at the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me - Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather," Riddle explained.

Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically. "The thing is, Tom, special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances," Dippet explain sadly.

"You mean all these attacks, sir?" Riddle asked. Harry moved closer and I followed, scared of missing anything.

"Precisely. My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly in light of the recent tragedy... the death of that poor little girl... You will be safer by far at your orphanage. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic is even now talking about closing the school. We are no nearer locating the - er - source of all this unpleasantness..."

Harry and I exchanged a look. Riddle's eyes had widened. "Sir - if the person was caught - if it all stopped -"

"What do you mean? Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?" Dippet asked with a little squeak in his voice as he straightened up.

"No, sir," Riddle said quickly.

There was something suspicious about the way that he had said that. And I was sure it was the same sort of no that Harry had given Dumbledore a few weeks ago. Dippet sank back, looking faintly disappointed. "You may go, Tom..."

Riddle slid off his chair and slouched out of the room. Harry and I followed him, holding onto each other tightly. I didn't know what happened if you got lost in a dream, but I imagined that it was nothing good. As we walked behind him, I spotted something. Riddle was wearing Slytherin robes. My gaze narrowed. I was sure that Harry would miss the detail. Down the moving spiral staircase we went, emerging next to the gargoyle in the darkening corridor. Riddle stopped, and so did Harry and I, watching him. It was very obvious that Riddle was doing some serious thinking. He was biting his lip, his forehead furrowed.

Then, as though he had suddenly reached a decision, he hurried off, Harry and I gliding noiselessly behind him. He was moving very quickly with a grace that seemed like it didn't fit him. We didn't see another person until we reached the entrance hall, when a tall wizard with long, sweeping auburn hair and a beard called to Riddle from the marble staircase.

"What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom?"

A smile rose over my lips. I could see that Harry was gaping at the wizard. He was none other than a fifty-year-younger Dumbledore. He looked very much the same, just with less wrinkles and darker hair. But, like now, he had the same twinkle in his eyes. It seemed to be a little darker and duller than normal. If I was correct, he was giving Riddle a curious stare.

Leaning over to Harry, I said, "He would have been the Transfiguration teacher at this time."

"Really?" Harry asked me. I nodded at him.

"I had to see the headmaster, sir," Riddle said.

"Well, hurry off to bed," Dumbledore said, giving Riddle exactly the kind of penetrating stare I knew so well. "Best not to roam the corridors these days. Not since..."

He sighed heavily, bade Riddle good night, and strode off. It was the heaviest that I had ever seen Dumbledore look. He looked deeply troubled, and I'd seen him look deeply troubled before. I wanted to say something to Dumbledore, but this had already happened, and it would have been useless. Riddle watched him walk out of sight and then, moving quickly, headed straight down the stone steps to the dungeons, with Harry and me in hot pursuit at the sudden movement.

But to my disappointment, Riddle led him not into a hidden passageway or a secret tunnel but to the very dungeon in which we currently had Potions with Snape. It seemed that the Potions dungeons wasn't used for lessons back then. It was rather empty. I deeply wished that Riddle would have shown us the actual Chamber of Secrets. The torches hadn't been lit, and when Riddle pushed the door almost closed, I could only just see him, standing stock-still by the door, watching the passage outside. We stood close together and waited. And waited.

It felt to me that we were there for at least an hour. Probably more. I was sure that I was about to nod off. All I could see was the figure of Riddle at the door, staring through the crack, waiting like a statue. He clearly thought that something was coming, but I was lost. And just when I had stopped feeling expectant and tense and started wishing that we could return to the present so that I could tell Harry told-you-so, I heard something move beyond the door. Someone was creeping along the passage. I heard whoever it was pass the dungeon where the two of us and Riddle were hidden. Riddle, quiet as a shadow, edged through the door and followed, Harry and I tip-toeing behind him, forgetting that we couldn't be heard.

For perhaps five minutes we followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. Harry and I stopped behind him. Despite not liking the diary, I found myself completely entranced, desperate to know more. I heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper.

"C'mon... gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now... in the box..."

My heart plummeted. I knew that voice. "Is that Hagrid?" I whispered to Harry.

"Is he old enough?" Harry asked me.

It would make Hagrid around sixty, and giants lived a lot longer than normal humans, which would explain why Hagrid appeared to be in his forties. "Honestly, probably. Giants - even half - live longer than normal humans," I muttered to him.

Still, I was so desperate to think that it wasn't Hagrid. But I knew that voice. There was something so familiar about that voice... Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. Harry and I stepped out behind him. I could just barely see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.

"'Evening, Rubeus," Riddle said sharply.

Once more, my heart sank. It was Hagrid. Rubeus Hagrid. The boy slammed the door shut and stood up. "What yer doin' down here, Tom?"

Riddle stepped closer. "It's all over. I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop."

"What d'yeh -"

Hagrid sounded shocked at the accusation. "I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and -"

"It never killed no one!" the large boy said, backing against the closed door. From behind him, I could hear a funny rustling and clicking.

"Come on, Rubeus. The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered..." Riddle said, moving even closer.

"It wasn't him!" roared the boy, his voice echoing in the dark passage. "He wouldn'! He never!"

"Stand aside," Riddle said, drawing out his wand.

His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the wall opposite. And out of it came something that made Harry and I let out a long, piercing scream unheard by anyone. A vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of black legs climbed out; a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers shone through the dungeons. Harry and I grabbed onto each other, despite the fact that the creature wouldn't attack us. Riddle raised his wand again, but he was too late. The thing bowled him over as it scuttled away, tearing up the corridor and out of sight. Riddle scrambled to his feet, looking after it; he raised his wand, but the huge boy leapt on him, seized his wand, and threw him back down, yelling for Riddle to stop.

The scene whirled, the darkness became complete; I felt himself falling and desperately tried to stop it. I wasn't done here. I had to find out what happened. This couldn't be over. We had to see what had happened. But it was too late. With a crash, we landed spread-eagle on Harry's four-poster in the Gryffindor dormitory, Riddle's diary lying open on Harry's stomach. Before we had had time to regain our breath and speak to each other, the dormitory door opened and Ron came in.

"There you two are," Ron said. Harry and I sat up. I was sweating and shaking at the memory. "What's up?" Ron asked, looking at us both with concern.

"It was Hagrid, Ron. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."

"No he didn't!" I shrieked at Harry.

There was something about the memory, something about the entire thing that was wrong. Harry looked over at me like I had lost my mind. "You saw the memory!" he shouted back at me.

"Memories can be altered, Harry!"

"Even from a diary?" he asked.

He was so entranced with the diary that he couldn't stop for a moment to realize that something was wrong. "Harry!" I shouted, startling both boys. "Don't you see what he's trying to do? He's trying to get you to understand him. To sympathize with him. By saying that he doesn't want to go back home over the summer, he's an orphan, he looks just like you, and he even said no the same way that you'd said to Dumbledore!"

"He lived fifty years ago, Tara! What reason does he have to hurt me?" Harry asked me.

What reason had Voldemort had to hurt Harry? There was none. Some people were just evil. "I don't know. What reason would Hagrid have to set a monster of his fellow students? He's a gentle heart," I tried to reason.

Harry walked forward and spoke softly. "You know Hagrid, Tara, he loves dangerous creatures. It could have been an accident," he said.

My patience snapped. Hagrid had helped save Harry's life, and here he was, condemning him before even asking him to recount his side of the story. "Listen to the way that he was speaking in the memory! He didn't know what was happening. What if Riddle framed him? Why would Dumbledore have brought him back to work at Hogwarts if he thought that he'd murdered a student?" Harry's face faltered a little. "Dumbledore trusted Hagrid with your life! He wouldn't do that if he thought that Hagrid was psychopathic!" I argued.

"Then what was the creature?" Harry asked.

I wasn't sure what it was, but I couldn't believe that it had killed someone. Hagrid loved dangerous creatures, but he was cautious with them. "You're wrong! You were wrong about Snape wanting the Sorcerer's Stone, you were wrong about Malfoy being the Heir of Slytherin, and you're wrong about Hagrid opening the Chamber of Secrets!" I shouted, my voice echoing across the room.

"What's happened?" Ron asked us, cutting through the tense argument.

Gathering myself and brushing my hair off of my forehead, I walked towards the door. "Forget this," I snapped. "You'll see in time that it's not Hagrid that opened the Chamber of Secrets or set some monster loose on Hogwarts. Go ahead and tell Ron. He'll agree with me. He had nothing to do with anything. Goodnight, boys," I hissed, brushing past them, ignoring the calls from Ron after me.

Having known Harry for just over four years, someone would have probably thought that we'd had a fight or a disagreement before. But we hadn't. Never... There had never been anything major that we hadn't seen eye-to-eye on, and we'd never sat there and yelled at each other like that before. I sniffed softly and wiped a tear away from my eyes. Most people were still downstairs in the Common Room and I was grateful for it. I didn't want anyone to see me this upset. We'd get over it. I knew that we would. We were best friends. But still, it hurt, arguing over something that didn't really even affect either of us. Walking into my dorm, I prepared to throw myself down onto the bed.

The problem was, something was already on it. And this time, it wasn't Dobby the house-elf. It was another, perfectly wrapped, black box. Another from the mystery sender. Walking forward shakily, I sat down on the edge of my bed and pulled off the top, hoping that it wouldn't be a live snake this time. It wasn't. In fact, for a moment, I wasn't really sure what it was. It almost looked like one of those Muggle voodoo type of dolls that witch doctors would use to torture people.

But that wasn't what it was. There was nothing magical about the little doll. I wasn't sure how I knew, but I was absolutely positive that it wasn't. It was merely a straw figure that was tied together with little pieces of twine. It was rather large, big enough that it took up most of the box. Just like every other present that I'd received, it had the same number etched into it - on the forehead - eighty-three. It appeared that it was a very poor duplication of a giant. Or maybe a half-giant... Placing the doll off to the side of the box, I reached in and picked up the note that sat at the bottom. It contained only one word.

Wrong.

There were quite a few ways that I could have taken it. I could have been wrong. Maybe the person that opened the Chamber of Secrets was Hagrid. Maybe I should have trusted Tom M. Riddle. Maybe I should have realized that the diary was trying to help us. But, the longer that I stared at it, the more that I realized what the note meant. Hagrid was not the person that had opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago. I had no reason to trust Tom Riddle, and even less of a reason to trust the person that was sending me these gifts, but I knew that right now, trusting the sender was the best option that I had. Now I just had to get Harry to believe them.


	32. Cornelius Fudge

Thankfully the fight between Harry and I dissolved the next morning. I'd walked into the boy's dorm in the morning and smiled at him, telling him that I was sorry for being so angry. He had told me that it wasn't a big deal. We'd both been revved up from the memory, thinking two totally different things. I'd even showed him the new present, letting him know that I thought that it wasn't Hagrid who had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Harry agreed that it wasn't something that Hagrid would do, not without a reason. We'd even shown Ron and told Hermione everything that had happened.

That had turned us to the theories. Unfortunately, there was nothing that really made a complete amount of sense. It didn't make sense to me that Hagrid would have gone searching for the Chamber of Secrets in the first place. Ron seemed to think that he might have heard the rumor of a monster being down there and gone searching. But I'd said, without offense, that Hagrid was not the brightest person that I'd ever met in my life. It would took extraordinary research and effort to discover who had done it. Hermione agreed with my sentiment, and that turned us to the real problem. Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts fifty years ago. And if he hadn't been expelled for opening the Chamber of Secrets, what had he been expelled for?

Despite everything that we wanted to believe, we had always known that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. During our First Year at Hogwarts he had tried to raise a dragon in his little wooden house, and it would be a long time before any of us forgot the giant, three-headed dog he'd christened Fluffy. And if, as a boy, Hagrid had heard that a monster was hidden somewhere in the castle, Harry seemed sure that he'd have gone to any lengths for a glimpse of it. I wasn't so sure, but Ron and Hermione agreed that the idea wasn't totally insane. Although I still liked to point out that Hagrid was no fool, but he also wasn't brilliant enough to find something that had never been found by the other founders or any Hogwarts employees.

But even I couldn't deny that it made sense when we thought about it. He'd probably thought it was a shame that the monster had been cooped up so long, and thought it deserved the chance to stretch its many legs. Harry and I had admitted that the creature in the Chamber of Secrets looked to be some type of arachnid, as long as the memory wasn't altered. I could just imagine the thirteen-year-old Hagrid trying to fit a leash and collar on it. But I was equally certain that Hagrid would never have meant to kill anybody. I couldn't even believe that Hagrid would be able to live with himself if he had freed something that had killed someone.

While Harry half-wished that he hadn't found out how to work Riddle's diary, I really completely wished that we hadn't figured out how to work Riddle's diary. Again and again Ron and Hermione made us recount what we'd seen. It felt like they must have known more about the whole thing than we did by this time. But it wouldn't stop. They kept making us tell them and every time we would start talking about it we would get back into the same conversation. It wasn't long before we heartily sick of telling them the same story. I was also sick of the long, circular conversations that followed, never resulting in a different conclusion.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person. Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people," Hermione suggested a few days after the trip into the diary.

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked dully.

That was actually a reasonable question. We had Fluffy and Slytherin's Monster and probably a thousand other terrifying things. "We always knew Hagrid had been expelled. And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have got his award," Harry said.

Something occurred to me at the same moment, though. "But even if it wasn't Hagrid... Of course the attacks would have stopped. Think about it. If Hagrid isn't the Heir of Slytherin - which, let's admit it, it's stupid - the true Heir must have known that their opportunity was over. Say everyone thought that the culprit was caught. They wouldn't be able to continue their work or else the hunt for the Heir of Slytherin would have continued and Hogwarts would have been closed. So they could have continued through Hogwarts, letting someone else take the fall for what they'd done, and later told their grandchild how to open the Chamber of Secrets to continue their work.

"That would explain the attacks that are happening now. They figure that it's been long enough for so many people to have forgotten the original attacks. And... Hagrid is still here. They can pawn it off on him if things get that bad. That also would explain why Dumbledore let Hagrid stay on as gamekeeper and trusted him with some incredibly important tasks like getting Harry from the wreckage of your parents' house and telling you everything about the Wizarding World before coming to Hogwarts last year," I reasoned.

The others were silent for a long while as they processed my words. "That's very good reasoning," Hermione said. "There's a good chance that you have a valid argument there, but it's still only a theory. Although I like that idea a lot better than the thought of Hagrid setting some kind of monster on Hogwarts."

No one wanted to think that Hagrid had done something that terrible. Ron tried a different tack. "Riddle does sound like Percy. Who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?" he put in.

I rolled my eyes. All of that good reasoning and the only person that had reacted to it was Hermione. "But the monster had killed someone, Ron," Hermione tried to defend the actions of Riddle.

"And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts. I don't blame him for wanting to stay here..." Harry muttered under his breath, probably knowing how close that had been to being himself.

Everyone was silent for a few moments. I dug my hands into my eyes. "You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you, Harry, Tara?" Hermione asked eventually.

"He was buying a Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent," Harry said quickly.

"He's not a Dark Wizard," I snapped.

Judging by the shocked look in Hermione's eyes, she didn't think that he was a Dark Wizard either. I almost felt a little bad for snapping at her. But my patience was wearing very thin these days and I wanted nothing more than to go and take a nap until the end of the year. The four of us fell silent for a long while. I almost enjoyed it as I fingered at the tips of my blonde hair. After a long pause, Hermione voiced the knottiest question of all in a hesitant voice.

"Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?"

"Yes," I said almost immediately.

And I really thought that we should. If we wanted any answers, we were going to need to go right to the source. It seemed that Ron did not share my sentiment. "That'd be a cheerful visit. 'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'" Ron asked with a pretend happy face.

In the end, we decided that we would not say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, despite what I wanted to do. I had thought about going to Hagrid alone, but decided against it, thinking that it might have been a little rude. As much as I would have loved for the semester to be over, there were more things to do. Classes were still going on as normal and I knew that I had a lot of catching up to do. As much as I wanted to pretend that I'd been keeping my marks up, I knew that some of them were starting to slip because I hadn't been paying as much attention in class and I hadn't been studying as much either.

But as more and more days went by with no whisper from the disembodied voice, my marks improved and I once more felt like I was on track to pass all of my classes. We also became more hopeful that we would never need to talk to Hagrid about why he had been expelled. It was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified, and nearly everybody seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. It definitely helped things along for Harry and I. Although some people still didn't want to stand too close to us, most people seemed to have gotten over their fear.

I'd even gotten a few apologies from some of the students that had been blaming me for attacking the students. Peeves had finally got bored of his song and dance routine, Lavender had started smiling at me and now didn't seem so bothered to sleep in the same room as me, and Ernie Macmillan had asked Harry and I quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day. It wasn't an apology, but I figured that beggars couldn't be choosers, so I'd taken it for what it was worth. At least he was speaking to me. In March, several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy.

Apparently it meant that they were nearing the end of their adolescence. "The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature. Then we'll be able to revive those poor people in the hospital wing," she told us one day.

Most of the students had turned green at the thought of the Mandrakes trying to move into each other's pots. This meant one of two things. They were either thinking that they were old enough to leave home to try and live with a friend as a roommate, or... Well, no one really wanted to think about what the other option was. I didn't know exactly how Mandrakes were born, whether we had to plant them or if they mated, but I really didn't want to know.

It was also nice that we had other things to think about not long after the news that the Mandrakes were getting close to maturity. The Second Years were given something new to think about during our Easter holidays. The time had come to choose our subjects for the Third Year. Some people seemed absolutely thrilled while others were dreading it. Notably, most people just didn't like the fact that we were going to have to start taking even more subjects. We had to pick a minimum of two, but were allowed to pick as many as we wanted. This was all a matter that Hermione, at least, took very seriously.

I was serious about it, too, just less vocal. "It could affect our whole future," Hermione told us as we poured over lists of new subjects, marking them with checks.

"I just want to give up Potions," Harry said.

What he really wanted to give up was Snape. He would probably like Potions if it was taught by someone a little nicer. "You should know that Potions is actually really fun if it's taught by someone other than Severus Snape. Mom could give you a good lesson in it," I told him.

"Ask her if she'll apply for the teaching position then," Harry said.

Smiling at him, I stared at the list once more. I was the only person that hadn't made a mark on my paper yet. "We can't," Ron said gloomily, about the fact that we couldn't give up any of the original core classes. Not until O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. years. "We keep all our old subjects, or I'd have ditched Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"But that's very important!" Hermione yelled, shocked.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it. I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose," Ron argued with her.

Sighing softly, I nudged both boys. They were making a stink about the whole thing because they didn't like the professors, not because they didn't like the subjects. "Oh, come on, I hate Lockhart but I love Defense Against the Dark Arts. I would never want to give that up," I told them as I went back to the list.

It seemed that everyone was having a problem deciding on what classes they would want to take when the Third Year came around. Neville Longbottom had been sent letters from all the witches and wizards in his family, all giving him different advice on what to choose. Confused and worried, he sat reading the subject lists with his tongue poking out, asking people whether they thought Arithmancy sounded more difficult than the study of Ancient Runes. I felt absolutely terrible for him. He'd probably be best with Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy were difficult courses.

"Depends if you're better with language or numbers," I had tried to help out. It appeared that my advice only made things worse, as his family had ordered him to pick one, but he was good with neither languages nor numbers.

Dean Thomas, who, like Harry, had grown up with Muggles, ended up closing his eyes and jabbing his wand at the list, then picking the subjects it landed on. It was rather amusing watching him nearly light the paper on fire. I knew that he would regret signing up for Divination. He wasn't the type of person for it. Hermione took nobody's advice but signed up for everything, just as I had thought. Harry and Ron were some of the last people to do anything with their lists. I had yet to do anything, too, considering I wasn't sure what to pick. Mom had advised me that I'd be good with Arithmancy, and Dad said that Study of Ancient Runes was rather interesting.

They both thought that Care of Magical Creatures would be good for me. I had known from the beginning that I would want to do something like that. They had advised me not to sign up for Divination, but I was batting the idea back and forth on whether or not I would. I knew that both Harry and Ron had signed up, so I was thinking that I might at least give it a try. I was rather amused when Harry asked me what I thought that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia would say if he tried to discuss his career in wizardry with them. I was sure that Vermin would go throwing himself back out of Harry's second-floor window. It wasn't that he didn't get any guidance. Percy Weasley was eager to share his experience to anyone that would listen.

"Depends where you want to go, Harry. It's never too early to think about the future, so I'd recommend Divination. People say Muggle Studies is a soft option, but I personally think wizards should have a thorough understanding of the non-magical community, particularly if they're thinking of working in close contact with them. Look at my father, he has to deal with Muggle business all the time." Muggle Studies was the one class that I knew that I wouldn't be taking. "My brother Charlie was always more of an outdoor type, so he went for Care of Magical Creatures. Play to your strengths, Harry."

Of course Charlie had been good with Care of Magical Creatures. He was the one in the family that studied dragons in Romania. I did feel bad that the only thing Harry felt he was really good at was Quidditch. I tried to convince him that he was good at other things, but I couldn't think of how to relate any of the new classes with the original core classes. I tried telling him that he might enjoy Care of Magical Creatures, and that was the only thing that he felt like he might have liked. In the end, he chose the same new subjects as Ron, feeling that if he was lousy at them, at least he'd have someone friendly to help him.

It also helped that Hermione would be in them, and I would probably be in most of them as well. As I stared at my paper, I glanced over at Hermione. "Alright, Hermione, what did you sign up for?" I asked her.

She must have managed to shave some subjects off of her list. She couldn't pick everything. "Everything," she said.

"Everything?" I asked her, hoping that I had misheard. She couldn't pick everything. There literally wasn't enough time in the day. "There's not enough time! Some of these classes are going to overlap with each other. You have to pick and choose."

Hermione huffed at me. "Well what are you signing up for?" she asked.

Giving her a little shrug, I tapped my quill against my chin. "I know that I want to do Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Study of Ancient Runes. There's also Music and Ancient Studies for the extra-curricular. I don't think that I want to do Muggle Studies. Haven't decided on Divination," I told her.

"Give it a try," Hermione suggested.

Glancing over at Ron and Harry, I raised my voice a little. "Oi! Did you two sign up for Divination?" I asked them.

"Yes," they said together.

"Alright then."

Glancing back down at the page, I moved to blot my quill in ink and mark my choices. But, the moment that I made to move, a pair of robe-clad arms fell around me. I jumped in shock at the appearance of the new figure any very nearly knocked my well of ink onto the parchment. Moving the ink well off to the side and placing the quill on the parchment, I turned back and looked up. My thoughts that it might have been Fred or George messing with me dissolved immediately. It was Cedric, leaning over me and smiling at the list.

"What's wrong with you?" I snapped, whacking him in the arm. "You scared me."

He merely laughed at me as he sat next to me. Everyone had been slightly spread out at the tables, considering that it was a little later in the day, and a weekend. "You are aware that you're supposed to check some of those off?" Cedric asked me as he picked up the paper.

Yanking it back from him, I leaned over it once more, ignoring how close Cedric was sitting to me. I figured that it was just so that he didn't crowd Hermione's space, seeing as she was the closest person to me, other than Harry, who was rolling his eyes on my other side. "Was I really? I thought that it was a new decoration for the dormitory," I told him snappily.

"What are you picking?" he asked, leaning over my shoulder.

"I don't know. I feel like I want to take everything," I said.

Cedric smiled and shook his head at me. "For your own sanity, don't do that," he advised. I nodded at him, knowing that he was right about that. Picking all of them, despite what Hermione thought, would be terrible. "But you can pick and choose subjects. If you don't like anything that you've picked, you get a week to decide to drop the subject at the beginning of your Third Year."

So if we picked something that we didn't like, we had the chance to drop it. But it wasn't a very long window. "Well that's a relief. Do it for me. I can't convince myself to sign up for Divination," I said, handing him the quill. He took it, dipped it in the ink well, and marked Divination with a little check, handing the quill back to me. "Good. Now if I hate it, it'll be your fault."

He laughed at me as I began checking off the other subjects that I was going to take. Try and take... Ancient Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes, and Music. Cedric's eyebrow rose when I checked off the last one. "Music, eh?" he asked me.

My cheeks burned slightly. I had been hoping that he wouldn't ask. "Yeah... So?" I muttered.

Cedric shook his head as he took the piece of bacon on my plate and bit off a rather large chunk. I glared at him. He had food on his own table... "No. It's nice. There aren't too many people that sign up for it. Do you play an instrument?" he asked curiously.

Laughing softly at an old memory, I shook my head. "I'm not so good with instruments. I used to play the flute but I really didn't like it. Mom kept yelling at me to practice when I was seven, after I'd made her buy me a flute because I'd been so determined to play it, I started to cry and accidentally charmed the flute to chase her around the house. I got in so much trouble for it," I explained. Cedric laughed loudly, and so did I. While Dad had laughed for hours about it, Mom had given me the impression that she would kill me. But she, too, eventually laughed about it. "I'm more of a singer. Thought that it might be a nice way to sing without bothering anyone."

It wasn't something that I did on a regular basis, but I'd been in the choir at my Muggle school, and had always enjoyed it. So I figured that I might give it another try. "So do I get to hear you sing?" Cedric asked.

"Absolutely not. I don't sing in front of people," I said quickly. Unless I was with a large group where my voice couldn't be picked out...

"So you're bad?" he asked me with a smile.

I knew that he was messing with me, but I still shoved him away from me. "Shut up," I snapped.

Cedric laughed and placed a hand on my arm, probably to prevent me from hitting him again. "I'm just kidding. I'm sure that you have a lovely voice. Perhaps I'll manage to sneak into the room and hear you," he teased me.

"I'll have to put a bell on you," I teased.

Cedric smiled at me and stood from the table, giving my schedule one last look. "Best of luck making your new schedule. You'll probably have to cut some of those out," he told me. I nodded at him as he went to head back to the Hufflepuff table. Before he could get too far, he turned back to me. "Oh, by the way, you're going to lose the match against us this year."

I'd almost forgotten about the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff in a few weeks. Narrowing my eyes in a playful manner, I said, "You lost last year, you'll lose this year, you'll lose next year, and every year after that."

Cedric winked at me. "We'll see."

Over the next few weeks I found myself thinking less and less about the attacks on the students and the fact that Hagrid had been blamed as being the Heir of Slytherin. I had less time to do any of those things with all of the practices that Oliver was making us do for Quidditch. He was fanatical about winning this year, and after the defeat of Slytherin in the first match of the season, he was determined that we wouldn't lose any other game. He also seemed to think that if we lost anything else, the win against Slytherin wouldn't matter as much, seeing as we'd stood almost no chance of winning. One of the main players out, the Seeker and alternate Chasers seriously injured, against a team with the best brooms, in the pouring rain, and a rogue Bludger on our tails. I wouldn't have believed it if I weren't there.

Despite the fact that people liked to poke fun at Hufflepuff, they were a big adversary in Quidditch. Gryffindor's next Quidditch match would be against Hufflepuff. To my displeasure, Oliver was insisting on team practices every night after dinner, so that Harry and I barely had time for anything but Quidditch and homework. My mind was barely even able to slow down long enough to sleep. However, the training sessions were getting better, or at least drier, and the evening before Saturday's match I went up to my dormitory to drop off my broomstick feeling Gryffindor's chances for the Quidditch Cup had never been better.

The practice had been one of the best all season. No one had messed up any moves, Harry caught the Snitch each time during practice, and no one ever missed a goal. "At least if nothing else, we always have winning at Quidditch to feel good about," I told Harry as we walked back through the Gryffindor Common Room.

"So confident that we'll win?" Harry asked me.

"Are you not?" I teased.

He laughed at me and opened his mouth, probably to say that there was no chance that we were going to lose. Or maybe he was going to make some comment about being able to shove the win in Cedric's face. But he said nothing. He merely stared ahead of himself. I turned to follow his gaze and immediately felt my cheerful mood sinking away. At the top of the stairs to the dormitory, we had met Neville Longbottom, who was looking very frantic.

"Hey, Neville. You alright?" I asked when he said nothing.

Neville immediately shook his head. "Harry - I don't know who did it - I just found -"

Watching Harry fearfully, Neville pushed open the door. We stepped forward and my jaw dropped at the sight. Someone had been in here, and they had clearly been looking for something. The contents of Harry's trunk had been thrown everywhere. His cloak lay ripped on the floor. It was shocking. Whoever had come in here had been in a huge hurry. They had even ripped his cloak without a care in the world. They must have realized that they were on a time limit. They must have come in here while Harry and I were at Quidditch practice, knowing that Ron and the others would be gone, too.

Nearly everything in the room had been destroyed. The bedclothes had been pulled off his four-poster and the drawer had been pulled out of his bedside cabinet, the contents strewn over the mattress. They had been looking for something small. Something easily concealable. Harry walked over to the bed, open-mouthed, treading on a few loose pages of Travels with Trolls. As he and Neville pulled the blankets back onto his bed, Ron, Dean, and Seamus came in. Dean swore loudly.

"Oh, Merlin. Who would have done this?" I asked, walking back and forth over the room.

"What happened, Harry?" Dean asked.

"No idea," Harry said.

As he walked back and forth, trying to fix the bigger messes, Ron went to examining Harry's robes. All the pockets were hanging out. They were definitely looking for something small. "Someone's been looking for something. Is there anything missing?" Ron asked.

Harry started to pick up all his things and throw them into his trunk. We all went to helping him clear up the mess. There wasn't that much that had been destroyed beyond repair. A few books and some clothes that would need mending, but nothing that would need to be reported to be replaced. All of his school equipment had been left alone. I raised my brows. They hadn't wanted to destroy something important or expensive to Harry. Did that meant that it was someone that actually liked Harry? So they liked him, but needed something desperately... That was when I realized. It wasn't the invisibility cloak that they were looking for. It was Riddle's diary.

"Riddle's diary's gone," Harry said in an undertone to Ron.

It confirmed my thoughts. "What?" Ron asked.

Grabbing the two boys, I pulled them away from their other roommates. "I told you that something was wrong with that thing. Look at the lengths that someone went through to get rid of it," I said, motioning around to the still slightly-destroyed dorm.

The three of us stared at each other for a moment before Harry jerked his head toward the dormitory door. He started to move towards it and Ron and I followed him out. We hurried down to the Gryffindor Common Room, which was half-empty, and joined Hermione, who was sitting alone, reading a book called Ancient Runes Made Easy. She glanced up at us and smiled, asking how the practice had gone. We shut her up quickly with the story of the destroyed dorm and the now-missing diary.

Hermione looked aghast at the news that someone could have done something like that. "But - only a Gryffindor could have stolen - nobody else knows our password -" she tried to reason.

"Exactly," Harry said.

But a thought struck me as rather funny that they hadn't thought about. "That's not necessarily true. We've been in the Slytherin Common Room," I pointed out, not overly-thrilled at remembering that trip.

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Harry said.

"It's better that it's gone. Trust me," I told him.

But there was nothing that could be done. Hogwarts didn't have security cameras or anything of the like. There was no way to find out what had happened in Harry's dorm. So we merely had to be glad that the diary was out of our hands. Although some part of me did feel like I was missing something now that it was gone. It wasn't the triumphant feeling that I had thought that I would have once the diary was away from me. I tried to push it off and think of the moves that I would be using tomorrow in the match.

It was lucky that when we woke the next day, it was to brilliant sunshine and a light, refreshing breeze. Harry and I were some of the first people up, heading downstairs to an early breakfast. We were always there early so that we could sit with the rest of the team and discuss any last-minute things that needed to be addressed. But it didn't seem that there was anything to be concerned with today. The weather conditions were right, we'd been practicing like mad, and some of the Hufflepuff players were still too scared to fly near Harry and I - which would definitely help matters in the end.

All of the players were excited for the new Quidditch game. It had been a long time since the last one. "Perfect Quidditch conditions!" Oliver said enthusiastically at the Gryffindor table, loading the team's plates with scrambled eggs. As always, I was nervous, and found myself not wanting them. "Harry, Tara, buck up there, you need a decent breakfast."

Harry had been staring down the packed Gryffindor table. I knew that he was wondering if the new owner of Riddle's diary was right in front of his eyes. He had been overly concerned with it over the past few weeks. I wasn't really sure what was wrong with me. I was just a little down lately. Maybe I needed some of Madam Pomfrey's Pepperup Potion. Hermione had been urging Harry to report the robbery, but I didn't like the idea. We would have to tell a teacher all about the diary, and how many people knew why Hagrid had been expelled fifty years ago? None of us wanted to be the one who brought it all up again.

It wasn't long before it was time for all of the players to move on and get ready for the Quidditch game that was to start in just over an hour. As we left the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione to go and collect our Quidditch things, I fingered at the edge of my robes. I'd been restless this morning and decided to get everything ready early. All of my things were already in the locker room. I just wanted to go for a little walk to clear my head. It turned out not to work, because another very serious worry was added to my ever-growing list. I had just set foot on the marble staircase when I heard it yet again.

"Kill this time... let me rip... tear..."

Both Harry and I shouted aloud and Ron and Hermione both jumped away from us in alarm. My head was whipping back and forth to find the owner of the voice. It was gone again. And this time it was going to kill someone. It couldn't kill someone. It just couldn't. Not after everything that we had done to stop the Heir of Slytherin. There hadn't been an attack in so long. Just when I had thought that everything was over, it came back, and at an absolutely terrible time.

"The voice!" Harry yelled, looking over his shoulder. "I just heard it again - didn't you?" he asked us.

"It's back!" I shouted.

Harry nodded, motioning to me, as if to tell them that he wasn't insane, I'd heard it, too. Ron shook his head, wide-eyed. He clearly didn't understand why they weren't hearing it. And I didn't understand how they weren't hearing it either. It was like the voice was in my head. It was so loud. How didn't they hear it? After a moment, Hermione clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Harry - Tara - I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!"

Without another word, Hermione sprinted away, up the stairs. She never turned back to us or said anything more. She simply ran until her robes had whipped around the corner and she was out of sight. Harry, Ron, and I all exchanged looks, wondering what had just happened that had urged Hermione to go to the library right before a game.

"That was odd. Even for Hermione," I said.

As I wondered what she had left for, I started to glance around, wondering where the owner of the voice had done. "What does she understand?" Harry asked distractedly. Like me, he was still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.

"Loads more than I do," Ron said, shaking his head.

"But why's she got to go to the library?" Harry asked.

"Because that's what Hermione does," Ron said, shrugging. "When in doubt, go to the library."

That was actually a good point. That was what Hermione did when she was in doubt of anything. I couldn't bring myself to leave the spot that I stood in. I was irresolute, trying to catch the voice again, but people were now emerging from the Great Hall behind us, talking loudly, exiting through the front doors on their way to the Quidditch Pitch. If I'd wanted to hear the voice again, I was going to have to leave and hunt for it. But I didn't have time. The match was due to start in just over an hour.

And that was when things started to make sense to me. Finally I was understanding the mystery of Slytherin's Monster. I couldn't believe that I was that stupid. I remembered the boa constrictor at the zoo nearly two years ago. We'd been talking to it, Harry and I. It had understood us. We had been able to hear it. But Piers, who hadn't been standing that far away from us, hadn't heard the snake talking at all. He'd only seen it. And now there was a voice. A voice that no one could hear other than Harry and I, the only two confirmed Parselmouths in the school. Slytherin... Serpent-Tongue... A voice that only Harry and I could hear... How could I have been so stupid? It was right in front of me! Just like the man in my dream had told me... Hermione had simply figured it out mere moments before I had.

Ron's voice brought me out of my sudden revelation. "You two better get moving. It's nearly eleven - the match -"

"We have time. Just over an hour -" I said absentmindedly before speaking over myself. "Merlin I'm so stupid!"

The shout drew both Ron and Harry's attention. They were looking over at me like I'd lost my mind. Maybe I had. "Well we all know that -" Ron started to say before I cut him off.

"Shut up! I'll be back!" I shouted at them.

"Now what?" Harry called after me.

My feet were already turning back so that I could leave. I had to go before I ran out of time. "Get down to the Quidditch Pitch! Tell Oliver that I'll be there before the match starts! I've just figured something out!" I shouted.

And, without an explanation, I darted off. Sprinting through the castle, I could have throttled myself. How hadn't I figured this out months ago? The moment that I realized that I was a Parselmouth. Slytherin's Monster was some type of snake. That was why only Harry and I could understand it. But I had to ask someone what kind of snake I could be hearing. Maybe it was a serpentine kind of creature, because I didn't know any type of snake that could Petrify someone. Maybe Parselmouth didn't just end with snakes. Maybe it extended to other - much more dangerous - kinds of animals.

There was one person that I was banking on knowing what other creatures that I could hear or speak to. But I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. I didn't know where the Care of Magical Creatures classroom was. I had never been there. It was outside, I thought, but I wasn't sure where on the grounds it was. I didn't know who the teacher was either. I didn't even know where their office might be. I could ask Professor McGonagall or someone, but I didn't want to explain what I was doing, and I didn't want to have to go hunting for anyone else.

Turning back and forth, desperately hoping that the classroom would pop out at me, a figure appeared at the end of the hall. "You look in an awful hurry. Match isn't that close," Cedric teased.

My mood immediately brightened. Cedric took Care of Magical Creatures. He would know where the office was. "I've never been so happy to see you!" I cheered, dashing towards him.

Cedric grinned at me. "Ah, I've missed you, too. Come to surrender already?" he teased me, not understanding the problem.

I dashed forward towards him, a pleading look in my eyes. "It's not about the game, it's serious. Please, I'm not trying to make you miss it, but I need your help," I begged him.

The smile on Cedric's face faded as he gave me a very concerned look. "Are you alright, Tara?" he asked me.

"I'm not sure," I told him honestly. He looked like he was debating on taking me to the hospital wing. "Care of Magical Creatures, you take that, right?" I asked him, already knowing the answer.

"Y - Yes. Why?"

"Who is the teacher?"

"Silvanus Kettleburn."

"Do you know where his office is?"

"Yes."

Perfect. I honestly had never been so happy to see him. I just hoped that he would speak to me again after this. "Please take me to it. Please," I begged him.

Cedric moved forward towards me and placed a hand on my forehead. I shook him off. I wasn't sick. I was desperate. "Tara. I think you need to lay down. Tell Oliver that you're not feeling well. He'll understand. You won't have to forfeit the game seeing as you're just the alternate," he tried to convince me.

I could have slapped him. I needed his help and not that kind. "Cedric, I've never asked you for anything before, but I'm begging you to take me to Kettleburn's office. You could be saving someone's life." The color drained from his face in panic. "Please. I might be losing my mind, but in the instance that I'm not... Just, please," I begged.

Cedric nodded at me and gave me his hand, gently tugging me with him. "Alright, alright, come on. I'll take you," he said. I let out a breath of relief and walked at somewhat of a run, causing him to go into a little jog to keep up with me. "What's going on?"

Should I tell him? He was probably about to find out if he hung around in Kettleburn's office with me. "I think I've found out what kind of creature is in the Chamber of Secrets," I admitted.

Cedric's face paled as he stopped dead in his tracks. "What?" he asked.

I grabbed his arm and yanked him with me. "Keep going. Harry and I - We can hear this voice before the attacks," I admitted, knowing that I was sounding insane. "It's always saying something terrible. Let me rip, let me kill, I smell blood, things of that sort." If I'd thought that he was pale before, I was dead wrong. "I just heard the voice again. This time it's going to kill someone. I know that it is. But, the problem is, no one else can hear the voice. That got me thinking that -"

"It's a snake," Cedric reasoned.

"Exactly!" I cheered, happy that someone else had come to the same conclusion. I felt a little less insane. "And I think that Hermione's just come to the same conclusion. I know that she has. She's in the library. Anyways, this isn't just a normal snake. It can't be. And this is faster than being in the library for hours researching."

"What if Professor Kettleburn doesn't know?" he asked me.

I'd already thought about that. It was worth a try. I'd kick myself if it turned out that he did know and I hadn't even tried. Especially if someone died. "Then he doesn't know. But I have to try," I told him.

He nodded at me as we stopped in front of a wooden door. "This is it," he told me. I nodded at him and watched as he knocked on the door. I sucked in a breath, praying that Kettleburn wasn't at the match.

"Come in," a voice finally called. I let out a deep breath. He was still here. Cedric opened up the door and walked in, closely followed by myself. "Mr. Diggory, I would have thought that you'd be getting ready for the big game?"

Anything else that he might have been saying had died on his tongue the moment that he looked at me. His eyes turned over to me and he nodded. If he was surprised to see me, he didn't let it be known. He merely gave me a once-over. But I was certainly surprised at the sight of him. He was apparently rather nutty, almost always on some type of probation, but usually very nice. He was an older man that was from the Hufflepuff House. Hopefully he was partial to Cedric. But it wasn't any of those things that surprised me. It was the fact that he was missing most of his limbs. Only one arm and half of one leg remained.

"Miss Nox," Professor Kettleburn greeted. I was surprised that he even knew who I was. He would have no reason to know me. "I wondered if you'd stop by my office at any point."

Surprise settled into me. "Pardon?" I asked.

Kettleburn motioned Cedric and I into the chairs in front of his desk. We took a seat and I stared at the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. "I hear that you're a Parselmouth," he said unabashed. Slightly shocked, I could only bring myself to nod. "I could only assume that you would stop by at some point to find out more about your unique... talent. Interesting timing that you have."

He obviously meant that I should have been getting ready for the game, but there were so many more important things to do. I would still play, because it meant the world to Oliver, but I had to do this first. "I understand a little bit about it. I can speak to any breed of snake on the planet. And, if I were to learn to control it, hold some type of influence over the serpent," I said weakly, unsure of how to lead into my real question.

Kettleburn nodded at me. "Correct on all accounts," he said.

"But... is there anything else?" I asked him awkwardly.

Kettleburn looked a little surprised at me. He cleared his throat before looking a little closer at me. I hoped that he couldn't see the real reason that I was here. "You mean other serpentine creatures?" he finally asked me.

"Yes."

"For what reason?" Kettleburn asked.

That was the one question that I'd been praying that he wouldn't ask me. "Purely curiosity," I told him. Idiot! That was one of the worst things that I could have said. "I don't understand this gift that I've been given. It has such a terrible stigma. I intend to make my own judgements about it. So I intend to learn everything that I can about it," I continued.

Kettleburn merely nodded at me. "A good idea. It's a rare gift and does indeed have a terrible stigma due to the association with Dark Witches and Wizards. There are rumors that there are other serpentine creatures that are also understood by Parselmouths. Runespoors, for one," he told me.

I'd never heard of that before. Could it be here in Scotland? "Runespoor?" I asked, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice.

"It's a three-headed snake that is native to Africa," Kettleburn explained. Damn it. I didn't need anything from Africa. "Runespoors are commonly six to seven feet long, with orange and black stripes. Since they are very easy to spot, the Burkina Faso Ministry of Magic has had to make several forests Unplottable for the Runespoor's use."

"What do you know about them?" I asked, hoping to get a little more out of him.

"Each of the Runespoor's heads serves a different function. The left head is the planner; it decides where the Runespoor is to go and what it is to do next. The middle head is the dreamer. It is common for a Runespoor to remain stationary for days lost in glorious visions and imaginations. The right head is the critic; it evaluates the efforts of the left and middle heads with a continuous irritable hissing, and its fangs are highly venomous. It is common to see Runespoors with the right head missing, as the other two heads often band together to bite it off when it criticizes them too much. Because of this, the Runespoor rarely lives to a great age," Kettleburn explained.

My heart sank. They didn't live to a great age. Whatever was in the Chamber of Secrets had been there for a thousand years. "Are they dangerous?" I asked, thinking that maybe there was still a way that it was a Runespoor.

"Not particularly, as recited in Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them, although they are associated with the Dark Arts," Kettleburn explained to me.

Glancing over at Cedric, I could see that he was thinking the same thing that I was; the creature wasn't a Runespoor. "But they aren't found here?" I asked for clarification.

"No. It's far too cold."

There had to be something else. I wasn't wrong about this. Hermione wasn't wrong about this. "Is there anything else?" I asked him.

Kettleburn was silent for a long time. It was long enough that even if he had tried to deny it, I would have known that there was another creature. "There is rumor of another creature," Kettleburn finally admitted.

Straightening up slightly, I tried very hard to not look too excited. I could see Cedric leaning forward slightly on my other side. "And what is it?" I asked him, fighting to remain calm.

Kettleburn took a few deep breaths before speaking. "It's called a Basilisk." I exchanged a look with Cedric. Judging by the look on his face, Cedric didn't know what it was. I was positive that I had never heard of it. Runespoor had sounded slightly familiar, but I was sure that I'd never heard of a Basilisk. "Many people - those few who know about them - often confuse it with a Cockatrice. That, itself, resembles a rooster with a lizard's tail," Kettleburn went on.

I knew what a Cockatrice was. "What is a Basilisk?" I asked Kettleburn.

Kettleburn shook his head at me and my heart sank. He didn't know. "I know very little about them. One hasn't been seen in Britain for over four hundred years," he said. I was waiting for him to go on and admit something else, but he never did. Instead, he suddenly became very strict. "It matters not. You clearly understand enough about this gift," he snapped at me.

"But, Professor, is a Basilisk dangerous?" I asked desperately.

Kettleburn had been reasonably calm during the discussion, but I noticed that his gaze narrowed at me and became much more suspicious. "Is there a particular reason that you're asking me if they're dangerous?" he asked.

"Curiosity," I squeaked.

But it appeared that Kettleburn had had enough. He stood weakly and shook his head. "No more questions. I've told you all that I will. If you'd like to ask anything more, I suggest you make use of the library," he snapped at me. I nodded and took Cedric's hand to leave the office. Before we could go, Kettleburn's voice called after me. "You're delving into very Dark Magic, Miss Nox, very dark indeed. Good day to you both, good luck with the game."

"Thank you," I told him, turning to leave. The moment that we had walked out of the door and it had shut behind us, I turned to Cedric. "He thinks that I'm asking to control the creature in the Chamber," I muttered.

Judging by the look on Kettleburn's face, he thought that I was learning how to control the creature down in the Chamber of Secrets. That was why he had stopped talking to me. I had to admit that it was a little suspicious. But I wished that he had just told me... "Yes. He does," Cedric agreed with me. "What do you think?"

I thought that there were far too many things for me to be thinking about. "It's a Basilisk. It has to be. It's not a Runespoor, they don't live here. The only thing that it could be is a Basilisk. But I need to know more about it," I said, trying to convince myself not to run to the library.

We still had to go to the game. But I intended to start taking care of things the moment that the game was over. I did not want to have to deal with this on our own anymore. I'd made Oliver a promise though, that I would always be there for the games, and I was going to stay with that promise. I was going to go to the game and play as well as I normally did.

"You should tell Professor Dumbledore," Cedric finally said.

That was the first thing that I was planning on doing. "I know. I'm going to. After the game. Once I get Hermione back from the library afterwards and warn her not to be anywhere by herself. She's a Muggle-Born. She's at risk for being attacked," I said softly.

But she would be fine. She was going to be in the stands during the game, and be damned what they said, I was going to yank them with me to Dumbledore's office. "Well I'm certainly not going to be able to focus on the game today," Cedric teased as we walked.

Even with everything that was happening, I smiled at him. "Me either," I said honestly. We walked for a moment longer before I looked over at him with a very guilty face. "I'm really sorry about dragging you into all of this."

Cedric shook his head at me. "Don't be. I'm always happy to help you out. And... If you're right about this, you may very well have just stopped the attacks on the students," he said.

Well that was better than being incorrectly dubbed as the Heir of Slytherin. "I certainly hope so," I said, glancing down to my Muggle watch. I gasped. We had spent longer in Kettleburn's office than I had thought that we would. "Damn. We've only got three minutes. Let's go!"

The two of us nodded at each other before taking a step back and going sprinting through the halls. I was always used to being one of the fastest people that I knew. But Cedric was a lot taller than me. That meant that he took much longer strides. He grabbed my hand and started yanking me after himself. The two of us dashed down towards the Quidditch Pitch as fast as we could. We arrived at the locker rooms just under a minute before the game actually started. I ran over to where the Gryffindor's were huddled together as Cedric ran over to where the Hufflepuff team was huddled together. I noticed that everyone looked tense.

They probably thought that Cedric and I were going to miss the game. But we had gotten there in time. Breathing heavily, I sprinted into the center of the team, grabbing my broom from Angelina. "I'm here! I'm here!" I called.

"Tara!" Oliver called in shock as everyone turned towards me. "We thought that you wouldn't show up."

"Sorry, Oliver," I said awkwardly.

Harry glanced back and saw that Cedric had clearly just shown up to his team as well. His eyes narrowed at me. It probably didn't look very good. Exhausted, out of breath, having just come from a nearly empty castle with a guy that he knew I had a crush on. "That's where you went?" Harry snapped at me.

Glaring at him, I shook my head. I was the one that had made some progress in the Chamber of Secrets, I deserved no flack. "It's not what you think," I insisted, leaning in a little closer to Harry and dropping my voice. "When this is over, we need to talk. You, me, Hermione, and Ron. I've figured something out."

"Tara?" Harry asked curiously.

"Focus on the game. We'll talk after," I told him.

"Okay," Harry said, sounding unsure.

He might not play his best today, and I was sure that I wouldn't, but we had a reason. If we lost, Oliver would just have to forgive us. The only good thing was that Cedric was probably just as distracted as Harry and I were. Hopefully they didn't need me to step in as Chaser, because I was sure that I would fall from the broom from a lack of paying attention. At least Malfoy would have a good laugh. We walked onto the field to tumultuous applause. Oliver took off for a warm-up flight around the goal posts; Madam Hooch released the balls. The Snitch shot off as the Bludgers went to gathering speed. Hopefully Dobby was nowhere near here. The Hufflepuff's, who played in canary yellow, were standing in a huddle, having a last-minute discussion of tactics.

Giving Harry a quick good luck, I stepped backwards. Smiling at the team, I told them all that we would manage to win, giving Cedric a nasty teasing look, before heading back towards the benches to wait to be called in. Harry and the others were just mounting their brooms when Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone. My heart dropped like a stone. The voice... The Basilisk... It had killed someone... I shouldn't have waited. I should have skipped the match and gone straight to Dumbledore. He would have set this all straight.

"This match has been canceled," Professor McGonagall called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium.

There had to have been another attack. I'd never heard of anyone else cancelling a match for anything else. There were boos and shouts. I could only imagine how bad things had gotten. Either the attack had just resulted in a death, or someone else had been Petrified, and the teachers were debating on closing the school before someone was killed. Oliver, looking devastated, landed roughly and ran toward Professor McGonagall without getting off his broomstick.

He looked a little foolish, but this was the wrong time to laugh. "But, Professor!" he shouted, sounding utterly hysterical. "We've got to play - the Cup - Gryffindor -"

People everywhere were watching what had happened. Everyone wanted to know why things had been cancelled. From what I could tell, a match had probably never been cancelled before. I gave Cedric a very panicked look. He was clearly thinking the same thing that I was. There had been another attack, and we should have gone straight to Dumbledore, not come to the game. They would have forgiven us for missing the game. They had forgiven Harry and I last year. And now... Someone was either hurt or dead. Professor McGonagall ignored Oliver and continued to shout through her megaphone.

"All students are to make their way back to the House Common Rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!" The stands began to erupt with noise as the students began to move. Then she lowered the megaphone and beckoned Harry and I over to her. "Potter, Nox, I think you'd better come with me..."

My heart lodged in my throat. Kettleburn had gone to her and told her what I'd been asking about. She now had reasonable proof that I was the Heir of Slytherin, and after the attack, during a time period that I had not been seen by anyone else, she was now planning to bring me to Dumbledore to expel me, just as they had done to Hagrid. I started thinking about the Basilisk, Tom Riddle, the diary, and anything else that I could say to keep her from believing that I was the person that was siccing the Basilisk on the students. There had to be something that I could say. Maybe Mom and Dad could come and vouch for me. Or Cedric... He'd been there with me.

The biggest problem was that she was now blaming Harry, too. Probably because of all of the rumors that had been tying the two of us together. I groaned, wondering how I would be able to get Harry out of this. It wasn't his fault that I'd gone to Kettleburn's office and asked a whole bunch of weird questions without thinking that there might be repercussions. Giving Harry a reassuring nod, I saw Ron detach himself from the complaining crowd. He came running up to them as we all set off toward the castle. To my surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't object. She seemed to be in a little tizzy herself.

Someone had been killed... The Basilisk had finally gotten to kill someone... I couldn't believe that we hadn't been able to stop it. That I hadn't been able to stop it. I'd been so close. We were right there. I'd been literally just twenty minutes away from telling the entire school what Slytherin's Monster was and allowing Dumbledore and the other professors to at least get a heads up on what was lingering in the hallways. But I was too late. We were too late. It didn't matter what we had discovered. We were too late.

"Yes, perhaps you'd better come, too, Weasley..." Professor McGonagall said as we marched up towards the castle.

A sickened feeling sank into my stomach when I realized that Hermione was nowhere with Ron, and I couldn't see her anywhere in the crowd. "Where's Hermione?" I whispered to Ron, dreading the answer.

"Still in the library. You know that she's not in love with Quidditch," Ron said.

There was a little nagging in the back of my mind that told me that Hermione wouldn't have missed the match. Even if she knew what the monster was that was down in the Chamber of Secrets, she was always there to support us. Was Professor McGonagall bringing us to show us Hermione's corpse? No. No. Hermione was not dead. Some of the students swarming around us were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. Harry, Ron, and I followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But we weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

My greatest fear was confirmed when we were led straight towards the hospital wing. "This will be a bit of a shock," Professor McGonagall said in a surprisingly gentle voice. It was the voice of someone that was preparing to give us terrible news. "There has been another attack... another double attack."

A double attack... Were two people dead? "Are they dead?" I asked, dread seeping into my stomach.

Professor McGonagall glanced over at me, somewhat surprised. She merely stared at me with a sad face. For a moment I wanted to cry. But then she said, "No, Nox, they are not."

It felt like an anvil had been lifted off of my shoulders. They weren't dead. Whoever it was had been Petrified. Not good, but it could have been worse. My insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and Ron, Harry, and I entered. I was smart enough to know that if Professor McGonagall had brought us up to the hospital wing to see the victims, we knew at least one of them. Madam Pomfrey was bending over a Sixth Year girl with long, curly hair. It was Penelope Clearwater, the Ravenclaw that we'd accidentally asked for directions to the Slytherin Common Room. Percy would be devastated.

And on the bed next to her was, "Hermione!" Ron groaned.

My heart sank to the floor. "No!" I cried.

Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy. She had been Petrified. Her face was twisted in a slightly scared look. One arm was tilted upwards. My stomach was churning as I walked slowly up to her and touched her. She felt like stone. She was ice cold. It didn't even feel like she was a human. She felt like a statue. She must have never reached the library when she'd been attacked. I couldn't have stopped it even if I'd tried. I wouldn't have gotten to her fast enough. But she still knew... She must have been being very careful. But not careful enough.

Behind me, I could feel the pity seeping off of Professor McGonagall. As much as we ground on each other's nerves, she never wanted any of her students to be hurting, or hurt. "They were found near the library," Professor McGonagall said. I nodded. That had been what I was expecting. "I don't suppose any of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them..."

Glancing backwards at her, glad to have a distraction from the state of Hermione, even for a moment, I saw that she was holding something. She was holding up a small, circular mirror. It was pretty. I'd seen it on Hermione's desk once or twice. She'd mentioned that her parents had given it to her when she was younger as a birthday present. But, other than being from her parents, I wasn't sure that it held any special value to her. Harry and Ron shook their heads, both staring at Hermione.

"It - It was given to her by her parents as a birthday present," I muttered.

"Do you know if it means anything special to her?" Professor McGonagall asked.

Weakly, I shook my head at her. My hands were shaking as Harry and Ron came over to my sides. They were both grasping my hands tightly. "But - But they'll be okay?" I muttered dumbly, pointing to Hermione and Penelope's stiff bodies.

Professor McGonagall almost looked like she wanted to hug me. But she restrained herself. "Just like the others, they will be fine with the Mandrake Restorative Draught," she told me.

I tried to let that be a consolation. Hermione would be alright once she got the Mandrake Restorative Draught in her. But she was gone for now, and one of our best detective workers was gone. "Oh, Hermione. I'm so sorry," I muttered to her, brushing back her hair off of her forehead. It was the only part of her that wasn't like stone.

Standing at Hermione's side, we were left in peace for a few moments. But eventually Professor McGonagall spoke to us again. "I will escort you back to Gryffindor Tower. I need to address the students in any case," she said heavily.

As we left the hospital wing, I glanced over at the other students and victims that remained. Mrs. Norris, Nearly Headless Nick, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Colin Creevey, Penelope Clearwater, and now Hermione Granger. The note was right. We were running out time. That was six attacks and no one had died yet. The Basilisk - and presumably the Heir of Slytherin - would not be happy about the lack of deaths. It would be a matter of days before the next person attacked, would be killed. There had to be a reason that these people were being Petrified and not killed. Perhaps it was something about the Basilisk... It had to do something right. Something that it wasn't doing yet.

But as we walked, I found myself less entranced with the attacks and when the first person would be killed, and more about my guilt over Hermione. I should have run straight to the library. I should have told Cedric to tell Oliver that I was sorry about the game, but there was something far more important. I shouldn't have been quite as worried about the match as I was. Hermione could have been killed if she hadn't gotten lucky. And that was exactly what she was. It wasn't long before something else occurred to me. If I had been there, would I have been attacked? Would I have been the first death?

We arrived back at the Gryffindor Tower in a matter of minutes. The halls were completely empty for now. I assumed that word of the attacks were spreading and, pretty soon, everyone would know what had happened to Hermione and Penelope. The Common Room was full of chattering students that went dead silent at our entrance. Professor McGonagall motioned for us to sit as she recounted the story that Hermione and Penelope had been attacked, but were not dead, merely Petrified. I noticed that Ginny was crying, seemingly on the verge of hysterics. She had been getting close to Hermione.

It was the moment that Professor McGonagall had recounted that it was Hermione that was attacked that all eyes shot to Harry and I. I was going to lose my mind if people started asking me why I had attacked one of my best friends. It wasn't long before Fred and George took the edges of my seat. Ron and Harry were in the ones next to me. Fred looped his arm around me as I leaned my head on George's shoulder. It was almost strange to see the twins so serious and so protective.

Professor McGonagall began to read off of a parchment. "All students will return to their House Common Rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities," she said.

There was an awkward shift in movement. They were literally following us everywhere. There would barely be any time that we would be able to get away from them. I supposed that they thought that they were protecting us. At least, they figured that if someone had to be hurt, it was better that it was one of the adults. The Gryffindor's were all packed inside the Common Room and listening to Professor McGonagall in silence. The Common Room was rarely this silent. There was something wrong with it. I didn't like it. Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment from which she had been reading and continued speaking in a somewhat choked voice.

"I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward," she said quietly.

I knew why she was so upset. This was as much as her home as it was ours. Even more so. She really did live here. Giving us all one more nod, she turned and climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole. Sinking back into the chair, I let out a deep breath and reveled in the silence for a moment. But it wasn't for very long. Almost immediately after Professor McGonagall, the Gryffindor's that were all crowded together began talking loudly, theories and the blame-game being played from all corners.

"That's two Gryffindor's down, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff," Lee Jordan said loudly over everyone else, counting on his fingers. The chatter stopped for a moment to listen to him. "Haven't any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherin's are all safe? Isn't it obvious all this stuff's coming from Slytherin? The Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin... Why don't they just chuck all the Slytherin's out?" he roared, to nods and scattered applause.

On any other day, I would have laughed. It was a rather funny thought to kick all of the Slytherin's out of Hogwarts. I would have loved to see Malfoy and Parkinson's faces when there were out on the streets. But the more that I thought about it, the more that I got the strangest feeling that it wasn't a student doing all of this. I couldn't imagine that it was anyone else. A teacher would never do this but a student didn't have the power. And wouldn't it be a Parselmouth doing it, if the monster was indeed a Basilisk? That brought me back to the theory - completely unwanted - and the dream where the man had told me that it was, in a way, my fault. Was there a chance that I was doing this?

Absolutely not. Even if I was doing this, it would not have been Hermione that I would have attacked. I'd be sending the monster after the Slytherin's. And Lockhart definitely would have been dead by now... Percy was sitting in a chair behind Lee, but for once he didn't seem keen to make his views heard. He was looking pale and stunned. I assumed that I was still right that he was probably either dating Penelope Clearwater or had a crush on her. This must have been tough on him.

"Percy's in shock. That Ravenclaw girl - Penelope Clearwater - she's a Prefect. I don't think he thought the monster would dare attack a Prefect," George told Harry and I as our gazes turned to Percy.

But I was only half-listening. I appreciated the twins sitting with me, but I couldn't bring myself to actually say anything to them. As time passed I found that I couldn't seem to be able to get rid of the picture of Hermione, lying on the hospital bed as though carved out of stone. And if the culprit wasn't caught soon, I was looking at a lifetime back with Mom and Dad, never becoming a full witch. Maybe I could have gone to Ilvermorny, but the school that had once been my home was now just another place. Hogwarts was my home. Tom Riddle had turned Hagrid in because he was faced with the prospect of a Muggle orphanage if the school closed... But was there another reason? Dumbledore had seemed so suspicious. He had never looked at Harry and I that way.

Fred's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "You alright?" he asked me.

Glancing over at him, I tried to smile at him. But it didn't really work. "I'm... alive..." I muttered, wringing my hands together.

Leaning over me, Fred squished into the chair with me. "Heard that it was Hermione that was the other person that was attacked. Sorry to hear that," Fred told me, grabbing my hand gently.

Giving a little shrug, I noticed that Harry and Ron were sitting together in silence. They weren't far from where I was sitting. "She could be dead. I suppose that being Petrified is better than being dead," I said softly.

"You can talk to me if you want," Fred offered.

A small smile fell over my face. For as annoying as Fred and George could be, they really were the best kind of people to be around when there was trouble. "Thanks Freddie. I'll - I'll be alright. Hogwarts is not going to close. Someone is going to catch the Heir of Slytherin and put an end to this," I said, knowing that it would end up being us.

Fred nodded at me and pushed himself out of the chair. "Watch out for yourself, alright?" he asked me.

"You, too."

With that, Fred walked off back to George and Lee, while I headed back towards Ron and Harry. Harry moved to the side so that I could sit in the armchair with me. I noticed that he was shaking slightly. "What're we going to do?" Ron asked quietly to Harry and I. "D'you think they suspect Hagrid?"

"If they don't suspect him here at the school - which they probably don't, considering that Dumbledore was the only person that was around at the time - they're going to start suspecting him at the Ministry. News of the attacks must have spread and the Ministry will know why Hagrid was expelled in the first place," I said softly.

Both Harry and Ron nodded absentmindedly. It would only be a matter of time before the Ministry would try and arrest Hagrid. "We've got to go and talk to him," Harry said, making up his mind. I nodded, Hagrid could give us some valuable insight that Riddle's diary could have never given us. "I can't believe it's him this time, but if he set the monster loose last time he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets, and that's a start."

"He didn't do it," I hissed.

"But McGonagall said we've got to stay in our tower unless we're in class -"

"I think," Harry said, more quietly still, "it's time to get my dad's old cloak out again."

And that was when I knew that I had to tell them about my discovery. Motioning Ron over to me, I tried to keep my voice as low as I could. "Get over here. I need to talk to you both," I said. Ron nodded and came to sit on the floor in front of us. "I've found out what's in the Chamber of Secrets. I know what Slytherin's monster is," I said as softly as possible.

For a moment I thought that they hadn't heard me, but it was obvious that they had. "How?" Harry asked me desperately.

"Brilliant!" Ron exclaimed.

"Remember when Hermione and I tore off after hearing the voice?" I asked. Both Harry and Ron nodded. "I can only assume that she found it out, too. Harry, think about it. A voice that only we can hear, two known Parselmouths, that threatens to kill people?" I said to him.

Harry and Ron looked like I was speaking Latin. "I don't get it," Harry finally said.

Rolling my eyes at him, I tried to keep a level head. "Of course you don't. It's a snake, you idiots!" I snapped at them. "Riddle's memory was altered! Either that or he was wrong about the whole thing. Whether he accidentally blamed Hagrid or framed him, it didn't matter. The monster is a snake. Hermione figured it out, too. Listen to this. She went to the library because she knew that it was some kind of snake. But I like to get things done a little faster. So I was running and I ran right into Cedric. I begged him to bring me to Professor Kettleburn," I told them.

"Who?" Ron asked. Both he and Harry looked like I wasn't talking fast enough.

"The Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Anyways, he did, and he seemed to have been expecting me. I used an excuse that I wanted to know everything about being a Parselmouth. He confided in me that there were more than just snake breeds that we can communicate with." Ron and Harry urged me to continue. "The first thing that he told me about was a Runespoor. It's a three-headed snake that's endemic to Africa. But it's too cold for them to live here. So that's not it," I explained.

"So what is it?" Harry urged.

"I'm getting there!" I snapped. "He went on to tell me about a creature called a Basilisk. But when he started talking about it, he clammed up almost immediately. He was saying that no one really knew that much about them. But I think that he knows more than he's letting on. I think that he thought that I was trying to learn how to control the creature. So he told me to look in a book if I wanted to find out more. That's where I was before the game," I explained to them.

Part of me had been hoping that Ron might know what a Basilisk was, but judging by his face, he didn't know what it was either. A Basilisk..." Harry muttered to himself. He looked up at me a moment later. "Do you know anything about it?"

"No. But I know somewhere that might. Wait here," I told them.

Not giving them a moment to ask about what I was doing, I turned and dashed up out of the chair, sprinting from the room. Both boys were watching me like I was insane. A few people glanced over at me, but I knew that they wouldn't say anything. They were probably thinking that I was upset after everything that had happened with Hermione. I dashed into my room and started tearing through my things. Finally, at the very bottom of the trunk, I found it. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Grabbing it in my hands, I tore back down the stairs and onto the floor with Ron, Harry coming to sit next to me. They tried to talk but I held my hand up, keeping them silent. Finally, I spotted it. Basilisk. The page was rather short, but at least there was something.

Turning the book towards the boys, I noticed the crass look that fell over Ron's face. "There's almost nothing here!" Ron exclaimed.

"Shut up! It's more than nothing," I snapped at them.

They nodded at me and Harry said gently, "Read it, Tara."

Basilisk (Also known as the King of Serpents)  
M.O.M. Classification: XXXXX

The first recorded Basilisk was bred by Herpo the Foul, a Greek Dark Wizard and Parselmouth, who discovered after much experimentation that a chicken egg hatched beneath a toad would produce a gigantic serpent possessed of extraordinarily dangerous powers.

The Basilisk is a brilliant green serpent that may reach up to fifty feet in length. The male has a scarlet plume upon its head. It has exceptionally venomous fangs but its most dangerous means of attack is the gaze of its large yellow eyes. Anyone looking directly into these will suffer instant death.

If the food source is sufficient (the Basilisk will eat all mammals and birds and most reptiles), the serpent may attain a very great age. Herpo the Foul's Basilisk is believed to have lived for close on nine hundred years.

The creation of Basilisks has been illegal since medieval times, although the practice is easily concealed by simply removing the chicken egg from beneath the toad when the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures comes to call.

However, since Basilisks are uncontrollable except by Parselmouths, they are as dangerous to most Dark wizards as to anybody else, and there have been no recorded sightings of Basilisks in Britain for at least four hundred years.

My head was spinning. It was the first time that I had ever read about a Basilisk. I'd scanned through Fantastic Beasts before but I'd never really spent a long time on any page that I didn't care about. And I'd never cared about the Basilisk before. But there were things that made sense. The Basilisk could be controlled by Parselmouths, that was why Harry and I could hear it. But it was so huge... How could people have not seen it? And it didn't say anything about Petrification. Only that a look into the eyes would kill them. So how was no one dead? And nine hundred years... The Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets would be upwards of a thousand years old. It had to be a Basilisk though. There was nothing else that made sense.

"What is the M.O.M. Classification?" Harry finally asked me.

"It's the Ministry of Magic Classification. They're ranked on a scale of one X to five X's. One X means boring. Two means harmless and may be domesticated. Three means that competent wizards should cope. Four means dangerous, requires special knowledge, and that a skilled wizard may be able to handle it. Five means they're a known wizard killer and are impossible to train or domesticate," I explained.

Harry nodded at me weakly. "Have you ever seen a creature rated with five X's before?" Harry finally asked me.

I nodded at him. "Yeah. There are a few of them. Chimera, Chinese Fireball, Horned Serpent, Manticore, Swedish Short-Snout, Wampus, Werewolf, Dementor, Acromantula... Those aren't all of them. Just the ones that I know of," I said.

But as I explained that to Harry, Ron went reading over the book again. He was shaking his head. "Tara, that doesn't make any sense. There are so many things that don't make sense here," he told me.

"Like what?" I asked, knowing that he was thinking the same things that I was.

"It can get up to fifty feet long. How would a giant snake have been sneaking around the castle? And why has no one died? It doesn't say anything about Petrifying someone. It just says that a gaze will kill them. More people would be dead. They can live up to nine hundred years old. But the one down in the Chamber of Secrets - if it is one - would be over a thousand. No one would have been taking care of it. Hagrid isn't a Parselmouth, he wouldn't have been able to control it," Ron told me.

And we were back to the Hagrid thing. "It wasn't Hagrid, you nitwit!" I hissed at him.

Harry stepped in. "Still though, Ron's right, there's a lot of things that don't make sense," he said. As much as I hated it, I knew that they were right. There wasn't enough information in this book. "What do you think?" Harry asked me.

"I don't know... I need time," I whispered.

"We don't have time!" Harry shouted at me. I jumped slightly, seeing the guilt almost immediately pop up in his eyes. He placed a hand on my knee. I knew that he didn't mean it. "We have to go to Hagrid, tonight."

"He didn't do anything," I said.

"I know that he didn't. But we need something."

Both Ron and I nodded our agreement. But there was still a thought that was in my head. Tomorrow I needed to go to the library. "I need to get to the library. There's a book in there that I've never read, but if anything is going to have more information on a Basilisk, it'll be that one. It's called the Macabre Book of Monsters. I'd be willing to bet money that's what Hermione was trying to read. It must have attacked her before she got to the library," I explained to the boys.

"We can't get there tonight," Harry said. I groaned at him. The sooner we knew, the better. "We're already supposed to be staying in the Common Rooms. And we're going to Hagrid's tonight."

Letting out a long sigh, I nodded my consent. "Fine... But I'm going tomorrow. But after the library... We're not doing this on our own anymore," I said. Both Ron and Harry opened their mouths to argue with me, but I cut them off. "Shut your mouths! Hermione was attacked. Someone is going to die next. We are telling Dumbledore tomorrow. Everything."

They didn't look thrilled about my comments, but after a moment, they both nodded. We had gone through all of this on our own last year and we'd nearly died in the process. We couldn't do it again this year. This was too big. "You're right. If someone's going to know how to stop it, it'll be Dumbledore," Harry told me.

The three of us leaned back in our chairs, Harry and Ron flipping through the Basilisk page time and time again. There were theories thrown around everywhere, and not just between the boys. All over the Common Room, people were talking about the attacks. They were trying to figure out who would have attacked someone like Hermione and wondering where the Chamber of Secrets around. I sighed and wrung my hands together, wondering where it could have been. Probably somewhere underground, but how was it that no one had found it? What was the creature that Hagrid was with in the memory? Had Riddle framed him or was it an innocent accident?

My thoughts were flying through my head at a thousand miles a minute in my head. I sighed and placed my head in my hands. I could only pray that we would get some answers tonight. Maybe Hagrid could tell us something. Even if it wasn't him, maybe he could tell us something about Riddle or something about the attacks the first time around. We were rather lucky in the regard that the one thing that Harry had inherited from his father was a long and silvery Invisibility Cloak. It was our only chance of sneaking out of the school to visit Hagrid without anyone knowing about it.

It was hours later when the Common Room finally started clearing out. Harry and Ron rose to try and pretend that they were going to bed only to come back down a few hours later. "You should try and get a few minutes of sleep," Harry said as Ron headed to their dorm.

I shook my head at him. I really didn't want to try and sleep. I couldn't sleep. "No. I'll wait down here. Thanks," I said to Harry, trying to give him a little smile. "See you boys in a few hours."

"You sure?" Harry asked me. I nodded at him, leaning back into the chair. Harry sighed but nodded anyways. "We'll get you before we go."

Nodding at them both, Harry and Ron headed off towards their dormitory. I wasn't left in peace long before another figure came up to me. I turned back to see a very awkward looking Lavender Brown. "Hey, Tara?" she called to me.

Narrowing my eyes at her, I leaned up in my chair. "Come to ask me why I've Petrified my best friend?" I snapped at her.

She was one of the few Gryffindor's that had really thought that I'd been the one Petrifying the students. Lavender blushed and shook her head at me. "Come to say that I was sorry. I was wrong. I know that you're not the Heir of Slytherin. You love Hermione. You wouldn't have ever done something like that to her," she told me bashfully.

For a while I merely stared at her. It wasn't okay that she'd been so against me for months, but I didn't hate her. At least she'd realized that she was wrong. "Glad that you've realized it," I finally said.

Lavender was very bashful about the way that she kicked her feet back and forth. I could tell that she was extremely embarrassed. "Why don't you come upstairs?" she offered.

Trying to be nice about things, I gave her a small smile. "I appreciate that, Lavender, I really do, but I don't want to look at her empty bed. I'll be up a little later," I told her.

Lavender smiled and nodded at me. "Alright. See you later," she said.

Waving her off, I leaned back into the chair and pulled my feet up underneath myself. As I slipped my eyes closed, I could hear everyone walking back and forth and chattering through the Common Room. No one bothered me, despite the fact that a few people seemed like they might have wanted to come and ask me if I was alright. I merely smiled at them and shook my head. We'd be alright. And once we caught the Heir of Slytherin, we would be fine. Everyone would be restored to their normal state, and Hogwarts would be back to normal by our Third Year. So, with those thoughts in mind, I closed my eyes and dozed off.

It felt like it was barely ten minutes later that someone started tapping on my shoulder. I jerked awake and groaned. Even though no one was in front of me, I knew that it was Ron and Harry underneath the Invisibility Cloak. "Tara. Come on. Time to go," Harry told me.

Nodding at him, he pulled back the Invisibility Cloak and I saw both Ron and Harry's torsos. Slipping through the opening in the cloak, I let Ron and Harry drop it back around the three of us. Once we were sure that no one was going to spot us - I couldn't imagine how much trouble we would get in if we were caught - we started to march through the corridors. For a moment I thought that it was completely empty. But it was very quickly that we realized that it wasn't the case. Despite all of the danger, that I had thought would clear out the castle at night, it appeared that everyone was tempted to catch the Heir of Slytherin.

The journey through the dark and deserted castle corridors wasn't enjoyable. I had wandered the castle at night several times before, but I had never seen it so crowded after sunset. Teachers, Prefects, and ghosts were marching the corridors in pairs, staring around for any unusual activity. They must have been looking to spot someone. I noticed Percy - looking much paler than normal - walking around with another Prefect that I had never seen before. The only person that I didn't see was Dumbledore. I assumed that he was probably up in his office, pondering the thing that he had probably hoped he would never have to see happen again.

The one problem that we had was that the Invisibility Cloak didn't stop us from making any noise, and there was a particularly tense moment when Ron stubbed his toe only yards from the spot where Snape stood standing guard. Thankfully, Snape sneezed at almost exactly the moment Ron swore. My heart had been about to explode when I'd thought that Snape would still manage to hear us. But he didn't and it was with great relief that we reached the oak front doors and eased them open. I could have sworn that the creaking would draw some attention to us. Thankfully the patrols just thought that it was the suits of armor.

Outside, it was a clear, starry night. It seemed wrong for everything that had been happening lately. We hurried toward the lit windows of Hagrid's house, checking around to make sure that no one was patrolling the grounds of Hogwarts. I rose my eyebrows. Maybe the Chamber was buried somewhere out here. Maybe the Basilisk snuck around the grounds when it wasn't attacking someone, making it much harder to catch. I tried to push those thoughts away as we arrived at Hagrid's hut and pulled off the cloak, standing right outside his front door. Seconds after we had knocked, Hagrid flung it open. We face-to-face with him aiming a crossbow at us. Fang the boarhound barked loudly behind him.

Staring curiously at the weapon, I gave Hagrid a weak smile. "Hi, Hagrid," I greeted, sounding unsure.

Hagrid didn't greet us back. He merely said, "Oh," and lowered the weapon and staring at us. Something was wrong. Hagrid was always happy to see us, no matter what. "What're you three doin' here?"

We ignored him. "What's that for?" Harry asked, pointing at the crossbow as we stepped inside.

He didn't say anything to us about the crossbow. He was clearly very nervous about something. "Nothin', nothin'." Hagrid muttered. "I've bin expectin' - doesn' matter. Sit down, I'll make tea."

Harry, Ron, and I exchanged a tense look with each other. Something seemed really wrong. I merely stared at Hagrid as he walked around. It looked like there was something that was keeping him on his toes. Hagrid was always a little clumsy, but he always seemed to know what he was doing. I was petting Fang absentmindedly as I watched Hagrid move around. He hardly seemed to know what he was doing. He nearly extinguished the fire, spilling water from the kettle on it, and then smashed the teapot with a nervous jerk of his massive hand. Was he expecting someone to do something to him, with everything that was happening up at the school?

"Let me help, Hagrid," I said, gently picking up the pieces of the shattered teapot. Hagrid merely answered with a small grunt as he continued to move around. He was restless.

It appeared that the others were as concerned for Hagrid as I was. "Are you okay, Hagrid?" Harry asked. Hagrid didn't answer him as he continued to move about. "Did you hear about Hermione?" Harry tried again.

That time Hagrid answered us. "Oh, I heard, all righ'," Hagrid said, a slight break in his voice.

There was no way that he had done anything. He had been framed. I knew that he had been framed. The way that he was speaking and the way that his voice kept cracking, it wasn't like he was afraid that he was guilty of doing something, even on accident, it seemed like he was afraid that someone was going to blame him. He kept glancing nervously at the windows. I was no fool. Maybe Ron and Harry didn't see it, but Hagrid had been framed the first time. It was why he was acting the way that he was right now. It would also explain why he'd burst in when Harry and I had been under suspicion... He knew what it was like to be framed... And maybe he knew the original culprit... Riddle... He knew that there was absolutely no way that it had been either one of us...

My head was spinning with the sudden revelation. But I couldn't figure out how to go about asking Hagrid. He already seemed like he was going to burst into a million pieces with nerves. He poured us all large mugs of boiling water, forgetting to add the tea bags, and was just putting a slab of fruitcake on a plate when there was a loud knock on the door. Hagrid dropped the fruitcake. Damn it! There went my chance of asking Hagrid. I should have just spit it out. Harry, Ron, and I exchanged panic-stricken looks, then threw the Invisibility Cloak back over ourselves and retreated into a corner. Hagrid checked that we were hidden, seized his crossbow, and flung open his door once more.

"Good evening, Hagrid," said the visitor.

Harry and Ron were behind me, watching over my head. The visitor was Dumbledore. He entered, looking deadly serious, and was followed by a second, very odd-looking man. The stranger had rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression, and was wearing a strange mixture of clothes. He had on a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak, and pointed purple boots. Under his arm he carried a lime-green bowler. It looked like it might have been Fudge, but I wasn't sure, I'd only seen photos of him.

"That's Dad's boss! Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic!" Ron breathed.

So I was right. "Quiet!" I hissed.

My snap had been at the same moment that Harry elbowed Ron hard to make him shut up. We continued to watch what was happening. I got a painful lump in my throat. They were going to arrest Hagrid. That was the only reason that Fudge would have been here. Dumbledore was just here to try and diffuse things. I could imagine that Hagrid was thinking the same thing. He had gone pale and sweaty. He dropped into one of his chairs and looked from Dumbledore to Cornelius Fudge.

"Bad business, Hagrid. Very bad business. Had to come. Four attacks on Muggle-Born's. Things have gone far enough. Ministry's got to act," Fudge said in clipped sentences.

My heart was thumping loudly in my chest. There was no way that Hagrid had done this. And Dumbledore knew. That was why he looked so upset. He knew as well as I did that Hagrid had been framed. "I never," Hagrid said, looking imploringly at Dumbledore. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir -"

His desperation was breaking my heart. Hagrid was one of my favorite people. "I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence," Dumbledore said, frowning at Fudge.

It appeared that Fudge had been bullied into this. He looked very uncomfortable. "Look, Albus," Fudge started, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record's against him. Ministry's got to do something - the school governors have been in touch -"

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help in the slightest," Dumbledore said.

He must have been in touch with the Ministry of Magic a lot lately. Dumbledore's blue eyes were full of a fire that I had never seen before. I'd heard rumors that Dumbledore was the only wizard that Voldemort had ever feared. He had even defeated Grindelwald - the worst Dark Wizard before Voldemort. But I'd never been able to see just how intense Dumbledore was. He'd always seemed so nice and a little off his rocker. But it was in that very moment that I saw what people had talked about. The fire in his eyes and the way that he was fiercely defending Hagrid... He was strong, and he was not someone that I would have wanted to pick a fight with.

"Look at it from my point of view," Fudge said, fidgeting with his bowler awkwardly. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said." I growled under my breath. He deserved a lot of money and a huge apology. "But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty -"

"Take me? Take me where?" Hagrid asked. I could see that he was trembling.

My stomach sank. They weren't just going to ask him to leave Hogwarts grounds, they were planning on taking him to Azkaban... "For a short stretch only," Fudge said, not meeting Hagrid's eyes. Coward. "Not a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution." Bringing someone to a place full of Dementors was a precaution? "If someone else is caught, you'll be let out with a full apology -"

"Not Azkaban?" Hagrid croaked.

They were planning on taking him there. Ron and I gasped. Harry knew that it was one of the prisons in the Wizarding World, but he didn't know just how terrible that it was. Hagrid didn't deserve to be in a place with the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius Black. Before Fudge could answer, there was another loud rap on the door. I watched curiously as Dumbledore answered it. It was Harry and I's turn for an elbow in the ribs; we'd both let out audible gasps. Mr. Lucius Malfoy strode into Hagrid's hut, swathed in a long black traveling cloak, smiling a cold and satisfied smile. I could have thrown the tea pot at him. Fang started to growl.

"Already here, Fudge. Good, good..." Lucius Malfoy drawled, looking thoroughly pleased.

"What're you doin' here? Get outta my house!" Hagrid shouted furiously.

Had there not been Albus Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic in between them, I had a feeling that Lucius Malfoy would be dead. "My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your - er - do you call this a house?" Malfoy asked, sneering as he looked around the small cabin. "I simply called at the school and was told that the headmaster was here."

What in the world would Lucius Malfoy have wanted with Dumbledore? Probably nothing good. Maybe to threaten him. "And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" Dumbledore asked. He spoke politely, but the fire was still blazing in his blue eyes.

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," Malfoy said lazily, taking out a long roll of parchment, "but the governors feel it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension - you'll find all twelve signatures on it." If it was possible, I was sure that my heart stopped. No. Not right now. "I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have there been now? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate, there will be no Muggle-Born's left at Hogwarts, and we all know what an awful loss that would be to the school," he sneered.

Asshole. At least we knew where Malfoy had gotten his charming personality. He was the spitting image of his father. "Are they asking for Dumbledore to leave? No. Not when I've figured it out!" I hissed.

"Shush!" Harry snapped at me.

I should have gone to Dumbledore straight away, no matter what the punishment would have included. "Oh, now, see here, Lucius," Fudge said, looking alarmed, "Dumbledore suspended - no, no - last thing we want just now -"

Well it was far too late to fix anything. This was all Fudge's fault. He shouldn't have gotten involved. Maybe I wasn't being fair, but I was looking for someone to blame. "The appointment - or suspension - of the headmaster is a matter for the governors, Fudge," Lucius Malfoy said smoothly. "And as Dumbledore has failed to stop these attacks -"

"See here, Malfoy, if Dumbledore can't stop them... I mean to say, who can?" Fudge asked, sweating nervously by now.

Useless. An entire Ministry of Magic and not one of them knew how to do the right thing. Save Mom, Dad, and Mr. Weasley. Where the hell were they right about now? "That remains to be seen," Lucius Malfoy said with a nasty smile. I got the sinking feeling that he knew more than he was letting on. "But as all twelve of us have voted -"

Hagrid leapt to his feet, his shaggy black head grazing the ceiling. "An' how many did yeh have ter threaten an' blackmail before they agreed, Malfoy, eh?" he roared.

"Dear, dear, you know, that temper of yours will lead you into trouble one of these days, Hagrid. I would advise you not to shout at the Azkaban guards like that. They won't like it at all," Lucius Malfoy teased.

The Dementors would sooner kill someone. Not kill them, but deliver the Kiss... "Yeh can' take Dumbledore!" Hagrid yelled, making Fang cower and whimper in his basket. "Take him away, an' the Muggle-Born's won' stand a chance! There'll be killin' next!"

He was right. The only person that the true Heir of Slytherin was probably afraid of was Dumbledore. "Calm yourself, Hagrid," Dumbledore said sharply. He looked at Lucius Malfoy. "If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside -"

"But -" Fudge stuttered.

"No!" Hagrid growled.

Dumbledore had not taken his bright blue eyes off Lucius Malfoy's cold gray ones. I could tell that he wasn't thrilled with the way that things were happening. "However," Dumbledore said, speaking very slowly and clearly so that none of the people in the hut could miss a word, "you will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

It was moments like these that I remembered just how terrifying and strong Albus Dumbledore was. He made me smile. He was looking mostly at Lucius Malfoy, almost as a warning, but his gaze diverted. For a second, I was almost sure Dumbledore's eyes flickered toward the corner where the three of us stood hidden. I wouldn't have been shocked if he knew that we were here. And I had a strange feeling that his comment was made for us, to tell us that we couldn't give up.

"Admirable sentiments," Lucius Malfoy said, bowing with a small sneer. "We shall all miss your - er - highly individual way of running things, Albus, and only hope that your successor will manage to prevent any - ah - killins."

My jaws ground together. He was such a terrible man. I couldn't believe that any woman had found it in herself to fall in love with someone of the likes of him. Lucius Malfoy strode to the cabin door, opened it, and bowed Dumbledore out. Fudge walked over towards him and waited for Hagrid to follow him. But he didn't. He merely stood in the center of the hut. I wondered for a moment if they would have to drag him kicking and screaming. I wondered if he was debating on spitting out the truth of what had happened really quickly.

Fudge, fiddling with his bowler, waited for Hagrid to go ahead of him, but Hagrid stood his ground, took a deep breath, and said carefully, "If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'." Fudge stared at him in amazement. "All right, I'm comin'." Hagrid pulled on his moleskin overcoat. But as he was about to follow Fudge through the door, he stopped again and said loudly, "An' someone'll need ter feed Fang while I'm away."

Obviously he meant for us to feed him while Hagrid was gone. We would be able to sneak down here and feed Fang once or twice a day. That was no big deal. And I always had liked the dog. If Hagrid's disappearance was going to do one good thing, it was the fact that he'd given us a way to find out the truth. We had to follow the spiders. The next time that we saw them, we had to go after them. The door banged shut and Ron pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, staring from Harry to I.

"We're in trouble now. No Dumbledore. They might as well close the school tonight. There'll be an attack a day with him gone," Ron said, his voice shaking slightly. Fang started howling, scratching at the closed door.

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head at them. This had gone on long enough. We had to put a stop to this. "You heard all of that. It wasn't Hagrid. It wasn't. Dumbledore doesn't believe so and neither does I. Fudge doesn't even believe it. I was going to tell him everything. If anyone knew about the Basilisk, the Chamber of Secrets, and Hagrid - it was Dumbledore. And now he's gone. I'd be willing to bet money Lucius Malfoy has something to do with all of this. He knows. He knows that Dumbledore would be the only person to stand in his way, and now he's gotten rid of him," I ranted furiously.

Fang, whimpering for the loss of his owner, pushed his nose under my hand. I sighed and petted him. "You're right. For our sake, Hagrid's, and Dumbledore's, I hope that you're right about everything. It's up to us," Harry said.

Giving a bitter smile, I nodded. "Isn't it always?" Both Ron and Harry laughed. "Okay. What do we do?"

Harry took a breath before saying, "Follow the spiders." Ron gave a piteous moan. "We have to know if you're right about everything, Tara," Harry told me.

I knew that I was right. But there was still one problem. "Why is it always us?" I groaned, plopping down onto the floor of Hagrid's hut, Fang slipping into my lap.


	33. Aragog

Summer was always one of my favorite times of the year. I had my own reasons. Fall was lovely with the changing colors and slightly crisper weather but it did mean back to school. And as much as I loved Hogwarts, I didn't love being weighed down with schoolwork. Winter was nice for only one reason - Christmas. Other than that, it was freezing, snowed way too much, and made me miserable. Spring was a little on the nice side, too, but it rained constantly. It meant that there was never a dry Quidditch session. But with the summer, it was warm, the rain slowed down a little bit, and the plants started to bloom.

This year, I wished that summer would wait a while longer. It didn't seem right to have the happiest season of the year with everything that was happening. But still, summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle; sky and lake alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses. The air outside of the castle was lovely. I was jealous of anyone that had Care of Magical Creatures that got to go outside for just a little while. From the inside, with no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't look right to me. It was no better than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.

Classes were becoming tenser. The professors hated having to walk us back and forth, and I could tell that they were constantly trying to check over their shoulders to see what was happening. I wanted to tell them to not dare doing that. Considering that the Basilisk would kill them if they looked it in the eye. The younger years seemed terrified to even set foot outside of their Common Rooms. The older years, particularly the Seventh Years, seemed to be counting down the days until they could leave the castle once and for all. The place that had once been full of happiness and life now felt like a prison chamber.

There wasn't one person in the entire castle that had been unaffected by the attacks. Even the Slytherin's were starting to seem a little unnerved. I had a feeling that they were starting to wonder if it was a matter of time before one of them were attacked. I almost hoped that they were, just to show them that this was no laughing matter. Things got even worse the next time that Harry, Ron, and I tried to visit Hermione. With all of the danger surrounding the school, visitors were now barred from the hospital wing. Even friends and family members, since no one could be proven completely innocent.

As Madam Pomfrey explained to us though a barely-there crack in the hospital wing door, "We're taking no more chances. No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off," Madam Pomfrey told us severely.

And thus went the chances of us getting some information from Hermione's things. My heart sank in my chest. We couldn't even visit her just to check that she was still alive. I wanted to tell Madam Pomfrey to close their eyes, but I didn't. I had no actual reputable proof that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a Basilisk. Just a few good hunches. The only thing that I knew was that direct contact with the Basilisk's eyes would result in immediate death, and that almost made me wish that people were walking around with blindfolds. But I assumed that having kids stumbling down the stairwells and breaking their necks would only make things worse.

It also didn't help that with Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled. It was very obvious that one more attack would result in the school being closed. Was that really what the Heir of Slytherin wanted? I couldn't think for the life of me what the Heir of Slytherin really wanted. It didn't make any sense to me. They didn't really seem to have an endgame.

Lately it had become very hard for me to sleep at night. I would lay awake all through the night, bothered by anything and everything. Anything from the Chamber of Secrets, to the Basilisk, to the attacks, to Dumbledore's leaving, to Hermione, to the boxes that had been sent to me, to the mystery man in my dream. I'd have gray hair before I left Hogwarts... I was also constantly repeating Dumbledore's final words to myself. I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it. But what good were these words?

We were definitely loyal to him. But who exactly were we supposed to ask for help, when everyone was just as confused and scared as we were? I almost wondered if he knew about the gift-giver or the man in the dream, but that didn't make sense. Those were all things to happen in private. He wouldn't have known about those... Would he? Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand. The trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. It figured that the moment that we would have started to understand the significance of the spiders, they had vanished into thin air.

Harry and I looked everywhere that we went, helped rather reluctantly by Ron. It had only taken me shouting at him that Hermione would have been brave enough to follow them that he had reacted and helped us out. We were hampered, of course, by the fact that we weren't allowed to wander off on our own but had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Gryffindor's. It had made it impossible for me to go to the library at any point over the last week. Most of our fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but I found it very irksome. The teachers didn't understand that knowing magic wouldn't help us in the case of a Basilisk; one gaze into the eyes would kill us.

One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy was strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. I wasn't sure what it was all about, but I wanted to chuck my scales at him as hard as I possibly could. I didn't realize what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Malfoy, I overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle. Of course it was almost impossible not to hear him. When Malfoy spoke, it was to make himself heard.

"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore. I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed," he said. My fists clenched at his words. The Basilisk had gone after a Half-Blood. It didn't care. Anyone who was unlucky enough to look into its eyes would be killed. "McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in..."

We were currently taking notes on a new potion, but I was so angry at Malfoy's words that I was paying almost no mind to what we were talking about. Instead I glared down at my parchment, blotting it with ink and bending my new quill. Snape swept past Harry and me, making no comment about Hermione's empty seat and cauldron. Most of the other professors had said that they were sorry to hear about her attack. Even Professor Binns had said that he was sorry. He'd gotten her name wrong, but at least he'd tried. I assumed that Snape was thrilled to have her gone. He was probably ticking off the other students that he wanted gone. Harry and I must have been at the top of that list.

"Sir. Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?" Malfoy loudly asked Snape, drawing quite a bit of the attention in the classroom.

I'd rather have twenty Professor McGonagall's swooping over the corridor than one of Snape as the Hogwarts Headmaster. That would be a nightmare for everyone that wasn't in Slytherin. "Now, now, Malfoy," Snape chided, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

It had seemed that Snape had been friendly with Dumbledore, but I definitely could have been wrong about that. It was hard to tell who Snape was friendly with. "Yeah, right. I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job - I'll tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir," Malfoy offered, smirking.

Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron. I rolled my eyes and accidentally knocked over my ink well. Once more I groaned, shoving it back into my bag, not caring what got ink on it. I was too tired and too irritated to keep working. Snape could take away as many points as he wanted, I didn't care. If things continued on, the way that they were going, Hogwarts would be closed in a matter of weeks anyways. There wasn't much punishment that the teachers could give to the students that really mattered anymore.

"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Malfoy went on. My hand gave a little twitch on the desk. Snape didn't even stop to say anything about it. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger -"

"What the hell is your problem?" I shouted over Malfoy. His head shot over towards me. So did most of the rest of the class. The room had been nearly silent with the occasional comment from Malfoy. "If someone does die, I hope it's you!"

He opened his mouth to say something back to me, but before he could, Snape's icy voice cut through the classroom. "Nox! Detention," Snape growled at me, warning me to stay silent.

But I couldn't. "And what about what he said?" I snapped, motioning to Malfoy.

As per usual, Snape seemed to have not heard what Malfoy had said. "Three o'clock after classes are over. Portrait hall. A Prefect will observe the detention with you. You may clean them, just like you should clean out your mouth," he told me.

"Whatever..." I muttered.

It was obvious that Malfoy felt very victorious over me getting myself a detention. With everything that had happened, detentions were still being given, but they weren't being given as leniently. They only occurred before dinner with a Prefect, Hogwarts teacher, or ghost watching over them. And someone else had to keep guard outside the detention room. They didn't last very long either. Fred and George had gotten a detention the other afternoon, but they'd barely been there for twenty minutes before Filch had released them. It wouldn't be long before they stopped handing out detentions altogether and settled for taking points away instead.

The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky; we didn't need Ron getting a detention with me. He was better off trying to figure out where the spiders had gone with Harry. At Malfoy's last words, and my unjust punishment, Ron had leapt off his stool, probably ready to curse Malfoy. Or maybe punch him. I would have been okay with either one of those things. In the scramble to collect bags and books, as even with the attacks, no one wanted to be with Snape any longer than they had to be, his attempts to reach Malfoy went unnoticed. It meant that I was the only one to get in trouble during the class.

Once I had everything in my bag, I shoved the chair away from me and moved towards Malfoy. "Out of my way, I'm gonna kill him," I hissed to Harry and Ron.

"No!" Seamus yelled, grabbing me around my midsection. "Not with Snape right there."

"Let me at him," Ron growled as Harry and Dean hung onto his arms, similarly to the tight grip that Seamus had on my waist. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands -"

"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology," Snape barked over the class's heads, and off we marched.

Although we weren't allowed to simply walk on our own. Snape took the lead with the Slytherin's directly behind him. The Gryffindor's trailed a little farther behind them. But it was Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus, and I bringing up the rear. Both Ron and I were still trying to get loose. Dean and Harry were hanging onto Ron's arms, probably with bruising force, to keep him from murdering either Snape or Malfoy. Seamus had a tight grip around my waist, yanking me away from Malfoy and towards the greenhouses.

It was only safe to let go of Ron and I when Snape had seen us out of the castle and we were making our way across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses. The Slytherin's didn't have Herbology with us - thankfully - and they were headed towards their next class with Snape. The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now two missing from the number, Justin and Hermione. Even though it was only two from a class of over twenty, it seemed very empty.

Professor Sprout set us all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. It was not the most amusing thing in the world, but I knew that Professor Sprout was too busy with the Mandrakes to really think about making any other lesson plans. I didn't really mind that. I enjoyed that we were using more demure plants and not working quite as hard. It meant that I didn't have to pay as much attention. And I really liked that. My head was too full of everything having to do with the stupid Chamber of Secrets. I went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap with Harry and found myself face-to-face with Ernie Macmillan.

If there was any positive to Hermione being attacked - and it was incredibly hard to find one - it was the fact that the rumors had all but ceased about Harry and I being the Heirs of Slytherin. They didn't love the fact that we were Parselmouths, but they did seem to understand that we wouldn't dare do that to someone that we both loved. It was pretty nice that things were at least calming down on that front, but I wished that it would have happened months ago. It was only one of the many things to be taken off of my mind.

Ernie took a deep breath and said, very formally, "I just want to say, Harry, Tara, that I'm sorry I ever suspected either one of you. I know you'd never attack Hermione Granger, and I apologize for all the stuff I said. We're all in the same boat now, and, well..."

It wasn't the best apology that I had ever heard in the world. But it did get the point across and I could tell that he was genuinely ashamed at the things that he had said to us in the past. And he was right. We were all in the same boat. The Basilisk was not going to pick and choose who it was going to look at. When it locked eyes with someone - anyone of any blood type - it was going to kill them. I still wished that it would be Malfoy. Stupid prat... Calling Hermione and Mudblood and kissing me without my consent... Idiot... Ernie held out a pudgy hand, and Harry shook it, myself following suit. Ernie and his friend Hannah came to work at the same Shrivelfig as Harry, Ron, and I.

We only worked in silence for a while. "That Draco Malfoy character, he seems very pleased about all this, doesn't he?" Ernie asked as he broke off dead twigs from the tree. "D'you know, I think he might be Slytherin's heir," he added.

"He's all bark and no bite," I growled under my breath.

"That's clever of you," Ron snapped, who didn't seem to have forgiven Ernie as readily as Harry and I.

"Do you think it's Malfoy, Harry?" Ernie asked.

"No," Harry said, so firmly that Ernie and Hannah stared.

A second later, Harry spotted something. He elbowed me gently and I glanced over to see what he was looking at. That was the moment that I spotted it. Several large spiders were scuttling over the ground on the other side of the glass, moving in an unnaturally straight line as though taking the shortest route to a prearranged meeting. They were fleeing from something. The Basilisk? Did spiders not like it? Harry and I were watching them closely. We'd been trying to follow the spiders for nearly two weeks but they'd been absent. This was the first time that we'd spotted them. Harry hit Ron over the hand with his pruning shears.

"Ouch!" Ron shouted, looking like he was about to stab Harry with his own pruning shears. "What're you -"

Harry pointed out the spiders, following their progress with his eyes screwed up against the sun. I watched them as well. I couldn't really tell where they were going. They were definitely heading away from the castle and that made sense to me. The Basilisk would have been hanging around in the castle somewhere. Where a fifty-foot snake was hiding was another problem. There went my theory that the Chamber was buried somewhere in the grounds. It must have actually been in the castle, simply far underneath it. Even lower than the sewers.

As much as I wanted to follow them, I knew that we couldn't. Not right now. Not when we were in the middle of class. "Damn it. We can't follow them now," I said, keeping my voice low.

"Oh, yeah," Ron said, trying, and failing, to look pleased at the sight of them. "But Tara's right, we can't follow them now."

We could only pray that they would stay here. I knew that they would be heading somewhere towards the grounds. Tonight that would be easy enough. We could head out towards Hagrid's Hut tonight - when we were supposed to be feeding Fang anyways - and try and see if we could follow them to wherever they were hiding. We nudged each other to keep from speaking at a normal level. Ernie and Hannah were listening curiously. They were nice, but they didn't need to know what we were talking about. My eyes narrowed as I focused on the spiders. If we pursued their fixed course, there could be no doubt about where we would end up.

Perhaps my favorite place on the Hogwarts grounds. "Looks like they're heading for the Forbidden Forest..." Harry said, sounding no more pleased about our destination than I felt.

"Because we have such good luck in there," I muttered with a sick feeling in my stomach.

And Ron looked even unhappier about that. The last time that we had been in the Forbidden Forest - somewhere that Ron had never been - Harry and I had been attacked by Voldemort as he'd been drinking unicorn blood to stay alive. The thought still disgusted me to this day, over a year later. At least this time that we would be going into the Forbidden Forest, we were following little spiders and not looking for something that had killed a unicorn. Despite trying to convince myself of this, I still felt sick to my stomach, knowing that we would be heading back in there. I could not go, but there was no way that I was letting Harry and Ron go by themselves. Those morons would be dead within the hour.

If there was ever a time that I wished Hermione was back with us... At the end of the lesson Professor Sprout escorted the class to our Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Well, she escorted the Gryffindor's before heading off elsewhere with the Hufflepuff's. Unfortunately, we were back around the Slytherin's. Ron looked just about as excited about this as I did. As we walked, Harry, Ron, and I lagged behind the others so we could talk out of earshot.

"We'll have to use the Invisibility Cloak again. We can take Fang with us. He's used to going into the forest with Hagrid, he might be some help," Harry said as we walked.

I raised my brow at that. I had a feeling that Fang would never look at us again if we tried to bring him into the Forbidden Forest. "Didn't Hagrid once say that Fang was a coward?" I asked the boys. They both shrugged. I knew that they felt better with him with us, and to be honest, I did, too. "We do it after nightfall, since I have to serve that stupid detention. Idiot Malfoy," I grumbled.

Harry glanced over at me and grinned. "At least he's got a good taste in Chapstick," he teased.

My face burned as bright as Neville's Remembrall. "Shut up, Harry," I said, shoving Harry as roughly as I could.

Both Ron and Harry were laughing. "Good one," Ron chuckled. I was debating on hitting him with my book as we walked. In the meantime Ron was still twirling his wand nervously in his fingers. "Er - aren't there - aren't there supposed to be werewolves in the forest?" he added as an afterthought as we took our usual places at the back of Lockhart's classroom.

Harry and I exchanged an awkward look. We could probably stun a werewolf, but I wasn't keen on meeting one when it was transformed. Harry said, "There are good things in there, too. The centaurs are all right, and the unicorns."

Hopefully if we ran into any trouble we would cross paths with Firenze the centaur again. I was sure that Bane would let us be attacked by a werewolf. Ron had never been into the Forbidden Forest before, a fact that I was very jealous of. Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. He looked like he was about to launch into a musical number with singing and dancing pixies. I wouldn't have been shocked. But I might have cursed him. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared nothing short of buoyant. He never was very respectful of when something terrible was happening.

I wondered what Hermione would think if she saw how her crush was reacting to her being Petrified now. "Come now. Why all these long faces?" Lockhart cried, grinning at us.

The beaming look that he gave echoed all across the room. It was driving me out of my mind. I hated the way that he did that. I hated the way that he did everything. Breathing, in particular. Even the Slytherin's looked sick of having Lockhart around. They were enjoying the grim reactions of everyone else. They didn't like the excitable mannerisms of Gilderoy Lockhart. People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered. At least, not until I found myself unable to hold my tongue.

"Are you too big-headed to realize that there are students laying Petrified just upstairs, and there's a monster on the loose, determined to kill the students off?" I snapped loudly at him.

Every head snapped back to me in surprise. Not that I could understand why they were surprised. I was always saying something nasty to Lockhart. Harry and Ron both grinned at what I'd said. Seamus and Dean both laughed. Neville looked like he was trying very hard to keep his gaze steady. Lavender, Parvati, and Fay - who normally hated it when I attacked Lockhart - even smiled at the comment. The Slytherin's were laughing at the comment, and I noticed that even Malfoy was grinning. Parkinson looked very bothered by that. Although the moment that he met my eyes, we scowled at each other, and he immediately stopped laughing, pleasing Pug-Face immensely.

"Mind your manners, Miss Robins -" Lockhart started before I spoke over him.

"Nox, you idiot!" I shouted, losing my patience entirely.

"Ten points from Gryffindor," Lockhart hissed at me. If he thought that he was scaring me or that ten points bothered me, he was dead wrong. It didn't bother me in the slightest. "Don't you people realize," Lockhart said, speaking slowly, as though we were all a bit dim, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away -"

"Says who?" Dean asked loudly.

Lockhart did not seem to enjoy being questioned. "My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty," Lockhart said, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

"Oh, yes he would," Ron said, even more loudly than Dean.

Deciding that I wanted to get back into the argument, I said, "We're talking about the same Ministry of Magic that were useless in stopping both Grindelwald and Voldemort -"

"Do not speak his name!" Lockhart interrupted so loudly that I was sure that the windows rattled. Everyone jumped. No one had ever heard Lockhart yell more than to exclaim something wonderful that he'd did. He took a deep breath and flattened out his ruffled hair. "And I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Weasley," Lockhart said in a self-satisfied tone.

Ron started to say something that I assumed were along the lines that he didn't think so, somehow, but stopped in mid-sentence when Harry kicked him hard under the desk. The two of us merely glared down at the desk. We were staring at each other angrily. Not at each other, but just about the situation. There were so many things that we knew were happening and so many ideas that we had, but nothing that we could actually do. Not with all of the new rules. Not with everything that had happened. So we merely settled for glaring at Lockhart, wishing nothing more than to set him on fire.

"We weren't there, remember?" Harry muttered.

He was right about that. But Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought Hagrid was no good, and his confidence that the whole business was now at an end, irritated me so much that I yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in Lockhart's stupid face. Or maybe feed him to the Basilisk. Or just that he was Petrified. Maybe chucked off of the Astronomy Tower. Hit by a wayward Killing Curse. Struck by a Memory Charm. Really, anything that meant that I would never have to see his ugly face again. I watched out of the corner of my eyes as Harry scribbled a note to Ron and I.

Let's do it tonight.

Both Ron and I read the message. I nodded immediately, knowing that we really were running out of time before the Basilisk killed someone. Ron took a little while longer to agree. He swallowed hard, and looked sideways at the empty seat usually filled by Hermione. It weighed down on the three of us like a lead weight. The sight seemed to stiffen his resolve, and he nodded. I knew that he didn't like spiders, but they were just spiders. They weren't that dangerous, just a little creepy looking.

The rest of class passed without incident. Lockhart went on prattling about something, but I wasn't really listening. He was talking about his defeat of some nasty ghoul - or maybe a poltergeist - I wasn't really listening. Ron had suggested that Lockhart should do something to Peeves to which I had responded that Peeves would never be outwitted by someone as dull as Lockhart. That was about as amusing as the class got. Finally everyone rose to head back to the Common Rooms until dinner. It was the one time that we could be escorted to the library for a brief amount of time. Professor McGonagall was waiting for the Gryffindor's while Snape was waiting for the Slytherin's.

Not far from us was Professor Sinistra, waiting to take any students to the library that wanted to pick up a book. The boys started to head back to the Common Room when I stopped them, motioning back to the small line of students. "I'm going to stay with the group that are heading to the library. I'll be back before my detention," I told them.

Harry and Ron exchanged a concerned look before nodding. "Be careful," they said together.

Nodding at them, I waved the boys off and went to stand in the line for the group to the library. Once a week, after classes, Professor Sinistra would take the students to the library for fifteen minutes to find a book and check it out if they needed to. There was no wandering the hallways freely anymore. Even going to dinner, we would be escorted by the Head of House, allowed one hour to eat, and then be escorted back to our House Common Rooms. There was literally no time to be by yourself, unless you managed to be in the dorm when everyone else was down in the Common Room. It got a little irritating. A lot irritating, actually.

It also meant that there was almost no time that we were allowed to speak to the other Houses. The only time that we could really see each other were during classes and in the Great Hall. I was hoping that all of this would be over soon enough so that things could go back to normal. Standing with the other students that were heading to the library, not that there were many, we eventually left for the library. So many people were barely able to focus on exams. The group that were heading to the library were mostly Fifth and Seventh Years. Students that were taking their O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams in a few weeks.

There were about eight students heading up to the library. I assumed that some of them were coming for their groups of friends so that not everyone would have to risk themselves. I was clearly the youngest person here. We headed up to the library and I sighed, trailing behind everyone else. We would only have fifteen minutes to flip through the books and find what we wanted before being escorted back to the Common Rooms for the evening, at least, until my detention, and later, dinner.

Professor Sinistra stopped about ten feet into the entrance of the library. "Find what you need quickly," she told us.

All of the students nodded as they dashed off into the rows of thousands of magical texts. I knew that I had to be fast. I sprinted over to the Care of Magical Creatures section and began thumbing through the spines of the books. It was a good thing that I wasn't looking for a Charms, Transfiguration, or Potions book. There were literally dozens of rows for them. At the very back of section was the book that I had been looking for. I had the wrong name. It was called Most Macabre Monstrosities. I smiled brightly and grabbed it, seating myself at a table in the back of the library, keeping an eye out to make sure that no one was around.

Heart thumping out of my chest, I began to flip through the pages rapidly. It was alphabetically arranged by level of danger. I had to get to the very back of the book to find the most dangerous creatures. I spotted them and began to thumb through the pages, desperate to find the creature that I was looking for. Acromantula... Ashwinder... Augurey... Bandicoot... Bat... Bicorn... That was when I stopped. I must have passed it. Basilisk. It should have been in between Bandicoot and Bat. But it wasn't there. Where was it?

Jumbling through the pages somewhere around thirty times, I finally spotted it. It was right in between the pages for the Bandicoot and the Bat. There were the remnants of a torn page. I could just barely see where it had happened. It was the page that should have contained the information on the Basilisk. My heart dropped. Someone had gotten here before me. And not just anyone. Hermione must have been attacked as she left the library. She knew that it was a Basilisk. Maybe that was exactly the reason that she had been attacked. The Heir of Slytherin had known that she knew what the creature was. There were no more copies of the book on the shelf, so I sighed and headed to Madam Pince's desk, the book in hand.

She was scribbling on a piece of paper as I awkwardly walked over to her. "Madam Pince?" I called awkwardly.

She glanced up at me through her thick glasses. "Yes?" she asked me.

Clearing my throat, I closed the book and showed it to the librarian. "I was wondering if you had another copy of Most Macabre Monstrosities?" I asked her. She looked like I'd asked her to swallow the book whole. "There were a few pages torn out of this one," I continued.

Almost immediately, I wished that I'd said nothing. "You horrible children!" she hissed, trying to snatch the book away from me. I pulled it back protectively. "I took those copies out because you wouldn't stop trying to discover what that ridiculous monster of Slytherin is. And now my last copy has been torn to pieces. Hand it over. Now!" she barked at me. I sighed, trying to hold out, but Madam Pince merely glared at me. I sighed and handed it over to her. "Out! And no more of this nonsense, trying to find a monster that doesn't exist."

Sighing softly at her, I nodded and headed back over to the line that Professor Sinistra was forming. Most of the students were already back. I was one of the last people to arrive back. Some of the kids were laughing at me for my misfortune. I assumed that they thought that my predicament was rather funny. I sighed and walked back with the other students. We went to Gryffindor Tower first and I thanked her, walking back inside and glancing around. It was so crowded in the Common Room that it was almost impossible to spot anyone. But I knew that they had to be around somewhere. And finally I spotted them. Harry and Ron were tucked into the back of the Common Room.

They were both looking up at me as I angrily dropped into the chair next to them. They looked very confused at my obvious irritation. Clearly they wanted me to have found something. "Hermione got to the book before I could. I found Most Macabre Monstrosities but the page on Basilisks was torn out. Hermione found it and ripped it out. And now..." I trained off, knowing the obvious answer.

Harry and Ron both sighed. They knew what I was talking about, too. "We can't get in to see her or go through her things," Harry said, dropping back into his chair.

"Damn," Ron muttered.

We sat in silence for a little while before I realized our one chance to make some headway in our quest for the truth behind the Chamber of Secrets. "Follow the spiders. That's our only chance," I told the boys. Harry nodded and Ron groaned. "I tried to see if Madam Pince had another copy but she just yelled at me to get out and took the book. Apparently kids were trying to find out what the monster was and they were destroying the books so she took them off of the shelf. We have to get in to see Hermione at some point," I said.

We could only hope that she had the page somewhere in her things. "You're right. We follow the spiders tonight and tomorrow we'll try and go see Hermione to root through her things," Harry told me.

"Can't we skip the spiders?" Ron groaned.

Both Harry and I glanced over at him. "Absolutely not," we said together.

Ron groaned pathetically and I smiled. He really did hate spiders. The portrait hole opened and I rolled my eyes. The air in the Common Room became almost silent. It must have meant that Professor McGonagall was here. "Nox," she called across the room. I glanced up at her and nodded. "I'm here to bring you to your detention."

"Alright," I said.

Standing from my chair, I said goodnight to the two boys and walked out with Professor McGonagall. We immediately began descending the stairs towards the lower floors of the castle. "You'll be limited to an hour downstairs. A Prefect will observe the detention," she said. I nodded, not really knowing what a Prefect would be able to do against a Basilisk. But I said nothing. "Professor Kettleburn will be standing outside of the door. Call to him if you are in need of assistance."

"Yes, ma'am," I said as we walked towards the portrait hall.

I'd never been inside, but I knew that it had portraits plastered all over the hall from previous students and headmasters. We walked into the portrait hall, where I have Professor Kettleburn a small nod. The two of us walked inside as she closed the door behind us. "Diggory will be watching over your detention. You're acquainted, if I recall correctly?" Professor McGonagall asked me.

She moved to the side and I spotted that it was Cedric Diggory who would be watching over the detention. I had to keep myself from smiling. It looked like he was doing the same. It even seemed like Professor McGonagall was rather happy about the pairing. I assumed that she was probably frustrated that I'd even been given a detention in the first place. It made her job even harder. Perhaps she'd done this for a reason. Either way, I appreciated that it wasn't someone that I didn't know. And I was really happy that it wasn't Lockhart, Snape, or Filch that was watching over the detention. That would have made things miserable.

"Yes, ma'am," we both said, letting her know that we knew each other.

Professor McGonagall nodded. "Good. One hour," she said as she walked back to the door to the portrait hall. "Remember, this is a detention, not a bonding session. Get some work done," she snapped at us before walking out of the room.

Once I was sure that she had gone, I glanced over at Cedric and noticed that the cleaning supplies were nowhere to be found. "Where are the cleaning supplies?" I asked him.

He shook his head and smiled at me. "Don't worry about it." He brandished his wand and pointed it up at the ceiling. "Scourgify," he said.

The portraits automatically cleaned themselves. They were sparkling. The floors seemed to have been freshly waxed and the spider webs disappeared quickly. The candelabras seemed to have been shined and the musty smell was gone. I smiled at him as he motioned for me to take a seat on the stone floor. I'd much rather spend an hour talking than cleaning.

"Thanks," I said softly.

Cedric nodded and placed his wand back in his robes. "What happened?" he asked curiously.

Shrugging my shoulders gently, I leaned back against the stone. "Malfoy being an ass." Cedric seemed very unsurprised at this news. "He was saying in class that he wished that it was Hermione that had been killed by the monster and I said that I wished that it was him. Of course, I was the one that was heard," I growled under my breath.

Cedric shifted uncomfortably when I mentioned Hermione. We hadn't gotten a chance to talk since the episode with Kettleburn on the day that she was attacked. "I heard about Hermione. I'm so sorry..." he told me softly.

I shrugged my shoulders at him. I'd rather her be Petrified than dead. And maybe it was better this way. She had already been taken care of. She wasn't in risk of dying. "It's alright. She could be dead, so there's that," I put in.

"Still... She's one of your best friends," Cedric said.

We were silent for a few minutes before I glanced back up at him. "I need to tell you something," I said. He nodded at me. "There's no doubt in my mind. It's a Basilisk, the creature in the Chamber of Secrets. I did some reading on it. I don't know how it happened, but they're recorded to live about nine hundred years. There's a chance that it could live to be about one thousand. That's how old the one in the Chamber of Secrets would be. I'm not sure how it's eating or how it's getting around the castle, considering that it can grow up to fifty feet," I muttered, hoping that talking it out might help.

That was when I realized that saying that it was a fifty foot, murderous, snake might not have gone over so well. Cedric paled a little bit at my words. "That's unnerving," he whispered.

"I know," I told him, nodding slowly. I was certainly hoping that the Basilisk wasn't fifty feet long. I was hoping that it wasn't even five. "And I'm not sure how it's Petrifying people either. All I know is that it kills people. Looking a Basilisk straight in the eyes will kill someone immediately. So be careful walking around," I warned him.

It would break my heart if Cedric was killed. Not just because of my crush on him, but because he was my friend. Cedric's brows furrowed. "How has no one died?" he asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I pushed my hair back off of my face. "That's the million dollar question," I told him. I really didn't understand how no one had died. "I wanted to tell Dumbledore. I really did. But now that he's gone..."

"You can't tell him," Cedric put in.

He was right about that. Dumbledore was gone and now there was no way that I could tell him. I didn't know where he had gone. "I don't know. Do I tell Professor McGonagall? I knew about the Sorcerer's Stone last year. We all did and we tried to tell her, but she ignored us. It would have been taken by Voldemort if we hadn't gotten down there. He would have managed it somehow," I said softly.

He did twitch slightly when I said Voldemort, but said nothing more than that. "You need to tell someone. You three can't do it on your own this time. You're risking too much," Cedric tried to convince me.

"We don't even know where the Chamber of Secrets is," I said.

Cedric smiled and shook his head at me. "If anyone can find out, I'm sure that it's you," he told me. The two of us both laughed. He was right about that. If anyone would be able to find it, it was us. "For my own sanity, please don't go after it."

"But how does this stop?" I asked.

If we didn't find out where the Chamber of Secrets was, who would? They wouldn't go searching for it. Not with all of the danger. They would close the school. "I don't know. But you don't have to risk your own life to stop it," Cedric told me.

"Then who will?" I asked him.

Cedric shook his head at me. I knew that he wanted me to try and stay safe, but I really couldn't stay safe. I wanted to end this. I didn't want to risk something happening to everyone here at Hogwarts. "The Ministry will come and take care of things," Cedric said.

But I could tell that he believed that about as much as I did. "They'll come and close Hogwarts. Trust me," I told him.

He looked extremely upset about everything, but he didn't want me to do something stupid to stop it. So he sighed and said, "There's no way of talking you out of doing something stupid?"

Smiling softly at him, I shook my head. "Nope," I said brightly. I had a knack for doing terribly stupid things that would probably get me killed. "Hogwarts can't just close forever. We can't just let it close."

Cedric sighed and pressed the palm of his hands into his eyes. He looked very frustrated. But he also looked like he had been expecting all of this. "Why is it always the four of you that are doing something crazy?" he asked me after a few minutes of silence.

The two of us laughed loudly. It was the truth. We were always doing something stupid that would probably get us killed. One of these days I was absolutely positive that we would get ourselves killed. Maybe we'd be lucky enough to die after graduating Hogwarts. "Trust me when I say that I ask myself that at least ten times a day," I said, making us both laugh again. We sat in silence for a little while longer before I realized something that I'd been curious about for a while. "Have you been studying for your exams?" I asked.

He looked shocked that I had asked him something like that. Cedric shrugged his shoulders at me. "A little bit. But I don't think that anyone's been studying that much. Too much going on to distract us," he said.

He was right about that. There was way too much going on to actually study for exams. "That's true. I keep thinking that I really need to be studying, but I can't focus long enough to actually make any headway. Thankfully you've got another year for your O.W.L.'s," I told him.

I couldn't imagine how the Fifth and Seventh Years felt about now. There was so much going on that it made it almost impossible to study for exams, even when they were the most important exams that you would ever take in your life. "I'll have a lot of ground to make up," Cedric said.

The two of us sat in silence as I glanced around at the old portraits. Some of them were nice. They went all the way back to the founding of Hogwarts. There were portraits of Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor, and Salazar Slytherin. My skin crawled when I realized that Slytherin looked just as creepy as he sounded. There were portraits of each of the old Headmasters and Headmistresses and some students standing with them. That was when I spotted a portrait that stood out to me. The portrait of Armando Dippet with a few people standing around him. Not Tom Riddle. But there was a girl, and it was her robes that caught my eye.

"Tara?" Cedric called.

I realized that he had probably been trying to talk to me. "Huh?" I asked absentmindedly.

"You alright?" he asked me.

I nodded weakly at him. "Uh, yeah. Do you know about when this portrait was made?" I asked, pointing to the portrait that had caught my attention.

Cedric stood and walked over to the portrait. He stared at it for a few minutes before glancing back at me. "By the look of it, maybe sometime in the thirties or forties. About fifty years old or so..." he said. My heart skipped a beat in my chest. Of course... Right in front of us the entire time. "Why?" he asked curiously.

"Just curious. I like the uniforms that they wore," I said.

It was moments like these that made me very glad that Hermione had forced me to read Hogwarts, A History. It had stated in the pages that Hogwarts uniforms were changed every few decades. The last change that they had gone through was the seventies, and the fifties before that. About every two decades. Each time that there was a rather large shift in fashion. Even in the Muggle world so that we could blend in if we ever needed to walk through a Muggle town. The robes in that photograph were not the same ones that I was wearing right now.

No one wore robes like this. Not anymore. At least, no one that was still alive. But I had seen someone wear these robes once before. These were the exact robes that Moaning Myrtle wore. Fifty years or so ago... They had said that someone died in Hogwarts fifty years ago during the first attacks; a girl. I didn't know how Moaning Myrtle had died. No one ever knew how she died because no one cared enough to ask. But what if we should have been asking her? What if she hadn't died because of a fall down the stairs or something like that? The man in my dreams had told me that the answer was right in front of me the entire time. And maybe it was.

Cedric's voice brought me back from my reverie. "Come on. You should spend some time pretending like you were cleaning. Professor McGonagall will be back any minute now," he told me.

Nodding at him, I walked back over to the portrait and kneeled in front of it, pretending to clean it. The entire time, I was merely looking over it. Cedric helped me pretend to clean the portrait as we kneeled together and polished the portrait. My eyes were on the girl in Ravenclaw robes. They were the exact same robes that Moaning Myrtle wore. Perhaps Myrtle had even known this girl. I knew that sometime soon I would have to ask Myrtle how she had died. It wasn't the nicest thing that I could say to someone, but I had to know. Maybe she could tell me something about the Chamber of Secrets or confirm that it was a Basilisk.

It wasn't long before the door opened and Professor McGonagall walked in. I glanced up at her and smiled. "Your hour is up. Come along, Nox. I'll bring you back to Gryffindor Tower," she told me.

Nodding at her, I stood with Cedric's hand up. He grabbed the tools from me and began to place them back in the bucket that was sitting in the corner of the hall. "See you later, Cedric," I said, waving at him.

"Be careful, Tara," he said, waving me off.

Professor McGonagall said nothing to me. She merely warned Cedric to gather everything and place it back in the storage room and to wait for Professor Kettleburn to take him back to the Hufflepuff Common Room. He gave me a pointed look as we left, that was obviously telling me to be careful and not do anything stupid. Professor McGonagall waved her hand and the two of us stalked back to Gryffindor Tower. She said nothing to me but I could tell that she was very tense in the way that she walked. I tried to spit out something, anything, telling her what I had found, but I couldn't. And by the time that we arrived back at Gryffindor Tower, I still hadn't found a way to say anything.

Maybe I would tell her one day, but I couldn't find the words to say it right now. So as I walked in, I turned back to her and nodded. "Thank you, Professor," I told her.

She nodded at me before turning and heading back to wherever it was that she was stationed. I headed over towards the fireplace where Harry and Ron were seated, playing wizard chess. They glanced up at me as I seated myself. "Hey. How was detention?" Harry asked.

The two of them continued to play and I held a hand up, motioning them to stop for just a moment. "Turns out that Snape's detention was a blessing in disguise." That caught their attention. "I was cleaning the portraits with Cedric watching over me when I saw one that looked familiar. It was from the thirties or forties, judging by what he said. Fifty years ago," I said.

"So?" Ron asked.

As usual, the two boys were clueless. I wished that Hermione was here. She would have understood what I was getting at. "So, I recognized the robes that they were wearing in the portrait," I continued.

"Because they're the robes that you're wearing right now?" Ron offered.

Useless. Absolutely useless. "Shut up, Ron!" I hissed at him. "No. The Hogwarts robes change from time to time. Not often, but they do change. Anyways, I recognized the robes that one of the girls was wearing in the portrait. They were the same robes that Moaning Myrtle wears," I told them, making it obvious.

Now it seemed to have make sense. Harry and Ron exchanged a look with each other before nodding. They realized that I was right. The girl that had died, there was a good chance that it was Moaning Myrtle. "A girl died in the bathroom fifty years ago... Killed by the Basilisk maybe?" Harry asked.

"No one knows how she died. It wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe she saw what killed her," I told them.

Ron shrugged his shoulders at me and nodded. "Worth a shot," he said.

But we already had a plan for right now. And it was going to work out. We would follow the spiders tonight, get in to find the paper from Hermione tomorrow, and talk to Moaning Myrtle about her death. "We do it after the spiders. Tomorrow. The longer we let this wait, the more that we risk another attack," I told the boys.

They both nodded at me. We had to stop talking about our plans since the Gryffindor Common Room crowded almost immediately. Now that classes were over, there was nowhere else to go. We couldn't lounge on the grounds, or hang in the hallways or Great Hall, we couldn't go to the library, and we couldn't do anything else. We were stuck hanging out in either the dorms or the Common Room. So I settled in with the boys and watched them play wizard chess. Ron took a few hours to try and explain it to me, but I was useless. I only came close to beating Ron once, and that was with Harry's constant assistance.

It was almost impossible to concentrate anyways, with all of Gryffindor inside the Common Room. There were almost one hundred people in Gryffindor and the Common Room was really only designed to comfortably hold about half of that. For a moment I was jealous of Slytherin. Their Common Room was much bigger. But there were also more Slytherin students than there were Gryffindor. It was always very crowded from six o'clock onward, after dinner, because the Gryffindor's had nowhere else to go. What didn't help was that we also had plenty to talk about, with the result that the Common Room often didn't empty until past midnight.

It seemed that most people were still a little cautious about being attacked. I assumed that they thought that they would be a little safer if they were together in groups. It wouldn't help, but I didn't want to tell them that just to have them freak out. I also didn't want to have to explain to all of Gryffindor how I'd discovered what the monster was. That would only open a new can of worms and, due to the fact that it was a large snake, Harry and I would probably become suspects again.

Harry went to get the Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk right after dinner, and spent the evening sitting on it, waiting for the room to clear. We needed to leave the second that the Common Room cleared. We were hoping that Fred and George - as much as I loved them - would go to bed early to work on pranking. It didn't work out that way. Just like us, they were too preoccupied to actually think about anything that really took a lot of brain power. So that meant that Fred and George challenged Harry, Ron, and I to a few games of Exploding Snap. I really did love Exploding Snap, but I didn't want to play. It seemed like they knew that, but I appreciated that Fred and George were trying to mess with me to make me feel just a little bit better.

It was something that normally would have been incredibly fun. Ginny sat watching us, very subdued in Hermione's usual chair. I tried to smile and chat with her, hoping to make her feel a little better. I had a funny feeling that Ginny would never want to return to Hogwarts again after everything that happened to her. Harry, Ron, and I kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George, and Ginny finally went to bed. At least they finally had gone to bed.

Harry, Ron, and I waited for the distant sounds of two dormitory doors closing before seizing the cloak, throwing it over ourselves, and climbing through the portrait hole. We didn't speak the entire time that we walked back and forth through the hallways. There was no way that we could risk someone hearing us. It was another difficult journey through the castle, dodging all the teachers. It seemed that the staff of Hogwarts had tripled in the last few days. And it was very hard to walk back and forth without even letting our footsteps be heard. Even with the carpet, the gentle brushing of our shoes against the floors made noise.

Thankfully the teachers and Prefects seemed too distracted to hear the insignificant little noise. At last we reached the entrance hall. Very carefully we slid back the lock on the oak front doors, squeezed between them with the smallest space possible, trying to stop any creaking, and stepped out into the moonlit grounds. Closing them was a little harder. I could only pray that no one would see that the front door was unlocked. I had a feeling that if they re-locked it, Alohamora wouldn't work.

We strode across the back grass quickly. I could tell that Ron was walking slower than Harry and I, not excited at all about what was to come. "'Course, we might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not have been going there at all. I know it looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but..." Ron trailed off nervously.

Rolling my eyes at him, I snapped, "We're following the spiders, Ron, stop it."

His voice trailed away hopefully. Even next to him I could feel that he was shaking with nerves. I felt a little bit bad for him, but he knew, just as well as we did, that this was crucial. We reached Hagrid's house after a few minutes, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. Harry slipped the Invisibility Cloak off of us and we slipped inside. When we pushed the door open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of us. He bounded over to me and knocked me flat on my back, barking and licking me. Clearly worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks, Harry and Ron hastily fed him treacle toffee from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.

I felt absolutely terrible for the poor dog as he began to try and peel his teeth apart. "That's terrible," I told the two boys.

"It won't hurt him," Harry argued.

I nodded at him. That didn't change the fact that I felt horrible for poor Fang. "I know..." I muttered.

The three of us got all of our things together and took a deep breath. I didn't know what was going to happen if we followed the spiders, but I could assume that it wasn't anything too terrible. Hagrid wouldn't send us there if whatever was down there was going to kill us. I had faith that Hagrid was at least that intelligent. With a little nod to each other, we turned to the door. Harry left the Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. There would be no need for it in the pitch-dark forest. Our wands were clutched tightly in our hands, although I wished that Ron would put his away. It would do nothing good.

"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," Harry said, patting his leg.

The dog had been cooped up for far too long. I felt terribly for him. He loved it when Hagrid was here so that he could run back and forth around the grounds. Without him here, he was kept inside of the house almost all of the time. Professor Sprout came to feed him but that was about it. Fang bounded happily out of the house behind us, dashed to the edge of the forest, and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree. The three of us waited for him to finish his business behind the tree. I thought about telling them to put him back in the house, just in case, but I knew that it wasn't worth the argument.

Harry took out his wand, murmured, "Lumos!" and a tiny light appeared at the end of it. It was just enough to let us watch the path for signs of spiders. We needed more light though.

"Lumos," I added, making it a little easier to see.

"Good thinking. I'd light mine, too, but you know - it'd probably blow up or something..." Ron said slowly.

Both Harry and I looked over at him. Lighting his wand would probably alert the entire castle as to where we were. I couldn't imagine what a terrible idea that would be. "Please don't light your wand," I told Ron.

He could simply help look out for the spiders. We walked through the forest for a little while as we tried to think of a way to go. We merely followed the path for a long while. It was our only clue as to where we should have been going. Fang was standing close by us. He was in between Harry and I. We had been walking for a few minutes when Harry tapped Ron and I on the shoulder, pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wand light into the shade of the trees.

"Okay," Ron sighed as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go."

So, with Fang scampering around us, sniffing tree roots and leaves, we completely entered the forest. My stomach felt like it was twisting itself in knots. I hated being here. I hated this entire thing. The thought that I'd had previously about how the trip into the forest might not be that bad had gone away. Now I was just terrified that something horrible was going to happen. After all, it wasn't called the Forbidden Forest for nothing. There were perfectly good reasons that we weren't allowed in here. And I had a sinking feeling that we were about to find something that was one of the reasons that we were not allowed to be here.

By the glow of Harry and I's wands, we followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. The deeper into the forest we got, the more spiders that we were seeing. We must have been getting closer to wherever we were supposed to be. We walked behind them for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. So far it seemed that nothing else was in here. Nothing other than the small spiders, and that couldn't have been what Hagrid had wanted us to see.

Then, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead were no longer visible, and Harry and I's wands shone alone in the sea of dark, we saw our spider guides leaving the path. It went into the deepest and darkest parts of the forest. The parts that were probably the most dangerous. The parts that we really weren't supposed to be in. I was sure that Hagrid didn't really even leave the path that often. But he had told us to follow the spiders... Did he know that they left the path?

It wasn't just me that was clearly debating on whether or not this was the right thing to do. Harry, Ron, and I all paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside of our little sphere of light was pitch-black. There was nothing that we could see. We couldn't even tell where they were going more than just a few feet. I had never been this deep into the forest before. I could vividly remember Hagrid advising us not to leave the forest path last time we'd been in here. It sent strange feelings fluttering through my chest. But Hagrid was miles away now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the spiders.

So that was what we did. Although we didn't make it long before stopping and hesitating again. "I'd feel a whole lot better if we had that crossbow with us," I muttered very quietly.

Ron nodded very rapidly at my suggestion. I wasn't even sure where the crossbow was. I had a feeling that Hagrid had hidden in from us. And maybe it was for the best. I couldn't imagine that whatever we were heading to would appreciate us coming in while we were armed. I noticed Harry jump backward, and I glanced over at him. He had crushed Ron's foot. I realized a moment later that it was because Fang had pushed his nose against Harry's hand, and it had startled him.

"What d'you reckon?" Harry asked Ron and I.

The two of us stared at each other before nodding. It was a long time that we were in silence. I was fine, but Ron was the one that was really terrified to be in here. "We've come this far," Ron finally conceded.

So we followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. It seemed to have become even darker, if that was somehow possible. I wanted to say something, but I was a little too afraid to speak and interrupt whatever was happening. We couldn't move very quickly now; there were tree roots and stumps in our way, barely visible in the near blackness. I couldn't even count the amount of times that I had fallen over only to be helped up by one of the boys. I had smashed a spider or two, and I hoped that my actions wouldn't go against me when we got where we were going. I could feel Fang's hot breath on my hand. More than once, we had to stop, so that Harry or I could crouch down and find the spiders in the wand light.

It got to the point that when I was walking, I was tilting back and forth. I was exhausted from the day and from the walk. I shone my wand quickly down on my Muggle watch and groaned. It was already past one in the morning. We wouldn't be back until nearly dawn. But still, we walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, our robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. After a while, I noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as thick as ever. Glancing down at my Muggle watch again, I saw that it was now almost two in the morning. I thought about telling the boys, but I knew that it would be pointless. So I stayed silent. We had come too far just to turn back and forget about it.

Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making Harry, Ron, and I jump out of our skins. I was glad that no one screamed. "What?" Ron asked loudly and panicky, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping my elbow very hard.

"There's something moving over there. Listen... sounds like something big..." Harry breathed out.

We stopped, allowing the spiders to scuttle past us. The problem now was that we didn't know what was about to attack us. There were some very dangerous creatures in the Forbidden Forest. Whatever was coming out here was something that we should have been prepared for. I pointed my wand towards the noise and hoped that I knew a spell powerful enough to stop it. It was a few minutes that we stood and listened. Some distance to our right, whatever the something big was, was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.

"Oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no, oh -" Ron muttered frantically.

"Shut up. It'll hear you," Harry yelled angrily.

"Hear me? It's already heard Fang!" Ron yelled in an unnaturally high voice.

He was speaking far too loud. They both were. "Shut up," I hissed to the boys.

Through the near silence, I heard their jaws snap shut. I held Fang at my side, feeling him tremble slightly. I was almost glad that we had fed him the treacle toffee. I could only imagine that now would be the absolute worst time for him to make some type of noise. The darkness seemed to be pressing on my eyeballs as we stood, terrified, waiting. Every spell that I knew was bouncing through my head. But without knowing what it was, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to cast. And I still didn't know where the offending creature was. There was a strange rumbling noise and then silence.

My brows furrowed. That didn't sound like an animal... "It sounds like an engine," I said softly.

"What d'you think it's doing?" Harry asked.

"Probably getting ready to pounce," Ron said, his voice shaking.

We waited, shivering, hardly daring to move. The sound had stopped, but I had a terrible feeling that whatever it was that was hanging around, wasn't gone. "D'you think it's gone?" Harry whispered.

"Dunno -" Ron started.

He stopped speaking and his face paled. I turned to see what had happened. Then, to our right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that the three of them flung up our hands to shield our eyes. I shrieked and stepped back. What was it that made a light that bright? Fang yelped and tried to run, but got lodged in a tangle of thorns and yelped even louder. I grabbed him and yanked him back to us. The last thing that we needed was to explain to Hagrid that his dog was gone forever, lost in the Forbidden Forest, because we hadn't held onto him tight enough.

"Harry! Tara!" Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. "Harry, Tara, it's our car!"

"What?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

"That was the engine," I said with relief.

"Come on!" Ron yelled.

Harry and I blundered after Ron toward the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later we had emerged into a clearing. I walked slowly, not trusting that something else had been drawn to us by the sound of our voices. But Ron was right. Mr. Weasley's car was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlights ablaze. As Ron walked, open-mouthed, toward it, it moved slowly toward him, exactly like a large, turquoise dog greeting its owner. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest as he walked towards it. The car didn't particularly look happy.

"It's been here all the time!" Ron said delightedly, walking around the car. "Look at it. The forest's turned it wild..."

The sides of the car were scratched and smeared with mud. Apparently it had taken to trundling around the forest on its own. The way that the engine was rumbling was telling me that the car did not want us around it. I tried to grab onto Harry and Ron to pull them away from the car, but Ron seemed determined to try and get the car to come with us. I had a feeling that it was never going to come back to society. Fang didn't seem at all keen on the car; he kept close to Harry and I. It was easy to feel him quivering. His breathing slowing down again, Harry stuffed his wand back into his robes.

"Let's go before it runs us over," I told the boys.

"And we thought it was going to attack us!" Ron said, leaning against the car and patting it. "I wondered where it had gone!"

I still had a bad feeling that it was going to do something terrible to us. The car didn't seem particularly thrilled to see us. And we had a completely different reason to be here. We were supposed to be looking for wherever the spiders were leading us. Harry and I squinted around on the floodlit ground for signs of more spiders, but they had all scuttled away from the glare of the headlights. We had lost the trail, and this far out in the forest, it might be impossible to find the trail again.

"We've lost the trail. C'mon, let's go and find them," Harry said.

Nodding at him, I moved to go and walk with him. But Ron didn't speak. He didn't move. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Harry and I. His face was livid with terror. My stomach twisted itself into a knot. Whatever was happening was nothing good. Harry and I exchanged a long look with each other. Nothing good was about to happen. We both started sweating as I debated on turning around. But I didn't even have time to turn around.

There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly I felt something long and hairy seize me around the middle and lift me off the ground, so that I was hanging face-down. I couldn't help myself. A piercing scream that I was sure could be heard all the way back at Gryffindor Tower echoed through the clearing. I had just promised Cedric that I would do anything stupid, and here I was, doing something extremely stupid. Not that this was my fault. Somehow this was Harry and Ron's fault. I refused to believe that this was my fault. Struggling against the grip of the creatures and terrified out of my mind, I heard more clicking, and saw Ron's and Harry's legs leave the ground, too. At least I wasn't the only one that was being taken. I struggled against my captor's grip once more, but whatever was holding me was very hard and very tight.

It only tightened on me the longer that I was caught in their arms. Actually, they didn't seem to be arms. They felt more like pincers. That was when my heart lifted. As creepy and disgusting as this was, these were the spiders. They were bringing us where Hagrid had told us to go. It just wasn't the nicest way that I wanted it to happen. Not far from me, I heard Fang whimpering and howling. The next moment, he was being swept away into the dark trees. Ron and Harry were both trying to fight away from the creatures.

"Don't fight! Don't fight," I yelled to the boys. Ron looked like he might murder me. "They're bringing us somewhere, not attacking us. This is what Hagrid wanted."

"I'm going to kill Hagrid!" I heard Ron shout back.

Head hanging, I could barely see that what had a hold of me was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching me tightly below a pair of shining black pincers. Spiders... Huge spiders. Please don't be what I think you are... Behind me, I could hear another of the creatures, no doubt carrying Ron, and another that much have been carrying Harry. I could only imagine how much Ron was hating this. Perhaps Harry and I would get our comeuppance at some point. Maybe I'd have to be swarmed with a hundred snakes or something like that.

It was pretty obvious that we were moving into the very heart of the forest. I couldn't imagine how Hagrid did this from time to time. How did he not have a heart attack every time that this happened to him? I could hear Fang fighting to free himself from a fourth monster, whining loudly, but I couldn't have yelled even if I had wanted to; my voice seemed to have left me with the scream that I'd left back with the car in the clearing. Not that screaming would do any good. It would probably only make the spiders even angrier.

It might have been hours that I was in the spider's grasp. I would never know how long I was in the creature's clutches. All I knew was that it far too long and there was nothing that I could do. The only thing that I knew was that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for me to see that the leaf-strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. They seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. Craning my neck sideways, I realized that we had reached the ridge of a vast hollow, a hollow that had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene I had ever laid eyes on. I wish I was blind. Or dead. Or Petrified. Or anything but present at this moment.

There were spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying the four of us made its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load. I was going to throw up. I was going to vomit everywhere, and then the spiders were going to hate me, and kill me. Great. Just the way that I wanted to die. Nope. A Basilisk or Voldemort wasn't any problem. It was a freaking spider.

Just as I thought that, I fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released me. I grunted at the sudden impact as my head spun from finally being righted. Ron, Harry, and Fang thudded down next to me. Ron grabbed onto my hand as Harry yanked me into him. I grabbed Fang and pulled him behind us. Fang wasn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly like I felt. His mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping. I suddenly realized that the spider that had dropped Harry was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clicked his pincers with every word he spoke.

"Aragog! Aragog!" it called.

Aragog must have been the leader of the... family? My voice was shaking as I leaned over to the boys. "Acromantula..." I whispered so low that I thought that they might not have heard me.

But they must have. Harry's face completely drained of color as Ron whimpered pathetically. "Weren't you saying that they were a five X creature?" Harry asked me.

"Y - Yes," I stuttered.

They couldn't be domesticated; they were wizard killers. We were about to become proof of that. From the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. Now I know that I'm going to throw up. There was gray in the black of his body and legs that told me that he must have been old. He was clearly that patriarch of the family. Each of the eyes on his ugly, pincer-covered head was milky white. He must have been blind.

"What is it?" Aragog asked, clicking his pincers rapidly.

"Men," clicked the spider who had caught Harry.

My indignation got the best of me, despite knowing that I should have stayed silent. "Excuse you! I am a girl!" I shouted, drawing the attention of the large spider.

"Don't yell at the spider!" Ron hissed at me.

"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asked, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.

"Strangers," clicked the spider who had brought Ron.

Aragog barely seemed bothered at us. They must not have gotten people here very often. Not that I could blame anyone for staying away from this place. "Return the girl to the forest. Kill the men. I was sleeping..." Aragog said fretfully.

The three of us suddenly went into a panic. Maybe they were offering to return me to the forest, but I did not want to explain where Harry and Ron had gone. Hermione would lose her mind. "We're friends of Hagrid's," Harry shouted.

My heart seemed to have left my chest to pound in my throat. This couldn't happen. We were not going to die. "Please, he sent us here!" I shouted up to Aragog.

Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow. My heart felt like it was about to suffocate me. We were going to die. The Acromantula wasn't going to wait long before it got sick of us. There was no doubt in my mind that the spiders weren't going to kill us. They ate humans. And we had just provided them a willing meal. But to my complete surprise, Aragog paused. Maybe it wasn't going to kill us. Maybe it was a friend of Hagrid's. Maybe he had somehow domesticated it.

"Hagrid has never sent men or a woman into our hollow before," Aragog said slowly.

"Hagrid's in trouble. That's why we've come," Harry spit out very quickly, probably giving a desperate try to save us.

Ron seemed to have lost the ability to speak. "In trouble?" Aragog asked, and I was shocked to think that I might have heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"

It felt a little stupid to be speaking to the Acromantula from the ground, but my thoughts of getting to my feet didn't seem to be strong enough. It seemed that Harry was thinking the same thing that I was. We all stayed on the ground, unable to rise. After all, I didn't think that my legs would support me. We were all hanging onto each other, terrified that something was going to happen to us. I couldn't imagine how we were going to get out of here. But we weren't there yet, so Harry spoke from the ground, as calmly as he could.

"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a - a - something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban," Harry explained.

The moment that he said it, I wished that he hadn't. Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause didn't usually make me feel sick with fear. I had a feeling that the clicking sound was more something like anger. But with the spiders, everything sounded exactly the same. It just made me want to run for my life. But I knew that we wouldn't be fast enough. They'd outrun us within seconds.

"But that was years ago. Years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free," Aragog told us fretfully. My heart skipped a beat. I was right. Either Riddle had framed Hagrid or it had been an honest mistake. Hagrid was innocent.

Harry and I exchanged a look and I knew that we were thinking the same thing. "And you... you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked. I could see a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

This comment did not please the spider. "I! I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me," Aragog explained. A girl... It had to be Myrtle. "I have lived here in the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness..."

"So you never - never attacked anyone?" Harry croaked.

I could have killed him. We had already figured out that Aragog was innocent. "Never. It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human," Aragog said. That made me feel a little bit better. "The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom." Harry and I whipped around to each other. We must have been thinking the same thing. What if she never left? "I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet..."

"Was her name Myrtle?" I asked.

Aragog seemed surprised that someone other than Harry had spoken. I didn't like the way that his eight eyes flicked over to me. "I do not know her name," Aragog said regretfully.

It had to be her. There was no one else that it could have been. "But then... Do you know what did kill that girl?" Harry asked. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again -"

His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shifted all around us. The four of us shifted closer together once more, knowing that we had made the Acromantula family angry. Ron's head was buried into my back. I could feel him trembling. Fang was cowering in between the three humans. Obviously Hagrid had never taken him down here before. I suddenly wished that we had left the poor dog. He would probably never come near us again.

"The thing that lives in the castle, is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school," Aragog said.

"What is it?" Harry asked urgently.

If Aragog could confirm what it was, we would be set to tell someone. There was more loud clicking and more rustling. The spiders seemed to be closing in. My hands began to shake. "We do not speak of it! We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times," Aragog said fiercely.

Summoning up all of the little bits of remaining courage that I had, I spoke again. "Is it a Basilisk?" I asked.

"Never speak the name!" Aragog howled. His voice made me shrink into myself as the spiders all around us began clicking angrily. This time I was sure that they started closing in.

"But it is?" I asked, unwilling to give up.

If there was a way that spiders could look curious, I was sure that it was the look that crossed over Aragog's face. And it was the same moment that I knew that I shouldn't have spoken. "How did you come about discovering it?" Aragog asked.

Harry clearly sensed the danger, too. "Tara, stop talking," he muttered to me.

"You can control it," Aragog said.

"N - N - No," I stuttered desperately.

There was no way that I could leave now. I didn't like what had just happened. We had done something. They were going to attack us. They were going to kill us. Maybe not me though. I gave Harry a desperate look, telling him that we had pressed our luck long enough, and it was time for us to leave. It didn't help that we had the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Harry, Ron, and I grasped hands as we tried to escape the little cave. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward Harry, Ron, Fang, and I. Merlin...

"We'll just go, then," Harry called desperately to Aragog, as I heard leaves rustling behind us.

"Go? I think not..." Aragog said slowly.

No, no, no, no, no. "But - but -" Harry tried to protest.

"My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Good-bye, friend of Hagrid," Aragog called. The three of us grasped onto each other tightly. There had to be a way out of this. "Keep the girl. She can keep the monster away from us," Aragog announced to his family.

The color drained from my face as my throat went dry. "No, thank you," I whispered.

"Can we panic now?" Ron asked, sounding on the verge of tears.

Feet away, towering above us, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads. They were all dropping down to our height. I knew that they were about to eat us. We had no time. Not when Aragog barely ever had people down here to eat. Hopefully Hagrid would kill him when we told him what had happened. Harry, Ron, and I yanked ourselves to our feet. Right behind us came a loud thud. I turned back to see a spider about half the size of Aragog land just feet behind us.

It was rearing towards us. My heart lodged itself in my throat as I picked up rocks and began to throw them at the spiders, desperate to keep them as far away from us as I could. One lunged at me, but a well-aimed rick to the eye caused it to back off. It howled in pain and stepped back. But, almost immediately, two more stepped forward. Even as I reached for his wand, I knew it was no good. It was obvious that there were too many of them. There was no way that we could fight them off. The three of us stood back-to-back, Fang in the middle of us, ready to die fighting.

"Know any spells?" Ron asked.

"Not anything that's powerful enough for all of them. Arania Exumai. It'll keep them away," I told the boys.

They both nodded at me. The spiders were within inches of us when a loud, long note sounded, and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow. Mr. Weasley's car was thundering down the slope, headlights glaring, its horn screeching, knocking spider's aside; several were thrown onto their backs, their endless legs waving in the air. The car screeched to a halt in front of Harry, Ron, and I, and the doors flew open. Talk about having great timing...

"Get Fang!" Harry yelled, diving into the front seat.

Ron seized the boarhound around the middle and threw him, yelping, into the back of the car as I dove into the front seat with Harry. The spiders backed away long enough as we ran over to it. The doors slammed shut the second that we were inside. The windows were closed, but if we didn't move, the spiders would manage to break through them. A spider hit Harry's door, mine, the roof, and the hood of the car. They were trying desperately to get into the car. I was about to shout at Harry to slam down on the accelerator but the car didn't need him. The engine roared and we were off, hitting more spiders the entire way upwards.

We sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and they were soon crashing through the forest, branches whipping the windows as the car wound its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew. We were screaming as we went backwards over a large drop, the clanging motion of the car shaking the last of the spiders free. Harry and I looked sideways at Ron. His mouth was still open in the silent scream, but his eyes weren't popping anymore.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked us as the car came to a stop.

No one ever got the chance to respond. As we were sitting in silence, just as Ron opened his mouth to explain, a spider jumped from behind the car, probably the one that had just been knocked off. Everyone started to scream as it dove through the window and seized Ron's neck. Both Harry and I were screaming as I reached for my wand. It was about to yank Ron out of the car as I aimed my wand towards the spider, praying that I wouldn't accidentally hit Ron.

"Arania Exumai!" I shouted.

A blasting bright white light shot out of my wand and the spider was knocked backwards, dead. Ron stared straight ahead, unable to speak. I could see the thanks in his eyes. We weren't left in peace for very long. I glanced up and saw it. Spiders were lining the edge of the forest, ready to attack. They started moving to towards us slowly, and after a moment, the car seemed to have sensed the danger. It began rocketing back through the trees, my body slamming back and forth painfully as we drove away from the danger.

It took us a while, but we finally lost the spiders. Either we lost them, or they gave up, not wanting to leave the Forbidden Forest. We smashed our way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly in the back seat, and I saw the side mirror snap off as we squeezed past a large oak. From time to time I would swear that I would see another spider, but they never came. We merely continued to bounce through the rocky path, Harry and I hanging onto each other.

After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, and I could again see patches of sky. By this time it felt like I could breathe again. It didn't last long. The car stopped so suddenly that we were nearly thrown into the windshield. I groaned as I snapped forward, only to be thrown back into the seat. We had reached the edge of the forest. Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Harry opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs. For a while, I merely sat there, unable to move for fear of what had just happened. My stomach was churning painfully and I was sure that I was about to throw up my dinner.

Harry got out too, and after a minute or so, Ron seemed to regain the feeling in his limbs and followed, still stiff-necked and staring. Finally, I managed to pull myself from the car, telling it a soft thanks as I emerged. Harry gave the car a grateful pat as it reversed back into the forest and disappeared from view. If I never saw the car again, it would be okay, I would be grateful for it for the rest of my life. Harry and I went back into Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak. The two of us were shaking as we grabbed each other in a tight hug, glad to be alive. Fang was trembling under a blanket in his basket. When we got outside again, we found Ron being violently sick in the pumpkin patch.

"Follow the spiders. I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive," Ron said, wiping his mouth on his robe sleeves.

"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," Harry said.

If Hagrid had been with us, Aragog wouldn't have dared make a movement on us, considering that he owed Hagrid his life. "And Aragog wouldn't have, if Hagrid was with us," I told them.

"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Ron shouted, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!" He was shivering uncontrollably now. "What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"

"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said, throwing the cloak over Ron and I and prodding him in the arm to make him walk. "He was innocent Tara was right."

"As I always am!" I shouted.

They both twitched. Aragog hadn't told us anything that we didn't know, but he had confirmed a few truths to us. I supposed that it was useful. But it would have been nice if Aragog wouldn't have killed us. "You were asking about Myrtle, Tara," Harry told me.

"Yeah," I said.

"Do you think it was her?" Harry asked me, despite the fact that I had said so earlier today.

Nodding at both of the boys, I found my legs still shaking as we headed up the stairs. "The portrait and robes around the same era, Myrtle happens to be the only student-ghost that I've ever seen at Hogwarts, and a girl that died in a bathroom. It has to be her," I told them.

They both nodded at me. "We should talk to her," Harry said.

And he was right about that. We needed to talk to him. It was the only thing that we could say. All that I wanted now was to go back to bed. My Muggle watch told me that it was now past three in the morning. Ron gave a loud snort. I assumed that it was about everything. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn't his idea of being innocent. And he also didn't seem to like the idea of going to talk to Myrtle. Not that I blamed him. She wasn't the best conversationalist.

As the castle loomed nearer Harry twitched the cloak to make sure our feet were hidden, then pushed the creaking front doors ajar. It was so late that I assumed that most people were gone. But I was wrong. Teachers, Prefects, suits of armor, and ghosts were walking around like it was the middle of the day. We walked carefully back across the entrance hall and up the marble staircase, holding our breath as we quickly passed corridors where watchful sentries were walking. I wondered what they would have thought if they'd known what we had just been doing.

We walked up the last flight of stairs towards Gryffindor Tower and I spotted Cedric sleepily walking with an older Slytherin girl. I was almost tempted to pull off the cloak and tell him what had happened. But I said nothing. I noticed that Ron and Harry both grumbled to themselves as we passed him. Cedric, you'd be so impressed that I managed not to dieafter doing something extremely stupid. At last we reached the safety of the Gryffindor Common Room, where the fire had burned itself into glowing ash. We took off the cloak and climbed the winding stairs to our dormitories.

Before we hit the stair that separated their dorm from mine, the three of us looked at each other. "That was the worst thing that I've ever been through," Ron said.

"Excuse you! They wanted to keep me!" I hissed at him.

"Better that than killing you!" Ron snapped back at me.

Harry stepped in between us to keep the argument from getting any worse or any louder. That would be weird to explain. "You were right. It was a Basilisk," Harry told me.

"I need to get into the hospital wing. I need to see if Hermione got that page from the book," I told the boys.

They both nodded at me. That seemed much safer than heading into another Acromantula den. "We'll get up there as soon as we can," Harry promised me.

With that, the three of us gave each other a hug before waving the other off and heading upstairs. I weakly walked into my dorm. As turned as I had been, I couldn't bring myself to go to sleep anymore. Lavender, Fay, and Parvati were sleeping silently, so I kept very quiet as not to disturb the three girls. Hermione's empty bed still weighed very heavily on my mind. I wished that I was here so that I could bounce ideas off of her. The two of us could figure this out together. I knew that we could. But with her gone, the easiest way to figure things out, talking it out, was almost useless. Harry and Ron weren't thoughtful enough to make sense.

Trying to keep quiet, I sat on the edge of my four-poster bed, thinking hard about everything Aragog had said. The Basilisk sounded like a sort of monster version of Voldemort - even other monsters didn't want to name it. But why had Aragog and the other Arcomantula's seemed so hesitant to tell us what it was named? They had panicked the moment that I had mentioned the name. I understood how it had killed Myrtle. She must have looked it in the eyes. But how was it Petrifying people? And how had no one looked it in the eyes? It did make me feel a little better that even Hagrid had never known what was in the Chamber of Secrets. I swung my legs up onto my bed and leaned back against my pillows, watching the moon glinting at him through the tower window.

There were so few things that we could do. It seemed that we were hitting dead ends everywhere. Riddle had caught the wrong person, the Heir of Slytherin had got off, and no one could tell whether it was the same person, or a different one, who had opened the Chamber this time. Those were all huge problems, the ones that I didn't have an answer to. The only thing that we could do was try and break into the hospital wing to see if I could get that paper from Hermione and talk to Moaning Myrtle. But what if those hit dead ends, too? I lay down, still thinking about what Aragog had said. I was becoming drowsy when what seemed like our very last hope occurred to me, and I suddenly sat bolt upright.

It had finally occurred to me why it was that Aragog and the rest of his family was so terrified of the Basilisk. I would have to tell Ron and Harry the second that they woke up. It was late and I was too tired to continue the conversation right now. But it made sense. All spiders, and particularly the Acromantula, had nearly three hundred and sixty degree vision. If anyone else heard the Basilisk coming they would have the chance to shut their eyes. But not an Acromantula. They would never get the chance. They would be murdered on sight. There was no way that they could shut their eyes and try to avoid it, hence why the spiders fled the scene of each attack. They knew that the Basilisk was near.

It put almost everything together for me. But there were just two questions that I still didn't understand. How was the Basilisk Petrifying people and not killing them, and how was it getting around? Once we knew that, we could find the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and we would catch the Heir of Slytherin. The school would be safe and everyone would be returned back to their normal state. As much as I wanted to stay out of this, we had come too far to just give up now. We had to end this.


	34. The Chamber of Secrets

The morning dawned and I found myself barely able to stand. I was very sore from the ride in the Ford Anglia yesterday. As I stumbled into the bathroom, I looked myself over. Lately Lavender, Parvati, and Fay had allowed me to go first. They knew that I liked being in here about as little as possible. As I changed into my robes I realized that it was a good thing that the robes were covering so much of our bodies. There were bruises littering my entire body. Some were smaller that looked like I might have banged my leg on a piece of furniture or something of the likes, but other bruises looked more like someone had painted me purple and green.

Groaning softly, I pulled myself into my robes, wondering what Hermione would have thought if she'd seen the stupid things that we had done last night. I couldn't believe that we had walked into an Acromantula cave. Actually, I could. As much as I loved Hagrid, I was not happy that he hadn't realized that Aragog would attack us if we walked in there without him. Sighing softly, I walked out of the room and smiled at the other girls. I could see my reflection in the mirror as I walked by and I groaned, stopping for a moment just to observe myself.

There were bruises and cuts littering my entire body. A large cut was over my hand and I cringed as I flexed it. I must have gotten it cut when the Acromantula that had been carrying me had dropped me. There were a few bruises on my knees and some all over my arms. Those must have come from when I had been battered around in the car. There was even a bruise on my cheek. I could barely remember hitting my face on the door frame when I'd dove into the car.

It wasn't just everything that had happened within the past few days. I could have sworn that it looked like I'd been falling apart over the last few months. My hair was getting a little unruly. I hadn't had any of the girls cut it in a few months and it now trailed down over most of my back. It had a few tangles in it that were almost impossible to get out. It was now falling limp, the blonde hair looking more like a light brass that hadn't been cleaned in a while. My face - despite the Quidditch practices - had lost its color. My eyes seemed to have been a little sunken. It seemed that I might have even lost a pound or two from having not been eating.

Although it was very hard to ear when I knew just how close Hermione had been to being killed. It wasn't just that. It was when I thought about how close everyone in the castle was to being killed. If the Basilisk came back through someone would be killed. I knew that it was getting impatient. It was almost like I could feel how irritated it was. Because I was the same way. Irritated, but for a different reason. How had the Heir of Slytherin been hiding so well? I didn't understand how we hadn't been able to catch them. Even Dumbledore hadn't known. He would have stopped the attacks if he had known, wouldn't he? I couldn't imagine that he wouldn't.

Stalking out of the dormitory, I headed downstairs. The air was a little quiet today. It was almost nice. I spotted the twins and smiled at them. Even they seemed a little more demure. Everyone was getting sick of this year with the attacks and the constant wondering. Standing over by the fireplace, I let the warm air sink over me. It wasn't long before Harry and Ron made their way down. They looked just about as wonderful as I did. Smiling weakly at them, the three of us walked out to the Great Hall together, with the rest of Gryffindor and Professor McGonagall in the lead. We still weren't allowed to walk around on our own.

The four of us sat down with each other at the Gryffindor table and I started piling on food. Actually, I sat and watched as Harry did it for me. He must have noticed that I hadn't been eating lately. Eventually I had to shove his arm away. If he kept putting food on my plate it would only be a matter of time before it reached the ceiling of the Great Hall. As usual, Ron wasn't paying attention to Harry and I. He was griping to himself about Moaning Myrtle as he shoveled sausages into his mouth.

"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away, and we could've asked her, and now..." Ron said bitterly.

Despite Harry trying to prod me to eat, I merely munched on a few pieces of bacon, working on my third cup of coffee. Probably not a good idea, but I needed something to keep myself awake. "I need to tell you boys something," I said. Harry and Ron turned to me and nodded. "I've found out why spiders flee from the Basilisk."

Harry's eyes widened. "Brilliant. Why?" he asked me.

"Spiders have nearly three hundred and sixty degree vision because of the positioning of their eyes. The Basilisk kills anyone that it looks in the eyes. It makes it almost impossible to avoid the gaze for them," I explained.

"So that's why the spiders flee?" Harry asked me.

Giving a small shrug, I nodded. "It's my only theory that makes sense," I said, draining a little more coffee.

"That's all wonderful and well, but there's still one problem. How is the Basilisk not killing students?" Ron asked through a mouthful of toast.

Grimacing at the sight of him, I shook my head and looked away. "I don't know..." I answered begrudgingly. "I don't know how it's getting around either. And, of course, there's the biggest problem. Where is the Chamber of Secrets and who is the Heir of Slytherin?" I asked, revealing the last of the few, but important, questions that still remained.

One of which was how we would be able to chat with Moaning Myrtle. She was our one chance of telling us where the Chamber of Secrets might have been located. The problem was that it had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Something that I wasn't keen on having happen again any time soon. Escaping our teachers long enough to sneak into the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible. It didn't help that the bathroom was closed. It meant that not even I could get into the bathroom.

The one time that I'd managed to slip away in Charms had resulted in Madam Pomfrey coming to escort me to another bathroom that was not Moaning Myrtle's. Harry and Ron had tried to distract the professor's but it never worked. It didn't seem that we were even going to be able to get in to talk to her. I wished that at least Hermione was here. The two of us could work together to get into the bathroom, since she knew what was happening. I couldn't risk asking one of the other girls to help me out. And I definitely wasn't willing to ask one of the Prefect's to escort me towards that bathroom so that I could speak to Myrtle. I wasn't that desperate.

It didn't change the fact that I was always thinking about the Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk, and everything else that had happened. I hadn't had a decent night's sleep in months because of my constant thinking. But something happened in our first lesson that day, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of my mind for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, where I'd barely been paying attention anyways, Professor McGonagall told us that our exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.

My jaw dropped. "Exams? We're still getting exams?" Seamus howled, shattering the stunned silence.

There was a loud bang behind Harry, Ron, and I as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. We all glanced back to see Neville's things having splattered everywhere. He jumped up and began packing his things back up. The students that normally would have laughed at his misfortune - myself being one of them - were completely silent. Professor McGonagall restored the desk with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus. She seemed about as thrilled with giving out the announcement as we were to hear it.

"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education. The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard," she told us sternly.

Sure, it was still a school, but that wasn't fair to us. "It's not quite fair though, is it?" I asked Professor McGonagall as politely as I could. "It's almost impossible for us to get to the library and the Common Rooms are too crowded to focus in. No one has been studying for fear of what was to happen," I said, dropping my voice at the end.

Nothing that I was saying was meant to be rude. It was all my honest concerns. We'd been so busy taking care of everything that had happened with the Chamber of Secrets and discovering the Basilisk, not to mention being terrified of being attacked around every corner, that I hadn't been studying at all. Not only that, but what about the people that had been Petrified that hadn't had the chance to study? Even Hermione would be shocked to hear the news, when she was awakened, that is. The few bits of studying that I had done were next to useless. It wasn't that I had bad marks right now, but they weren't as high as they normally were. Mom and Dad knew, but even they were fine with my marks, considering everything that had happened. They had just told me to stay safe.

No one had been talking about exams or anything of the sort. Not with everything that had happened. For a long time, it had never even occurred to me that there would be exams with the castle in this state. What would they do about the people that had been Petrified all year? It wouldn't be fair to excuse them from exams but make the people that had been terrified of the attacker for months actually take them. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room from my comment, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.

Professor McGonagall gave me a stern look. "As fair as your points may be, Nox, Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible. And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year," she told us.

How much I had learned? I'd learned that the Basilisk was the monster down in the Chamber of Secrets. I'd learned that Hagrid had been expelled for something that he hadn't done. I'd learned that Moaning Myrtle was the girl that had been killed by the Basilisk all those years ago. I'd learned why spiders fled from the Basilisk. I'd learned that there was a rather large Acromantula nest in the Forbidden Forest. And now I knew that Arania Exumai killed a spider. But I couldn't imagine that the spell would do me any good on any exams other than Defense Against the Dark Arts and maybe Charms. I'd be relying on things that I already knew. I couldn't think of anything that I had really learned this year.

Placing my head in my hands, I muttered the quick incantation to change the pair of white rabbits into slippers. They did so quickly and I breathed out. At least I could do something useful. Harry and Ron both looked furious that I'd somehow managed to do something like that. I only knew because my book was opened to the right page. Professor McGonagall nodded at me and took the slippers from the desk, bringing them back up to the front desk so that she could change them back into the rabbits. In the meantime, Ron looked as though he'd just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.

"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" he asked Harry and I, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.

If he tried to do something with that wand, it was going to end up burning Hogwarts to the ground. "Say something. You'll be forced to repeat Second Year if you have to use that thing," I told Ron. He groaned sadly as we stood at the ring of the bell. "Come on, let's go and try to cram for the exams. We have to try and figure something out."

The bell was echoing throughout the castle as everyone stood to walk to their next classes. Professor McGonagall called for us to pack up our things so that she could take us to the next class. We were all gathering our things, many of the students complaining about the upcoming exams, as Harry, Ron, and I walked out of the room. I sighed at the sight of Hermione's empty chair. It had been nearly three weeks since she was attacked and I really was missing her. Although, she was probably grateful that she had missed the Acromantula adventure. We walked out of the classroom and down the hall, myself picking at the dirt that still remained under my nails.

We were waiting against the wall for Professor McGonagall to take us as a figure walked up to me. I glanced up from my nails and smiled weakly. Cedric had stepped out of a line of Hufflepuff students that were being led by Professor Flitwick to their next lesson. He looked about as thrilled as we did. I could hear the Hufflepuff's complaining about the exams just like the Gryffindor's were. Everyone must have just been told about the upcoming exams.

"Ready for those exams?" Cedric asked me, stopping in front of me but keeping a watch on the retreating line of Hufflepuff's.

I shook my head with a pathetic smile. "Absolutely not. Are you?" I asked curiously.

Cedric laughed and shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. "No way," he told me. I noticed that he was looking over my face closely, spotting the bruise on my cheek. "What have you done this time?"

Well, to find out whether or not it was Hagrid that had opened up the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago we took his advice to follow the spiders, unfortunately that led us into an Acromantula nest full of massive spiders that wanted to eat us. Probably not the best thing to say. "Uh - Nothing?" I said dumbly.

Cedric smiled and shook his head. "Sure." I was glad that he wasn't going to press me anymore, despite knowing that I had done something stupid. "Come here," he said as he whipped out his wand. He held my face still as he pressed the tip of the wand very gently against the bruise. "Episkey."

The warming feeling spread through my cheeks and, as Cedric pulled the wand away, I gently pressed my hand against my cheek. The sore feeling was gone, and I assumed that the bruise was, too. "Thanks. I'll have to remember that one," I said softly.

Cedric nodded at me. "Not a problem." He glanced up past me and I saw that Professor McGonagall was nodding at everyone to follow her. "I think Professor McGonagall wants to take you all back to your next lesson. I'll see you later," he said. Waving at each other, the two of us turned and walked with our respective students. Harry and Ron both glared at me, but one snap at them to leave me alone was all that it took.

If I'd thought that people would be in a bad mood just knowing that we had the exams still, I knew nothing. It wasn't the fact that we had the exams. That was nothing to be surprised about. The problem was that now everyone had to cram for the exams. It wasn't easy to cram ten months of barely listening in classes into a matter of seven days. It meant that I barely had any time to think about anything that was happening with the Chamber of Secrets or the Heir of Slytherin. The only thing that I could think of was how pathetically under-prepared I was. Even Hermione hadn't been studying yet before she'd been attacked.

People were in terrible moods as they studied with each other. I'd come to studying with Fred and George, who had, at least, been through these exams before. I knew for a fact that I would fail the Astronomy exam. I was already useless in the subject, and without being able to study with Cedric for some extra help, and with Harry and Ron being even more useless than me, I wouldn't pass. Damn... I had faith that I would be able to pass the Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration exams, but I wasn't sure about Defense Against the Dark Arts. Not if it was going to be devised by Lockhart. It would be all about him. I'd probably be okay with Herbology, but I'd barely been listening in History of Magic this year. I'd used it as my brainstorming time. It would not be a pretty year for me.

If there was anything good about studying for the exams, it was that I did see that there were a lot of people that were even less prepared than me. At least for most of the year I'd had Hermione barking at me to study up in the dorms. Harry and Ron barely ever studied. It was not proving good for them as we came closer to the exams. Harry was at least managing the practical spells, but he wouldn't do well on the written portions, something that he already knew. He would miserably fail with Potions. Ron was going to have a terrible time. His wand was almost impossible to work with and he didn't know anything that would be on the written exams.

Even after a few days, I was absolutely positive that no one was going to do well on the exams. The only hope that I had was that maybe the teachers would go a little easier on the grading. Some might, but I was sure that Snape would use this as an opportunity to fail all of the Gryffindor's. Seamus, Dean, and Neville all looked about ready to tear their hair out. I'd spotted Parvati and Lavender crying over their failed attempts at a Transfiguration practice exam. Fay was barely sleeping, desperate to pass. Fred and George seemed mostly nonplussed by the exams, but even I could see that they were starting to panic. They still had to pass, after all.

Someone would have thought that there had been another attack, with all of the panicking that was happening inside of Hogwarts with the impending exams. And speaking of the attacks, there had been no more. With everything that had happened with exams, Harry, Ron, and I had made absolutely no improvements with our process in uncovering the Chamber of Secrets. We simply didn't have enough time to get everything done. It seemed like things had only gotten worse. Not only were we panicking about the Chamber of Secrets and Heir of Slytherin, we now had the exams to worry about, and only a week to study for them.

But three days before our first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast. "I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.

It was easy to see the brief twitch of irritation on Professor McGonagall's face that people were not calling him by Professor Dumbledore. Of course, he wouldn't have cared. "You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" a girl at the Ravenclaw table squealed.

"Quidditch matches are back on!" Oliver roared excitedly.

Most of the Great Hall erupted into laughter at that one. We hadn't had Quidditch practices since the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had been cancelled, the day that Hermione and Penelope had been attacked. It was probably a good thing for Harry and I. I was sure that we couldn't handle anything more. Not Quidditch practices that took up most of my time and the few bits of remaining energy that I had.

When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."

There was an explosion of cheering. Even Harry, Ron, and I were loud in our bought of cheers. I smiled brightly. I couldn't wait to see Hermione again. As much as I loved the boys, I missed having a girl around to talk to. Ginny was a little too twitchy these days to actually have a real conversation with her. It took a long time for the cheers to die down. I looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn't joined in on the cheers. Some of the Slytherin's were politely clapping, but none of them looked as excited as anyone at the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor tables. Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days.

"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then! Hermione will probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over," Ron told Harry and I.

I rolled my eyes at the two boys. "Oh, please, she'll already know them," I said, knowing that Hermione would always know the answers. That was just the type of person that she was. "Let's bear in mind that I already know what's down in the Chamber of Secrets," I added.

"But you won't let us tell anyone," Harry pointed out.

The one person that would have actually believed us was gone. Dumbledore was the only person that we could have told. Professor McGonagall would either think I was nuts and not believe me, or she would expel us for breaking all of the rules that we had. "Because they already thought that we were nuts last year! You think that it will be any better this year?" I hissed at them.

There was a chance that they would believe Hermione. After all, she wasn't as much of a known trouble-maker as I was, and she had actually seen the Basilisk. Well... She must have somehow seen it. It wasn't just hearing it. Harry and I would have been Petrified if it had been that. I groaned, once more wondering how the Basilisk Petrified its victims rather than killed them. Just then, interrupting my thoughts, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and I noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap. Something had happened to her. She wasn't even looking at us.

"Hi, Ginny," I tried.

"What's up?" Ron asked, helping himself to more porridge.

Neither one of those things worked. Ginny gave me an incredibly weak smile. I felt terrible for her. What had happened to her? Ginny didn't say anything to us, but she did glance up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face. The look that she was giving reminded me of someone, though I couldn't think of who. Harry was watching her just as closely as I was. Ron seemed to be irritated with her, while Harry and I were obviously concerned that something terrible had happened.

"Spit it out," Ron finally snapped, watching her.

Turning over to him, I could have slapped him. She was already scared. There was no need to make things even worse. She jumped slightly and I debated on laying a hand on her arm. I decided against it, knowing that she was on very thin ice right about now. It was at that moment that I suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information. Something was really wrong with her. Harry and I exchanged a worried look with each other. Now even Ron seemed interested.

"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

She seemed surprised that Harry had spoken, but, to my surprise, she didn't blush. She didn't react or do anything that she had normally done whenever Harry had spoken to her. That was our second hint that things were not okay with her. Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words. She actually looked on the verge of tears.

"What?" Ron asked impatiently.

Glaring at him, I shoved him and wrapped an arm around her. She was shaking. "Ginny, you can tell us, it's no big deal," I said, knowing that this was a big deal. "Or you can tell me, if that would be better?" I offered again.

Maybe she was afraid of saying something in front of the boys. She was about to nod her head, but she seemed to think better of it, and stopped herself. Ginny opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. This definitely wasn't good. My arm was still around Ginny and I noticed that she was now shaking even worse as she tried to admit what the problem was. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny, Ron, and I could hear him.

"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?" Harry asked her.

It had to be something about the Chamber of Secrets. She must have found something out. That was the only reason that I could think that someone would have been acting like this. It would have explained how terrified she had seemed over the past few months. Not because of the attacks - although that was probably part of it - but because she knew something. Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan.

Before Ginny could notice that he was coming up, and before he could potentially speak and startle her, I leaned forward. "Do you want to leave and speak somewhere private?" I asked her. Ginny nodded her head at me.

Just as I prepared to stand and leave with her, Percy came up behind us. "If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty," he said.

Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. I debated on running after her, but I had never seen Ginny run that fast. And if I was caught in the halls without a professor escorting me, things would be a lot worse for me than they already were. Harry, Ron, and I exchanged an infuriated look with each other. We had been so close to figuring something out. But not anymore, now that Percy had scared her off. He didn't seem slightly bothered by her actions. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.

"Percy! She was just about to tell us something important!" Ron shouted at his older brother.

Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked. I glanced over at him, confused about what had happened between them. "What sort of thing?" he asked, coughing.

"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say -"

"Oh - that - that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," Percy said at once.

So why had she been shaking and terrified the way that she was? I was absolutely positive that whatever Ginny was going to tell us, and the thing that Percy was talking about, were two completely different things. "How do you know?" Ron asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was - well, never mind - the point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather -" Percy cut himself off.

In the two years that I had known him, I had never seen Percy look so uncomfortable. He was shifting awkwardly as the three of us looked at him. And that was when it dawned on me. He wasn't talking about something that had happened a few days ago. He had to be talking about something that had happened a few weeks ago. Maybe two or so. I knew that there was a relationship forming between Percy and Penelope Clearwater. And that must have been what Ginny had seen. The two of them in an abandoned classroom together. Naughty, Prefect, Percy. I decided to keep my mouth shut, not wanting to embarrass him... Yet.

"I think you mean a few weeks ago, Percy," I said, grinning brightly at Percy.

Percy's face drained of color, making me grin even more. I was right. I had to be right. Harry and Ron were obviously lost. "You wouldn't happen to be skilled with Legilimency?" Percy asked me.

I shook my head. "No, just perceptive," I answered him.

Now that Harry and Ron knew that I had figured it out, they both seemed interested. "What were you doing, Percy? Go on, tell us, we won't laugh," Ron said, grinning brightly.

Percy didn't smile back. "Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving," he said.

Obviously he was trying to push off the conversation. I smiled, nearly forgetting how terrified Ginny had been a few minutes ago. "What is it, Tara?" Ron whispered to me, Percy becoming distracted with someone on the other end of the table.

"I'll tell you if we survive the rest of the year," I promised.

It was rather funny how for the rest of the day, Percy stood very close to me, obviously trying to get me to keep his secret. If things had been a little less serious, I would have thought that it was hysterical. I would have always been pretending to about to admit the secret and maybe even blackmailed him for a Chocolate Frog or something like that. But I was still busy thinking about how Hermione would be back to normal by tomorrow morning, and the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets would finally be solved.

In all reality, I knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without our help. But it didn't help that I was a naturally curious person that always liked to be the one to solve things. I liked mysteries. And now I was genuinely curious to find out of it really was the Basilisk that had killed Myrtle. That would mean that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets would be somewhere right around the bathroom. And it would mean that we had been very close to being killed by the Basilisk countless times. I knew that Harry felt the same way about not being able to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up.

To our absolute delight, and Ron's irritation, it did, mid-morning, when we were being led from Defense Against the Dark Arts to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart, who had so often assured us that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see us safely down the corridors. I wondered what he would think if he knew that a Basilisk was still slithering around the castle somewhere. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

And he seemed very irritated about that. "Mark my words. The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'It was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary," Lockhart said as he ushered us around a corner.

Unable to stop myself, I snarled, "How dare -"

I was stopped by Harry crushing my foot with his own. Just as I was about to turn to him and go on a rampage, he sent me a pleading look. "I agree, sir," Harry said, making Ron drop his books in surprise.

Even Lockhart seemed surprised to hear Harry's agreement. "Thank you, Harry," Lockhart said graciously while we waited for a long line of Hufflepuff's to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night," he continued to complain.

Cedric was a part of those Hufflepuff's. He grinned at my irritated face. "Don't kill him," he teased me as he walked by.

"You're sounding less and less convinced every time that you say that," I called after him. He laughed as he was led away by Professor Sinistra to wherever he was heading next.

"That's right," Ron said quickly, catching on to what Harry was doing. Whatever they wanted to do, I wasn't helping them. Not if it meant stroking Lockhart's ego. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go -"

"You know, Weasley, I think I will," Lockhart said. "I really should go and prepare my next class -" And he hurried off.

"Prepare his class. Gone to curl his hair, more like," Ron sneered after Lockhart.

The rest of the Gryffindor's laughed at Lockhart and began heading off towards History of Magic on their own. I knew that they appreciated being on their own for a while. It was getting extremely overwhelming never being allowed to go anywhere by ourselves. We stood back and let the rest of the Gryffindor's draw ahead of us. Once they were gone, we looked at each other and nodded, knowing that we only had a few minutes to get the answers out of Myrtle and get back to History of Magic. The three of us darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

But just as we turned to each other to congratulate each other on the brilliant scheme, a call echoed through the halls. "Potter! Nox! Weasley! What are you doing?"

If I had been thinking that it would be easy to sneak into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, I was dead wrong. I should have figured that something would happen. Harry, Ron, and I froze in our tracks. My heart was pounding in my chest. It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines. We still weren't supposed to be walking around unsupervised. I supposed that the one good thing was that it wasn't Snape that had caught us.

"We were - we were -" Ron stammered. "We were going to - to go and see -"

My brain wasn't working fast enough. What did we say? We couldn't say that we were going to check out an off-limits girl's bathroom. "Hermione," Harry finally said. I let out a breath of relief as Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him.

Deciding to help out, I smiled sadly at Professor McGonagall, hoping to tug on her heart strings. "She's one of our best friends, Professor McGonagall. We know that she's not awake, but we'd just like to see her," I told her softly, doing my best to look abashed.

Harry was thankfully smart enough to continue the lie. "We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," Harry went on hurriedly, treading on Ron's foot as we walked over to Professor McGonagall, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry..." Harry muttered dumbly.

He sounded like a complete idiot. We weren't really making sense to her. We were trying to talk to her and even though she was asleep and wouldn't hear us, we would do it anyways. We were also planning on missing class just days before the first of the exams. I wished that we would have just admitted that we were going to the girls' bathroom. It might have been a little more intelligent. Professor McGonagall was still staring at the two of us, and for a moment, I really thought that she was going to explode. But after a few minutes, something in her face softened, and when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.

"Of course," she said, and the three of us, quite amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, Nox, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

"Thank you, Professor," I told her sweetly.

And the three of us set off before Professor McGonagall could change her mind and send us back to History of Magic. Harry, Ron, and I walked away, hardly daring to believe that we'd actually managed to avoid detention. I did feel a little bit bad for her. This was hard on her. She loved the students just as much as we did, she simply didn't say anything about it. Seeing us all hurting and in so much danger, she was probably one of the saddest people in here. As we turned the corner, I distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose. I cringed a little bit as we continued walking down the hall.

The lie had been innocent, but I'd felt a little bit bad for telling her something to guilt her into letting us go. "She's as broken hearted as anyone else. Of course she'd let us go if she thought that we were going to see our hurt friend," I told the boys softly.

It seemed that the lie didn't affect the boys as much as it affected me. Maybe it was because I knew how Professor McGonagall felt. To have everything right in front of you but being unable to stop it. "That was the best story you two have ever come up with," Ron told us brightly.

The three of us smiled at each other and turned to leave the hallway. As much as we would have loved to go back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, we didn't have the chance. We weren't going to risk being caught for a second time. We would have no lie to tell this time. So that meant that we now had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that we had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione. We arrived upstairs quickly and knocked on the door. Madam Pomfrey opened the door and smiled weakly at us, but made to send us on our way. We quickly told her the same lie that we had told Professor McGonagall.

Madam Pomfrey didn't seem thrilled about letting us in, but with our pleading looks, she eventually agreed. It was very easy to see that she was very reluctant to let us in. "There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she told us.

"We just want to see her for a bit, ma'am," I told her.

As we walked into Hermione's room, I had to admit that she did have a point. Taking seats next to Hermione just felt a little strange. There was nothing that we could do for her. It felt more like we were trying to talk to a stone statue that had been made of her. It was plain and clear that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors. It seemed that we might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do. But that was when I remembered. The paper... The paper that had the additional information on the Basilisk... It had to be around here somewhere. I was sure that Hermione had it.

Jumping from my chair, I attracted very funny looks from both Harry and Ron. "Look through her things. Find the paper," I said quiet enough so that Madam Pomfrey wouldn't hear.

The two boys nodded and jumped from their chairs as well. With the fear of the upcoming exams I'd nearly forgotten about my original plan to come up to the hospital wing to try and find the paper. The three of us tore through everything. Harry was looking all around her bed and checking in her pockets. Ron was checking through the bedside table and all over the floor, seeing if it had been dropped. I turned her bag inside out. I thumbed through her books, opened everything that I could find, and even checked through the lining. It wasn't here. The page on the Basilisk wasn't here. Either she didn't have it, or it was very well hidden.

"Nothing," I panted, leaning back onto my knees. "Boys?" I asked desperately.

"No," Ron said.

"Not here," Harry said.

My head went into my hands. I had been so sure that she would have it. So who did have it? I couldn't understand who would have taken it. "Does someone else have it?" I asked more to myself than anyone else.

Ron and Harry sank back into my chair as I paced back and forth, debating on whether or not it might have been hiding it up in our dorm room. "Wonder if she did see the attacker, though? Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one will ever know..." Ron said as he gazed sadly down at Hermione's face.

I shook my head at him. It wasn't a person. It had to be a Basilisk that was doing it. And no one would have really seen it, they would have been dead. "No, it has to be the Basilisk. I just don't understand how it Petrifies people and not kill them," I muttered, turning to sit back in my chair at Hermione's side.

But it was the look on Harry's face that stopped me dead in my tracks. I was no longer thinking about anything that had happened with the paper. Because Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He was more interested in her right hand. I walked over to him and stood at Harry's side. That was when I saw it. Her hand lay clenched on top of her blankets. Harry leaned closer and I knew that he had spotted it. Glancing over with him, I knew that I saw it, too. There was a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist. Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, he pointed this out to Ron and I.

"Tara? I think I've found it," Harry told me.

My heart felt like it was lodged in my throat. "Get it out. Now," I told him.

"Try and get it out," Ron whispered, shifting his chair so that he blocked Harry and I from Madam Pomfrey's view.

It turned out that it was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that I was sure that Harry was going to tear it. She had clearly been risking her life to have that paper. Of course... She had been risking her life to get back to us, even knowing what could happen to her. Ron kept watch as Harry tugged and twisted. I couldn't bring myself to do anything more than sit and bite my nails. At last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free. It was a page torn from a very old library book. It was the missing page from Most Macabre Monstrosities. Harry smoothed it out eagerly and Ron and I leaned close to read it, too.

My heart leaped when I saw the name. Basilisk. "This is it! This is it!" I cheered happily. Harry and Ron exchanged excited looks as the three of us leaned down to read it.

Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.

It was mostly things that we had already known. But there were a few things that we hadn't known. Spiders flee before it... I must have been right. The spiders had a wide range of vision. That was why they feared it. And the roosters, they were being killed by the true Heir of Slytherin to keep the Basilisk alive. It answered almost everything. It even answered how the Basilisk was getting around the school without being spotted. Because beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand that I recognized as Hermione's. Pipes. It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in my brain, piecing together everything.

There was now only one question in my mind. Who was the Heir of Slytherin? Because now I knew... I knew where the Chamber of Secrets was. "You're right Tara. You were right about everything," Harry muttered disbelievingly.

"I know that!" I hissed irritably at the two boys. "Remember Hagrid saying that the roosters were being found slaughtered?"

"Yeah?" Ron asked.

Rolling my eyes at him, I prepared to explain everything. "The Heir of Slytherin must have been slaughtering them. The cry of the rooster is fatal to it! The clues... They were always right in front of us," I said.

The man in my dream was right. The clues had always been right in front of us. We just had to look a little closer. Next time I dreamed of him, I owed him a major thank you. Although a more straightforward answer would have been nicer. I looked up at the beds around us, holding the rest of the Petrified students. And that was when it clicked. An indirect line of sight to the Basilisk wouldn't kill someone, but it would Petrify them. That was why no one had died. Because people had just been getting lucky. No one had been killed because no one had actually looked the Basilisk in the eyes.

Ron was thinking the same thing. "But it still doesn't explain how people have been Petrified and not killed?" Ron asked the two of us.

"No... I've got it. An indirect glance results in Petrification. No one has looked it directly in the eye," I told the two boys. Ron looked surprised while Harry nodded rapidly.

Harry nodded at me. "You're right. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again... and Hermione and that Ravenclaw Prefect -" Harry said before I stopped him.

"Penelope Clearwater -" I said, allowing him to continue.

"Right - were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And Penelope pulled out her mirror - and -" Harry continued until he stopped talking.

Ron's jaw had dropped. "And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.

That was when I got a better look at the mirror that Hermione had been holding. It wasn't her mirror at all. It was simply a mirror that looked quite a bit like the one that her parents had given her. Hermione's was a little larger and a darker blue. The one that was Penelope's was a little darker purple and smaller. In the meantime, I thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween. That was when I remembered. Myrtle had flooded the bathroom.

I laughed pathetically. The whole time everything was right in front of us. How had we never seen it? "The one thing that we can thank Myrtle for. She saw the reflection," I told them.

"The water..." Harry said slowly, nodding at me. "Of course. The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Mrs. Norris was looking down and she only saw the reflection..."

Ron looked like he was just about to scream for joy. We knew everything. We knew everything! The only thing that we didn't know was who the Heir of Slytherin was. But if someone could get down into the Chamber of Secrets and wait, the Heir of Slytherin would walk right into our grasp. I scanned the page in Harry's hand eagerly once more. Hermione had answered the million dollar question, maybe not even knowing it. Her answer that it was using the pipes to move around told me exactly what I needed to know about where the Chamber of Secrets was. The more that I looked at it, the more it made sense.

"Spiders flee before it! It all fits! You were probably right about why. They have an almost full range of vision. They'd be killed," Harry said.

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place? A giant snake... Someone would've seen..." Ron asked.

Immediately I pointed down to the page. Harry nodded at me. It had been scribbled on the very bottom of the pages. "Pipes. Pipes... Ron, Tara, it's been using the plumbing. Tara, that's why we've been hearing that voice inside the walls..." Harry said desperately, trying to work it all out.

That was when I realized that I actually knew exactly where the Chamber of Secrets was. "Oh my God..." I muttered, drawing the attention of the others. "Pipes run throughout the school. But where do pipes provide a direct entrance to the school?" I asked.

Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm, understanding what I was getting at. "A bathroom. The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely, grinning madly at me. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in -"

"- Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Harry finished.

Nodding at the both of them, I couldn't help the manic smiled that crossed over my face. "Myrtle could have been in the bathroom at the time of her death. The Basilisk pops out, she spots it, and it kills her!" I shouted gleefully.

"Brilliant!" Ron and Harry cried.

The three of us collapsed back into our chairs. I was so excited that I could have cried. Months and months we had been pouring over the Chamber of Secrets, slowly making progress towards what had happened. But now, with Hermione's helpful little clue, we had pieced everything together. We could go to Professor McGonagall now. We had undeniable proof. She couldn't say that we weren't right. We knew everything, except who the Heir of Slytherin was. We sat there, excitement coursing through us, hardly able to believe it.

It was like getting to the end of a good mystery novel. "This means we can't be the only Parselmouths in the school," Harry said to me. I nodded at him, although I couldn't believe it. There were very few confirmed Parselmouths in the first place. To have three of them in Hogwarts at the same time? Strange... "The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the Basilisk."

"What're we going to do? Should we go straight to McGonagall?" Ron asked the two of us, his eyes flashing.

We had never been so excited to be right about something. "Let's go to the staff room. She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break," Harry said, jumping up.

He was right about that. Classes were about to end for the break for lunch. Afterwards was the rest of classes. Together we ran downstairs. The three of us were running faster than I was sure that we ever had. Even when we were trying to get away from the Acromantula nest. We might have been able to outrun the old Ford Anglia. But it was as we were running that we realized that we still needed to be careful. So, not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, we went straight into the deserted staff room. I was a little frustrated to see that no one was here and we couldn't even start our story.

The staff room was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. I thought that we might want to leave and wait in the hallway, but that might be a little more dangerous. So we decided to stay and give a stupid apology when they came into the staff room. Harry, Ron, and I paced around the room, too excited to sit down. We waited and waited for the bell to signal. I was sure that ten minutes had never lasted this long. Fifteen minutes must have passed when we began to slow down, exchanging a nervous look with each other. The bell to signal break never came. Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please," she said.

There was a little hysteria in the way that she had said it. The hair on the back of my neck rose. Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron and I. "Not another attack? Not now?" he asked us.

My face drained of color. "No... We're too late," I whispered to the boys.

Harry looked infuriated. But if someone was dead there was nothing that we could do to change that. "We can't be. We know everything! Even where the entrance is. We have to tell someone. Even if someone's died, we know how to stop it now," Harry told us.

"What'll we do? Go back to the dormitory?" Ron asked, aghast.

We had to. That was the order. "No," Harry said, glancing around. I turned back and saw what it was that he was looking at. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to our left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out," Harry said.

I groaned and shook my head at him. He really did have the stupidest plans. "Like popping out of a wardrobe will be a brilliant plan,' I muttered as Harry grabbed my arm.

"Shut up. In!" he barked at me.

The three of us shoved ourselves over towards the cabinet. We barely managed to hide ourselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. All of the students sounded like they were trying to figure out what had happened, but the teachers weren't saying anything. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, we watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. No one said anything and it was a long time before the hallways seemed to still. Everyone had returned to their Houses. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

I was positive that I had never seen her look so solemn. "It has happened. A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself," Professor McGonagall told them.

My hands immediately began to sweat. That was terrible. Someone had been taken by the monster, not even killed? I couldn't understand. Why would the monster take someone and not kill them? Maybe it had killed them... My stomach churned with nerves. Did I know the person that had been taken? Was it the last time that I had ever seen them? They must have been getting ready to close the school. We had to tell them. There was no option anymore. Professor Flitwick let out a squeal at the news. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard.

Even he looked unnerved at the news. His teeth were gritted together. "How can you be sure?" he asked.

"The Heir of Slytherin left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever,'" Professor McGonagall told everyone. She was extremely white in the face.

My stomach churned again. Who had been taken? Was she already dead? Professor Flitwick burst into tears. "Who is it?" Madam Hooch asked as she sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?" she continued.

"Ginny Weasley," Professor McGonagall admitted.

Of all of the time that I had thought that I was going to be sick at something happening or some type of news, it had never been as bad as this. That was what she had been so terrified of earlier. She had known that something was going to happen. Ginny... My friend Ginny. Arthur and Molly Weasley's daughter, Ginny. I could feel Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside me. I was sure that he was going to let out some type of sob.

Leaning down, I grabbed onto his hands and gently pulled him up with me. "Shh... Shh... Come here. It's alright," I whispered to him, pulling him into a hug. I could feel him shaking. "She's going to be alright."

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow. This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..." Professor McGonagall said weakly, her voice trailing off.

Even Dumbledore knew that this would happen. This was it. They were sending everyone home. They didn't know where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was. They were going to let Ginny die down there and cut their losses that it hadn't been anyone more. Tears rose to my eyes. We were not leaving Ginny to die and become dinner for the Basilisk. The staff room door banged open again. For one wild moment, I was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.

"So sorry - dozed off - what have I missed?" Lockhart asked.

He was still smiling brightly. Even when he realized that the air of the castle was near silent and very dark. I could have strangled him. I was glad to see that my hatred of Lockhart was felt by more than just myself. Lockhart didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man. The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last," Snape told him, something akin to glee shining in the corner of his eyes.

Lockhart blanched. My eyebrow rose. I wanted to know what had happened. I wanted to know why this was his moment. "That's right, Gilderoy. Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Professor Sprout chimed in, looking almost amused.

"I - well, I -" Lockhart sputtered.

Had things been less serious, I would have grinned. That was what he got for everything that he had always claimed. "Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" Professor Flitwick piped up. Clearly everyone wanted his downfall to happen.

"D-did I? I don't recall -"

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested. Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?" Snape asked. His greasy voice had never sounded so nice to me.

Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues. He was obviously very upset that his plans had backfired. "I - I really never - you may have misunderstood -"

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy. Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last," Professor McGonagall said, a tiny grin forming on the edge of her lips.

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. Despite everything that had happened with Ginny and the Basilisk, nothing could stop the feeling of victory that sank into my stomach. I grinned madly and wrung my hands together. He had everything coming to him that he deserved. It helped that he didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.

"V-very well. I'll - I'll be in my office, getting - getting ready," Lockhart stuttered as he backed away. And he left the room.

"Right, that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories," Professor McGonagall said, her nostrils flared.

They all nodded. Despite the fact that I thought that Snape was a terrible man, even he knew how terrible this was. As much as he hated us, I really did assume that Snape didn't want any of the students to die. Professor McGonagall left immediately, heading to Gryffindor Tower. Snape left to head to the Slytherin dungeons. Professor Sprout went towards the kitchens, where the Hufflepuff Common Room was. Professor Flitwick headed upstairs, wherever the Ravenclaw House was. The moment that all of the Heads of Houses had left, the others retreated from the staff room. The remaining teachers rose and left, one by one.

Once they were gone, Harry and I walked out of the closet. I leaned down and grabbed Ron. "Run. We have to beat her back to Gryffindor Tower. Come on, Ron. Please," I begged him desperately.

He nodded blankly at me. He took my hand and allowed me to pull him to his feet. Ron was right behind me as Harry grabbed onto his arm and brought him with us. We sprinted all the way back to Gryffindor Tower, taking every shortcut that we knew. The last thing that I wanted was to be caught. Although I could imagine that Professor McGonagall might let this one go. We managed to barely beat her back to the Common Room. No one noticed as we walked in and sat near Fred and George. They looked as confused as everyone else. I felt terrible and gave them a gentle smile, trying to push away the thoughts of what they would look like in a few minutes.

Professor McGonagall walked in a minute later and the conversations died. She looked very solemn and I had a feeling that she was on the verge of tears. With everything that she had tried to do to keep the students safe, there was nothing that she could do this time. Everyone turned to look at her. I noticed that she was trying very hard to keep her gaze away from Ron, Percy, Fred, and George. I wondered if they had noticed by now that Ginny was nowhere to be found. Probably not.

"I regret to announce to you all that Hogwarts will be closing. The Hogwarts Express will be here first thing in the morning to take you all home." There was some chattering at this. "The monster has taken a student into the Chamber of Secrets. We are doing everything in our power to get her back," she continued. There were gasps of horror. Professor McGonagall's glassy eyes turned on the Weasley's. "Mr.'s Weasley, I regret to inform you that the student that has been taken was none other than... Ginny Weasley. We will do everything in our power to save her life. Please remain in the Common Room until tomorrow morning. I am so sorry, to each and every one of you," she said.

As she walked away, I was sure that a tear fell. I'd never seen Fred, George, Percy, and Ron look so horrible. No one spoke. No one said anything. They merely stared at the Weasley boys. Not even Lee tried to make his best friends feel a little better. As the portrait swung back closed, everyone still stayed silent. The Common Room that was nearly deafening these days was now completely silent. Everyone inched away from the Weasley's, not knowing what to say to them. The silence echoed throughout the castle. The question was echoing through my mind loudly, though. Was Ginny still alive?

Fred and George simply stared off into the distance. "They'll save her..." I said to them very softly. Neither twin reacted.

It was probably the worst day of my entire life. I'd had some pretty bad days before, but this was nothing. For hours, we simply stayed silent. From time to time Harry and I would look at each other, silently ask if we should say something, and decide that silence was our best option. We didn't want to accidentally upset someone any more than they already were. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and I sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor Common Room all afternoon, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.

I'd almost wanted to tell him not to send the letter, not to worry Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, but they deserved to know. Although, I imagined that they definitely deserved to know what had happened to their daughter. No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. No one ate dinner and no one ate lunch. People began to flee the Common Room at dinner, probably unable to sit near Fred and George, seeing how heartbroken the two pranksters were. They were the few that had kept up their cheerful attitude through this entire thing. But not today. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.

It left Harry, Ron, and I as some of the few people that were still in the Gryffindor Common Room. It was still crowded, but it was silent. Anyone that wanted to talk would leave. It was getting near eight o'clock before I saw something happen. An owl fluttered in through the window and hopped over to me. I thought that it might have been Dai, but it wasn't. It was Rusty. It was the first time that Cedric's owl had popped up that was when Ron and Harry didn't react. I gently took the letter and opened it, reading over the short letter.

Tara,

I heard that it was Ron's little sister that had been taken down to the Chamber of Secrets. It's going to be okay. Someone will save her. Please don't go after her. This will all work out. I'm incredibly sorry for the Weasley's. Since I know that you're thinking about doing something foolish, let me try and stop you.

Don't. It's too dangerous. If it is a Basilisk down there, no one can survive going and checking for Ginny. They'll figure something out. But a few Second Years can't kill this thing.

Tell Professor McGonagall everything that you know.

Stay safe, alright? See you on the train tomorrow,  
Cedric.

But I had to do something. Ginny was my friend. I couldn't just let her die down in the Chamber of Secrets, terrified and alone. Rusty wasn't the only owl. It appeared that a few students from separate Houses were writing letters back and forth. I leaned over to a Sixth Year girl that I didn't know and asked to borrow her quill. She merely smiled at me and handed it over. I thanked her softly and flipped over the parchment that Cedric had written on, at least wanting to say one, last, thing to him. Just in case my pathetic plan really didn't work out.

Cedric,

Here's hoping that you don't hate me when you get this letter back. Ginny Weasley is my friend. We grew very close over the summer and I'm not letting her die down there, scared and on her own. I'm not letting Ron, Fred, George, or Percy lose their sister. I'm not letting Mr. and Mrs. Weasley lose their daughter. Not with everything that they've done. I have a theory that the Basilisk will listen to me if I try to order it to do something. It takes commands from a Parselmouth. If I'm fast enough, I can grab Ginny and bring her to safety. I know where the Chamber of Secrets is. I'm going.

Just so you know, you are one of my best friends. You mean the world to me. Probably more than you know. I hope that this isn't the last time that I ever speak to you. Just so you know, that bruise that you took care of the other day? I was almost killed by an Acromantula family while finding out that Hagrid was not the one that opened the Chamber of Secrets. Let everyone know that, alright? Not the Acromantula part. Actually, I probably shouldn't have told you that. Come on, you have to know that I do stupid things. Savior complex.

I really hope that I see you again. Don't think that I'm stupid. Maybe I am. But I'm more trying to be brave. Gryffindor through and through, right? Got lucky last year, maybe I'll get lucky again.

Love always,  
Tara.

Rolling the letter back up, I handed it over to Rusty, holding onto him so that he wouldn't fly off without my last order. "Wait two hours before bringing that to Cedric, yeah?" I asked the owl. He nibbled at my hand gently and fluttered off.

To my surprise, it wasn't me that had to speak first. "She knew something," Ron said, speaking for the first time since we had entered the wardrobe in the staff room. Both Harry and I jumped. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was..." Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was a Pureblood. There can't be any other reason."

Feeling too guilty to look Ron in the eyes, I glanced away. Just outside of the window I could see the sun sinking, blood-red, below the skyline. We were running out of time. Ginny had already been down in the Chamber of Secrets for hours. If she wasn't dead already, she would be dead soon. This was the absolute worst that I had ever felt. I knew that we had to do something. There was something that we could do. Harry and I, at least. I knew what to do. But I was terrified of doing it. But I had to do it. She was my friend. I'd do the same for Hermione, Ron, or Harry. It was a risk, but I was willing to do anything.

"Harry, Tara. D'you think there's any chance at all she's not - you know..." Ron asked.

For a while I just sat in silence. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to tell Ron that the past few times that I had heard the Basilisk coming, it had been talking about how hungry it was. I didn't want to tell him that the chances were that it was peeling Ginny's bones from its teeth right about now. I groaned, feeling like I was about to throw up, before forcing it down. I couldn't see how Ginny could still be alive, but I wasn't willing to let her rot down there for all eternity.

"She has to be alive... She has to be," I said determinedly. Ron looked grateful. "Do you know what I was thinking? That's a Basilisk down there. The Heir of Slytherin is a Parselmouth and they can control the Basilisk. What if we could, too? We're Parselmouths. Maybe it wouldn't listen to us quite as well, but we could do something. Keep it away long enough to save Ginny," I said.

Ron looked like he was thinking about it, but Harry seemed to be a little more hesitant. "Tara -" he started.

"No!" I barked, startling both boys. "Ginny is my friend. She's Ron's sister. We have to do something. Lockhart is useless, but we can go down into the Chamber with him. Use him as a human shield," I said.

The comment that normally would have made Ron and Harry laugh, now just made them both agree. "Thank you, Tara," Ron said. I nodded at him. "I think that you're right about this. I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a Basilisk in there."

Because we couldn't think of anything else to do, and because we wanted to be doing something, we all agreed. I couldn't imagine that Lockhart knew how to get into the Chamber of Secrets, but maybe he was useful in a few other ways. We would manage somehow. We knew where the entrance was. We would manage this. Ginny Weasley would be back in the Hogwarts halls by tomorrow and she would be fine. The Gryffindor's around us were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasley's, that nobody tried to stop us as we got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole. No one spoke as we walked.

Darkness was falling as we walked down to Lockhart's office. It would still be over an hour until Rusty would deliver the letter to Cedric. I knew that he would sound the alarm the moment that he read it. That was kind of what I was hoping for. People would be waiting for us to come out of the Chamber. Immediate medical service for us. Finally we made our way to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. I could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and we saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh - Mr. Potter - Mr. Weasley - Miss Nox," he said, opening the door a bit wider. My eyebrows knitted. Had he just called me by my right name? I knew that he knew it! He's just been doing it to annoy me. But he was too terrified to think to call me Robins today. "I'm rather busy at the moment - if you would be quick -"

"Professor, we've got some information for you. We think it'll help you," Harry said quickly.

"Er - well - it's not terribly..." The side of Lockhart's face that we could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean - well - all right -"

He opened the door and we entered. His office had been almost completely stripped. It looked like a stampede had come through. Things were thrown back and forth and the entire room looked like it had been ransacked over the last few minutes. Maybe it had... Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade-green, lilac, midnight-blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk. I could have laughed. He was exactly what I had thought that he was the entire time. A coward.

"Are you going somewhere?" Harry asked.

Gritting my teeth together, I took a step forward. "I knew you were a coward," I hissed loudly at him.

"Er, well, yes," Lockhart said, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. He had completely ignored my comment about himself being a coward. Probably because he knew that he was. "Urgent call - unavoidable - got to go -"

"What about my sister?" Ron asked jerkily.

Lockhart continued to move around the office. "Well, as to that - most unfortunate -" Lockhart said, avoiding our eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. I could have killed him. I really could have killed him. He was such a terrible man. "No one regrets more than I -"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!" Harry yelled at Lockhart.

Lockhart was rolling his eyes at us and muttering under his breath. "Well - I must say - when I took the job -" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description - didn't expect -"

That time it was me that couldn't hold my tongue. I was furious with him. He was going to let Ginny die because he was too cowardly to accept the repercussions of his gloating. "Maybe if you stopped claiming things that you can't do, you wouldn't be in this mess!" I shouted at him, the call echoing off of the walls.

"You mean you're running away?" Harry asked disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books -"

"Books can be misleading," Lockhart said delicately.

"You wrote them!" Harry shouted.

That was all that it took for Lockhart. "My dear boy," Lockhart said loudly, straightening up and frowning at Harry. "Do use your common sense? My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on -"

"I knew you didn't do anything in your books. You're a damn liar!" I shouted at him, startling everyone in the room. Lockhart looked over at me and opened his mouth to say something, but Harry spoke over him.

"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Harry, Harry," Lockhart said, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

He wasn't just an arrogant ass, he was something that could stand here and know that he'd ruined someone's life, without having a care in the world. "How dare you," I hissed at Lockhart. "Ruin the lives of other witches and wizards just to give yourself a little fame?" We were standing very close together when I found myself unable to hold it back. I reared back and punched Lockhart dead in the nose. He stumbled backwards, falling over his chest and collapsing to the floor, groaning in pain. "My parents were right about you," I snarled at him.

There were some instances that magic wasn't enough. A good old-fashioned Muggle punch to the nose was appropriate. "Bloody hell, Tara. Thanks for that," Ron said.

I brushed some of the hair that had been in my eyes away. "I've been waiting almost ten months to do that," I said, brushing off my hands.

"I am your teacher!" Lockhart yelled at me, through his hand and a bloody nose.

"You are nothing," I told him darkly.

Lockhart weakly stood back upright. He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them, blood dripping on the top of them. "Let's see. I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left," he muttered to himself. He pulled out his wand and turned to us. "Awfully sorry, kids, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book -"

Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed, "Expelliarmus!"

Once more, Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk. I couldn't help but to laugh as he flipped over himself, tangling into his robes. Would have been funnier if he'd fallen out of the window, but still, that worked. His wand flew high into the air and Ron caught it. Giving me a look, I motioned my head back towards the window. Lockhart was about to say something, but he never got the chance. He glanced backwards and Ron and flung it out of the open window.

"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," Harry said furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside.

If there was ever something that I could have thanked Snape for, it was definitely that. Lockhart was looking up at us, feeble once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him. I had joined in with pointing my wand at him. "What d'you want me to do? I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do," Lockhart said weakly.

"You're in luck. We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go," Harry said, forcing Lockhart to his feet with the point of his wand.

As we walked towards the door, I grinned and had to prevent using every hex that I knew on Lockhart. "You'll love this, Lockhart. It's a Basilisk down in the Chamber of Secrets. They kill anything by looking them directly in the eyes. You get to be the human shield for us," I said. He gave a weak cry. "Write a book on that. Move it," I snapped.

We marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall. Ron stopped for a moment to read the second message, but one gentle nudge from me and he continued moving. The faster that we were in getting to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, the less time that Ginny would be down in the Chamber of Secrets. It was only a few minutes before we arrived at the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. We sent Lockhart in first, just in case. I was very pleased to see that he was shaking. Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

She glanced up at us and seemed a little disappointed. "Oh, it's you. What do you want this time?" Myrtle asked.

"To ask you how you died," Harry said.

For a moment I thought that we should have asked a little nicer. The last thing that we needed was for Myrtle to lie to us and ruin the whole plan. But to my surprise, the way that Harry had spoken, had gone over very well. Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question. I assumed that ghosts might have liked recounting the ways that they had died, though I couldn't imagine why.

"Oh, it was dreadful. It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been." Harry and I exchanged a look. It had been a Basilisk. It had been speaking in Parseltongue. "Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then," Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining, "I died."

"How?" Harry asked.

She had looked into the eyes. "No idea. I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes." Ron, Harry, and I exchanged a look and nodded. The Basilisk had killed her. "My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away..." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

We nodded at her. Deciding that she might as well know what had happened, I looked over at Myrtle. "You died because you looked into the eyes of a Basilisk. Just so you know," I told her.

She looked curious about my statement, but she said nothing. "Where exactly did you see the eyes?" Harry asked her.

"Somewhere there," Myrtle said, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Not bothering to wait, Harry, Ron, and I hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face. It looked like an ordinary sink. Most of these sinks were broken. I'd had a theory before that Myrtle had done something to the pipes. But maybe she hadn't. Maybe they weren't even real pipes. Maybe it was just a disguise to conceal what really was underneath. The three of us examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. It was almost impossible. And then I saw it. Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake about the size of a pinky toenail.

"Serpent," I muttered, pointing it out to Ron and Harry. "That's it. That's the entrance."

My heart was pounding in my chest. I'd known that it was here. But now that we were really here, I felt sick to my stomach. "That tap's never worked," Myrtle said brightly as Harry tried to turn it.

"Because it's not real. It was cleverly concealed by Salazar Slytherin. It was never designed to be a real sink. This whole thing must open somehow. This is the entrance," I said.

"Harry, Tara. Say something. Something in Parseltongue," Ron said.

The two of us stared at each other. "But -" Harry started.

We both stared at each other again. With the exception of the one time that I had been practicing with Cedric, the only times that I'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when I'd been faced with a real snake. I nodded for Harry to give it a try first. I'd do it if he couldn't. He nodded and stared at the tiny engraving. I had a feeling that he was trying to imagine that it was a real snake.

"Open up," he said. It sounded like English to me, but so did every time. We looked at Ron, who shook his head.

"English," Ron said.

Pushing Harry back gently, I stepped forward. "I'll do it. I've been practicing," I said.

"Really?" Ron asked.

I nodded at him weakly, standing in front of the sink. "Yeah. Turns out it's a good thing, right?" I asked Ron. He nodded weakly at me. "Open up," I commanded, knowing that it was in Parselmouth.

That was the first time that I had ever heard it. It didn't sound English when I'd said it. The words sounded more like a strange hissing sound with somewhat of a mix of maybe the French or Arabic language. I understood why people called it creepy. It was creepy. Harry had clearly understood it, as he nodded at me. Almost at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Harry, Ron, and I stepped backwards, unsure of what to do.

But it wasn't us that needed to do anything. The sink was doing everything itself. The next second, the sink began to move. It took a little under a minute for the sink to drop down. It slowly descended until it sank right out of sight. It left a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. I glanced into it, figuring that the snake was probably about five or six feet wide, and nodded. Definitely big enough for a Basilisk to fit into. I heard Ron gasp and looked up again. I had made up my mind about what I was going to do a while ago.

"Definitely big enough for a snake or a man," I commented.

Both Harry and Ron nodded. "I'm going down there," Harry said.

Nodding at him, I moved forward. "We," I corrected him. He glanced over at me and I scowled. He was not going to talk me out of this. "Both of us can speak to it. Two against one, its better chances that way," I said.

"Tara -" he started to say before I cut him off.

"We do not have time to argue. I'm going. I figured most of this out," I snapped.

Most of this had been me. As much as I loved Harry, I had been the one to figure out what the creature was, know where the Chamber of Secrets was, and open it. There was no way that I was talking away right now. Not after everything that had happened. And we had made it this far. None of us were going to be able to walk away right now. I couldn't not go, not now that we had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive. She was my friend and Ron's sister. I was not going to let something terrible happen to her.

Harry conceded and nodded at me, although he looked very irritated about it. It was a few beats before Ron spoke. "Me too," Ron said, breaking the tense silence. There was a pause.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," Lockhart said, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just -"

It was obvious that he was thinking that he was going to get out of this. But I'd known that he would try this. And now that was exactly the reason that he was going to come into the Chamber of Secrets with us. Hopefully so that he would be killed by the Basilisk. As nasty as that thought was, it would make me feel a little better about everything that he had done to those other witches and wizards. Lockhart put his hand on the door knob, but Ron, Harry, and I all pointed our wands at him.

"You can go first," Ron snarled.

White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening. "Boys. Boys, what good will it do? Your mother was not cruel," Lockhart said, turning back to me in a sudden panic. Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe. He was still hesitant to move. "I really don't think -" he started to say, but I kicked him roughly in the back, and he toppled into the tube, sliding out of sight.

"Stop talking about my mother," I called after him.

Harry followed quickly. He lowered himself into the pipe and turned back to us. Ron and I both nodded at him, despite feeling terrified for everything that was going to happen. We didn't know what was down there. We didn't know if the Basilisk was going to be waiting right there to ear us or kill us. But we were doing this for Ginny. We were going to do anything that we needed to do to get Ginny back. She wasn't going to die in the Chamber of Secrets. And even if she already was dead... We would bring her body back. It was the least that we could do.

Once I was sure that Harry was gone, I lowered myself into the pipe with Ron's help. I turned back to him before dropping. "Be careful. I'll go next. Give it a few seconds before following," I told him.

He nodded at me as I lowered myself as low as I could go. Someone had survived this fall, so I was sure that I would be fine. Taking a deep breath, I let go. Almost immediately I gasped. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. I could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as this one, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward. The Basilisk was able to get everywhere in the school. I really hoped that it wasn't in the pipes right now. As I fell, I knew that I was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind me a few seconds later, I could hear Ron, thudding slightly at the curves. I was reasonably certain that I could hear Harry ahead of me.

And then, just as I had begun to worry about what would happen when I hit the ground, the pipe leveled out into something like a Muggle water slide. Although this did not end like a water slide. I shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. I groaned at the sudden impact. I'd slid farther than Harry. He ran over to me and helped me get back to my feet. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the side. We watched as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too.

The three of us stood close together. Lockhart was off to the side slightly. "We must be miles under the school," Harry said, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

"This is even deeper than the dungeon last year," I told them.

The echoing voices made me nervous. I was terrified that either the Heir of Slytherin or the Basilisk would hear us. "We're under the lake, probably," Ron said, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls. All four of us turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. "C'mon," he said to the rest of us, and off we went, our footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor. I lit my wand as well.

It was nearly pitch black in the tunnel. I didn't want to think about everything that was on the walls. Whether it was from us or the Basilisk. Suddenly I wished that I was back in the Gryffindor Common Room sitting near the fire. But I remembered how miserable Fred and George had been, how broken Percy had looked, and how terrified Ginny must have been. It pushed me forward, refusing to leave unless we really had no other choice. The tunnel was so dark that we could only see a little distance ahead. It might have been a blessing in disguise, considering the eyes of the Basilisk thing. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wand light.

"Remember, any sign of movement, close your eyes right away," Harry said quietly as we walked cautiously forward.

"Should we try to speak to it?" I asked them softly.

Harry almost immediately shook his head. Not that I was surprised. I didn't really want to try and speak to it anyways. "No. Not until we know that it's down here," Harry whispered.

But the tunnel was quiet as the grave. We would be able to hear the Basilisk if it started moving around... hopefully. The first unexpected sound that we heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. I was glad that he hadn't screamed. For a moment I had really thought that he would. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and I grimaced at what we saw. The floor was littered with small animal bones. They were the meals of the Basilisk. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if we found her, Harry led the way forward, and I walked right behind him, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

As we walked past all of the animal bones, I cringed, wondering if the Basilisk had ever eaten a human. "That's how it's been surviving. It's been eating the animals down here," I told the boys.

"Harry - Tara - there's something up there -" Ron said hoarsely, grabbing Harry and I's shoulders.

We came to a screeching halt. Immediately we froze, watching. The second that something moved, I was going to cover my eyes. The last thing that I wanted was to die trying to save Ginny. I'd like for us all to make it out of here alive - bar Lockhart - if that was at all possible. In the distance, I could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving. Was it that Basilisk? I was sure that I was going to pass out. Sweat was beading on my forehead.

"Maybe it's asleep," Harry breathed, glancing back at the other three.

Glancing around at them, I saw that no one was reacting well. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. It almost sounded like he was whimpering. Ron was shaking badly. Harry and I turned back to look at the thing, my heart beating so fast that it hurt. As terrified as I was, I knew that it wasn't the Basilisk. At least, it was a living one.

So I shook my head, sensing the relief in the others. "No. Snakes are incredibly sensitive to vibrations in the air and through the ground. If that was the thing, it would have heard us and come after us by now," I told them.

"At least when we don't have Hermione, we still have you," Ron muttered weakly.

Smiling slightly, we moved forward. Very slowly, to the point that I thought that we might have been going backwards, we inched forward. My eyes were as narrow as I could make them and still see. Harry and I edged forward, his wand held high. I had put my light out, just in case I needed it otherwise. The light slid over a gigantic snake skin. I gasped and stepped backwards. But it wasn't the Basilisk. Not really. The skin was a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least. And considering it had shed it, I assumed that it was even larger now.

"Blimey," Ron said weakly.

"That's it," I whispered.

It was definitely a Basilisk. I recognized the shape from the drawing that I had seen. My stomach was curling in on itself. I hadn't eaten in over twelve hours and I was grateful. It meant that there was nothing for me to throw up. There was a sudden movement behind us. I gasped, about ready to close my eyes, but it was something much less frightening than the Basilisk. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way and he was now lying on the floor, passed out from fear.

Rolling my eyes at him, I stepped around the snakeskin. "Heart of a lion," I muttered.

"Get up," Ron said sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

To my surprise, Lockhart got to his feet. I jumped slightly. He hadn't been knocked out, he was just pretending so that he could get the jump on us. Before we could do anything, he then dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Harry and I jumped forward, too, but we were too late. Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face. I had to fight very hard to keep myself from smiling. Of all the wands that he could have picked up...

"The adventure ends here, kids! I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Your poor mother will be so distraught at the loss of her daughter's mind. Not to fear. I'll tell her how brave you were," he told me with a maniacal grin.

"You coward," I told him. Harry moved to send a spell his way, but I grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Don't!"

He looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I gave him a pleading look. "Smart girl. Say good-bye to your memories!" He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"

Just as I had expected, the wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harry flung his arms over his head, grabbed me, and ran, the two of us slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Lockhart had been thrown backwards at the spell and the impact had caused a partial collapse in the rock. In the next moment, we were standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock. The rocks had completely blocked our path back to them. There was only a tiny chunk, big enough for our hand to fit through to get back to Ron.

"Ron! Are you okay? Ron!" Harry yelled through the rock.

"Ron!" I screamed.

It was a second before we got a call back. "I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rock-fall. I sighed and slipped back slightly. I was glad that the collapse hadn't hurt Ron. "I'm okay - this git's not, though - he got blasted by the wand. You knew, Tara."

"Yeah. Honestly I was hoping that it would kill him," I said through the rock.

"You okay?" Harry asked me.

I was a little cut up by some of the rocks and it looked like he was, too. I nodded at him. Other than a little shaky, there was nothing wrong with me. "Yeah. Are you?" I asked him.

He nodded at me. "Fine." He looked to be a little bit on the guilty side. "I should have pushed you towards Ron," he muttered.

Shrugging my shoulders, I nodded at him, leaning up against the stone. "Like I said before. Two versus one; better odds," I said.

We stood in silence for a long while. I couldn't figure out what we were supposed to do. We couldn't just wait for something to happen. The longer that we waited, the more dangerous it became for Ginny. And Ron would take forever to get through to us. There was a dull thud and a loud sound of pain. It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins. He was probably trying to wake him up. But he would be asleep for a long while after that hit.

"What now? We can't get through - it'll take ages..." Ron's voice called back, sounding very desperate.

Harry and I looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. I had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try. What if the whole tunnel caved in? We would crush ourselves. It seemed to be better chances to try and shift some of them. But that would take too long. That wouldn't work. There was another thud and another loud sound of pain from behind the rocks. We were wasting time sitting here. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours... I knew that there was only one thing to do. So did Harry, it seemed.

"We have to go, Harry. We can't wait. We've wasted enough time," I told him.

He nodded at me and leaned up against the rocks. "Wait there. Wait with Lockhart. We'll go on... If we're not back in an hour..." Harry called. There was a very pregnant pause.

"I'll try and shift some of this rock," Ron said, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you two can - can get back through. And, Harry, Tara -"

"See you in a bit," Harry said. It was obvious that he was trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice. "You should stay and try and shift some of the rock, too," he told me as we climbed back down the rock.

Glaring at him, I shook my head. "I'll hex you myself if you try and stop me. We're in this together," I told him sharply.

It was the end of the conversation and he knew that. So, grasping hands tightly, we set off together past the giant snake skin. Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The nerves had sank away. I was sure that the moment that we arrived up in the Chamber of Secrets, they would be back tenfold. The tunnel turned and turned again. The nerves were already starting to come back. The path to the Chamber was taking longer than I thought that it would. Every nerve in my body was tingling unpleasantly. I could feel Harry shaking. I wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what we'd find when it did.

We had been walking for a few minutes when something occurred to me. "Hey, Harry?" I asked. He jumped but nodded. "Do you remember when we were in Flourish and Blotts and Lucius Malfoy shoved all of those books back into Ginny's cauldron?"

"Yeah."

"I wondered how a fifty year old diary wound up in Hogwarts. We wondered how Malfoy's father knew about everything that was happening and all about the Heir of Slytherin business. And about how Dobby knew all of the awful things that were happening," I said, trying to convince myself that even Lucius Malfoy wouldn't risk a little girl's life.

"You think that Malfoy slipped her Tom Riddle's diary?" Harry asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders at him. "Maybe," I said softly.

Harry didn't seem to understand what I was getting at. I didn't even understand what I was getting at. "But what's that got to do with anything?" Harry asked me as we walked.

"I don't know... But I get a strange feeling that the diary still has something to do with all of this," I said.

Harry nodded at me as we continued to walk in silence. It was more comforting than trying to force a conversation. My hand tightened around Harry's slightly. I could hear the echoing coming back to us a little closer. I knew what that meant. We were either coming up on a fork in the path, or we were coming up on a closed door. It was a long time when, at last, as we crept around yet another bend, we saw a solid wall ahead. I knew that we were coming up on something. This was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. The door had two entwined serpents that were carved into it, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

My feet immediately stopped. Harry glanced at me and I nodded. I just needed a second. Nodding at Harry and I was alright, the two of us approached, my throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive. It was like they were watching us, taunting us, wondering if we would be brave enough to enter the Chamber. I could guess what we had to do. Harry and I exchanged a look. We cleared our throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

"Open," Harry and I said together, in a low, faint hiss.

"Together?" Harry asked me.

"Together," I told him.

Our hands tightened around each other and we stood as close as we possibly could, without blending into each other. The serpents parted as the wall cracked open and the halves slid smoothly out of sight. It was pitch black and, from here in the relative safety of the pipes, it was impossible to see what was happening in the Chamber. Harry and I looked at each other, tried a weak smile, squeezed hands, and shaking from head to foot, walked inside together.


	35. The Heir of Slytherin

Perhaps I'd been expecting it to look like a torture chamber. But that certainly wasn't what it was. Not that the Chamber of Secrets was very pleasant. I would have much rather been enjoying a nice, warm, bath. Of course, I had a savior complex, so here I was, standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. There was water along each side of the stone pathway that we were on. We must have been below the Black Lake, just like Ron had assumed.

The Chamber of Secrets was horrifying. The longer that I looked at it, the worse that I felt. Stalactites were hanging from the roof of the Chamber. I had a terrible feeling that they were going to fall and impale us, killing us. Wouldn't that be the way to die? I could only imagine. We went down in to the Chamber of Secrets just to die from a falling stalactite. All along the side of the pathway were stone serpent heads. They looked extremely mean. Their mouths were open in a type of hiss. My hands tightened around Harry's slightly as we moved a little closer together. Besides the green glow, it was very hard to see.

Slightly worried that it was echoing around the Chamber, I could feel my heart beating very fast. I could only assume that Harry felt the same way. I knew that we were both sweating, terrified with whatever was about to happen. For a long while, Harry and I stood listening to the chill silence. I glanced down at my Muggle watch. It was just past nine in the evening. Cedric would be getting the letter from Rusty right about now. Would he go straight to Professor McGonagall? Would they come and help us? Maybe there was a chance that we wouldn't die down here. Maybe everyone would be able to walk away from this.

Just so that I knew, I was keeping time for an hour, when Ron would know to leave the Chamber and get help. Could we wait that long though? Would Cedric manage to piece it together and get here anyways? I wasn't sure if I wanted that to happen. More people might just be more of a risk. My hands were shaking and sweating slightly. I hadn't been thinking about it before, but I was now. Could the Basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? But I knew that it wasn't. I had faith that I would hear it, or at least sense it, if it was coming. And then there was the last problem; where was Ginny?

Both Harry and I pulled out our wands, just in case, and moved forward between the serpentine columns. I was terrified to even move. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. With the Chamber being mostly empty, every sound felt like it was going through a bullhorn. I kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following us as we walked. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, I thought that I saw one stir. It was obvious that Harry felt the same way. We both kept twitching, each time startling the other. Thankfully we never screamed.

Then, as we drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue as high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall. What the hell was that? Harry and I had to crane our necks to look up into the giant face above. It was at least thirty feet tall. Maybe it was even a little bit taller than that. It was ancient and vaguely resembled a monkey. It had a very long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. Talk about an inferiority complex... It would have been very hard to confuse the person that built this place.

Leaning close to Harry - not that we could have really been standing any closer - I whispered to him, not wanting to awaken anything down in the Chamber. "That's Salazar Slytherin," I said weakly.

Harry nodded at me, still staring at the statue. "I gathered that much, thank you," he whispered back to me.

Gradually I looked down the length of the statue. Where was Ginny? The entire Chamber seemed so empty. I couldn't imagine where the Heir of Slytherin or the Basilisk had gone. I didn't want to have to search through all of these tunnels. We could be here for hours. And around any corner might be something not exactly very savory. But at I looked down at the statue I realized that we didn't have to go searching for anyone. Between the feet of the statue, face-down, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.

My heart was pounding in my chest. "Ginny!" Harry muttered desperately. The two of us, still holding hands, sprinted towards her and dropped to our knees in front of her. "Ginny - don't be dead - please don't be dead."

Both Harry and I dropped our wands to grab her. I kept the wand close in the event that I would need it. Between the two of us, we grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. She wasn't Petrified. She would have been as hard as stone. She was either dead, or she was simply passed out. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so that confirmed for me that she wasn't Petrified. Gently nudging Harry backwards, I laid a finger under her nose and pressed my hand against her chest. Her breathing was weak and shallow, but she was still alive. I could feel her heart pumping slowly.

Harry was standing back from me slightly, watching with wide eyes. I glanced back at him and shook my head. "She's not dead," I told him, hearing the sigh of relief that came from him echo across the Chamber.

His hand gently pressed against hers. "She's cold as ice," Harry said softly.

And she was. It felt like someone had frozen her. "She's not Petrified though. She'd feel like stone. And she's not dead either. I can still feel her breathing," I told him. I knew that we were both confused, wondering what had happened to her. "Harry, she's got some type of spell on her. It's like a parasite is feeding off of her."

There was something odd about the way that she appeared to me. She looked like someone was draining the life out of her. "The Basilisk?" Harry asked me.

Immediately I shook my head at him. I didn't think that the Basilisk could do something like that. Of course, I could have been wrong. "No. It would have eaten her," I said, reasonably sure that I was right.

"Do you know a spell to help her?" Harry asked me.

There was only one thing that I could think of, but I wasn't sure whether or not it would do anything. "Maybe," I said. I reached back and grabbed my wand, pointing it at Ginny's chest. "Rennervate." Despite my highest hopes, Ginny remained still on the ground. She wasn't warming up. In fact, she felt even colder. "That should have woken her up," I told Harry, knitting together my eyebrows. If she still wasn't awake, then this was some powerful magic. "It's like the life is draining out of her."

"Do you think that the Heir of Slytherin did this?" Harry asked me.

That was the only person that I could think would have done it. "Could be. Perhaps it was something like a power play. Kill a girl and gain her power. I don't know," I said, bothered that I couldn't figure out why someone had done this to Ginny.

The only thing that I was positive about was that we needed to get Ginny out of here, and we needed to do it now. Before the Basilisk of the Heir of Slytherin could come and find us. "Ginny, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately.

He started shaking Ginny to try and wake her up. I rolled my eyes at him. If a spell wouldn't wake her up, nothing would. Not until we could figure out what was doing this to her. As he shook her back and forth, Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side. The only thing that I could think to do was pick her up and get her to the hospital wing. The moment that we could do that, I imagined that we would be able to tell Professor McGonagall to get back Dumbledore, and come down here themselves to fix this mess.

Moving to stand near Ginny's legs, I motioned to Harry. "Help me lift her up. Get her torso and I'll get her legs," I told him. Harry nodded and moved up near her head. "We can get her back to the rock-fall. Maybe Ron has moved enough rocks for us to get through. We can get her up to Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall. They can help her better than we can."

"Okay," Harry said.

The two of us very slowly began to lift Ginny. She was a little heavier than I was expecting, and I was already tired from the hour and my lack of food. "She won't wake," said a soft voice.

Startled from the echoing voice, Harry and I dropped Ginny. I wanted to apologize for letting her hit the stone floor but I knew that she wouldn't feel it right now. She might just be a little sore later. Harry and I both jumped and spun around on our knees. For a moment I was sure that it would be the Heir of Slytherin, here, to confront us. But that wasn't what I saw. A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching us closely. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though I was looking at him through a misted window. I glanced over to Harry and he nodded at me. He was seeing the same thing that I was. I was startled, because I knew this boy; there was no mistaking him.

Obviously Harry and I both knew who he was. "Tom - Tom Riddle?" Harry asked. Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face. He looked extremely calm. Only for a moment did his eyes flick over to me, giving a small nod. "What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry asked desperately. "She's not - she's not - ?"

"She's still alive. But only just," Riddle answered calmly.

Nothing seemed to have been bothering him at the moment. He didn't seem to understand that we were standing in the Chamber of Secrets, a Basilisk was running rampant around the castle, and that there was a nearly-dead eleven-year-old girl. Harry and I both stared at him for a long while. I didn't understand how this was happening. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen. He should have been coming up on seventy years old. He shouldn't be standing here. How was he standing here?

If Riddle was bothered by the awkward silence, he said nothing. "You should be nearly seventy," I said, moving instinctively a little bit closer to Ginny. Just in case.

Riddle remained passive. "Well spotted," he told me, his voice strangely echoing across the Chamber.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry asked uncertainly.

Riddle merely shook his head. He didn't seem to be very concerned with what was happening. Maybe he didn't know where we were. "A memory. Preserved in a diary for fifty years," Riddle answered quietly.

He pointed toward the floor near the statue of Salazar Slytherin's giant toes. We both turned back to see what it was that Riddle was pointing to. But I noticed that Riddle's eyes never strayed from Harry or I. He was watching us very closely. Lying open, just feet from in between the legs of the statue, there was the little black diary that we had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, I wondered how it had gotten there, and I was insanely curious as to why it was down in the Chamber of Secrets, but there were more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. That would come afterwards.

"You've got to help us, Tom," Harry said, raising Ginny's head again to try and lift her. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a Basilisk... I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment... Please, help us..."

Not that it was really surprising, but Riddle didn't move. I wasn't even sure that he could have touched us if he wanted to touch us. He was a memory... That meant that he wasn't really real. Something would have to happen to bring him back. Like... Like draining the life out of a little girl? The hair on the back of my neck stood as I turned to Ginny and began lifting her. We needed to get out of here. I had a feeling that I knew who the Heir of Slytherin was. Harry and I, both sweating despite the cold air, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor. I bent to pick up our wands again, since we had dropped them at the sight of Ginny. But our wands had gone.

"Where are our wands?" I asked.

Harry glanced over at me. "Did you see - ?" he started to ask before cutting himself off.

They couldn't have gone that far. There was nothing in the Chamber with us with the exception of Riddle's memory. My eyes trailed over where the wands had been a moment before. Then I looked up. Riddle was still watching the two of us - twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers in one hand, and mine in the other. Harry didn't seem bothered by the sight, but I was. Riddle could touch the wands. That meant that he could probably touch us, too. He was a handsome boy, but he unnerved me to my core.

As per usual, Harry didn't have a clue what was going on. Harry seemed a little unnerved but not that suspicious... yet. "Thanks," Harry said, stretching out his hand for the two wands.

A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest. I wondered if Riddle could hear it. If it sounded like it was echoing through the Chamber to them just like it sounded that it was doing to me. The smile on Riddle's face made him look a bit nicer, but there was something that looked almost cruel about his smile to me. It made the nerves build in my stomach. He continued to stare at Harry, sometimes glancing at me, twirling the wands idly.

"Listen," Harry said urgently, our knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the Basilisk comes -"

"It won't come until it is called," Riddle said calmly.

I wanted to ask what he meant about that. I assumed that he meant that the Heir of Slytherin was the one person that could control the Basilisk. I could only pray that if the Basilisk was allowed out of wherever it was hiding, we might be able to keep it away from us to get Ginny to safety. We needed to get her out of here. I didn't know what kind of toll all of this was taking on her. But we needed the wands back before we could move on. Harry and I lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer. I was careful to step in front of her, placing Harry and I between her and Riddle.

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked desperately. Once more, Riddle didn't answer us. He was trying to steer the conversation somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it -"

Riddle's smile broadened. Harry and I exchanged a worried look. Something was very wrong here. "You won't be needing it," Riddle said. He then turned to me. I found myself feeling strange the moment that we genuinely locked eyes. "What kind of wand is this?" Riddle asked me, holding my wand up to examine it in the green light.

A lump formed in my throat. For whatever reason, I found myself unsure of what to say. And then, a voice sank into my head. Lie. I very nearly screamed. I was glad that I managed to keep my mouth shut. It was the same voice that had spoken to me during the History of Magic exam during finals last year. It was the man that appeared to me in my dreams. Perhaps I would get around to thanking him the next time that he appeared to me.

It became very obvious that I was waiting too long to speak. "Oak," I said quickly. I was glad that Harry made no incriminating movement, alerting Riddle that I was lying. He was the one person that knew what my wand was made out of.

To my ultimate displeasure, Riddle seemed to know anyways. He smiled at me, his eyes feeling like they were piercing me through my soul. "Lying does not suit you," he told me, his smooth voice echoing through the Chamber.

"You don't know me," I snapped, a little harsher than I'd meant to.

But there was something about him that was very unsettling. Riddle grinned a little wider. I was glad that he hadn't taken a step closer to me. Not that it really mattered. He had our wands. If he wanted to do anything to us, he had two wands to manage it with. I assumed that he could have hurt us if he really wanted to. I could imagine that he wanted to keep us alive, but I didn't know why he wanted to keep us alive. I didn't know why he was even down here in the first place.

"Not yet," Riddle whispered, startling me from my thoughts.

Did he just say that I didn't know him yet? I was absolutely positive that I'd never met Tom Riddle before. Maybe he had changed his mind, or maybe he was just playing with me. "What?" I asked him dumbly.

Harry stared at us during the brief and tense exchange. "What d'you mean, I won't be - ?"

Of course he didn't understand the previous issue here. "I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter. For the chance to see you. To speak to you," Riddle interrupted, his voice soft but powerful. Both Harry and I stood close together, protectively positioned in front of Ginny. "The same with you, Tara Nox. I've been very anxious to meet you both," he continued.

My brows furrowed. I couldn't understand why Riddle would want to know Harry or I. If he had died, what would he care about Harry? He wouldn't have known what he had done. And me, I was absolutely positive that there was no one by the name of Riddle in my family. "Why? You're nearly two generations older than us. What should you care about two kids?" I asked him.

"More than you know," Riddle answered me, his gaze still very intense.

As much as I wanted to ask what had happened or what he meant, it didn't matter, I didn't get a chance; Harry spoke before I could ask what Riddle meant. "Look," Harry sighed, losing patience, "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later -"

"We're going to talk now," Riddle said, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed both Harry and I's wands.

My eyes followed the placement of our wands. He slipped them into their normal spots for wands on the inside of the robes. I didn't see anything that could have been his wand. He must have been planning on using ours. I didn't like the thought of that. It was a long time that Harry and I stared at him. There was something very funny going on here... The Heir of Slytherin hadn't come yet, and neither had the Basilisk. Something was wrong. I had a terrible feeling about Tom Riddle and the diary the entire time. There had to be something fishy that was going on. And his memory was in the middle of it.

The one thing that I knew was that Riddle was waiting for something. My eyes narrowed at him as we stood, rooted in our places. "What are you stalling for?" I asked him, shattering the tense silence.

Riddle smiled at me, shaking his head. "Not stalling. Conversing," he said. This time he paced back and forth. But even as he moved, his eyes never left either one of us.

"How did Ginny get like this?" Harry asked slowly, pointing down to where Ginny lay still.

The tone of Riddle was something that was really bothering me. It sounded like we were chatting about Sunday dinner. He had a way about himself that was pleasant about everything. "Well, that's an interesting question. And quite a long story," he said. We nodded for him to continue. If he knew what had happened, I wanted to know what had happened. "I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."

The diary. She had been writing in the diary and learned that it had spoken back. He was getting to know her, and vice versa. "What are you talking about?" Harry asked suspiciously.

That was when it occurred to me. I was right about Lucius Malfoy slipping the diary to her that day back in Flourish and Blotts. I hadn't figured out why, but I knew that he had done it. "Lucius Malfoy did slip the diary to her," I whispered, the soft comment echoing throughout the Chamber, easily audible to the other two.

Riddle turned to face me and smiled. "I'd heard you were the brightest witch of your age." My eyebrows rose. Did he know me? Had Ginny ever talked about me? "A shame that no one listens to you." If it was less serious, I would have laughed. No one ever listened to me but I was always right. "Did you ever wonder why?" he asked, a grin spreading over his face.

No part of me understood what he meant by that. But I knew that I wanted to know. "What are you talking about?" I asked him. Was there something that made me always right? That would be nice...

"The diary. My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes - how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how," Riddle's eyes glinted dangerously, "how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her... How she was too afraid to go to her only female friend for fear that she would laugh in her face."

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was only a brief moment that he glanced over at me and smiled. At the very end. My stomach was churning in knots. Everything that had happened to Ginny had been because of this stupid diary. She had been writing all of her troubles sown. She just didn't know that the diary that was writing back was very clearly dangerous. Of course, he made himself out to be the perfect friend. There was an almost hungry look in Riddle's eyes as he watched us.

My heart hurt for everything that Ginny had gone through this year. I'd never thought that she was going to have such a hard time for her first year of Hogwarts. Of course her brothers teased her, particularly Fred and George, who teased everyone. They were always messing with their family. That was who they were. And the money issue that we always knew that the Weasley's had. I knew that Ginny didn't love having hand-me-down things, but she didn't ever complain that much. Maybe it was a bigger deal than she made it out to be. Her crush on Harry had always been a big deal to her... I wished that she would have known that she could come to me. She would always be welcome to come to me. She had never laughed about Cedric at me, I would never have laughed at her.

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," Riddle went on, distracting me from my thoughts. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me." Riddle smiled wickedly at me and began miming reading from the diary. "No one's ever understood me like you, Tom... I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in... It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket..."

It looked like he was about to say something else, but he never got the chance. "Shut your mouth," I snapped at him. Riddle glanced at me with a nasty smile, still looking handsome as ever.

"Brave little fool," he hissed at me.

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. In the back corners of my mind I was sure that I had heard that laugh before. I knew that I had. But I couldn't figure out where. It might have been from anywhere. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Instinctively I moved a step closer to Harry. He had been very tense before, but now he seemed to stiff that I was sure that he was going to break himself in half. A sick feeling seeped into my stomach. I'd known that something was wrong the moment that Riddle stepped out, but now I was sure that something was extremely wrong.

"If I say it myself, Harry, Tara, I've always been able to charm the people I needed," Riddle continued.

That was why Dippet had seemed so fond of him in the memory. That part wasn't altered. Just the part of Hagrid's capture. "Just the way that you charmed Armando Dippet," I snarled at him.

Riddle looked at me and nodded, inclining his head to agree with me. "He's not known to be the brightest of Hogwarts Headmasters," he told me, a little laugh echoing in his voice.

"No," I immediately snapped. Albus Dumbledore would always be the best wizard that Hogwarts had ever seen, and one of the best in the world. "That is Albus Dumbledore," Riddle grimaced slightly, "who knew it wasn't Hagrid."

Riddle shook his head, knotting his hands behind his back. "Let me finish the whole story. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted..." Harry and I exchanged a disgusted look. Was Riddle's memory the thing that was feeding off of her? How? "I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..." he continued, sending Ginny a somewhat fond look.

Stepping in front of her, I tried to process what he was saying? But I felt like an idiot. I didn't understand. How could a memory pour the owner's soul back into it? Tom Riddle must have been a very powerful wizard to manage all of this at the young age at fifteen. But how had Lucius Malfoy become involved in this plot? There were so many things that were going unanswered.

"But you're a memory. How can that happen?" I asked, feeling totally lost.

"What d'you mean?" Harry added. I felt my mouth go very dry. Riddle was trying to bait us, but here we were, still clueless.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter? Tara Nox, I'm ashamed you haven't put it together," Riddle said softly, gazing over at me. I rolled my eyes, biting back a comment about how I didn't know everything. Not even Hermione knew everything, as much as she would like to think that she did. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets," Riddle said. My stomach turned. Ginny would never do that... "She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls." No she wouldn't... "She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

That... That didn't make any sense. None of that made any sense. None of that would ever make any sense. There was no way that Ginny could do anything like that. She was one of the sweetest girls that I had ever met. She loved animals of all kind. She had grown up on a farm. She had written to a mysterious stranger about her crush on a boy celebrity. I would have to have the stranger talk with her after all of this was over... But Ginny wasn't a Parselmouth. Not that I knew of, anyways. She couldn't have set the Basilisk on the students, and Hermione was her friend, she wouldn't have done that. And Ginny loved chickens, we had taken care of them together at the Burrow.

But that writing on the walls... I had seen Ginny's handwriting before. It was still a little kid's scrawl... Just like the messages on the wall. But why would she have written all of that? It didn't make any sense. I couldn't imagine someone saying that their skeleton was going to lay in an empty Chamber forever with some scary snake-like creature. Not if they knew what they were doing.

"No," Harry whispered.

And that was when it hit me. The exact reason that Ginny had done all of this. "Because you were controlling her," I accused, my voice turning into a low growl.

"Yes," Riddle said, calmly, not bothered by my nastiness. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first." That fact alone made me breathe a sigh of relief. I knew that Ginny would never do something like that. Riddle smiled a cruel grin that didn't suit that smooth lines of his face. "It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries... far more interesting, they became..." Harry and I exchanged an enraged look. Ginny had been next to us all year, knowing what had happened, and we'd thought she'd merely been terrified. She was, but not for the attacks, for her own mental health.

"Dear Tom," he recited, watching Harry and I's horrified faces, "I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me... There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad... I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!"

His shrieks only became more and more amused. My entire being was shaking. I couldn't understand why he was making her do all of that. Obviously Tom Riddle was the Heir of Slytherin. There was no one else at this point that it could have been. He must have been a Parselmouth. He had put a little bit of himself in her, momentarily giving her the gift so that she could speak to the Basilisk and open the Chamber of Secrets. She had done it all, under his influence. She had been terrified this entire time. Had she ever known that she wasn't the one doing everything? I could only pray that she wouldn't die, so that we could tell her that it wasn't her.

"That's why she's been acting so terrified of everything," I told Harry quietly.

He nodded at me. Harry's fists were clenched, the nails digging deep into his palms. The two of us were both furious with everything that had happened. Poor Ginny had spent her First Year as nothing more than a vessel for the Heir of Slytherin. We should have been watching her more closely. I should have said something more to her. Maybe less students would have been attacked and maybe this would have been over sooner. The only thing that we could do now was end it and save Ginny's life. But the question remained. How did we do either one of those things when it was a memory that was causing all of the trouble?

"Exactly. It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary. But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it," Riddle continued. I nodded at him. Ginny had thrown it into the toilet to dispose of it where it had accidentally hit Moaning Myrtle. I knew that someone was trying to get rid of it because something was wrong with it. If there was ever a moment that I wished to be wrong... "And that's where you two come in, Harry, Tara. You two found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you two, the very two people that I was most anxious to meet..."

"And why did you want to meet us?" Harry asked.

The two of us exchanged a strange look with each other. Why had Riddle wanted to meet his? How did he even know who we were? Obviously Ginny had told him, but there was no reason that he should have cared about us. He didn't care about Ginny, so it didn't make sense to me why he would care about her childhood crush and one of her few friends. Anger was coursing through me, and it was an effort to keep from attacking Riddle. Not that I thought that punching a memory would be a marvelous idea.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry. Your whole fascinating history," Riddle said. Harry and I glanced at each other. She had told him about the downfall of Voldemort. But why would her care? "She even told me about you, Tara." I raised a brow. There was nothing interesting about me. "She recounted to me your whole story that you'd told her about the Sorcerer's Stone." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. I realized with a sickened feeling that I had told her everything. From the meeting in the Forbidden Forest to everything that Voldemort had told me in the dungeons. "I knew I must find out more about you both, talk to you both, meet you two if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust -"

"I knew that memory was altered," I snarled over him.

Riddle nodded at me, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Yes. I knew that you would be harder to convince," he told me. As much as I loved Harry, he was definitely a little brainless at times.

"Hagrid's our friend," Harry said, his voice now shaking. "And you framed him, didn't you? Just like you said," Harry told me. I nodded at him. As always, I was right. "I thought you made a mistake, but -"

Riddle laughed his high laugh again. It made my stomach roil. I knew that I'd heard his laugh before. It just sounded like something that I would never forget. "As I said, they really should listen to you more often," Riddle told me, a cruel smile settling over his calm features. "It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry, Tara. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parent-less but so brave, school Prefect, model student... on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls..."

It was infuriating. Riddle had ruined Hagrid's life for a crime that he committed himself. "But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance... as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!" Riddle scoffed, seemingly almost bothered that someone thought that someone would have been smarter and more dangerous than Riddle himself.

Even with everything that was happening, I could never manage to keep my mouth shut and not make things worse. "Yet we managed it in a few months," I told Riddle.

His eye twitched in an irritated manner. "With lots of help along the way. I did it alone," he said dismissively, going back to his story. "Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed... Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did..." Riddle continued, seemingly bothered that he hadn't really gotten away with it.

"I did say that he was the best Headmaster that Hogwarts ever had," I told Riddle, hoping to drive the knife in a little deeper.

Riddle tuned to me with an infuriated look. "I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," Harry said, his teeth gritted. The two of us glanced at each other.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled. I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it," Riddle said carelessly. My blood boiled. He had killed a - admittedly very irritating - girl. He could have killed more had he not been interrupted. "I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

Of killing Muggle-Born's? He had been attacking Half-Blood's, too. "Well, you haven't finished it," Harry said triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again -"

"Haven't I already told you that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been - you two," Riddle said calmly, staring at us both.

Well that certainly wasn't the answer that I had been expecting. Honestly I'd thought that maybe this was some type of revenge thing. I hadn't thought that Riddle would really have a purpose in doing anything that he was doing, other than being big-headed about those admitted to Hogwarts. But obviously things were much more nefarious than that. And this was something that had been in the works for seventy years. How had no one managed to figure this out? Yet four young kids had managed... Morons. Harry and I stared at him; I assumed that he was feeling as stupid as I was.

"To kill us?" I asked him.

Riddle smiled at me and shook his head. "You'll see soon enough," he said, turning so that he could look in between Harry and I. "Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back."

We exchanged another look with each other. It was Ginny that had ransacked the room. She was the one that had done it. It was a Gryffindor that had stolen it back. "But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you both, I knew that you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery - particularly if one of your best friends was attacked." Harry and I exchanged another look. He had wanted us to solve it the entire time. He simply wanted to meet us, face-to-face. He knew that attacking Hermione would make us want to solve it even more. "And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you two could speak Parseltongue.

"So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring." My heart twanged for her. She had been down here alone and terrified. We hadn't done anything for her. We might still be too late. "But there isn't much life left in her... She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last... I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter. And for you, Tara Nox."

"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.

But before Riddle could speak, I did. "So you were the one that ordered the Basilisk to attack Hermione. You're the Heir of Slytherin. The entire time, it was you. Your memory preserved in a diary that took control of Ginny," I said, fitting everything else together.

"Yes," Riddle answered.

Wasn't the diary going through a little bit much? It seemed like it would have been much easier to send a child here to do everything themselves. "Why? Why not just wait and have a kid, send them to Hogwarts in later years and tell them to open the Chamber?" I asked.

"Have you still not managed it?" Riddle asked me, sounding in between amused and exasperated.

"What?" I asked, still not understanding.

"Well," Riddle said, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you - a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent - managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

I was going to kill him myself if he kept ignoring my questions every time that I wanted to ask them. It didn't help that adults - and now this asshole - had a habit of doing that. For a moment I almost wished that we were back arguing with Lockhart in his office. As I glared at Riddle, wishing that he would give me some answers, I realized something very strange. There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now. Not only that, but he seemed very interested in the downfall of Voldemort. But he would have already been an older man. It didn't seem like something that he should have cared about.

"Why do you care how I escaped? Voldemort was after your time..." Harry said slowly.

That was when I remembered the very thing that had unnerved me so many months ago. "You told me, when I went into the diary the first time, to remember you..." I trailed off, feeling the goosebumps raise on my arms.

Riddle nodded to the both of us. "I did. Voldemort, is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter..." Riddle said.

Turning his back to us slightly, I exchanged a panicked look with Harry. Nothing sounded good about any of this. I couldn't imagine that things were going to get better. Harry gave me a reassuring nod. It was something that told me that we were going to be alright. And I knew that he was right. We would be fine. We always were. Riddle pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words that hung in the air.

Tom Marvolo Riddle

My eyes locked onto the middle name. Particularly the three letters in the middle; v-o-l. And that was when it hit me. "It's an anagram..." I whispered, earning a shocked look from Harry.

He obviously didn't understand what I was talking about. I didn't blame him. I was still hoping that I was wrong. For all of the times that I liked being right or wanted to be right, this was not one of them. I didn't want to meet a sixteen-year-old version of Voldemort. I definitely didn't like the strange realization that Voldemort was actually rather handsome as a young man. No wonder he had been able to find so many followers early on. Riddle turned to me long enough to grin. That was the moment that I knew that I was right. My heart sank. Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves.

I am Lord Voldemort

"You see? It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side?" I raised a brow. I'd always thought that Voldemort was a Pureblood, not a Half-Blood. "I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry, Tara - I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

As smart as I liked to think that I was, my brain seemed to have jammed. This was too much to understand all at once. Maybe this was why Hagrid was as afraid of Voldemort as he was. Because he'd known him as a child. He knew this man before he'd turned into what he was. It was a long time that Harry and I stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Harry's own parents, and so many others... Any pity that I'd had for Riddle was gone. I understood that losing parents was a terrible thing to go through, but if Harry had managed to get through it, he should have been able to, too.

Leaning over to Harry, I spoke quietly. "Now is probably a really bad time to tell you this, but in the event that we're about to die, you should know that I told you so!" I hissed at him angrily.

I'd always known that something was wrong with that diary. Stupid Harry, writing to stupid Voldemort... "I'll make it up to you," Harry told me softly before glancing back at Riddle. "You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred.

My heart pained for Harry. Here he was, once more, facing off against the man that had slaughtered his parents. "Not what?" Riddle snapped, seemingly losing his calm for the first time.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world. Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts," Harry said, his breathing very fast. "Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days -"

The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look. I assumed that Dumbledore had always been the one thing that Riddle could never get over. He hated that there had been someone that had always been able to overpower him. He hated that he was not the most powerful sorcerer in the world. And I was willing to do anything to keep that the way that it was. I didn't want to ever have to have the two of them to have some terrible battle. If we could keep Riddle in the diary or destroy the memory, that would be for the best. But the letter that I'd sent Cedric had only recently been delivered. Even if he raised the alarms, they didn't know where to look for us to help... Damn me.

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" Riddle hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.

"The Ministry forced him to leave!" I added.

It was obvious that Harry and I were speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than believing it to be true. I knew that Voldemort had always avoided Hogwarts, I just assumed that Dumbledore had been one of the reasons. Riddle opened his mouth, but froze. Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. Harry and I both looked at well. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, and unearthly; it lifted the hair on the back of my neck once more and made my heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Once more, I moved closer to Harry. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that I felt it vibrating inside my own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.

The three of us whipped back to see what had happened. I almost looked away, unsure of whether of not the Basilisk could breathe fire. It certainly hadn't seemed like it. Of course, it was probably something else terrible that was coming to kill us. A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle. It was flying very quickly towards us. I glanced over very quickly to see that Riddle was watching the bird with narrowed eyes. So he hadn't summoned it...

A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry and I. The two of us very nearly dove out of the way, concerned with what was happening. But it didn't attack us. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at our feet, then landed heavily on Harry's shoulder. Its head was turned towards me, the head extending towards my body. As it folded its great wings, I finally got a better look at it. I saw that it had a long, sharp golden beak and beady black eyes. The bird finally stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle. I could feel the heat radiating off of him.

"Fawkes!" I cried happily.

It felt like since Fawkes was here, Dumbledore might have been somewhere near, too. Fawkes looked to me, let out a trilling whistle, before staring back at Riddle with something akin to contempt. "That's a phoenix," Riddle said, staring shrewdly back at it.

It occurred to me that Harry hadn't seen Fawkes middle-aged and healthy before. He had only seen him on a Burning Day and as a newborn. "Fawkes?" Harry breathed out. I could see the bird's golden claws squeeze his shoulder gently.

"And that," Riddle said, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, "that's the old school Sorting Hat."

Both Harry and I glanced down. So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the Sorting Hat lay motionless at Harry and I's feet. I almost leaned down to grab it, curious as to why Fawkes had brought the Sorting Hat or why Dumbledore had thought that we would need it, but I refrained as Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark Chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once. It was something that shook me down to my core. There was something very terrible that was about to happen.

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?" Riddle asked us, his voice ringing coldly.

My stomach churned at the sight of the old Sorting Hat. I couldn't understand how the Sorting Hat was going to help us. And, as much as I loved Fawkes, I didn't understand how he could help us. Harry and I didn't answer. The one thing that helped was that we were no longer alone. Phoenixes were incredibly brave creatures, and that was definitely something that I needed right about now. So I took a deep breath and steeled my nerves. We were going to be fine. We'd get Ginny back to normal and be back in the Great Hall by breakfast. Hopefully... I waited for Riddle to stop laughing with my courage mounting.

Finally he stopped. "To business, Harry, Tara. Twice - in your past, in my future - we have met," Riddle said, still grinning broadly.

I raised a brow. He had been looking at me, so clearly he had meant that I had met him twice, too. But I'd only met him once. Technically twice if he meant the Forbidden Forest and the dungeons. But I had a feeling that we were counting that as once. "I've only met you once," I snapped at Riddle.

Riddle smiled at me. "Are you so sure?" he asked.

Was I? "Y - Yes," I stuttered, hating myself for sounding unsure.

"How?" Riddle asked me. I didn't answer, being unsure. "And twice I failed to kill you. Not you, of course... I have no intention of killing you," Riddle told me. My eyebrows rose. There it was again. Not wanting to kill me. Why not? Riddle then turned to Harry. "How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you stay alive."

It was very obvious that as I was thinking fast, weighing our chances, Harry was doing the same. Riddle had the wands. We were next to useless without them, and obviously Riddle could use them. He was powerful enough already. We had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, neither of which would be much good in a duel. It looked bad, all right. There was no way that I could see that we were going to win this. But the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny. In the meantime, I noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid. He would be to full power soon, and we couldn't let him come back. If it had to be a fight between us and Riddle, better sooner than later.

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me. I don't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-Born mother," Harry said, shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul -"

"You failed to kill us in the dungeons last year and you'll fail to kill us here," I added, interrupting Harry.

Riddle's head snapped over to me. "Haven't you listened, you stupid girl? I will not be killing you," he hissed at me. Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile, turning back to Harry. "So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful counter-charm. I can see now... there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both Half-Blood's, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. With yourself being the exception, of course," he added to me. "We even look something alike... but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."

"What about me?" I asked, sensing that he was getting to the end of speaking to us.

If he was about to call the Basilisk, I would be willing to do anything to change that. I had a feeling that we would stand a better chance with fighting someone that we could at least look at. "Fight to save your friend. It won't work. I will return to power, stronger than ever, and you will learn everything," Riddle told me.

And he was right about that. The longer that we stood here, waiting for something to happen, the weaker that Ginny got and the stronger that Riddle became. We had to do something, and we had to do something quickly. But what? We hadn't used wandless magic yet. I didn't know what either one of us could do. I stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again. He wasn't going to kill us with a spell, he was going to have us fight the Basilisk.

"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him," Riddle said.

He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away. Fear was spreading up my numb legs as my hand wrapped about Harry's. His hands were sweating and shaking. I was terrified as I watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. That can't be good. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed - but Harry and I both understood what he was saying...

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."

Harry and I wheeled around to look up at the statue, Fawkes swaying on Harry's shoulder. Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horror-struck, I saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. I could have sworn that my heart stopped beating. How were we going to beat something that we couldn't look at? Even from here, I could see that something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths. At least I'd get to test out that theory on whether or not the Basilisk would listen to an order from another Parselmouth...

Grabbing Harry's arm and giving it a tug, the two of us began moving. "It's the Basilisk. Run!" I shouted.

But we were both still too stunned to do anything. Harry and I backed away until we hit the dark Chamber wall. On Harry's order, I shut my eyes tight. In that moment, I felt Fawkes' wing sweep my cheek as he took flight. I wanted to shout and beg Fawkes to stay, but what chance did a phoenix have against the king of serpents? Probably less than we did. Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. I gave a little whine, knowing that we were close to our death. I felt it shudder quickly. I knew what was happening, I could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth.

Then I heard Riddle's hissing voice yet again. "Kill him. Bring her to me."

That was all that it took for the two of us to realize that we had to move. "Move! Don't look back! Keep your eyes on the floor!" Harry shouted at me.

The Basilisk was moving toward Harry and I; I could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. It would meet up with us in a matter of seconds. We only had one chance to run. But where could we go? We couldn't lead it back to Ron. Eyes still tightly shut, Harry and I began to run blindly sideways, our hands still clasped together so that we wouldn't lose each other. My free hand was outstretched, feeling our way to the end of the Chamber. Voldemort was laughing. I did not want to be brought to him. I couldn't. As we began sprinting back up the main pathway, Harry tripped.

It was something that I should have seen coming. He fell first and the sudden movement brought me down with him. The two of us fell hard onto the stone, our bodies rolling together. The heavy impact caused me to immediately taste blood. I must have hit the ground harder than I'd thought. I could see the stars spinning behind my closed eyes. The serpent was barely feet from us in the meantime, probably pleased with our fall; I could hear it coming.

That was when I knew that Harry wasn't going to let anything happen to me. Not as long as he was still alive. We had landed in a tangled heap, the two of us keeping our eyes closed tightly. Harry untangled our arms and legs, throwing me away from him. I thought that he was going to yank the two of us upwards, desperate to keep running and get away from the Basilisk, but he did something else. He grabbed me around the waist and threw me underneath himself, covering my body with his. I could feel the serpent stop right behind us. I cried out, sensing the thing rear back, ready to spear Harry. I grabbed his hand as tightly as I could, desperate that this would work.

I could hear Harry muttering that he was sorry, and that I would be okay, but I tried to block them out. "Stop! Return to the statue!" I commanded the Basilisk, the words coming out in a low hiss.

It didn't immediately work. But the Basilisk that had been preparing to spear us stopped. The Basilisk, in fact, hesitated for a moment. Riddle was shouting commands in the background, probably horrified that the Basilisk had listened to my command. I was terrified that it would kick back into gear and spear us at any moment with its jaws. But that moment of hesitation was everything that we needed. I would never know what made me shout to Basilisk, other than the desperation to not die, or what had made it hesitate.

None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was what happened afterwards. There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above us, and then something heavy hit Harry and I so hard that we were smashed into the wall. We both cried out as we hit the ground, Harry shoving me back behind him. Our eyes were still closed, unwilling to die after everything that had happened. Not knowing anything better to do, we merely waited for fangs to sink through our bodies. In the meantime, I heard more mad hissing, and something thrashing wildly off the pillars. It wasn't something that I could help. I opened my eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on. I saw that Harry was doing the same.

The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. It was huge. It had to be over thirty feet long. It could have easily just slithered over students, killing them. As Harry and I trembled, ready to close our eyes if it turned, we saw what had distracted the snake. Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the Basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers.

No part of me could understand what was happening. Fawkes was right around the head but he hadn't died. He must have been immune to the gaze. Fawkes dived back towards the Basilisk. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor, some of it splattering Harry and I. I screamed at the disgusting feeling of the warm, slick, blood. The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Harry and I. We jumped backwards and before I could shut my eyes, it turned.

Just as I prepared myself for death, I realized that it wasn't going to come. Harry and I looked straight into its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix. Fawkes was immune to the gaze and he had blinded the Basilisk so that we would be able to look at it. If Dumbledore wasn't about fifteen times my age, I could have kissed him. He knew what was going to happen, he knew what the creature was down here, and he knew that Fawkes would save our lives. In the meantime, blood was streaming to the floor, sliding over to Harry and I, and the snake was spitting in agony.

The tail swiped towards us once more and Harry and I jumped out of the way just in time. I could tell that Harry didn't understand what was happening. "It's blind... Harry it's blind! We can look at it," I shouted gleefully at him.

"But Fawkes -" Harry started before I cut him off.

"He must be immune to the gaze," I said. That was the only thing that made sense to me. Fawkes should have been dead. He had been clawing out the Basilisk's eyes.

In the background, I could hear Riddle screaming, echoing off of the Chamber walls. "No! Leave the bird! Leave the bird! They are behind you! You can still smell them! Kill him! Bring her to me!" Riddle shouted, his voice muddled with the Parseltongue hisses.

The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Harry and I clung onto each together and began nervously backing away. I wasn't sure where we could go, we still had to get Ginny out of here, but I knew that we couldn't be this close to the Basilisk. Maybe it couldn't kill or Petrify us without the gaze any longer, but I knew that it could still flatten us if it really wanted to do that. And I wasn't intended on being anyone's dinner, or returning to Riddle... Voldemort... Whatever. Fawkes was circling the Basilisk's head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.

He was trying to make the Basilisk as useless as possible. I could just hope that it would work. I didn't know if the Basilisk could really hear or not, but I knew that smell would be a big issue. "Help us, help us," Harry muttered wildly, "someone - anyone -"

He was terrified, and so was I, but I knew that no one was helping us. Not down here. We were on our own. "No one is helping us, Harry! We have to move!" I yelled at him.

Just as I yelled that, I noticed Fawkes swoop away from the Basilisk and past Harry and I. I wanted to shout for the bird to come back and help us, but it had already done everything that it could. Harry grabbed my hand and the two of us leapt from the stone pathway. The Basilisk's head was still weaving drunkenly back and forth. I could only imagine that it was in excruciating pain. Harry and I slowly started backing away. That was when I realized that it had heard us. We'd stepped in a small puddle on the pathway. The Basilisk stopped thrashing and turned its head straight towards us, blood still dripping from the punctured eyes.

It suddenly looked a lot more dangerous to me than it had ten seconds ago. Harry's hand tightened around mine and I tried to hold my breath, not wanting to move. Maybe it wouldn't hear us. I could only pray that if it stared at the spot that we were in without hearing us move, it wouldn't know that we were still here. But I knew that it had. The Basilisk hissed at us and Harry gave my hand a quick tug, shoving me in front of him so that if the Basilisk lunged, it would hit Harry. It was why I sprinted away from the area that we were standing in, down a side pathway off of the main Chamber.

The second that we moved, I was glad that we hadn't followed my original thoughts. The Basilisk let out a piercing hiss before slamming its head down where we had been standing not even a moment before. I could hear the jaws snap shut behind us as we sprinted down the corridor. The winding body was following us. I could feel the small pipes shaking with the weight of the snake. The only thing that I could hope was that we might be able to lose the Basilisk while sprinting down the Chamber pathways.

Harry and I were both running with quick breaths. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I panted loudly. I couldn't imagine that it was helping keep the Basilisk off of our trail, but I couldn't breathe any slower. We were also running through water that went nearly up to my knees. It was almost impossible to sprint as fast as I could, considering that my legs kept getting stuck in the water. But Harry continued shoving me forward, the water sloshing loudly. The Basilisk could obviously hear us.

We rounded a corner into a smaller chamber, managing to pick up our legs and jump into the separate chamber. We turned at the exactly right moment; the two of us barely managed to get out of the way. The Basilisk lunged forward, growling loudly, as it smashed into the rock and stone of the pipes and stalactites. They went flying everywhere, some of the pieces hitting both Harry and I, cutting up our faces and robes. There went not destroying another pair of robes... If there was one good thing about the Basilisk smashing into the stone face, it was that it had stunned it long enough for us to run off.

Together we turned another corner as the Basilisk tried to regain its bearings. The two of us ran through the circular pipes, our sweaty hands barely managing to stay together, considering that we were mostly soaked from the water and the sweat. We were both panting and trying to find a place to go. I was desperate to keep us away from the Basilisk. Harry's hand tightened around mine as we tried to find a way out of the piping. We could bring someone else down here to help us with the Basilisk now that its gaze was no longer murderous. Harry and I turned back as we ran, no longer spotting the Basilisk. Wherever it had gone, we'd managed to lose the Basilisk for the time being.

Panting from exhaustion, we continued to hunt for a way out. We had to get out of here and bring someone else down with us. There was no way that we could take care of this thing together. As we ran down the circular pipe I noticed that rats were running back and forth. I was careful not to smash them in my panic to get away. Harry grabbed my arm and turned me down another pipe. But the moment that we tuned, I realized that the way was blocked off with a grate. We tried to press and pull against it, but it was solid.

"Go back. Go another way," I told Harry.

The two of us turned back to leave and head back into the main pipe to find another way out, but it was too late. The moment that I turned back, I realized that the Basilisk had managed to find us. It was slinking around in the main pipe, its head parallel with where Harry and I were hiding. We both pressed back against the metal grate, praying that the Basilisk would continue on in the main pipe. It was growling lowly as it turned down the pipe that we were stuck in. I clasped a hand over my mouth, praying that I wouldn't say anything. Harry pressed me back behind him, the two of us sinking back as far as we could.

The pipe wasn't that big. It was only about twenty feet deep. The jaws were slightly pried apart, the blood still oozing from where the eyes had once been. Harry and I sank down against the ground in utter terror. I could only hope that our scents were mixing in with everything else from the Chamber. My hands were shaking as I stared at the Basilisk. Should I risk speaking to it? The jaws opened all the way as it approached within feet of us. My hand tightened over my mouth as I saw the saliva running over the teeth that looked more like miniature swords. The jaws were less than a foot away from Harry when his hands tightened around a rock. He picked it up and tossed it off into the main pipe.

To my absolute shock, the jaws of the Basilisk closed slightly, and it began to turn back to the noise. It stayed still in the pipe for a moment before backing out of the pipe, not even bothering to glance back into the pipe that we were in. Not that it mattered, it couldn't see us. The Basilisk quickly backed out of the small pipe that we were hiding in and went back into the main pipe. The growls were echoing through the Chamber as it turned the opposite way that we had come. Harry and I slowly stood from our spots on the floor of the pipe, walking out to where the Basilisk was slithering.

Very slowly we walked out to where the Basilisk was leaving. Our hands were still clasped together, myself hiding slightly behind Harry. We walked out of the edge of the pipe just in time to see the very tip of the Basilisk's tail slithering by us. We watched it disappear in the fork at the end of the main pipe, heading towards the right. Harry grabbed my arm and gently pulled me with him, the two of us staying silent as we walked. We headed towards the fork in the pipe that the Basilisk had just gone through, but headed towards the left, back into the main portion of the Chamber. Our feet were splashing in the water as we sprinted back towards Ginny's still body and Riddle's memory.

Riddle was watching us curiously, probably wondering how we had gotten away from the Basilisk. I was, too. "Help me grab her. We need to get out of here," Harry told me, moving to get Ginny.

"Okay."

In the meantime, Riddle was fingering Harry's wand once more. "Yes, Potter. The process is nearly complete. In a few minutes, Ginny Weasley will be dead, and I will cease to be a memory. Lord Voldemort will return... very much alive," he warned us.

There was no way that we could even risk getting her out of here. There was nothing that could be done. We had to break the spell that he'd placed on her. But how? We couldn't let Voldemort return. Harry and I were about to grab Harry when the unexpected happened. Just behind us, the Basilisk appeared from the water. The water sprayed everywhere, sloshing across Harry and me. The two of us gasped at the emergence of the snake and I cringed. What now? We had no way to defeat it. The Basilisk was shrieking as it swayed back and forth, shaking the water off of itself.

Just when I thought that we might have had the chance to run and get away from the Basilisk, I was wrong. After three sways it stopped moving and opened its mouth in a piercing scream. Harry and I exchanged a panicked look with each other. What did we do? Sacrifice ourselves and try to save Ginny, or run and save ourselves? Would any of us manage to get out this? I turned back to see how far away the entrance to the Chamber was when I spotted it. Something was appearing in the Sorting Hat.

It was slowly appearing, almost like it had magically been conjured. It probably had. It was the hilt of a sword. A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of egg. I didn't know what it was, but that didn't matter to me. A sword through the brain would kill the Basilisk. That meant that we would have to get close to it, but we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

"Harry, get that!" I shouted at him.

The two of us jumped from the ground, leaving Ginny's body. The Basilisk wouldn't kill her, not when Riddle needed her to return to full strength. Harry grabbed the sword around the hilt and I watched as he yanked it out. It was much longer than I thought that it would be. He pushed me behind him as the two of us backed away. Harry was holding the sword up to where the Basilisk was slithering back and forth, trying to figure out where we were. We backed off slowly before Harry turned and shoved me towards the statue of Salazar Slytherin. We ran towards it in a full sprint, the Basilisk trying to track the movement. As we ran through the water I realized that it was going to hear us. Just as I thought, the Basilisk turned towards us. As we got our feet up onto one of the little waves of the statue, extending to the side, we started to climb.

The Basilisk was following us as we stood up on one of the overhangs. There was barely two feet of clearance that we could stand on. One wrong move would send us toppling to the stone floor and the jaws of the snake. Harry moved closer towards the Basilisk, ordering me to stay where I was. I remained on the smallest portion of the statue as Harry stood in front of the Basilisk. Harry swung out at the Basilisk twice, missing both times. The snake hissed and backed away as Harry continued to swipe. The problem was that it now knew where we were. The Basilisk backed away before rearing back and swiping out at the statue. Harry barely managed to duck out of the way as the jaws came in between the two of us, knocking free chunks of the statue from the force. The chunk of rock hit me as Harry yelled for me to follow him, which I did, as the Basilisk tried to regain its bearings.

Harry sent me crawling up the statue first. We continued to try and climb to the head of Salazar Slytherin. It would put us on the same level as the Basilisk. It didn't take the snake long to recover from the impact. As I stood on another one of the overhangs, Harry right below me, trying to pull himself up, the snake dove again. It hit right below where I was standing, knocking Harry free of his hold. I screamed as Harry hung on with one hand. Before the Basilisk could dive again, I grabbed Harry and yanked him with me. We both panted as we pulled each other onto the top of Slytherin's head, backing away.

My entire body was in pain from the stress of the climb. My hands were shaking and covered in blood from the chunks of rock smacking into us. I panted as we stood together on the slightly rounded head. I was glad that Hermione wasn't here. She didn't like heights and we were extremely high up. By the time that Harry and I had straightened ourselves out, we went to looking for where the Basilisk had gone. But, of course, by now the Basilisk had disappeared once more.

"Where did it go? Where did it go?" I asked, panicking as we rocked back and forth.

If we got trapped up here, there was nowhere to run. "I don't know. Stay close," Harry said, standing on my right.

As we stood above the rest of the Chamber, I glanced around. I could see the end of the passage about a thousand feet away. There was no way that we could make a run for it. Ginny was still laying completely still at the base of the statue. Riddle was slowly getting clearer and clearer. He seemed almost real now as we waited. We had minutes, but the Basilisk had gone. Of course, we weren't alone for long. It popped back out of the water, hissing angrily, and moving towards Harry and I. I stepped off to the side, knowing that Harry was the one with the means of defeating it. Harry swiped back and forth at the snake, but almost nothing was working.

He wasn't trained in sword fighting and the Basilisk could hear the changes in the wind. It didn't matter. Harry made one correct swipe over the nose of the Basilisk. It howled loudly and backed away, swiping back and forth. It backed away, and by the time that it had regained its senses, it was no longer facing Harry. It was facing me. It dove towards me and I tried to make a run for it, but it was too late. The Basilisk caught me around the thigh, digging the teeth in, and pulled me free from the statue. A piercing scream that I was sure was loud enough for Ron to hear escaped my mouth.

"Tara!" I could hear Harry scream desperately.

He looked like he was about to cry as he backed away, probably planning on flinging himself onto the Basilisk's head. But we needed him alive. "Don't, Harry!" I shouted to him.

"No! That's not the boy!" Riddle shrieked at the snake.

Pain. Unimaginable pain was all that I could feel. It was horrible. The jaws were clamped tightly around my thigh as I fell to the side of the Basilisk's mouth. Everything was killing me. The jaws that were around me were tightening to the point that I was sure that it was going to break the bone. And at some point, not long after it had grabbed me, it did. A horrible scream escaped my mouth as the bone in my thigh snapped under the weight. My scream filled the Chamber as the Basilisk's fangs sunk in even deeper. I could feel them scraping against the broken bone and tearing through the muscle.

There was nothing that I could do except go along for the ride as the Basilisk slunk back under the water, bringing me with it. I could hear Riddle shouting commands for it to let me go and Harry's useless screams. Shutting my eyes as the Basilisk dove under the water, I grimaced at the taste of my own blood filling my mouth. I had a limited time to solve this. I could hold my breath for a long time seeing that I was from Florida, but not forever. And the poison was filling my veins, flooding into my heart and being fed to the rest of my body. I was not going to die down here. If nothing else, I wanted Harry to bring my body back.

Limited time, Tara... You have a limited time to solve this... I tried to fight against the grip of the Basilisk as it sank deeper and deeper into the water. It wasn't amphibious. It would have to come back up for air eventually. But I had a feeling that it could hold its breath longer than I could. The more that I fought, the worse that it got. The fangs were tearing through the muscle at every movement and the poison was slowing my movements. It didn't help that the grip from the Basilisk's jaws were getting tighter and tighter. In a matter of time it would shred my leg clean off. But that was when I remembered.

It had listened to me before. Why not now? So, using the last of my air reserve, I opened my mouth and spoke through the bloody water. "Release me. Bring me back to the surface," I ordered.

I almost hadn't been expecting it to listen to me. But the Basilisk stopped descending through the water and turned backwards, heading back up to the surface. My lungs were burning with the strain. Water was invading my mouth and nose, flooding into my body. My ears were popping painfully at the quick ascent, but I wasn't going to order it to slow down. I was out of air. The Basilisk broke through the surface and I took in a huge breath as it flung me back up to the statue. I smacked into the wall of the Chamber before sliding back down, every inch of me burning with pain as I leaned over and threw up the water that I had inhaled.

Harry sprinted over to me, forgetting about the task at hand. My head and shoulders were bloody from the impact, and my leg was a shredded mess. Harry grabbed my head and forced me to look at him as my head fell back and forth. The poison was getting to me already. I'd be dead in a matter of minutes.

"Tara! Tara! Look at me," Harry ordered me. I could see that he was on the verge of tears.

But even through my muddled vision, I could see the Basilisk rearing to strike at Harry. "The Basilisk..." I muttered, spitting out blood. "Harry, the Basilisk! Kill it! Leave me, kill it!" I shouted at him.

Harry looked very hesitant to leave me, but I knew that he had to. It was his one chance to ensure that at least he and Ginny made it out of here. The Basilisk lunged at Harry, breaking off a piece of the statue, as he edged towards the front of it. The Basilisk continued to lunge as Harry swept back and forth. From my spot on the ground, I could see Harry make contact with the side of the Basilisk's face. Harry fell backwards as the Basilisk managed to hit him in the chest and I groaned, praying that he would end this. He stood back upright and lashed at the Basilisk once more. The Basilisk hit Harry with its snout and I screamed as Harry was thrown near me.

I was unable to stand, but I could see the sword had landed on the other end of the rock. And it was slipping off of the edge. That was Harry's only chance. "The sword, Harry!" I screamed at him. "Stop, stop!" I tried to order the Basilisk.

But it was too late. The Basilisk was no longer obeying my orders. It was angry and wanted the two of us dead. Harry, realizing what I had been shouting about, spotted the sword as it began to slip. He leaned upwards from his spot and began to crawl after the sword. He wrapped his hand around it, barely able to catch the sword in time before it fell off of the edge of Slytherin's head. The Basilisk's head was falling towards Harry, jaws opened wide, as Harry stood upright. They were only inches away from each other.

As I let out a scream, desperate to move, but unable, I watched in horror. This time, the Basilisk's aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth. Both Riddle and I screamed. Riddle because his precious pet was dying, and myself because I saw what had happened. The blood from the Basilisk drenched Harry's arms, but his own would soon be mixing into it. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm. Neither one of us were going to live... And we still might not even save Ginny. Harry ripped his arm out of the roof of the Basilisk's mouth, bringing the sword with him, the fang lodged into his arm as Harry ripped it out. The Basilisk shrieked and keeled over sideways to fall to the floor, shaking the entire Chamber in the process.

"No!" I screamed.

The Basilisk was dead, but so were we. Harry leaned back to me and slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. We exchanged a look with each other. We were going to die... Basilisks were incredibly venomous. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from my leg, only getting worse and worse. The two of us sat together, watching our blood soaking through our robes. My vision was becoming even foggier. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color. A patch of scarlet swam past, and I heard a soft clatter of claws land beside us.

Harry crawled over to me, nudging me towards the place that we had climbed up. "Get back down. Come on. I'll help. Together," Harry told me, wrapping his uninjured arm around my waist.

"Damn it," I hissed, dragging the useless leg behind me.

"Your leg..," Harry muttered, seeing the real damage that the Basilisk had done.

Glancing down, I saw that it was a mess of muscle, torn and practically hanging out. Bone was visible, poking out through the skin. "Your arm..." I muttered, looking away from my own injury.

"I'm sorry, Tara, I'm sorry," Harry said softly as we began dropping back to the ground.

"It's okay. Hey, it's okay. At least we're together," I told him.

As we hit the bottom of the statue, the two of us landed on the ground, splashing into the water. We weren't really able to support our own weight as we crawled back towards Ginny. My entire body was radiating with pain. "How long do we have?" Harry asked me.

We had less than five minutes, at the absolute most. "Don't worry about it," I said as Fawkes dropped beside us. I smiled at him. The Basilisk would still be alive if Fawkes hadn't blinded it. "Thanks Fawkes."

"Fawkes. You were fantastic, Fawkes..." Harry said thickly.

Through blurred vision, I glanced down at Fawkes. He was sitting in between Harry and I. I felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the Basilisk had torn apart my leg. Harry and I grabbed onto each other's hands as we prepared to die down in the Chamber of Secrets. There was no way that we were walking away from this. Not after everything that had happened. There was no cure for a Basilisk fang's venom. I could hear echoing footsteps and then a dark shadow moved in front of us. Harry's hand tightened protectively on mine.

"Pity. I tried to tell the Basilisk not to bite you. But if you're both going to die, I suppose it makes no matter..." Riddle said, pacing around me. I could see the blurry lines of his body. "You're dead, Harry Potter. Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying," Riddle continued.

Was Fawkes crying? I couldn't even see him. My head was limp on my shoulders and kept falling onto Harry's. I could feel his sweaty body pressed against my own. I blinked, trying to find Fawkes. Fawkes's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers. It hit my leg and I cringed, feeling the muscle on my leg almost sizzle. It felt like the muscle on my leg was dissolving. I cried out in pain slightly, my overheated head slipping back against the cool stone floor.

"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry," Riddle said.

Crying out as the pain continued, I laid back, my chest rising and falling with the rapid breaths that I was taking. It felt like my organs were shutting down. I was sure that they were. The water was shining up against the ceiling. It seemed to be getting a little bit brighter. Maybe this was what Muggles meant when they said that they were going into the light when they died. I felt drowsy, like I was about to fall asleep after a few sips of Firewhisky. Everything around me seemed to be spinning. Maybe falling asleep for a little while would be nice.

"So ends the famous Harry Potter. Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by his friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry... She bought you twelve years of borrowed time... but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must..." Riddle's distant voice echoed.

But that was when I started to realize that the pain was leaving me. My body didn't seem so heavy. Phoenix tears... Could they heal a Basilisk bite? Could it fix everything that was wrong with me? "We're not going to die," I muttered to Riddle.

My words were slurred and probably didn't sound very much like words. If this really was dying it wasn't so bad. At least Harry was with me. Despite what Riddle thought, we weren't alone. Now even the pain was leaving me... Maybe that was what happened when you got closer to death, to at least have some peace before the end. But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. I gave my head a little shake to clear the blurriness. There was Fawkes, still resting his head in between Harry and I. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wounds - except that there were no wounds.

Blood was still soaking our skin, but the torn muscle on my leg was no longer hanging out. The skin was intact, and giving my leg a little shake, I noticed that it was no longer broken. Fawkes had heard us. "Get away, bird," Riddle's voice said suddenly. "Get away from him - I said, get away!"

The two of us slowly managed to sit up once more. Harry was holding onto me. Even though most of the fuzz was gone from my head, I noticed that the world was coming back into focus again. If I didn't feel like I'd just woken up from a long nap, and the fact that I still felt very sore and stiff, I wouldn't have thought that I'd just been battling a Basilisk. Harry raised his head, pulling me with him. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Fawkes; I could see mine poking out of his pocket. There was a bang like a gun and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet, leaving the Chamber.

He had saved our lives twice. "Phoenix tears..." Riddle said quietly, staring at Harry's arm and my leg. "Of course... healing powers... I forgot..." He looked into Harry's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. You, alive, is just what I wanted. Just you and me, Harry Potter... you and me..."

He raised Harry's wand and I suddenly felt cemented to my place. He was keeping me out of the fight. Riddle raised the wand again, this time pointing it at Harry. I struggled to move but it was impossible. The spell was too strong. Then, in a rush of wings, breaking the contact between Riddle and Harry, Fawkes had soared back overhead and dropped something into Harry's lap. We both stared at it. It was the diary. For a split second, all three of us, Riddle with the wand still raised, stared at it. Harry and I exchanged a look and I grabbed a Basilisk fang that had tangled itself into my robes, tossing it at him. He seemed to know what to do, because I knew that we both felt it. It was as though we had been meant to do it all along. Harry seized the fang as I tossed it to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.

There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream from Riddle. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing. There were chunks disappearing from him. I watched as a bright golden light flooded over him. The memory was being destroyed, and with it, any chance he had of regenerating. And then, with a final scream, he had gone. The memory was destroyed. Harry and I's wands fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The Basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.

Harry and I stared at each other for a long while. We were both panting, obviously wondering what the hell had just happened, and how we had managed to get out of this alive. "What happened?" I asked Harry.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know..." Then he looked over at me. It was like we were seeing each other for the first time. "Tara..." he muttered, checking me over.

"Harry..." The two of us immediately launched into each other's arms, laughing madly and shaking all over. "Thank Merlin!" I cried out, smiling into his shoulder.

Somehow we had managed to get out. "Are you alright?" Harry asked, backing away from me.

Nodding at him, I pushed my bloodstained hair away from my eyes. "I'll need therapy for the rest of my life, and a boiling hot shower, but I think that I'm going to live," I told him. He laughed softly, his laugh echoing around the Chamber. "Are you okay?" I asked him.

He nodded at me. "Fine. But Ginny!" he cried.

That was when I remembered, it wasn't just us that had been at risk. With Riddle's memory gone and no longer feeding off of Ginny's soul, would she be alright? Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up, giving me a hand up afterwards. The two of us stood together, holding each other tightly. My head was spinning as though I'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. My leg was very sore and still twinging with the memory of the Basilisk tearing apart the muscle. Slowly, the two of us limped away, gathered together the wands and the Sorting Hat, and, moved over to the Basilisk's body. With a huge tug, Harry retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the Basilisk's mouth.

Cringing slightly, I looked away from the creature, wishing that I had never laid eyes on it in the first place. "I hate snakes," I muttered, turning to stare at Harry.

He nodded. "Yeah. Me, too," he muttered.

Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. Harry and I both turned back and immediately sprinted over to her. As we both hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead Basilisk, giving something that sounded like a horrified cry, she turned and saw Harry and I. Her jaw dropped and I saw tears well up. Her eyes trailed over us, in our blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in Harry's hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

"Ginny!" I cried as I slid onto my knees over to her.

A terrible pain went through me as Ginny cried and grasped onto me, her grip almost crushed. Of course, now I knew what crushing felt like. "Oh, Tara! Harry - Oh, Harry. I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy. It was me, Harry, Tara - but I - I s-swear I d-didn't mean to. R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over - and - how did you two kill that - that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary -"

Holding my hand up to her, I tried to stop her from panicking any more. "It's okay, Ginny, you didn't do anything that was your own fault. Riddle was in your head. You couldn't help what you were doing. It was like mind control," I told her. She nodded, the tears only falling even quicker. "And I don't think that you want to know how we killed it," I told her softly, glancing over to the Basilisk's body.

"It's all right," Harry said, helping me try to convince her that everything would be alright. He was holding up the diary and showing Ginny the fang hole. "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here -"

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry and I helped her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and - w-what will Mum and Dad say?"

"You won't be expelled. Not after what we've just done," I told her. She didn't seem any more relieved. "Now us, I can't say the same thing for," I continued, giving Harry a look that told him that we probably had a lot of explaining to do. "Come on. Come here."

Wrapping Ginny under my arms, I placed her in between Harry and I. Fawkes was waiting for us, hovering in the Chamber entrance. We would be dead without him. Harry and I urged Ginny forward. Together we stepped over the motionless coils of the dead Basilisk, myself giving it a tough kick as we walked by. Ginny cried out, probably thinking that it would wake, and I tucked her head into my shoulder. Together we walked through the echoing gloom and back into the tunnel. I heard the stone doors close behind us with a soft hiss. Reaching behind Ginny, I gave Harry's hand a squeeze. We gave each other a weak smile over Ginny's head. After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached my ears.

I'd almost forgotten that Ron and Lockhart were still down here in the tunnels. "Ron! Ginny's okay! We've got her!" Harry yelled loudly, speeding us towards the area.

From the other side of the rocks, I heard Ron give a strangled cheer. Both Harry and I smiled down at Ginny. She was still crying but seemed to have brightened a little bit at the idea of meeting her brother again. I could tell that Ron was thrilled, as he had probably thought that he would never see his sister again. Still keeping Ginny tight between us, we turned the next bend to see Ron's eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How - what - where did that bird come from?"

Glaring at Ron, I wanted to know how the hell he had spotted Fawkes before spotting the blood all over us. Wasn't he curious as to what had happened? I would have thought that he'd been curious as to what had happened to us. Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny, landing on my shoulder. It was right then that I realized that there had to be another entrance to the Chamber of Secrets somewhere. Fawkes had to have gotten down without Ron spotting him.

Oh well, the Basilisk was dead, so it didn't really matter. "Ron, that bird is seriously the last thing that you need to worry about," I snapped at him as Harry and I walked up the rockfall to the spot that Ron had cleared.

"He's Dumbledore's. Go through first," Harry told me, giving me a hand upright.

It was a small space, but it was big enough for me to squeeze myself through. Ron was waiting for me on the other end. There was a slight drop to the ground. "I've got you," Ron said. I nodded and dropped. He caught me and let me down to the ground. I cried out at the pain in my thigh, allowing Ron to hold me upright. "You alright?" he asked me. I nodded, not wanting to explain right now. "How come you've got a sword?" He was gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand now that he had pulled himself through.

Ron's arm was still around me, keeping the weight off of my still-sore leg. "I'll explain when we get out of here," Harry said with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.

"But -"

"Later," Harry said shortly. I nodded my agreement. I didn't think that it was a good idea to tell Ron yet who'd been opening the Chamber, not in front of Ginny, anyway. "Where's Lockhart?"

I'd completely forgotten about the useless teacher. "Back there," Ron said, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."

Giving each other a strange look, Harry and I followed. Ginny was in between Ron and Harry and I, who were walking behind her. I tried to not stare at her, knowing that she was incredibly uncomfortable right about now. The four of us were led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, leaving us not to worry about using the wands. I had tucked mine back into my torn up robes. Of course, I had once more destroyed a pair of robes. At least it was only one this year. We walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.

I raised a brow at him. What had happened? "His memory's gone. The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself," Ron said.

"Would've liked to see him go in there..." I muttered to myself.

It was pleasing to hear that even Ginny let out a soft giggle. Ron and Harry laughed, staring at Lockhart. Lockhart peered up at us all, a friendly smile written across his face. "Hello. Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?" he asked us.

I couldn't help it. I let out a mad bark of laughter, despite everything that had happened. Lockhart merely smiled at me. "No," Ron said, raising his eyebrows at Harry and I. Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.

"I like him much better like that," I said, earning another smile from Lockhart.

"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" Harry asked Ron.

Rolling my eyes at him, I looked away from Lockhart and moved over to Harry and Ron. "Don't you ever listen?" I snapped at him. Harry merely stared at me. "Fawkes. He's a phoenix. They can carry immensely heavy loads. Harry, Dumbledore knew that we'd come down here. Fawkes is immune to the Basilisk's gaze, healing powers in the tears, and he's strong enough to carry all of us back up. This was his help to us," I said, motioning to the bird.

Ron shrugged his shoulders and nodded at Harry. Fawkes had swooped past Harry and I and was now fluttering in front of us, his beady eyes bright in the dark. I smiled at the phoenix and walked over to him, giving his warm feathers a little pet. He was waving his long golden tail feathers. Obviously he agreed with me. We were supposed to hang onto his tail feathers and allow him to carry us back up the pipe. Harry was still looking uncertainly at him.

"Best present he could have given you both," Ron said.

Harry glanced over at me and nodded. "At least you listen," he told me. I nodded, bringing Ginny closer to Fawkes. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart -"

"He means you," Ron said sharply to Lockhart.

"You hold Ginny's other hand," Harry told Lockhart. "Tara, you hang onto me. Ron, hold onto Tara."

We all nodded and got into the lineup. Thankfully Fawkes was very slow with lifting us up, allowing us to take a few moments to get into place. Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, I took a hold of the back of Harry's robes, Ron took hold of the back of the section of my robes that weren't torn, and Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes's strangely hot tail feathers. Ron was grasping Ginny tightly, and she seemed to be having a hard time holding Lockhart. An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through my whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, we were flying upward through the pipe.

As we soared upwards, I smiled at the rush. It was easy to hear Lockhart dangling below us, yelling, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!"

"Finally, something fun!" I called loudly.

The others laughed as we flew up and up, to the very top of the pipe. The chill air was whipping through my hair. It smelled very much like metal from the blood, and my robes were probably sticky with the same blood. Way before I'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over. Fawkes had brought us back into Myrtle's bathroom. Harry let go of his wings and all five of us were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I groaned at the pain from the slight impact. As Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place. Hopefully we would be the last people to ever set foot down there. Myrtle goggled at us.

"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," Harry said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses.

"Sorry to disappoint you," I snapped at her.

She had completely ignored me, but she was still staring at Harry. "Oh, well... I'd just been thinking... if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," Myrtle told Harry, blushing silver.

I could have spent the rest of my life going over all of the reasons that that was incredibly wrong. But I didn't. Instead, I shoved Harry and Ron, still keeping Ginny under my arm, leaving the bathroom with a grinning Lockhart in tow. "Ugh!" Ron cringed as we left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!"

Tears were still flooding down Ginny's face and I glared at Ron. Now was the wrong time to mess with her. Maybe in a few months after she'd gotten over everything. "Shut up. Move it," I snapped at them.

If it weren't for the fires that burned down the halls, I wouldn't have been able to see anything. What did we do now? Was there anything to do? I wanted to go to sleep, but I imagined that that wasn't an option. "Where now?" Ron asked, with an anxious look at Ginny.

Harry and I exchanged a look. We both knew what had to be done, as much as we would have loved to pretend that nothing had happened and we had merely been in bed all night. Harry pointed a moment later. I turned back and saw what he was pointing to. Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. We nodded at each other and strode off after him. Ginny, whose sobs were the only noise in the corridor, tucked herself into me. Mere moments later, we found ourselves outside Professor McGonagall's office. Swallowing the fear of what was going to come, I nodded at Harry. He knocked and, without waiting for permission, pushed the door open.


	36. Dobby's Reward

The door slowly opened and I peered nervously inside, slightly terrified for what was to come. Not that I should have been, considering that I'd just walked away from a fight with a thousand year old Basilisk. For a moment there was silence as Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lockhart, and I stood in the doorway. I imagined that we couldn't have smelled very good. After all, we were all covered in muck and slime and sweat. And, of course, in Harry and I's case, blood. Lots of blood. Then there was a scream of relief.

"Ginny!"

It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter. For a moment I smiled, glad that the parents could be reunited with their daughter. I could only imagine how thrilled Fred, George, and Percy would be once they found out. And even Bill and Charlie. Of course, I wasn't sure whether or not they had even known what had happened to Ginny.

The momentary happiness that I felt didn't last that long. Because a moment later, I was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Somehow he had come back to the school, and right on time, too. Part of me felt terrible for Professor McGonagall. She was always the one dragged right into the middle of things while she tried to keep everyone calm. But even they weren't the worst. What really was terrible was that my letter had evidently worked a little better than I'd wanted it to.

Because, right beside them, was Cedric Diggory, standing in his pajamas, looking very upset. His hair was very ruffled, presumably from running his fingers through it with nerves. He'd known that we were down there. He must have told the others. Which meant that they'd probably been expecting to never see us again. Cedric's eyes were deadlocked onto me. I noticed that they were very harshly roving over my blood-stained robes. Fawkes went whooshing past my ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as I found myself, Harry, and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasley's tight embrace.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?" Mrs. Weasley asked through thick tears.

"I think we'd all like to know that," Professor McGonagall said weakly.

It took a moment for Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry and I. My leg gave a painful quiver and Harry caught me, sitting me in a chair near the desk. Cedric almost immediately came over, conjuring a roll of bandages, rolling them over my bloodstained leg. I blushed and avoided his tense gaze. Harry and I both hesitated for a moment, not knowing where to start, then Harry walked over to the desk and laid upon it the Sorting Hat, the ruby-encrusted sword, and what remained of Riddle's diary. The teachers watched the both of us closely, waiting patiently. Then we started telling them everything.

For nearly a quarter of an hour the two of us spoke back and forth into the rapt silence. The entire time that we spoke no one else in the room made a sound. The two of us told them about hearing the disembodied voice and how Hermione and I had finally realized that we were hearing a Basilisk in the pipes. I'd explained Cedric and I's trip to Professor Kettleburn and my discovery of the torn book in the library telling me that I was right about the creature. We had talked about the time that Ron, Harry, and I had followed the spiders into the forest, where Aragog had told us where the last victim of the Basilisk had died, how I had known that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets only made sense to be in her bathroom.

Faces all over the room were exchanging worried and concerned looks. I could tell that they didn't want to believe that four kids had figured out everything that they had failed to put together. Dumbledore's face remained steady throughout the entire story. Professor McGonagall looked horrified about the entire thing. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were remaining standing around Ginny, holding her tightly, trying to calm her down as we spoke. Ron was nodding along with the story. From time to time Cedric's hands would tighten around my thigh and I'd gasp in pain. He would almost immediately let me go, apologizing softly.

We fell silent and Professor McGonagall conjured up a medical kit so that Cedric could clean out the wound before wrapping it. "Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted us as we paused, "so you found out where the entrance was - breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add - but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter, Nox?"

So Harry and I, my voice now growing hoarse from all this talking and screaming earlier, told them about everything that had happened down in the Chamber. We told them about spotting Ginny at the base of Slytherin's statue, speaking with Riddle's memory, the call of the Basilisk, Fawkes's timely arrival, attempting to escape from the Basilisk's jaws, and about the Sorting Hat giving him the sword. We'd even explained about Harry stabbing the Basilisk through the head with the sword and being stabbed with the fang, and myself being dragged underneath the water, the Basilisk breaking my leg and shredding the muscle.

Obviously Cedric, who had not seen the originally destroyed leg, had not been expecting everything. Professor McGonagall had gasped at my explanation of being dragged to my near-death by the Basilisk. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley both cried out in shock as Ginny let out a strangled sob. Dumbledore remained silent and Ron's eyes bulged. It was Cedric's reaction that got me the most. His hands tightened around my still healing thigh so tightly that I cried out in the sudden pain that shot through me.

Cedric's grip almost immediately loosened and he grabbed my hand, awkwardly avoiding the gazes of those around us. "Sorry... I'm sorry. Hand slipped. Continue," he muttered.

But Harry and I faltered. We had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary and Ginny. The most that we had explained was seeing her lifeless body and her reawaken after Riddle vanished. She was standing with her head against Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, and tears were still coursing silently down her cheeks. I glanced over at her and sighed, exchanging a look with Harry. I knew that we were thinking the same thing. What if they expelled her? It wasn't her fault, but we couldn't prove it. Riddle's diary didn't work anymore... How could we prove it had been he who'd made her do it all? Instinctively, Harry and I looked at Dumbledore, who smiled faintly, the firelight glancing off his half-moon spectacles.

As usual, he came to the rescue. "What interests me most is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania," Dumbledore said calmly.

I raised a brow. How did Dumbledore know where Voldemort was? Who was keeping that close of an eye on him? But I supposed that wasn't what mattered. The only thing that mattered was that Dumbledore didn't believe that Ginny was at fault for anything. It meant that she was likely to get away with everything without ever having anything fall back onto her. In the meantime, relief - warm, sweeping, glorious relief - swept over me. We had gotten away with everything, and no one had died.

A voice brought me out of my reverie. "W-what's that? You-Know-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not... Ginny hasn't been... has she?" Mrs. Weasley asked in a stunned voice, sending her daughter an almost fearful look.

Gasping softly, unwilling to let Mrs. Weasley think that her daughter was training in the Dark Arts, I spoke as rapidly as I could. "She couldn't help it," I told her loudly.

"It was this diary," Harry said just as quickly as I did, picking the diary up and showing it to Dumbledore. He was staring at it curiously. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen..."

For a moment, everyone only stared at the diary. I knew how they felt. It was a terrifying thing to know that something so innocent had caused so much damage. It was just a stupid diary. But it had contained the memory of Voldemort as a teenager, desperate to come back to life at full power. Everyone was silent as Dumbledore took the diary from Harry. He seemed very interested in the thing. I couldn't understand why, but it was obvious that it wasn't very important to Dumbledore. So I said nothing as he peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages. There was still an air of unease around the thing.

"Brilliant. Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen," Dumbledore said softly. He turned around to the Weasley's, who were looking utterly bewildered. "Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school... traveled far and wide... sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

It was stunning to know that the man that we had spoken to down in the Chamber of Secrets was the man that would eventually become the worst Dark Wizard the world had ever seen. He had been so charming. I assumed that it was the very thing that had gained him so many favors in the first place. He had worked so relentlessly to gain power. He had showed so much promise at the end of his Hogwarts career, but he had vanished, and when he'd returned, he was only a shred of the man that he had once been. It did bother me to the core that Tom Riddle was someone that any girl would have been reasonable enough to have a crush on during their own childhood.

Once more, Mrs. Weasley's piercing voice called me back from my thoughts. "But, Ginny. What's our Ginny got to do with - with - him?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

For the first time since leaving the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny spoke. The volume of her voice made me jump. "His d-diary!" Ginny sobbed. Nearly everyone jumped, glancing back at her. Tears were still flooding down her face. I felt terrible watching her. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year -"

"Ginny!" Mr. Weasley shouted, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic -"

"I d-didn't know," Ginny sobbed loudly. Harry and I exchanged a bothered look. She was being harassed for something that wasn't her fault. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it -"

"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment." I saw relief flood her body, as it did my own. I sighed and slumped back into the chair. "Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." He strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at her. She smiled weakly. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice. I daresay the Basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."

That was the first time that I had smiled in hours, genuinely happy. Hermione would be awake in a matter of minutes. "So Hermione's okay!" Ron said brightly.

Glancing over at him, I smiled. I knew that he had cared for Hermione far more than anyone thought that he did. "There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," Dumbledore told her.

To my immense pleasure, so far everyone had been let off with nothing more than a little reprimanding that they had done something far too dangerous. Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken. Ginny glanced back at us as she was taken from the room. She glanced over at me and I gave her a little smile. She was going to be okay, and so were we. The room was silent for a moment as the door closed. Cedric finished wrapping up my leg and stood, taking a few steps backwards from me. I noticed that he was a little hesitant to let his hand drop from my leg.

"You know, Minerva. I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?" Dumbledore asked Professor McGonagall. I smiled softly at him. He always did have the best ideas, including a feast after the disastrous night.

"Right," Professor McGonagall said crisply, also moving to the door.

Obviously she did not think that a feast was really proper at the moment. Not that Dumbledore really seemed to care. And, to me, since everyone was alive and well, there was really no reason not to have a feast. I hadn't eaten since this morning and after the long battle with Riddle and the Basilisk, I was past ready to get something to eat. I was starving. Exhaustion would kick in later, but I couldn't bring myself to care right now, as long as I got some food in me. I probably would have requested something if Dumbledore hadn't ordered the feast. Of course, I wasn't sure how well I stood with making demands right now.

Startling me from my thoughts of hunger, Dumbledore spoke again. "And Mr. Diggory, might I ask you to alert the other teachers that Hogwarts will not be closing? They will alert the students," Dumbledore asked Cedric.

He nodded immediately. "Yes, sir," he said politely.

Professor McGonagall moved towards the door and extended her hand for Cedric to come with her. "Come along, Diggory," she called through the silence in the room.

He walked towards her, but before he could make it all the way to the door, he stopped in front of me. Out of respect for the moment made for somewhat privacy, Dumbledore and the others looked away. "You're out of your right mind," he told me, a disbelieving laugh escaping his mouth as he spoke.

Smiling at him, I awkwardly rubbed at my own leg, feeling a little guilty for what I had probably put him through over the last few hours. "Well, to be fair, I don't think that I've ever been in my mind," I said, laughing stupidly.

I was very grateful when Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore began speaking to each other, and Harry and Ron began speaking to each other, loud enough so that they couldn't hear Cedric and I speaking. "Your letter terrified me. I thought that you were dead down there," Cedric told me. Guiltily, I shifted in my seat. I would have been horrified if I'd gotten the same letter from him. "I came here immediately to alert everyone about what had happened. But you didn't say where the Chamber of Secrets was, so we just had to wait."

Moving towards the edge of the seat, I grabbed Cedric's hand, knowing that the letter was probably a mistake. "I'm sorry. I told Rusty to wait two hours before delivering the letter so that no one tried to stop us. I wanted to get down there and save Ginny. We managed," I told him, trying to push the blood-stained robes out of his piercing stare.

He pulled off the sweater that he was wearing and handed it to me. I smiled and slid it on underneath where the torn robes were placed over my body, for lack of a better thing to do with it. "Are you alright?" Cedric asked me once he'd helped me into the sweater. "Everything that happened sounded terrible."

Laughing softly, I nodded my head. It was the worst thing that I'd ever been through. "It was awful. I don't think that I ever want to see a snake again, but I'm okay. My leg is killing me, and I could use a really hot shower, but I'm okay," I told him.

I'd made sure to stress the point that I was okay. He smiled at me and nodded. We would all be okay, despite everything that had happened. "I'm glad that you're alright," he told me.

Smiling at him, I leaned upwards and pressed a small kiss against his cheek. For the few things that I told him, and for everything that I did to make him fear for his own sanity, he was always the one sticking by me and believing the best in me. "Thank you. And thank you for coming here," I said, motioning around to the room.

I was trying very hard to keep the blush on my face down. Cedric smiled, seemingly unaffected by the kiss on the cheek. It drove me nuts that he wasn't affected but I was. "You're going to kill me. Or at least give me gray hairs," Cedric told me teasingly.

Laughing softly, I nodded at him. "I keep you on your toes," I joked.

Grinning back at me, Cedric pulled me to my feet. I groaned at the weight going through my bad leg but allowed him to pull me in for a hug. Just as he released me, he pressed a kiss against my cheek, his lips lingering for a few moments longer than they normally did. Once more, I blushed madly as he pulled away. "I'll see you down at the feast. As insane as you are, you three did well," Cedric said.

Smiling at him once more, I nodded him off. "Thank you. I'll see you soon," I said, waving at him.

Sensing that our conversation was done, the conversations all around us broke off. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter, Nox, and Weasley, shall I?" Professor McGonagall asked Dumbledore.

"Certainly," Dumbledore said.

And the happy feeling that had been surrounding me had suddenly died. Professor McGonagall strode back to the door with Cedric in tow. He gave me a reassuring nod, letting me know that everything would be fine. She left, Harry, Ron, and I gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. He was always so fair about everything. There was no way that something was about to happen to us. And certainly not after everything that we had done. We had nearly died trying to save Ginny's life, despite breaking so many rules. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with us? Surely we weren't about to be punished? I couldn't imagine it.

But just as I was thinking that, Dumbledore confirmed my thoughts. "I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules," Dumbledore said.

Ron opened his mouth in horror. Harry seemed to have suddenly become as weak as he was when the Basilisk fang had sunk into his arm. My leg gave out a little, Ron barely managing to catch me. Sure, we had broken a lot of rules to find out about the Chamber of Secrets, but we had stopped Voldemort returning and Hogwarts closing in the meantime. Sure, we had accidentally crashed a flying car into the Whomping Willow at the beginning of the year and Dumbledore had warned us that we would be expelled if we did anything else like that, but didn't they see everything good that we had done? We had saved everyone!

"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling.

The three of us all let out a breath, awkwardly shifting around on our spots. I had been terrified that I really had managed to get myself expelled from Hogwarts. "That's not funny, sir," I told Dumbledore, smiling softly.

Dumbledore sent me a fond smile. My stomach was still turning in knots, slightly terrified that we still might manage to get ourselves in trouble. "All three of you will receive Special Awards for Services to the School," I smiled, praying that Fred and George might have to clean that trophy at some point, "and - let me see - yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."

That time I couldn't help it. I let out a loud laugh and smiled brightly. We had just earned six hundred points for Gryffindor. That was more than Slytherin - who was currently in the lead - had altogether. The rankings would fall Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, just as they had last year. We would win the House Cup for the second year in a row, the exact same way - by breaking nearly every rule in the entire school. Ron went as brightly pink as Lockhart's valentine flowers and closed his mouth again. Harry and I exchanged a proud smile. That was almost worth everything that had happened down in the Chamber.

"But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure," Dumbledore added, turning his gaze away from us. "Why so modest, Gilderoy?" he asked bemusedly.

Harry and I gave a start. Ron merely glanced backwards. I assumed that Harry, just like myself, had completely forgotten about Lockhart. It was so long that he had been silent, longer than I'd ever heard him before. Maybe the others had forgotten about him, too. I could only hope that we would explain what had happened so that he would be locked up in Azkaban. Or a mental ward. Anywhere away from me, actually. I turned and saw that Lockhart was standing in a corner of the room, still wearing his vague smile. When Dumbledore addressed him, Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.

I'd been thinking that he would at least remember his name. "Professor Dumbledore, there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets, Ron said quickly. I cringed, hoping that we wouldn't be held accountable for Lockhart's current state. It was his own fault, after all. "Professor Lockhart -"

"Am I a professor? Goodness. I expect I was hopeless, was I?" Lockhart asked in mild surprise.

Despite the fact that no one was going to say anything to him, I glanced over and glared at him. "Yes, you were," I snapped, earning a sorry glance from the Defense teacher.

"He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired," Ron explained quietly to Dumbledore.

"On us, might I add," I snarled softly. Dumbledore sent me another small smile. I couldn't believe that he would probably get away with nearly destroying our memories. Showed how fair things were. "Idiot," I added. Lockhart merely continued smiling at me.

"Dear me. Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!" Dumbledore cried. He shook his head, his long silver mustache quivering slightly with something that I assumed was amusement.

"Sword?" Lockhart asked dimly. I rolled my eyes. He hadn't just lost his memories, he'd lost the tiny bit of a brain that he'd had to start with. "Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though." He pointed at Harry. "He'll lend you one."

Dumbledore merely smiled fondly at Lockhart. He must have been enjoying this. "Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore asked Ron. He immediately nodded, moving towards Lockhart. "I'd like a few more words with Harry and Tara..." Dumbledore continued, looking at us.

Not waiting to see if Dumbledore would say anything more, Lockhart ambled out. I assumed that whoever got tasked with returning his memories would have quite something to take care of. It would probably take a long time to restore them all, if they could manage it at all. Ron cast a curious look back at Dumbledore, Harry, and I as he closed the door. We nodded at him. The two of us glanced at each other and shifted closer together. Not that I was afraid of Dumbledore, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear what he had to say. Dumbledore crossed to one of the chairs by the fire, motioning to us.

"Sit down, Harry, Tara," he said. Harry and I sat in the chairs in front of the desk, feeling unaccountably nervous. "First of all, Harry, Tara, I want to thank you both. You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to either one of you," Dumbledore continued, his eyes twinkling again.

It took me another moment to realize that Fawkes was still sitting with Dumbledore. I smiled at the sight of the phoenix. There were so few that had ever been domesticated. But the way that Fawkes sat with Dumbledore was the same way that Fang would sit with Hagrid. It was sweet to see. As we watched, Dumbledore stroked the phoenix, which had fluttered down onto his knee. It was exactly like a common house pet. Harry and I grinned awkwardly as Dumbledore watched us.

Clearing my throat, I shifted awkwardly in my chair once more. "We did mention that you were the greatest sorcerer in the world and that you were the best headmaster Hogwarts ever had," I said proudly.

So I wanted Dumbledore to like me. There wasn't anything wrong with that. "I appreciate those both," Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling furiously with the light of the fireplace flickering off of them. "And so you met Tom Riddle. I imagine he was most interested in you both..." Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

He was very slowly fingering at his beard. Harry and I exchanged a look with each other. As much as I really did love Dumbledore, he was one of the most cryptic people that I'd ever met. But that was the way that he was, and there was nothing to be done about that. It seemed like the Headmaster was in deep thought and I sighed, sinking back into the chair. I felt very weak now that I was away from all of the action of the Chamber of Secrets and the fear of what would happen once we got out. Suddenly, something that was nagging at the back of my mind came tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"But why me?" I asked him.

Dumbledore gave a gentle sigh and I groaned, knowing that he still wouldn't tell me. An 'adult thing' I assumed. "You must forgive me, Tara, but these are not answers that you need to worry yourself over just yet. I wish to not worry you," he told me. I nodded at him. He was doing it to not worry me, but I was a naturally worrying person. "You will always be under my protection. It matters not that Voldemort is not gone," Dumbledore continued, a fiercely protective look in his eyes.

A warming feeling settled over me and I smiled at him. If I was under Dumbledore's protection, I assumed that there was nothing to worry about. Not yet anyways. "Thank you, sir," I told him softly.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one with a question, as Harry spoke immediately after me. "Professor Dumbledore... Riddle said I'm like him. Strange likenesses, he said." There was a thick worry in his voice.

"Did he, now?" Dumbledore asked, looking thoughtfully at Harry from under his thick silver eyebrows. Harry nodded slowly. "And what do you think, Harry?"

"I don't think I'm like him!" Harry shouted, probably more loudly than he'd intended. I stomped on his foot to alert him that it was very rude. He cringed and continued speaking. "I mean, I'm - I'm in Gryffindor, I'm..." But he fell silent. I assumed that, just like me, there was a lurking doubt resurfacing in his mind. "Professor. The Sorting Hat told me I'd - I'd have done well in Slytherin. It told you the same thing, right, Tara?" Harry continued after a moment.

Nodding slowly, I looked away from Dumbledore, glancing at the Sorting Hat that was lying motionless and lifeless on the desk. "It told me that it would have rather put me in Slytherin," I said, feeling a little sick.

Voldemort seemed to care about me. Obviously not that much, since he had been alright, thinking that I would die, but he certainly didn't want me to die if he could help it. Was his care the reason that the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin? "Everyone thought we were Slytherin's Heirs for a while... because we can speak Parseltongue..." Harry muttered.

Dumbledore nodded. "You can speak Parseltongue, Harry, because Lord Voldemort - who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin - can speak Parseltongue," Dumbledore said calmly. Harry and I exchanged a look, unsure of what he meant by that. "Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure..."

Well that wasn't what I was expecting... I could feel Harry tense beside me. He was losing color in his face and had begun sweating again. "Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry asked, thunderstruck.

"It certainly seems so," Dumbledore said.

So that explained why Harry was able to speak Parseltongue. It was all because he had accidentally gotten some of Voldemort's powers transferred to himself on the night that he had nearly been killed. But what about me? I wasn't related to Harry and it seemed that I wasn't related to Voldemort either. My parents weren't Parselmouths and neither was anyone else that I knew of. So did that mean that I was a descendant of Slytherin? There might have been more than one. Or maybe there was a chance that there was part of Voldemort in me. Residual from his destruction right next door? After all, our childhood bedrooms were mere feet from each other.

Finally I couldn't bring myself to keep my mouth shut. I had to know what was happening to me. "But what about me? Is there a part of Voldemort in me?" I asked Dumbledore, desperate to know the truth.

Judging by the look in Dumbledore's eyes, he understood this about as much as I did. "I do not know. You have no relation to Voldemort nor do I believe that you have a relation to Salazar Slytherin," he admitted. I let out a little breath, glad that at least that wasn't the reason that the Sorting Hat had wanted to put me in Slytherin. "I do not know why you are a Parselmouth. You have none that are known in your family."

"But I mean something to Voldemort?" I asked Dumbledore, hoping that he might know something.

He knew what I meant to Voldemort. I knew that he did. But he wasn't going to tell me, because he didn't want to concern me. "Yes," Dumbledore said simply.

"So I should have been in Slytherin," I sulked. The only reason that the Sorting Hat had put me in Gryffindor was because it didn't want to listen to me complain. "The Sorting Hat only put me in Gryffindor because I -"

"Am an exemplary Gryffindor," Dumbledore interrupted me.

It wasn't just me that was doubting what the Sorting Hat had decided on, it was Harry, too. "But we both should be in Slytherin," Harry said, looking desperately into Dumbledore's face. We exchanged a depressed look with each other. "The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin's power in me, and it -"

"Put you in Gryffindor," Dumbledore interrupted calmly once more. "Listen to me, Harry, Tara. You both happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue - resourcefulness, determination, and a certain disregard for rules," he added, his mustache quivering again. This time Harry and I both smiled. "Yet the Sorting Hat placed you both in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think."

We glanced at each other. It didn't want to fight with us. And it would have been a fight if it had tried to put either one of us in Slytherin. "It only put me in Gryffindor, because I asked not to go in Slytherin..." Harry said in a defeated voice.

"Just because we were too stubborn to go where it wanted us to go," I added, feeling very weak.

This entire time, we should have been in Slytherin. Just as I'd thought, the Sorting Hat just hadn't wanted to argue. "Exactly. Which makes you both very different from Tom Riddle," Dumbledore said, beaming once more. Now I really didn't understand what was happening. "It is our choices, Harry, Tara, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." Harry and I sat motionless in the chairs, stunned. "If you want proof, either one of you, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at this."

Dumbledore reached across to Professor McGonagall's desk, picked up the blood-stained silver sword, and handed it to Harry and I. This time, he allowed me to grab it. It was a little bit heavier than I had thought that it was. The sword itself was very pretty, but I wasn't very fond of the thought that it had been inside of the mouth of the Basilisk a little earlier. What were they going to do with the body? Wrong time, Tara. Dully, I turned it over, the rubies blazing in the firelight. I held it so that Harry could look at it, too. Glancing down over the sword, I then saw the name engraved just below the hilt. Godric Gryffindor.

My eyes must have widened, because Dumbledore was smiling once more. "Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry, Tara," Dumbledore said simply.

Once more my hope deflated. It had been Harry that had grabbed it, not me. "But Harry pulled it out. Not me," I said softly.

If I had thought that Dumbledore would be irritated with my beaten-down demeanor, I was wrong. He merely smiled at me. "But who was the first one to see it?" Dumbledore asked me. Was he down there? Or did Fawkes somehow show him what we'd seen? It didn't matter. I sat in silence. "You would not have seen the sword if it did not believe that you were a true Gryffindor."

For a few minutes, none of us spoke. We all sighed and sat together. Harry reached across the chairs and grabbed my hand. I smiled at him softly before glancing down at the stone floor. So much had happened tonight. And we'd learned so much more. Harry had powers given to him from Voldemort, and somehow, I had them, too. It would bother me for the rest of my life, but if it meant that Voldemort would never come back, I'd rather not know. It was a few minutes later that Dumbledore pulled open one of the drawers in Professor McGonagall's desk and took out a quill and a bottle of ink.

Harry and I watched him closely. "What you need, Harry, Tara, is some food and sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban - we need our gamekeeper back." Harry and I exchanged a smile. "And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too. We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?" Dumbledore added thoughtfully.

Laughing softly, the two of us nodded at Dumbledore. "Yes, sir, we do," I said, trusting that there was no way that there could be a worse teacher than Gilderoy Lockhart.

Knowing that we were about to be dismissed from the office, I got ready to stand. But, before we could, Dumbledore spoke once more. "I noticed that Gilderoy's nose seem to be a bit... off center. Did something happen to him in the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked us.

For a moment I wanted to brag about punching Lockhart. But assault was kind of a big deal, and he technically still was the teacher, so I settled with exchanging a smile with Harry and Dumbledore. It was quite obvious that he knew what had happened. "That hit against the wall was really hard," I said with a vague smile.

Dumbledore sighed and shook his head. "Such a pity that those things happen," Dumbledore said.

Thanking Dumbledore for everything, and welcoming him back to Hogwarts, Harry and I stood from the chairs. Dumbledore waved us off, telling us to head down to the feast. My stomach immediately growled at the prospect of food. Harry and I crossed to the door of the office, standing beside each other. He had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall. The both of us jumped back from the door, Harry yanked me out of the warpath of whoever was coming in. Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.

"Dobby," I gasped.

The house-elf smiled weakly at me, but said nothing. He looked terrible. Lucius must have beaten him for something. I exchanged a worried look with Harry. For all of Dobby's faults, he really was just trying to help. "Good evening, Lucius," Dumbledore said pleasantly.

I had always assumed that Dumbledore was a little more antagonistic than people thought. He just did it in the way that made him look very happy and very friendly. It was almost funny, considering that it was so obvious that Lucius Malfoy hated Dumbledore. He must have been furious to see him after trying so hard to get him kicked out of the school. He must have hated that the attacks were over, too, since he'd been a major part of the plan. Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Harry and I over as he swept into the room. Harry grabbed me and yanked me out of his way quickly. I assumed that he'd barely even noticed us.

Not waiting for an order, Dobby went scurrying in after him, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on his face. The elf was carrying a stained rag with which he was attempting to finish cleaning Mr. Malfoy's shoes. Apparently Mr. Malfoy had set out in a great hurry, for not only were his shoes half-polished, but his usually sleek hair was disheveled. News must have spread very quickly that Dumbledore had returned to Hogwarts. Harry and I, instead of leaving, lingered at the door. Ignoring the elf bobbing apologetically around his ankles, he fixed his cold eyes upon Dumbledore.

"So! You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts," Lucius Malfoy sneered at Dumbledore.

If I'd ever thought that Dumbledore would be bothered by Lucius's attitude, I was dead wrong. "Well, you see, Lucius, the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once," Dumbledore said serenely. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd started to dance on the desk, shouting that he'd told Lucius Malfoy so. "They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."

Harry and I exchanged a small smile with each other. I knew that there had to be a reason that the Hogwarts governors wanted Dumbledore gone. Not because they didn't think that he was the best man for the job - which he was - but because Lucius Malfoy had demanded that they expel him. He really was a horrible monster. Even his son had more decency than he did. I could only hope that Draco would not become a replica of his father. He was on that track at the moment. Lucius Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury. He knew that Dumbledore was teasing him.

"So... Have you stopped the attacks yet? Have you caught the culprit?" Lucius Malfoy asked, his eyes darting around.

More than anything, I wanted to say that he should have known, but I stayed silent, knowing that this wasn't my place to speak. "We have," Dumbledore said, with a smile aimed towards Harry and I.

We both smiled proudly at each other. I supposed that killing a Basilisk was something to be impressed with. "Well? Who is it?" Lucius Malfoy asked sharply.

"The same person as last time, Lucius. But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary," Dumbledore said, despite the fact that he must have known.

To my immense please, Dumbledore held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Lucius Malfoy closely. Just as I had expected, Lucius Malfoy was the person that had slipped the diary into Ginny Weasley's cauldron that day at Flourish and Blotts. I noticed that as the two men stared at each other, Harry was not. He was watching Dobby. I glanced down to see what he was watching for. The house-elf was doing something very odd. His great eyes fixed meaningfully on Harry and I, he kept pointing at the diary, then at Lucius Malfoy, and then hitting himself hard on the head with his fist.

Leaning over to Harry, it suddenly hit me. He was trying to tell us that I was right. It was him that had slipped the diary. It was no longer just an assumption. "Harry, I was right. He did it," I told him, speaking softly.

Harry nodded at me with a prideful grin. "Well done," he said.

"I see..." Lucius Malfoy said slowly to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore spoke again, in a level voice, still staring Lucius Malfoy in the eye. He would never be afraid of him. Not after everything that he had done. "A clever plan. Because if Harry and Tara here," Lucius Malfoy shot Harry and I a swift, sharp look, "and their friend Ron hadn't discovered this book, why, Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will."

The two of us nodded at Dumbledore gratefully. He may have had some serious oddities and not always the best judgement, but he would always be brave. He had been a Gryffindor, and he was everything that an exemplary one would be. No one could ever say that Dumbledore was not intelligent. He picked up on everything without even being directly involved. Things that had taken Harry and I months to work out had taken Dumbledore mere minutes. Lucius Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly mask-like.

"And imagine what might have happened then," Dumbledore went on. "The Weasley's are one of our most prominent Pureblood families." I grinned at the irritated look on Malfoy's face. "Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and killing Muggle-Born's... Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise..."

Lucius Malfoy forced himself to speak. "Very fortunate," he said stiffly.

Both Harry and I sent a grin to each other. It was nice seeing someone look so foolish. He must have spent a long time trying to put together this plan, and it had been thwarted by a few Second Year students in a matter of months. Standing slightly hidden, still moving, behind Lucius Malfoy's back, Dobby was still pointing, thinking that he wasn't realized it. He was motioning first to the diary, then to Lucius Malfoy, then punching himself in the head. Harry glanced over at me and I nodded. We had to say something. The two of us nodded at Dobby, and Dobby backed into a corner, now twisting his ears in punishment.

I resisted walking over to the house-elf to get him to stop doing that. "Don't you want to know how Ginny got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?" Harry asked loudly.

Lucius Malfoy rounded on him. I gasped slightly and took a step back. But I knew that Lucius would do nothing with Dumbledore sitting mere feet away. "How should I know how the stupid little girl got hold of it?" he sneered.

"Because you gave it to her. In Flourish and Blotts. You picked up her old Transfiguration book and slipped the diary inside it, didn't you?" Harry asked. I saw Lucius Malfoy's eye twitched in irritation. "Tara was smart enough to figure that one out."

His eyes then turned towards me, a deep fury blazing in them. "You started that fight on purpose so that you could do that. All because of your hatred for Arthur Weasley. This was perfect for you. His only daughter dead and Arthur Weasley fired," I added, barely spotting the pleased and proud look in Dumbledore's eyes.

Glancing back over to Lucius Malfoy, I saw his white hands clench, almost as if he was going to try and curse us where we stood. But he wouldn't. Not while Dumbledore sat right there. "Clever girl. Prove it," he hissed.

"Oh, no one will be able to do that. Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort's old school things. If any more of them find their way into innocent hands, I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you," Dumbledore said, smiling at Harry and I.

He certainly did have a way with words. Harry and I both nodded gratefully at him. Lucius Malfoy stood for a moment, and I distinctly saw his right hand twitch as though he was longing to reach for his wand. It really wouldn't have surprised me if he'd tried to curse us. I almost wished that he had. I would have liked to see what Dumbledore would have done with him. I did like to think that we were some of his favorite students. Instead of doing anything, Lucius Malfoy turned to his house-elf.

"We're going, Dobby!" he shouted.

It was obvious that Harry knew what I was wanting to do. I so desperately wanted to run after Lucius Malfoy and offer to buy Dobby from him. I hated the way that he treated the house-elf. So maybe Dobby didn't always have the best of ideas, but his intentions were sweet. Lucius Malfoy wrenched open the door and as the elf came hurrying up to him, he kicked him right through it. I gasped and made a move to help Dobby. Harry held me back. I cringed as I could hear Dobby squealing with pain all the way along the corridor. I stood for a moment, thinking hard about what we could do. We couldn't let Dobby go back with him.

"Harry, we have to do something for Dobby," I told him desperately.

He nodded at me, seemingly having figured out a plan. He turned to Dumbledore. "Professor Dumbledore. Can I give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?" he asked hurriedly.

"Certainly, Harry. But hurry. The feast, remember," Dumbledore told us sweetly.

We both smiled at him and nodded. He must have known what Harry was going to do. Even I had a feeling that I was starting to understand what Harry wanted to do. Harry grabbed the diary from Professor McGonagall's desk, the both of us giving Dumbledore a grateful smile, before turning and dashing out of the office. As we ran out into the stone hallways, I could hear Dobby's squeals of pain receding around the corner. Harry stopped me, using my arm to keep himself upright. Quickly, with me watching closely, Harry took off one of his shoes, pulled off his slimy, filthy sock, and stuffed the diary into it. Then we ran down the dark corridor.

As we ran, I patted Harry on his sweaty back. "Nice one," I told him, laughing softly.

Harry smiled at me as we headed after Lucius Malfoy before he could leave. We caught up with the two of them at the top of the stairs. "Mr. Malfoy," Harry gasped, the two of us skidding to a halt, "I've got something for you."

Catching our breath, having already exerted quite a bit of it down in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry forced the smelly sock into Lucius Malfoy's hand. He looked absolutely disgusted. "What the - ?" Lucius Malfoy ripped the sock off the diary, threw it aside, then looked furiously from the ruined book to Harry and I. "You'll meet the same sticky end as your parents one of these days, Harry Potter. They were meddlesome fools, too. And just you wait. Your parents' days are numbered," he told me softly, his jaws tight together.

"So are yours," I told him.

A horrible fury shot through his face. Harry's grip on my back tightened as he gently pulled me back from Lucius Malfoy. Just in case. He glared at us and turned to go. "Come, Dobby. I said, come," he barked.

But Dobby didn't move. Lucius Malfoy turned back to probably try and dish out some terrible punishment to Dobby. But Harry and I were smiling, knowing that the Malfoy family would never get the chance to hurt Dobby again. Not after all of the years that he had probably hurt him. Because Dobby the house-elf was holding up Harry's disgusting, slimy sock, and looking at it as though it were a priceless treasure. Dobby was free, since Lucius had thrown the sock at him. It may have been Harry's, but it had been 'gifted' to him by Harry. The two of us glanced at each other, Harry sending me a wink, as we watched Dobby.

"Master has given a sock. Master gave it to Dobby," Dobby said in amazement.

His bright, bulbous, eyes, were full of tears. I smiled at him. "He's not your master anymore, Dobby," I told the house-elf sweetly.

Lucius Malfoy looked absolutely furious. He glared at me before turning back to where Dobby was standing. "What's that? What did you say?" Mr. Malfoy snapped nastily.

"Got a sock. Master threw it, and Dobby caught it, and Dobby..." His voice was shaking as he held the sock close to his face, nearly in tears over it. "Dobby is free," he practically sang.

Motioning Dobby towards us, I leaned down and gave him a small hug. His little body was very bony and I could feel him crying on my shoulder. I smiled and brushed back Dobby's little bat ears. Lucius Malfoy stood frozen, his eyes still disbelieving, staring at the house-elf. I let go of Dobby, allowing him to back off, as I stared at Malfoy. He looked like he was about ready to kill us, which, I realized, that he very well might be. Then he lunged at Harry and me.

"You've lost me my servant!"

But Dobby shouted, "You shall not harm Harry Potter or Tara Nox!"

It didn't matter. Lucius Malfoy advanced on us, using the snake-headed cane that he was carrying, he pulled out a wand. Harry and I jumped backwards, myself debating on running, while Harry shoved me backwards, standing in front of me. Before anything could happen to us, Dobby stepped in front of us. There was a loud bang from Dobby and Lucius Malfoy was thrown backward. He shot up into the air, flying backwards, and crashed down the stairs. He went careening down them three at a time, and landed in a crumpled heap on the landing below. He got up, his face livid, and pulled out his wand once more, but Dobby raised a long, threatening finger.

If I'd ever thought that Dobby was a tame creature, I was obviously very wrong. "You shall go now. You shall not touch Harry Potter or Tara Nox. You shall go now," Dobby said fiercely, pointing down at Lucius Malfoy.

Grinning at the bravery of the little house-elf, I stood proudly, watching Lucius Malfoy. His hair was thrown over his head and his robes were scattered everywhere. He looked absolutely furious. If he hadn't been so afraid of what Dobby might do, I had a feeling that Malfoy would try and attack us again. And Harry and I would be all but useless. Malfoy was a much better trained wizard than we were. Lucius Malfoy had no choice but to leave the castle. With a last, incensed stare at the three of us standing up the staircase, he stood, swung his cloak around himself and hurried out of sight.

We waited until Lucius Malfoy had gone to look at Dobby. "Harry Potter freed Dobby!" the elf cried shrilly, gazing up at Harry, myself smiling at him, moonlight from the nearest window reflected in his orb-like eyes. "Harry Potter set Dobby free!"

"Least I could do, Dobby. Just promise never to try and save our lives again," Harry told Dobby, giving a good-natured smile.

"But, honestly, thank you, Dobby," I told him.

Despite the fact that Dobby was barely a third of our size, he seemed to be standing ten feet tall right about now. He was clearly very strong with his own branch of magic. The elf's ugly brown face split suddenly into a wide, toothy smile. The two of us smiled down at him as Dobby stepped forward. I leaned down and gave him another hug. Dobby pushed his face into my shoulder to sob softly. I grinned and backed away from him, giving him a small kiss on the cheek. His face turned so bright that I laughed at him. So it turned out that even house-elf's were able to blush.

"I've just got one question, Dobby," Harry said as Dobby pulled on Harry's sock with shaking hands. "You told us that all this had nothing to do with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, remember? Well -"

"It was a clue, sir," Dobby said, his eyes widening, as though this was obvious. "Was giving you a clue. The Dark Lord, before he changed his name, could be freely named, you see?"

Exchanging a small smile with Harry, we turned back to Dobby and smiled weakly. Probably should have thought a little bit harder about what he meant. "Guess we thought a little incorrectly," I told the house-elf, not wanting to blame him.

"Right. Well, we'd better go. There's a feast, and our friend Hermione should be awake by now," Harry told Dobby.

We would all figure out something to do. Dobby would have to find something to do with his life, and Harry and I had a lot of explaining to do to the students of Hogwarts. Dobby threw his arms around Harry's middle and hugged him, following with a third hug to me. "Harry Potter is greater by far than Dobby knew! Farewell, Harry Potter! Thank you, Tara Nox!" Dobby cried.

Smiling as he stepped backwards, I waved him off. "Bye, Dobby!" I called.

He waved at us a few times, his big ears flapping with excitement, and snapped his fingers, just as he had done months before on Privet Drive. I smiled as, with a final loud crack, Dobby disappeared. Part of me was glad to see the elf gone, but I knew that I would miss him in some strange ways. The only thing that I was extremely grateful for was the fact that he would never be going back to the Malfoy home. Dobby never needed to return there.

I grinned, thinking about how upset Malfoy would be to find out what had happened to the family servant. "He's grown on me," I told Harry as we headed out to the Great Hall.

As we headed towards the loud doors, I could already hear the noise of the other students, wondering what had happened. I could hear Professor McGonagall telling everyone what had happened. "Yes, I think that I might be starting to like Dobby, too. Come on. I think we've earned a good feast," Harry told me.

We were just a few feet away from the doors to the Great Hall when I threw out an arm, stopping Harry. "Hang on." He looked at me like I had lost my mind. "Before we go in, I have to talk to you. You threw yourself over me when you tripped in the Chamber. You would have let the Basilisk kill you, rather than me. You nearly dove after me when it grabbed me and yanked me into the water. What were you thinking? Let the venom kill me rather than drown?" I asked him, bothered that he would risk so much for me.

Harry was my best friend. I couldn't deal with something happened to him because he was trying to save me. Harry sighed and moved forward, grabbing my hand. "You're my sister, Tara. No matter what. I don't want anything bad to ever happen to you. I'm sorry that I've dragged you into all of this," he said, motioning around the air.

Smiling at him, I whacked him gently on the arm. "I come with you on my own free will. You're my brother, Harry. You always were and you always will be. No matter what," I repeated the words that he had just told me.

"I love you, Tara."

"I love you, too, Harry."

The two of us wrapped each other in a tight hug, somehow amazed that we had both managed to walk out of the Chamber of Secrets, essentially unharmed. Once we had let go of each other, Harry grabbed my hand and tugged me with him. "What do you say we head to that feast?" he asked, motioning towards the doors.

Nodding at him, we moved forward. We were just feet from the door when I glanced over at him and grinned wickedly. "Wrestle you for the last cannoli," I teased.

It was our favorite dessert, and the two of us always managed to get into a fight so that we could have the last one. "You'll lose," Harry told me, giving me a small shove.

"You're not gonna be nearly as frightening without that sword," I told him.

"Excuse you, I killed the Basilisk!" Harry barked at me.

Balking at him, I whacked him over the back of the head. "Excuse you, I nearly got my leg torn off by it! You just stabbed it through the mouth and got one measly fang in your arm. Lame," I told him.

The two of us laughed hysterically as we pushed into the Great Hall. It was just past two in the morning and I smiled at the sight of every students in Hogwarts standing in the Great Hall. Cheers so loud that I was sure that the starry roof would blow off erupted the moment that we walked in. Everyone was cheering for Harry and I, crying out that we were the ones that had saved Hogwarts from closing. It was rather sweet to see everyone so happy. Happier than they had been all year long. I had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this. Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. It literally lasted until the sun was high in the sky, signaling the start of the next day.

Once we had walked into the Great Hall, Harry and I had immediately been dragged off in every direction, people wanting us to tell them what had happened. Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall had told everyone what had happened, but they still wanted to hear it directly for us. I was more than happy to tell them the tale of defeating the Basilisk. Even some Slytherin's were keen to hear what had happened. Better than anything else was spotting Malfoy sitting in the corner, his hair mussed and eyes tired, looking furious that no more Muggle-Born's were going to be attacked anytime soon.

Hannah had come over almost immediately, apologizing for ever suspecting me and giving me a tight hug. She had asked if I'd liked to meet up at some point over the summer, and I'd almost immediately accepted. She was sweet enough and Cedric seemed to like her. Katie, Angelina, and Alicia had sprinted over to Harry and I, wrapping the two of us in tight hugs, thrilled that we were alright. And, of course, that we would be able to play Quidditch again when the matches started back up next year. Susan Bones from Hufflepuff and Terry Boot from Ravenclaw had also run over, asking me all about what a Basilisk looked like. And if they could see the scar that it had left. Ron had had to take my goblet of water so that I didn't throw it on them.

Lavender, Parvati, Padma, and Fay had come over to speak with me, the four of them looking very pleased that I was alright. I'd smiled and waved them off, thanking them for my concern. Like last year, they wanted to go into London with me one day in the summer. Cho Chang had glared at me briefly, but said nothing, probably not wanting to sound like the monster that wished that the Basilisk had killed me. Penelope - after being woken from the Basilisk's Petrification - had run over to me, nearly in tears, thanking Harry and I for killing the creature that had very nearly killed her. She'd also said that Hermione would be awake soon.

Michael Corner - a Ravenclaw boy in our year - had asked me everything that had happened, and had even asked if Ginny was alright. He was one of the few to do that. I'd smiled and told him that she was doing fine. Colin Creevey had been nearly in tears - and had still managed to blush madly when I'd hugged him - as he'd come into the Great Hall. He had taken numerous pictures, promising to mail them all to me over the summer. I assumed that it was his way of wanting to keep in contact with me over the holidays, but it was sweet, so I'd promised to write to him during the break. His friends had whispered with him furiously as he'd walked away, still blushing bright red.

It wasn't long before Seamus, Dean, and Neville had lifted me up onto their shoulders, to the cheers of everyone else in the Great Hall. I'd laughed as they'd dropped me almost immediately, wondering what all of the gunk on me was. I'd talked very animatedly with them about the battle down in the Chamber of Secrets. Dean and Seamus had looked excited beyond belief to hear everything that had happened, while Neville seemed like he might faint. Maybe he wasn't a snake fan.

A few other students had excitedly congratulated me and asked what had happened. I didn't know most of them. It was a few minutes before someone else that I knew made their way over to me. Anthony Goldstein - a Ravenclaw in our year - had told me that he was glad that I was alright before moving off. He always had been shy. Lee Jordan had been so excited to see me that I had thought that he would tackle me across the Gryffindor table with his hug. Ernie Macmillan had come over and smiled at me, letting me know once more that he was very sorry for suspecting me, and glad that I was alright.

There was a lull in people for about five seconds before a boy named Cormac McLaggen, a Gryffindor one year above me, had started speaking to me. He had been a bit too animated for my taste, and I was very grateful when some of Cedric's friends - Jack, Thomas, and Lucas - had come to speak with me. They'd been very friendly and had offered me to come along with them on a trip to Hogsmeade next year before I was stolen away by Zacharias Smith - another Hufflepuff student. I was glad to see that Harry was being passed around like a rag doll, much in the same way that I was.

I'd been speaking excitedly with Oliver about Quidditch next year - which would be Oliver's last at Hogwarts - and how we would be sure to finally win the Quidditch Cup. We had lost in my First Year because Harry and I were recovering from Quirrell's attack in the dungeons the day before. This year the matches had been cancelled due to the attacks. We had been speaking about new moves when I'd spotted Fred and George running towards me. They had been meeting back up with Ginny earlier. I tried to put my hands up to stop them, but I was too late. They had tackled me to the ground and I grunted, smacking against the stone floor, as laughter erupted in the Great Hall.

Above me, I could see Oliver laugh and walk off. Fred and George leaned up slightly, hugging me tightly. I really couldn't breathe. I'd have to go to Madam Pomfrey tomorrow. I had a feeling that Fawkes hadn't fixed everything that the Basilisk had done to me when it had thrown me back against the Chamber wall.

"Well done! You saved Ginny!" the twins cried, ruffling my hair and kissing my cheeks.

Groaning at the pain that was still going through me, I laughed anyways, hugging them tightly. "Okay, should have seen that one coming. Just in case you two haven't heard, I very nearly just got my leg torn off by a Basilisk, so... Get off of me!" I shouted.

Fred and George grinned and jumped backwards. They both stood and each offered me a hand. I thanked them and let them bring me back to my feet. I could see Harry and Ron talking animatedly at the table with everyone else. "How's the leg?" George asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I shifted a little bit on my feet. I could see that both Fred and George were guilty. They thought that it was because of Ginny - their sister - that I'd gotten hurt. I would have gone after her anyways. "Hurts but it'll heal completely, soon. The only thing that matters is that Ginny is alright," I told them, smiling reassuringly. "And both of you remember everything that I did for your sister the next time you're planning some stupid prank on me!"

They laughed and I immediately knew that the cease-fire that they might call on me would only last for a matter of days. I'd wake up with itching powder in my shoes in no time. "No, Tara, we love you," Fred teased, hugging me tightly.

"We'd never do that," George added, ruffling my hair.

"Sure you wouldn't," I snapped at them.

George was called off by Lee. He gave me a quick hug and I nodded him off. We stood in silence for a moment before Fred laid a hand on my shoulder. "You alright, though?" Fred asked. I raised my brow at him. "We heard about what happened down in the Chamber of Secrets. Diggory told the teachers, someone overheard, and now it's everywhere."

Smiling softly, I gave him a little smile. I would be fine. We would both be fine. It was just a litter nerve-wracking. A lot, actually. "Well, I don't think that anyone can ever say that Harry and I are anything but brave. Bitten in the thigh by a Basilisk before nearly being drowned. Eventful school year, don't you say?" I teased him.

"But now you have to top it next year. How will you manage?" Fred teased me as we walked back over to the table.

"Oh we'll think of something," I said.

And we really would manage to think of something. I was sure that something terrible would start happening in a matter of months. That was how life went being the best friend of a Harry James Potter. Fred opened his mouth to say something else, but he never got the chance. A call echoed through the Great Hall that stopped quite a few of the conversations.

"You solved it! You solved it!"

Turning back quickly, I saw that it was the one person that I had been looking forward to seeing since coming out of the Chamber of Secrets. "Hermione!" I cried. She was sprinting down the length of the Great Hall towards us. Harry and Ron stood at the sight of her.

The both of us sprinting at full speed towards each other, it was mildly painful when we smacked into each other, going flying off of our feet. An older Hufflepuff smiled at us and righted us, walking off. The two of us stood together, tightening our grips on each other. Harry and Ron joined in on the hug, pulling us back to the Gryffindor table. Besides Harry, Ron, and I, Hermione was one of the only people that was still in her robes. The only other exceptions were Justin Finch-Fletchley, Penelope Clearwater, and Colin Creevey; the students that had been attacked by the Basilisk. Even as we moved back towards the Gryffindor table, Hermione was still hanging onto my hand.

She had dove into the food right away. She hadn't eaten in weeks, so I imagined that she was very hungry. "I knew that you would manage!" she said happily as she dove into a few pieces of bread.

Smiling at her, I nodded. "Of course." I did manage to snatch the last cannoli from Harry and jam it in my own mouth before he could take it back. As I ate, I glanced over at Hermione and glared at her, remembering a large problem. "Don't rip the paper out next time! Took us forever to find it," I snapped at her.

Hermione smiled bashfully at me. "So what happened down in the Chamber of Secrets?" she asked as I finally got the chance to eat.

"Sit. We'll tell you all about it," I told her.

And so she sat, and we recounted the entire story. Everything starting from the moment that she had run off. I'd told her about the fact that I'd figured it out a moment after her and grabbed Cedric, bringing him to speak with Professor Kettleburn to me. We had talked about how Professor Kettleburn thought that I was trying to use the Basilisk and we'd had to leave. We told her about everything from gradually learning everything about the Basilisk that we could to learning about Tom Riddle's diary. We'd even mentioned being at Hagrid's to ask him about the memory when Hagrid and Dumbledore had been sacked. She had looked furious when we'd told her about Aragog.

Although she did think that it was a little funny that Ron had to be around gigantic spiders. We'd told her about Ginny being dragged down into the Chamber of Secrets by the Basilisk and our entry with Lockhart. She'd seemed so horrified to learn the truth about him, and had still seemed bothered that I'd punched him, although she'd let up on that when I told her that he'd tried to perform a Memory Charm on us, after telling us about all of the witches and wizards that he'd taken credit for.

It was a long time before we finally got to the explanation of the collapse of the rock in the underground of the Chamber of Secrets. From there it had been Harry and I to explain everything. We'd told her about what the Chamber looked like - something that Ron was interested in as well - and spotting Ginny. We'd told her about trying to get her out, meeting Tom Riddle, learning that he was really Voldemort, and the entire battle with the Basilisk. She had gasped in horror when we'd told her about both of our injuries. We'd ended with the explanation of Fawkes healing us and the entire truth about the attacks, begging her not to blame Ginny, which she wouldn't.

Once I was sure that we hadn't missed telling her anything, she'd grabbed Harry's arm and checked it all over. Once she was satisfied that Harry was alright, she turned to me. "Show me your leg," Hermione demanded.

"I'm fine," I told her.

She didn't really look like she believed me. She dropped her fork and glared at me. She was much more menacing than the Basilisk at that moment. "You were bitten by a Basilisk! It nearly drowned you and took your leg off!" she howled, drawing attention in the Great Hall.

Blushing slightly, I dropped my head and glanced at her with bored eyes. "Thank you, Hermione, I'd nearly forgotten," I hissed. That was our relationship. We loved each other, but fought constantly.

It was nice seeing Nearly Headless Nick coming floating back down the Great Hall just a moment later. People were welcoming him back from each corner of the Great Hall. He was one of the more popular ghosts of Hogwarts. He had come straight towards Harry and I, who had been very excited to see that he was back to being... dead... properly. Maybe that was a strange thought. I was almost curious how he had managed to be brought back, but I decided to settle on just saying how happy I was that he was back to normal.

Just about two hours after the feast had started, I noticed that doors to the Great Hall open once more. This time it wasn't a person or a ghost that had come into the Great Hall. It was Mrs. Norris. The students didn't seem thrilled to see her, but everyone had clapped anyways. If nothing else, it was nice that Filch did have something that he loved. I'd never seen the old man so happy. He had grabbed Mrs. Norris and brought her back to the High Table, looking at her as though she was the light of his life. Despite not liking either one of them, I had smiled at the sight of them being back together. And maybe now Filch would stop glaring at me.

It was a rather pleasant surprise to see Justin hurrying over from the Hufflepuff table nearing three in the morning. He had seemed very thrilled to see us. For the most part he'd stayed with the other Hufflepuff's, but once he saw that Harry and I no longer had a line extending out to the grounds of the castle to speak to us, he'd came straight over. It made me laugh the way that he had wrung Harry and I's hands and apologized endlessly for suspecting either one of us.

As he opened his mouth to apologize again for suspecting us, I held up a hand. I'd slap him if he apologized to us again. It was no big deal. It was all over anyways. "Justin, it's alright, seriously," I told him.

Harry nodded his agreement. Ron still looked frustrated that we were willing to forgive them so fast. "And Cedric always did say that you were innocent. He likes you a lot, Tara," Justin told me.

My face colored as I grabbed my goblet and pressed it in front of my face, trying to hide the burn that was flooding my face. "Uh - Yeah - Well... I like him, too. He's a good friend," I muttered dumbly.

Ron was taking a drink from his goblet as Justin walked away. "Obvious," he coughed into it.

"Oh shut up," I snapped.

The air quickly returned back to normal as the school continued to enjoy the marvelous feast. One of my absolute favorite part of the feats was when Hagrid turning up at half past three, having finally been released from Azkaban. The entire school had burst into rounds of applause. Hogwarts had been on its feet to welcome back the gamekeeper. Even some of the Slytherin's had been clapping. I'd noticed that the High Table was particularly excited to see Hagrid return - Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall seeming the most thrilled. Hagrid had quickly moved over to us, cuffing Harry, Ron, and I so hard on the shoulders that we were knocked into our plates of trifle.

He was laughing heartily, thrilled that we had managed to solve it and get him out of Azkaban. I cheered and stood from the table, hugging him tightly around his massive waist. "Hagrid! Oh we're so happy to see you!" I cried excitedly.

A moment later, Ron jumped up from the table. "Follow the spiders!" he yelled.

It was obvious that he was about to start yelling at Hagrid for sending us somewhere so dangerous. I stepped in, knowing that there was no sense in starting a fight. He had helped us, in his own way. "It was very helpful, thank you," I said, shoving Ron backwards.

Hagrid looked very proud of himself. "So yeh met Aragog?" he asked.

Scratching the back of my neck, I smiled awkwardly. "Yes... He's - uh - lovely," I said quietly.

Despite the fact that I would have liked to murder Aragog for trying to kill Ron and Harry and keep me, I said nothing. Hagrid merely smiled proudly, wished us a good feast, and headed up to the High Table to join the other teachers. It was past four in the morning that officially everyone in the school was in the Great Hall, back from either the hospital wing or Azkaban. It was at that moment that the House Cup was being awarded. The banners immediately turned scarlet and I grinned. Ron, Harry, and I's six hundred points for Gryffindor had secured the House Cup for the second year running.

The cheers were through the roof for Harry, Ron, and I. It was even louder than it had been last year. Part of that was because Slytherin would have won without our additional points. They were about thirty points ahead of Gryffindor going into the feast. I had nearly jumped onto the table at the horrified look on Malfoy's face. The rankings stood with Gryffindor in first place, with nearly triple the amount of points as Slytherin had, with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff behind them. They didn't seem bothered by it. Everyone was proud of what Harry, Ron, and I had done. And it helped that people were still happy to see Slytherin dethroned.

Only making things even better was that once the cheers had died down, another announcement was made. As if things weren't good enough, Professor McGonagall had stood up afterwards to tell us all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat. If I had thought that the cheers were loud for Gryffindor winning the House Cup was loud, I knew absolutely nothing. The cheers were so loud that I thought that the windows would blow out. Even the Slytherin table had erupted into cheers. Despite the fact that they were upset that they had lost the House Cup, they were excited to get away without exams.

"Yes! I've barely studied!" I cheered happily.

"Oh, no!" Hermione said sadly.

Everyone looked back at her. She had been Petrified for more than a month. How could she have possibly been wanting the exams? Or, better yet, how had she been prepared for them? "Shut up, Hermione," I told her as lovingly as I could.

She glared at me, but smiled anyways. Once the cheers had died down, which took a very long time, Dumbledore stood up to make another announcement. The school became very quiet as we waited to hear what he was going to say. Even with the happy air, Dumbledore still commanded respect. He had announced, smiling the entire time, that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back. I was positive that the cheers couldn't have been louder at this news. Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.

"Shame. He was starting to grow on me," Ron said, helping himself to a jam doughnut.

Grinning at Ron, I gave him a gentle nudge. "I think we were all starting to like him," I teased. Harry and Ron laughed loudly with me, Hermione rolling her eyes, but conceding and laughing soon enough.

Due to Ron's very loud mouth, the rumor that I had punched Gilderoy Lockhart in the face had gone around quickly. It was rather funny the way that the students that I didn't even know had come over to thank me and congratulate me for doing what they had been wanting to do for months. It had been one of the happiest moments of my life, to finally get to punch him, after everything that he had said to me. It was nice the way that everyone had come together to actually hate Lockhart. Even the Slytherin's had seemed grateful to see Lockhart gone. I just wished that they could have heard the whole story about the misfired Memory Charm.

It was hours and hours before the feast started to wind down so everyone could go to bed. The morning had dawned hours ago, making everyone smile. It was pretty obvious that no one was going to be awake at any point tomorrow. Today, I supposed. I glanced down at my Muggle watch as Dumbledore dismissed the students for the night, telling us that there were no classes today, and final classes would be held over the next few days. Exams were still cancelled though. They were just to learn everything that we hadn't yet. Today would just be a day to rest from the ordeals that everyone had been through.

There were just about two weeks left in the entire semester. Not that it bothered anyone. With no exams, we wouldn't be stressed. It was something to be enjoyed. I was sure that most of the teachers would be relaxed. As happy as I was with the feast, I was glad to be going to bed. It was now nearly seven in the morning, and I was exhausted. It didn't help that Harry, Ron, and I were still covered in the muck from the Chamber of Secrets. I just wanted to shower and sleep for the next two weeks.

As we followed the rest of the school is traipsing back to the dormitories, I was met up with a familiar figure. I turned back and smiled at Cedric, who looked much happier now. He smiled as we walked side-by-side. "Well, for all of the times that you really made me fear for your life this year, I'm glad to have you in my life," he told me.

Blushing softly, I nodded. "I'm happy to be in it," I said.

"Do me a favor?" Cedric asked me. I nodded at him, curious as to what he wanted. "Next time that you're going to pick a fight with someone, probably sometime next year, go a little easier. A serial killer or something, yeah?" he asked.

Laughing loudly, I nodded. No more magical creatures, not for a little while, anyways. I'd settle with a serial killer over a Basilisk any day. "I'm not sure that my life will ever not be complicated," I told him. He nodded at me. "That scare you off?" I teased, but slightly meaning the question.

Cedric glanced over at me and shook his head. "Oh, no. I'd be very bored without you," he told me brightly.

Smiling at him, we headed towards the staircases. We both stopped moving, standing out of the way of the rest of the students as they went back to their Houses. He was downstairs while I needed to go upstairs. "Come visit me over the summer, okay?" I offered.

I really did want to visit him. I'd had a lot of fun seeing him last year. "Of course," he said with a smile.

A sudden urge to mess with him took over. "And give me a hug!" I chirped, launching after him.

Cedric laughed and caught me, almost immediately giving a disgusted groan. "What are you covered in? Oh, Tara!" he yelled in mock disgust as we swung around, stumbling like drunks.

I could only imagine that I smelled terrible. He was managing to hold me upright while also trying to push me off of him. We were both laughing as he settled me back onto my feet. He would probably have to get changed after that. It really did smell like I had been down in the sewers. Which I had been. But I knew that I hadn't pushed my boundaries too far. Cedric was still laughing and wiping himself off.

Once I was sure that we were done laughing, I began to tick my fingers off. "Let's see... Basilisk blood, my blood," I was sure that he gave a little grimace, "grime from the pipes and sewers of Hogwarts, water from the Black Lake that runs under the school, mud, sweat, and dirt."

"Makes for a lovely aroma," he teased.

Grinning broadly at him, I shrugged my shoulders proudly. "I thought that you might like it," I said. We both laughed at that as I stepped backwards towards the staircases. "Well, I think that I'm going to head back upstairs and take a much needed shower. I'll see you around."

Cedric waved me off. "Goodnight, Tara." I was about halfway up the staircase when his voice called me to turn around. "Do me a favor and keep yourself safe for at least a few months before you start doing something life-threatening."

"No promises," I teased.

Heading back up to Gryffindor Tower, the sun was now blazing through the Hogwarts halls. But I knew that everyone would be asleep for hours to come. People were exhausted from everything that had happened over the past few months. Most people were already upstairs and back in bed. I headed straight up to my dorm in near silence. The girls were getting ready to go to bed. Parvati, Lavender, and Fay all smiled at me as they wished each other a goodnight and hopped into bed. Hermione was awake and reading on her bed - not that I could blame her for not wanting to sleep after everything - and I headed straight for the shower.

It was rather hard to peel the robes off of me. As much as I wanted to keep them and try to salvage them, I knew that it would have been useless. So I immediately tossed them into the trash. After washing off everything that had caked onto me since the episode down in the Chamber of Secrets, I wrapped myself in my fuzzy purple robe, dropped into bed, and slept like the dead for the next twenty-two hours. No one, not even Hermione, dared to wake me from my sleep.

By the time that I finally did wake back up, I learned that mostly everyone else had slept a long time, too. No one other than Harry and I had actually slept for almost a day, though. We had been excused from classes two days after the feast, much to Snape's irritation, so we had made sure to purposely come in late. But it was rather nice, having only two weeks left in the semester and not being panicked about having the final exams. I was curious to ask what the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. level students were doing, but I managed not to ask. I wasn't sure that I really cared that much. I was just glad that everything was over.

There was nothing more for us to be paranoid over. Not, at least, for the next few months anyways. The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. The weather was lovely and I had no qualms about anything, not even Oliver insisting that we had a few Quidditch practices before the end of term, to prepare for next year. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences. Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled because of a lack of a teacher. A few days before the end of term, Hermione sighed as we walked past the empty classroom, heading back to the Common Room.

"We should still have classes," she said.

"But we've had plenty of practice at that anyway," Ron told the very disgruntled Hermione.

Glancing over at her, I rolled my eyes. "Who would teach?" I asked her.

"How about you two?" Ron offered, motioning to Harry and I.

The two of us glanced at each other before I shrugged my shoulders. "Well I'd imagine that we're an improvement to the last two," I said, earning laughs from the other three.

It turned out that there were lasting damages from the fight with the Basilisk down in the Chamber of Secrets. A few days out from our trip back on the Hogwarts Express to King's Cross, Hermione had ordered me to go to Madam Pomfrey. She was worried that I was still limping around. As it was, I had a minor fracture to a few bones in my leg and foot where the Basilisk had grabbed me. There was also a tiny fracture in my skull, and two little ones in my spine. She was able to heal them all without a problem. She also took away the many cuts and bruises that I had from the running. She had even taken care of Harry's when I'd dragged him up a few hours later.

To my absolutely pleasure, we'd found out a few days after meeting him in Professor McGonagall's office, that Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. It had prompted me to comment loudly about our victory over the Basilisk in his face a few times as we walked by. It wasn't like his family would be hurting for money. They were still filthy rich. On the contrary of trying to look impressed over the fact that his father hated Hogwarts anyways, he looked resentful and sulky. It was pleasing that no one, not even some of the Slytherin's, felt bad for him.

On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again. She had stayed with Hermione and I for a few nights, getting to know her a little bit better. She was enjoying our gossiping and time being girls together. It was nice to see her not under the influence of Tom Riddle's diary, I could already see a vast change in her. She was back to being the sharp-witted girl that I knew that she was. I was even seeing the other students start to really enjoy her company, something that pleased me immensely. She'd be just as popular as her twin brothers in a matter of a few months. Hopefully next year would be better for her.

All too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. People were happy to head back home, especially after the eventful year at Hogwarts, but, as always, it was sad to say goodbye. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny, and I got a compartment to ourselves near the back of the train. As most of the other students were trying to do, we were trying to make the most of the last few hours in which we were allowed to do magic before the holidays. Particularly Harry and I, who had to be very careful about doing magic underage ever since the warning that we had gotten because of Dobby.

Together, we all played Exploding Snap, with Hermione and Ginny watching from the background. They seemed content to not getting their eyebrows burned off. About halfway through the ride, we set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster Fireworks. They traveled up and down the train, making everyone laugh and run about with glee. It was definitely a better ride than in the old Ford Anglia. We were getting into the outskirts of London when we began practicing disarming each other by magic. Harry was getting very good at it. I was, too, but sometimes my spells were a little too powerful.

Nearing the end of our practice, Fred's wand had gotten lodged in the wall by my powerful spell, nearly spearing a Fourth Year Ravenclaw girl in the back of the head. We had apologized profusely as Hermione had fixed the hole in the wall. We had laughed for nearly the rest of the ride back to King's Cross about it. Hermione seemed to think that it was very childish, and obviously felt that I needed much more help with it. We were almost at King's Cross when Harry started, seemingly remembering something.

"Ginny. What did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?" Harry asked, silencing the other conversations.

"Oh, that. Well - Percy's got a girlfriend," Ginny told us, giggling.

The train was pulling into the station at King's Cross as we were all gathering our things together. I could hear students outside shuffling around. As I was tucking my robes back into the trunk and tugging on my sweater, I saw Fred drop a stack of books on George's head. I laughed loudly and grinned to myself. I knew that he had been seeing Penelope. They had just seemed far too close to each other to just be two Prefects that had happened to be working together. Even Percy was allowed to have fun.

"What?" Fred asked.

"I knew it!" I cheered. The twins glared at me, as if to ask me how I could dare keep this secret from them. "Penelope, right?" I asked Ginny.

She nodded at me. "Yep! It's that Ravenclaw Prefect, Penelope Clearwater," Ginny explained to the others. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was - you know - attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Fred said, who was looking like his birthday had come early.

"Definitely not," George said, sniggering.

Together, we grabbed our things and headed out into the hallway with the other students, all waiting to head back to the Muggle world for a few months of peace before the mania of school began again. The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped. I was gathering the last of my things, Hermione and I exchanging the few things that we had gotten switched up. Harry pulled out his quill and a bit of parchment and turned to Ron and Hermione. I assumed that he was giving them something that I already had.

"This is called a telephone number," Harry told Ron, scribbling the number twice, tearing the parchment in two, and handing it to them. "I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer - he'll know. Call me at the Dursley's, okay? I can't stand another two months with only Dudley to talk to... Since Tara's gone so much."

Feeling a little bit guilty, I grabbed Harry and pulled him in for a hug as we disembarked the train. "We'll still have fun. Mom and Dad want to take you back to the States to play with us in the Stars Quidditch Pitch," I told him.

"Wicked," Harry said with a bright grin.

It was very obvious that Ron was jealous at this news. Maybe I'd see if he could come at some point. "Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they?" Hermione asked as we joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. "When they hear what you did this year?

Harry and I exchanged a glance with each other and smiled. "Proud? Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious," Harry said.

The two of us laughed as Ron and Hermione exchanged a worried look. The four of us set through the enchanted barrier, Harry, Ron, and I hesitating for a moment, and together we walked back through the gateway to the Muggle world. We came out on the other side and I stepped off to the edge of the crows with the three of them before we had to part ways and head back to our families. I knew that Mom and Dad would be milling around somewhere, probably waiting to shout themselves hoarse at me.

"Don't worry, Harry, we can tell Dudley all about the Basilisk," I told him. Everyone - even Hermione - laughed at that.

"Hey, Tara?" I heard Cedric called.

I turned back and smiled at him, motioning for him to wait for a moment. Hermione was grinning at me. Ron and Harry were begrudgingly nodding. They had seen how much he cared just the other week. "I'll call you guys. And we'll all meet up over summer. The Burrow, right?" I asked them. Everyone nodded. I quickly hugged Ron and Hermione before turning to Harry. "And I'll see you later. Come over whenever, yeah?" I asked Harry.

He nodded at me. "Of course," he said, motioning for me to leave.

Heading off to leave the three of them to find their ways back to their families, I walked over to Cedric. His friends waved goodbye to me before leaving the platform so that it was just the two of us. He shifted slightly as we stood together. "So, you've actually managed to survive your Second Year?" he asked me teasingly.

"Would you believe it?" I asked.

He smiled at me. For a while there, I was sure that no one had thought that they would make it out of this year alive. "And maybe next year you can actually legally go into Hogsmeade," he told me with a little smile.

Grinning madly at him, I shook my head. "It'll be kind of sad doing something without breaking the rules, won't it?" I asked him. He laughed and shrugged his shoulders. In all honesty, I was extremely excited for Hogsmeade next year. "I'm excited, getting to walk around with the rest of the Hogwarts students. Should be nice."

"You'll love it around Christmas. It's beautiful," Cedric told me.

Nodding at him, I shifted awkwardly on my feet. Was he going to actually ask me to go with him? "I'd imagine that it is," I told him.

Now it wasn't just me that was shifting awkwardly. He was, too. Was he going to ask me to go with him? Would it even have been a date? I couldn't be sure. "Maybe one day we can go together, yeah?" he finally managed to spit out.

"I'd like that," I said quickly, not wanting to make things worse.

He seemed very relieved at my answer. "Great," he said.

I was about to make another teasing remark when a voice spoke over me. "Tara Nox!" Mom shouted so loudly that she must have drawn the attention of every Muggle in King's Cross. She and Dad were bustling over to me quickly.

Cringing slightly and moving so that Cedric was blocking me, I smiled stupidly at him. "Ah, so I see that they've found out everything," I muttered, wishing that they would do this somewhere less public.

"Should I go?" Cedric asked worriedly.

Shaking my head faster than I thought was probably necessary, I tried to calm myself down and look less panicked. "Please don't. They might not kill me if you're standing here," I told him. He smiled and nodded at me, turning with me to greet my parents. They came up to us, Dad smiling and Mom glaring. "Hi Mom, Dad. You both remember Cedric Diggory, right?" I asked, motioning to him.

Dad looked like he was about to say hello, but Mom was having none of it. "You... I told you to keep your nose out of trouble, and what do you do? You go and find the Chamber of Secrets?" she hissed at me.

"Well it was kind of an accident -" I muttered, being cut off by her ranting.

"I can't believe you! You could have died down there!" she continued.

"Well I didn't -"

"Show me your leg!" she demanded.

Glad that I had worn shorts, I very awkwardly showed her my thigh, proving that nothing that had happened in the Chamber of Secrets was lingering. She merely glared at it for a moment, poking and prodding it curiously, before determining for herself that I was alright. "Look, Mom, nothing is wrong with my leg -"

"Albus Dumbledore told us everything and I know what happened to you. Honestly... a Basilisk... it would have killed you. One look into your eyes and both you and Harry would have been dead!" Mom continued to berate me.

"Well he's alive -"

"Where is Harry?" she interrupted again.

Finally becoming fed up with the constant talking, I shouted over her. "If you'd stop talking, I'd explain!" Both Mom and Dad looked shocked that I had dared to speak like that. Blushing softly, I took a step back and hung my head. "Sorry. Harry is over there, waiting for the Dursley's," I said, pointing to where he was now awkwardly standing by himself.

Dad, seemingly knowing that now would be a good time to diffuse the tension, stepped forward to shake Cedric's hand. "Good to see you again, Cedric," Dad said. "Sorry, Julia has been a little -"

"I've been a little what, Marcus?" Mom interrupted shrilly.

The color on Dad's face immediately drained as he realized his mistake. He looked back at Mom and waved her off. "Nothing, dear. Oh, Jules, come on. You have to admit that we all did some foolish things during our own days at Hogwarts. That's part of the fun. Doing things that could kill you," Dad tried to defend my actions.

"Not going into the Chamber of Secrets! Where's Molly?" Mom asked.

Hopefully long gone with Ron and the others by now. I did not need the two of them getting together. "Good to see you again, and you as well, ma'am," Cedric said, sensing my desperation.

Mom seemed to have finally noticed him standing there. She moved forward and gave him a little hug. "Oh, my dear, how are you? Tara, you must bring him by more often," she told me before he could answer her. I glared at her. I would have brought him by if I trusted that she wouldn't embarrass me. "And perhaps a Prefect will rub off on you a little bit!"

"I missed you, too, thanks for asking," I deadpanned.

A moment later, Harry had appeared at my side. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Nox," Harry greeted.

Mom let go of Cedric to run over and give Harry a bone-crushing hug. I rolled my eyes as she let go of him and began to fuss. "Oh, Harry, we're so happy that you're alright!" she cried out.

"Where was that for me?" I asked.

"Be quiet!" she barked at me.

"How I've missed being around the two of you," I growled.

Cedric smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder. I glanced up at him and forced a smile. "I think I should be off. I'll write to you, Tara. Maybe we can meet up sometime soon?" he asked me.

I nodded, but before I could answer, Mom spoke. "You should bring your father to dinner. How's Sunday?" she asked.

He nodded at her and I blushed madly. A family dinner where our parents could embarrass us at the same table and we would be powerless to stop it. That ought to be fun. "I'll ask him and send a response to Tara," Cedric said.

"Lovely," Mom said before turning back to me. She smiled weakly and brought me in for a hug. "Well... You do look wonderful. And I suppose that it will make for an interesting story," she conceded.

I smiled at her. "Thanks, Mom. See you later, Cedric!" I called out, waving at him.

He waved back at me as Dad wrapped an arm over Harry, pulling him along with Mom and I. "Come on with us, Harry," Dad offered.

"Ready to go, are you?" another voice called.

We all turned back to see Vermin and Horse-Face waiting with glares. Dudley seemed to have gotten even larger if that was possible. To my surprise, it was Mom that spoke, a vicious tone to her voice. "Actually, Vernon, Petunia, we'd like a chance to speak with Harry for a while. They've done some utterly impressive things this year. You may go. We'll return him later tonight," she said, leaving no room for argument.

Looking furious that they had come all the way here for nothing, they turned and angrily stomped away. "Come on, kids. Let's go home," Dad said, motioning us to walk with them.

"Stay with us this summer," I told Harry.

Harry smiled back at me. "I'd love to, honestly," he said.

Mom and Dad must have heard the conversation, as they came to our rescue. "How would you like to come back to the States with us for a few days, Harry? We're going in three weeks. We'd be happy to take you off of Vernon and Petunia's hands," Mom offered. I had said it before, but the offer had just become real.

Harry's jaw dropped. It had been a long time since I had seen him that happy at the prospect of something happening over the summer holidays. "That would be wonderful. Thank you," he said.

"Oh you can meet my old friends!" I said excitedly.

They were some of the many things that I looked forward to when we went back to Florida. That, the Stars Quidditch Pitch, the weather, and definitely going swimming. Plus people didn't look at me like I was out of my mind with my accent. It might be kind of fun to show Harry the world that I had grown up with. We headed to the fireplaces and I noticed Harry groan. Laughing softly, I brought him with me. The two of us went first and landed in my clean living room. Harry seemed a little less prone to motion sickness through the fireplaces these days. Mom and Dad Apparated back home a moment later, our trunks and bags in hand.

They immediately let Hedwig and Dai out to go fly around and say hello to Hale. "Now... Where should we go? I'd like to hear about everything that happened this year," Mom told us.

Smiling at her, we both nodded. I turned to Harry. "Pick the restaurant. I'm going to go get changed," I told him.

Harry nodded at me and sat on the couches with my parents, chatting about the cancelled exams. I did happen to hear a very loud laugh as I hit the landing. I assumed that Harry had just told my parents about what had happened with Lockhart. Strutting into my room, I found that nothing was out of place. As per usual, my parents had not come in during the school year, other than to vacuum. There was only one difference. Sitting right on my bed, somehow not surprising me in the slightest, was a perfectly wrapped black box.

Swallowing the nerves that were in my stomach, I walked over to the bed and dropped the sweater that I was wearing. I kicked off my tennis shoes and traded them for sandals. Quickly I pulled up my hair before sitting down on the edge of the bed, picking up the black box and peeling the lid off. Inside was a small pendant in the shape of a snake. Green gems were embedded into the side of the charm and I stared at it for a long while, a small smile actually forming over my lips. Suddenly my invisible helper no longer seemed like a foe. Maybe they were a friend. I placed down the pendant and found, as per usual, there to be a note at the bottom.

I told you so.

And so they did... The entire time, the owner of the boxes had been telling me the entire truth. All of the answers had been right in front of our faces. We just hadn't been looking close enough. As much as I wanted to sit and stew over the note, I knew that I couldn't. There were people waiting for me downstairs. So I shoved the box and note into my bedside table, slammed it shut, and changed my clothes quickly. Once I was out of my old clothes, I plastered a smile on my face and joined my parents and Harry. As we walked out to the car, I sighed, wondering how long the peace would last. I assumed that as long as Harry sat at my side, it wouldn't be long.


	37. Owl Post

For the most part, I considered myself a very normal thirteen-year-old girl. I went to a school with lots of friends that I loved more than anything else. I studied and got good marks, some of the best in my year. Only bested by one of my best friends, Hermione Granger. I spent my time doing useful things - some of which included discovering the Chamber of Secrets, stopping a plot to murder all of the Muggle-Born students at my school, defeat the worst Dark Wizard in history for a second time, and killing a Basilisk, which was one of the most dangerous magical creatures. But those were all just normal, everyday occurrences in my life.

But I supposed the one way that I considered myself abnormal was that I really did enjoy doing my homework. And, for another thing, I really did wish that the summer holidays were over. Not that I didn't love being back home, but five weeks had already passed since I'd left Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the end of my Second Year, and now I was bored. As I prepared for Third Year to start, I was left without magic, considering that I was still underage and already had one warning under my belt for underage magic, even thought it had been Dobby the house-elf, not me. I just had to settle for watching Mom and Dad.

Things could have been much worse for me. Despite the fact that it was now coming up on midnight, I wasn't forced to do my homework in the dead of the night, like Harry Potter, my neighbor and best friend. I just couldn't sleep tonight, and Mom and Dad were up anyways. So I figured that I might as well do my homework on the couch downstairs where I could spread out. Currently I was lying on my stomach across the couch. My head and shoulders were hanging off of the front of the couch so that I could read the large leather-bound book. A History of Magic. I was sure that even with seven years of schooling, I would never finish the book.

Yawning yet again, I moved the tip of my Thunderbird feather quill down the page, careful not to blot it with ink, frowning as the late time of the night started to create a fuzz in my brain. I wasn't really tired, but I was getting sick of working. But I really wanted to finish this essay. I hated History of Magic homework so I always liked finishing it first. I'd been putting it off long enough.

Despite knowing quite a bit about the topic that I was writing for, I couldn't find a way to word what I wanted to say. So I put the essay off to the side and grabbed the paper that I had written out all of the short facts on. It was always just to help me check that things were accurate in the essay. Something that I could thank Hermione for. It was one of her strategies.

As I tapped my quill against my chin, I could hear Mom and Dad rummaging around. Like me, they were night owls. Mom was currently doing some paperwork while Dad was watching the Muggle television. "Hey Mom!" I called.

"What is it?" she called back.

"What was the Muggle town that all of the witch trials took place in? Salem, right?" I asked her.

"Yes."

"Massachusetts?"

"Yes."

"And what year was that?" I asked slowly.

She popped out from around the corner of the kitchen and stared at me. I gave her a guilty smile. "You know, I know that I was in school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth," I grinned at her, "but the last time that I checked, it was supposed to be the student doing the work, not the parents," she told me.

"You're not that old. More like when the cavemen were around," I teased. She laughed and threw the dish towel that she was using at me. I groaned at the unwashed towel and tossed it back to her. "I'm fact-checking," I said.

That wasn't entirely true. I was just being lazy and I really didn't want to go digging through all of the pieces of parchment that I had scattered around me. The essay was supposed to be three rolls long, and I was getting towards the end of my third. I groaned and shoved my head into the carpeted floor. Even Potions homework was better than this. Even though Snape gave more homework, it was usually a lot shorter pieces. Professor Binns would give us one or two huge assignments to spread out over the entire summer. Shoving my papers off to the side once I'd written a little more, I glanced back down at the assignment.

Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless - Discuss.

Of course witch burning was pointless. Witches and wizards were able to use the Flame Freezing Charm. It was no big deal for them. It was actually just awful for the Muggles. They were the ones that actually died. It was one of their less impressive moments. Grabbing my parchment back, I started to scribble out the final piece of my essay. Once I was sure that it was done, I nodded to myself. The last thing that I wanted to do was check and make sure that I had the right name. So I pushed the papers off to the side, rolled up my parchment, and grabbed my History of Magic textbook, reading quickly.

Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises.

But what were the dates? I was sure that I was missing one of them. I glanced up at Dad and saw that the phone was sitting on the edge of the couch. "Can you toss me the phone?" I asked him.

Dad glanced up at me and raised a brow. He threw the phone at me anyways, and I caught it, quickly dialing Hermione's number. "It's almost midnight. Who are you calling?" Dad asked.

"Hermione. Trust me, she'll still be up doing homework," I told them both.

There was no doubt in my mind that Hermione would still be awake. She never really liked going to bed early, as she always felt that there was more studying to be done. I knew that she spent most of her time over the summer studying and doing her homework. Not that it surprised me. It didn't surprise her parents either. They thought that it was sweet that their daughter loved the Wizarding World and all of its - admittedly - very fascinating history. The phone connected and I waited for her to answer.

It was three rings before I heard the receiver click. "Hello?" Hermione's voice answered.

She didn't sound tired, just confused, probably as to why someone was calling her this late. "Hey, Mione," I said.

Her voice almost immediately brightened when she realized who it was. "Hey, Tara. It's late. What's up?" she asked me.

Grabbing my paperwork, I pulled it in front of myself and started going over it. "I wanted to ask you about the homework that we got from Professor Binns -" I started to say before her angry voice cut over me.

"Absolutely not!" Hermione cried shrilly. I opened my mouth to tell her that I didn't want her to write it for me, but she continued to speak. "Ron already asked me if I would write his."

Rolling my eyes to myself, I sat upright on the couch and spoke before she could continue. "I'm not asking you if you'll write it, I just want to know if you remembered the date that -"

"Goodnight, Tara. You should be getting a letter from me soon," Hermione interrupted, effectively ending the conversation.

Sighing softly, I nodded, despite the fact that she couldn't see me. "Night, Mione," I said. I brought the phone away from my ear and clicked it off, tossing it back down onto the couch beside me.

"That sounded useful," Dad said.

Glancing over at him, I rolled my eyes and tossed the phone back to him. "Please, she's useless. She keeps thinking that all I want to do is use her essay. I don't, I just wanted her to confirm something for me," I growled, munching on another one of my Sugar Quills. "Whatever. I'll do it myself," I spoke through the candy.

Cracking the Sugar Quill, I began to scribble at the bottom of the page once more. "Didn't you learn about the Salem Witch Trials in Ilvermorny?" Dad asked me.

I nodded at him. It was one of the first things that we learned, since even Muggle-Born's knew a little bit about them. "We learned about them in Hogwarts, too. But you know how dreadfully boring Professor Binns is. That's not a real class. It's the perfect time to take a nap," I told them, wishing almost immediately that I hadn't. I always got in trouble for saying things like that.

But, to my surprise, neither Mom nor Dad seemed bothered at my remark. "She makes a fair point," Dad said.

Mom had been sporting a little frown on her face, but it quickly dissolved and she nodded slowly. "I suppose that I slept through a few History of Magic classes," she muttered.

Grinning at Dad, I leaned over and glanced back at my nearly-finished essay. I dipped my Thunderbird quill back into the pot of ink and began scribbling once more. For a long time I simply wrote back and forth, using my Vanishing Ink to take away the few mistakes that I had made, while listening to Mom and Dad walk back and forth throughout the house. I was glad that they didn't want to go to bed yet, because I didn't want to have to move upstairs. There wasn't enough room.

Almost immediately, I felt very guilty for complaining. I could only assume that Harry was having a terrible time trying to do his homework. He must have been hiding underneath his sheets, balancing everything, as he tried to do his homework. That was the way that he had to do all of his work this summer. If he didn't, I could only imagine that he would find himself locked in the cupboard under the stairs for the rest of the summer. The place that had been his bedroom two years ago. They had only moved him out of the cupboard under the stairs because they were terrified that he would light the house on fire or something akin to that if they didn't move him.

The Dursley family of Number Four, Privet Drive, were the reason that Harry was one of the few people alive that never enjoyed their summer holidays. Vermin, Horse-Face, and their son, Dudley, were Harry's only living relatives. Even though we should have been counted... They were Muggles, and they had a very medieval attitude toward magic. Dumbledore was still telling my parents that Harry was safer with the Muggles, so it meant that he had to suffer during the breaks. It had been rather funny before Harry had known that he was a wizard. Vermin and Horse-Face would try so hard to stamp the magic out of him.

Little did they know that if Harry had repressed his powers for too long, he would have become an Obscurus. And that would have really been a problem. To their fury, and my relief, they had been unsuccessful. These days they lived in terror of anyone finding out that Harry - and their neighbor - had spent most of the last two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The most they could do, however, was to lock away Harry's spell books, wand, cauldron, and broomstick at the start of the summer break, and forbid him to talk to the neighbors - myself being the only exception, seeing that I'd threatened to tell the neighbors all about our magical school if they didn't let me over.

Despite being able to see Harry, we were not allowed to mention magic or do any schoolwork while under the Dursley roof. It meant that we could only do it at mine. And Harry was given so many chores - that I offered to help him with most of the time - that we normally spent most of our time at the Dursley household. This separation from his spell books had been a real problem for Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of holiday work.

There were lots of ways that this could become an issue. One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about Shrinking Potions - which were extraordinarily complicated - was for my absolute least favorite teacher - besides the old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart - Professor Snape, who would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry detention for a month. I did feel terrible for him. Snape hated Harry more than anything else - bar me - and he would love to get Harry expelled. He'd been trying since day one.

Because of all of this, Harry and I had seized our chance in the first week of the holidays. There was a trellis on the outside of Harry's room that was easy for me to climb up. That was how I'd been sneaking into Harry's room for most of the nights during the holiday. Mom and Dad knew that nothing was going on in between Harry and I - they knew that we were like siblings - so they had never minded that I was doing that. They just told me not to get caught. Thankfully stealing the textbooks was a much easier prospect than sneaking into the Dursley household in the middle of the night without magic.

It had been the middle of the day. Vermin, Horse-Face, and Dudley had gone out into the front garden to admire Vermin's new company car one day - which really wasn't that nice - and that was when we had taken our chance. It was easy to know when they were going to come back inside. They were talking in very loud voices, so that the rest of the street would notice the new car too. Harry and I had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grabbed some of his books, and gone back upstairs to hide them in his bedroom. As long as he didn't leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Dursley's need never know that he was studying magic by night.

For the most part, I'd been trying to keep Harry company for as much as I could. He was essentially cut off from the magical world during the holidays and I knew that he got incredibly bored. Plus having the Dursley's constantly breathing down your neck was awful. It was why I had started sneaking into his room. For the days that they wouldn't let me into their home to see Harry, I would sneak in at night to talk and try and remind him that we were almost back at Hogwarts. Just a few more weeks to go.

Coming from upstairs, there was another little clink. Something kept hitting against one of the windows. I'd been hearing it for the past few minutes. "What is that noise?" Mom asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I rolled up all of my things and flipped off of the front of the couch. Mom glared at me, probably thinking that I was going to break my neck. Not that she wouldn't have been able to fix it. "Probably Harry throwing rocks at the window. I'll see you both later," I said, grabbing my things and heading towards the staircase.

Mom and Dad were now both looking at me. "They haven't locked him back downstairs, have they?" Mom asked me sharply.

She really did hate the Dursley's, considering everything that they did to Harry, but on Dumbledore's orders, she said nothing. "No, but they're not letting him use his spell books. He had to steal them back from the cupboard. He's probably either bored or confused. I assume that he's studying," I told them both.

"Invite him over tomorrow," Mom ordered me.

That was an obvious one. I brought Harry around as much as I possibly could. "Will do. Goodnight, guys!" I called out to them, turning to head upstairs.

"Goodnight darling," Mom called.

"Night sweetheart," Dad said.

Once they had waved me off, I turned and darted up the stairs. I was barely halfway up before Dad had the television back on. It sounded like it was on the news stations. Sounded like they were reporting on some criminal. I dashed up the stairs and headed into my bedroom. Gently I closed the door behind me and crossed the large room. As expected, Harry was throwing rocks at my window to try and get my attention. He was sitting on the ledge of his own window. I smiled at him and forced the window up. It had been getting stuck lately. Once it was open, I took a seat on the bench attached to my window.

The both of us shifted so that we were facing each other. The houses weren't that far from each other, so we didn't even have to shout. "I saw all of the lights on and figured that you would be awake," Harry said.

I nodded at him. "I was. Just doing some of the homework," I told him. He nodded at me. I had been right in assuming that he had been doing his homework, too. He was probably either having a problem or got bored. "You get another call from Ron?" I teased.

The two of us both laughed. It had been quite something the last time that Ron had called. Actually, it was the first and only time that anyone had called Harry. It was one of the funniest things that I had seen all summer. But it was also the reason that Harry was particularly keen to avoid trouble with his aunt and uncle. The past few weeks, they had been in an especially bad mood with him - even more so than usual - all because he'd received a telephone call from a fellow wizard one week into the school vacation.

Ron Weasley, who was one of Harry and I's best friends at Hogwarts, came from a whole family of wizards. He was one of the few genuinely Pureblooded wizarding families in the English Wizarding World. He was part of the Sacred Twenty-Nine, something that my family was also a part of. This meant that he knew a lot of things Harry didn't, sine he, like me, had grown up around wizards, but he had never used a telephone before. I'd tried to explain to it how telephones worked, but he still didn't seem to understand that the distance didn't matter. Most unluckily it had been Vermin who had answered the call.

"Vernon Dursley speaking."

It was only a week into the summer so the Dursley's hadn't found any reason to hate me and keep me out of their house yet. Plus Dudley, who had had a crush on me for years, liked to have me over. So I'd been over to tell Harry all about the new prototype broom that I had seen in Quality Quidditch Supplies a few days prior, when we'd heard who had been calling. The two of us had frozen in our tracks, and if Vermin hadn't been quite such a hothead, I knew that we both would have laughed.

"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? I - want - to - talk - to - Harry - Potter!"

Ron was yelling so loudly that Vermin jumped and held the receiver a foot away from his ear, staring at it with an expression of mingled fury and alarm. We both had gone and stared at each other. I had explained to Ron that he didn't need to yell, but he didn't seem to understand that the distance made no difference. That was the point of a telephone. He had been accentuating every word with a piercing yell. It had even been heard over at my house. Mom and Dad had both heard and had asked me later about what had happened.

"Who is this? Who are you?" Vermin roared in the direction of the mouthpiece.

It was pretty clear that he was too afraid to put the receiver back on his ear. I leaned over to Harry, trying to suppress a smile. "Maybe we should have taught him how to use a telephone first," I whispered, not that I needed to.

It was almost impossible to hear anything over Ron's shouts. "Yeah," Harry said, looking very pale.

"Ron - Weasley!" Ron bellowed back, as though he and Vermin were speaking from opposite ends of a football field. "I'm - a - friend - of - Harry's - from - school!"

The two of us had been laughing quietly up until that comment. We'd stared at each other before paling and looking back towards Vermin. I loved Ron, but sometimes he really didn't think. He should have known not to mention that he went to Hogwarts. He knew just how much the Dursley's hated everything and anything having to do with magic. To our complete horror, Vermin's small eyes swiveled around to Harry and I, as we were both rooted to the spot. Vermin whipped back to the phone.

"There is no Harry Potter here!" he roared, now holding the receiver at arm's length, as though frightened it might explode. "I don't know what you're talking about! Never contact me again! Don't you come near my family!"

Both Harry and I had tried to move forward to diffuse the tension or to try and explain to Ron that you didn't scream during a telephone conversation, but we hadn't gotten the chance. Before we could stop him, Vermin threw the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider. It hadn't taken long for the two of us to back off, knowing that the phone call wouldn't go over well. And we were right, because the fight that had followed had been one of the worst ever – of the ones that I had heard, at least.

Vermin rounded on Harry. "How dare you give this number to people like - people like you!" he roared, disgusting spraying Harry and I with spit.

As per usual, I was unable to stop myself from saying something stupid. "Excuse you! I'm like him!" I shouted.

That hadn't worked out like I'd planned for it to. Vermin had been so furious that I'd broken the rules of his household and mentioned something about magic that he had grabbed me by the top of my shirt - something that had made Harry furious - and threw me out of the house. I hadn't been allowed back for two weeks. That was what had led to me having to sneak into the Dursley household in the middle of the night. It had also let me to spending a lot of time with Cedric, mostly spent complaining. I was glad that he thought that our adventures with the Dursley's were funny, rather than annoyed that I spent our time together angered over things that I couldn't change.

It hadn't stopped Cedric from inviting me over. We saw each other at least twice a week these days. On the other hand, Ron had obviously realized that he'd gotten Harry into trouble, because he hadn't called again. Instead, he'd been writing me and telling me to tell Harry that he was sorry. He was settling with writing. Hermione and I called quite a bit, but she hadn't been in touch with Harry. She had told me that Ron had warned her not to call. It was rather silly though, because Hermione had Muggle parents, knew perfectly well how to use a telephone, and would probably have had enough sense not to say that she went to Hogwarts.

They'd just been telling me the occasional thing to forward to Harry. I assumed that they didn't want to start risking writing letters and getting bars on Harry's window all over again. I still felt terrible though. I could go back and forth visiting everyone and write to them regularly. But Harry had essentially had no word from any of his other friends for five weeks, and for him this summer was turning out to be almost as bad as the last one. At least we were able to hang out together. As he'd said before, he would have lost his mind a long time ago if I hadn't been around. It was too bad that the Dursley's wouldn't let him come with me more often.

There was just one very small improvement from the summer before. After swearing that he wouldn't use her to send letters to any of his friends, Harry had been allowed to let his owl, Hedwig, out at night. She would frequently come over to my house to see Dai. Other times she would fly as far as she could before coming back after a few days. Vermin had only given in because of the racket Hedwig made if she was locked in her cage all the time. It didn't help that he couldn't send letters, but at least Hedwig was happier these days.

"Thankfully Ron hasn't tried to call again," Harry told me, distracting my thoughts.

I hadn't thought that he would try and call again. Besides, he was in Egypt right now. He didn't really have that much time to write. "At least this time you know that they still care about you," I told him with a small smile.

Last summer was not a good one for Harry. A house-elf named Dobby had stopped the letters that Harry was getting from Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid; it had left him thinking that I was the only person that still cared for Harry. I had felt so terribly for him, mostly because they'd all been writing to me normally. We had found out later that Dobby had only been trying to keep Harry away from the school because of a plot to bring back Lord Voldemort - the worst Dark Wizard of all time. But we had stopped him, and after a very eventful school year, I was very glad to have not seen any signs of Dobby this summer - even as sweet as he was.

Harry nodded at me, scratching at the wood on the windowsill. "I know, Tara. And I don't want you to feel bad and stop doing what you're doing," he told me. I sighed. I'd been trying to stay at home lately because I felt so guilty about leaving him alone. "I'm just so bored. Hogwarts might be dangerous and all that, but at least it's entertaining."

Smiling slightly, I nodded. "Trust me, being home is nice, but Hogwarts is a lot more fun. I called Hermione earlier," I said, trying to change the topic. "She must be sending letters sometime soon."

"What'd you call her for?" Harry asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I tossed him a Chocolate Frog. He collected the cards and hadn't had any Wizarding World food lately. So from time to time I would give him something. "Couldn't remember what year the Salem Witch Trials started. I know that I can find it in the books, I just didn't want to look," I explained.

"Thanks for the Chocolate Frog," Harry said. I smiled at him and watched as he unwrapped it to eat. "You've got to love Professor Binns and his homework," he continued, holding up his parchment rolls.

"That's nothing compared to Professor McGonagall," I said.

We both laughed at that. As much as I did love Professor McGonagall - the Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration teacher - she was very strict and loved homework. "That's true. And all of Snape's things," Harry added.

Groaning softly, I nodded. Severus Snape was the Potions teacher and the Head of Slytherin House. He also happened to hate Harry and I more than anyone else in the school. He loved giving us so much homework over the summer that it was nearly impossible to remember that we had other work. Thankfully Mom had helped me with much of it. Although I was still only half-done. And that wasn't even to mention that I hadn't finished my Transfiguration or Charms homework yet.

"I'll be nearly dead by the time that I finish all of his homework," I moaned.

His wasn't particularly long, but he always gave the most complicated homework. "I'm still convinced that he gave us more homework than anyone else. You know that it's something that he would do," Harry told me.

Honestly, with Harry and I being his most hated students, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd purposely given us more homework than anyone else. But Ron and Hermione had both told me about their progress with the homework, and it sounded like they have been given the same amount. I leaned over to the floor and picked up another Sugar Quill. Mom and Dad were convinced that I had a problem since I seemed to always be eating one.

They were just good to eat without gaining weight. "Of course he would," I told Harry. We sat in silence for a moment before I grinned brightly. "So what do you want to do for your birthday tomorrow?" I asked.

Harry glanced up at me, seemingly surprised that I had remembered his birthday. Of course I had. He was my best friend. I never forgot his birthday. That meant everything to me. "I don't know, Tara," he muttered.

He always had hated his birthday, since I was the only person that ever remembered it. But we were going to do something. Mom and Dad had already asked me what we were going to do, but I hadn't figured it out yet. "We're doing something, Harry," I demanded. He smiled weakly at me. I thought about it for a moment before settling on something simple. "I know! Come over and I'll harass Mom and Dad into bringing us somewhere," I said brightly. He could pick.

Just as I had been expecting him to do, he shook his head at me. "It's really okay, Tara. We don't have to do anything and your parents don't have to do anything for me. They've done enough. That trip to the United States two weeks ago was incredible," he told me, a wistful smile on his face.

Two weeks ago the Dursley's had finally taken that trip to Majorca that they had been wanting for so long. They had been planning on leaving him with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady that lived down the street, but Mom and Dad had offered to take Harry and let him stay with us. They wouldn't even have to pay us anything to keep him. Plus, it kept him out of their hair. They hadn't wanted to leave him with us, considering what we were, but Mrs. Figg wanted payment, no one in their family wanted to take Harry, and they were too nervous to leave him at home alone, so they'd conceded.

They had been gone for a week so it had been our perfect opportunity to take Harry to the States with us. We'd gone all over the place. We'd returned to my previous home in Florida where we'd shown him the place that I had grown up in. Since my family was on good terms with Algibert Fontaine, we'd even brought him on a brief tour of Ilvermorny where he'd met my old friends. Ellie and Morena had been fascinated to meet Harry and had been very sweet with him. Michael, David, and Justin had kept Harry company while I'd gone off with the girls to chat about Cedric. They'd promised that they would drop by and visit sometime this summer.

On our second day we'd gone to show Harry the Magical Congress of the United States of America. He had been absolutely fascinated. He'd never been to the Ministry of Magic, and I was glad, considering that the Congress was much nicer than the Ministry. It was much younger than the Ministry, too. Harry had been fascinated as we'd walked back and forth, explaining the entire history to him. I was very glad to see that he wasn't bored. In fact, he looked like he'd never been having so much fun.

The rest of the trip to the States had been spent doing typical Muggle things. While we were visiting the Magical Congress, we'd brought Harry on a tour of our favorite places in New York City. He had really loved the Grand Canyon and we'd been sure to take lots of pictures. We'd spent two days in Washington D.C. Despite the fact that Harry didn't love history, he did enjoy learning about the history of the place that I had once called home. Plus there were a few magical museums. We had also visited New Orleans, San Diego, Miami, Los Angeles, Yosemite, Seattle, Yellowstone, and Orlando. Harry had definitely gotten used to traveling by Floo Powder during our trip. We'd decided to save Apparating for until he was a little older. I was sure that he wouldn't like it.

It was rather cute now that we were home. We had always had pictures up all over the house. But now, most of them had Harry in them. "They love you. Shut up," I told him. Harry smiled bashfully. "We'll do something tomorrow. Not like Vermin and Horse-Face will do anything for you. I'll give you my present in the morning. It's too big to toss over," I said.

"Thanks, Tara," Harry said bashfully.

"You're always getting me something for my birthday. I get to repay the favor." He smiled at me and nodded. "Come on. We'll do the homework together," I told him.

It had also been funny the moment that the Dursley's had gotten back home. We'd hidden the many things that Harry had gotten during the trip. They had been walking around, gloating about how wonderful Majorca had been. Dudley had made quite a few little comments about how Harry had never known what it was like to take a vacation. The two of us had given each other absolutely brilliant smiles before telling them all about the boring time that we'd had doing our homework.

Together, Harry and I did our homework, Harry finishing writing about Wendelin the Weird, while I started to describe how to differentiate between an Animagus and a Metamorphagus. It was part of the extra credit Transfiguration work. The entire time we chatted back and forth, ensuring that neither one of us would make any mistakes. From time to time we would pause to listen again. The silence in Harry's dark house was broken only by the distant, grunting snores of his enormous cousin, Dudley. The lights were no longer on downstairs, but three rooms away, I could hear Mom and Dad's television on a low volume. I raised my brow. It was almost one in the morning. They were still awake?

My eyes were starting to itch with the strain of concentration. I wasn't tired, but I knew that I couldn't write anymore. It seemed that Harry felt the same way. Maybe I'd finish this essay tomorrow night. So I replaced the top of the ink bottle and placed my homework on my bedside table, figuring that I'd start it again later. Harry had a much more extensive process. He had to hide all of his things under a loose floorboard under his bed. Once he had put all of his things away, he stood up, stretched, and checked the time on the luminous alarm clock on his bedside table. He seemed to be startled about something.

"Tired?" I asked him.

Harry nodded, yawning once more. "Always. I can only do the homework at night, so it's exhausting," he told me irritably.

We might have had more homework at Hogwarts, but at least we could do it during the day. "I'm sorry about all that. Bring it over more often so that you can do it at my house, during the day," I told him.

"Next week," he said.

Glancing back at the clock once more, I smiled. "Oh, hey, congratulations, you somehow made it to thirteen," I teased.

With all of the times that we nearly died, it was rather impressive that we'd somehow managed to make it to our Third Year at Hogwarts. "Think you'll manage to make it to fourteen?" Harry teased me.

There was just about three months until I turned fourteen. "We're going to find out," I said brightly.

It had always made me feel terrible that one of the many things that made Harry unusual was the fact that he never looked forward to his birthdays. Probably because he felt like no one ever cared about them. He had never received a birthday card in his life, other than the ones that I had gotten him. He had never really had any friends other than me, and the ones that we had now never got the chance to send one last year. The Dursley's had completely ignored his last two birthdays, and there was really no reason to suppose they would remember this one.

Harry was standing to try and shake the sleep from him. I watched as he walked across the dark room, past Hedwig's large, empty cage, to the open window once more. He leaned on the sill and I smiled at him. We both looked up into the cool night air. It was one of the reasons that I had come to liking slipping outside to the park at night. There was a pleasant breeze on my face whenever I went walking. I glanced back at Hedwig's cage. Hedwig had apparently been absent for two nights now. Harry wasn't worried about her and neither was I. Owls were always gone for extended periods of time. That was the way that they were. But I knew that he missed her.

"She'll be back soon," I told Harry. He glanced over at me and nodded. "How long has she been gone?" I asked him, making sure that I had my timing right.

"Just two days," Harry confirmed.

It was probably that she had gone to visit someone else. "She might have gone to visit Hermione or Ron," I told him. Hedwig liked both of their houses. But Ron's was always more fun. There was other owls and more people. "Dai is off visiting Fred and George right now. He loves them since they feed him so much."

Dai had been gone almost half of the summer holidays already, visiting Fred and George. He loved being with them. I had a feeling that he was going to permanently move in with them soon. "That's half of the reason that Hedwig likes your house so much," Harry said.

Grinning slightly, I nodded. Hedwig liked having another owl to play with. Harry glanced at his own reflection, and I did the same. He had hit one of his first large growth spurts over the summer. He was still rather small and skinny for his age, but he had grown a few inches over the last year. I was jealous. He was coming up on a normal height. Even the lack of food with Dursley's hadn't stunted his growth that much. His jet-black hair was exactly as it always had been - stubbornly untidy, whatever he did to it. I had always liked it that way. His eyes were still bright green, just like Lily's, and on his forehead was a thin scar, shaped like a bolt of lightning.

He had some pretty cool things about himself. I was a little bit different. Despite the fact that we acted like brother and sister, Harry and I looked nothing alike. While he was getting to be rather tall, I hadn't grown seriously since I was eight. I still stood at just around five feet. Harry was very scrawny, but I was built more like a mix between my Mom and Dad. I had the curves that Mom had - much to my embarrassment as they were only getting gradually larger - but the muscles and lean stature of Dad. Mom said that it was a nice figure, but it felt a little stupid.

My shirts were continuously getting tighter and I really didn't want to deal with Pug-Face Parkinson thinking that I was trying to hog all of the male attention at Hogwarts. It had more than once made me want to throw in her face the fact that her boyfriend liked my Chapstick and my eyes a whole lot better than he liked anything of hers. Of course, then I would have to admit that I had been under the Polyjuice Potion to questions Draco Malfoy, and I would have to admit that while under the guise of being Parkinson, I'd also had my first kiss sprung on me. Nope... Nope... Never happened. That didn't count.

I was positive that my first kiss would come at some point, but I wasn't in a rush. Plus, I knew the person that I wanted to have my kiss with. It was just a matter of whether or not that person reciprocated the feelings. I'd known Cedric for two years, but I was still unsure of his feelings for me. I wondered if he liked my eyes. They were a striking amber that glowed in the sun with little hints of blue. My hair had lightened with all of the time that I'd been spending in the sun and it was now getting more towards Dad's nearly white-blonde. It still hung straight all the way down my back. Mom was threatening to cut it if it got any longer. I'd have to cut it to my shoulder blades soon anyways. Playing Quidditch with super-long hair was too hard.

Glancing at Harry, I noticed that he was coming to the top of his floor-length mirror. "You need to stop growing. Every time that I see you, you're getting taller," I told Harry, a little whine evident in my voice.

"I'm still short," Harry said.

He was definitely shorter than Fred, George, and Ron, but he was still taller than me. Hermione, too. Although she was getting taller. "I'm barely five feet tall. I should be three inches taller than I am! Even Hermione's taller than me," I groaned. She was about four inches taller than me. "And you and Ron keep growing. I'm going to feel like Dobby sometime soon."

At that Harry grinned. Dobby was only about three feet tall. But with everyone else shooting up, that was about how I felt. "You aren't that short," Harry told me.

Glaring at him, I shook my head. "Yes I am."

"Okay, just a little bit," he conceded.

"Thanks," I deadpanned.

He gave me a bright smile and I rolled my eyes. We were acting like two perfectly normal best friends. But the truth was that we were anything but normal. And not just because we were magical. The Dursley's may have pretended for ten years that James and Lily Potter had been killed in a car crash, but that was not what had happened. They had been murdered by the most feared Dark wizard for a hundred years, Lord Voldemort. Harry had escaped from the same attack with nothing more than a scar on his forehead, where Voldemort's curse, instead of killing him, had rebounded upon its originator. Barely alive, Voldemort had fled. In some ways, I was grateful that it had happened this way. Because he had been coming for my parents next...

In my life, I had met Voldemort two times. Each time we had been lucky enough to walk away from the fight. But I had a feeling that we wouldn't always be so lucky. One of the things that unnerved me the most was that Voldemort seemed to know me. He seemed to care a little bit about me. But the problem was that he had never told me what I meant to him. There were so many secrets that surrounded my life. They included the mystery man in my dreams, the person that was sending me the black ribbon-wrapped boxes with notes, the reason why I meant something to Voldemort, how he knew me, and why I was a Parselmouth were just a few.

It seemed that every year we were only given more things to make our lives even harder. Voldemort had wanted to kill Harry as repentance for him destroying Voldemort in the first place, all of those years ago. The more bothersome part was why I kept getting sucked into these meetings. I had nothing to do with him. Did I? That was the major question. Remembering the last meeting with both Tom Riddle's memory and the battle with the Basilisk with a shiver, as I sat at the dark window, I had to admit that Harry was lucky even to have reached his thirteenth birthday, and I'd be lucky to reach my fourteenth.

Trying to brush off the memory of my leg appearing like it had gone through a meat grinder after being attacked by the Basilisk, I glanced off in the distance. I scanned the starry sky for any sign of Hedwig or Dai, perhaps soaring back to me with a dead mouse dangling from Dai's beak, expecting praise. He tended to like killing them. Snakes, too. On my order, he left rabbits alone. Gazing absently over the rooftops, it was a few seconds before I realized what I was seeing.

Obviously Harry had just spotted it, too. "Whose is that?" Harry asked.

Straining to see the owls, I rolled my eyes. I should have figured which owl it would be. "Errol, I'd assume. Looks like two owls are having to carry him," I told Harry.

Silhouetted against the golden moon, and growing larger every moment, was a large, strangely lopsided creature, and it was flapping in Harry's direction. The two of us stood quite still, watching it sink lower and lower. Harry looked like he was about to take the window and slam it, but I shook my head. He might as well just let them in. They'd only tap at the window with their beaks until he let them in if he closed it. Owls were patient. Harry let go of the latch and leapt aside.

Watching closely, Harry flipped on the bedside lamp. It wasn't enough to wake the Dursley's, but it was enough so that we could watch what was happening in each other's bedrooms. Through the opened window soared three owls, two of them holding up the third, which appeared to be unconscious. They landed on Harry's bed, and the middle owl, which was large and gray, keeled right over and lay motionless. There was a large package tied to its legs.

"Is it Errol?" I asked.

Harry nodded at me. "Yeah. He's got one for you, too," Harry called me.

I was about to ask Harry to send Errol over to me, but I thought better of it. "Don't send him with it. Just throw the letter. Actually, send it with that one," I said, motioning to a tawny owl.

Harry nodded at me. He took away three letters and handed it off to the third owl. It was the only one of the two that I had never seen before. I didn't recognize the thing, but it was a handsome tawny one. I knew at once where it had come from. The owl was no one's that I knew so that meant that it must have been from Hogwarts. I knew all of my friends' owls. Harry handed the letters off to the owl and it ruffled its feathers importantly before flying over to me. I thanked it, grabbed the letters, handed the owl a treat, and watched at it flew off into the night. It gave a thankful hoot before disappearing in the darkness.

"Thank you!" I called after the owl.

Grabbing the letters, I spread them out over the stoop at the window, not wanting to move too far away from Harry. I had been right about it being from Hogwarts. It was bearing the seal of the school and had Professor McGonagall's typical bright green ink across the front. The other letters were spread out on the bed next to the one from Hogwarts. I'd read the one from school later. The others were from Hermione and Ron. She had been right about a letter from her showing up soon.

Pushing my letters off to the side for now, I glanced into Harry's room. The owl that was laying on his bed was still unconscious. Harry and I exchanged a look at the pathetic thing. It was indeed Errol, and he belonged to the Weasley family. He was very old and very pathetic. Harry dashed to the bed, untied the cords around Errol's legs, took off the parcel, and then carried Errol to Hedwig's cage. Errol opened one bleary eye, gave a feeble hoot of thanks, and began to gulp some water. I was sure that the owl was going to die at any given moment.

Harry turned back to the remaining owl. The large snowy female was his own Hedwig. She, too, was carrying a parcel and looked extremely pleased with herself. She gave Harry an affectionate nip with her beak as he removed her burden, then flew across the yard. I smiled at her as she swooped into my room. She gave me an affectionate nudge and nip, I ruffled her feathers sweetly, fed her a few treats, and watched as she flew back to Harry. She immediately went to her cage to join Errol.

Once he was sure that Errol was okay, Harry sat down on his bed and grabbed Errol's package. He was holding the thing so that I could see it as he moved onto the ledge. He ripped off the brown paper, and discovered a present wrapped in gold, and his first ever birthday card that wasn't from me. He opened the envelope, showing me. Two pieces of paper fell out - a letter and a newspaper clipping. The clipping had clearly come out of the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet, because the people in the black-and-white picture were moving.

I looked a little closer and smiled. As Harry opened his own letter, I looked over and glanced at mine. Slitting open the envelope from Ron, I saw that I had the same thing. I had a letter that was written in Ron's untidy scrawl, and the same piece from the Daily Prophet. I laughed and shook my head. I'd already seen this one, but I did like it. It was currently hanging up in my bedroom over my desk. I picked up the clipping, smoothed it out, and read it again.

Ministry of Magic Employee Scoops Grand Prize

Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank." The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend.

Even from here, I could see him smiling brightly. "I meant to tell you about that earlier. Saw it in the Prophet yesterday," I told Harry once I was sure that he had finished reading.

"That's great for them," Harry said.

We were both glad for them. "They needed it. It's been a long time since they were all able to take a vacation together. I don't think they've ever been able to take a vacation together," I said.

Looking back down at the page, I scanned the moving photograph, and a grin spread across my face as I saw all nine of the Weasley's waving furiously at me, standing in front of a large pyramid. It was sweet seeing all of them together. Plump little Mrs. Weasley was standing in the middle of the photograph with her arm around Ginny. Ron was on Mrs. Weasley's other side, his pet rat, Scabbers, in his hands. Fred and George were on either side of the picture, giving stupid smiles. Percy, Charlie, and Mr. Weasley were in the background, all looking thrilled. Bill was standing in the very background and smiling proudly. Even though the picture didn't show it, they all had flaming red hair.

It was wonderful that the Weasley's had won. It would have been miserable to see a family like the Malfoy's win seven hundred Galleons. They had more money than they knew what to do with. I couldn't think of anyone who deserved to win a large pile of gold more than the Weasley's, who were very nice and extremely poor. They probably should have kept most of the money that they had won, but they also deserved to take a vacation, which they could never afford anyways. I saw Harry pick up Ron's letter and unfold it.

"What's yours say?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

It says, 'Dear Harry,

"Happy birthday!

"Look, I'm really sorry about that telephone call. I hope the Muggles didn't give you a hard time. I asked Dad, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted.

"It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.

"I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year."

The moment that Harry had told me that part, I'd laughed loudly. So had he. I remembered only too well the occasion when Ron's old wand had snapped. Not only had Dobby gotten us an underage wizardry warning, but he had also closed the barrier so that we were going to miss the Hogwarts Express. As we'd been the last ones to go through, we had panicked and taken the old Flying Ford Anglia that Mr. Weasley had taken and enchanted off to Hogwarts. It had died on the way there and we had crashed the car into the Whomping Willow - a tree on the Hogwarts grounds that happened to hit back.

Once we had stopped laughing, he then continued speaking. "We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you there?

"Don't let the Muggles get you down!

"Try and come to London,  
"Ron.

"PS. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week."

He stopped speaking and I smiled. That was all nice. And we should have figured that Percy was going to be the Head Boy. He wanted to be the Minister for Magic, for Merlin's sake. "That's all good and well," I said.

Harry nodded at me and motioned for me to read mine aloud. We normally read our letters to each other unless it was from someone that we wanted to keep private. But there were very few things that we actually wanted to keep from each other. I plucked Ron's letter from the pile and opened it. My letter seemed to be longer than Harry's. Clearing my throat, I moved so that my legs were dangling out of the window. The weather was absolutely lovely tonight.

"Dear Tara,

"Everyone says hello. They miss you a lot. I miss you, too. Fred and George have been hidden away in their room a lot lately. So, be warned about them. I'm sure that they'll try to do something terrible to you the next time that you come around. Ginny's going to send you a letter soon. I think she misses talking to a girl. I'm sure not going to listen to her crush on Harry. Mum's invited you and yours to dinner sometime soon, by the way. She wants to talk. Sounded like some adult thing.

"How's Harry doing with the Muggles? You should have told me that you don't shout into the phone. It really doesn't make any sense how that works without magic, honestly. They're not giving him too hard of a time, are they? I asked Dad all about telephones afterwards, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted. Weird things, Muggles.

"It's amazing here in Egypt. You and Hermione would love it. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.I know that Ginny was upset that she couldn't come in. But she might not have liked it. It was a little creepy. Percy was fascinated.

"I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Wish they would have let me have at it in Quality Quidditch Supplies. Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year. How was the trip to the States? Did Harry get to go with you? Hope he did.

"Anyways, we're getting the Hogwarts letters soon. Did you get yours yet? We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting the two of you there?

"Try and come to London,  
"Ron.

"PS. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week."

Harry nodded at me and I noticed that he glanced back at the photograph. I did as well. Percy, who was in his Seventh and final year at Hogwarts, was looking particularly smug. I rolled my eyes. Percy was a nice guy and he meant well, but he could be a real ass sometimes. In the picture he had pinned his Head Boy badge to the fez perched jauntily on top of his neat hair, his horn-rimmed glasses flashing in the Egyptian sun. I wondered if Penelope Clearwater, his Ravenclaw girlfriend, had been named the Head Girl.

"Sounds like they've been having a good time," I said through the silent night.

Harry nodded his agreement. "It does," he said.

I was sure that whenever I caught up with the Weasley's, they would tell me what had happened with the Head Girl. I was sure that Percy wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut anyways. Placing the newspaper and Ron's letter off to the side, I glanced over at Harry. I saw that he had now turned to his present and unwrapped it. Inside was what looked like a miniature glass spinning top. It looked to me like it was a Sneakoscope, but I couldn't tell. There was another note from Ron beneath it.

"What'd they get you?" I asked him.

Harry read over the note a few times before glancing back up at me. He looked very confused. "Something called a Sneakoscope," he said. I nodded. I'd thought that that was what it was. "Have you heard of them?"

I nodded at him. I'd never had one before as there were so many fakes. "Yeah. They're pretty useful if it's a real one. They sell a whole bunch of fake ones all over the world," I told him.

"This is what the letter said," Harry told me. I nodded as he spoke.

"Harry,

"This is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says it's rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup.

"Bye,  
"Ron."

Laughing softly, I nodded. That would probably be the reason that the Sneakoscope had been whirring. I wondered how no one had figured that with the twins in the house, it was bound to be constantly spinning. "Well that would make sense," I said through a laugh.

Leave it to the twins to do something terrible to their loving brother. Harry put the Pocket Sneakoscope on his bedside table, where it stood quite still, balanced on its point, reflecting the luminous hands of his clock. We exchanged a little look. Maybe it did work, after all. It was hard to tell which ones were genuinely real and which ones were just tourist junk. He looked at it happily for a few seconds, then picked up the parcel Hedwig had brought. Inside this, too, there was a wrapped present, a card, and a letter. I assumed that this time, it was from Hermione.

It looked like the loopy handwriting that Hermione had. "Get a letter from Hermione?" I asked him.

He nodded with a fond smile over his mouth. "More like a novel," he said.

Splitting the letter open that I had received from Hermione, I smiled. It was very like her to send long letters. Mine was on a full piece of parchment. "Me, too. What's yours say?" I asked.

"Dear Harry,

"Ron wrote to me and told me about his phone call to your Uncle Vernon. I do hope you're all right.

"I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know how I was going to send this to you. What if they'd opened it at customs? But then Hedwig turned up! I think she wanted to make sure you got something for your birthday for a change. I bought your present by owl-order; there was an advertisement in the Daily Prophet (I've been getting it delivered; it's so good to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world). Did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous - the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating.

"There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out. I hope it's not too long - it's two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for.

"Ron says he's going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you make it? Will your aunt and uncle let you come? I really hope you can. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first!

"Love from,  
"Hermione

"PS. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy about it."

I was with Hermione on the wanting to go to Egypt thing. It was nice that she got to go on holiday to France. I'd never been but Mom and Dad had told me that it was nice. "That's sweet of her," I said, referring to her getting him something.

Harry nodded. But before he opened the present from her, he looked at me. "What's yours say?" he asked.

"Dear Tara,

"How's Harry doing? Ron was saying that he hasn't tried to get back into contact with Harry since the whole phone call. How's he doing? His aunt and uncle aren't treating him too badly, are they? I wish that I could have called first.

"We miss you around here. Mum and Dad want you to drop by one day. How was that trip to the States with Harry? I hope you both had fun. I'd love to go one day. I hear that the Magical Congress is really impressive. It's in New York, isn't it?

"I'm on holiday in France at the moment. It's really nice to be out here. Have you been seeing anyone else from school? I ran into Padma and Parvati Patil in the Muggle mall not long ago, but that's it. How have your visits with Cedric Diggory been? I want to hear all about them on the Hogwarts Express. In the meantime, did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous - the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating.

"There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out. I hope it's not too long - it's two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for. I know, I know, I need to get a life. Let's push off the boyfriend talk for another year, okay?

"Ron says he's going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you both make it? Will Harry's aunt and uncle let him come? Can your parents bring him with us all? I really hope that he can. You'll be there, right? If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first!

"Love from,  
"Hermione

"PS. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy about it."

Harry had been smiling along with the whole letter until I had gotten to the point where she'd mentioned visiting Cedric. I grimaced, wishing that I would have bypassed that part. Or the part with getting her a boyfriend. "Do not get her a boyfriend," Harry snapped at me.

Scowling at him, I rolled my eyes and kicked my booted feet up on the windowsill. "You boys are pathetic. One day you'll find some girl that you like. Trust me. And I'll make sure that I'm as annoying as I possibly can be about it," I told him, meaning every word that I had said.

"I'm sure that you will," Harry said. We were silent for a few moments before he straightened up and looked at me again. "What have you been doing with Diggory?"

"Stop!" I hissed at him.

They were all so terrible when it came to Cedric. I couldn't even speak with him without hearing something about my crush on him. "You can tell me," Harry said.

"Absolutely not. Go look at your present," I snapped, knowing that he was only going to harass me about everything that we did together.

And Cedric and I had done a lot together. Not that way, of course, but we had spent a lot of time together since the holidays had begun. We had spent quite a few days in Diagon Alley together. It had become one of our favorite things to do. We liked walking back and forth and teasing each other about the things that we liked. I liked to tell him that his taste in ice cream was disgusting. Which it was. He liked weird things like strawberry and mint. He thought that I was just being a baby and not being adventurous enough.

Of course that would lead to me reminding him that I had battled a Basilisk and lived to tell the tale. He hadn't been happy to be reminded of that. So I'd settled for allowing him to buy me any flavor ice cream to try and not complain. He'd made me try pistachio, and I was ashamed to admit that it was actually rather good. He had laughed and made it very obvious that he was proud of being right. But, other than that, we liked to go and play Quidditch in his yard, and we'd even gone walking through London a few times.

It was about once or twice a week that we had seen each other since the beginning of the summer. I had missed seeing him last week - except for one family dinner - and the week before when we'd been in the States. And the family dinners were quite something. As much as I loved my parents and as nice as Amos Diggory was, those dinners were terribly embarrassing. Our parents didn't seem to think that they were saying anything wrong, but they had certainly said enough that made me blush to the roots of my hair.

More than once their conversations had made us duck out of the dinner and head to the little playground around the corner. There had been a few times that my parents had asked Cedric if there were any girls that he liked. He had looked stunned and had merely awkwardly told them that there were a few cute girls, and one that he had his eyes on, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask her out yet. That had led to a terribly embarrassing moment of all of the adults at the table asking him what she was like. He hadn't given away much, and everything that he had told them had been generic things, but I was sure that he wouldn't meet my eyes all night. I couldn't help but to wonder if that was because he didn't want to admit to my parents that the girl that he was crushing on, was me.

But that was wishful thinking and I didn't want to get my hopes up. So I glanced over and saw that Harry was laughing. I realized quickly that it was because my face was bright red. Snarling at him, he put Hermione's letter aside and picked up her present. Judging by his reaction, it was very heavy. Knowing Hermione, I was sure it would be a large book full of very difficult spells. That was what she liked to give us. But it wasn't. That much, I could tell. The only thing that I could see was that it was a large black case. That must have been what the owls were having such a hard time carrying.

"Wow, Hermione!" Harry whispered, unzipping the case to look inside.

The curiosity was burning in me. "What'd she get you?" I asked.

Harry looked up at me and smiled. "A Broomstick Serving Kit," he said. I smiled brightly. That was what I had gotten him last year. "Not as nice as the one that you got me, but still, this is something coming from Hermione."

They were also very expensive. It was nice of Hermione to send him something like that, knowing what Quidditch meant to him. "That's sweet of her. You'll have extras of everything that you need. What's in it?" I asked.

Harry glanced down and looked through everything that was in it. "There is a large jar of Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip on the broom for long journeys, and a Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broom Care," Harry told me, placing everything to the side.

It was all the normal things that came with the servicing kits, but they were all things that people needed. "Standard stuff. But still really useful," I told him with a small smile.

Apart from our friends, the one thing that I missed most about Hogwarts was Quidditch. It was the most popular sport in the magical world - highly dangerous, very exciting, and played on broomsticks. Harry and I both happened to be very good Quidditch players; we had been the youngest people in a century to be picked for one of the Hogwarts House teams. Rules had been bent for us to join. And we'd only gotten on the team because we'd broken the rules. We had been caught trying to get Neville Longbottom's Remembrall back from Draco Malfoy when Professor McGonagall had spotted us and brought us to Oliver Wood - a Seventh Year and the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

It had all been a wonderful surprise, and the first of many times that I had thought that we were going to be expelled. Dad had been a professional player for the United States Stars up until a few years ago and he'd passed his skills down to me. I was now a reserve Chaser up until one of our current Chasers - Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell - would graduate in a few years. One of Harry's most prized possessions was his Nimbus Two Thousand racing broom, since he had very few other possessions. I had plenty of things that I loved, but there were very few things that meant more to me than my Nimbus Two Thousand.

The two of us smiled at Harry put the leather case aside and picked up his last parcel. He turned it over towards me and I smiled. The writing was blurry from the distance and lack of light, but I could tell that it was from someone with very bad handwriting. And judging by that clue, I could see assume that it was from Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. The package was merely a brown paper-bag wrapped around something. Harry tore off the top layer of paper and I leaned out of my own window slightly. It was green and leathery. Before he could unwrap it properly, the parcel gave a strange quiver, and whatever was inside it snapped loudly. I could hear it from here. It sounded as though it had jaws. Well that can't be good...

"Who's that from?" I asked.

Harry gave me the answer that I had been expecting. "Hagrid," he said weakly.

From here I could see that Harry had frozen. Hagrid was one of the nicest people that I had ever met. And I knew that Hagrid would never send Harry anything dangerous on purpose, but then, Hagrid didn't have a normal person's view of what was dangerous. Hagrid had been known to befriend giant spiders, buy vicious, three-headed dogs from men in pubs, and sneak illegal dragon eggs into his cabin. We had learned all of those through unfortunately close encounters.

Watching closely, I felt a little hint of amusement. Hagrid did send some of the funniest gifts, even if he thought that they were perfectly normal. Harry poked the parcel nervously. It snapped loudly again. He glanced over at me and I shrugged my shoulders, nodding. What was the worst that could happen? Harry reached for the lamp on his bedside table, gripped it firmly in one hand, and raised it over his head, ready to strike. Then he seized the rest of the wrapping paper in his other hand and pulled. And out fell a book. I rolled my eyes. That must have been the Monster Book of Monsters. We had it. It flipped onto its edge and scuttled sideways along the bed like some weird crab.

"Is that a book?" I called out to him.

Harry seemed to be a little bit bothered by the fact that he now had to run away from a textbook. "Uh-oh," Harry muttered.

Rolling my eyes at him, I debated on hopping over to his house to close to for him. "Stroke the spine, Harry!" He gave me a look that was if to ask me if I had lost my mind. "We have that book. That's how you get it to calm down," I explained.

"I'm not touching that thing," Harry said.

Once more I rolled my eyes at him. He was going to get bitten by it and I was going to laugh. I'd gotten bitten by the book a few times as a kind and afterwards I'd refused to ever touch it again. The book toppled off the bed with a loud clunk and shuffled rapidly across the room. Harry followed it stealthily. I was watching bemusedly, munching on yet another Sugar Quill as I watched him. I really wished that I had my camera ready. The book was hiding in the dark space under his desk. Very stupidly, Harry got down on his hands and knees and reached toward it.

I couldn't see him anymore, but I could hear him. "Ouch!" he cried.

Snorting under my breath, I leaned up so that I could see him. Just as I had been expecting, the book had snapped shut on his hand and then flapped past him, still scuttling on its covers. Harry scrambled around, threw himself forward, and managed to flatten it. Even from my house I could hear Vermin give a loud, sleepy grunt in the room next door. Hedwig and Errol were watching with vague interest as Harry clamped the struggling book tightly in his arms, hurried to his chest of drawers, and pulled out a belt, which he buckled tightly around it. The Monster Book shuddered angrily, but could no longer flap and snap, so Harry threw it down on the bed and reached for Hagrid's card.

Watching him closely, I found myself incredibly amused. If only he listened to what I had told him to do. But he never did. "I told you to stroke the spine," I told Harry as he nursed his hand.

"Shut up," Harry told me.

"What's Hagrid got to say?" I asked, spotting that he was now holding Hagrid's letter.

"Dear Harry,

"Happy birthday!

"Think you might find this useful for next year. Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you. Hope the Muggles are treating you right.

"All the best,  
"Hagrid.

Raising my eyebrows, I leaned back against the windowsill once more. "I wonder if they're changing out the Care of Magical Creatures teacher?" I asked mostly to myself. Harry gave me an inquisitive look. "That's the only reason that I could think that you would need that book. Cedric doesn't use that one."

Harry sighed and shook his head. "Wonderful. A class where we have to fight the book," he said.

I smiled. He was right about that. Although it was actually a good book, once you got the damn thing to calm down. "It's informative, if nothing else," I told him.

He nodded at me. I could tell that he was still upset about the whole Monster Book of Monsters debacle. He would probably never study for Care of Magical Creatures with that thing. It did strike me as ominous that Hagrid thought a biting book would come in useful, but it was something that I could worry about later. I could see Harry put Hagrid's card up next to Ron's and Hermione's, grinning more broadly than ever. Now there was only the letter from Hogwarts left for both of us. It was rather thicker than usual. Harry and I both slit open the envelope, pulled out the first page of parchment within, and read Professor McGonagall's notice.

Dear Miss Nox,

Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock. Third Years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign.

A list of books for next year is enclosed.

Yours sincerely,  
Professor M. McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress

Despite wanting to stay quiet, even though Mom and Dad were still awake, I wiggled excitedly in my spot. I was thrilled to get to go to Hogsmeade. Legally, this year. Cedric had taken me through a secret passageway that he'd overheard Fred and George talking about last year as a birthday present for me. It had been wonderful to go and explore, but we'd had to be very careful that we weren't caught. We hadn't been down for long. But he had asked me if I'd wanted to go with him at some point this year. So... Was that a date?

It didn't matter. I was just so excited at the prospect of actually getting to go. "I'm so excited to get to go to Hogsmeade legally this year. It was gorgeous. You'll love it," I told Harry brightly.

But he didn't seem as excited as I was. "If I can go," Harry said sadly.

Harry and I pulled out the Hogsmeade permission form and looked at it. Even though my smile had brightened, I could see that he was no longer grinning. It would be wonderful to visit Hogsmeade on weekends; I had told Harry, Ron, and Hermione all about it. Harry knew it was an entirely wizarding village, and I'd mentioned all of the shops that were lining the streets, but he had never set foot there. None of them had. I knew what his issue was. How on earth was he going to persuade Vermin or Horse-Face to sign the form? They hated everything having to do with magic. He looked over at the alarm clock. I did the same. It was now two o'clock in the morning.

Knowing that he really wanted to do, and knowing what a task it would be to get one of the Dursley's to sign the form, I glanced back at him. "I'll see if Mom and Dad can sign it," I told him.

Harry nodded at me with a weak smile. "Thanks, Tara." He stood from the windowsill and motioned into his bedroom. "I'm gonna go to bed," he told me in a whisper.

He had his hands on the top of his window. "Night, Harry," I told him.

I stood from my own windowsill. "Come over tomorrow morning, alright?" he asked me.

"Sure thing."

We both got up from the windowsills and closed our windows. He shut his window curtains quickly and I saw the light go out almost immediately. Despite knowing that I should have gone to bed, I couldn't bring myself to go to bed. So I sighed and got back to my feet and crossed the room. I turned off the main light and flipped on the lamp on my bedside. I sat down with the other letters, pulled out a few rolls of parchment, and began scribbling away at my responses. I'd have to wait until Dai returned to actually send them. He should be back soon. He'd already been gone for three days. I wrote my response to Ron first.

Ron,

Tell everyone back at the Burrow that I miss them all, too. And you, too, of course. Tell Fred and George that they had damn well better stay away from me with whatever it is that they're making. I don't trust them. They sent me a letter the other day and it was something like a Stunning Spell! I couldn't move for hours. Tell Ginny that she can send me a letter whenever. I do miss her, too. Oh, come on, the crush on Harry is kind of cute. She'll outgrow it. I'll come by dinner soon. A few days maybe? The adults are always talking about something bored.

Harry's been alright with Vermin and Horse-Face (my nicknames for them) although I know that he wants to go back to Hogwarts. I do feel terribly for him. I didn't think that you'd go shouting through the telephone! You speak into it, you idiot. You don't shout. And of course they're giving him a hard time. That's what they do. Hopefully these next few weeks pass quickly.

I'm really glad that you're having a lot of fun in Egypt. Take a lot of pictures for me! I want to see everything. I wish that I could have come with you guys. Hope Bill is doing alright. How's he liking, working for Gringotts, anyways? Poor Ginny, I bet that she would have loved all of that stuff. I know that I would have. I can't believe Percy was enjoying himself. He doesn't seem to like Dark Magic.

You guys have the best luck when it comes to stuff like that. Seven hundred Galleons! That's awesome. You could have bought ten Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones and shoved them in Malfoy's fat face. Or you could buy one of those new prototype brooms. Firebolt or something like that. Dad was talking about them. They're apparently going on the market pretty soon. We'll have to grab Harry and take a look at them one day. The trip to the States was wonderful! I'll tell you all about it when I head back to the Burrow. Let me know whenever you're free. And yes, Harry came with us. We were gone for a week.

Just got the Hogwarts letters. Haven't opened them yet but I did see the permission form for Hogsmeade. It'll be nice to legally go, yeah? We'll all have to look around. I think Cedric said that the first weekend was around Halloween. That works for me. We'll meet you guys there around midday or so.

See you soon,  
Tara.

P.S. As much as Percy annoys you, school means a lot to him. You should be proud. Although, see if you can get Fred and George to do something with that new Head Boy badge.

Smiling at the letter, I grabbed a piece of tape and sealed it, placing it off to the side. A moment later I grabbed another roll of parchment to write back to Hermione. As I began to scrawl across the page, I saw Dai float towards the window. I leaned over and opened the window, allowing Dai to playfully nip at me for a while before settling back into his cage, munching on a few owl treats. As I'd been expecting, he had been visiting Fred and George, who had sent me back a letter, asking if I thought that something called a Puking Pastille was a good idea. I'd grimaced and placed their letter back to the side, intent on responding later. Instead, I'd written back to Hermione.

Hermione,

Harry's doing about as well as can be expected. He hates being back home with the Dursley's, you know that. I'd feel even worse if I didn't live next door to him. Ron only just wrote him a letter but I've been relaying what you both have told me either over the phone or in the letters. His aunt and uncle are terrible to him, just like they always are. He's been reasonably lucky this summer. They've been trying very hard to ignore him. He's worried about getting the Hogsmeade letter signed. I wish that you would have called first, too.

Oh I miss your family, too! Your parents are wonderful. Ask them about it and I'll come over whenever you're back from France. How is it there, by the way? I've never been but I hear that it's nice. The States was wonderful! I love you guys but I do miss some of my old friends. Harry met them. He seemed to have a good time. The Magical Congress is gorgeous. It's much nicer than the Ministry of Magic. Yes, the main branch of the Congress is in New York.

Hope you're having a good time in France. I've seen pretty much everyone at least once. Harry even came with me to Diagon Alley one day so that we could meet up with the Gryffindor Quidditch team. That's sweet. The Patil girls are both nice. Ugh, Hermione, they've been so good! I'm pathetic. I just need to tell him how I feel, but I can't bring myself to say anything. I nearly get killed by a Basilisk... No big deal. But tell a guy that I have a crush on him? Yeah, right. I'll tell you everything on the way back to Hogwarts. I saw the picture. He's not learning, come on. But I'm jealous, too. I'd love to go to Egypt one day.

How have you written two more rolls than what Professor Binns wanted? I just finished the essay earlier. Thanks for hanging up on me, by the way! Although my Transfiguration essay got pretty long and wordy. Yes, you do need to get a life. No way! I'm starting to look for a boyfriend for you this year. There has to be one.

Harry and I will be in London during the last week of the holidays, promise. I'll get him out of there somehow, even if I have to pry him away from the house. See you soon!

Much love,  
Tara.

PS. I heard that Percy was Head Boy. He seems to be quite thrilled with himself. Ron seems to think that he's only going to start acting more like a prat. He's probably right.

As much as I wanted to send the letters back right away, I knew that Dai was probably tired. I figured that I'd send them off in a few days, once the owl had gotten a chance to rest back up. Instead I stood from my desk and got ready for bed. I pulled on my tank top and pair of flannel pants, tying my hair up a moment later. I had just peeled back the sheets on my bed, intent on forcing myself to go to sleep, when I saw a familiar owl flutter into my room. Tonight was definitely the night for mail.

"Hello Rusty. Thanks," I told the owl.

It was Cedric's owl that had become rather fond of me since I'd met him last summer. A few times, Rusty had come to visit me without even bringing a letter. It would usually warrant a letter a day later from Amos's owl, with Cedric's apology that Rusty had gotten out. I'd always laugh and send him back a letter telling him that it was fine. I loved the little owl. And Dai liked him as well, evidence as when Rusty spotted Dai and hopped into his cage to say hello. I smiled at the owls before grabbing the letter and slitting it open.

Tara,

Sorry about sending you an owl this late, but Rusty didn't get back with your previous letter until a few hours ago and I didn't want to just leave it. I have a bad habit of forgetting to write back to people. Not that I could ever forget about you. It would be hard, anyways. I somehow imagine that I'd only have to wait so long before seeing your name in the wanted section.

Not that I don't have faith in you. I do. And I've been so proud. You've managed not to get yourself into any trouble. Not that I've heard, anyways. We'll see how long that lasts.

I've been dreadfully bored lately. With Dad out of town so much, there's not much to do around here. What are you doing over the next week or so? I have to get out of here. I'm going to drive myself nuts. And I really need to have some fun before going back to school. O.W.L. exams are not something that I'm looking forward to.

Anyways, how have your holidays been? How was that trip to the States? Did Harry get to go with you?

You didn't take me. How dare you.

Let me know whenever you're free to do something. Literally anything. Even if it's just to do your homework or something. Just to show how bored I really am.

I'll see you soon,  
Cedric.

Smiling at the letter, I read it over a few times before placing it down on the side of the table and grabbing another parchment. I couldn't help but to wonder if he had asked anyone else if they would come and keep him company, or if I was the only person that he had asked. I didn't like the feeling that I was probably one of many people that he had written to, asking them to hang out. He was popular and had lots of friends, so I couldn't have been surprised. Trying to shake off those thoughts, I rolled my eyes at myself and wrote back a letter that I thought was equal parts cute and snarky.

Cedric,

Don't worry about waking me up. I wasn't sleeping anyways. I've been so bored lately, too. As much as I love being back home, there's certainly a whole lot less to do here than there is back at Hogwarts. But there aren't as many life-threatening scenarios either, so that's a plus. I'm waiting the night before sending Rusty back. He looks tired. He can hang out with Dai. You would forget to write to me? Ouch. Now that hurts. But since you say that you couldn't forget me, I suppose that I'll forgive you. I'm very hard to forget, after all. Hey now! My name won't be in the wanted sections. Not for a few more years, at least.

It would be a little stupid for you not to have faith in me. I did find the Chamber of Secrets, figure out what the monster inside it was, and fight it without dying. It's been a whole five weeks that I've gone without getting myself into any trouble. Isn't that impressive? I'm sure that it must be some kind of record. You should know me. It won't last long.

Sorry to hear that things are so boring back at your house. That much really going on at the Ministry? Dad doesn't seem to be too busy, but Mom has been in and out a lot. Adult things, I assume. I'm not doing anything over the next week or so. Tomorrow - today by the time that this gets to you - is Harry's birthday, so I'm spending the day with him. But after that, nothing. Come visit me whenever. Don't be stupid. You're more than welcome to pop into the house whenever you'd like. Mom and Dad love you. And just write if you want to do something. I do miss you. Well I'm always good for some fun! Good luck with those O.W.L.'s. I'll be rooting for you.

My holidays have actually been pretty good. We should go and play Quidditch out in that field by your house someday. That was a lot of fun last summer. The trip to the States was wonderful. I think that you'd really like it back there. Maybe one day I can get Dad to take you with us. How would you feel about playing in a regulation Quidditch Pitch? Yes, Harry got to come. I'll tell you all about it whenever I see you.

You always could have asked to come. I guarantee you they would have let you come with us. Brat.

After tomorrow I'll be free to do anything. Literally anything. I've still got quite a bit of my homework to do. You could always come and do my homework for me, if you'd like? O.W.L. practice, you know. I'm never boring, so come on over!

Love always,  
Tara.

Smiling, and very proud of myself, I'd folded the letter up and placed it on my bedside table with the others. As I'd said in the letter, the owls looked tired. It was a long flight from both Ron's and Cedric's houses, so I wanted them to have some time to rest. I closed Dai's cage, glad that it could hold two owls, placed the blanket over them to keep the light out, and walked over to the bedside table once more. I flicked off the light and the room plunged into darkness, letting the moonlight illuminate the room. I sighed and dropped into bed, staring at the roof.

Unfortunately for me, it was a very long time that I was left staring at the roof. As hard as I tried, I couldn't bring myself to fall asleep. I supposed that by now I was used to all of the late nights at Hogwarts doing my homework - or being unable to sleep due to fear of a murderous Dark Wizard trying to kill me - and all of the nights that I hung out with Harry. It didn't help that I could still hear the television rumbling lowly in my parents' bedroom. What the hell were they still doing awake? It was coming up on three in the morning. They were normally in bed by one in the morning.

It was what had made getting out of the house so easy. I just went over once they were asleep. Sometimes they knew, but most of the time I didn't bother to tell them. Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to sleep, and knowing that they would never let me out of the house, I stood from my bed and grabbed a sweater. I slowly opened my window and climbed down the trellis that was on the side of my house. My wand was tucked into the side of my fluffy boot, just in case. I hit the ground easily and slowly meandered out onto the main street.

The lights from the lampposts were on overhead so I didn't even need to use the Lighting Charm. It was all perfect. I walked down the street quickly, chewing on the last Sugar Quill that I had. I really needed to stop eating them. I made my way over to the public park and planted myself on the swings, gently pushing back and forth, eating little chunks of the candy. It was about fifteen minutes or so - that I'd spent mostly humming to myself - when I'd spotted a large dog moving out of the shadows. It was coming straight towards me and I smiled.

It was a cute thing. It was definitely large. If I had been standing it would have been at just about my waist. Probably closer to my chest. It was jet black. It reminded me very much of Harry's hair. The dog had pointed ears that were twitching in the direction of my crunching jaws. It looked a little bit like a German Shepard. I glanced at it a little closer and sighed. The fur was sticking up in all directions. It was either a stray or it had been away from the owners for a long time. The thing that really caught me was that it had brilliant yellow eyes. It was slightly showing me its teeth, growing softly.

"Hello. Lose your way?" I asked it.

The dog continued to growl lowly in its throat. It didn't bother me. Dogs had never scared me before. I'd never been bitten by one and I had a feeling that this one wasn't going to bite me either. It looked very sweet. Just scared. It had probably thought that no one would be out here at this hour. I had startled it. The dog was very slowly slinking towards me. I wasn't sure if it was going to get close enough that I could pet it, so I figured that I would continue to speak.

"Come on then. I promise I don't bite," I told the dog. As I second thought I added, "Do you?"

If I hadn't known any better, I would have sworn that the dog had laughed at me. As I'd been expecting, the dog didn't come forward to let me pet it. But it did get a little bit closer. I had a feeling that it liked hearing me speak. It was looking at me very closely, the same way that I was doing with it. I couldn't tell whether or not the dog was a male, but it certainly looked like one to me. That was when I realized that the dog wasn't looking at me. It was looking at the Sugar Quill hanging limply from my hand.

"You want it?" I asked the dog. It merely stared at me. "It's not Muggle food. You might not like it. Okay. Not much, but it's something. Here. You look hungrier than me," I said.

Gently, I tossed the Sugar Quill towards the dog. It landed halfway in between where I was sitting on the swings and where the dog was standing. It stared at the Sugar Quill for a moment before coming forward towards me. It grabbed the Sugar Quill before backing off again. I smiled, knowing that it would take some time to get the dog to trust me. I felt a little bad that it had to eat something like that, but I didn't want to risk going back to my house to have the dog be gone by the time that I came back. To my surprise, the dog swallowed the Sugar Quill in one bite.

It must not have eaten in a long time. "Come on home with me. I can get you more food than that," I told the dog.

Standing from the swing set, the dog watched me very closely. I moved towards it to try and guide it back to the house, but the dog immediately backed away from me. It had stopped growling while it had been eating the Sugar Quill, but now it was back to giving me the same dangerous growl, the one that warned me to stay away.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I backed away from the dog. "Okay, okay, fine. You don't want to come with me. But you have to be hungry. No collar," I noted, spotting that there was nothing that indicated that the dog belonged to anyone. "No owner. Just a stray, huh? That's okay. Sometimes I feel like a stray, too. Got some Dark Wizard that wants me alive. Not a good thing though. Not that you care," I muttered, realizing that I was talking to a dog.

It was just a dog. It didn't care about my problems. But there was some solace in the dog. Maybe I was completely insane, but it seemed like the dog was actually listening to me. That was stupid though. It didn't understand what I was talking about. But just as I thought that, the dog gave a soft whine. I glanced up at it and saw that the features on the animal had softened. I smiled as it came a few steps closer to me, still managing to stay out of reach.

"His name is Voldemort. People don't even want to say his name. Crazy, right?" I asked the dog.

Sighing softly, I realized that I must have been losing my mind. Here I was, talking to a dog. I'd already been labeled as insane because I could talk to snakes. Did I really need to make things worse by admitting that now I could talk to dogs? At least they were cute and fuzzy. The dog merely continued to stare at me.

Grinning at the dog, I realized that I couldn't just keep calling it dog. "Well if you won't let me pet you, you're going to at least have to let me name you," I said.

I'd really thought that the dog would just sit there and continue to stare at me. But maybe the dog really did understand what I was talking about. It sank back onto its hind legs and dropped its muzzle to the ground. Even from here - about ten feet away from the dog - I could hear that it was growling at me again. So maybe it did understand me.

Smiling softly, I shrugged my shoulders. "Too bad. I'm going to name you," I told the dog. I hummed to myself and thought about dog names. I wanted to see if it really could understand me. So I'd give it as stupid of a name as I could possibly manage. "How about... Snuffles?"

It must have understood me. Either that, or the dog really didn't like me very much. The dog began to growl even louder at me. I smiled and leaned back on the swing, gently rocking it back and forth. Snuffles still didn't move away. He merely watched me closely, his eyes glinting dangerously. But if he hadn't attacked me yet, I was inclined to think that he never would.

"Well you wouldn't let me pet you so I'm going to give you a stupid name," I told Snuffles. He merely continued to glare at me. "You can come with me if you'd like. But I'm going back home. It's late. We can bring you to the shelter if you'd like?"

Snuffles looked like he might have taken me up on my offer to head back home. His ears had perked up slightly. I'd thought that he might have come towards me, but he merely stayed put where he was. He must have had some trust issues. Normally I was very good with dogs. They almost always came over to me. This one seemed, not necessarily afraid of me, but more like it would rather just stay near me than actually let me pet it. Perhaps the previous owners had been terrible to him.

"I can talk to snakes, you know? Maybe I can talk to dogs, too. You live around here then?" I asked.

I'd always found that dogs had a way about emoting. Sometimes they were better about showing their emotions than humans were. Snuffles had given me a long look when I'd mentioned that I could talk to snakes. Right now he was just standing in his spot. He had stopped growling. I could have sworn that he was nodding his head at me. Did the dog really understand me?

As much as I would have liked to stay with the dog all night and try to get him to come to me, I couldn't. It was late and I was finally getting tired. "Take care of yourself. See you later Snuffles," I said.

The name still wasn't going over very well with the dog. It leaned down once more and began to growl at me. I smiled and waved at the dog as I walked away. It slowly backed away from me as I passed it, but it still didn't attack me. It wouldn't. It had been given a long time to try and attack me, but it never had. I smiled as I realized that Snuffles was following me. I thought that he might have ended up coming back home with me, but he only walked to the edge of the park before stopping. He watched me for a while before slinking back into the shadows.

Making my way back home quickly, I climbed up the trellis and slipped back into my room. I threw my sweater back over my chair, being very careful not to wake up Dai or Rusty. The moment that I'd closed my window and drawn the curtains, I headed back to bed. But just as I laid down, already starting to drift off, I realized that Mom and Dad were still awake. It was coming up on four in the morning. I couldn't believe that they were still up. But the television was still muffled and I could hear them chatting away with each other. They must have thought that I was asleep already.

"You saw it Marcus, he's on the Muggle news," Mom said.

There was a hint of desperation in her voice. "How did he get out?" Dad asked.

There was a long silence between the two of them. "I don't know," Mom finally conceded. "But he must have been desperate to leave since the very beginning."

Another silence passed. "What do we do?" Dad asked.

"Nothing. There's nothing that we can do. Dumbledore is well aware that he's gone. They're doing everything in their power to stop him. I don't know if he did everything that they claim that he did, I don't know if he could have done all of that, but he needs to stay low. Keep out of sight until we can figure things out." There was a very tense silence before Mom spoke again. "Do you think that he did it?" she asked.

Even from here, I could hear the sigh that they let out. "I want to think that he didn't. We knew him, Jules," Dad said.

"I know... but... with everything that happened..." Mom said slowly.

"Do you think that he'll go after them?" Dad asked.

It was the first response that Mom had given automatically. "I know that he will."

The television turned off a moment later and their voices dropped so low that I could only hear the soft rumbling. I couldn't make out any of the words anymore. But now I was desperate to know what they were talking about. Something had happened with someone in the Wizarding World. And it had to be important if even Dumbledore had become concerned with it. And what did they mean, if he would go after them? Was this person dangerous? And who were they? I had a terrible feeling that somehow I was involved with this. It would explain why they both sounded so concerned. But before I could come up with any plausible answers, I'd finally succumbed to sleep.


	38. Marge's Big Mistake

My alarm began to ring only a few short hours after I'd finally managed to fall asleep. I groaned as I rolled over in the bed, trying to force myself to get up. All I really wanted was to go back to bed, but I knew that it was time to get up. As I rolled towards the edge of the bed, it came up a little faster than I had thought that it would. I let out a little squeak of surprise as I slipped off of the edge of the bed and hit the ground. I let out a puff of air as I got back to my feet, grumbling angrily at myself.

Stumbling over myself slightly, I crossed my room so that I could get ready for the day. It was officially Harry's birthday today, and that meant that I wanted him to have as good of a day as possible. He always hated them so much, and I really wanted to try and change that. Just for once Harry deserved to have an actually happy birthday. It would be better if we could get Ron and Hermione here, but maybe that would be better for next year. Baby steps, I supposed. I crossed over to my dresser and grabbed my clothes for the day. Just to bother Vermin and Horse-Face, I'd ensured to wear my Gryffindor sweater that could manage to pass for just a cute lion sweater with the Muggles.

Once I had everything together, I walked back over to my desk and smiled at the two sleeping owls. I was glad that Dai had such a big cage, because both he and Rusty were far too big to fit in the kind of cage that Harry had for Hedwig. They were sitting together and picking at old feathers. I smiled at the two birds and easily woke them up. It took a few extra treats to entice them out into the open air - as I knew that they'd just come back from a rather long flight - but they finally managed to leave with the letters that I'd written last night.

As I headed out of the room and towards the stairs I started thinking about everything that I had overheard last night. It had haunted my dreams and it was even worse than the dreams about everything that had happened to me already. Voldemort and the Basilisk and things like that; I already knew what I had been walking into and I knew that things had ended with them for now. But this was different. The way that Mom and Dad were talking last night... I knew that something had was happening. And I knew that for whatever reason, I was involved in this something bad. That wasn't something that I could deal with. It seemed that I was already involved with too many things that were bad.

Hitting the bottom of the landing, I glanced into the living room to see that Mom and Dad were sprawled out on the sofas. They looked even more tired than I was. "Morning," I chirped awkwardly.

They missed the awkwardness in my voice. They were merely smiling at me as they glanced up at me. "Good morning, darling," Mom chirped, bringing me over to the couch and handing me a bowl of cereal.

"Heading over to the Dursley's?" Dad asked as he walked by with the Prophet.

Glancing over at my parents, I noticed that the both seemed a little off this morning. But they weren't going to say anything. I narrowed my eyes irritably at them. We were right next door. How didn't they realize that I had overheard them last night? "Yes. Harry deserves to have someone that cares on his birthday. I'll bring him over later," I said, giving them another chance to tell me what had happened.

Mom barely glanced up from the Muggle paper in her lap. "Be sure that you do," she hummed.

I waited in silence for a few minutes for them to say something about whatever they had been talking about. But they never did. And that was when I had had it. "I heard you both. Last night," I cut through the silence. Mom and Dad both glanced up at me, looking extremely nervous. "What's going on that even Dumbledore is worried about?"

They shared a look that told me that they had really been hoping that I hadn't heard what they had been talking about. "I suppose that you'll hear it about it anyways," Mom finally conceded, sighing softly.

"You know who Sirius Black is?" Dad asked.

Surprise must have been clearly written across my face. Of all of the things that I had been expecting them to say, none of them had anything to do with Sirius Black. "The guy that murdered twelve Muggles. Yeah, I know who he is. Why?" I asked, a sickened feeling building in my stomach.

"He's... escaped... from Azkaban," Dad muttered, not breaking eye contact with me.

My heart felt like it had dropped into my stomach. Azkaban was a fortress on an island in the middle of the North Sea. It had always been the prison for convicted criminals in Great Britain. As far as I had been told, it was built in the fifteenth century. Azkaban was strictly magical so it was hidden from the Muggle world, and was Unplottable. Most of the prisoners inside its walls died of despair, having lost the will to live, all because of the presence of Dementor guards. Sirius Black was the first person to have ever been able to escape Azkaban.

The reflection of myself in the mirror told me that my face had drained of color. "How?" I asked, my voice barely loud enough to be able to hear. "No one's ever escaped before."

Mom and Dad walked over to me and took their places at my side. Mom's arm went around my shoulders as Dad's went on my knee. "That's the question. Everyone is looking for him. They'll find him. Don't worry," she told me.

Scoffing softly, I gently pushed her arm off of me. Even with everyone looking for him, if he was out, I was sure that he was desperate not to go back in. "How long has he been gone?" I asked after a beat of silence.

They needed to catch him now if they wanted him back in Azkaban. He could be countries away, even by now. Apparating would be the easiest way to go about it and running from there. "Just the night. They found that he was gone last night. No one was killed. No injuries reported so far that sound like anything that he could have done," Dad told me reassuringly.

Nerves building in my stomach, I shook my head. Why did things always get so strange? "Well if he's smart he'll just go on the run. He's out. He can just leave and live away from everything that's happened here in England," I said, willing myself to believe it. "You don't... think that he's going to go after anyone, do you?"

It was very easy to see Mom and Dad exchange a quick look of panic. My heart skipped a beat. They were afraid of him. "We don't really know what he's going to do. But you're safe here, love," Mom said.

"And when you go to Hogwarts, you'll be safe there, too," Dad added.

But my eyes still narrowed at them. They were my parents, but I knew when they were lying to me. And they were definitely lying to me. There was something more about this than they let on. "Go to Harry's, alright? No point in panicking over it. Everyone in the Ministry and much of the rest of England are looking for him. It won't take long to find him," Mom reassured me.

"Okay." I stood from my seat on the couch, but I didn't make it that far before stopping and turning back to them. "You said that you thought that he would go after someone. Sounded like you meant a few people. Who?" I asked, unable to stop myself from asking.

They exchanged a very strange look. They were silent for about two minutes before Dad finally looked back at me. I could tell that there was something that was bothering them far more than they let on. "We knew Black." My heart jumped slightly. Of course they would have known him. They were the same age. "There were some kids at school that he didn't like." There was something in the way that he said that that made me think that he might have been referring to themselves. "Sweetheart, it's nothing to worry yourself with. Leave this to the adults. Go be a kid," Dad said.

Obviously they both thought that they had placed a heavy burden on my mind. And they sort of had. "Bring Harry by. We got cake!" Mom chirped happily, trying to change the subject.

But it was a little too late. "Alright. I'll be back soon," I told them as happily as possible.

Both of my parents waved me off as I turned and left the room. As much as I did love them, I really wanted them to be honest with me. I knew that they thought that the thing with Black was best kept a secret from me, but I really wanted them to let me know what was happening. Particularly if they thought that they were in any form of danger. Or maybe they thought that I was in some form of danger. That would be a good reason that they would want to keep it a secret. I sighed as I drank in the abnormally warm air of Surrey. Maybe I needed to get out for a few hours. It would be nice if I could get Harry to come with me to Diagon Alley for his birthday.

Finally arriving at Harry's house, I knocked on the door and waited. It was a few moments before the door finally opened to reveal a very grouchy Vermin. "What?" he snapped at me.

My jaw set as I glared at him. "Are you even aware that it's your nephew's birthday, or do you really just not care that much?" I asked him. He merely continued to stare at me. "I'm here to say hello."

"Just let her in, Dad," Dudley said from the table.

Very begrudgingly, Vermin stepped to the side to let me in. I walked inside the room and saw that the Dursley's were all already sitting around the kitchen table. Harry was at the top of the stairs - a yawning mess - as he made his way downstairs. The Dursley's were watching a brand-new television, which had apparently been a welcome-home-for-the-summer present for Dudley, who had been complaining loudly about the long walk between the fridge and the television in the living room. It was rather disgusting. Every time that I saw Dudley, he was in the kitchen, his piggy little eyes fixed on the screen and his five chins wobbling as he ate continually.

Walking past the kitchen and towards the bottom of the staircase, I smiled at Harry and wrapped him in a tight hug. He laughed into my ear as we spun a few times. "Happy birthday!" I chirped.

Harry laughed at me as we released each other. "Thanks, Tara," he said.

Glancing back towards the table, I noticed that none of the Dursley's were making a move to tell Harry happy birthday. I rolled my eyes at them and looked back at Harry. "Come over to my place later, okay?" I offered.

As per usual, Harry started to shake his head. I knew that the guilt was getting to him again. "You don't have to do all of this," Harry told me.

Narrowing my eyes at Harry, I whacked him on the arm irritably. I hated when he thought that we needed to stop doing all of this for him. "I'm going to send the Monster Book of Monsters after you. Shut up. We love you," I snapped at him.

He laughed at me and nodded, placing a hand behind my back. The two of us walked back towards the table as the news switched on the new television. Harry and I sat down between Dudley and Vermin. Dudley was on my left and Vermin was on Harry's right. The Dursley's didn't look very happy to see the both of us at the table, but they said nothing. Far from wishing Harry a happy birthday, none of the Dursley's made any sign that they had noticed Harry or I enter the room. Not that I cared. That was the way that the Dursley's always were. I helped myself to a piece of bacon and then looked up at the reporter on the television, who was halfway through a report on an escaped convict.

Immediately I dropped the piece of bacon that I was holding. He was even on the Muggle news. This was absolutely terrible if they'd even alerted the Muggle Prime Minister of his escape. "... The public is warned that Black is armed and extremely dangerous. A special hot line has been set up, and any sighting of Black should be reported immediately."

The Dursley's were all watching the screen with intent. Even Harry seemed a little curious as to what it was that the man had done. "Merlin, he is on the Muggle news," I muttered under my breath.

The comment had gone unnoticed by the Dursley's, but Harry had heard me. "What?" he asked me.

Just as I was about to explain to him who Sirius Black was, Vermin spoke over us. "No need to tell us he's no good." Vermin was staring over the top of his newspaper at the prisoner. "Look at the state of him, the filthy layabout! Look at his hair!" he shouted.

"He's a prisoner, not a five-star hotel client," I snapped.

Not that I really had anything good to say about Sirius Black, but to be fair, he wasn't going to look good for after twelve years in Azkaban. Vermin whipped around to glare at me for a moment before turning over to Harry. He shot a very nasty look sideways at Harry, whose untidy hair had always been a source of great annoyance to Vermin. I'd always thought that it was rather cute. Compared to Sirius Black, however, Harry was very well groomed indeed. Sirius Black had tangled, shoulder-length black hair that was swept all over his head. His face was deep and gaunt and had a pasty tone to it. His gray eyes were completely emotionless as he stared at the screen.

While everyone was glaring at each other for the untidy hair comment, the reporter had reappeared. "The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will announce today -"

"Hang on!" Vermin barked, staring furiously at the reporter. Everyone jumped at the sudden volume change in the room. "You didn't tell us where that maniac's escaped from! What use is that? Lunatic could be coming up the street right now!"

It was very hard for me to not laugh. He wouldn't like finding out where Black had managed to escape from. Perhaps thinking that she might find Sirius Black wandering up the street, Horse-Face whipped around and peered intently out of the kitchen window. I wasn't sure why she was looking towards my house. It wasn't like he would even be in Little Whinging. Not if he was smart, which I assumed that he was if he'd managed to escape Azkaban. I knew that Horse-Face would simply love to be the one to call the hot line number. She was the nosiest woman in the world and spent most of her life spying on the boring, law-abiding neighbors.

She was smart enough to not spy on my family. I had a feeling that she didn't want to see what magic could do. "When will they learn that hanging's the only way to deal with these people?" Vermin growled, pounding his fist on the table.

Rolling my eyes at them, I chewed on my piece of bacon, suddenly not very hungry. Hanging wouldn't do much to Black. It would be easy to be able to get out of a hanging as a witch or wizard. "Very true," Horse-Face said, still squinting into next door's runner beans.

Deciding that I might as well speak, I glanced over at them and shook my head. "Doesn't matter even if they did tell you where he escaped from," I told them sipping on the orange juice in front of me.

Vermin's head snapped over towards me. "Of course it does!" he shouted.

Once more I shook my head. "No it doesn't. You haven't heard of the prison that he escaped from," I said.

Obviously Vermin thought that I was wrong in all of this. Of course, he really did like thinking that he was the smartest person in the room at all times. "And why's that?" Vermin asked patronizingly.

"Because it's one of the Wizarding World prisons. Azkaban. He's a wizard," I said plainly.

There was a sudden clatter of forks and knives. All of the heads in the room snapped over towards me. Harry looked more surprised than anyone else. "He's on the normal news!" Vermin finally shouted.

Glancing back towards him, I nodded. "Of course he is. He's considered to be a very dangerous wizard. When the Ministry of Magic determines that a criminal is a danger to Muggles as well as wizards, they alert the Muggle Minister. He knows about magic. They always do. They merely twist the reports so that he sounds like a normal Muggle criminal," I told them. The color had faded out of all of their faces. They all looked petrified, with the exception of Harry, who looked very intrigued. "Now they have everyone looking for him. Not just the magical world."

"Stop talking about... that!" Vermin hissed at me.

"Fine. Just warning you..."

The table wasn't very quiet for long before Harry glanced back at me. He kept his voice down so that we wouldn't be overheard as he leaned over towards me. "Is he really?" Harry asked.

Before I got the chance to speak, Vermin yelled over us. "No more magic talk!" Both Harry and I dropped back into our chairs irritably. We'd talk about it later, I supposed. Vermin drained his teacup, glanced at his watch, and added, "I'd better be off in a minute, Petunia. Marge's train gets in at ten."

Once more, the silverware on the table clattered. But this time it was only Harry and I who had dropped the things that we had been holding. Horse-Face was just fine with Marge, and Dudley was alright with her as long as he was paid well for it, but Harry and I absolutely hated her. I'd only met Marge Dursley once when I was ten. I'd met her just about a year after I'd moved to Surrey and she was a nightmare. She was horrible to everyone that wasn't directly involved with her family. She had made a comment about me being far too scrawny and bony before telling me that no proper man would ever want a woman as manly-looking as me.

It was the last time that I'd seen her and I really had been hoping to keep it that way. "You're kidding?" I asked, finally breaking the tense silence.

"Aunt Marge? Sh - she's not coming here, is she?" Harry blurted out.

Marge Dursley was Vermin's sister. It made her unrelated to Harry except through marriage. Even though she was not a blood relative of Harry's, he had been forced to call her Aunt all his life. It was rather funny, the awkward way that he would greet her. It had been a long time since she'd been to Surrey and I was very grateful for it. Marge lived in the country, in a house with a large garden, where she bred bulldogs. She didn't often stay at Privet Drive, because she couldn't bear to leave her precious dogs. I had a feeling that no one - with the exception of maybe Vermin - was very upset about this. Marge wasn't particularly nice.

Harry had told me a few stories about Marge after I'd met her. Apparently at Dudley's fifth birthday party, Marge had whacked Harry around the shins with her walking stick to stop him from beating Dudley at musical statues. A few years later, she had turned up at Christmas with a computerized robot for Dudley and a box of dog biscuits for Harry. On her last visit, the year before Harry and I had started at Hogwarts - the year that I had met her - Harry had accidentally trodden on the tail of her favorite dog. Ripper had chased Harry out into the garden and up a tree, and Marge had refused to call him off until past midnight. The memory of this incident still brought tears of laughter to Dudley's eyes.

It was one of the few times that Harry had been allowed to stay with us for the night. "Marge will be here for a week, and while we're on the subject," Vermin snarled as he pointed a fat finger threateningly at Harry, "we need to get a few things straight before I go and collect her."

"He can stay with me!" I quickly offered.

Harry gave me a grateful look, but Vermin stomped out my hope almost immediately. "Absolutely not! Not with your... strangeness," he said.

My eyes narrowed at him. I really wasn't that strange of a person. Maybe I was, but it didn't matter. I knew that I was a much better person than any of the Dursley's and all of them combined. Dudley smirked and withdrew his gaze from the television. Watching Harry being bullied by Vermin was Dudley's favorite form of entertainment. I rolled my eyes at them. They were such nasty people towards Harry. I couldn't wait for the next four years to pass so that he could get away from them and start his normal life in the Wizarding World. I knew that he would love having a life away from the Dursley's. And I definitely couldn't blame him for that.

The table was silent for a few moments before Vermin spoke again. "Firstly, you'll keep a civil tongue in your head when you're talking to Marge," Vermin snarled at Harry.

We both rolled our eyes. How had they not seen the way that she spoke to him? It was almost impossible to be nice to Marge when she spoke the way that she did. "All right, if she does when she's talking to me," Harry said bitterly.

Vermin acted as though he hadn't even heard what Harry had said. "Secondly, as Marge doesn't know anything about your abnormality, I don't want any - any funny stuff while she's here. You behave yourself, got me?" Vermin continued.

Once more I rolled my eyes at him. "I will if she does," Harry said through gritted teeth.

To my surprise, the third comment was not made for Harry. It was made for me. Vermin whipped towards me and I jumped slightly. "Thirdly, if you would like to be here during her visit, you will say nothing of anything about yourself. You will pretend to be a friend of Dudley's. And you will treat him like he isn't around," Vermin said, jerking his head in Harry's direction.

My jaw dropped at the sudden comment. "He's my best friend!" I argued.

"Then you will not be in this house," Vermin shot back.

"Fine," I conceded.

Harry placed a hand on my knee to keep me from saying anything too rude. "And fourthly," Vermin continued, his mean little eyes now slits in his great purple face as he looked back towards Harry, "we've told Marge you attend St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys."

My jaw dropped. They were really going to do something like that... They were some of the worst people that I'd ever met. Or maybe they were the very worst people I'd ever met. "What?" Harry yelled.

"And you'll be sticking to that story, boy, or there will be trouble," Vermin spat.

Very slowly, I turned over towards Harry. It was bad enough that I would have to pretend not to know Harry. I felt terribly for him. This would definitely be one of the worst birthdays that he'd ever had. Harry sat there, white-faced and furious, staring at Vermin, hardly able to believe it. Neither could I. They could have just said that he went to a boarding school. They didn't have to say that he was criminally insane. It wasn't like Marge would be coming for a day either. She was here for a week-long visit. As expected, I was right. It was the worst birthday present the Dursley's had ever given him, including a pair of Vermin's old socks.

The table was silent for a while as I jabbed at the eggs on my plate. "Well, Petunia, I'll be off to the station, then." Vermin got to his feet, sighing heavily at the very obviously tiring action. "Want to come along for the ride, Dudders?" Vermin asked before heading out.

"No," Dudley said quickly, whose attention had returned to the television now that Vermin had finished threatening Harry.

Well that was rude. And I didn't even like the Dursley's. "Duddy's got to make himself smart for his auntie," Horse-Face chirped, smoothing Dudley's thick blond hair. "Mummy's bought him a lovely new bow tie."

Honestly I couldn't understand how everyone in the Dursley household treated each other like they couldn't have cared less about each other. I pushed my plate backwards, not wanting to eat anything more. My stomach was still churning with the thoughts of everything that had happened. Sirius Black was out of Azkaban and Marge Dursley was coming to stay at the Dursley's for a week. It seemed like Harry and I were going to have a wonderful week together. Glancing upwards, I saw Vermin clap Dudley on his porky shoulder.

It seemed that Dudley wasn't going to be able to fit in the chair much longer. His bottom was drooping over the edge already. I was surprised that his rolls of fat hadn't sucked in Vermin's hand. "See you in a bit, then," Vermin said as he left the kitchen.

For a moment Harry and I merely sat at the table, picking at the splintering wood. I had a feeling that Horse-Face would be replacing the table any day now. It was very sudden that Harry, who had been sitting in a kind of horrified trance, obviously had a sudden idea. He grabbed my hand and yanked me up from the table with him. Abandoning his toast and my juice, the two of us got quickly to our feet and followed Vermin to the front door. I gave Harry a strange look, wondering what he was doing following Vermin. As we made our way over to him, I realized that Vermin was pulling on his car coat. It felt very awkward walking over towards him.

The two of us stopped just a few feet from Vermin. "I'm not taking you," he snarled as he turned to see Harry and I watching him.

Scoffing softly at him, I shook my head. There was no way that I wanted to be with him in a car for almost an hour. "Like I wanted to come," Harry said coldly. "I want to ask you something." Vermin eyed him suspiciously. "Third years at Hog -" I stomped on his foot to get him to not say the name, "at my school are allowed to visit the village sometimes."

"So?" Vermin snapped, taking his car keys from a hook next to the door.

Harry and I exchanged a quick look. There was no way that we weren't letting him go. He had to come with us to Hogsmeade. All of the kids went. "It's a privilege to go. Think of it like a field trip," I told Vermin as sweetly as possible.

"I need you to sign the permission form," Harry said in a rush.

Vermin looked back and forth between the two of us. We both awkwardly stared at each other, trying to figure out what we should say. "And why should I do that?" Vermin sneered.

Once more Harry and I exchanged an awkward look. I wasn't really sure what to say without it coming out as a nasty as it was in my head. "Well," Harry said, choosing his words carefully, "it'll be hard work, pretending to Aunt Marge I go to that St. Whatsits -"

"St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys!" Vermin bellowed. Harry and I exchanged a smile. Obviously we were both pleased to hear a definite note of panic in Vermin's voice.

It was easy to see that we already had him. Harry: "Exactly," said Harry, looking calmly up into Uncle Vernon's large, purple face. "It's a lot to remember. I'll have to make it sound convincing, won't I? What if I accidentally let something slip?"

Smirking towards the ground, I turned away for a moment so that I could laugh. Vermin looked like he was about to lose his mind. It would be rather fun to see the look on Marge's face if she found out about magic. "You'll get the stuffing knocked out of you, won't you?" Vermin roared, advancing on Harry with his fist raised.

I took a step backwards but Harry stood his ground. I'd never been so proud of him. "Knocking the stuffing out of me won't make Aunt Marge forget what I could tell her," Harry said grimly.

"And what would she think if she knew that even your neighbors were just as abnormal?" I added happily.

There had already been a furious look on Vermin's face from what Harry had said. But he looked like he might pass out the moment that he'd heard what I had said. I'd assumed that he had almost managed to forget that my family was magical, just like their nephew. Vermin stopped speaking dead in his tracks, his fist still raised, his face an ugly puce. Harry and I exchanged a prideful look with each other. It was very rare that our plans against the Dursley's managed to work. But this one seemed like we were going to manage a win.

We only had a limited time to make this work. "But if you sign my permission form I swear I'll remember where I'm supposed to go to school, and I'll act like a Mug - like I'm normal and everything," Harry went on quickly.

"And I'll keep my mouth shut and pretend to be Dudley's friend," I added.

Hopefully we were actually going to make this work. I really wanted Harry to be able to go to Hogsmeade with us. It was going to be so much fun for all of us to get to go out together. And as the years passed, we would all be able to go out on dates to Hogsmeade. It would be nice that with time we could all be together with our significant others. I really did look forward to having time together out there. It would be a good chance to get away from Hogwarts, even if it was just for a few hours. I could tell that Vermin was thinking our proposal over, even if his teeth were bared and a vein was throbbing in his temple.

"Right," he finally snapped, Harry and I exchanging a hopeful look. "I shall monitor your behavior carefully during Marge's visit. If, at the end of it, you've toed the line and kept to the story, I'll sign your ruddy form."

He wheeled around, pulled open the front door, and slammed it so hard that one of the little panes of glass at the top fell out. Harry and I both snorted at each other as I turned towards him. "Nice one," I said.

"Thanks for helping."

"Anytime." I grabbed Harry's arm and yanked him with me. "Come on," I chirped.

We could have gone back to the kitchen, but I really wasn't in the mood to see Horse-Face and Dudley right about now. So instead we went back upstairs to his bedroom. At least we would be left in peace for a little while. Plus there came the issue that he was going to have to act like a real Muggle. He wouldn't even be able to risk doing schoolwork at night. If he was going to act like a real Muggle, he'd better start now. As we walked into his room I helped him gather up all his presents and his birthday cards and hide them underneath the loose floorboard with his homework. Once everyone was put away, we went to Hedwig's cage. Errol seemed to have recovered; he and Hedwig were both asleep, heads under their wings.

As much as it would have been nice for them to stay, I knew that they had to leave. Harry sighed, then poked them both awake. I nodded at him that he was doing the right thing. "Hedwig, you're going to have to clear off for a week. Stay with Tara and Dai. She'll look after you," Harry said gloomily.

Hedwig looked a little sad about everything. I pet her feathers gently and smiled at her. I'd take good care of her while Harry couldn't. "Send Errol back to Ron, too," I told Harry.

Harry nodded at me as he turned back towards the table, where Hedwig and Errol were sitting. "I'll write him a note, explaining what happened. And don't look at me like that," I noticed that Hedwig's large amber eyes were reproachful, "it's not my fault. It's the only way I'll be allowed to visit Hogsmeade with Ron, Hermione, and Tara," he explained to his owl.

Smiling at them, I rolled my eyes. Owls were funny like that. They seemed to be able to communicate just like people. Sometimes they were even better. As I sat on the bed and ran my fingers through my hair, Harry wrote out a note and gave Hedwig the last bit of attention that he could before she would head off to my house. Ten minutes later, Errol and Hedwig soared out of the window and out of sight. Hedwig soared straight into my house and I noticed Dai jump upwards, excited at seeing her. Errol flew off towards the Burrow, a note around her leg. Harry put the empty cage away inside the wardrobe and dropped onto the bed with me.

It was very obvious that he was having a bad time with everything. I knew that having Marge here for the next week would drive him insane. "Sorry about having to have them clear off," I told him, laying back into bed.

Harry dropped next to me and laid his head on my stomach. "If I get the permission slip signed, that's all that matters," he said.

The two of us sat together for a long time and laughed about everything. If there was one thing that I'd learned about Harry's birthday, it was that he really liked to treat it as a normal day. The only thing that he liked was having a nicer day than normal. And I knew that he really wasn't looking forward to having Marge here. So we talked about heading back to Hogwarts, the new classes that we would be taking, continuing our old classes, and wondering what everyone had been up to over the holidays. We even had a very brief conversation about the few times that Cedric and I had hung out. I'd made sure to put a stop to that conversation quickly. Harry was the last person that I wanted to have the nonexistent romantic life conversation with.

We had been laying together for almost an hour when we finally managed to peel ourselves from the bed. I grabbed Harry and yanked him with me. "Let's go to my house. My parents have some stuff for you," I said.

Harry smiled bashfully and nodded. "Okay."

But if didn't last very long. The time that we had spent laying in the bed and chatting with each other had taken up everything that we had before Marge got here. We weren't going to be able to leave now. Just as we made our move to leave, Horse-Face was shrieking up the stairs for Harry to come down and get ready to welcome their guest. It also meant that I had to come downstairs with him. Not that they wanted me anywhere near them. But for fear that I might say something about my 'abnormality' they would let me hang around with them. And that worked for me. I didn't want to leave Harry alone with Marge and the rest of the Dursley clan.

"Damn it. We'll save everything for you," I told Harry.

Harry shook his head at me and smiled. "Don't worry about it," he said.

The two of us headed down the stairs as I ground my teeth together. I really did want to give him another birthday like we had last year. "Do something about your hair!" Horse-Face snapped as we reached the hall.

The two of us rolled our eyes at each other as we walked a little further into the hallway. I couldn't see the point of trying to make Harry's hair lie flat. It never did. No matter what we did to it. Still, I tried to flatten the hair out as much as I could. It didn't really work but it did look a little bit better. As we walked away from the door I glanced back and smiled at Harry. This was going to be a terrible week. Marge loved criticizing him, so the untidier he looked, the happier she would be. All too soon, within just a few minutes, there was a crunch of gravel outside as Vermin's car pulled back into the driveway, then the clunk of the car doors and footsteps on the garden path.

For a moment we stood there and waited. But we weren't able to stand there for too long. "Get the door!" Horse-Face hissed at Harry.

For a while we merely stared at each other. This wasn't going to be anything good for either one of us. Marge hated Harry with all of her being and she always made nasty little remarks to me. The two of us both made our way over to the door and gave each other a long look before nodding for him to open the door. On the threshold of the house stood Marge Dursley. She was very like Vermin in every way. She was large, beefy, and purple-faced. To my surprise, she even had a mustache that had grown since the last time that I'd seen her, though not as bushy as Vermin's. In one hand she held an enormous suitcase, and tucked under the other was an old and evil-tempered bulldog.

It was like we weren't even here. She brushed right past us like we were ghosts. "Where's my Dudders? Where's my neffy-poo?" Marge roared.

Right on time, Dudley came waddling down the hall, his blond hair plastered flat to his fat head, a bow tie just visible under his many chins. He gave me a quick smile that I responded to as he marched past us. Harry and I pressed back against the wall to avoid the two of them as they met in the middle. Apparently Marge did know that we were here. Marge thrust the suitcase into Harry's stomach, knocking the wind out of him, as he dropped it right onto my foot. I groaned at the sudden weight as Harry and I apologized to each other. In the meantime, Marge seized Dudley in a tight one-armed hug, and planted a large kiss on his cheek.

Once my foot had stopped throbbing, I stepped back a few paces and shared a look with Harry. The two of us laughed at the look on Dudley's face. He looked furious that he had to actually be nice to Marge. Not that I really blamed him. I knew perfectly well that Dudley only put up with Marge's hugs because he was well paid for it, and sure enough, when they broke apart, Dudley had a crisp twenty-pound note clutched in his fat fist. I scoffed at the sight of it. I'd never been paid for anything like that. I wasn't even paid for doing chores or anything like that.

Leaning over to Harry, I dropped my voice as low as I could. "She's gotten fatter," I whispered.

"Is that possible?" Harry whispered back.

The two of us chuckled at each other as Marge finally glanced up at us. "Petunia!" Marge shouted, striding past Harry and I as though we were a hat stand.

My foot was very close to being crushed by the monstrous woman. It was definitely a good thing that Harry grabbed me and yanked me out of the way. I stepped backwards and very nearly tripped over myself. In the meantime, Marge and Horse-Face kissed, or rather, Marge bumped her large jaw against Horse-Face's bony cheekbone. Harry and I exchanged a strange look with each other. I couldn't quite tell whether or not Horse-Face actually liked Marge. I was willing to bet that she didn't. Horse-Face was nasty, but even she wasn't as bad as Marge. Vermin now came in, smiling jovially as he shut the door behind him.

"Tea, Marge? And what will Ripper take?" Vermin asked.

"Ripper can have some tea out of my saucer," Marge said as they all proceeded into the kitchen, leaving Harry and I alone in the hall with the suitcase.

Once more we turned back to each other and laughed. It was amazing the way that they could completely ignore Harry and me whenever they came over. But that didn't bother me. I would rather them enjoy their time together and leave Harry and I to our own devices. As much as I really didn't like being ignored, I wasn't complaining; any excuse not to be with Marge was fine by me, so we began to heave the case upstairs into the spare bedroom, taking as long as we could. As we walked, I kept my voice low so that we didn't let the four downstairs hear us. If Vermin thought that it looked like Harry and I were friends, he wouldn't sign the permission slip to Hogsmeade.

We had managed to stay away from the kitchen for about five minutes before we finally had to head back downstairs. By the time that we got back to the kitchen, Marge had been supplied with tea and fruitcake, and Ripper was lapping noisily in the corner. I grimaced at the sight of him. I loved dogs but Ripper was disgusting. Maybe I could set Snuffles on him when the Dursley's weren't paying attention. As we walked in, I noticed Horse-Face wince slightly as specks of tea and drool flecked her clean floor. She had always hated animals. Hedwig - who stayed in a cage and never made any type of messes - was bad enough for her.

"Who's looking after the other dogs, Marge?" Vermin asked.

Marge always had at least ten dogs in her house. "Oh, I've got Colonel Fubster managing them. He's retired now, good for him to have something to do. But I couldn't leave poor old Ripper. He pines if he's away from me," Marge said.

The two of us exchanged a look with each other. I rolled my eyes as we walked towards the table. There were two chairs across the table that Harry and I could take. Thankfully we didn't have to sit next to Marge. But she was across the table. As we took our seats I noticed Ripper walk over towards me. He gave me a quick sniff before walking off. It was fine by me. He wasn't my favorite creature in the world. Ripper was much less fond of Harry than he was of me. Ripper began to growl again as Harry sat down. This directed Marge's attention to Harry for the first time.

The table fell awkwardly quiet. "So! Still here, are you?" Marge barked irritably.

"Yes," Harry said tonelessly.

It didn't go over well with Marge. "Don't you say 'yes' in that ungrateful tone, it's damn good of Vernon and Petunia to keep you. Wouldn't have done it myself. You'd have gone straight to an orphanage if you'd been dumped on my doorstep," she snarled at him. My hands bunched together underneath the table. Her head then turned towards me. "Who are you?"

"You've met me before," I snapped.

I saw the looks on the Dursley's faces drop. They obviously didn't like my comment. But it didn't matter. The comment went straight over Marge's head. "I'd remember you!" she shouted, as if I was making things up. "Pretty face you've got, dear."

"Thank you."

That was the nicest thing that Marge had ever said to me. It was probably the nicest thing that she had said to anyone. "This isn't another stray, Vernon, is she?" Marge asked after a few beats of silence.

"No!" I shouted.

Marge's head turned towards me with a nasty snarl over her face. "No, Marge. She's a friend of Dudley's," Vermin cut in before Marge could say anything back to me.

That comment caught her attention. She turned to me and smiled before turning back towards Dudley. "Oh. I wasn't aware little Dudders had started dating yet," she said.

Surprised at Marge's words, both Harry and I spit out the water that we had been drinking. I recovered from the comment first. "We're not dating!" I snarled, horrified at the thought.

Marge's head turned back to me as she ground her jaws together. "Don't you take that tone with me," she hissed before turning back to Dudley. He was wearing a soft blush on his face and desperately avoiding any eye contact with me. "You need to show the girls in your life that you're always above them, Dudders."

"You'd be crushed," I muttered under my breath.

A soft snort came from Harry at my words. Thankfully no one else heard what we were saying. Marge shouted at Harry for making such a sound, but there was nothing else said for a long while. For a while I let my thoughts linger. I could tell that Harry was bursting to say that he'd rather live in an orphanage than with the Dursley's, and I wouldn't have blamed him. It would have been better to be homeless than be with the Dursley's. They were the worst people that I had ever met. It was good that he didn't say that though. We were going to go to Hogsmeade together, and he needed it signed. He instead forced his face into a painful smile.

"Don't you smirk at me! I can see you haven't improved since I last saw you. I hoped school would knock some manners into you," Marge snapped at Harry, who merely nodded and looked back towards the table. She took a large gulp of tea, wiped her mustache, and asked, "Where is it that you send him, again, Vernon?"

"St. Brutus's. It's a first-rate institution for hopeless cases," Vermin said almost immediately.

"I see." She nodded at them for a moment before glancing back towards Harry. "Do they use the cane at St. Brutus's, boy?" she barked across the table.

For a moment Harry hesitated. "Er -" Vermin nodded curtly behind Marge's back. "Yes." He was silent for a moment before adding, "All the time."

Any normal human being would have been horrified at the thought of that. But Marge seemed pleased about the whole thing. "Excellent. I won't have this namby-pamby, wishy-washy nonsense about not hitting people who deserve it. A good thrashing is what's needed in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred," Marge said quickly. She once more turned towards Harry. "Have you been beaten often?"

Very gently I set my hand on Harry's leg. He had to stay calm and not saying anything terrible to them. "Oh, yeah, loads of times," Harry said.

Marge narrowed her eyes. "I still don't like your tone, boy. If you can speak of your beatings in that casual way, they clearly aren't hitting you hard enough," Marge said. I rolled my eyes into my water glass as Marge turned towards Horse-Face. "Petunia, I'd write if I were you. Make it clear that you approve the use of extreme force in this boy's case."

For a moment I thought about asking Marge what she thought about a giant snake that murdered people by looking at them being extreme force enough, but I managed to think better of it. I would just keep all of the genuinely terrible things that had happened to Harry to myself. It turned out that the table wasn't very silent for long. Perhaps Vermin was worried that Harry might forget their bargain; in any case, he changed the subject abruptly. Probably for the best. I wasn't sure how much longer either one of us would make it without saying something.

"Heard the news this morning, Marge? What about that escaped prisoner, eh?"

As Marge started to make herself at home, I realized just how wonderful life at Number Four, Privet Drive was without her. For the most part, Vermin and Horse-Face just wanted Harry out of the way. It was a lonely way to live, but it really wasn't that bad. It was good enough so that he could stay away from them. Marge, on the other hand, wanted Harry under her eye at all times, so that she could boom out suggestions for his improvement. She delighted in comparing Harry with Dudley, and took huge pleasure in buying Dudley expensive presents while glaring at Harry, as though daring him to ask why he hadn't got a present too. She also kept throwing out dark hints about what made Harry such an unsatisfactory person.

There were also the little digs that she would throw at me. She had said multiple times that I needed more food in me. She seemed to think that I was far too small to actually be attractive. There had even been the terrible moment that she'd wanted to see Dudley and I kiss. That had not gone over well. It had also been far too embarrassing when Harry had been teasing me about 'Pretty-Boy Diggory' and telling me that we really shouldn't go out together. It had been extremely embarrassing. Fortunately Marge had overheard the comment and had then proceeded to talk about all of the reasons that a boy would never like me.

On the third day of her visit, Marge only had so much more to say about Harry. Thankfully she didn't seem eager to speak to me tonight. "You mustn't blame yourself for the way the boy's turned out, Vernon. If there's something rotten on the inside, there's nothing anyone can do about it," Marge said, glancing towards Harry.

My nails gently started scratching at the table and leaving a slight scratch in it. Almost immediately I realized what I was doing and I pulled my hands away. The last thing that I needed was getting Harry yelled at because they thought that he had damaged their precious table. I really was trying to concentrate on my food, but my hands were shaking and my face was starting to burn with anger. It seemed that Harry was having the same reaction. I tried to tune out their conversations, but they were so loud that it was almost impossible. And with each glass of wine they only got a little louder. Marge reached for her glass of wine; I was sure that she was on her fourth.

"It's one of the basic rules of breeding. You see it all the time with dogs," Marge said loudly. "If there's something wrong with the bitch, there'll be something wrong with the pup -"

At that moment, the wineglass that Marge was holding exploded in her hand. Everyone at the table jumped as shards of glass flew in every direction and Marge sputtered and blinked, her great ruddy face dripping. The red wine was all over the place and had stained parts of everyone's clothes. Even worse was the knife. It had been in her hand to cut the steak, but it bent at that exact moment, nearly shaving off her thumb. She immediately dropped it in a panic.

Immediately I dropped the fork that I was holding. I hadn't done accidental magic out of rage since I was a kid. Harry had broken the glass and I had bent the knife. Not good. "Marge! Marge, are you all right?" Horse-Face squeaked.

"Not to worry. Must have squeezed it too hard. Did the same thing at Colonel Fubster's the other day. No need to fuss, Petunia, I have a very firm grip..." Marge grunted, dabbing at her face with a napkin.

But Horse-Face and Vermin were both looking at Harry and I suspiciously. They knew that we had done it out of a sudden rage and they knew just how close we were to having magic get discovered. I noticed that Harry was shifting so that he could get up from the table and leave. I was about to get up with him so that I could leave, too, but there was something that I had to say before I did. As Harry decided he'd better skip dessert and escape from the table as soon as he could, I stood and turned towards Marge.

"So I assume that there was something wrong with the bitch in your case?" I asked lowly.

The table went deathly still. No one said a word as Marge dropped her fork and stared straight at me, her eyes beady and dark. "What did you just say to me?" Marge asked with a warning tone.

"I think that you need to leave, Tara. You may return when you're feeling better," Horse-Face said quickly.

Knowing that it was my only option right now, I head away from the large table. Harry placed an arm around my waist and pulled me with him. The two of us quickly stormed out of the living room and away from the others. Outside in the hall, the two of us leaned against the wall and each other, breathing deeply. I couldn't believe what we'd just done. There was already one mark on our records. We would have to be careful that we didn't do something like that again. We would be in a ton of trouble if we actually managed some more magic before heading back to school. Obviously Harry felt the same way as we gave each other a long look.

The major problem was that Harry and I were still underage wizards, and we were forbidden by wizard law to do magic outside of school. Until we were seventeen, we weren't allowed to perform any type of magic unless there was a dire circumstance. And a mean woman saying some cruel things wasn't exactly dire circumstances. The worst part was that neither one of our records were exactly clean. Just last summer we'd both gotten official warnings that had stated quite clearly that if the Ministry got wind of any more magic in Privet Drive, Harry and I would face expulsion from Hogwarts. Out in the living room, I heard the Dursley's leaving the table.

That was my cue to leave. I grabbed Harry's hand and sighed softly. "I'm so sorry," I told Harry softly.

"It's alright, Tara," Harry said.

The two of us gave each other a quick hug and I smiled at him, pressing a quick kiss against his cheek. The moment that he had left the hug, I turned to leave the house, knowing that I shouldn't linger. Harry headed upstairs as I turned to leave the house. On my way out I heard Marge make a nasty comment about me that made my teeth grind together. As I walked out of the house into the darkness I heard a low growling. I turned back in the darkness and smiled weakly at Snuffles, who was standing just a few feet away from me. It was only the second time that I had seen him.

"You gonna come up to me tonight?" I asked Snuffles.

The dog merely growled at me again before backing off a few inches. I smiled and waved at Snuffles so that I could leave. He was an adorable dog and I trusted that he wasn't going to attack me or anything like that. Snuffles followed me all of the way back to the house but still wouldn't come up to me. Waving him off, I walked inside and smiled at my parents, regaling the whole story of the night. They certainly didn't sound happy about what had happened. I knew that they had been very friendly with James and Lily Potter. That meant that they never wanted to hear someone insult Harry's deceased parents. I ended up going to bed with the friendly reminder that Marge would be gone in a few days.

The following two days passed mostly with a blur. I spent most of my time at the Dursley's and trying to avoid Marge. Unfortunately that meant that I did have to spend a lot of time with Dudley, but he really wasn't that bad. If he wasn't quite so awful to Harry, I maybe could have considered the two of us friends. Unfortunately today was not a day that I could spend over at their house. Marge had ordered me to stay away from the house last night so that she could give it a full inspection today to see if it met her standards. It was going to make for a very boring day for me, considering that Mom and Dad would be at work for most of the day.

It meant that I had to find something to do. I traipsed down the stairs and into the living room, smiling at Mom. Dad was already at work. I was about to head into the kitchen when Mom put out an arm to stop me. "Oh, Tara, you got a letter this morning," she said.

"Did I?"

A few days had passed since my last letter had gotten back from Hermione. "Here you are." She handed me over a very small letter that had Cedric's writing on the front. I smiled softly and slit it open. "Who's it from?" Mom pried.

She knew who it was from. "Just a friend," I answered softly, grabbing the letter and pulling it out.

Tara,

I'm heading into Diagon Alley today to go get some things for the new school year. I was wondering if you wanted to come and meet me? Thought it might be a little nicer than just being by myself. I'll be there around noon. Meet me in the Leaky Cauldron if you'd like. Maybe you can finally pay me back for the birthday present.

Hope to see you soon,  
Cedric.

Placing the letter back in the envelope, I smiled down at my feet and glanced over at Mom. "I think that I'm gonna head into Diagon Alley for a few hours," I told her softly.

Mom smiled and nodded at me. "Ah... Have a nice time. Tell Cedric that we said hello," she said teasingly.

Rolling my eyes at her, I took a few steps backwards. "Honestly Mom... We're just friends," I muttered under my breath.

And I certainly wish that we were more. "Well it's nice that you're the first friend that he thought to invite." That was true. Of all of the friends that he could have written to, it was nice that I was the first person. Or maybe everyone else just couldn't go. "You saw how red he went at dinner the other week when we mentioned if there was anyone that he liked," Mom continued, probably knowing where my thoughts were.

"Because you embarrassed him!" I barked.

She merely shook her head at me. "So that's the reason that the two of you didn't speak to each other for the rest of the night?" she asked me. I merely stood there, stupefied. It was because we'd both been so embarrassed about what had happened. "You kept looking around anywhere but at the other."

"I'll be back in a few hours," I said, smiling softly.

The last thing that I wanted right now was to have a romance talk with Mom. Especially when it came to the very awkward relationship between Cedric and I. "Have fun, darling. I'll let Dad know that you left," Mom called after me.

"Thanks."

It really was good that Cedric had written me that note. I really didn't want to hang around the house for now. Mom was leaving to work soon and there would be no one else for me to talk to. And if I couldn't go over to Harry's house, there had to be something else for me to go. I walked over to the fireplace and threw down a handful of Floo powder, getting sucked through the fireplace and out into Flourish and Blotts. I said a quick hello to the store owner before heading out and over into the Leaky Cauldron. I wasn't really sure why I felt as strange as I did, but I really did feel quite embarrassed. Maybe it was because slowly things felt like they were changing between Cedric and me.

Cedric's P.O.V.

It was midday when Cedric Diggory sat alone in the Leaky Cauldron. There weren't that many people hanging around in the small tavern considering so many people were already at work and the Hogwarts letters hadn't come out yet. Cedric had merely had to grab a few new pieces of clothing, seeing that he had grown over the summer. He'd also grabbed a few sets of parchment and quills. A waitress walked up to him and gave him a sweet smile that he returned. He'd only been sitting there for a few minutes. The waitress appeared to have been recently graduated from Hogwarts. She looked like she was maybe eighteen or nineteen.

"Can I get you something, sweetheart?" the waitress asked.

For a moment, Cedric merely looked back and forth to see if Tara was anywhere around. He couldn't see her so he looked back and stared at the table. "Um... Two Butterbeer's, please," he said, knowing that she liked them.

The waitress nodded and turned to leave. But before she could get a few steps away, she turned back and smiled at Cedric. "Waiting on a girlfriend?" she asked him.

Cedric's face heated up slightly. "Just - Just a friend," he muttered dumbly.

Once more the waitress smiled at him. "Coming right up," she said, turning to leave.

For a minute the waitress looked like she might say something else, but she never did. She turned and left the table and headed back to the bar. Cedric leaned up against the table and laid his head in his hands as he waited for Tara to show up. He probably should have written to her last night so that he would know whether or not she would be here. He had a feeling that she would come. They normally did like spending time together whenever they got the chance. And they had both been a little bit busier this summer. The family dinners that they had with his Dad and her parents were usually the one chance that they knew that they would get to see each other.

He really did like her. It was something that he had known from the first time that he had seen her back in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions before the start of her First Year. There were so many things that he really did like about her. She was incredibly smart for someone that seemed to so rarely study. She was funny too. He couldn't even count the number of times that she had made him laugh. There was always something silly that she could manage to say. It helped that she was definitely pretty to look at. The nicest thing was that even though she was a Gryffindor, she had the exemplary qualities of every House. She was brave, wise, loyal, and cunning.

There had been a few times that he had even debated on kissing her. But he really didn't know if she had ever been kissed or not - he was inclined to think that she hadn't - and he didn't want to spring something on her that she didn't want. He had a feeling that she would want to kiss him, but he really didn't want to surprise her. He had come the closest to kissing her when they were at a family dinner the other week. It was something that he definitely regretted not doing.

Both of their parents had been talking about whether or not Cedric had a girlfriend - something that had mortified him deeply. He had even noticed that she had obviously been embarrassed. He kept trying to brush off their comments but it was very hard. He had a big crush on Tara and he really didn't want her to get the wrong idea that he wanted to be with someone else. But there was also the problem that he really didn't want her parents to know that he had a crush on their daughter. Cedric and Tara were cleaning off the plates in the kitchen after Tara had quickly fled the room when her mother had mentioned a crush that Tara had mentioned to them.

The moment that she had fled the room, Cedric got up and followed her, bringing in his own plates. He didn't want to think that she might have a crush on someone else, but he also didn't want her to feel as embarrassed as he was. She was leaning back against the sink with her face a light red. "There you are," Cedric said, placing the plates at her side.

She glanced over at him and sighed. "Not like I could go very far," she muttered.

Obviously she felt very awkward about everything that had just happened in the dining room. "You alright?" Cedric asked her quietly.

"I wasn't expecting them to bring that up," she said.

Once more she was very awkward about the whole thing. "You don't have to be embarrassed. That's what parents are for. They say the worst things at the worst possible times," Cedric tried to defend her.

He still didn't like the thought that she might like someone else, but he really didn't want her to feel as stupid as she probably did. "I'm sorry that you had to be around to hear it," she said.

Cedric smiled and waved her off. "Oh it's no big deal." They stood in silence for a moment before a thought occurred to Cedric. She deserved to at least know that he would be there for her, no matter what. "Just - Uh - Whatever guy that you've got a thing for... Make sure that he treats you well. Or I'll kick his butt," he told her.

She let out a sweet laugh, looking much happier than she had two minutes ago. She was shaking her head as she sipped on her water. "Trust me when I say that it's not really a big deal. I tried to tell them that it wasn't a big deal either. I guess they didn't understand what that meant. Besides, I don't really think that he thinks of me as anything more than a little sister," she said, a sad tone in her voice.

Knowing that he might have been about to ruin any chance of there being something in between the two of them, he decided to go with it anyways. "Well he'd be an idiot not to," Cedric said.

She glanced up at him with a playful smile. "I don't know. I think that he's pretty smart. Although he's kind of terrible at Arithmancy," she said with a teasing tone to her voice.

There was a soft smile on her face as she looked at him. He smiled back at her and laughed softly. His heart gave a soft jump at her words. There were so many guys that were bad at Arithmancy. She could mean any of them. And there were lots of guys at Hogwarts that she spoke to. But there was also all of her friends back in the United States. She could have meant one of them too. There was a good chance that it could have been something like that. Someone that he didn't know. But there was something in the way that she was smiling at him...

"Well to be fair to him, it's a tough class," Cedric said.

They both smiled at each other and stood together for a moment. Cedric took a step closer to her but kept a little bit of distance. "Sorry that they had to ask you about the girls that you had a crush on," she said softly.

"Oh it's fine. I think that it's kind of cute the way that they're protective of you," he told her.

He really did think that it was nice the way that everyone liked to protect her, even though it was pretty clear that no one had to protect her. It was reasonably obvious that she knew how to take care of herself. "It's annoying. I've got enough guys to act like an older brother for me that I really don't need any more," she scoffed irritably.

Taking the moment of bravery, Cedric said, "Well you don't have to worry about me."

Her gaze immediately turned upwards towards him. He saw the brief hint of pink flush over her face. "Oh..." she trailed off. Almost immediately he regretted saying anything. "Yeah?"

"Yeah..." he said softly.

And that was all that it took. Surprising even himself, he began to lean in towards Tara. He knew that there was only a limited amount of time that he had to solve this problem. The two of them were leaning towards each other very slowly. Cedric noticed that his hands were shaking slightly, and he was sure that Tara was too. He really wanted this to happen. But he was genuinely unnerved about what might happen if something happened between them. They were almost pressed against each other when a very loud shout came from the living room.

"Kids!" Mrs. Nox's voice echoed through the house. "We've got dessert out." Cedric and Tara jumped away from each other and stuttered a number of awkward excuses as they attempted to sprint the fastest from the kitchen.

"You look like you're in deep thought," Tara's voice startled Cedric out of his reverie from the other night.

He glanced up at her and smiled. She looked thrilled to see him. Or maybe just be out of the house. He couldn't tell which one. Either way, he stood and smiled happily at her. He really was glad that she had managed to come here today. He'd been wanting to talk since that awkward night. "Hey. I wasn't sure whether or not you'd make it," he told her.

She smiled back at him as Cedric leaned forward and pressed a kiss against her cheek. It was cute to see that she was obviously embarrassed by the action. "Well I've been having quite the time at home. I really wanted to get out just for a little while. I'm glad that you wrote to me," she said.

There was a small smile on his face. He was thrilled to see her again, especially since neither one of them were quite as awkward as they were last time. "Trust me, I'm glad that I did too," he finally spit out.

"I was surprised that you didn't offer to come out with your friends," Tara said.

Cedric's eyebrows quirked. Had she really thought that she was his second choice? She had always been his first choice. Almost since he had met her. She had quite the effect on him. "You are my friend. You were my first choice," Cedric told her, placing his hand over hers for a moment.

He didn't leave it there for long before retracting his hand. He didn't want to push her too much. "So what were you thinking about?" she finally asked, breaking the brief silence. Cedric raised a brow at her. "You looked very into whatever it was."

Should he tell her? He might as well. "I was actually thinking about the other night," he said.

Her face drained of color. "The other night?" she repeated.

Her voice was slightly higher than it normally was. He knew that she had been embarrassed about what had happened in her house a few weeks ago. "A few weeks ago when we were at dinner with our parents," he clarified. If it was possible, her face drained a little more of color. She knew what he was talking about. But he wanted to mess with her just a little bit more. "They were talking about the people that we had crushes on and we - uh - we retreated to the kitchen."

There was a brief lapse of silence. "Oh," she finally muttered.

A soft tinge of pink flooded over her cheeks. Cedric knew that she was very embarrassed about that night. He had thought that it was rather cute. "Two Butterbeer's," the waitress said, walking up to their side and laying down the drinks.

Tara thanked the waitress quickly as Cedric glanced up at her. "Thank you," he told the young woman.

The waitress walked off and Tara gently wrapped her hand around the drink. She glanced up at him and shook her head. He could see her fingering through her purse for some money. "You didn't have to get me one," she said awkwardly.

Cedric reached across the table and grabbed her hand, stopping her from grabbing any of the coins. "I can manage one Butterbeer," he said.

She smiled softly at him as they cheered to the drink. Cedric felt her very briefly rub her leg against his - he couldn't tell whether or not it was an accident - and he shifted awkwardly in his seat. "I'm really sorry about the other night," Tara said, speaking through the silence. "I didn't know that they would start talking about all of that. And it's ridiculous. They never bring things like that up unless there's company."

Cedric shook his head at her. He had really enjoyed that night. He just wished that it wouldn't have affected her so much. Although it did lead him to thinking that she might actually have feelings for him. "It wasn't that bad. It was actually kind of funny," he said.

A small smile tilted up on her face as she took in a long drink of the Butterbeer. "I suppose that it was a little funny," she conceded. They sat in silence for a few seconds before Tara looked up with a small smile over her face. Cedric immediately knew that something teasing was coming. "You know, whenever you do get a girlfriend, my parents will pry."

What if you're the girlfriend? But he couldn't say that. So he asked, "What if they already know her?"

He was sure that her eyes briefly lit up. "They'll still pry," she said.

Cedric just wanted to say something that would make her realize that he really did like her. But they were both a little too oblivious for that. "I think that they might know her pretty well," he tried.

Now he was sure that there was a deep blush on her face. She cleared her throat a little bit before taking another drink of the Butterbeer and looking back up. "Did you hear about the escaped convict?" she asked.

That was something that he'd been hearing his father talk about since it had all happened. It was something that had rocked the Wizarding World. Sirius Black had always been considered one of the most dangerous criminals. "Sirius Black... Yeah, I did." Cedric could tell that something was really bothering her about his escape. Was she thinking that he would come after her? "Don't worry, he won't come here. If he's smart he'll head somewhere far away from here," he told her, reaching to grab her hands.

This time he didn't let go of her hand and she seemed to really appreciate it. Something was genuinely bothering her. "I overheard my parents talking about it last night. There was something weird about the whole thing. They told me this morning when I confronted them that they knew him when they were in school together. Apparently they were the same age. It sounded like they were thinking that he was going to come after... maybe them," she trailed off, her voice becoming very weak.

So that was the problem... She was concerned that the dangerous criminal was going to come after her family. "You think that he would go after them?" Cedric asked.

It was a while that she just sat and stared off into the distance. Cedric tightened his grip on her hands and took a deep breath before kissing the back of her hand. He noticed a weak smile cross her face, and a bright red tinge on her cheeks. "I don't know. They never really told me that much about their school days outside of their friendship with James and Lily. Harry's parents," she clarified. Cedric nodded at her. He knew who they were. "They were all the same age."

Cedric knew how she felt. If she thought that a criminal was coming after her parents, she had every right to be terrified for them. "Don't worry about it, Tara. Nothing is going to happen to your parents. If Black is as smart as I'd think that he would be to get out of Azkaban, he isn't going to be anywhere near here. He'll be halfway across the world by now," he told her.

"Probably," she said.

But he could tell that something else was bothering her. It was very obvious that her mind was on something more than just Sirius Black coming after her family. "There's something else bothering you," he said.

His hands were still over hers. "It seemed like they were almost thinking that he might come after me," she muttered under her breath.

A strange pang went through his chest. She already had so much crap in her life. She really didn't need anything more. Especially not a psychotic criminal coming after her. "What reason would he have to do that?" he asked.

"I have no clue," she said.

Cedric sighed and leaned over the table to run his hands over her arms. He saw her glance up and smile weakly at him. "Don't worry about that. He's not going to hurt you. You'll be completely safe at Hogwarts and you've got people that really care about you that are surrounding you in the meantime," he said, hoping that she understood that he meant himself.

Obviously she did as she leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his cheek. He was sure that he was turning just as pink as she was as she sat back down. "Hopefully this is one year that I won't be attacked or looked at like I'm the worst thing in the world," she said.

It did seem that every year something terrible was happening to her and her friends. Hopefully things would work out a little better this year. "I have faith that this year will work out a little bit better for you," he said.

She smiled at him. "I think so too. Besides, I finally get to go to Hogsmeade," she said. Cedric cleared his throat loudly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Legally," she added, smiling brightly.

Cedric gently nudged her legs against his. "You know, you have to remember that I'm the first one to take you there," he teased.

She laughed and Cedric saw that she was finally relaxing. She looked much happier than she had when she had first walked into the pub. "I'll told it in my heart forever," she said. Cedric laughed softly and shook his head. "Seriously... That trip was a lot of fun and it was something that I really needed. And I'm glad that my first trip into Hogsmeade was with you."

And I'm definitely glad that I went with you. Maybe there was a chance that he was the only person that she would ever go to Hogsmeade with. At least, as someone more than a friend. "Maybe we can go again sometime?" he offered, hoping that he wasn't overstepping anything.

"I'd like that," she said, almost immediately.

That was his indication that she really did want to at least go out with him. If nothing else, at least still as friends. "The first Hogsmeade trip will be a few weeks into the year. Maybe we can go together?" he offered. He was sure that there was a hint of excitement in her eyes. "I can really show you around without getting worried that someone might catch us."

She chuckled softly, probably at the memory of Hagrid catching them in an almost very awkward position. "That sounds like a plan to me." They both took long gulps of their drinks before Tara looked back up at them. "Uh - Just - Just the two of us?" she asked.

Her voice was shaky and very nervous sounding. Cedric rubbed the back of his neck and smiled weakly. "Well you weren't planning on inviting another guy with us, were you?" he teased her.

"No. No, there's no one else that I would want with us," she said.

Cedric smiled at her and grabbed a stirrer, running it through his drink. He knew that she liked him. She had to like him. Just the way that they acted together was enough indication. "Good. Me either," Cedric finally responded.

And he meant it. There really wasn't anyone else that he wanted to be with at Hogsmeade. He could see his friends whenever. But he didn't get the chance to be with Tara that often. Mostly considering that they were in different Houses and years. They really only saw each other in the Great Hall and occasionally in between their classes. It wasn't enough for the two of them to really have a lot of time to enjoy each other's company. Tara's voice brought him from his reverie a few minutes later.

"So... it's a date then?" Tara asked softly.

Cedric's head sprang up. He almost immediately saw the regret in her eyes from saying anything, and he jumped into action, not wanting her to think that he didn't want her to have called it a date. "It's a date," he confirmed.

"I look forward to it," she said, a smile on her face and some of her previous confidence restored.

Once more Cedric smiled at her. "Trust me, I look forward to it, too," he said.

It seemed like forever since they had met. They had really only met about two years ago. But it felt like they had known each other for a long time. And he had been waiting for almost the entire time that they had been friends to ask her out. The two of them spent a long time together just talking and laughing about anything and everything. Particularly about the upcoming school year and their trip to Hogsmeade. They'd even talked about meeting up to get their school things in a few weeks.

Cedric found himself genuinely enjoying watching her as they chatted back and forth. The past few times that he had seen her, she had always seemed so tense or nervous about something. It was nice to see her let go of everything that was bothering her and just have a good time between the two of them. They had a good time sitting together and talking between themselves. It was particularly nice that they had almost no time restraint. They were together for hours, after all. But all good things must come to an end. It was well past five in the evening when Tara finally sighed and glanced down at her Muggle watch.

She looked back up at him and sighed, blowing the hair out of her face. "As much as I really hate to say this, I should leave. It's getting late and I promised my parents that I would be home for dinner," she said sadly.

"That's alright, I promised Dad that I'd be home for dinner," Cedric told her.

"Next time," she teased.

That would be nice to meet up for dinner one night. "Maybe you'd like to come back out to Diagon Alley one day?" Cedric offered her. Tara's head perked up and she smiled softly. "Sometime a little sooner. It's been a while since we've seen each other."

"As long as our parents aren't together," she said.

Cedric laughed loudly and nodded at her. "Deal," he said, shaking her hand.

"I'll see you around."

"Write to me whenever you're free, yeah?" Cedric asked.

"Yeah."

The two of them stood from their chairs as Cedric tossed down a few Sickles for their drinks. Tara was about to do the same but Cedric gently nudged her back. It wasn't that expensive. The two of them smiled at each other and exchanged quick kisses on the cheeks before Cedric turned to leave the Leaky Cauldron. The moment that he was outside and away from Tara, he rolled his eyes at himself. He should have kissed her on his way out. Every time that he got a chance to kiss her he panicked and did something else, like kissing her on the cheek. She must have been fed up with him by now. He was fed up with himself. Soon enough he would kiss her. He promised himself that.

Tara's P.O.V.

It was pushing six by the time that I finally left the Leaky Cauldron - and Cedric - after sitting there for most of the day. We had spent most of the day there trying to talk to each other. It had been such a good time. It had been far too long since we had actually gotten to sit around and be friends with no one else around. Our parents couldn't be trusted with each other. It was terrifying to have them around each other. They were going to give away my crush on him in a matter of time.

But I did feel much better after our time together today. It made me feel like things might have been a little bit better today. I almost had a feeling that Cedric did have a crush on me. And he'd asked me on a date! Well... It was sort of a date. It really did all seem like we both had crushes on each other. We were going out to Hogsmeade together once school started back up, he wanted us to go to Diagon Alley with each other before the semester started, and I was sure that we would see each other a few more times beforehand. As I walked back towards Flourish and Blotts to head home, I pulled the Chapstick out of my pocket and started putting it back on.

Turning to move into Flourish and Blotts, I ran straight into someone, forcing me to drop the Chapstick onto the stone. I groaned at the sight and loss of my Chapstick. "Oh... Gross! Thanks for that," I growled at the person.

"Watch where you're going, Nox," a familiar voice growled.

Glancing up towards the voice, I groaned. One of my least favorite in the world happened to be standing in front of me. "Malfoy," I muttered. "How was this my fault?"

"You're the one that wasn't watching where you were going," he snapped back at me.

"This was your fault. You ran into me."

Malfoy merely rolled his eyes as he leaned down to grab the Chapstick. "Here. You dropped..." he trailed off as he picked up the Chapstick, "this."

He was holding it tightly and I very nearly gasped. I had almost forgotten about our Polyjuice Potion-fueled kiss last year. He had tasted the Chapstick on me and this was now the second time that he had seen me with it. He had to either know or be getting suspicious by now. Play it off, Tara. "What the hell is your problem? It's just Chapstick," I snapped.

Maybe he would let me walk away from him. "Have you always worn this?" he asked, twirling it in his hands.

"Don't be creepy, Malfoy. Yes. I've always worn that," I said.

Without giving him a chance to say anything else, I snatched the Chapstick back from him and made a move to leave. He had to know that I was the one that he had kissed, not Parkinson. And that was not a conversation that I really wanted to have. As I made my move to head back to Flourish and Blotts, Malfoy walked forward and caught my arm, pulling me back into him. My heart skipped a beat as I was pulled flush against Malfoy. We were barely standing an inch apart. My head desperately turned back and forth as he started down at me, trying to look away from him.

My eyes were the one other thing that would keep him from knowing that it was me that he had been with that night in the Slytherin Common Room. "Let go of me," I demanded.

But for whatever reason, neither one of us made a move to get away from the other. We were standing close enough so that if one of us moved forward, we would end up kissing. To my surprise, a small smile fell over Malfoy's face as he looked at me. "Nice eyes," he said.

My jaw dropped. "What did you just say to me?" I asked.

His free hand went into mine and he grabbed the Chapstick from me. My weak grip on it allowed him to take it as he released his grip on my arm. "See you around, Nox," he said, walking back away from me.

I couldn't manage to keep myself silent. "Say hello to Parkinson for me," I called after him.

He turned back to me and - to my surprise - walked back up to me. It was very awkward the way that he walked back towards me and stood almost pressed up against me. My hands were shaking slightly. "You could always come over and tell her yourself," Malfoy said, making my brows raise. I wanted nothing to do with Parkinson. "My house is always open."

And now I understood what he meant. He wanted me to come and do the same thing that we had done down in the Slytherin Common Room. "You're a pig. Get lost," I sneered at him.

He merely stood and smiled at me. Without wanting anything else to be said in between the two of us, I turned and walked away from Malfoy. Hopefully that was the last time that I would see him before going back to Hogwarts. Maybe I would never see him again. That would be wonderful. I said nothing to anyone else as I headed back through Flourish and Blotts and straight back home. I felt extremely awkward that it was obvious now that Malfoy knew that it was me that he had kissed, not Parkinson. So why hadn't he told me that the kiss was repulsive? I knew that he had told Parkinson that when he had kissed her that night - me - that it was the best kiss that they had ever shared.

He was still keeping it a secret that it had been me that he had kissed. And he hadn't said that I was terrible at it. Was I as good as he had said that I was? He wasn't even going to say that it was a lie... That was strange. It was also something that made me incredibly nervous. This was all something that I had been hoping that we could get away without him ever knowing. I supposed that it didn't matter. It was never going to happen again.

By the time that I had gotten back home I had already pushed the thoughts of Malfoy and the knowledge of that kiss out of my mind. The only thing that mattered was that I was going out with Cedric sometime soon. Malfoy could eat it. There was nothing that I wanted from him and it went the other way too. We would go back to hating each other in a matter of days. I would hate Malfoy, I would resume my one-sided crush on Cedric, and I would once more have an insane life where nothing ever made sense.

Things didn't stay insane or strange for that long. Once I was back home, my parents returned to working for most of the time and I went back to doing anything and everything that I could to keep myself busy and amused. It was not as easy of a task as I would have originally thought. I managed to get through the next - very boring - three days by staying over at the Dursley's household for most of my spare time. Although it was just about as terrible as being bored at home. Marge was constantly starting on both Harry and I. It was obvious that he would doze off when she started talking, because Marge started voicing the opinion that he was mentally subnormal.

At last, at long last, the final evening of Marge's stay arrived. Horse-Face cooked a fancy dinner and Vermin uncorked several bottles of wine. I had been invited over to the dinner but I was sure that it was only because Marge wanted to insult me once more before she left. We had managed to get all the way through the soup and the salmon without a single mention of Harry's faults; during the lemon meringue pie, Vermin bored us all with a long talk about Grunnings, his drill-making company; Dudley and I reminisced on our fake many misadventures with each other; then Horse-Face made coffee and Vermin brought out a bottle of brandy.

"Can I tempt you, Marge?" Vermin asked.

Dropping my fork from the pie, I glanced up and shook my head. There was way too much wine and brandy around the table already. Dudley had been allowed a small sip of red wine, Harry and I had been left with nothing, Horse-Face had had a glass with dinner, and Vermin had gotten one glass of wine and one of brandy. Marge had already had quite a lot of wine. She was the only one that I hadn't been able to keep track of with the drinking. Her huge face was very red and I was sure that she was already drunk.

"Just a small one, then," she said through a chuckle. "A bit more than that... and a bit more... that's the ticket."

She had poured the glass almost all of the way up to the top. I had taken a sip from Dad's Firewhisky one time and that had been horrible. I couldn't imagine drinking the whole glass. Dudley was currently eating his fourth slice of pie. Horse-Face was sipping coffee with her little finger sticking out. Harry and I were sitting on the same side of the table, playing 'Rock Paper Scissors' out of sight. I knew that we both really wanted to disappear into his bedroom, but I noticed him meet Vermin's angry little eyes and knew he would have to sit it out.

I grabbed another small piece of pie and began to gently cut it apart. "You're an American, dear, are you?" Marge asked, breaking the silence.

Glancing up towards Marge, I nodded at her. "Very well spotted," I said snappily.

Marge didn't notice the tone of my voice. "Why come to England?" she asked.

Because I have to save your nephew from a psychopathic man who wants to murder him. "I was born here," I said. The look on Marge's face told me that she wanted me to continue explaining what I meant. "My parents moved us to the States when I was barely two. We lived there until I was nine. We moved back and have stayed here since."

There wasn't much else that I could tell her about the move. She would never be able to understand. "And what did your parents do in the United States? I hear that those Americans can be quite lazy," she said.

My jaws ground together. I had still grown up in the States and I still had a number of friends back there. That was still part of my home. The last thing that I wanted to hear was someone insulting it. "Astounding, the similarities that you must feel to them," I snarled at her. "My father was a professional athlete. My mother was a nurse."

"Athlete? What sport did he play?" Marge asked.

A sport where you fly on a broomstick, try to catch a flying golden ball the size of a penny, throw a maroon ball at goalposts fifty feet in the air, and try to avoid two black balls trying to knock you to the ground. I figured that it would probably best not to tell her that, so I settled with something else. "It's not a popular one," I said awkwardly.

Marge merely scoffed at me and took a long drink from her brandy glass. "So he was unemployed, then. A pity," she said, making me grind my jaws together once more. "Good breeding but a terrible background."

It was obvious that she meant money. "My parents are one of the wealthiest families around," I sneered at her.

"Why did your parents move away in the first place?" Marge asked.

Before I could say something nasty about how my parents had very nearly been murdered, Vermin spoke up, clearly sensing the tension in the room. "They were fired from their old jobs," he interrupted.

"Of course. Improper breeding all around this neighborhood, Vernon," Marge said, as she rolled her eyes.

"Y - Yes," Vermin stuttered.

The light in the car corner of the room flickered from my irritation. "Aah," Marge gasped, smacking her lips and putting the empty brandy glass back down. "Excellent nosh, Petunia. It's normally just a fry-up for me of an evening, with twelve dogs to look after..." She burped richly and patted her great tweed stomach. "Pardon me. But I do like to see a healthy-sized boy. You'll be a proper-sized man, Dudders, like your father. Yes, I'll have a spot more brandy, Vernon... Now, this one here -" she jerked her head at Harry. I grabbed his knee tightly. "This one's got a mean, runty look about him. You get that with dogs. I had Colonel Fubster drown one last year. Ratty little thing it was. Weak. Underbred."

My jaw dropped as my fork clattered back to my plate. "You drowned a dog?" I asked her.

That had shocked me. What kind of horrible person could have done something like drown a dog that they had helped raise? "You have to be strong with them," Marge defended. "And you, dear, you've got the makings to be a real woman. But look at you. Just as tiny. No man would want a woman your size," she said, motioning to my athletic frame.

My heart was pounding so loud that I could hear the blood pulsing through my head. There were plenty of people that made me angry, but no one was quite as nasty or unforgiving as Marge Dursley. It was a wonder that she had never married. Harry's hand went over to my thigh and I felt it gradually tighten on me. It got to the point that it was almost horribly painful. I gently nudged his arm off of me and grabbed his hand instead. He gave me a weak smile in return. By the look of strain on his face, I could tell that Harry was trying to remember something that was probably very long and boring from some textbook that we were supposed to read.

Marge's voice brought me back to their conversation. "It all comes down to blood, as I was saying the other day. Bad blood will out. Now, I'm saying nothing against your family, Petunia," she patted Horse-Face's bony hand with her shovel-like one, "but your sister was a bad egg. They turn up in the best families. Then she ran off with a wastrel and here's the result right in front of us."

She motioned to Harry flippantly and I ground my jaws together. No one insulted Lily Potter in front of me. "His mother happened to be my mother's best friend," I snarled across the table.

Everyone stopped talking and all heads turned towards me. "So the bad blood ran in other families as well," Marge said.

My jaws were grinding together so hard that I was sure that they were going to break at any given moment. The last thing that I wanted was to listen to Marge continue to go on and on about how spectacular she was and how unsatisfactory we were. Harry was staring at his plate as I stared at my knife, a funny ringing in my ears. It was obviously because we were both furious with everything that was happening. All I could think about was how much I wanted to go with Harry to Hogsmeade. That was the only reason that it was worth it. Marge's voice seemed to be boring into me like one of Vermin's drills.

"This Potter," Marge said loudly, seizing the brandy bottle and splashing more into her glass and over the tablecloth, "you never told me what he did?"

Both Harry and I exchanged a look with each other. They couldn't really say that James and Lily had lived off of the Potter family fortune as they had joined the Order of the Pheonix to help fight off Voldemort during the Wizarding War. It had been terrible and they had technically been unemployed at the time, but they were laying down their lives. It was like being in the Army. Vermin and Horse-Face were looking extremely tense. Dudley had even looked up from his pie to gape at his parents. They all knew that they weren't sure how to answer the question. Would they lie and say that they had done some normal job?

"He - didn't work. Unemployed," Vermin said, with a half-glance towards Harry.

I noticed him shift irritably. He hadn't known his parents, but he knew how much they meant to the rest of the Wizarding World. "As I expected!" Marge cried, taking a huge swig of brandy and wiping her chin on her sleeve. "A no-account, good-for-nothing, lazy scrounger who -"

"He was not," Harry said suddenly. The table went very quiet. Harry was shaking all over. I was sure that he had never felt so angry in his life.

This was a disaster. The longer that she spoke, the more likely it was that Harry - or myself - was going to do something terrible - but well deserved - towards her. "More brandy!" Vermin yelled, who had gone very white. He emptied the bottle into Marge's glass. She definitely didn't need more. "You, boy," he snarled at Harry. "Go to bed, go on -"

It looked like he was about to tell me to get out of his house, but Marge spoke over him. "No, Vernon," she hiccupped, holding up a hand, her tiny bloodshot eyes fixed on Harry's. "Go on, boy, go on. Proud of your parents, are you? They go and get themselves killed in a car crash - drunk, I expect -"

"They didn't die in a car crash!" Harry yelled, jumping to his feet.

That comment didn't go over well with Marge. No one was going to be happy with the way that this night was turning out. "They died in a car crash, you nasty little liar, and left you to be a burden on their decent, hardworking relatives!" Marge screamed, swelling like a bullfrog with fury. "You are an insolent, ungrateful little -"

"They were murdered, you horrible woman!" I shouted, leaping to my feet with Harry.

Marge looked furious with the way that we were speaking. She clearly didn't like being told that she was wrong. "How dare you lie!" Marge howled at me. "By claiming that something -"

Her voice was halted as every single light in the house began to explode. The table cracked up the middle and Marge's chair splintered. She hit the ground with a giant thump. Everyone began to scream for a moment before it finally fell silent once more. For a moment, it looked as though words had failed Marge. She seemed to be swelling with inexpressible anger - but the swelling didn't stop. Her great red face started to expand, her tiny eyes bulged, and her mouth stretched too tightly for speech. The next second, several buttons had just burst from her tweed jacket and pinged off the walls. She was inflating like a monstrous balloon, her stomach bursting free of her tweed waistband, each of her fingers blowing up like a salami.

As I had done the typical kind of magic, Harry had somehow made Marge swell like a balloon. "Marge!" Vermin and Horse-Face yelled together as Marge's whole body began to rise off her chair toward the ceiling.

Even though it hadn't seemed possible, she had inflated even more like she was a balloon. She was entirely round, now, like a vast life buoy with piggy eyes, and her hands and feet stuck out weirdly as she drifted up into the air, making apoplectic popping noises. One of her buttons came flying off of the coat and shot straight at Dudley's forehead. Had I not been so angry, I would have laughed at the sight of him collapsing back on the ground. Ripper came skidding into the room, barking madly at his owner flying into the air.

"Noooo!" Vermin shouted.

But it was too late. There was no way that anything would be able to stop what had already happened. She was going to be long gone within a few seconds and Harry and I wouldn't be able to do any more magic to stop it. Vermin seized one of Marge's feet and tried to pull her down again, but was almost lifted from the floor himself. Marge was slowly floating out towards the patio door. There was no stopping her path as she shrieked and kicked to try and stop herself. A second later, Ripper leapt forward and sank his teeth into Vermin's leg.

That was all that it took for Harry to tear from the dining room before anyone could stop him, heading for the cupboard under the stairs. I sprinted after him, just barely out of the way of Vermin, who looked furious. The cupboard door burst magically open as Harry reached it. I was trying to stop Harry, but he was too furious to listen. In seconds, Harry had heaved his trunk to the front door. He sprinted upstairs and threw himself under the bed, wrenching up the loose floorboard, and grabbed the pillowcase full of his books and birthday presents. He wriggled out, seized Hedwig's empty cage, and dashed back downstairs to his trunk, just as Vermin burst out of the dining room, his trouser leg in bloody tatters.

Despite having just followed Harry around the entire time, I knew that I needed to get him to stop and listen to me for just a moment. I grabbed Harry's arm and yanked him back with me. He looked furious and terrified all at the same time. "Harry - Harry - Calm down. We've just done underage magic, both of us. We're going to go to my house, okay?" I said.

Both of us needed to stay somewhere safe while we figured out what to do. We had broken the law for a second time. We could get expelled from Hogwarts for what we'd done. "You both keep out of this neighborhood!" Vermin shouted at me.

"Shut your filthy mouth!" I yelled after him.

Harry grabbed my hand and pulled me with him. "I'm leaving, Tara," he said.

He needed to get out of the house. He needed to get somewhere so that we could explain what had happened with the Dursley's. "Come on. Let's go to the park. Get some fresh air, alright?" I offered.

"Come back in here! Come back and put her right!" Vermin bellowed at Harry.

He was limping from the bloody remains of his leg. Ripper had very obviously done some serious damage to Vermin's leg. I wished that he would have torn it off. I made a move forward to tell Vermin to leave us in peace so that we could leave and take care of things ourselves, but Harry acted much faster. It looked like something of a reckless rage had come over Harry. He dropped his truck to the ground, kicked it open, pulled out his wand, and pointed it at Vermin, who stumbled backwards.

"Harry!" I yelled in horror.

If he did anything more, he would only make things ten times worse. "She deserved it," Harry said, breathing very fast. "She deserved what she got. You keep away from me." I followed Harry down the hall as he fumbled behind him for the latch on the door. "I'm going. I've had enough."

For a moment we merely stood together. My arm was tight around Harry's so that I could make sure that he wasn't going to go anything too stupid. Not that we hadn't already done anything too stupid. Vermin was cringing in fear and staying far away from the two of us. There was a gentle tug on my arm and I was getting pulled with Harry towards the door. It only took a brief moment before I was pulled out in the dark, quiet street, Harry at my side, heaving his heavy trunk behind him, Hedwig's cage under his arm.

My heart was thumping loudly in my chest as I tried to figure out what to do. I grabbed Harry's hand and gently pulled him with me. "Come on. We'll go to the park. Calm down and then we'll go to my house. We'll explain what happened," I said.

There was a thin veil of sweat on his forehead. Not from exertion but from anger. As we made our move to head to the park, Mom peeked her head out of my door. I stared at her in horror. How were we going to explain this? "What the hell is all of this racket? Vernon you're waking the neighbors," Mom hissed until she realized that it was just us. She walked over to us, a very scared look on her face. "What's happened?"

She should have known what was going to happen between us. Nothing good with Marge there. "Marge. Marge Dursley. You should have heard what they were saying. Mom, you should have heard it!" I cried desperately.

"Calm down. Calm down," Mom said, patting me on the shoulder. "What's happened?"

Before I could say anything to Mom to tell her what had happened, Vermin came waddling out of the house, his face bright red. "You! You bring my sister back!" he shouted, either at Harry or I, I couldn't tell.

Mom jumped into action almost immediately. She stepped in between the two of us and Vermin. "You stay away from my kids, Vernon," she hissed, pushing Harry and I behind her. I smiled at her. I had always known that she thought of Harry like her own child. Even Harry was smiling. "Go back to your home this instant. The Ministry will sort this out. You'll have your despicable sister back in no time."

I'd never heard Mom snarling the way that she was right about now. To my surprise, Dad came up and walked behind us. He merely pushed Harry and I back a little further. Vermin's courage was obviously failing. "I recommend that you return home, Vernon. Unless you'd like to know just how good with magic we really are," Dad warned, his voice deep and angered.

Vermin stumbled backwards nervously but remained bothered about his sister's disappearance. "G - Get her back," he stuttered.

He was smart enough to know that it was a bad idea to get angry with someone magical. Dad stepped forward, putting some distance between Vermin and his wife. "Go home. Now," he snarled. Vermin huffed but turned on his heel and darted off. Once we were sure that Vermin was gone, Dad turned back to Harry. "Harry, are you alright?"

Harry moved forward and nodded as I wrapped an arm around him. He was shaking. "Yes. Thank you," he told my parents.

And now came the issue of what we were supposed to do. We had done illegal magic now for the second time. Were we going to get expelled from Hogwarts? "You're welcome. Jules, take care of them. I need to go speak to Mafalda Hopkirk about getting Marge Dursley back, Obliviating her, and, of course, getting rid of that little mark on your records," Dad said, making me extremely surprised. Could they do that? "James and Lily were well-loved within the Wizarding World community. No one would have taken well to hearing them insulted like that."

Mom nodded and gave Dad a quick kiss. "Yes. Head out, Marcus. I'm going to go and speak with Cornelius. He needs to know the circumstances." She then turned to Harry. "We'll be keeping you away from the Dursley's for the rest of the summer, Harry. We'll see what Dumbledore wants to do with your placement," she told him.

It was good that he wouldn't be with the Dursley's anymore. "Alright. Thank you, I'm so sorry that I put you all in this position," Harry said, looking extremely nervous and embarrassed.

Mom smiled and moved towards Harry, giving him a quick hug. "It's not a problem, Harry. Your mother was my best friend. I'm proud of you for standing up for her. She would have been proud, too," she told him.

There was something in his eyes that looked very determined. Maybe he wanted to prove himself to his parents. "What about me? I did underage magic, too," I said worriedly.

"Not to worry. We'll manage. No more magic, either one of you, understand?" Mom asked me. Both Harry and I nodded. "Good. I can't make this harder than it already is."

"Where do we go?" I asked her.

Should we just stay home? That was the only thing that I could think that would make any sense. But would it be a good idea to stay that close to the Dursley's? Mom thought about it in silence for a moment before her eyes lit up. Obviously she had an idea. "Tara, you know how the Knight Bus works?" she asked me.

I knew exactly what the Knight Bus was, and I was hoping that we really didn't want to be on it. "Yes," I said.

"Go to the park and call it. Wait there, alright?" she asked me. I nodded at her, groaning under my breath. I'd only been on it once and I really wasn't pining to go on it again. "I don't want you two anywhere near here right now. And we can't just have it parked in front of the house. Those damn heads are always shouting for the Muggles to hear."

The look on Harry's face would have been priceless at any other moment. "Okay. Where are you going?" I asked her.

"To speak to Cornelius Fudge, and then to Albus Dumbledore. Take it to the Leaky Cauldron, you two understand?" she asked me.

She was going to try and convince them that we hadn't done anything that illegal. It had really only been an accident. We hadn't meant to do anything that terrible. "Yes, ma'am," I said quickly.

"I'll meet you both there in a few hours. Take care of each other," Mom said.

As creepy as it was to be out and alone at night, I knew that the Knight Bus was going to be safe for us. It was the best place for us to be right now. "Thank you Mrs. Nox," Harry said.

Mom shook her head and laid a hand over our shoulders. "Don't thank me, Harry. I made a promise to Lily that I would take care of you if something ever happened to her. If you don't mind me saying so, you're my son as much as you were hers," she told Harry, a slightly nervous look in her eyes.

But there was a shining pride in his. "Not at all," he said.

Mom smiling at him and pressed a kiss to our cheeks. "I'll see you both soon. Be careful. Go to the Leaky Cauldron!" she called.

She walked back over towards the door to the house before Apparating. Harry had never seen someone Apparate before so he looked incredibly concerned to see her do it. I grabbed Harry's hand, distracting him from the sight, and pulled him with me. "Come on. We need to leave." The two of us headed off towards the park. "You alright?" I asked him after a beat.

He didn't look alright. He looked terrified. "I'm fine. I hope they never get her back," Harry said.

Laughing softly at him, I nodded and grabbed his hand. I gently grabbed his hand and pulled him along with me. "Me, too. Let's go. We're going to the park and I'll call on the Knight Bus," I told him.

"What's that?" he asked.

I hummed under my breath and shook my head. "You might wish that you hadn't asked," I told him.

The Knight Bus wasn't always the most fun thing in the world. Actually, it was one of the most terrible things in the Wizarding World. I couldn't believe that someone had actually invented it. But it was good enough to keep us safe whenever there was an issue. We headed out towards the park with Harry's things in his hands. I had some of his things in my hands too. We held hands as we walked, myself attempting to keep Harry as calm as I possibly could. He was my best friend and I would always be there with him, no matter what happened. But I was also smart enough to know that we had really screwed up this time.


	39. The Knight Bus

Unclear on what I could say to Harry to get him to calm down a little bit, the two of us walked without a destination. I wanted to go to the park but it was a long walk and I was suddenly exhausted. The only thing that I wanted to do was lay down in the street and take a nap. It seemed that Harry felt the same way. We were several streets away before he collapsed onto a low wall in Magnolia Crescent, panting from the effort of dragging his trunk. As much as I knew that it was smarter to keep walking and get out of danger, I merely stopped where I was and dropped onto the wall with him. We shared the small space on his trunk, both of us breathing heavily.

My rapid breaths were somewhere in between anger and exhaustion. There was also a little bit of fear involved. This was not the place that I wanted to be in. So the two of us sat quite still, anger still surging through both of us, listening to the frantic thumping of my heart. I hadn't expected things to end up like this tonight. As much as I hated Marge Dursley, I hadn't meant to do anything to her. Mostly for my own sake. What if Mom and Dad couldn't do anything to help us? After all, we'd gotten the official notice the first time. We had just broken the law again. Maybe there was nothing that anyone could do. The momentary calm I had about the situation was replaced with panic.

Both Mom and Dad were respected members of the community, but even they might not be able to stop this. My hand shot over to Harry's and I grabbed it tightly. Being out here at night was suddenly extremely creepy. The two of us were stranded, quite alone, in the dark Muggle world, with absolutely nowhere to go. We had to wait for the Knight Bus. The both of us had just done some serious magic, which meant that no matter what Mom and Dad did, we were on the list to be expelled from Hogwarts. We had broken the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry once more. And this time there was no Dobby to blame. We had done it on our own accord.

The cold night air blasted through me and I curled in on myself. It looked like Harry was shivering too. He was looking up and down Magnolia Crescent. What was going to happen to us? Could Mom and Dad fix what had already happened? I had no clue whether or not we would be able to fix this new mess we'd gotten ourselves into. There was no way that we would be arrested, but we could definitely wind up with our wands snapped. Maybe Dumbledore would take us on, like he had with Hagrid. Or maybe we could be a caretaker like Filch. Although that thought sent another shiver down my spine and I sighed. I'd rather be excommunicated from the Wizarding World.

My thoughts then turned to the people that we might be leaving. I thought of Ron and Hermione, and my heart sank even lower. They would be beside themselves when they realized that we had gotten ourselves expelled from Hogwarts. Neville, Seamus, and Dean would be furious that they had no one to play soccer with anymore. And I couldn't even imagine what Oliver and the others would say if they realized that Harry and I wouldn't be back on the Quidditch team. This should have been Fred and George that were getting expelled, not us. Cedric was right... I could never manage to keep myself out of trouble. At least Malfoy and Parkinson would probably get a good laugh out of our expulsion.

There was also the sudden fear that maybe the Knight Bus wasn't coming. It was taking too long. But there was no other way for us to get to London. The house was locked and I didn't have any Muggle money on me. I was sure that Harry didn't have any either. We both had plenty of gold in our vaults in Gringotts, but we had to get to London first. And I had absolutely no clue how we were going to get to London. We could do more magic, but Mom and Dad would kill me. We had already done far too much for one night. I noticed Harry look down at his wand and I whacked his hand. That would only make things worse. We already might be expelled. More magic would potentially get us actually arrested.

Maybe we would be able to sneak our way into London. Mom and Dad had told me to be careful while out and about, but we had a way of making sure that no one saw us. Harry had the Invisibility Cloak he had inherited from his father. The two of us could get under the cloak and make our way out onto the main streets. We could hop into a cab and change out until we could get to London. It might take some time, but it was better than sitting out in the creepy darkness and waiting for the Knight Bus, that seemed to not be coming. All I knew was that we had to leave. The Muggle police regularly patrolled this area to stop vandalism. And they would be very curious to know what we were doing.

Harry's voice startled me so badly that I very nearly punched him in the nose. "What is the Knight Bus?" he asked.

The silence had become almost welcome. Hearing his voice again was strange. "It's a transportation system for stranded witches and wizards. It'll take us anywhere that we need to go. We can't Apparate yet and Mom and Dad seemed a little too concerned to let us Floo. They probably like the idea of people being on the Knight Bus," I told him.

"Why is everyone so concerned about us?" Harry asked me.

We were silent for a little while when I glanced back at him. There were so many reasons that we could be protected that I would never have time to list them all. "We're kids. Sirius Black is on the loose," I said, naming just a few. "Don't worry. We're going to be fine. We just have to wait and figure out what to do. We just do what Mom and Dad told us to do."

Harry sighed and let out a soft breath. He glanced back at me and passed over the plaid over-shirt that he was wearing. He must have seen me shivering. "Sorry for making things so hard," he said, as I pulled myself into it.

Smiling at him, I wrapped my arm over his shoulder. There was nothing wrong with what had happened. It was an honest mistake. "That's what happens when you're best friends with one Harry Potter," I teased.

We both smiled as Harry leaned back against the wall. "Are you sure that things are going to work out?" Harry asked. I was stunned into a momentary silence. That wasn't what I was expecting for him to say. "I can't believe that things are just going to end without another word. Aren't we going to get in any kind of trouble?"

All I wanted was to not get in trouble for this. Marge Dursley had been asking for it. "I'm not sure." There was a downtrodden look on Harry's face as I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into me. "But things are going to be okay, Harry. I promise that everything will be fine," I said.

Were things going to be okay? I really wasn't sure. I hoped that things were going to be fine, but I wasn't sure. Hopefully Mom and Dad would do everything in their power to keep Harry and I from being expelled from Hogwarts. I couldn't imagine not being able to do magic. "I can't believe that we did that. We're going to be expelled from Hogwarts," Harry muttered.

Turning towards him once more, I whacked him on the leg. Even if they wanted to try and expel us, we could go and contest it. That could work. "No we aren't. Things are going to be fine. If we haven't already gotten a letter... Well - That's a good thing, right?" I asked Harry. He didn't look totally convinced. "No one has written us to tell us what a terrible thing we've done. And no one's said that we're expelled."

"There's no way that we won't be. How couldn't we be expelled?" Harry asked me.

When we considered everything else that we had and hadn't gotten expelled from Hogwarts... But this was different. Breaking Hogwarts rules had actually been a good thing. We'd stopped two separate attacks from Voldemort. We'd saved the Wizarding World twice, no matter how many terrible things we'd done to get ourselves there. But this was like the instance with Dobby. We were outside of Hogwarts walls, breaking actual Wizarding World laws, set by the Ministry, after already having been warned once not to break them again. And we hadn't helped anyone other than ourselves. My heart gave a little leap. Was there anything Mom and Dad could do to help?

They were influential, but even they had their limits to what they could do. Maybe Dumbledore would be able to help us. "My parents are doing everything that they can to keep this between us. We're going to be at Hogwarts when the new semester starts. There's no way that we can't. My parents won't let that happen," I said, almost more to myself than him.

"Can they stop this?" Harry asked me.

Was there a chance that they could? They would try, but even they couldn't rewrite the laws that the Ministry had put in place. "I'm not sure. But they're going to try," I said, feeling less and less confident by the minute. "They've got an in with Fudge and that means that they can talk to him about this. Maybe we get out of this unscathed."

The two of us both looked at each other for a long time. That would be the million dollar question. Whether or not Mom and Dad could get the two of us out of this. "I don't know if we're some of the unluckiest or luckiest people that I know," Harry said.

"Probably a little bit of both," I said.

We both smiled as the wind began to whistle loudly. Maybe it was the wind. I couldn't quite tell. But I suddenly felt a little creeped out. It was late and pitch black out here, and we were just two kids in way over our heads. My hand tightened around Harry's. It was suddenly terrifying to be out here, particularly since we couldn't use magic. Not after what had just happened.

"Do you hear that?" I asked Harry, as the wind whistled once more.

Even Harry was shaking slightly. He looked petrified. At least neither one of us were alone. At least we were together. "Y-Yes. We should get out the Invisibility Cloak," Harry said, moving the two of us off of his trunk.

"Yeah. That's not magic that we can get arrested for. Hurry up. I'll help you look for it," I said, leaning over the trunk.

Everything in me wanted to be as far away from here as possible. I was suddenly terrified that something was going to happen to us. Even more than what had already happened. Harry opened his trunk again and pushed the contents aside, the two of us both looking for the Invisibility Cloak. It had to be somewhere. He must have pushed it down further than we'd thought that he did.

As I rummaged through the trunk I noticed that Harry was suddenly straightened up. Something must have happened. What the hell was his problem? I almost immediately realized what it was. It wasn't that something was happening. There was nothing that I could see as I went to looking around us once more. But something had happened. Something that gave me a sense of foreboding. There was a funny prickling on the back of my neck that made me feel like we were being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted, and no lights shone from any of the large square houses.

We must have just been a little paranoid after everything had happened. I couldn't imagine that anything was that wrong. I was just a little terrified that something else was going to happen. Harry bent over his trunk again and I went with him. I was just imagining things. But almost immediately the two of us stood up once more. Harry's hand was clenched on his wand. I knew that we had both sensed rather than heard it. Someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence behind us. I squinted at the black alleyway. If only it would move, then we'd know whether it was just a stray cat or something else.

Something more dangerous. I moved closer to Harry and stood just behind his shoulder. "What is that?" I whispered, seeing the vague silhouette of the creature in the alley. It was large.

"Lumos," Harry muttered.

A light appeared at the end of his wand, almost dazzling the both of us. I took a step backwards but my shock faded when I realized the problem. He was doing more magic, and we were already in a ton of trouble for what we'd just done. It was a major problem. He couldn't keep doing things like that. We were only making things worse.

"Don't!" I hissed at him.

He merely shook his head at me, motioning towards the back alley. "There's something out there, Tara. We have to be careful," he said, tightening his grip on his wand.

So I nodded at him. He was right. I'd rather be in trouble with the Ministry of Magic than dead. Of course, maybe we were overreacting. Maybe it was just an animal, or maybe it was just our imaginations running rampant. Harry held it high over his head, and the pebble-dashed walls of number two Privet Drive suddenly sparkled. The garage door gleamed, and between them I saw what it was. It was quite distinct off in the distance. And I felt myself relax at the sight of it. There was the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes. It was Snuffles. I was shocked to see him somewhere other than the park.

Harry didn't sense that it wasn't dangerous as he stepped backward. I grabbed his hand and shook my head. "Oh... Don't worry about it! That's Snuffles. He's a stray that wanders around the neighborhood. He never comes up to me but he usually hangs around," I explained to Harry.

He still didn't look convinced that the dog was friendly. "How long has he been here?" Harry asked.

"I saw him for the first time a few weeks ago," I explained. Harry nodded weakly as I kneeled down on my knees. Maybe he would come here today. "Come on, Snuffles. Come here, boy," I called out to the dog.

But Snuffles made no move to come near me. He got down onto his front legs and began to growl deeply. It was a little more menacing than I had heard before. "Tara... Tara... That dog isn't friendly," Harry said, grabbing me and pulling me back slightly.

This was what Snuffles did. He growled at me and barked, but he never attacked me. "He's fine, he won't attack me. Come on," I called to the dog.

Despite knowing Snuffles and knowing that the dog was friendly enough, there was something strange about tonight. Maybe the dog wasn't in the best of moods. Because there was something extremely dangerous about the way that he was standing right now. Snuffles got back to his feet and began to growl deep in his throat. Instead of staying where he was, he began to advance on us. My heart jumped into my stomach as Harry and I both took a step backwards from him. That wasn't good. He was finally starting to appear a little dangerous. Maybe he wasn't the sweet dog that I had always thought that he was. He was going to attack us.

Harry was sensing the same danger that I was. He grabbed my hand and started yanking me backwards. Snuffles continued to advance on us. "We have to go. Come on," Harry whispered to me.

"Just - Just back away slowly," I said, stumbling over my words from fear.

We had to get out of here before something happened. So we began to back away from Snuffles, who was still walking towards us. Our hands were wrapped tightly around each other as we backed off. But we didn't make it very far. Both of our legs hit his trunk and we tripped. Harry's wand flew out of his hand as we went stumbling backwards. Harry flung out an arm to break our, fall but it didn't do much. Snuffles growled and jumped towards us as we went tumbling backwards, landing hard, in the gutter. I groaned and rolled onto Harry, pain shooting through my back. There was a deafening bang, and I threw up my hands to shield my eyes against a sudden blinding light.

The Knight Bus was here, and swerving right towards us. With a frightened yell, Harry rolled the two of us back onto the pavement, just in time. It nearly crushed us. A second later, a gigantic pair of wheels and headlights screeched to a halt exactly where we had just been lying. Breathing heavily, I raised my head to see The Knight Bus. I'd never been on it before. It was a triple-decker, and was violently purple. As it normally did, it had appeared out of thin air. Gold lettering over the windshield spelled The Knight Bus. My head was spinning from the impact of the fall. This was not the way that I had been expecting this night to go.

"Is this - ?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," I interrupted, knowing that he wanted to ask me if this was the Knight Bus that Mom had mentioned. "You alright?"

He had taken the fall a lot harder than I had. And I'd landed on top of him. I wasn't the heaviest person in the world, but it couldn't have been very comfortable. "Fine. You?" he asked me.

"I'm good."

Then a conductor in a purple uniform leapt out of the bus and began to speak loudly to the night. "Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve -"

The conductor stopped abruptly. He must have realized that we weren't standing in front of him. He had just looked up and caught sight of Harry and me, both of whom were still sitting on the ground. I hadn't been able to motivate myself to get up and try to recollect myself. Harry snatched up his wand again and scrambled to his feet, helping me back to mine. Close up, I saw that Stan Shunpike was only a few years older than we were, maybe eighteen or nineteen at most, with large, protruding ears and quite a few pimples.

"What were you two doin' down there?" Stan asked, dropping his professional manner.

My mouth still felt like it was glued shut from what had happened with Snuffles just a few moments before. He had really never seemed dangerous before. "Fell over," Harry explained.

"What you fall over for?" Stan asked, sniggering slightly.

Well that's rude. "We didn't do it on purpose," Harry said, obviously annoyed.

So was I. This was really not the way that I had been planning for this night to go. All I wanted was to go back home and go to sleep, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. One of the knees in my jeans were torn, and Harry's hand that he had thrown out to break our fall was bleeding. I was reasonably sure that there was a cut on my forehead from smacking my head on the ground. Harry obviously suddenly remembered why we had fallen over as he turned around quickly to stare at the alleyway between the garage and fence. I turned, too, just to see if Snuffles was still there. The Knight Bus's headlamps were flooding it with light, but it was empty.

"What you lookin' at?" Stan asked, following our line of sight.

"There was a big black thing," Harry said, pointing uncertainly into the gap. He was a little breathless. "Like a dog... but massive..."

Stan was giving us a look that said that he thought that we had lost our minds. So I smiled awkwardly and waved my hand. "Just a stray," I said confidently.

And, in all honesty, it was just a stray. At least, that's what I thought that Snuffles was. I couldn't imagine that Snuffles actually belonged to someone, considering the way that he acted around people. Although maybe he was just upset that Harry was with me. Maybe he was fond of girls and not guys. I'd met dogs like that before. My thoughts were cut off as my gaze turned back to Stan, whose mouth was slightly open. That couldn't be good. With a feeling of unease, I saw Stan's eyes move to the scar on Harry's forehead.

He would know who he was. I jabbed Harry in the ribs, giving him a silent warning to pat down his hair and cover up the scar. "What's that on your head?" Stan asked abruptly, looking extremely suspicious.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly, flattening his hair over his scar.

Mom and Dad had made it clear that we were to tell no one who we were. I wasn't really sure why, but I knew that but I knew that Harry was easily recognizable. The damn scar was like a magnet for attention. "What's your names?" Stan persisted.

"Neville Longbottom," Harry said, surprising me slightly. It must have been the first name that came into his head. "This is my sister..." Harry began, staring at me for a moment, "Hannah."

Hannah wasn't too bad of a name. I assumed that he was thinking of Hannah Abbott, the Hufflepuff girl in the same year as us. I moved forward and shook Stan's hand. "Good to meet you," I said as sweetly as possible.

"So - so this bus," Harry went on quickly, probably hoping to distract Stan, "did you say it goes anywhere?"

That was the whole point of the Knight Bus. It was supposed to be able to take anyone anywhere they wanted to go. "Yep," Stan said proudly, puffing out his chest slightly, "anywhere you like, long's it's on land." It almost made me laugh, the way that he was clearly trying to impress us. "Can't do nothing underwater. 'Ere. You did flag us down, didn't you? Stuck out your wand 'and, didn't you?"

There was something on his face that made him look slightly suspicious again. Harry and I exchanged a quick look. "Yes," Harry said quickly. "Listen, how much would it be to get to London?"

We had to go to the Leaky Cauldron. It was the only thing that mattered right now. "Eleven Sickles." Harry and I nodded. That wasn't too bad to get us to London and I would be sure to ask Mom and Dad for the money later. "But for fourteen you get hot chocolate, and for fifteen you get a hot water bottle an' a toothbrush in the color of your choice," Stan continued.

Harry went over to his trunk and I dipped my hand down to my pocket. I forgot that I didn't have any money with me. I'd have to run back to the house and grab my coin pouch. "I don't have my money right now. I'll be right back," I said, turning to head back to my house.

Harry held out a hand to stop me. "I've got it," he said.

But I really didn't want him to pay for me. I could manage to get money for myself. "I'll pay you back," I said sadly, feeling a little bit guilty that he had to pay for me when I had the money myself.

Harry waved me off. "Don't worry about it," he said.

At some point I would manage to get the money that he was paying. The two of us leaned over to help Harry move some things around for him to search for his money. Harry and I rummaged once more in his trunk, extracted his money bag from the very bottom, and shoved some gold into Stan's hand. It was the one thing that we needed for today. Stan nodded at us and grabbed the money from the two of us. I then stood back and watched as Harry and Stan lifted his trunk, with Hedwig's cage balanced on top, up the steps of the bus. I could imagine that it was very heavy, seeing just how much Harry was struggling, trying to yank it up the steps.

As many times as I had seen the Knight Bus and heard of it, I'd never actually been inside of it. The doors opened and I walked inside with the others. I was rather curious to see what the inside looked like. There were no seats on the bus; instead, half a dozen brass bedsteads stood beside the curtained windows. Candles were burning in brackets beside each bed, illuminating the wood-paneled walls. There was even a chandelier hanging from the top of the second story of the bus. It was rather interesting to see it. The bus was five times as nice on the inside as it was on the outside. A tiny wizard in a nightcap at the rear of the bus was muttering about how he was pickling slugs in his sleep, rolling over in the bed.

Stan walked us up towards the front of the bus. "You 'ave this one, and you 'ave this one," Stan whispered, shoving Harry's trunk under the bed right behind the driver, who was sitting in an armchair in front of the steering wheel. He gave me the bed right behind Harry's. I was glad to be a little bit away from the driver and Stan. "This is our driver, Ernie Prang. This is Neville and Hannah Longbottom, Ern."

Ernie Prang was an elderly wizard wearing very thick glasses. I was reasonably certain that there was no possible way that he could see anything. His glasses were kind of like the coke bottle style glasses, the ones that meant that someone was almost completely blind. Ernie very briefly looked up and nodded to Harry and me. We both took a seat on the bed that had been given to Harry. The bed creaked and wasn't at all comfortable but it was better than nothing. I noticed that Harry was nervously flattening his bangs again. I moved forward and pushed his hair straight over the scar.

"Hello," I called, smiling at Ernie.

"Take 'er away, Ern," Stan said, sitting down in the armchair next to Ernie's.

It was right then that I realized that there was a shrunken head that were tied on a string next to Ernie's head. It was speaking in a Jamaican accent. "Take it away, Ern! It's going to be a bumpy ride," it called.

The bus gave a loud honk of the horn and there was another tremendous bang as Ernie shifted the gears. The next moment, without giving us any time to prepare ourselves, Harry and I found ourselves flat on his bed, thrown backward by the speed of the Knight Bus. Everything was shifting back and forth as the Knight Bus plowed through Muggle traffic, weaving in and out of the streets, going three times faster than any of the cars. I was absolutely positive that, at any moment, we were going to go smashing into something. Pulling myself up, I stared out of the dark window and saw that we were now bowling along a completely different street. Stan was watching our stunned faces with great enjoyment.

"This is where we was before you flagged us down," Stan explained to us. I couldn't even imagine where we were. Nothing here looked familiar. We certainly weren't anywhere in Little Whinging. "Where are we, Ern? Somewhere in Wales?"

"Ar," Ernie confirmed.

The bus weaved in and out of the traffic for a little while. I yawned and leaned back on the bed. Everything was on wheels and we were rocking back and forth with the movements of the bus. Ernie was spinning the steering wheel back and forth and I realized that it was almost the size of his entire torso. It was huge. I couldn't imagine how he was even able to move it. The head was speaking and joking about everything as I leaned up against Harry. Despite the fact that I was slowly drifting off, Harry seemed to be wide awake. I knew that he was still terrified about what was to come about our little incident with Marge Dursley.

We were only in silence for about three or four minutes before Harry spoke. He seemed to have calmed down in the recent minutes. "How come the Muggles don't hear the bus?" Harry asked.

"Them!" Stan cried contemptuously. "Don' listen properly, do they? Don' look properly either. Never notice nothing, they don'."

He was kind of right about that. He was obviously somewhat biased against Muggles, but he didn't seem to share the same kind of bias that the Malfoy's had. His was more of something like irritation that the Muggles never noticed anything. It was true enough. Magic was always right in front of them and they never looked close enough to notice it. I noticed that Harry still looked lost about why the Muggles couldn't see anything.

"Enchantments. They won't ever see it," I explained.

Ernie glanced into the rear view mirror and I took in a deep breath, concerned that we were going to go headfirst through the wall of a building. "Best go wake up Madam Marsh, Stan. We'll be in Abergavenny in a minute," Ernie said.

Stan rose from the chair and passed Harry's bed. The two of us exchanged a look as he disappeared up a narrow wooden staircase. Harry was still looking out of the window. My stomach was churning. I loved rides and everything at theme parks, but I was definitely getting motion sickness. With each passing moment I felt even more increasingly nervous. Ernie didn't seem to have mastered the use of a steering wheel. The Knight Bus kept mounting the pavement, but it didn't hit anything; lines of lampposts, mailboxes, and trash cans jumped out of its way as it approached and back into position once it had passed. We were only in silence for about a minute. Stan came back downstairs, followed by a faintly green witch wrapped in a traveling cloak.

"'Ere you go, Madam Marsh," Stan said happily.

It startled me as Ernie stamped on the brake and the beds slid a foot or so toward the front of the bus. Somehow Madam Marsh managed to not go flying forward and onto the floor. Instead she clamped a handkerchief to her mouth and tottered down the steps. I couldn't imagine how a woman that old had managed to stay on her feet for the sudden movement. Stan threw her bag out after her and rammed the doors shut behind her. There was another loud bang as the bus shifted gears once more and we went thundering down a narrow country lane, trees leaping out of the way.

There were at least twelve people that were already asleep on the Knight Bus. I couldn't understand how they were just sitting there or dead asleep. As tired as I was, I couldn't imagine being able to stay asleep through all of the noise. Even without everything that had happened, I wouldn't have been able to sleep traveling on a bus that kept banging loudly and jumping a hundred miles at a time. It wasn't long before we popped out of the back alley of a place that looked a little bit like London. But that wasn't where we were. I couldn't really tell where we were. It was some kind of city, and a larger one, considering I could see a few double-decker buses. Normal ones. Not the one that I was on.

We were silent for a matter of minutes when I heard the head shout again. "Ernie, little old lady at twelve o'clock!" it called.

That was when I realized what was happening. Just ahead of the bus was an older woman that was walking with a walker. She was crossing through a crosswalk with no clue that the Knight Bus was headed straight towards her, ready to pummel her into the ground. Ernie straightened out the Knight Bus before jamming the emergency brake. The bus stopped short just mere inches from the old woman. Harry was I were both thrown forward, Stan and Ernie looking nonplussed. We were the only people that had been thrown off. Harry went smacking right into the window as I was thrown to the floor. No one else on the bus had even moved.

Harry and I both got to our feet and walked over to the window, watching the woman slowly move forward. "Ten, nine, eight..." the head counted down as I looked out of the window, "seven, six, five... four, three, three and a half... two, one and three quarters." The woman had just barely passed the bus when the head cried out once more. "Yes!"

It took nothing more than that for Ernie to step on the gas, throwing Harry and me back against the bed again. I rolled upright, feeling a little sick from all of the movement. "I see what you meant about wishing that I hadn't asked," Harry groaned.

The two of us leaned back against the bed again. I was hoping that nothing like that would happen again. "Sorry about this, but we're too young to Apparate and Mom seemed to think that this was a better idea than Floo powder," I told him.

"I'm not sure which one I like less," Harry groaned.

This was uncomfortable, but Apparating could be deadly. And it certainly wasn't fun. Even less fun than this, even though it took a little less time to Apparate. "Just wait until you try Apparating," I told him, chuckling softly.

Harry blanched slightly as he looked over at me. "That's reassuring," he said.

Smiling softly at him, I grabbed a cup of the hot chocolate that Stan had set out for us. I could just hope that I wasn't about to dump it all over myself with all of the shaking that the Knight Bus was doing. "Don't worry, you'll be fine unless you get Splinched," I said, cringing at the thought that it might happen to me when I tried it for the first time.

Harry didn't yet understand what it was. "What?" he asked, paling slightly.

"Don't ask."

I really didn't need to make him even more nervous than he already was. Harry glanced over at me and glared slightly. "You don't ever make things any better," he said, pressing his head back against my shoulder.

Nudging him, I glared down at his forehead. This - as everything else - was completely his fault. "And who's the one that blew up his aunt and very nearly got us expelled?" I asked sharply.

"Somehow I'll manage to find a way to make this your fault," Harry said, making me smile slightly.

It seemed that it was always one of us that was at fault for something happening. Maybe we were just the easiest people to blame problems on. "Trust me, it won't be that hard," I said, laughing softly.

We both smiled as I began to anxiously twist the necklace that Cedric had gotten me with the elephant charm. I couldn't imagine having to explain to him that I had been expelled from Hogwarts for doing something as stupid as accidentally blowing up Harry's aunt. Well, Harry had blown her up, I'd nearly taken her hand off. What I had done was actually dangerous. Harry's had been more of a joke. My stomach churned as I fell back to wondering what was going to happen to us, and whether the Dursley's had managed to get Aunt Marge off the ceiling yet. She seemed to have been drifting towards the open patio door the last time that we had been there. It would have been rather funny if she'd floated off into oblivion.

It wasn't like she'd be a loss to the world. Wizard or Muggle. Maybe we would be given an award for getting rid of her. Stan had unfurled a copy of the Daily Prophet and was now reading with his tongue between his teeth. A large photograph of a sunken-faced man with long, matted hair blinked slowly at me from the front page. It was rather startling to see him laughing hysterically, fighting against the people that were holding him still enough to take a picture. It was rather creepy to see his face plastered across every news platform, Muggle and magical.

Harry was staring at the paper, too. "That man!" he cried, seemingly forgetting his troubles for a moment. "He was on the Muggle news!"

"Told you that he was a wizard," I said, leaning into him.

Harry glanced over at me as the picture of Sirius Black continued to laugh hysterically, holding up his prisoner identification plate to his chest. "So you know him?" Harry asked, not looking away from the paper.

"Well I've never met him but I know of him," I explained.

We both turned towards Stan as he began to chuckle. He had turned to the front page so that he could look at the picture. "Sirius Black," he said, nodding. "'Course 'e was on the Muggle news, Neville, where you been?" Of course, if Harry had been raised in the Wizarding World, there was no chance that he wouldn't have known who Sirius Black was. Just the way that he would have known who Voldemort was. Stan gave a superior sort of chuckle at the blank look on Harry's face, removed the front page, and handed it to Harry. "You ought to read the papers more, Neville."

"He can be a little clueless," I said, laughing softly.

Both Stan and the shrunken head began to laugh. "Shut up, Ta -" I stomped on Harry's foot roughly to ensure that he wasn't about to give away the fact that we were lying about who we were. "Hannah..." Harry corrected himself. He grabbed the paper and held it up to the candlelight and read:

BLACK STILL AT LARGE

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.  
"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."

Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis.

"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it - who'd believe him if he did?"

While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in  
fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.

It was a little creepy to know that there was a chance that Sirius Black might end up in the Muggle communities. Where was he going? What were his plans now that he was out of Azkaban? I couldn't tell whether or not he had a plan or if he was just heading out to get away from the authorities. Although I had smiled at the gun comment. The Wizarding World could be extremely clueless sometimes. Harry and I looked into the shadowed eyes of Sirius Black, the only part of the sunken face that seemed alive. The rest of him looked more like he was a skeleton. Or maybe a vampire. I'd never met a vampire, but I had seen pictures of them in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Black, with his waxy white skin, looked just like one.

"Scary-looking thing, isn't he?" Stan asked.

He had been watching Harry and me read. I wasn't exactly surprised that he didn't look good. It wasn't exactly like Azkaban was known for its hygiene. "Well he's been in there for twelve years. I wouldn't expect him to look like he just came back from a spa," I said.

Stan's bushy eyebrows rose. "What's a spa?" he asked.

"Muggle thing," I explained quickly.

It looked like Stan was still going to ask me what a spa was. I assumed that it wasn't really a normal thing for witches and wizards. We had potions that could do everything that a spa could. "He murdered thirteen people?" Harry asked, handing the page back to Stan, "With one curse?"

"Yep, in front of witnesses an' all. Broad daylight," Stan explained to Harry. "Big trouble it caused, didn't it, Ern?"

"Ar," Ernie said darkly.

Harry leaned into me and dropped his voice so that no one else could overhear us. I assumed that he wanted to say something that he didn't want to feel foolish for. "Is that even possible?" Harry asked.

It was completely possible. There were plenty of spells that could cause massive destruction to multitudes of people. "Sure. There are spells that can do that. But they're far too dangerous for people our age to learn," I explained to him. He nodded blankly at me. He was clearly a little nervous about the possibility of a dangerous spell like that. "It happened just around the time that your parents died," I continued, unsure of whether or not I should have said it.

Harry paled slightly. "It did?" he asked, his voice weak.

"Yes," I said, keeping my voice down.

The last thing that we needed was Stan knowing who he was. I felt a little bad for bringing Harry's parents into it, but he deserved to know that they had been involved. Stan swiveled in his armchair, his hands on the back, the better to look at Harry and me. "Black was a big supporter of You-Know-'Oo," he said, making me cringe slightly.

Was there a chance that Harry's parents had been killed by something that Black had done? I wasn't sure. No one had ever told me the whole story of Black's attack. "What, Voldemort?" Harry asked, obviously without thinking.

Everyone that was still awake made a loud noise of surprise. I cried out slightly at the sudden rocking of the Knight Bus. Even Stan's pimples went white at the mention of Voldemort's name. I could have killed Harry for saying it aloud, in front of people that we didn't really know. Everyone was terrified to say the name, save Harry Potter and a few select others. Ernie jerked the steering wheel so hard that a whole farmhouse had to jump aside to avoid the bus. Harry and I were practically knocked from the bed to crash into the floor.

We were just barely able to stop ourselves from falling. I looked up at Harry and whacked him hard enough on the arm to bruise it. "Stop saying his name in front of people you don't know!" I shouted, the yell drowned out by the sound of the squealing brakes.

"You outta your tree? What you say his name for?" Stan yelped, once the Knight Bus had resumed its normal jerky movements.

"Sorry," Harry said hastily. "Sorry, I - I forgot -"

"Forgot!" Stan howled weakly. "Blimey, my heart's goin' that fast..."

He was clutching a hand over his chest and I shook my head. My heart was pounding, too, but it was because of the near-death experience. "So - So Black was a supporter of You-Know-Who?" Harry prompted apologetically.

"Yeah," Stan said, still rubbing his chest. "Yeah, that's right. Very close to You-Know-'Oo, they say."

My eyebrow quirked slightly. Was it true that Black had really been a supporter of Voldemort, or had someone said that to get themselves out of trouble? During the ending of the Wizarding War, many from Voldemort's side had done the magical equivalent of plea bargains; giving others up to save themselves from a trip to Azkaban. I wanted to believe that Black really was a Voldemort supporter, but I had always been a believer in knowing all of the facts. Mom and Dad had taught me that much. And, as far as I knew, there really weren't any facts from the night that Black had supposedly murdered the twelve Muggles. There was always a chance that he was just insane, working on his own accord.

Every time that I had seen Sirius Black, he had seemed to be just another madman. And Voldemort wanted people of power, not someone unstable and erratic. It wouldn't make sense for him to take Black under his wing. "And who says that?" I asked curiously.

"Everyone," Stan told me flippantly. I narrowed my eyes. That was something more like a rumor that spread quickly, not the truth. "Anyway, when little Harry Potter got the better of You-Know-'Oo," Harry nervously flattened his bangs down again, "all You-Know-'Oo's supporters was tracked down, wasn't they, Ern? Most of 'em knew it was all over, with You-Know-'Oo gone, and they came quiet. But not Sirius Black. I heard he thought he'd be second-in-command once You-Know-'Oo 'ad taken over."

"Heard from who?" I asked.

Stan looked surprised that I was questioning a story that had been known to be the truth for so long. "The people that knew him," Stan said, eyeing me suspiciously.

"And who knew him?" I continued.

"The rest of You-Know-'Oo's supporters."

But they were some of the least trustworthy people around. They would say anything to get themselves out of trouble. Very few people actually owned up to their crimes. "Because we all know just how trustworthy they can be. How can we know that they didn't just say something to make everyone think that Black was the one responsible?" I asked sharply.

Now it was Harry that was eyeing me suspiciously. "Because they cornered Black in the middle of a street full of Muggles an' Black took out his wand and he blasted half the street apart, an' a wizard got it, an' so did a dozen Muggles what got in the way." I had known that, but Harry merely stared on in horror. It was a terrible thing to hear. I had a feeling that Black genuinely was a terrible person, but I wasn't so sure about him being a Voldemort follower. "Horrible, eh? An' you know what Black did then?" Stan continued in a dramatic whisper.

"What?" Harry asked, leaning on the edge of the bed.

"Laughed. Just stood there an' laughed," Stan said. A sharp shiver went up my spine. It was a little creepy to know that something like that had happened. And there was evidence that the laughter had happened. "An' when reinforcements from the Ministry of Magic got there, he went with them quiet as anything, still laughing his head off. 'Cause he's mad, isn't he, Ern? Isn't he mad?"

"If he weren't when he went to Azkaban, he will be now," Ernie said in his slow voice. "I'd blow myself up before I set foot in that place. Serves him right, mind you... after what he did..."

His movements on the steering wheel had slowed slightly. He looked extraordinarily nervous. Sometimes I forgot just how terrified people were of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. "They had a job covering it up, din' they, Ern? Whole street blown up an' all them Muggles dead. What was it they said had happened, Ern?" Stan asked, barely looking away from Harry and me.

"Gas explosion," Ernie grunted.

That tended to be the excuse that wizards used whenever there was some type of magical explosion. "An' now he's out," Stan said, examining the newspaper picture of Black's gaunt face again. "Never been a breakout from Azkaban before, 'as there, Ern? Beats me 'ow 'e did it. Frightening, eh? Mind, I don't fancy 'is chances against them Azkaban guards, eh, Ern?"

Ernie suddenly shivered. Not that I blamed him. The Dementors were some of the worst magical creatures around. They were even worse than the Basilisk. At least there weren't many of those lurking around. But Dementors were relatively common creatures. I'd only seen them in books before and I was really hoping to keep it that way. They rarely came into populated areas. Hopefully that wasn't going to change. Although I could imagine that they would be out and about, searching for Black.

"Talk about summat else, Stan, there's a good lad. Them Azkaban guards give me the collywobbles," Ernie said.

Harry raised a brow and turned to me, probably feeling that he had already asked too much of Stan. "The guards?" he asked curiously.

Cringing slightly, I nodded. "Dementors." Harry gave me a look that told me that he had absolutely no clue what I was talking about. "Here's hoping that you never have to find out what they are. I know what they are and I'm praying that I never have to see them. They're horrifying. Makes you feel almost bad for Black," I said, wringing my hands together.

Harry looked shocked at my last comment. "They're that bad?" he asked.

I nodded at him, pressing my legs underneath me. "Yes. They're terrible creatures. Much worse than anything that you could think," I said.

"I can think of some pretty bad things," Harry said.

"Exactly."

And that was the entire point. They were the worst things that anyone could think of. Mostly because of what they could do to a person. There were things worse than death. Harry paled slightly as he looked at me. "So what are they?" he finally asked.

Taking a deep breath, I launched into the explanation. "Dementors are some of the foulest creatures on the earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, and love the decay and despair. They grow like fungus and they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Those sudden chills that you get on a perfectly warm summer afternoon? Thank a Dementor. Get too close to one and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life. They feed on happy memories and suck out your soul," I explained.

Harry looked a little bit sick. I had a feeling that he might puke. "You're right. That was pretty terrible," he said, looking away from me. "Are they common? The Dementors?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I shook my head. "Not really. I've never seen one before. I've just seen them in pictures in books and read about them. They guard Azkaban and hang around in dark forests but you won't see them much around here," I explained.

Harry brushed a bead of sweat off of his forehead. "Thank Merlin," he muttered.

My heart was thumping loudly in my chest as I looked away and out towards the window. I felt a little sick about everything that had happened today. Stan put the paper away reluctantly and I watched as Black's laughing face slipped out of my sight. There was something oddly familiar about him... I'd never seen a photograph of Sirius Black before, but there was something about him that seemed so familiar. He looked like I imagined an estranged relative would. I had no way of placing them but somewhere, off in the far reaches of my mind, I had a feeling that I knew him. It definitely made goosebumps rise on my arms.

Taking a deep breath, I leaned back in the bed and slipped my eyes closed. I could feel the cool air from the outside seeping in through the window. It was extremely late already and I was sure that I was about to fall asleep. The adrenaline from everything had finally worn off. Harry was leaning up against the window of the Knight Bus. We both looked over at the other long enough to give a weak smile to the other. I couldn't help imagining what Stan might be telling his passengers in a few nights' time.

"Hear about that Harry Potter? He and 'is friend blew up 'is aunt! We had them here on the Knight Bus, didn't we, Ern? He was trying to run for it..."

Maybe it would turn into a joke between the two of us in our cell in Azkaban. What we'd done wasn't enough to put us anywhere. It was maybe just enough to get us expelled. But running from the law... That was a much bigger deal. We'd see how that went over. I couldn't even imagine having to spend any time at Azkaban, the fortress that I'd only seen in pictures. It was terrible looking enough for me to hope that it stayed that way. Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, had spent two months there only last year. I wouldn't soon forget the look of terror on Hagrid's face when he had been told where he was going. And Hagrid was one of the bravest people that I knew.

While I was thinking about Azkaban, I knew that Harry was thinking the same. So I looked over at him and grabbed his arm. "You're not going to Azkaban, Harry. What you did wasn't nearly severe enough. Being in Azkaban is for something like murdering someone or using one of the Unforgivable Curses," I told him.

But Harry didn't look totally convinced. "You're sure that it wouldn't land me in Azkaban?" he asked.

Was I completely sure? There was maybe a thousandth of a percent of a chance that I was wrong, but I was sure that I wasn't. "Positive. And there's no way that the Wizarding World community would allow their savior to wind up in prison," I teased, nudging him in the ribs.

Mostly I was just hoping that he would smile. Harry laughed softly and wrapped an arm over my shoulder. "Well I suppose that makes me feel a little better," he said.

"Things will get worked out. My parents are on it," I said.

Harry let out a puff of air as he glanced out the window. We were flashing through the streets of a smaller city, very nearly hurtling ourselves off of a bridge. "They must hate everything that they have to handle with the two of us," Harry said, distracting me from the scenery.

I glanced back at him and laughed. He was right about that. My parents were always wondering why the hell I couldn't stay out of trouble. "We keep their lives amusing," I said.

The two of us lapsed into a comfortable silence after that. I tried to keep my mind clear and focus on the ride. The Knight Bus rolled through the darkness, scattering bushes and wastebaskets, telephone booths and trees. Harry and I lay, restless and miserable, on his feather bed. I could have moved over to where my bed was situated, but I wasn't really in the mood to feel like I was alone at all. The only thing that I wanted was to ensure that I wasn't in this alone. And I wasn't. It seemed that I always had Harry at my side.

After a while, Stan remembered that Harry and I had paid for hot chocolate, and I was the only one that had gotten mine. He hadn't brought Harry his own. So he got up and went to retrieve Harry's, giving me a complimentary cut. But he ended up pouring them both all over Harry's pillow when the bus moved abruptly from Anglesey to Aberdeen. One by one, wizards and witches in dressing gowns and slippers descended from the upper floors to leave the bus. They all looked very pleased to go. Not that I could blame them. I couldn't understand how anyone was able to sleep through all of the racket and jolting that the bus was doing.

Finally, after a few hours, Harry and I were the only passengers left. "Right then, Neville, Hannah," Stan said, clapping his hands, "whereabouts in London?"

For a moment I forgot that we were supposed to be Neville and Hannah. I merely stared blankly at Stan as Harry spoke up. "Diagon Alley," he said.

"The Leaky Cauldron," I specified.

Stan nodded at us. "Righto. Hold tight, then..." Stan said.

That was all that it took. The Knight Bus gave another huge bang as the gears shifted as we got on our way once more. Both Harry and I were thrown backwards against the beds at the sudden movement. We were thundering along Charing Cross Road within a matter of seconds. We would be to Diagon Alley in just a few minutes. Harry helped me sit up so that we could watch buildings and benches squeezing themselves out of the Knight Bus's way. The sky was getting a little lighter. We had literally stayed awake for the entire night. Hopefully Mom and Dad would already be at the Leaky Cauldron by the time we got there.

The bus drove back and forth, weaving through the streets of Muggle London. "Ernie, two double-deckers at twelve o'clock," the head said. I glanced up and saw that it was right. Directly in front of us, heading towards us, were two double-decker buses, pressed up against each other in the lanes. We would smash right into them. "They're getting closer, Ernie. Ernie, they're right on top of us!"

Harry and I grabbed onto each other as Ernie slammed on the brakes and the bus seemed to go into slow motion. Ernie yanked the emergency brake and pulled an accordion-style chord from the roof. And the bus began to literally compress in between the two double-deckers, just barely leaving enough room for us to squeeze through.

"Mind your head," the head said as we passed through. It felt like my brain was being squished at the compression. "Hey, guys? Guys? Why the long faces?"

And, sooner than it had started, the compression let up and we had escaped the trap of the two double-deckers. Harry and I were thrown backwards once more as we went back to speeding through the streets. "That was awful," I muttered to Harry.

He laughed as the speed of the bus picked up quickly. We were weaving through traffic as the Knight Bus made its way out of the tourist section of London and into the back streets that would lead us to Diagon Alley. It wasn't long before we were traveling along the route to the Muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. We were pulling up just behind a Muggle car - literally within inches - when Ernie slammed on the brakes and the Knight Bus skidded to a halt in front of a small and shabby-looking pub, the Leaky Cauldron. Once more Harry and I were thrown forwards. Harry was tossed from the bed as he smacked into the window. I was tossed onto the floor once more.

We both managed to get ourselves back to the feet as the Muggle car began to chirp. The Knight Bus had gently tapped the rear end. "Thanks," Harry grunted to Ernie.

Managing to gather myself, I smiled weakly and waved to the two men. "Thanks so much!" I chirped.

For the first time in my entire life, I actually found myself turning a little green with motion sickness. That was definitely the worst ride that I'd ever had. I'd ensure that I never criticized Dad's driving again. Harry jumped down the steps and helped me down afterwards. My knees were still shaking slightly from the intense ride. We both turned back to watch Stan lower Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage onto the pavement. He looked a little lost that I had nothing with me, but I merely smiled and motioned to Harry's, pretending that my things were with his.

"Well. 'Bye then!" Harry said.

"Goodbye!" I called.

But Stan wasn't paying attention. In fact, neither was Ernie. Not even the chatty shrunken head was saying anything. The air had gone eerily still and I turned to see what had happened. I hoped that nothing else dangerous was going to happen. I needed a few days before another life-threatening event happened. Still standing in the doorway to the Knight Bus, Stan was goggling at the shadowy entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. What the hell was so fascinating?

"There you are, Harry, Tara," a voice called.

Both Harry and I turned to see what was happening. I smiled awkwardly when I realized who it was. I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that he was here. "Hello, Minister," I said softly, nudging at Harry to get him to smile and wipe the dumb look off of his face.

Harry managed to plaster a very pathetic-looking smile on his face. He looked more like he had to go to the bathroom. "Good to see that you're still not staying out of trouble, Tara," Fudge greeted, smiling knowingly at me.

My face turned slightly pink. Even the Minster of Magic knew that I had a penchant for getting myself into trouble. "I've got a reputation to uphold," I joked, puffing my chest out proudly.

We both watched as Fudge stepped forward. He gave me a quick pat on the back before moving towards Harry. He placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. At the same time, Stan shouted, "Blimey! Ern, come 'ere! Come 'ere!"

Obviously Stan was quite fascinated with the sight of Fudge. It was rather sweet, I supposed. I was used to seeing people of such importance, since Mom and Dad had always been quite popular in both the Ministry and Congress. I was used to having to pretend to have some form of manners. Harry looked up at the owner of the hand on his shoulder and I awkwardly took a step back. I didn't want to get myself in even more trouble than we were already in. The relieved feeling turned into a bucketful of ice cascading into my stomach. I'd suddenly realized that if the Minister of Magic had come to see us in person, it couldn't mean anything good for us.

Stan leapt onto the pavement beside the three of us. "What did you call Neville and Hannah, Minister?" he asked excitedly.

The moment that the words had escaped Stan's mouth I wished that I could have moved a little faster and hit him. I had been hoping to get away with this unscathed. But now I knew that I wouldn't. Stan obviously wasn't one to keep his mouth shut and, as nice as he was, Fudge was more than a little clueless. Cornelius Fudge was a portly little man that always had a slightly sour look on his face. Almost like he had smelled something unpleasant. Tonight he was in a long, pinstriped cloak, looking cold and exhausted.

Fudge turned towards us, looking very lost. "Neville? Hannah?" he repeated, frowning. We both smiled awkwardly at him. We were caught in our lie. "This is Harry Potter. And this is Tara Nox."

"I knew it!" Stan shouted gleefully. Both Harry and I awkwardly shifted. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to say here. "Ern! Ern! Guess who Neville is, Ern! He's Harry Potter! I can see his scar!"

Fudge noticed our discomfort at Stan's sudden excitement. "Yes, well, I'm very glad the Knight Bus picked Harry and Tara up, but the three of us need to step inside the Leaky Cauldron now..." Fudge said testily.

I noticed the way that Fudge was looking back and forth. There was something in his eyes that told me that he was nervous to have us out here. I couldn't understand why. The sun was already coming up. It was daytime and there were typically far less dangers in the world once the sun was up. But something was still making Fudge extremely nervous. Fudge increased the pressure on my shoulder, and I found the two of us being steered inside the old pub. A stooping figure bearing a lantern appeared through the door behind the bar. It was Tom, the wizened, toothless landlord.

Tom grinned at us and I smiled back. He had always been friendly to me, whenever I dropped by during the summers and holidays. "You've got them, Minister!" Tom cried cheerily. "Will you be wanting anything? Beer? Brandy?"

Some part of me felt like I could use a brandy. My nerves were still a little frazzled from everything that had happened on the Knight Bus. "Perhaps a pot of tea," Fudge said.

Neither one of us missed the two that he was still holding onto our shoulders. I could almost feel him shaking. Something was definitely making him nervous. And it wasn't something that ended the moment that we came into the pub. There was something worse here. Far worse than our blowing up Marge. There was a loud scraping and puffing from behind us, breaking my unwelcome thoughts, and I turned back. Stan and Ernie had appeared, carrying Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage and looking around excitedly.

Stan walked over towards us. "How come you didn't tell us who you are, eh, Neville?" Stan asked, beaming at Harry. As usual, everyone was thrilled to meet Harry and I was left standing in the background. Ernie's owlish face peered interestedly over Stan's shoulder. "And who are you?" he asked me.

"Just a nobody," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"And a private parlor, please, Tom," Fudge added pointedly.

It was obviously our indication that our time with Stan and Ernie was done. Maybe we'd meet them again one day. "'Bye," Harry said miserably to Stan and Ernie as Tom beckoned Fudge toward the passage that led from the bar.

"See you," I muttered, waving them off.

"'Bye, Neville, Hannah!" Stan called, walking away from us.

Once they were gone, I turned towards Harry. He looked just as depressed as I felt. There couldn't be anything good coming for us. "Well it was fun while it lasted," I whispered, standing next to Harry.

Harry nodded sadly. "Hopefully it'll be over soon," he muttered.

It had been thrilling to get off of the Knight Bus, but now that we were off, I was depressed to find myself in front of the Minister of Magic. Fudge would give us the final word that we had been expelled from Hogwarts. Considering that my parents were nowhere to be found I assumed that something terrible had happened. They must not have wanted to face me. They must have not been able to get us back into Hogwarts for the new school year. Fudge marched Harry and me along the narrow passage after Tom's lantern, and then into a small parlor. Tom clicked his fingers and a fire burst into life in the grate.

He nodded at us and bowed himself out of the room. Fudge paced around for a few moments, standing mostly near the fireplace. "Sit down, Harry, Tara," Fudge said, indicating a chair by the fire.

Feeling nerves bundle in my stomach once more, I walked towards the chair, shaking slightly. There were three chair that were gathered around in front of the fireplace. But now I was sweating, and I wanted to be anywhere but in front of a roaring fire. Harry and I sat down together, both of us gazing into the fire. I could feel goosebumps rising up on my arms despite the glow of the fire and nervous sweats. Fudge took off his pinstriped cloak and tossed it aside, then hitched up the trousers of his bottle-green suit and sat down opposite Harry and me.

"I am Cornelius Fudge, Harry. The Minister of Magic. Of course, Tara already knows who I am," Fudge said, smiling at me.

It was tough to respond with a small smile of my own. My stomach was churning painfully. "A few family dinners over the past couple of years," I explained to Harry, turning back towards Fudge. "Where is my mother?"

"Currently with your father. They are at the Ministry filling out some paperwork about the accident," Fudge explained. My face drained of color. They must have been signing paperwork that was for my expulsion from Hogwarts. They hadn't been able to solve it. "They will be there for some while, I assume. Not to worry, they're safe."

But I wasn't worried about how safe they were. I knew that they were safe. They could manage themselves. They were some of the best magical people that I knew. They each had their strengths and weaknesses, but together they were unstoppable. Apparently not when it came to keeping their daughter in Hogwarts, though. But it wasn't something that they could use magic for. This was something that they had to talk me out of, and there weren't many ways that I could explain what had happened, other than saying that I was angry.

In the meantime, I was thrilled that Harry hadn't told Fudge that he knew who he was. Because we did know who he was. He had seen Fudge once before, but as he had been wearing his father's Invisibility Cloak at the time, Fudge wasn't to know that. We had only overheard the conversation when Hagrid had been briefly sent to Azkaban after the Basilisk attacks. Tom the innkeeper reappeared, wearing an apron over his nightshirt and bearing a tray of tea and crumpets. He placed the tray on a table between Fudge and Harry and left the parlor, closing the door behind him. Harry grabbed a cup and handed it off to me. I took in but merely let it sit in my lap.

"Well, Harry, Tara, you've had us all in a right flap, I don't mind telling you. Running away from your aunt and uncle's house like that! I know that your mother said that you should have taken the Knight Bus, but never resort to that. Always use the Floo network," he said sharply. We nodded at him. "I'd started to think... but you're both safe, and that's what matters."

My stomach churned awkwardly. Had he really thought that we were dead? It hadn't been that serious. Had it? It had just been a brief disappearance from the map. And Mom and Dad had known where we were. Was there really something going on that was that dangerous? I had been almost positive that we were alright. The only thing that was mildly dangerous that had happened to us was the incident with Snuffles. And he was just a large dog. It wasn't that big of a deal. Fudge buttered himself a crumpet and pushed the plate toward Harry and me.

"Eat, Harry, Tara, you two look dead on your feet." We both took crumpets, slowly picking at them. "Now then... You will be pleased to hear that we have dealt with the unfortunate blowing-up of Miss Marjorie Dursley. Two members of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad were dispatched to Privet Drive a few hours ago. Miss Dursley has been punctured and her memory has been modified. She has no recollection of the incident at all. So that's that, and no harm done," Fudge said.

My jaw nearly dropped. Had he just said that we were getting away with this? Nothing was going to happen to us... We'd be back at Hogwarts in a few weeks. I could have kissed Fudge. Not that I would, but I could have. Everything was back to normal with nothing more than a disrupted night's sleep. I tried to push the bright smile off of my face and pretend that I was relieved to hear that Marge was back to normal. But I couldn't. I hated her so much that I was almost disappointed to hear that she was deflated.

"I'd say that I'm glad to hear that she's back to normal, but I'm not," I said, unable to keep my mouth shut.

Harry kicked me, knowing that I really shouldn't have said that. Fudge gave me something that looked almost like a smile. "Well I've heard about Marjorie... I can't say that I blame you," Fudge said, making me smile slightly.

Even Harry cracked a tiny bit of a smile at that one. Marge Dursley was one of the worst people in the world. She should have been left as a human balloon forever. That would be wonderful. Fudge smiled at Harry and me over the rim of his teacup, rather like an uncle surveying a favorite nephew and niece. I wasn't sure whether or not it was creepy. And now I had nothing more to say. I didn't want to question not getting expelled from Hogwarts, but I did want to know how they had come to the conclusion that we'd done nothing wrong. Harry opened his mouth to speak but almost immediately closed it again. I assumed that he couldn't find anything to say either.

Fudge took our silence the wrong way. "Ah, you're worrying about the reaction of your aunt and uncle? Well, I won't deny that they are extremely angry, Harry, but they are prepared to take you back next summer as long as you stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas and Easter holidays," Fudge explained. I nearly snorted. He didn't realize that Harry wanted to be back at Privet Drive about as much as the Dursley's wanted him there.

Harry cleared his throat and shifted slightly in his chair. "I always stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas and Easter holidays, and I don't ever want to go back to Privet Drive," Harry said sharply, and somewhat rudely.

But he could not say things like that to the Minister of Magic. Not when we'd just gotten off with nothing more than a warning to be careful. So I stomped down roughly on his foot. "Now, now, I'm sure you'll feel differently once you've calmed down." There was something worried in the tone of his voice. "They are your family, after all, and I'm sure you are fond of each other - er - very deep down," he continued awkwardly.

"He can stay with me," I offered quickly.

The corners of Fudge's lips turned upwards but there was a hint of fear in the corner of his eyes. He merely shook his head and leaned forward. "Now, now, Tara, it's best off to leave Harry in the safety of his relatives," he said.

Glancing over to the side, I saw that Harry was smiling at me. I couldn't even count the number of times that I had tried to insist that Harry should come and live with us. He would be happier and so would I. But it was clearly something that wasn't going to happen. I probably should have said something about how much Harry and the Dursley's really did hate each other - and it was a genuine hatred - but I didn't. I was still reeling from the thought that we might not get in trouble for doing underage magic.

We were silent for a few minutes before Fudge spoke again. "So all that remains," he said, now buttering himself a second crumpet, "is to decide where you're going to spend the last three weeks of your vacation. I suggest you take a room here at the Leaky Cauldron and -"

"Hang on. What about our punishment?" Harry blurted out.

He was joking. I could have slapped him hard enough to knock a few teeth loose. Both Fudge and I blinked. "Punishment?" Fudge asked dumbly.

"Shut up, Harry!" I barked, kicking him in the shin.

It obviously hurt as Harry bent over and started rubbing his leg. "We broke the law!" Harry shouted, whether he was speaking to Fudge or me, I wasn't sure. "The Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry!"

He needed to just let it go. We could have gotten away with it without anything happening to either one of us. "We almost got away with it..." I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Fudge finally gathered himself and realized what we were talking about. He smiled and shook his head at us. Maybe we would still get away with it? "Oh, my dear children, we're not going to punish you for a little thing like that!" Fudge cried, waving his crumpet impatiently. "It was an accident! We don't send people to Azkaban just for blowing up their aunts!"

My jaw would have dropped, had it not already been hanging loose from Harry's previous comments. For a moment I merely stared at Fudge, imaging that I must have heard him wrong. But I hadn't. He was really letting us off without anything. He wasn't even going to give us a little reprimand about controlling our emotions better. After everything that we had done, they were really going to let us walk away. But it didn't make any sense. I didn't want to be in trouble, but I couldn't understand why we weren't. The whole thing didn't tally at all with Harry or my past dealings with the Ministry of Magic. We should have been expelled.

Clearly Harry was thinking the same thing. "Last year, we got an official warning just because a house-elf smashed a pudding in my uncle's house! The Ministry of Magic said we'd be expelled from Hogwarts if there was any more magic there!" Harry cried.

He was making things no better. We were definitely going to get kicked out of Hogwarts if he said anything else. "You're joking. Stop talking!" I howled at him.

For a moment I thought that Fudge might have been amused by our bickering back and forth. There was something rather funny about the way that his eye twitched. But after a moment the amusement fell from his face. And unless my eyes were deceiving me, Fudge was suddenly looking very awkward. But what for?

Fudge cleared his throat and shifted forward in his large chair. "Circumstances change, Harry... We have to take into account... in the present climate..." Was he possibly talking about the Sirius Black situation? "Surely you don't want to be expelled?" Fudge finally asked us.

He was attempting to steer the conversation away from whatever he wanted to avoid. I knew that he was. "Of course I don't," Harry said quickly.

But that didn't stop the momentary panic that settled in my chest. "No!" I shrieked.

I didn't want to see the look on Mom and Dad's faces if they found out that we had accidentally asked to be expelled from Hogwarts. "Well then, what's all the fuss about?" Fudge laughed carelessly. "Now, have a crumpet, Harry, Tara, while I go and see if Tom's got a room for you." Fudge stood and turned back to me. "Tara, what would you like to do? We can either bring you back home for the night or you may stay here with Harry for the night. Your parents can come and wake you up in the morning."

"I'll stay for the night, thank you," I said quickly.

Maybe I should have gone back home, but it was already in the early hours of the morning and I wasn't much in the mood for wandering back home and answering a thousand questions about what had happened. All I wanted to do was drop into bed. Fudge nodded strode out of the parlor. It was silent as Harry and I stared after him. Nothing that just happened made any sense. They were buying Harry a room at the Leaky Cauldron for three weeks after he had broken one of the laws. And neither one of us were getting expelled after causing bodily harm to a Muggle, doing underage magic, and after having already received a warning about magic once before.

Yes. There was something extremely odd going on. Why had Fudge been waiting for us at the Leaky Cauldron, if not to punish us for what we'd done? It didn't make sense. Fudge wasn't one to just drop in for social visits. He always went places because they were matters of business. And now that I came to think of it, why was the Minister of Magic himself getting involved in matters of underage magic? Maybe Mom and Dad had come and spoken to him, but Mafalda Hopkirk was the one that should have come to speak with us.

It wasn't long that I could wonder. Fudge came back, accompanied by Tom the innkeeper. "Room eleven's free, Harry, Tara. I think you'll be very comfortable. Just one thing, and I'm sure you'll understand... I don't want you wandering off into Muggle London, all right? Keep to Diagon Alley. And you're to be back here before dark each night," Fudge said. My eyebrow raised. That was a little strict. Particularly the bit about not going into Muggle London. I had a feeling that it wasn't as dangerous as witches and wizards liked to think. Was this all about Sirius Black? "Sure you'll understand. Tom will be keeping an eye on you for me."

"Okay," Harry said slowly, "but why - ?"

"Don't want to lose you again, do we?" Fudge said with a hearty laugh. But as Harry and I exchanged a look, I could tell that neither one of us believed him. There was something odd going on here. "No, no... Best we know where you are... I mean..." Fudge cleared his throat loudly and picked up his pinstriped cloak. "Well, I'll be off, plenty to do, you know..."

Plenty to do? It wasn't even five in the morning yet. What could he possibly be doing? We were silent for a while as Harry pulled on the cloak. "Have you had any luck with Black yet?" Harry asked after a few beats.

I watched closely as Fudge's finger slipped on the silver fastenings of his cloak. Was he that surprised that Harry knew who Black was? He could have found him in a textbook if Harry read a little more. "What's that? Oh, you've heard - well, no, not yet, but it's only a matter of time. The Azkaban guards have never yet failed... and they are angrier than I've ever seen them," Fudge muttered.

My heart gave a little thump in my chest. Fudge shuddered slightly. Harry still looked clueless. "They're not coming here... are they?" I asked, hearing the little crack in my voice.

Fudge looked over to me and shook his head quickly. "Of course not, my dear." I let out a little breath of relief. That was not something that I wanted. "So, I'll say good-bye," Fudge said.

He held out his hand and Harry and I both shook it. Before Fudge could leave, Harry ran after him. "Er - Minister? Can I ask you something?"

"Certainly," Fudge said with a smile.

Harry shifted nervously on his feet for a moment. I smiled, wondering what he wanted. "Well, Third Years at Hogwarts are allowed to visit Hogsmeade, but my aunt and uncle didn't sign the permission form. D'you think you could?" he asked.

Fudge was looking uncomfortable. "Ah. No, no, I'm very sorry, Harry, but as I'm not your parent or guardian -"

"But you're the Minister of Magic," Harry said eagerly. "If you gave me permission -"

"No, I'm sorry, Harry, but rules are rules," Fudge said flatly. I had a feeling that he could have signed the paper if he'd wanted to - as no one could argue with the Minister of Magic - but there was something stopping him. "Perhaps you'll be able to visit Hogsmeade next year. In fact, I think it's best if you don't... yes... well, I'll be off. Enjoy your stay, Harry, Tara."

We both smiled at him. I was thrilled that we weren't going to be in trouble and the fact that we would be back in Hogwarts in three weeks. I did feel terrible that Harry couldn't come to Hogsmeade with us, but it would be easier to explain why I'd have to pass on going with them at least once. Mostly because I was going on a sort-of date with Cedric to Hogsmeade at some point this year. It made me smile even brighter, which Fudge must have thought was for him. Smiling and shaking our hands once more, Fudge left the room.

Tom now moved forward, beaming at Harry and me. "If you'll follow me, Mr. Potter and Miss Nox, I've already taken your things up," Tom said, motioning us with him.

The two of us followed Tom up a handsome wooden staircase to the second floor of the Leaky Cauldron. For as many times as I had been to the pub, I'd never actually been up in the living areas. It was a little strange. But it was cute enough. It was nice and cozy up here. We walked all the way to a door with a brass number eleven on it, which Tom unlocked and opened for the two of us. Inside was a very comfortable-looking bed, definitely large enough for the two of us, some highly polished oak furniture, a cheerfully crackling fire and another welcome present.

"Hedwig!" Harry gasped.

We both smiled at the sight of the owl. I hadn't known where she was before right now. She had been flying around the last time that I knew. She must have known that we were here. Owls were such strange creatures. They seemed to always know exactly where their owners were. The snowy owl clicked her beak and fluttered down onto Harry's arm. She pecked at him for a few moments and I smiled. A second later she swooped over to me and began affectionately nibbling at my ear.

"Hello, Hedwig," I called up to her.

"Very smart owl you've got there. Arrived about five minutes after you did. If there's anything you need, Mr. Potter or Miss Nox, don't hesitate to ask," Tom said.

He gave another bow and left. We both smiled at him and nodded. It was nice to be away from the Dursley's for the night. Even living next to them for a few months was awful. I couldn't imagine how Harry felt. The two of us walked over to the bed and dropped into the sheets. We laid together for a long time, Harry absentmindedly stroking Hedwig. The sky outside the window was changing rapidly from deep, velvety blue to cold, steely gray and then, slowly, to pink shot with gold. It was now turning into the early hours of the day. I could hear people down in the shops getting ready to open. I could hardly believe that we'd left Privet Drive only a few hours ago, that we weren't expelled, and that I would no longer have to deal with the Dursley's.

Harry had always been the only reason that I'd even gone and spoken with them in the first place. And now we were free of them for the last three weeks of summer. But there was something still bothering me. "I don't understand something," I said, sitting upright on the bed.

Harry followed me a second later. "That's a new one," he teased.

We both laughed as I shoved him roughly. "It's obvious why they're trying to protect you. They're always trying to protect you. Just because of who you are," I said, earning a bashful look from Harry. "But now it seems like they're trying to protect me, too. Why?"

"Maybe because of everything with Aunt Marge?" Harry offered.

It wasn't a half-bad idea, but there was no way that the Minister would care about that. Not that much. "No way. They don't care about anything like that. There's something weird going on there and it's much more than just accidentally blowing up Marge," I said.

"So what do you think?" Harry asked, after a beat of silence.

Nothing that I could think of really made any sense. I had no idea what any of this meant. I just knew that something didn't make any sense. We were missing something. "I think that it's got something to do with Sirius Black. There's something really weird going on about his escape. More than just his escape. There's something about his escape that I think might have to do with us," I said softly.

Harry's eyes widened slightly. "Us?" he asked, motioning in between the two of us.

"Yes."

"Why is it always us?" Harry asked, groaning softly.

It did always seem to be the two of us that were getting into something. "It's always you. I just happen to always be around you and that means that I somehow get dragged into all of your crap," I said, shoving him once more.

He laughed softly and wrapped an arm over my shoulder. The two of us smiled at each other as we dropped into the bed once more. I pushed myself back against the pillows. "Love you, Tara. Thanks for everything," Harry said.

"Love you too, Harry. Thanks for always being there."

"Of course." We were silent for a few moments before Harry leaned up on his shoulders, looking over at me. "Do you not think that Black did all of this?" Harry asked softly.

Honestly I wasn't sure what I thought of everything. I had been a baby when everything had happened between Black and Voldemort. But there was just something off about the whole thing. "No. I believe that he did kill those Muggles. At least, I think that I do. But it's not like we have video evidence or anything like that," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Look at the man. He's insane," Harry argued.

My head swiveled slightly so that I could look at him. "Twelve years in Azkaban will do that to someone," I pointed out.

"But why don't you think that he was a Voldemort supporter?" Harry continued.

Letting out a deep breath, I rolled onto my side to face Harry. "Because Voldemort sought out people that were powerful and brilliant. I guarantee that, at some point, he considered recruiting our parents. But that's not Black. Maybe he's a brilliant wizard, too, but he's mad. Voldemort wouldn't have wanted someone that unstable in his ranks. I don't know... But something doesn't sit right about this," I told him.

"So it's just coincidence that he murdered those people the same night that Voldemort killed my parents?" Harry asked.

There was something in his voice that sounded strained. I gave him a long look, wondering what I'd done to deserve that. Maybe it was something that he'd said just because of the strain of the memory of losing his parents. "I don't know," I muttered under my breath.

"Maybe he was providing Voldemort cover," Harry said.

Now it sounded like he was just grasping at straws so that he could try and figure this out. Not that it made any sense. He just wanted to know how Black was connected to Voldemort. "People were terrified of Voldemort. They still are. Trust me when I say that he didn't need cover. He was going to do whatever he wanted and people probably knew his plans ahead of time," I said softly.

The blazing look in Harry's eyes died slightly as he leaned over and grabbed my hand. "I don't mean to fight," he said softly.

"We're not fighting. Just chatting back and forth," I said, not wanting Harry to feel any worse about things. "Don't worry, Harry. We're going to figure this out. I somehow doubt that we'll be able to avoid all of this. You know us, we attract trouble."

We both laughed as we moved to our own sides of the bed. "That's true." Harry turned and looked over to where Hedwig was still perched. "It's been a very weird night, Hedwig," he yawned.

And without even removing his glasses, he slumped back onto his pillows and fell asleep. I smiled at the sight of him and grabbed the blanket that was laying on my side of the bed, tossing it over him. I grabbed the covers and yanked them from underneath me, tucking myself in. The trains were roaring outside of the window and I could hear the horns of cars begin to blare as the morning rush hour hit on the Muggle side of London. Everyone was getting ready to start their days after a peaceful night's sleep. But I wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next three weeks.

"Goodnight, Harry," I muttered, rolling over and drifting off to sleep, praying that this was the last of our troubles this year.

Sirius's P.O.V.

Elsewhere in England, Sirius Black was pacing back and forth on Privet Drive. As he had been, since escaping from Azkaban, he was in his Animagus form. He rather enjoyed being a dog sometimes. He was fed scraps from restaurants and local kids would come up and pet him. He appreciated it, since his Animagus form was almost certainly infected with fleas. That was what made it the worst. He almost wished that he could just go back to being Sirius, even if only for a few minutes. But he couldn't risk anyone seeing him.

So it meant that, for the time being, he was stuck as the massive dog. He had been extremely surprised, to say the least, when Tara had found him the other night. She was practically split down the middle from her parents. Short like her mother, but athletic like her father. Her hair was somewhere in between their own colors and her eyes were a subtle mix, leaning just slightly more towards her mothers. He had laughed - having it come out as more of a growl - when Tara had called him Snuffles. It made him smile. Even though she had the beauty and grace of her mother, she clearly had the attitude and sense of humor that her father had.

More than anything else, he had wanted to introduce himself to Harry and Tara. But he knew that he couldn't it would come in time. Once he could prove that he hadn't killed the Muggles, or Peter. He was currently stalking around the outside of Tara's house, listening to Marcus and Julia speak. They were sitting on the steps to the front of the house, speaking softly with each other. Obviously they couldn't sleep. Sirius felt so strange to look at them. He hadn't seen either one of them in over twelve years. He had ensured to keep a slight distance from Marcus and Julia's home. They knew exactly who he was. They wouldn't just see a homeless dog. They would know who he was. And he couldn't risk that right now. Not until they knew the truth of what had happened that night, so many years ago.

"Stan said that the kids thought that they saw a giant dog," Julia said. Sirius knew that he was the conductor of the Knight Bus that Harry and Tara were on earlier. "You know, as well as I do, what he is. Do you think that it could have been him?"

There was something concerned in her voice. Sirius whined slightly. He missed his friends. He missed the days that they all laughed and talked together for hours. He missed the days that he wasn't the villain. "Maybe, Jules, but there are strays all around here. They might have just run into one," Marcus said, sounding completely unconvinced.

He and Remus had always had that in common, they were always more inclined to think things through. It was he and James that would jump to conclusion. "It's no coincidence that he escapes and suddenly Harry and Tara are terrorized by a giant dog," Julia said.

Sirius growled deep in his throat. He wasn't terrorizing them. He just wanted to see them. He hadn't seen either of them in years. "They're fine. It'll be a few weeks and they'll be back at Hogwarts. It's the safest place for them to be," Marcus said.

"You still have faith that he didn't do it."

It wasn't patronizing, the way that she said it, it was more curiosity. Marcus sighed and grabber her hand. "I know that the evidence is all there that he did do it, but... We knew him, Jules. He was one of my best friends. I can't believe that he would have ever done something like that. He loved Harry, James, and Lily," Marcus said.

Sirius smiled slightly. Marcus always had believed the best in him. So had Julia, but she was a mother now. She would protect her daughter from anything, even someone she had thought was a friend. Practically family. "What other explanation is there?" Julia asked.

"I don't know," Marcus conceded.

"Do you think that we should tell Tara?"

Sirius had been wondering if Harry and Tara knew exactly how they were related to him. It was his answer. They had no clue that they did mean something to him. "No. There's no point in telling her. All that will do is upset her and make her that much more afraid. She has enough things to worry about. Let's not make anything any worse," Marcus said quickly.

"And Harry?"

Marcus shook his head once more. "Neither one of them needs to know anything," he said.

Julia nodded as Marcus pulled her legs into his lap. He could almost picture the two of them sitting in the Gryffindor Tower Common Room, curled up in the plush chairs in front of the fireplace, almost two decades ago. "Do you think that he'll come for them?" Julia finally asked.

"Honestly, Jules, I'm not sure what he'll do. All I know is that he didn't escape Azkaban for nothing. He had a plan. He still has a plan. I'm sure that it will only be a matter of time before we find out what he wants," Marcus said.

And Sirius did have a plan. He wouldn't dare lay a hand on either one of those kids, as they both meant everything in the world to him, but he did have something to do. So, as the pair sighed deeply, Sirius turned on his heels and made way for Hogwarts. Considering that he would have to stay in his Animagus form, it would take Sirius a long time to make the trip out to Scotland. All that he knew was that he had to get to Harry and Tara, away from the prying eyes and ears of the adult magical community. The two of them had to know what had happened all of those years ago. They had to know that he hadn't betrayed them. And he had to find Peter. They all had things to say to each other.


	40. The Leaky Cauldron

Despite knowing that I had to get a move on for the day, I was still at home and slowly waking up from a long night's sleep. I was exhausted from the day before. I hadn't gotten back to my house until late last night. I'd gone to Diagon Alley yesterday and spent the day with Harry, walking from store to store and trying to keep him company. Last night I'd gone to get dinner on the Muggle side of London with Cedric, as I'd been trying to convince him to try something new. He'd actually seemed quite happy that we were going together. I'd wanted to consider it a date but he hadn't said anything about it. I still couldn't tell what we were. Friends or something a little more.

Obviously it was something that I wouldn't find out for a long time to come. No one seemed to ever want to give me a straight answer. Particularly not Cedric. So we just went with whatever we were and didn't bother to say anything to the other, for fear of making things even more awkward. It didn't help that every time that Cedric and I made some progress in our relationship, someone came and ruined it. But at least I'd had a good night with him. I was hoping to see him again sometime soon, considering that we hadn't seen each other a ton this summer, just the two of us. We'd had plenty of family dinners, but I tried to block those out.

It was glaringly obvious that Mom and Dad - along with Amos Diggory - genuinely enjoyed embarrassing Cedric and me. Perhaps one day it was funny. In the meantime, I smiled and got changed. It was definitely on the warm side today. So I pulled on a pair of shorts and a long-sleeved green shirt before heading downstairs. As with many mornings over the past few weeks, I would have breakfast with Mom and Dad before heading into Diagon Alley to meet Harry and spend the day with him. It was just something to keep him company, as I knew that he was getting bored without being able to walk next door and see me. I also knew that we would have to shop for our Hogwarts things soon.

As I bounded down the stairs, Dad was staring down at the paper and Mom was setting the table. "Good morning, darling. What are you up to today?" Mom asked, setting a place for me.

"I'm gonna head into Diagon Alley," I said.

Dad barely glanced up from the Prophet to smile at me. "Of course." He folded up the Prophet and laughed and started picking at his food. "If you're not careful, people are going to start thinking that you and Harry are together," Dad teased.

That was a repulsive thought. "Gross!" I shouted.

As much as I loved Harry, he was like a brother to me. He would never mean anything more to me. I was sure that I had never looked at Harry the way that I looked at Cedric. And I certainly hoped that I never would. That would certainly make for an awkward conversation between the two of us. Interrupting my thoughts, Mom and Dad both started to laugh. I assumed that they - just like me - knew that nothing would ever happen between Harry and me. That was why they didn't care that we were always off together or when we spent the night together.

They calmed down long enough for Mom to place herself at the table, sitting next to me. "Stick to Diagon Alley, yeah? Don't go wandering around," she ordered, pouring herself some coffee.

"I know, I know," I interrupted. It was the same warning that Mom and Dad gave me every time that I was planning on going out somewhere without them. And that was what bothered me. They had never done anything like that before. "What's going on? You two never cared where I went before."

"Excuse you," Mom interrupted, sounding very upset with me.

That was when I realized that what I'd said wasn't exactly polite. "That's not what I meant," I said quickly, trying to rectify my mistake. "Muggle or magical, you never cared where I went before. You just let me go and gave me a time to be back at. Now, all of a sudden, you're paranoid and determined that I have to stay where magical people can see me."

My parents exchanged a look so fast that, had I not been paying close attention, I wouldn't have even noticed it. "It's a dangerous world out there, Tara. We just want you to be safe while you aren't around us," Dad finally said.

"Thanks," I muttered.

There was still something that they weren't telling me. I was absolutely positive about that. All I wanted was to figure out what it was that they were trying to hide from me. And not just them. The Minster of Magic himself was trying to protect us. And it didn't make any sense to me. I just wanted to know what it was that was the big secret. It must have had something to do with Sirius Black, considering that his escape was the one big thing that had changed in the Wizarding World in the past few weeks. But what did we have to do with anything? Black had been put behind bars when we were both children. So he had no relation to us. Right?

Mom's voice interrupted my train of thoughts. "Are you getting your school things?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Mom went digging through her coin purse and handed me a number of Galleons. It would be enough to cover everything that I needed, and then some. "Here's some money. Should take care of everything," she said.

Dad glanced up from the Prophet to gather my Hogwarts letter in his hands. "Do you need new robes?" he asked, scanning over the list.

In all honesty, I hadn't grown much since my First Year. It was really only my curves that were coming in. "I haven't grown much but I think I need new shirts and sweater vests again," I said bashfully.

Dad's head snapped up. "Again?" he asked, sounding shocked.

Mom caught my sudden embarrassment at the topic. "Quiet, Marcus," she hissed, handing me over a few more Galleons. "Here. That should cover the new clothes."

They exchanged a look before Dad looked back down at my Hogwarts letter. His eyes scanned over the parchment a few times before they bulged slightly. "Tara, this is a number of books that you need. How many are there?" he asked

"A few," I muttered under my breath.

As I tried to take the letter back, Mom reached over me and took the letter from Dad. I sunk back into my chair, knowing that they wouldn't like how many classes I had decided to take. "How many classes did you sign up for?" Mom asked me.

"Just a couple."

And it was the truth. But I had signed up for more than the average person did. Hermione was the only person to sign up for even more classes than me. "It might be school, but try and have some fun, too. Alright? You'll be driving yourself out of your mind with all of the studying that you'll need to do," Dad teased, handing me back the letter.

"And think about dropping Divination," Mom added.

It surprised me, the fact that she wanted me to drop Divination. She was normally the one in the family that loved everything having to do with school. "Really?" I asked her.

"Yes," they both said.

It made all of us laugh. Maybe I really would have to consider dropping Divination. After all, I'd only signed up for it because Hermione and the boys had. "Come and get breakfast," Mom said, waving me over to the plates of food.

Shaking my head, I got to my feet and checked my wristwatch. I was already late to meet Harry. "I'm having breakfast out with Harry," I explained, hurriedly moving towards the fireplace. "I'll be home for dinner! Love you!"

"Love you, too!" they called back.

As the two of them began to rummage around in the kitchen and dining room, cleaning up breakfast and getting ready to go about their days, I turned and headed towards the fireplace. Opening up the jar that held the Floo powder, I walked into the fireplace and tossed the powder down towards the ground. The green flames began to whip up around me as I shouted for it to take me to Diagon Alley. I was sucked through the tube and quickly spit out in the Flourish and Blotts fireplace. It was still a little too early for Hogwarts students to be wandering around. They wouldn't be getting their things for a few weeks to come, right before school started. That's why we were going now. Less people and less crowds to maneuver around.

Walking out towards the Leaky Cauldron - on the other end of the alley - I thought about how much happier Harry was than I had seen him in a long time. I'd ended up staying with him for a few days, and it was rather amusing to watch him get used to his strange new freedom. He had never been able to get up whenever he wanted or eat whatever he fancied. He could even go wherever he pleased, as long as it was in Diagon Alley - the same restriction that I had - and as Diagon Alley was much more fascinating than anything over in the Muggle world, Harry and I felt no desire to break our word to Fudge. The only reason that I'd been allowed out in the Muggle world before was because I was with Cedric.

It turned out that Harry was easily able to adapt to living away from the Dursley's. While I'd been staying with him, we had fallen into a routine. Harry and I would eat breakfast each morning in the Leaky Cauldron, where it was rather fun to watch the other guests. We had seen funny little witches from the country, up for a day’s shopping; venerable-looking wizards arguing over the latest article in Transfiguration Today; wild-looking warlocks; raucous dwarfs; and once, what looked suspiciously like a hag, who ordered a plate of raw liver from behind a thick woolen balaclava. I'd never wanted to leave the Leaky Cauldron so quickly.

After breakfast Harry and I would go out into the backyard, take out one of our wands, tap the third brick from the left above the trash bin, and stand back as the archway into Diagon Alley opened in the wall. Despite the fact that we had seen everything in Diagon Alley before, the two of us spent the long sunny days exploring the shops and eating under the brightly colored umbrellas outside cafes, where his fellow diners were showing one another their purchases. It was always fun to see what people spent their money.

We'd seen someone buy a lunascope - which I was now dying to have. It turned out that they were an astronomical instrument invented by Perpetua Fancourt, which showed the phases of the moons. It was created to counter the difficulty of using Moon charts. Since I was so miserable with Astronomy, I was itching to buy myself one. But I'd asked Cedric, and they were banned from Hogwarts. Apparently it made Astronomy class useless. All I knew was that by the time we were taking our O.W.L.'s. I would still be no better at the class.

We had also come to frequently listening in on the conversations of others. With just Harry and me together for most of the time, there wasn't much new to talk about. Most witches and wizards that passed were discussing Sirius Black, not that it surprised me. There had been one older witch that had claimed that she wouldn't even let her children out of the house until he was apprehended. I was immediately grateful that she wasn't my mother, and I had tried to cease my complaining about Mom and Dad watching my whereabouts a little closer than usual.

Perhaps one of Harry's favorite things about living in Diagon Alley for the rest of break was the fact that he didn’t have to do his homework under the blankets by flashlight anymore. Now the two of us could sit in the bright sunshine outside Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, finishing all of our essays. It was definitely helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of, more than Mom and Dad, who wouldn't ever help me. Even better than being able to work with each other was that we got the occasional help from Florean Fortescue himself, who, apart from knowing a great deal about medieval witch burnings, gave Harry and I free sundaes every half an hour.

For the first few days, once Harry had refilled his money bag with gold Galleons, silver Sickles, and bronze Knuts from his vault at Gringotts, I had been forced to hold onto his money pouch to keep him from spending the whole lot at once. It was easy once I'd told him that he had five years to go at Hogwarts, and how it would feel to ask the Dursley's for money for spell books, to stop him from buying a handsome set of solid gold Gobstones.

It was a wizarding game rather like marbles, in which the stones squirted a nasty-smelling liquid into the other player’s face when they lose a point. I hated the game, mostly because I'd played with Fred and George a number of times and they always made sure that I was lost. For as crazy as the two of them were, they were much smarter than anyone gave them credit for. Although even I had to admit that I had been sorely tempted by the perfect, moving model of the galaxy in a large glass ball, which would have meant that I never had to take another Astronomy lesson. Harry and I had both had to drag each other away from that one.

In the meantime, I strolled into the Leaky Cauldron and spotted Harry sitting on a bench in the far corner, Hogwarts letter in hand. "Good morning!" I chirped, jumping over the bench to land next to him.

Harry looked up at me and smiled, wrapping an arm over my shoulder. "Morning, Tara. Want to get breakfast?" he asked.

"Absolutely."

The two of us moved off to the side so that we could head over into the bar area. There were a number of people that were sitting around and eating themselves. Harry and I ordered our food and quickly downed it. I had been visiting him about five days out of the week so that I could try and keep him as much company as possible. I only stayed home on the weekend so that I could be with my family or see my other friends. It did make me feel a little bad that I knew that Harry was getting bored with living in Diagon Alley full time.

We were just finishing up our drinks when Harry spoke up. "So what do you want to do today?" he asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I pulled out my Hogwarts letter. "I was thinking about going to get my Hogwarts stuff today. Before all of the monstrous crowds start coming," I said, showing it to him.

"Sounds like a plan," Harry said, gathering his things and turning back towards me. "Ready to go?"

Popping the last piece of bacon into my mouth, I nodded and got to my feet. "Yes." The two of us quickly paid and headed out into the sunlight of the alley. "How about we stop by Quality Quidditch Supplies?" I suggested, seeing the large crowd in front of the store.

Harry turned and glared at me. "That's not on the school list," he said, despite the fact that I could tell that he wanted to go, too.

"Zip it," I snapped.

The two of us smiled and headed towards Quality Quidditch Supplies. It was the one store that always tested my resolve. Mostly because there were about a thousand things in there that I wanted to buy. It was our favorite store. It had always been mine, and Harry had become very fond of it recently. We headed over towards the big crowd to see what it was that they were all staring at. It was rather difficult for Harry and me to edge our way inside and squeeze in among the excited witches and wizards. I had to stand in front of Harry to see what we were looking for. It was a newly erected podium, on which was mounted the most magnificent broom I had ever seen in my life.

And I immediately knew what it was. Dad had been talking about it just the other day. “Just come out - prototype -” a square-jawed wizard was telling his companion.

“It’s the fastest broom in the world, isn’t it, Dad?” a boy just a few years younger than Harry and me squeaked. He was swinging off his father’s arm.

The shop owner was shouting loudly enough so that we could all hear him. “Irish International Side’s just put in an order for seven of these beauties! And they’re favorites for the World Cup!” he cried.

Harry leaned over to me and spoke as loudly as possible. "What's that?" he asked me, over the roar of the crowd.

I looked over at him with a brilliant smile. He would be in love the second that I told him what the new broomstick was. "The new Firebolt. It's a new broomstick. Dad is getting one soon and I'm dying to try it," I said jealously. Dad would be getting one in a matter of weeks, probably right after I would be at Hogwarts. "It makes Malfoy's Nimbus Two Thousand and One look like the old Cleansweeps."

Harry's eyebrows rose to the top of his forehead. "It's that good?" he asked.

"Better," I said.

And it really was. The Bulgarian, Irish, and United States teams would be getting them as soon as they were available for mass production, just before the start of the new Quidditch season. Dad - being an ex-player - would be grandfathered in and allowed to get one with his old teammates. I knew that it was Ash, one of the hardest woods around. It would make it pretty impervious to any beatings that it would take out on the Pitch. A large witch that had been standing in front of Harry and I moved, and we were able to read the sign next to the broom:

THE FIREBOLT

THIS STATE-OF-THE-ART RACING BROOM SPORTS A STREAM-LINED, SUPERFINE HANDLE OF ASH, TREATED WITH A DIAMOND-HARD POLISH AND HAND-NUMBERED WITH ITS OWN REGISTRATION NUMBER. EACH INDIVIDUALLY SELECTED BIRCH TWIG IN THE BROOMTAIL HAS BEEN HONED TO AERODYNAMIC PERFECTION, GIVING THE FIREBOLT UNSURPASSABLE BALANCE AND PINPOINT PRECISION. THE FIREBOLT HAS AN ACCELERATION OF 150 MILES AN HOUR IN TEN SECONDS AND INCORPORATES AN UNBREAKABLE BRAKING CHARM. PRICE ON REQUEST.

Price on request. That always meant that it was far too expensive for anyone to buy. At least, anyone that wasn't as wealthy as the Malfoy's. "How much is it?" Harry asked me, once he had finished reading the sign.

Dad had told me when we'd first heard about the new broom and I'd nearly fainted. "Almost five times as much as the Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones when they were still in early reserve," I said.

That had been when the Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones were at their most expensive. Either way, I knew that there was no way that I would ever be able to buy that broom. "Wow," Harry muttered.

"Maybe by the time that they've come out with the second version, we'll be able to afford one," I said, whining softly.

The one thing that I wanted was that new Firebolt. I could even give Fred or George my old Nimbus. Maybe it would help them keep the damn Bludgers away from me this year. "How much do you think that we can afford right now?" Harry asked.

"Between the two of us? Two twigs," I said.

We both laughed, despite being upset that we wouldn't be able to purchase the Firebolt. And even with top marks in my year - only occasionally bested by Hermione - I knew that my parents wouldn't buy me one. I had never wanted anything as much in my entire life, but complaining about it would get me nowhere. The Nimbus Two Thousands were good brooms and, between Harry and me, we had never lost a Quidditch match on them. The Nimbus Two Thousand was no Firebolt, but it was still a very good broom. After all, only the Nimbus Two Thousand and One (which the entire Slytherin team had because of Malfoy's father) was better, and we could beat Slytherin even without them.

It was very hard for the two of us to grab each other and drag ourselves away from the shop. But there were things that the two of us needed to buy. We went to the Apothecary to replenish our stores of potions ingredients first. It was easy enough. All of the school sets - excluding the N.E.W.T. level course - were exactly the same. It turned out that his school robes were now several inches too short in the arm and leg. So we visited Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions and bought ourselves all of the new clothes that we needed. Between the two of us, we left with a number of bags that were surprisingly heavy.

We also went to buy ourselves some new ink bottles and quills, along with parchment and some new journals, which I found much more useful than parchment. But school assignments were to be done on parchment, so it was only notes that would go into the journals. Most important of all, we had to buy our new schoolbooks, which would include those for Harry's two new subjects, Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. I also had my own new books that I needed. But I had a great deal more, considering I was taking six new classes; Ancient Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes, and Music.

Halfway to Flourish and Blotts, Harry looked over my Hogwarts letter and stared over at me. "What books do you need?" he asked.

"For Ancient Studies we have two. A Guide to Medieval Sorcery and A History of Magic. I already have the second one. For Care of Magical Creatures we have The Monster Book of Monsters. For Divination we have Unfogging the Future. Arithmancy has Numerology and Grammatica. For Study of Ancient Runes I need a few. Ancient Runes Made Easy, Rune Dictionary, and Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms. I don't need a book for my Music class. They're going to give us sheet music," I said.

Harry was staring at me like I'd lost my mind. "How are you going to have time for all of this?" he asked.

In all honesty, I was thinking that I might have to drop one or two of the classes. But I would try to take everything. They all sounded like fun, excluding maybe Divination. "I don't know. I'll figure it out," I muttered.

The two of us were in for a surprise when we looked in at the bookshop window. Instead of the usual display of gold-embossed spell books the size of paving slabs, there was a large iron cage behind the glass that held about a hundred copies of The Monster Book of Monsters. I had been so busy just reciting the books that we needed for the year, I hadn't actually paid attention and realized that The Monster Book of Monsters was actually a required book this year. Torn pages were flying everywhere as the books grappled with each other, locked together in furious wrestling matches and snapping aggressively. It would certainly be interesting to see how the students reacted to using them.

Harry pulled his book list out of his pocket and the two of us put our heads together to read it. Just like on mine, The Monster Book of Monsters was listed as the required book for Care of Magical Creatures. Now it made sense as to why Hagrid had said it would come in handy. It was actually a little bit of a relief that Hagrid had only given Harry the book because it was required for a class. For a while the two of us had been wondering whether Hagrid wanted help with some terrifying new pet. A Norwegian Ridgeback and Cerberus were enough for me.

As we entered Flourish and Blotts, the manager came hurrying toward them. He looked extremely flustered. “Hogwarts?” he asked abruptly. We both nodded, dumbfounded. “Come to get your new books?”

“Yes,” Harry started, “We need -”

“Get out of the way,” the manager said impatiently, brushing us aside.

We were both knocked out of the way quickly. I was practically thrown out of the manager's way as Harry managed to catch me, pushing me back into place. He kept me at his side as we followed the manager up towards the window. He drew on a pair of very thick gloves, picked up a large, knobbly walking stick, and proceeded toward the door of the Monster Books’ cage. That must have been why he looked so tired. He was sick of having to get the Monster Books out of the cage and wrestle with them.

“Hang on. I’ve already got one of those,” Harry said quickly.

“Have you?” the manager asked. He looked quite relieved. “Thank heavens for that. I’ve been bitten five times already this morning.”

Feeling a little bit guilty for asking what I knew that he didn't want, I said, "I need one."

The look of relief on the manager's face turned into one of bored frustration. "Of course you do," he muttered.

He placed the gloves back onto his hands and leaned over the cage. It was obvious enough to see that he was hesitating. He merely stared at them for a second before quickly reaching into the cage. Almost immediately, two Monster Books launched after him. They both caught onto his hands and he began to howl in pain, bashing them against the side of the cage. One let go after a few seconds and he quickly pulled the other out of the of the cage, stepping down on it and sealing the book once more. He looked back up at me, wiping the sweat off of his forehead and handing the book to me, slightly rougher than he probably should have.

"Thank you," I muttered awkwardly.

The silence was quickly broken. A loud ripping noise rent the air; two of the Monster Books had seized a third and were pulling it apart. “Stop it! Stop it!” the manager cried, poking the walking stick through the bars and knocking the books apart. “I’m never stocking them again, never! It’s been bedlam! I thought we’d seen the worst when we bought two hundred copies of the Invisible Book of Invisibility - cost a fortune, and we never found them... Well... is there anything else I can help you with?”

Harry and I exchanged a look as we glanced back down at our book lists. “Yes. We need two copies of Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky,” Harry said, reading from the list.

This time the manager looked slightly relieved. “Ah, starting Divination, are you?” the manager asked, stripping off his gloves and leading Harry and me into the back of the shop, where there was a corner devoted to fortune-telling.

"Yes, Sir," I said.

The more that I looked at the Divination material, the more that I was sure that I shouldn't have signed up for the class. It looked like it was going to be a miserable time. As we walked into the aisle, I saw that there was a small table was stacked with volumes such as Predicting the Unpredictable: Insulate Yourself Against Shocks and Broken Balls: When Fortunes Turn Foul. They were all things that Mom and Dad would have called utter rubbish. Neither one believed that Divination was good for anything more than a laugh.

The manager climbed up a set of steps to take down a tick, black-bound book. “Here you are,” he said, handing the copies of the books over to us. “Unfogging the Future. Very good guide to all your basic fortune-telling methods - palmistry, crystal balls, bird entrails -”

The moment that I heard the part about bird entrails, I'd tuned out and stopped listening. The last thing that I wanted to hear about was the fact that we would have to play with bird feces while in Divination class. It seemed that Harry had tuned out as well. His eyes had fallen on another book, which was among a display on a small table: Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst Is Coming. I glanced over at it and rolled my eyes. It was books like those that made people die of paranoia. And, considering who he was, Harry would start seeing death omens everywhere.

“Oh, I wouldn’t read that if I were you,” the manager said lightly, looking to see what we were staring at. “You’ll start seeing death omens everywhere. It’s enough to frighten anyone to death.”

As much as I tried to drag Harry away from the book, he refused. He was caught up in staring at the book. Not that I could understand why. It wasn't going to do anything other than make him paranoid. Although I found myself entranced with the book a moment later. The picture on the front cover of the book had captured my attention. It showed a black dog large as a bear, with gleaming eyes. It looked oddly familiar... Snuffles... But there was no way. He was just a stray dog that wasn't quite as nice as I had originally thought that he was. The manager pressed two copies of Unfogging the Future into Harry and I's hands.

With one glance at Harry, I saw that he was thinking the same thing that I was. "Don't. It was just a stray dog," I muttered to him.

"But -" Harry started, being quickly interrupted.

“Anything else?” the manager asked.

Thankfully nothing as violent as the Monster Book. “Yes,” Harry said, finally tearing his eyes away from the dog’s and dazedly consulting his book list. “Er - We also need Intermediate Transfiguration and The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Three.”

The manger nodded at him. "Okay. Anything else?" he asked.

Harry motioned over to me. I nodded at the manager and showed him the list, pointing towards the names of the books that I still needed. "Yes. I need A Guide to Medieval Sorcery, Numerology and Grammatica, Ancient Runes Made Easy, Rune Dictionary, and Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms," I said, watching as the manager gave me a befuddled look.

"How many classes are you taking?" the manager finally asked me.

I really hadn't thought that I'd signed up for that many classes, but apparently it was a large amount. Everyone always questioned me on how many I had decided to take. "Evidently a lot," I muttered under my breath.

The manager merely snorted at me. "Best of luck," he said.

It took almost half an hour for the manager to find all of the books that I needed. It was a good thing that I didn't need any books for Music, because I was certain that I wouldn't have been able to carry them. Harry and I emerged from Flourish and Blotts after we had paid for everything with our new books under our arms. It was slow progress as we made our way back to the Leaky Cauldron, considering how heavy the books were, along with the rest of our packages. The walk was silent as we both were still caught up thinking about the large bear-like dog on the front cover of the death omens book. It did look an awful lot like Snuffles.

I was hardly noticing where I was going and had managed to bump into several people. Once we finally got to the Leaky Cauldron, the two of us tramped up the stairs to his room, went inside, and tipped our packages onto his bed. I had decided to leave them here and collect them before the start of the new school year. The room was quiet as I took a spot on the bed for a few moments. The windows were open and sun was pouring inside. It was easy to hear the buses rolling by in the unseen Muggle street behind us and the sound of the invisible crowd below in Diagon Alley. It was rather funny to think about how everyone was going along with their days, enjoying themselves, and we were stuck thinking about a potential death omen.

I watched as Harry caught sight of himself in the mirror over the basin. “It can’t have been a death omen. I was panicking when I saw that thing in Magnolia Crescent... It was probably just a stray dog...” he told his reflection defiantly.

Despite the fact that I hadn't been saying it out loud, I had been repeating the same mantra to myself over the past few minutes. "It wasn't a death omen. It was just a stray dog. That thing used to hang around me all the time," I said, feeling almost unsure.

Harry raised his hand automatically and tried to make his hair lie flat. “You’re fighting a losing battle there, dear,” his mirror said in a wheezy voice.

Harry sighed and I smiled at him. At least there were still the occasional things to make us smile. "It's right," I told Harry, removing his hand from his hair. "Alright, I'm gonna head back home. I'll see you tomorrow. Try not to think about the book."

"Bye, Tara."

The two of us embraced each other quickly and I departed from the Leaky Cauldron, giving Tom a quick wave as I fled back towards Flourish and Blotts. I waved at the manager before slipping back into the fireplace and heading home. Mom and Dad already had dinner out and I sat down with them, telling them everything about our trip to Diagon Alley, letting them know how Harry was, and ensuring to them that I had gotten all of my school things. Of course, I had left out the part about the death omen. We were in the muddle of having a pie for dessert when Dai swooped in through the open window. He had taken off a few days ago to deliver letters for me.

He was swooping right towards my plate and I realized that he was far too low. "No, no, no, not in the -!" I cut myself off, considering that it was too late. "Pie..." Dai had landed right in the pie, splattering it everywhere.

He was now kneeling over the pie and nibbling at it. There went the rest of my dessert. "You have to admit that that owl has some aim," Dad said through a laugh.

"Yeah. Thanks, you overgrown pigeon," I snapped, taking the letter from Dai.

"Who's that from?" Dad asked.

"Ron," I said quickly. "I'll take the dishes in."

My parents thanked me as I stuffed the letter in the back of my pants and gathered the plates, balancing them all on my arms and calling back that I didn't need help. I didn't want them seeing me open the letter, and I knew that if I tried to open it upstairs they would know that it was from someone that I didn't want to admit, and they would have taken it. So I walked into the kitchen and dumped the dishes in the sink, running the water and scrubbing them for a moment. As I continued to let the water run, I leaned back against the sink and slit open the letter, pulling out the piece of parchment inside, smiling softly. It was from Cedric.

Tara,

It's been a while since I've seen you and things are incredibly boring back home. Okay, it hasn't been that long, but I'm bored. Dad's working on some case that's apparently quite something. I happened to overhear something about you blowing up some Muggle woman. What on earth have you been doing over the past few weeks? You're already starting a disaster. You've even beaten your record from last year. And that's tough.

Not that I should have expected you to stay out of trouble all summer. How about you tell me all about your adventures over a day at Diagon Alley? I know you mentioned that you'd already gotten your school things, but I haven't yet. How about keeping me company? I'll even throw in a Butterbeer to entice you.

I'll be at Flourish and Blotts in three days, at noon, if you'd like to meet me.

Hope to see you soon,  
Cedric.

Despite the fact that I'd already gotten everything that I needed for Hogwarts, I decided to meet Cedric anyways. The weekend passed in much of a blur, as they normally did. Ron and Ginny came to visit for dinner on Saturday, as Mom and Dad hadn't gotten much of a chance to meet her, and Ron still had to finish his witch burning essay that Hermione refused to help him with. So I had decided to give him a hand, with the promise that he would buy me an ice cream one day. He had also told me that he and Hermione would be in Diagon Alley on the last day of the holidays so that we would all be able to meet up together.

Finally Monday afternoon came and I walked out into the living room after getting changed. Mom and Dad had just come home from lunch and would be headed back to work at any moment. "I'm gonna head out for a while," I called to them.

"You seeing Harry?" Dad asked.

"Yeah. I'll tell him you said hello," I muttered.

It was halfway true. I would see Harry at some point today. We had plans to meet up later this afternoon. "Bring him by for dinner tonight. That food at the Leaky Cauldron is terrible for you kids," Mom said, barely looking up from her papers.

Smiling slightly, I nodded. "I'll let him know," I called back.

They were both busy with paperwork as I quickly walked over and gave them both hugs. In the meantime I walked over to the fireplace and grabbed myself a little bit of Floo powder. I tossed the powder down and called for Diagon Alley. The fire roared up around me and spit me out in the fireplace of Flourish and Blotts. I headed into the bathroom to clean the soot and powder from my hair and face, walking back outside and heading into the center of the store. I knew that he would be around here somewhere. And I had a funny feeling that he would be in the Charms section, as that was one of his favorite subjects.

Barely two minutes passed before I spotted him. He was reading an old-fashioned book, holding it in his hands. "Hi, stranger," I chirped, popping up behind him.

He jumped slightly, slamming the book closed. He clasped a hand over his chest and laughed as he saw that it was me. "You scared me," he said, bringing me in for a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you?" I asked, leaning up against the bookshelf.

Cedric ran a hand through his hair and placed the book down on the table. People were walking back and forth all around the store, most of them Hogwarts students looking for their spell books. "I'll be better once I'm back at Hogwarts. I love being back home with Dad and all, but it gets a little boring with him being at work all of the time," Cedric admitted.

Sighing softly, I nodded at him. We were in the same position, with parents that both worked at the Ministry. "I understand that. Mom and Dad are always busy too," I said.

"That's what we get for having parents that work in the Ministry," Cedric teased.

I smiled at him and picked up the book that he had set down. He was reading Extreme Incantations, an old-fashioned book that had just about every useful charm in existence. I had a copy myself and I knew that, despite being very useful, it was also extremely wordy and boring. "That looks like a thrilling book you've got there," I teased, pointing to the book.

Cedric laughed and picked up the book, tucking it into his chest. "Oh, you know, required reading. Loads of fun," he said. The two of us walked over to the cashier so that he could buy it. "Do you want to go to the Leaky Cauldron?"

For a moment it actually sounded nice. But I wasn't in the mood to sit. I wanted to get up and walk around. "Let's go for a walk. It's so nice out today," I said, walking towards the door.

Cedric nodded at me. "Okay." He opened the door for me and the two of us walked out into the sun, heading down the alley. "So tell me all about this aunt that you blew up," he said after a few beats.

Despite how serious the whole incident could have been, I laughed. It was just funny the way that the whole thing sounded. It sounded absolutely ridiculous when I said it. But I launched into the entire story to tell him what had happened. I started with the way that I had met Marge Dursley all of those years ago. He listened as I told him about the nightmare that she was and all about the majority of her stay with the Dursley's. He looked furious about everything that she had told me, but I'd merely brushed him off. It was no big deal. She wasn't my family. I'd ended my story with the disastrous dinner that had led to her ballooning.

The entire thing had taken me a long time to go over. Cedric was shaking his head slowly as he looped an arm over my shoulder. Despite the warm air, I said nothing. I rather liked my new placement. "She sounds like an awful woman," he told me.

Nodding at him, I moved towards the east end of the alley. "She really is. She deserved everything that she got. I just wish that they would have left her inflated for a little while longer," I said.

Cedric laughed, tightening his grip on my shoulders for a moment. "So how'd you manage to talk yourself out of it?" he asked after a little silence.

"Believe it or not, I didn't actually talk myself out of it," I said.

Cedric's gaze turned to me quickly. He looked as confused as I had felt when it had happened. "So you just used your natural charm to get out of it?" he asked teasingly.

Irritatingly enough, his comment made color rush to my cheeks. "Actually it was kind of strange. Fudge himself came to see us and talk to us," I said, earning a shocked look. "It sounded like he was trying to keep us out of trouble, as long as we were in his sight. He only sounded angry that we had disappeared for a while."

Cedric stared at me for a long time as we passed store after store. "That's odd. You would think that he would be furious. Like you said, you'd already gotten a letter about underage wizardry," Cedric finally said. I turned a playful glare on him. The last thing that I wanted was to end up expelled from Hogwarts. "Not that I want you to be expelled from Hogwarts," he quickly rectified.

Laughing softly, I nudged against his side, making the two of us stagger slightly into the crowd. "We would have a fight if you wanted me to get expelled," I teased.

"I wouldn't want to fight with you," Cedric said.

Blushing softly from the comment, once more irritating me, I turned the topic back towards something a little darker. "We were thinking that it might have something to do with Black's escape from Azkaban," I muttered softly, not wanting anyone to overhear.

I had definitely piqued Cedric's interest. His gaze snapped over to me. "How's that?" he asked.

That was the real question. I shook my head and continued walking down the alley, trying to steer him away from the crowds. "I don't know. It just seems like ever since he escaped from Azkaban, my parents have been keeping a closer eye on Harry and me. They never ask me where I'm going, but now, all of a sudden, they're always curious where I am and who I'm with. And I'm not allowed over to the Muggle side of London. That's never been a rule before," I said, knowing that I just sounded like a whiny brat.

"Maybe they're just being more protective than usual," he reasoned.

For a while that had been what I was thinking too. But I knew the truth. After overhearing the conversation between my parents, I knew that it all had something to do with Sirius Black. "No. It's not just that. I... overheard something," I muttered awkwardly.

Cedric stopped walking and pulled the two of us under one of the shades, away from any prying ears. "What?" he asked, grabbing my hands. Should I tell him? Was it even fair to tell him? "You can tell me, Tara."

He wanted to know. I would have wanted to know, no matter what it meant. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I always shared our problems with each other. Almost always. The boxes from the mystery sender were another thing. But maybe this was one problem that I would pass on sharing with them to leave with someone else. That was only fair. Cedric was always telling me that I couldn't keep everything to myself. I definitely had enough problems to give myself a heart attack. It might help me to tell him. At least to have someone else to bounce ideas off of. Someone that wasn't quite as objective as Harry, Ron, or Hermione would be.

So I decided to go for it. "One night I overheard my parents talking. It was just after Black escaped. They were saying that they used to know him," I said. Cedric didn't look surprised. Of course, I hadn't been shocked either. They were around the same age. "And then Dad asked Mom if she thought that he would come after 'them.' Mom said that she knew that he would."

Now that did earn a surprised look. He didn't seem horrified though. He merely stood for a moment, pondering my story. "They could have been talking about anyone," Cedric said.

But they weren't talking about anyone. They were talking about Harry and me. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. "You look me in the eye and tell me that you think that they're talking about anyone other than Harry and me," I told him sharply.

Cedric's face flushed and he cleared his throat. "But why you two?" he finally asked, conceding to the fact that my parents had definitely been talking about us. "You were babies when Black was put behind bars."

Sighing softly, I shook my head. "I don't know," I muttered.

The two of us stood in silence before Cedric playfully nudged my chin upwards so that I was looking at him. "I'll tell you one thing. You might not have the easiest life, but you'll never be bored," Cedric finally said, breaking the silence.

The two of us started laughing loudly at each other. "There's the upside," I teased playfully.

It took us a few moments to calm down before Cedric placed a hand behind my back, probably trying to calm me down slightly. "You'll be back at Hogwarts in a few weeks and there won't be anything to worry about. Even You-Know-Who would never dare cross Professor Dumbledore. Sirius Black certainly wouldn't either," he reassured me.

Tilting my head to the side, I nodded at him. "You're not wrong about that," I finally admitted.

And he was right. No one ever dared to cross Dumbledore. Not Voldemort and certainly not Sirius Black, who couldn't have been nearly as powerful. "I'm very rarely wrong," Cedric said haughtily, nudging me.

We both laughed at his statement as I shoved him away from me. "Careful. You're starting to sound like me," I teased.

"That's not such a bad thing," he said. My face lit up a brilliant red, infuriating me only so much more. Maybe I would have to see if Madam Primpernelle's had anything to stop me from blushing. "Come on. Let's go on a walk."

I was very grateful that he said something to distract me. "Okay," I said.

We walked together for a few moments when Cedric turned towards me. "Oh, did you see the new Firebolt?" he asked. He had the same fascinated glaze in his eyes when he spoke about it as I did.

"Are you kidding? Of course!" I barked excitedly. He started laughing. We were both Quidditch enthusiasts, particularly since we were both players on our respective school teams. "Dad's getting one in a few weeks."

Cedric groaned with jealousy. "You have to let me know how it is," he said.

Shaking my head at him, I walked towards Florean Fortescue's. I was in the mood for some ice cream. "He'd sooner take my hand off than let me touch that thing," I told Cedric. We both laughed loudly at the thought. Mostly because it was true.

As much as Dad loved me, and loved that I shared his enthusiasm for Quidditch, he would never let me touch his new broomstick. He had let me borrow the Nimbus Two Thousand and his old Cleansweep before that, but there was no way that he would ever let me have the Firebolt. He knew that I could be a little reckless with brooms. But I wished that he realized that I wouldn't do anything to his broomstick. I just wanted to give it a quick fly around the Stars Pitch before heading back to Hogwarts with my old Nimbus.

The two of us ended up spending most of the day walking around together and laughing. It was rather fun for the two of us to just enjoy a day together. And he was good to keep my mind off of everything that was already happening. He always had been good for that. We spent most of our day in Quality Quidditch Supplies, marveling at the Firebolt. Eventually we'd had to pull each other out of the store before we blew our savings on a new broom. We had ended up going to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and sharing an ice cream. I'd even introduced Cedric to Florean Fortescue himself. We'd sat outside so that we could enjoy the beautiful weather for the day.

It wasn't long before we had finished the ice cream float that we'd gotten and went to perusing through the shops. There were a number of funny things that we'd spotted in the shops, including a joke quill that would allow you to write everything on a sheet of parchment before it all magically disappeared. We had both agreed that it was rather cruel, but funny. We dashed in and out through the stores and even managed to spot Cedric's friends from Hufflepuff. The two of us stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes before heading on and back towards the Leaky Cauldron. It was pushing five and I needed to grab Harry and get home for dinner.

We were about halfway there when I grabbed Cedric's hand to stop him. "I had so much fun today, but I really should leave," I said.

Cedric glanced down at the Muggle watch on his wrist and nodded. "Me, too. Walk you back to Flourish and Blotts?" he offered.

"Actually I need to go to the Leaky Cauldron."

"Oh?"

I nodded at him with a small smile. "Harry's staying there until the break is over and Mom and Dad asked me to bring him over for dinner tonight. So I'm going to grab him and then head back to Flourish and Blotts," I explained.

Cedric merely nodded back at me. "Alright. Mind me accompanying you over?" he asked. I couldn't imagine why he wanted to go to the Leaky Cauldron, but I wouldn't complain if he wanted to stay with me for a while longer. "I'm heading back through the Muggle side of London."

"Sure."

The two of us merely walked over towards the Leaky Cauldron on the other end of the alley. We must have walked up and down the alley at least ten times over the past few hours. At least it was some good exercise. I really did need to grab Harry and be on our way. I'd been home a little late the other day and I swore that I'd never seen Mom or Dad so upset with me. It was rather strange, considering I'd just been a few minutes late. Whatever was going on, they were definitely afraid for my well-being. Cedric and I walked into the Leaky Cauldron and stopped at the stairs that led up to the rooms.

I stood on the first step as Cedric stood at the ground level. It put us a little bit closer to the same height. "Thanks. I'll see you soon, yeah?" I asked, leaning up against the railing.

Cedric nodded at me. "Yeah. Hogwarts Express, if no sooner," he said.

"Okay."

The two of us smiled awkwardly at each other as I laughed under my breath. I wasn't quite sure how we were supposed to say goodbye, if we should hug or just wave to each other. Saying goodbye was always the most awkward part. I wasn't even sure if this was a date or anything of the likes or if we were just friends having a nice day together. It was very obvious from the way that Cedric was smiling awkwardly back at me that he didn't know what this was either. I felt extremely stupid as he leaned forward and gave me a quick hug. Of course. What else would he have wanted?

It was what I had thought a thousand times before. I was too young for him and we were just friends. He really didn't want anything more to do with me than friendship. As we pulled away from each other I noticed that his eyes very briefly darted down to my mouth, lingering there for just a moment, before shooting back up to my eyes. We both smiled and laughed at each other. Neither one of us had pulled away from the hug that we had just been in. We were still pressed against each other, myself trapped between the railing and him. For just a moment I swore that he was leaning down towards me. For a kiss maybe? That certainly seemed what it was.

We were just a few inches from each other when a call echoed from the top of the staircase. "Tara?"

Cedric and I shot apart, bouncing to each end of the staircase. "Oh!" I squeaked in surprise. I glanced upwards and saw that Harry was standing at the top of the staircase, looking not at all thrilled with me. "Harry. You're ready."

Cedric was awkwardly running his hands through his hair. "Hello, Harry," he greeted.

"Hi, Cedric," Harry said tersely.

The three of us all started at each other for a while before I decided that I should do something. "Um... Thank you for taking me back, Cedric. I had fun today. I'll see you soon," I said.

Cedric nodded at me, seemingly realizing that he probably shouldn't linger here any longer. "Yeah. Yeah. I'll see you soon. Thanks for coming. See you both at school," he said, waving us both off.

As much as I would have loved to find out what was going to happen between the two of us, I would have never done it with Harry standing right there. He smiled as us and left through the Muggle side. Harry slowly descended the staircase and came to stand beside me as I whacked him roughly in the arm. Harry hissed in pain and retracted his arm towards his chest.

"Thanks for that!" I barked.

"He was going to kiss you!" Harry shouted.

Of course he was planning on kissing me! I wanted to see what was going to happen if he kissed me. I was sick of dancing around my dumb little kiss. "I know what he was going to do!" I shouted back.

Harry rolled his eyes at me. "You really have to get over your stupid crush," he muttered.

"Shut up," I snapped. I knew that I had to get over my crush, but it wasn't something that could just happen. I had to wait to get over it naturally ."If you mention this to my parents, I will kill you."

"If you do anything, I'll kill both of you," Harry warned.

"Thank you, Mother," I teased.

Despite the tense start of the conversation, Harry and I smiled and laughed, heading back towards Flourish and Blotts and heading back to my house. Mom and Dad were thrilled to see Harry, whom they hadn't seen in a few days. They obviously didn't like that Harry wasn't living near them. But they said nothing about it and we merely enjoyed our dinner together. Although it was very hard to completely avoid the Cedric topic when Harry kept throwing teasing comments at me. It went without saying that I was thrilled when it was time for Harry to leave. As much as I loved him, he really was as annoying as a younger brother.

It didn't take us long to get back to normal. Cedric had gone back about his normal days and I hadn't seen him much since our day in Diagon Alley, probably for the best, considering that Harry still wasn't overly thrilled with him. I merely returned to spending my days with Harry, walking through the stores and keeping him company. It was getting boring, the closer that we got to the start of the school year. As the days slipped by, Harry and I started looking wherever we went for a sign of our friends. I knew that he was looking for Ron or Hermione. I kept forgetting to mention to him that they would be coming soon enough, so I merely watched for my other friends.

Plenty of Hogwarts students were arriving in Diagon Alley now, with the start of term so near. The two of us met up with Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, our fellow Gryffindor's, in Quality Quidditch Supplies, where they too were ogling the Firebolt. We ended up having lunch together and joking about how pooling our savings might help us buy half of the Firebolt. We also ran into the real Neville Longbottom, a round-faced, forgetful boy, outside Flourish and Blotts. We didn’t stop to chat. Neville appeared to have mislaid his book list and was being told off by his very formidable-looking grandmother. I'd even run into Lavender, Parvati, and Fay, walking around with them for a few hours. Oliver Woods, the Gryffindor Quidditch team captain, spent most of his days staring wistfully at the Firebolt with the rest of the team.

It was the last day of the holidays that I found myself extremely excited. I would see Ron and Hermione after weeks apart, and I would be back at Hogwarts by tomorrow night. I hadn't seen Cedric since the incident in the Leaky Cauldron so I was resigned to thinking that I would see him on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow. I got up, dressed for some of the last bits of warm weather that we would have, and headed downstairs. Mom and Dad gave me a quick breakfast with a reminder to be back at the Leaky Cauldron for dinner with everyone, when I turned and headed into the fireplace. I shouted for Diagon Alley and popped out in Flourish and Blotts, quickly heading towards the Leaky Cauldron.

I walked inside and caught Harry finishing up his breakfast. "Surprise!" I shouted, dropping down next to Harry.

Harry glanced up in surprise, smiling at me. "What are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you," he said.

We had just been planning on meeting at King's Cross tomorrow, but the plan had changed. "Ron and Hermione are coming today. I got Ron's letter this morning," I said brightly. Harry was also smiling at the thought. "I thought that it would be a nice chance for us to see them before getting on the Express tomorrow. Plus I'll be staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight with Mom and Dad."

Harry turned to look at me, placing his tea cup down. "Oh? Why?" he asked.

"Because we wanted to be able to just get up and go in the morning, and we'll be able to help you. That's a lot of stuff for one person to carry," I said, remembering all of the packages that he had up in his room.

Harry smiled softly. "That's sweet of them," he said.

"Come on, let's go find them," I said, trying to drag him off to find Hermione and Ron.

But it turned out that we didn't need to. Hermione's voice rang out through the alley. “Harry! Tara! Harry!” she called.

They were right where they had been last summer, both of them, sitting outside Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor. They each had their own ice creams but they were completely forgotten about the moment that they saw us. Ron was looking incredibly freckly and a little irritated, as he normally was whenever Hermione was around. Hermione was looking very brown with her poof of hair floating out all around her head. They were both waving frantically at us as we ran over to them.

"Hi, guys!" I chirped. I jumped forward and launched myself at them. Hermione was practically on top of me as I was crushed into Ron. The three of us laughed for a moment as Hermione finally got off of me to hug Harry and allowed Ron to help me back to my feet. I glanced up at him and sighed. "I saw you just a few weeks ago and I swear that you're taller. This needs to stop."

Ron laughed and patted me on the top of the head. "Poor little pipsqueak," he teased. I glared at him and stomped down roughly on his foot. "Ouch!"

"You deserved it," both Hermione and I said.

"Here," Ron said, handing me the other half of his ice cream.

"Thanks," I said.

It took the four of us a few seconds to get situated around the small table. “Finally!” Ron said excitedly, grinning at Harry as he sat down. “We went to the Leaky Cauldron, but they said you’d left, and we went to Flourish and Blotts, and Madam Malkin’s, and -”

“We got all of our school stuff last week,” Harry explained as to why we hadn't been at any of the normal stores to get our school things. “And how come you knew I’m staying at the Leaky Cauldron?”

“Dad,” Ron said simply.

That made complete sense. Of course Mr. Weasley, who worked at the Ministry of Magic, would have heard the whole story of what had happened to Marge Dursley. It was the same way that Amos Diggory would have found out what had happened and told Cedric. Plus it helped that Mom and Dad worked with Mr. Weasley and saw Mrs. Weasley on a regular basis. There was no doubt that they would have explained what had happened with Marge Dursley to Ron's parents, and they would have told Ron and the others. No doubt was Percy beside himself at our disobedience to the law, Fred and George were wondering how we did it, and Ron and Ginny were laughing about it.

The three of us sat together and munched on our ice creams for a few seconds. “Did you really blow up your aunt, Harry? And, Tara, honestly, you helped?” Hermione asked in a very serious voice.

Not even into the new semester yet and Hermione was already chastising us about something. "It was an accident, you goof!" I barked at her.

While Harry paled slightly, I began to giggle. Now that I knew that we weren't going to get expelled for it, it was a little funny. “I didn’t mean to. I just - lost control,” Harry said as Ron roared with laughter.

Hermione was still glaring at us, clearly not sharing Ron's sentiment. "You should have heard what she was saying. Being blown up was the least of the things that we could have done to her," I told her.

But she still didn't approve of what had happened. “It’s not funny, Ron,” Hermione said sharply. But Ron continued to laugh. “Honestly, I’m amazed the two of them weren't expelled.”

“So were we. Forget expelled, I thought I was going to be arrested,” Harry admitted, looking at the other two. He then looked at Ron. “Your dad doesn’t know why Fudge let us off, does he?”

Unlike Harry and I, Ron thought that the entire thing was no big deal. “Probably ’cause it’s you, isn’t it?” Ron asked, shrugging his shoulders and still chuckling. “Famous Harry Potter and all that. And you..." He glanced over at me and looked me up and down. "You're just along for the ride."

"Thanks," I deadpanned.

"It's probably because they couldn't have let Harry off and not Tara," Hermione said, stepping in to my defense.

"Plus your family has in's with the Ministry," Ron put in.

But I still had a feeling that it was something more. It couldn't have just been that. "We were thinking that Mom and Dad were the ones that probably managed to get us out of trouble in the first place," I finally said.

It seemed that Ron and Hermione both agreed with that theory. "I’d hate to see what the Ministry would do to me if I blew up an aunt. Mind you, they’d have to dig me up first, because Mum would’ve killed me," Ron said, making us all laugh. He was right about that. Mrs. Weasley would have flayed him if he'd done it. "Anyway, you can ask Dad yourself this evening. We’re staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight too! So you can come to King’s Cross with us tomorrow! Hermione’s there as well!”

Harry and I exchanged an excited look. I had thought that it would just be the two of us but I was thrilled to hear that all four of us would be there. And it meant that the other Weasley's would be there too. "Awesome!" I chirped excitedly.

Hermione nodded, beaming. “Mum and Dad dropped me off this morning with all my Hogwarts things.”

“Excellent!” Harry said happily. “So, have you got all your new books and stuff?”

Both of them nodded. “Look at this,” Ron said, pulling a long thin box out of a bag and opening it. His parents had finally gotten him a new wand. At least he wouldn't have to use a hand-me-down anymore. “Brand-new wand. Fourteen inches, willow, containing one unicorn tail-hair."

Ron allowed both Harry and me to look at the wand. It was rather nice. "Wow. Although I will always hold a love in my heart for your old wand, considering what it did to Lockhart," I said, earning laughs from Harry and Ron.

He glanced over at me and smiled, placing a hand on the back of my shoulders. "We can have a proper funeral for it, reminiscing the wonderful times that we had with it," he teased, making us both laugh once more.

Hermione was glaring at us. "Honestly, it's not funny. He could have died," she snapped.

Even after all of this time and everything that Lockhart had done to us last year, she was still trying to defend him. Her case with him was almost useless. "You realize that he was trying to erase our minds and leave us to die? He's a crook, Hermione!" I snapped at her before leaning backwards and curling up in the metal chair. "Merlin hopes that we have a female Defense professor this year."

Ron nodded excitedly and patted me on the back. "I second that. And we’ve got all our books.” He pointed at a large bag under his chair. But his was nothing compared to the monstrous pile of books that Hermione had. She had three bags that were each overflowing. “What about those Monster Books, eh? The assistant nearly cried when we said we wanted two.”

“What’s all that, Hermione?” Harry asked, pointing at the three bulging bags in the chair next to her.

She looked almost affronted at the fact that Harry had questioned her on it. “Well, I’m taking more new subjects than you, aren’t I?” she asked stiffly. Harry said nothing, smart enough to not push the subject. "You have yours, too, right Tara?"

"Yeah. Although the manager of Flourish and Blotts looked at me like I was insane when he saw how many classes I was taking," I said.

Harry and Ron both scoffed at us. They shared the same sentiment that we were taking too many classes. “Me, too," Hermione admitted. I couldn't imagine what the manager had been thinking when she'd walked in. She was taking even more classes than me. "Those are my books for Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, the Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies -”

“What are you doing Muggle Studies for?” Ron interrupted, rolling his eyes at Harry and me. For once I actually agreed with his questioning. “You’re Muggle-Born! Your mum and dad are Muggles! You already know all about Muggles!”

Both Harry and I nodded as I exchanged a look with Hermione. "He makes a point," I told her.

“But it’ll be fascinating to study them from the wizarding point of view,” Hermione said earnestly.

Having grown up around Muggles and spent much of my life having to pretend to be one, I could tell her that it was not that interesting. Muggles had some interesting inventions but they were, in fact, quite boring. "That is not fascinating," I told her.

“Are you planning to eat or sleep at all this year, Hermione?” Harry asked, making Ron and me snigger.

Hermione ignored us. When she finally did speak again, it wasn't about her class schedule or anything of the likes. “I’ve still got ten Galleons,” she said, checking her purse. The Galleons were buried in her purse with the rest of her Muggle money. “It’s my birthday in September, and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present.”

“How about a nice book?” Ron offered innocently.

She missed the thinly veiled insult. “No, I don’t think so. I really want an owl," she said. The three of us exchanged a surprised look with each other. Hermione wasn't the type that really liked animals. She thought that they were cute, but I never thought that she would have the time for one. "I mean, Harry’s got Hedwig, Tara's got Dai, and you’ve got Errol -”

“I haven’t. Errol’s a family owl," Ron interrupted.

Wanting to stop the fight that I could already sense brewing, I stepped in between the two. "That's a good idea, Hermione. Most kids have owls anyways and the Hogwarts owls aren't all that friendly," I said.

Hermione rubbed at an old scar on her index finger. "Yes. I've been bitten a number of times," she said quietly.

"All I’ve got is Scabbers.” Ron pulled his old pet rat out of his pocket. “And I want to get him checked over,” Ron added, placing Scabbers on the table in front of us. I groaned at the sight of the rat. I'd never been that fond of the thing. “I don’t think Egypt agreed with him.”

As a matter of fact, Scabbers was looking thinner than usual, and there was a definite droop to his whiskers. He looked like he was extremely sick. And it seemed that Ron would be looking for a few rat sometime soon. “There’s a magical creature shop just over there,” Harry said, pointing down to the west end of the alley. “You could see if they’ve got anything for Scabbers, and Hermione can get her owl.”

Very gently I grabbed Scabbers, noting that he was moving slower and felt much bonier. "Oh, Ron, he doesn't look too good," I said softly.

"I know," Ron muttered.

Ron picked Scabbers back up and tucked him into his pocket. "Don't take this the wrong way, but Scabbers has to be at least ten years old. Most rats don't live past three years or so. He's lucky to have made it this long," I said softly, motioning to the old rat.

I knew that Ron was attached to him for whatever reason, but Scabbers seemed to be on his last legs. "I can't just give up on him," Ron muttered, stroking Scabbers' head that was just barely peeking out of Ron's pocket.

"Let's go see what we can do for him," I said, knowing how hard it was to give up on a pet.

So the four of us paid for our ice creams and crossed the street to the Magical Menagerie. I'd been in here a number of times to get everything that I needed for Dai and Hale. Not that Hale appreciated anything I did for him. There wasn’t much room inside of the store. Every inch of wall was hidden by cages of some animal or another. It was smelly and very noisy because the occupants of the cages were all squeaking, squawking, jabbering, or hissing. A little unnerved by the snakes, I avoided their cages. The witch behind the counter was already advising a wizard on the care of double-ended newts, so the four of us waited, examining the cages.

A pair of enormous purple toads sat gulping wetly and feasting on dead blowflies. A gigantic tortoise with a jewel-encrusted shell was glittering near the window. I almost felt bad for the poor thing. Poisonous orange snails were oozing slowly up the side of their glass tank, and a fat white rabbit kept changing into a silk top hat and back again with a loud popping noise. Hermione and I played with it for a few minutes. There were cats of every color, a noisy cage of ravens, a basket of funny custard-colored fur balls that were humming loudly, and on the counter, a vast cage of sleek black rats that were playing some sort of skipping game using their long, bald tails.

The double-ended newt wizard left, and Ron approached the counter. Harry and I followed, Hermione going to search for her new pet. “It’s my rat,” he told the witch. “He been a bit off-color ever since I brought him back from Egypt.”

“Bang him on the counter,” the witch said, pulling a pair of heavy black spectacles out of her pocket.

Was that really such a good thing to be doing? I watched curiously as Ron lifted Scabbers out of his inside pocket and placed him next to the cage of his fellow rats, who stopped their skipping tricks and scuffled to the wire for a better look. The rats seemed oddly interested in Scabbers. Like nearly everything else that Ron owned, Scabbers the rat was second-hand. He had once belonged to Ron’s brother Percy and had been handed down once Percy had gotten an owl himself, Hermes. Ever since I had met Ron, Scabbers had always been a bit battered. Next to the glossy rats in the cage, he looked especially woebegone.

“Hm,” the witch muttered, picking up Scabbers. “How old is this rat?”

Ron shrugged his shoulders at her. “Dunno. Quite old. He used to belong to my brother,” Ron said.

“What powers does he have?” the witch asked, examining Scabbers closely.

“Er -”

The truth was that Scabbers had never shown the faintest trace of interesting powers. Ron had even tried to turn him yellow one time and that hadn't even worked. Scabbers seemed to be a typical house rat and that meant that he should have died a long time ago. I had always been surprised that Scabbers had lived as long as he had. The witch’s eyes moved from Scabbers’s tattered left ear to his front paw, which had a toe missing, and tutted loudly. She did not look pleased at the sight of the rat.

“He’s been through the mill, this one,” the witch said.

“He was like that when Percy gave him to me,” Ron said defensively.

The witch finally glanced up and looked very confused at the sight. "An ordinary common or garden rat like this can’t be expected to live longer than three years or so,” she said, pointing at him. “Now, if you were looking for something a bit more hard-wearing, you might like one of these.”

She indicated the black rats, who promptly started skipping again. Ron muttered, “Show-offs.”

Stomping on his foot for the rude comment, Ron groaned and leaned onto the desk. The witch looked irritated at the sight of us, but sighed and began rummaging through her things. “Well, if you don’t want a replacement, you can try this rat tonic,” the witch said, reaching under the counter and bringing out a small red bottle.

“Okay,” Ron said, looking at it. “How much - Ouch!”

He never got a chance to say anything more about the cost of the bottle. Ron buckled weakly as something huge and orange came soaring from the top of the highest cage, landed on his head, and then propelled itself forward. We all watched curiously to see what the hell was happening now. It was a little frightening to watch the orange flash. Whatever it was, it certainly didn't look happy. The orange flash started spitting madly at Scabbers as it chased the rat around the store.

“No, Crookshanks, no!” the witch cried.

It didn't matter what she said. The animal clearly wasn't going to listen to her. The cat - at least, I assumed that it was a cat - named Crookshanks continued to storm throughout the store. Scabbers shot from between her hands like a bar of soap, landed splay-legged on the floor, and then scampered for the door. He didn't look like he was about to stop at any moment. Scabbers looked absolutely terrified as he took off at full speed through the door and into the alley, much to our horror.

“Scabbers!” Ron shouted, racing out of the shop after him; Harry and I followed.

It ended up taking us nearly ten minutes to catch Scabbers. We had merely run back and forth through the alley as we attempted to search for the rat. But he was rather small and the alley was rather large. It ended up being Crookshanks that led us towards him. The car was still spitting angrily when the witch grabbed the cat and brought it back to the Magical Menagerie. In the meantime, Harry, Ron, and I had fought to try and get to Scabbers, who had taken refuge under a wastepaper bin outside Quality Quidditch Supplies. Ron stuffed the trembling rat back into his pocket and straightened up, massaging his temples slowly.

“What was that?” he asked, sounding stunned.

“It was either a very big cat or quite a small tiger,” Harry said.

"What a creepy cat," I muttered.

Ron's head snapped over to me. "That thing was a cat?" he asked, sounding like he couldn't believe it.

"I think so," I said.

We all sighed as we leaned back against the cool stone wall, taking a breather from the insane chase that we'd just been through. “Where’s Hermione?” Ron finally asked.

“Probably getting her owl," Harry said.

If there was anyone that wouldn't have noticed what was happening, it was Hermione. She tended to avoid us whenever we were all making a lot of noise. The three of us made our way back up the crowded street to the Magical Menagerie. Everyone was glaring at us as we walked, seeing as we had just made a rather large commotion, trying to track down Scabbers. As we finally managed to reach it, Hermione came out of the store, but she wasn’t carrying an owl. It was almost funny. Her arms were clamped tightly around the enormous ginger cat.

“You bought that monster?” Ron asked, his mouth hanging open.

Harry and I exchanged a look. We were both smart enough to know that this was the start of another year of fighting between the pair. “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?” Hermione asked, glowing in pride at her new pet.

"Uh - Hermione?" I interrupted, trying to keep the two of them from starting another fight. "That thing isn't a cat. It's a small tiger. And it looks like it was hit by a truck."

"That's so rude!" Hermione barked.

But it was also the truth. That cat was rather disgusting, and it clearly wasn't very nice. I didn't want to have to live with it for the next few years. "That thing is fully grown. You wonder why it's still in here?" I asked her.

She clearly didn't get my point. "Well he's got a home now," she said brightly.

"Wonderful," Ron muttered.

"You don't have to live in a dorm with it," I said.

As Hermione was stroking the cat, speaking softly about how lovely it was, I crinkled my brows together. That was a matter of opinion. The color of the cat's fur was about the only cute thing on it. The cat’s ginger fur was thick and fluffy, but it was definitely a bit bowlegged and its face looked grumpy and oddly squashed, as though it had run headlong into a brick wall. I had a feeling that it could be cute, but right now it was ugly and seemed to be rather mean. Now that Scabbers was out of sight, however, the cat was purring contentedly in Hermione’s arms.

“Hermione, that thing nearly scalped me!” Ron exclaimed.

“He didn’t mean to, did you, Crookshanks?” Hermione purred to the cat.

"What kind of name is Crookshanks?" I whispered to Harry.

He snorted at me as Hermione and Ron continued on their row. “And what about Scabbers?” Ron asked, pointing at the lump in his chest pocket. Unless I was wrong, Scabbers seemed to be shaking from fear. “He needs rest and relaxation! How’s he going to get it with that thing around?”

But his words did nothing to deter Hermione from keeping the cat. “That reminds me, you forgot your rat tonic,” Hermione said, slapping the small red bottle into Ron’s hand. “And stop worrying, Crookshanks will be sleeping in my dormitory and Scabbers in yours, what’s the problem? Poor Crookshanks, that witch said he’d been in there for ages; no one wanted him.”

“I wonder why,” Ron said sarcastically.

Harry and I pushed Ron and Hermione apart so that we could walk together towards the Leaky Cauldron. The last thing that we needed was the two of them getting into it the day before we were going to spend six hours in a crowded compartment on the Hogwarts Express. As we headed towards the Leaky Cauldron I smiled off into the distance. I was so excited to actually be back at Hogwarts. I missed all of my friends, I missed playing Quidditch, and I missed the freedom that came with being at a school without parents constantly around. Plus I missed the twins jokes. We eventually found Mr. Weasley sitting in the bar, reading the Daily Prophet.

He looked up at us in surprise. Mr. Weasley glanced over us before his eyes landed on me. He smiled brightly, folding up the paper and walking over to me. "Tara, my dear! Where have you been?" he asked.

Waving Mr. Weasley off, I gave him a quick hug before stepping back. "Oh I've just been busy over the past few weeks. But, trust me, I've been meaning to come by. Good to see you," I said.

Mr. Weasley nodded before looking over towards Harry. “And you as well. Harry! How are you?” he asked.

He was beaming at Harry just the way that he had been beaming at me a moment before. We both knew that he liked us about as much as the rest of his family. “Fine, thanks,” Harry said as the four of us joined Mr. Weasley with all of our shopping bags.

The bags were taking up most of the floor around us. I had a few owl treats that I'd purchased from the Magical Menagerie and a few more things to keep Dai occupied during the long stretches at Hogwarts where he had nothing to do. The rest of my things were upstairs in the room that my parents had gotten for themselves for the night. We would have quite the time bringing everything to King's Cross in the morning. Mr. Weasley put down his paper, and I saw the familiar picture of Sirius Black staring up at me.

“They still haven’t caught him, then?” Harry asked, pointing to the picture.

Mr. Weasley looked a little surprised that Harry had mentioned Black. “No,” Mr. Weasley said, looking extremely grave. The Prophet would be running nonstop the moment that he was caught. “They’ve pulled us all off our regular jobs at the Ministry to try and find him, but no luck so far. Your mother and father are working on the case, too, Tara.”

Well that explained why both my parents and Cedric's father had been so busy over the past few weeks. "So that's why they've been so busy," I muttered.

"Afraid so," Mr. Weasley said in a low voice.

“Would we get a reward if we caught him?” Ron asked, interrupting the tense silence. “It’d be good to get some more money -”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ron,” Mr. Weasley said tersely. The closer that I looked at him, the more that I realized that he actually looked very strained. “Black’s not going to be caught by a thirteen-year-old wizard. It’s the Azkaban guards who’ll get him back, you mark my words.”

A sudden chill shot over my spine at the thought of the Dementors. "Are they around?" I asked, unable to help looking over my shoulder.

Mr. Weasley shook his head quickly, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Nowhere near here, I promise," he said.

"Good," I muttered.

At that moment Mrs. Weasley entered the bar, laden with shopping bags and looking like she could barely manage to hold them all. She was followed by the twins, Fred and George, who were about to start their Fifth Year at Hogwarts; they were also some of my best friends, as much as they drove me absolutely insane. Also with her was the newly elected Head Boy, Percy; and the Weasley's’ youngest child and only girl, Ginny. Ginny, who had always been very taken with Harry, seemed even more heartily embarrassed than usual when she saw him. I laughed as she ducked out of the way of his gaze. I knew that she was still embarrassed about the Chamber of Secrets incident last year.

She went very red and muttered, “Hello” without looking at him. But her gaze turned towards me a moment later and she brightened. "Hi, Tara!"

She ran forward and the two of us embraced each other tightly. "Hey, Ginny!" I chirped, letting go of her so that she could take a step back. I hadn't seen her much in the past few weeks. "How has your summer been?"

"It's been great! I'll tell you all about it later," she said.

"Good. I can't wait to hear about it. I'll talk to you soon, okay?" I offered.

"Okay."

If Ginny was excited about seeing us - which she looked to be - it seemed that Percy couldn't care less that we were here. Not that he had always been the friendliest person, but he did manage to usually smile at least. Percy held out his hand solemnly as though he and Harry had never met and said, “Harry. How nice to see you.”

“Hello, Percy,” Harry said, obviously trying not to laugh.

“I hope you’re well?” Percy asked pompously, shaking hands.

It looked like he was being introduced to the mayor, rather than someone that could be considered a friend. “Very well, thanks,” Harry said.

Once Percy had let go of Harry's hand, he turned over to me. "Hello, Tara," Percy said, shaking hands with me.

It might have been the slightest bit friendlier than the greeting that he had just given Harry. But it was still like we were business partners. "Hi, Percy. Have a good summer?" I asked, trying to be polite.

Percy nodded at me. "It was productive. And yourself?" he asked.

It seemed that he had been through quite the productive summer. He was more arrogant and boring than he ever had been before. “Harry!” Fred said excitedly, elbowing Percy out of the way and bowing deeply. “Simply splendid to see you, old boy -”

“Marvelous,” George interrupted, pushing Fred aside and seizing Harry’s hand in turn. “Absolutely spiffing.” Percy scowled at their sense of humor.

It did nothing but make me smile. "Boys!" I cheered happily.

It had been far too long since I had seen the twins. They had been a nightmare for me over the past few years, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. Fred and George glanced over at me and brightened just the way that Ginny had. "Tara!" they yelled together.

As always, the twins greeted me the way that they typically did. Fred and George came barreling towards me and knocked me flat onto my back. The air was sucked out of my lungs as I hit the wooden floor of the Leaky Cauldron. I was thrown underneath the twins as they went about to ruffling my hair and attempting to sit on me. I groaned and tried to shove my way out from underneath of them. But it was no use. With every passing year, they got heavier and heavier, and it became harder to get them off of me.

“That’s enough, now. Get off of her!” Mrs. Weasley snapped.

Fred looked upwards but otherwise didn't move. “Mum!” Fred cheered excitedly, as though he’d only just spotted her, and leaned over to seize her hand too. “How really corking to see you -”

“I said, that’s enough,” Mrs. Weasley said, depositing her shopping in an empty chair.

The twins stared at me for a moment before finally deciding that they were done messing with me. For the time being, at least. Fred leaned down and gave me a hand back to my feet, being smart enough to shove me away from him the moment that he had gotten me back to my feet. I walked back towards him and whacked him over the back of the head.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," I said happily.

She smiled at me as I walked over and gave her a quick hug. “Anytime, Tara. Hello, Harry, dear. I suppose you’ve heard our exciting news?” She pointed to the brand-new silver badge on Percy’s chest. “Second Head Boy in the family!” she said, swelling with pride.

“And last,” Fred muttered under his breath.

“I don’t doubt that. I notice they haven’t made you two Prefects,” Mrs. Weasley said, suddenly frowning at them.

“What do we want to be Prefects for?” George asked, looking revolted at the very idea. “It’d take all the fun out of life.” Ginny giggled.

As Mrs. Weasley glared at them, I leaned into George's ear and spoke under my breath. "Although if you're a Prefect you could be out after hours. It would be the perfect time to set pranks out for the next day," I mentioned.

George looked over towards me and wrapped an arm over my shoulder, pressing a kiss against my temple. "Tara, you're a genius," he said.

"I know," I chirped, brushing my hair back over my shoulder.

But Mrs. Weasley did not appreciate the joking matter. “You want to set a better example for your sister!” she snapped.

Unfortunately there was no way that they were going to set a good example for their sister. “Ginny’s got other brothers to set her an example, Mother,” Percy said loftily. There was something funny about the way that he was speaking. It sounded like he was about to fall over and go to sleep at any second. “I’m going up to change for dinner...”

Honestly I couldn't quite believe what had just happened. Percy disappeared and George heaved a sigh. “We tried to shut him in a pyramid. But Mum spotted us," George told Harry and me.

We both laughed as I leaned over and threw my arms over the twins shoulders. "How I've missed you both," I said.

They both laughed as we all went about our evenings so that we could change into what we were wearing. Mom and Dad were working at the Ministry until later tonight so I knew that they wouldn't be arriving at the Leaky Cauldron until way after dinner. It made no difference to me. I had seen them plenty of times over the summer and, once the whole case with Sirius Black was over, I knew that I would be seeing them much more. Dinner that night was a very enjoyable affair. Tom the innkeeper put three tables together in the parlor, and the seven Weasley's, Harry, Hermione, and I ate our way through five delicious courses. It was better than I'd eaten in a long time.

Our large group continued to eat for almost an hour. “How’re we getting to King’s Cross tomorrow, Dad?” Fred asked as we dug into a sumptuous chocolate pudding.

“The Ministry’s providing a couple of cars,” Mr. Weasley said.

The Ministry would be providing cars? They didn't even do that for the Minister of Magic himself. Why would they do that for us? Everyone looked up at him. “Why?” Percy asked curiously.

“It’s because of you, Perce,” George said seriously. “And there will be little flags on the hoods, with HB on them -”

“- for Humongous Bighead,” Fred finished.

Everyone except Percy and Mrs. Weasley snorted into their pudding. It was rather funny to see that the comment had even tickled Mr. Weasley as humorous. “Why are the Ministry providing cars, Father?” Percy asked again, in a dignified voice.

"Is this all about being the Head Boy?" I asked the twins.

"He's actually being rather demure today," Fred said.

"This is demure?"

George leaned over towards me and nodded. "Now you know how our summer has been," he said.

"You have my condolences," I said.

The three of us laughed and I even noticed that the corners of Ron and Harry's lips turn upwards. Hermione and Mrs. Weasley still didn't look amused at our jokes. “Well, as we haven’t got one anymore,” Mr. Weasley said, “and as I work there, they’re doing me a favor...”

Harry, Ron, and I exchanged guilty looks at his comment. We were the ones that had destroyed the old Ford Anglia that Mr. Weasley had enchanted to fly after we had accidentally flown it into the Whomping Willow last year. Even thinking about it now, I still found myself frightened over the near-death experience. Not that I should have been. We tended to have those more than the average person. Mr. Weasley's voice was casual, but I couldn’t help noticing that Mr. Weasley’s ears had gone red, just like Ron’s did when he was under pressure. There was something bothering him about this that went beyond just losing the Ford Anglia last year.

“Good thing, too. Do you realize how much luggage you’ve all got between you? A nice sight you’d be on the Muggle Underground... You are all packed, aren’t you?” Mrs. Weasley asked briskly.

“Ron hasn’t put all his new things in his trunk yet. He’s dumped them on my bed,” Percy said in a long-suffering voice.

It looked like Ron was about ready to throttle his older brother. Mrs. Weasley turned towards her youngest son and scowled. “You’d better go and pack properly, Ron, because we won’t have much time in the morning,” she called down the table. Ron scowled at Percy again.

Everyone started laughing at what had happened. Everyone did find it rather funny that Ron was always the one that was getting in trouble with his mother. But it didn't stay that way for long. Everyone cheered up quickly and finished dinner, having a nice time together for what would be the last time for a few months, at least. Finally dinner was done and it was time for us all to head upstairs and go to bed. After dinner everyone felt very full and sleepy. It had been a long day for everyone. One by one we made our way upstairs to our rooms to check our things for the next day. While Mom and Dad would be in one room, I would be staying with Hermione in the one next door.

The two of us spent most of our night packing up our trunks and getting ready for the long trip in the morning. It was like Mrs. Weasley had said, we wouldn't have time to do it in the morning. For once, Hermione was forcing me to be packed on time. I was usually the slowest person to be packed. The two of us chatted back and forth as we packed, talking about everything that had happened to us since the last time that we had seen each other. Hermione told me all about her summer while I told her everything about mine. It was pushing the middle of the night when Hermione and I were getting close to being done with packing and I was telling her about Harry's interruption with Cedric the other week.

"- and he just walked right into us! He couldn't have just pretended not to see?" I complained, having been ranting for the past few minutes.

Hermione was giggling softly as she seated herself on her bed. "Don't be thick, Tara," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked dumbly.

If she had a point here, I was completely missing it. "He knew that Cedric was about to kiss you. That's why he walked in and interrupted you two," Hermione said as I put away the rest of my things.

"That makes no sense," I said, joining her on the bed.

And it really didn't. If Harry had genuinely known what was going to happen, why the hell had he come over and interrupted us? Why couldn't he have waited for a few minutes? "Think about it this way. Harry is like your brother. Honestly, the two of you are like siblings. What kind of brother wants to see an older, good-looking, guy about to kiss his little sister?" Hermione asked me.

"I'm older than him," I pointed out.

Hermione whopped me in the side of the arm, harder than I would have initially given her credit for. "You get the point!" she snapped.

"Yeah..." I muttered, conceding to her. "I guess I do."

"It's like how Ron will be the first time that he sees Ginny snogging someone," Hermione explained.

"I hate that word," I groaned.

"Snog?" Hermione asked.

It had always been one of those English words that I could never understand. "Yes! It's disgusting. It sounds like two pigs are grunting rather than two people kissing," I said, leaning back against the wall.

Hermione sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You're such a brat," she said.

Turning towards her, I shook my head. I wasn't the brat. I hadn't done anything. "Harry's the brat. I was so close, Mione! Literally within inches of him. Just like in Hogsmeade when Hagrid interrupted us," I groaned, shoving my forehead down into her shoulder. "I've got a list far too long of guys that treat me like a little sister."

Hermione snorted under her breath and pried my head from her shoulder. "Good luck ever dating someone," she teased.

"It'll be just as bad for you," I pointed out.

Plenty of the boys would have problems once Hermione was ready to start dating. Hopefully at some point soon, so I would have someone else to have guy talk with. "Luckily I have no one that I'm interested in," Hermione shot back.

"Yet," I corrected. "The day will come, mark my words. I'm going to find someone for you. I promise."

"I don't want anyone. Not yet," Hermione said.

Maybe not yet, but one day we would have to find her a date. "Next year. I'm determined," I said.

Hermione laughed and shook her head at me. "So I see." We were in silence for a moment before I started to hear a muffled shouting. Judging by the look on Hermione's face, she heard it too. "What is that?" she asked.

"I'll go see. Finish packing," I said, pointing to her books that were sitting open.

Ron and Percy were next door to Harry, who was two doors down from us. They had to be having a loud conversation if we could hear them all the way from here. Hermione and I stood back up so that we could finish putting our things away. I slipped on my slippers before heading out of the bedroom, leaving Hermione to finish her packing. She was busy pawing through her books as she slowly dropped them into her trunk. I couldn't imagine how she would manage all of those courses. I slipped out into the hallway and saw that Harry was outside, too. The door of number twelve was ajar and Percy was shouting - presumably at Ron.

"What's happening?" I asked Harry.

"I'm coming to see," he said.

Percy's voice continued floating through the hall. “It was here, on the bedside table, I took it off for polishing -”

“I haven’t touched it, all right?” Ron roared back.

The two of us peeked our heads into the bedroom. “What’s up?” Harry asked.

“My Head Boy badge is gone,” Percy snarled, rounding on Harry and me.

It was the first time this summer that I had seen Percy not completely emotionless. “So is Scabbers’s rat tonic,” Ron said, throwing things out of his trunk to look. “I think I might’ve left it in the bar -”

“You’re not going anywhere till you’ve found my badge!” Percy yelled.

"Hey! Calm down," I shouted.

They were brothers, I knew that they would fight from time to time, but it was getting a little too heated for my liking. “We’ll get Scabbers’s stuff, we’re packed,” Harry said to Ron. "You're packed, right?" I nodded at him and the two of us went downstairs.

We didn't speak on our way down. It was late and most of the Leaky Cauldron guests were probably already asleep. I couldn't understand how no one had given a noise complaint about the two brothers. Harry and I were halfway along the passage to the bar, which was now very dark, when we heard another pair of angry voices coming from the parlor. Exchanging a fearful look, the two of us moved forward to see what was happening. A second later, I recognized them as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's’. We hesitated, not wanting them to know that we'd heard them arguing, when the sound of our own names made us stop. We stared at each other before moving closer to the parlor door.

“... makes no sense not to tell them,” Mr. Weasley was saying heatedly. “Harry and Tara have a right to know. I’ve tried to tell Fudge, but he insists on treating the two of them like children. They're thirteen years old, Tara is almost fourteen, and -”

“Arthur, the truth would terrify them!” Mrs. Weasley shouted shrilly.

A third voice interrupted their conversation. "We have already decided against telling them. There's no point in worrying them."

And I knew the voice, having heard it for many years. "Is that my Mom?" I asked Harry softly.

"I think so," he whispered back.

It turned out that it wasn't just Mom that was with them. "You were the ones that decided against telling them. We shouldn't be lying to them. They could be in danger. We know that they're in danger," Dad said.

It turned out that both Mom and Dad had come here straight from work, and without saying anything to me. "They've been in danger enough! With everything that's happened. Voldemort being at Hogwarts in disguise during their First Year and the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets last year... They've been through enough. We don't need to worry them even more," Mom said.

It actually wasn't a bad point. We were constantly in danger. But now I wanted to know why. “She's right. Do you really want to send Harry and Tara back to school with that hanging over them? For heaven’s sake, they're happy not knowing!” Mrs. Weasley shouted.

“I don’t want to make them miserable, I want to put them on their guard!” Mr. Weasley retorted.

We were always on our guard. We had been ever since First Year. "They already have been for years," Dad argued. I almost smiled. He was always the person that would stick up for me.

“You know what Harry, Ron, and Tara are like, wandering off by themselves - they’ve even ended up in the Forbidden Forest!" Mr. Weasley shouted. Harry and I exchanged an irritable look. We weren't that bad. "But the two of them mustn’t do that this year! When I think what could have happened to them that night that they ran away from home! If the Knight Bus hadn’t picked them up, I’m prepared to bet they would have been dead before the Ministry found them.”

This time it was Mom that stepped in. "We already knew where they were. I told them to take the Knight Bus," she argued.

The Knight Bus was a little creepy and not always the safest thing in the world, but it was good enough to get us from one place to another. "And it was foolish!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. It was the first time that I had heard her argue with Mom. "They could have been caught and killed. They were more lucky than anything else."

"So we can take our luck and run with it," Mom argued.

“But they’re not dead, they’re fine, so what’s the point -” Mrs. Weasley started before being cut off by her husband.

“Molly, they say Sirius Black’s mad, and maybe he is, but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that’s supposed to be impossible. It’s been a month, and no one’s seen hide nor hair of him, and I don’t care what Fudge keeps telling the Daily Prophet, we’re no nearer catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands," Mr. Weasley said. My heart sank slightly. I had been hoping that they at least had a little lead on where Black might have gone. "The only thing we know for sure is what Black’s after -”

“But Harry and Tara will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts,” Mrs. Weasley said.

“We thought Azkaban was perfectly safe. If Black can break out of Azkaban, he can break into Hogwarts,” Mr. Weasley argued.

“But no one’s really sure that Black’s after Harry or Tara -”

Mrs. Weasley was once more cut off by her husband. There was a thud on wood, and I was sure that Mr. Weasley had banged his fist on the table. “Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn’t report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escaped. The guards told Fudge that Black’s been talking in his sleep for a while now. Always the same words: ‘He’s at Hogwarts... he’s at Hogwarts.’ He would have every reason to go after Tara as well. Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants the two of them dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he’s had twelve years alone in Azkaban to brood on that...”

There was a long silence after that. Harry and I exchanged a quick look, both of us obviously concerned with what was happening. Up until now, I had just been concerned that Black might have something to do with me. But now I knew. I knew that there was some reason that Black wanted me dead. Harry, too. That was completely typical. The moment that we were in the clear, something new happened and we were once more in danger. We leaned still closer to the door, desperate to hear more.

"We can't risk their lives but there's no point in worrying them over something that might never happen," Dad finally said.

“Well, Arthur, you must do what you think is right. But you’re forgetting Albus Dumbledore. I don’t think anything could hurt the two of them at Hogwarts while Dumbledore’s headmaster. I suppose they know about all this?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“Of course he knows. We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds. He wasn’t happy about it, but he agreed,” Mr. Weasley said.

“Not happy? Why shouldn’t he be happy, if they’re there to catch Black?”

“Dumbledore isn’t fond of the Azkaban guards,” Mr. Weasley said heavily. “Nor am I, if it comes to that... but when you’re dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to join forces with those you’d rather avoid.”

“If they save Harry and Tara -”

“- then I will never say another word against them,” Mr. Weasley said wearily. “It’s late, Molly, we’d all better go up. Come on Marcus, Julia, it's time for bed. It'll be a long day tomorrow...”

It wasn't a second later that we heard chairs move. As quietly as we could, we hurried down the passage to the bar and out of sight. My heart was pounding in my chest as we slunk through the darkness of the bar. The parlor door opened, and a few seconds later footsteps told us that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, along with Mom and Dad, were climbing the stairs. The bottle of rat tonic was lying under the table we had sat at earlier. Just as we'd been expecting. If only we had come here first. We waited until we heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley’s and Mom and Dad's bedroom doors close, then headed back upstairs with the bottle.

Unaware of what had just been happening downstairs only moments before, everyone else was back to doing what they had been doing just a few minutes before. The door to Hermione and I's room was closed and she appeared to be asleep, as the light was now out. Fred and George were still wide awake. The two of them were crouching in the shadows on the landing, heaving with laughter as they listened to Percy dismantling his and Ron’s room in search of his badge. Normally I would have been laughing along with them.

“We’ve got it. We’ve been improving it,” Fred whispered to Harry and me.

To say that I was deeply disturbed by what had just happened would have been an understatement. Normally I would have burst out into laughter and asked to join the twins on their quest to torment Percy. The badge now read Bighead Boy. Harry and I both forced pathetic fake laughs and went to give Ron the rat tonic. He thanked us and offered for us to stay, but, claiming exhaustion, we both turned to retreat into our rooms. We walked back into the hallway and headed towards Harry's door, speaking softly enough so that the twins couldn't hear us.

"Well... We couldn't have thought that things would be too easy, could we?" Harry asked me.

The corners of my lips turned upwards in a guilty smile. "Of course not. We're not going to die, Harry," I said fiercely.

The last thing that I wanted was to die. Not yet, at least. "Not yet, at least," Harry put in.

Death would come to everyone, but not quite yet. Not for us, at least. Harry and I hugged goodnight and I walked back into the Hermione and I's shared bedroom. She was dead asleep already. So I walked over to the bed and dropped onto my mattress. So it turned out that Sirius Black was after us. This explained everything. Fudge had been lenient with us because he was so relieved to find us alive. He’d made Harry promise to stay in Diagon Alley where there were plenty of wizards to keep an eye on him. Mom and Dad were being protective over me because they were scared for my safety. He was sending two Ministry cars to take us all to the station tomorrow, so that the everyone could look after us until we were on the train.

For a long time I lay listening to the muffled shouting next door and wondered why I didn’t feel more scared. Sirius Black had murdered thirteen people with one curse; Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, along with my parents, obviously thought we would be panic-stricken if we knew the truth. But we had been in this kind of danger before and I happened to agree wholeheartedly with Mrs. Weasley that the safest place on earth was wherever Albus Dumbledore happened to be. Dumbledore was the only person Lord Voldemort had ever been afraid of. Surely Black, as Voldemort’s right-hand man, would be just as frightened of him.

It was what I had been thinking about beforehand. We were completely safe at Hogwarts. I wasn't fond of the Dementors being stationed all around the school, but I knew that they made Black’s chances of getting inside very remote. No, the one thing that bothered me more than anything was still the fact that Harry had interrupted my almost-kiss with Cedric. We were in life or death situations all the time. That was no big deal. It was just the fact that now, with Black after us, there would be ten times as many people watching me as normal. It appeared that it would be another full year before I had my first real kiss.

It made me scowl up at the dark ceiling. The other thing that really bothered me was that they seemed to think that we were completely useless. It was far from the truth. We had escaped Lord Voldemort three times; Harry had done it once as a baby, we had done it in the Chamber of Secrets and the Forbidden Forest, and we had done it again in the Chamber of Secrets. We'd figured out what the monster was and had even managed to kill it. We weren’t completely useless... That didn't stop the image of Snuffles hanging out in the shadows of Magnolia Crescent from crossing my mind. What to do when you know the worst is coming... And the worst seemed to always come for us.


	41. The Dementor

The next morning I was woken by the water running in the bathroom and a knock at the door. I walked over to the door and opened it, smiling at Tom, who came strutting into the room with his usual toothless grin and a cup of tea. Despite the warm air of the summer, I was thrilled to see the hot cup of tea. I was still more of a coffee person, but I appreciated the tea nonetheless. The moment that Tom left the room - leaving behind a cup of hot tea for Hermione as well - I went about getting ready for the day.

Going to King's Cross was a nightmare every year. The easiest had been in my First Year, but even that had been hectic. Last year with the Weasley's had been nearly disastrous. We'd almost missed the Hogwarts Express. Well, Ron, Harry, and I had, but it wasn't our fault. It was Dobby's. Wanting to keep on track for the day, I walked into the dresser and pulled out the only set of clothes in there. A white shirt and a pair of jeans. Nothing special so that I could blend in with the crowd, considering that our packages and trunks all looked so strange. My Hogwarts robes were on the top so that I could change into them on the train. I was yawning with exhaustion from the previous night when Hermione emerged from the bathroom.

She had slept all night long and I hadn't bothered her yet with everything that I had overheard last night. We could talk about it when we were on the train. "Morning, Mione," I chirped.

"Good morning, Tara," Hermione said, working to brush the knots out of her hair. "Ready to head to Hogwarts?"

In all honesty, I'd never been so excited for school to start. "You know it! I'm sick of hanging around and doing nothing every day," I said, earning a nod from Hermione. "Plus I miss everyone back at school."

It was true. We had a lot of friends back at Hogwarts. In some ways I even missed snapping back and forth with Malfoy at every chance that I got. "Cedric Diggory, perhaps?" Hermione asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

My face burned a bright pink. "Shut up," I mumbled.

Hermione merely laughed at me and walked over to me, grabbing the books that I had been rearranging for the past ten minutes and setting them in my trunk. "Come on. Let's go get breakfast," she said. I nodded at her and left the room, not locking it so that the boys could help move our things when it was time to leave. "Will you be joining us on the Hogwarts Express or will you and Diggory go find a broom cupboard to cozy up in?"

Once more my face burned red. "I missed it when you weren't sarcastic," I said.

A broom cupboard didn't sound half-bad to me. At least we would be forced to confront our issues. "You should have known that you would eventually rub off on me," Hermione teased.

"Damn me. I should have just kept my mouth shut," I mumbled.

And I should have. I loved that I was slowly rubbing off on Hermione, with the occasional omission of the moments that she turned it around on me. "Stop whining. The two of you are going to get together one day. Everyone knows that," she said.

Another blush flooded over my face. "No they don't," I muttered.

"Yes they do," Ginny's voice floated through the hall as she came to join Hermione and me.

The three of us headed downstairs to get some food before it was time to leave. But that was when I realized what Ginny had just said. "Don't tell me that she's got you in on this, too?" I moaned, knowing that the two of them would never let it go.

"Yep!" Ginny cheered happily.

Of course they were both in on it. They were so annoying. But maybe I shouldn't have said anything. As we walked into the dining room, I pulled the two of them close to me. "Both of you listen to me, there is nothing going on between Cedric Diggory and me. He's very nice and the two of us are friends, but that's it. There's never going to be anything more," I said, feeling a little stab of pain at the thought.

"What was that?" I heard Mom's voice float past.

I turned back to see that Mom was watching us with her hands on her hips. Mrs. Weasley was standing behind her, smirking at us. My heart fell into my stomach. "Nothing!" I quipped, moving towards her. "Good morning, Mom."

She smiled at me as we moved in to share a quick hug. She placed a kiss on my forehead and allowed us all to move over to the table. "Morning, darling. Remember the days of our careless youth, Molly?" she asked Mrs. Weasley as we all took our seats.

"Oh, yes, the days where which boy at Hogwarts was the most attractive," Mrs. Weasley said dreamily.

"Really?" Ginny asked curiously.

Now we were all paying close attention. We all wanted to know what Mom and Mrs. Weasley were talking about. "Of course. Your father was quite the handsome devil, and, if I remember correctly, your mother was the only woman that was ever able to genuinely catch the eye of one Marcus Nox," Mrs. Weasley said, smiling, looking over at me.

Mom merely laughed and shook her head. "As much as I didn't want his eyes on me," she said.

That caught my attention. I had thought that they were always together. "I thought that you and Dad -?"

Both Mom and Mrs. Weasley laughed. "Oh, no. He was a pain in the ass for most of my years at Hogwarts. Lily Evans was very much the same way with James Potter." Both Mrs. Weasley and Mom laughed once more. The rest of us smiled. "You know, if you really want to know how Cedric Diggory feels about you, you could always ask," Mom said, looking over at me. My face drained of color when I realized that she already knew about my feelings for him. "I'm not a moron, Tara. I see these things."

My gaze turned down to the table as the other women smiled. "I don't care how he feels," I muttered.

Mrs. Weasley and Mom laughed as Hermione and Ginny rolled their eyes. "That's the same thing that I thought when I first realized that I liked your father," Mom told me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I knew what she was telling me. To let him know that I had feelings for him. But there was one major problem. "What if I just make things awkward?" I asked sadly.

Mom merely smiled at me. "What if you get the answer that you wanted?" she teased.

"Dad will kill me," I said.

And that much was completely true. Dad wanted me to have nothing to do with boys outside of Ron and Harry. "I'll handle your father. Cedric is a sweet boy, quite unlike Marcus was in his day," Mom said.

It was enough to make us all laugh, and make me momentarily forget my issues with Cedric. We all giggled for a few moments before managing to calm down. "Or you could just give him a love potion," Mrs. Weasley said, once the table had quieted.

This time it was Ginny that looked rather surprised. "You made a love potion?" she asked.

"Oh, was that for Harold?" Mom asked.

Harold? Who the hell was Harold? Ginny, Hermione, and I all exchanged a look, but it became quickly obvious that none of us knew who this Harold man was. "It was!" Mrs. Weasley cheered, laughing loudly with Mom.

"I remember that!" Mom said in between laughs.

It was strange to see that our parents did have lives before us. "Well now you have to tell us about it," Hermione said teasingly.

So the five of us sat around listening to Mrs. Weasley tell one of the most interesting stories that I had ever heard before. She was telling us all about the time that she'd created a love potion with the help from Mom so that she could find out whether a man named Harold had feelings for her. It had been right after finding out the she'd done the love potion on Harold that Mr. Weasley had confessed his feelings for her. And so went the beginnings of the Weasley family. By the time that Ron and Harry came downstairs and joined us, the five of us were quite giggly. Mr. Weasley wasn't listening to us at all, rather reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow.

As Mrs. Weasley finished her story about Harold and the love potion, Ron and Harry took their seats with us. "What were you saying?" Ron asked Harry as they sat down on the side that Hermione wasn't occupying.

"Later," Harry muttered as Percy stormed in.

The rest of the Weasley's flooded into the dining room over the next few minutes. Dad walked in just after Harry and Ron and took a seat with Mom. It was rather funny that we all pretended that we hadn't been talking about their old boyfriends. It wasn't long after that the twins came and joined us, speaking loudly and excitedly with each other. Percy was still complaining loudly about his badge as the rest of us barked at him to knock it off. It was easily the most chaotic meal that we had ever had together. It was even worse than the one the year before, considering that there were more people and the air was somewhat tense from the night before.

As much as I would have liked to chat about what had happened last night or even talk about the upcoming year, we had no chance to speak to anyone else over the two hours leading up to our departure. It was simply a ton of chaos as we were leaving; our large group was too busy heaving all of our trunks down the Leaky Cauldron's narrow staircase and piling them up near the door, with Hedwig, Dai, and Hermes, Percy's screech owl, perched on top in their cages. Trunks and cases were getting constantly knocked over by everyone dashing back and forth. Dad ended up staying stationed by our packages to keep them steady. A small wickerwork basket stood beside the heap of trunks, spitting loudly.

Hermione was standing right next to the rather freaky basket. "It's all right, Crookshanks. I'll let you out on the train," she cooed through the wickerwork. I cringed and walked away.

"You won't. What about poor Scabbers, eh?" Ron snapped.

The two of them were arguing with each other already, and we weren't even on the stupid Hogwarts Express. They drove me out of my damn mind. But one day they would end up married. I was sure of that. Watching out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Ron was pointing at his chest, where a large lump indicated that Scabbers was curled up in his pocket. The rat had been staying as far away from Crookshanks as possible since Hermione had adopted her. Mr. Weasley, who had been outside waiting for the Ministry cars, stuck his head inside.

"They're here. Harry, Tara, come on," Mr. Weasley goaded.

The two of us nodded at each other and gathered our things. We were only taking the smaller bags. The adults were going to put charms on everything else so that we could fit everyone's luggage in the cars and get them to King's Cross on time. Mr. Weasley marched Harry and me across the short stretch of pavement toward the first of two old-fashioned dark green cars, each of which was driven by a furtive-looking wizard wearing a suit of emerald velvet. I was a little surprised that they weren't even letting us walk twenty feet without assistance. They must have been extremely nervous.

"In you get, Harry, Tara," Mr. Weasley said, glancing up and down the crowded street.

The two of us managed to stuff ourselves into the back of the car, already crushed together. We would have to sit with a number of us in each car, considering that there were so many of us heading to King's Cross. We were in the back of the car and shortly joined by Hermione and Ron. The four of us crushed together, but it turned out that we weren't done. To Ron's disgust, Percy was added to the back of our car. Fred and George were up in the front of the car with Dad, the three of them trying very hard not to touch the driver. Mom, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, and Ginny were in the other car with most of our things, since they had more room.

The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful compared with my trip on the Knight Bus a few weeks ago, and the last trip that we had made two years ago, mostly considering that we didn't have to turn back three times. The Ministry of Magic cars seemed almost ordinary, though they were charmed to slide through gaps just the way that the Knight Bus was. At least the Ministry of Magic car drivers were much easier on the gas and brakes than Ernie was. And they didn't have a knack for nearly hitting old ladies just trying to cross the street.

Because of our ability to weave in and out of the traffic, we reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare. It was the earliest that I'd ever been to catch the Hogwarts Express. The Ministry drivers found us all trolleys, unloaded our trunks from the cars, touched their hats in salute to Mr. Weasley, and drove away, somehow managing to jump to the head of a stalled line at the traffic lights. I snorted and shook my head. Dad would have killed for a car like that. He hated Muggle traffic. We were inside of the station and making our way to Platform Nine and Three Quarters within a minute. I noticed that Mr. Weasley and Dad kept close to Harry and me all the way into the station.

We stopped at the barrier in between Platform Nine and Ten. "Right then," Mr. Weasley said, glancing around us. There were a number of people walking all around the station. "Let's do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry."

We watched as Mr. Weasley strode towards the barrier, pushing Harry's cart, with Harry at his side. It was rather amusing to watch him become very interested in the Muggle InterCity 125 train that had just arrived at Platform Nine. It took a shout from Mrs. Weasley to get the two of them moving. They would hold up the line of young witches and wizards that wanted to get through. With a meaningful look at Harry, Mr. Weasley casually leaned up against the side of the barrier. Harry quickly imitated him, looking very awkward. If I hadn't been watching closely, I would have missed the two of them fall through the stone wall and into Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

The moment that they had vanished, Dad walked over to the stone wall. "Tara, with me," he called.

"Okay."

The two of us walked over to the wall and I handed Dad over my cart full of Hogwarts things. He took it and grabbed my hand - making me feel very much like a two-year-old - as the two of us sped past the barrier. We crashed out onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters just inches from where Harry and Mr. Weasley were waiting for everyone else. I looked up to see the Hogwarts Express, a scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train. I smiled at the sight of it. It was much nicer than our ride had been last year, considering that the train didn't make a crash-landing in the Whomping Willow.

The four of us moved forward as I began to wave to a few people that I knew from school. I was searching for Cedric, but I had a feeling that he was already on the train, preparing for the Prefect meeting that they always had at the beginning of the ride to Hogwarts. Just as I turned back towards the barrier, Percy and Ginny suddenly appeared behind us. They were panting and had apparently taken the barrier at a run. I knew that Ginny had never been fond of going through the barrier. Not that I blamed her. It was a little creepy.

Percy brightened almost immediately. "Ah, there's Penelope!" he cried, smoothing his hair and going pink again.

It was definitely pathetic, the way that he and Penelope acted around each other. Of course, I said that with my pathetic crush on Cedric that literally everyone knew about. Probably him, too, although he was too nice to say that he wasn't interested. My bitterness over my situation only made Percy's even funnier. Ginny caught my eye, and Harry's too, and we all turned away to hide our laughter as Percy strode over to a girl with long, curly hair, walking with his chest thrown out so that she couldn't miss his shiny badge. We all snorted once more.

"He really needs to learn to keep cool," I said, watching him strike up a conversation with her.

"It's Percy," Ginny pointed out.

He was speaking to Penelope very similarly to the way that he had spoken to us yesterday. Were they dating or making a business deal? "That's a fair point. Maybe one day he'll figure out how to have a girlfriend," I muttered, turning away from them.

Once the remaining Weasley's, Hermione, and Mom had joined us all, Harry, Ron, and I led the way to the end of the train, past the already-packed compartments, to a carriage that looked quite empty. It was the only one that was empty that we had come across. There seemed to be more and more people at Hogwarts every year. It only made sense as the wizarding families expanded. Although I was wondering what would happen once there were too many students to put on the train. Would we get another one? Maybe no one else would ever have to suffer missing the first train only to steal a car, fly said car to Hogwarts, and crash said car into the Whomping Willow.

There was no doubt in my mind that I would always be a little bit bitter about that. Together we loaded the trunks onto the last compartment, stowed Hedwig, Dai, and Crookshanks in the luggage rack, then went back outside to say goodbye to the Weasley's, Mom, and Dad. Mrs. Weasley kissed all her children, to which I laughed at Fred and George's horrified expressions. She gave Hermione a loving peck on the cheek before moving over to me. She gave me a quick wink, making color rush to my cheeks, before kissing me quickly and moving to Harry. It was rather cute how she gave him an extra one. In the meantime, Mom and Dad were saying goodbye to everyone.

"Do take care, won't you, Harry?" she said as she straightened up, her eyes oddly bright.

"Of course," Harry said.

Mrs. Weasley turned over to me. She smiled and grabbed my hand once more. "You, too, sweetheart," she added.

"Absolutely, Mrs. Weasley," I confirmed.

She moved off to say another goodbye to Tara as Mom walked over to us. Dad was still speaking with Fred and George, probably about Quidditch. "Alright, keep yourself out of trouble this year, you hear me?" Mom ordered me.

I gave her a playful smile and nodded. "When do I ever get in trouble?" I asked teasingly.

Her gaze narrowed at me and she shook her head. "That's funny," she commented, looking like she didn't think that I was the least bit funny. "I mean it, Tara Nox. You behave yourself and stay out of trouble. Things are dangerous, you hear me?"

Knowing that I should at least appease her, I nodded. "I know, Mom. I never go looking for trouble, trust me. It just always seems to find me. I'll be careful, Mom, I promise," I said, giving her a quick hug.

Mom patted me on the shoulder. "Good girl. Take care of yourself and keep your marks up. Remember to write to us!" she called as she was ushered off to say goodbye to Hermione.

"I will," I called back to her.

Dad walked up a moment later and gave me a tight hug. "Take care, kiddo. Make sure you hand the other teams - Slytherin is particular - their asses when it comes time to play them in Quidditch, alright?" he offered, making me laugh.

When it came to Dad, Quidditch would always be above everything else. "Marcus!" Mom howled from the other end of the platform.

"I'm just kidding, Jules," Dad called back to her, paling in the face slightly. He then turned back to me, the color quickly returning to his cheeks. "Although I am serious."

"I'll give you a play-by-play on the practices and games," I promised.

"That's what I like to hear. We love you," Dad said, smiling at me.

"Love you guys, too! I'll write when I get to Hogwarts."

They let me walk back to everyone else as we all stood together, ready to say a last goodbye. We all smiled at each other, seeing as this was the last time that we would all be together until the year was over and it was summer again. Mrs. Weasley opened her enormous handbag and said, "I've made you all sandwiches... Here you are, Ron."

She handed it over to him. Ron gave her a disgusted look. "Corned beef?" he asked.

"No, they're not corned beef... Fred? Where's Fred?"

To my surprise, Fred popped up directly behind me, shouting in my ear. "Right here, Mum!" he shouted.

I turned back to him in horror and shoved him away from me. "Freddie, damn it!" I yelled.

"Here you are, dear."

As Mrs. Weasley handed Fred the sandwich, he grinned at me over her shoulder as I glared at him. "Harry, Tara, come over here a moment," Mr. Weasley said, appearing behind us. It wasn't as scary as when Fred had done so. He jerked his head toward a pillar, and Harry and I followed him behind it, leaving the others crowded around Mrs. Weasley. "There's something I've got to tell you both before you leave."

There was something very tense about the way that he was speaking. And that was what told me that he wanted to talk about Sirius Black. Harry beat me to the punch. "It's all right, Mr. Weasley. We already know," he said.

"We've had a feeling for a while," I explained.

Mr. Weasley paled as he shifted awkwardly. "You both know? How could you know?" he asked, sounding a little breathless.

Both Harry and I stared at each other. Was there anything we could say that didn't make it seem like we'd been trying to overhear? "We - er - We heard you and Mrs. Weasley and the Nox's talking last night," Harry explained. Mr. Weasley nodded looking exasperated. We couldn't help hearing. Sorry -"

"That's not the way I'd have chosen for you to find out," Mr. Weasley interrupted, looking anxious.

Deciding that I should at least make it seem like it wasn't Mr. Weasley's fault, I moved forward. "I overheard them a few weeks beforehand. I knew what was going on. That was just the confirmation that I needed," I said.

"No - honestly, it's okay. This way, you haven't broken your word to Fudge and we know what's going on," Harry added.

Mr. Weasley shifted awkwardly, standing in between us. "The two of you must be very scared -"

"We're not," Harry interrupted sincerely. "Really," he added, because Mr. Weasley was looking disbelieving.

He still didn't look like he believed us. But we meant it. Black was definitely less frightening than Voldemort or a killer Basilisk. "There have been far scarier things that we've had to deal with," I told Mr. Weasley, who gave me a weak smile.

"I'm not trying to be a hero, but seriously, Sirius Black can't be worse than Voldemort, can he?" Harry added.

Once more I rolled my eyes at him. He really had to learn to stop saying the name in front of anyone that wasn't the four of us. Mr. Weasley flinched at the sound of the name but otherwise overlooked it. "Harry, Tara, I knew you two were, well, made of stronger stuff than Fudge seems to think, and I'm obviously pleased that you're both not scared, but -"

"Arthur! Arthur, what are you doing? It's about to go!" Mrs. Weasley called out.

She was busy shepherding the rest of the kids onto the train. As usual, it didn't matter how early we had gotten here. We had a knack for being late to everything, no matter what. "They're coming, Molly!" Mr. Weasley called back to his wife. But he turned back to Harry and I and kept talking in a lower and more hurried voice. "Listen, I want you both to give me your word -"

"- that we'll be good kids and stay in the castle?" Harry interrupted gloomily.

"What else is new?" I muttered under my breath.

They seemed to always think that we were going to do something stupid. And it wasn't at all the truth. We never went looking for anything, it just came to us. And somehow we always managed to save people in the process. "Not entirely. Harry, Tara, swear to me you won't go looking for Black," Mr. Weasley said desperately, looking far more serious than I had ever seen him.

For a while, Harry and I merely stared at him in silence. "What?" Harry finally managed to ask.

"Why would we do that?" I asked.

That was the stupidest thing that I'd ever heard. We had done some extremely stupid things before. Going after the Sorcerer's Stone when we knew that someone murderous was already after it, and going into the Chamber of Secrets to save Ginny from a killer Basilisk. But those were both things to save people. I would never go after an escaped prisoner that was trying to kill us. There was nothing good in it for anyone else. It would only help the Ministry, and I wasn't that keen to help them. There was a loud whistle that interrupted my thoughts. Guards were walking along the train, slamming all the doors shut. The train would be leaving in a few seconds.

"Promise me, both of you," Mr. Weasley said, talking more quickly still, "that whatever happens -"

"Why would we go looking for someone that we know wants to kill us?" Harry asked blankly.

Grabbing onto Harry's shoulder, I started yanking him towards the train. It was time to leave, unless we wanted to fly to Hogwarts again. "Swear to me that whatever you both might hear -"

"Arthur, quickly!" Mrs. Weasley cried.

"We swear. Promise, Mr. Weasley," I said quickly.

This time it was Mom that shouted after us. "Hurry up! Neither one of you be late again!" she yelled.

The two of us gave Mr. Weasley a quick hug before leaving the small out-cove that Mr. Weasley had brought us into. Steam was billowing from the train; it had already started to move. All of the parents were yelling at us to hurry up and not miss the train. Harry and I ran to the compartment door and Ron threw it open and stood back to let us on. The two of us awkwardly stumbled over each other as we managed to jam ourselves into the cabin. Once we were situated, we leaned out of the window and waved at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, as well as Mom and Dad, until the train turned a corner and blocked them from view. All the way through the station I could hear Mom yelling at us to behave.

Once we were out of sight, we all moved back into the compartment. "We need to talk to you in private," Harry muttered to Ron and Hermione as the train picked up speed.

"Go away, Ginny," Ron said.

Hermione and I looked over at him, scowling. That wasn't very nice. "Oh, that's nice," Ginny said huffily, and she stalked off.

"That was rude," I snapped at Ron.

He merely shrugged his shoulders at me. "It got her to leave," Ron pointed out.

That was the important part, I supposed. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment. It got harder and harder with each passing year. They all were full except for the one at the very end of the train. I normally liked being in the middle - as these were near the bathrooms - but this was our only choice. The compartment had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. The four of us started at him curiously. The Hogwarts Express was usually reserved for students and no one had never seen an adult there before, except for the witch who pushed the food cart.

Mostly the professors lived at Hogwarts. He must have been late, or a straggler, or something of the sort. It didn't really matter. He looked to be fast asleep. The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. I felt quite badly for him. He looked like he had been through quite the beating over the past few days. Though appearing to be quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray. He was definitely the new Defense professor.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed as we sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window.

And as far away from Professor R. J. Lupin as we could get. "Professor R. J. Lupin," Hermione whispered at once.

She must have seen the same bag that I did. "Presumably the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," I whispered, looking at the man again.

Ron's jaw dropped. He looked extremely surprised that we understood what we were talking about. "You two know everything. How is it that they knew everything?" Ron asked Harry, who merely shrugged.

"Not everything. Just a lot," I said quietly.

There was no way that we knew everything, but I did know how to read. And so did Hermione. "It's on his suitcase, Ronald," she replied, pointing at the luggage rack over the man's head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name Professor R. J. Lupin was stamped across one corner in peeling letters.

Very suddenly, Ron looked quite abashed at the fact that he hadn't even bothered to look around and see if he could figure out who the man was. "It's astounding what you learn when you pay attention," I teased.

Ron blushed slightly before looking back towards me. "Do you really think that he's going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" he asked, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid profile.

"I'd imagine so. There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defense Against the Dark Arts," I said.

There had always been rumors that the Defense Against the Dark Arts job was cursed. Apparently since long before we had come to Hogwarts, there had been a long string of Defense professors that had each only lasted a year. The four of us had already had two professors, each one had only lasted a year. Quirrell had been killed when Voldemort had fled his body and Lockhart was... Actually I had no idea what had happened to Lockhart once the year had ended. Hopefully he was just far away from us.

"Well, I hope he's up to it. He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he?" Ron asked, giving Professor Lupin a long look.

He certainly didn't look too good, but that didn't mean that he was useless. "He might be a lot better than you think. He can't be worse than the two that we've already had. Quirrell, who had Voldemort buried in the back of his head and tried to kill us, and Lockhart, who was a pompous ass and tried to erase our memory and leave Ginny to die," I explained, giving Hermione a pointed look.

She merely rolled her eyes and looked away from me. It was still a sore spot with Ron and me - Hermione's crush on Lockhart. "So the job has low standards," Ron said, making everyone, including Hermione, laugh. We sat and laughed for a while before Ron recovered and looked over at Harry. "Anyway... What were you going to tell us?"

"Is he really asleep?" Harry asked.

Hermione glanced over at him and nodded. "Seems to be. Why? What is it, Harry?" she prodded when Harry didn't answer.

He seemed to be much more bothered from the whole conversation that we'd overheard than I was. Perhaps because I was used to things like this happening. "Close the door," Harry said.

It was still slightly propped open from when we'd all come in. Hermione got up and closed the door, clicking the lock so that no one would be able to come in. As long as Professor Lupin would stay asleep, no one would have any idea what we were talking about. Over the next few minutes, Harry and I explained all about Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's argument with Mom and Dad and the warning Mr. Weasley had just given us. I'd even finally come clean about the conversation that I'd overheard between my parents the night that I'd come back from seeing Snuffles - or a walk, as I'd claimed. When we'd finished, Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth.

They both looked shocked at what we'd told them. Hermione finally lowered her hands to say, "Sirius Black escaped to come after you two? Oh, Harry, Tara... you'll have to be really, really careful. Even your parents are afraid of him."

"We're always careful," I said quickly.

Hermione snorted under her breath and shook her head at me. I supposed that I could understand why. "You are not!" she snapped irritably. "Don't go looking for trouble -"

"We don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds us," Harry said, nettled.

Scoffing at him, I jammed my elbow into Harry's chest. He grunted at the sudden pain that shot through him. "No. Trouble finds you and somehow I manage to get dragged into it," I said, motioning to myself.

This time it was Harry that rolled his eyes at me. "One of these days you're going to realize that this has something to do with you too," he said. I glared at him. There was no way that this had something to do with me. I was just too close to Harry. "There's no way that this is just me. There has to be something that you've done."

"I did nothing," I said stubbornly.

"How thick would the two of them have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill them?" Ron asked Hermione shakily.

Despite the fact that he normally would have asked her in a snappy tone, there was something almost fearful about the way that they were speaking. Not that it surprised me. The two of them would be terrified of anything having to do with Sirius Black. After all, despite their fear of Voldemort and the Basilisk in the past few years, neither one of them had ever encountered something as serious as that. But still, they were taking the news much worse than I had expected. Both Ron and Hermione were much more frightened of Black than either Harry or I were.

"No one knows how he got out of Azkaban. No one's ever done it before. And he was a top-security prisoner too," Ron said uncomfortably.

As far as I was concerned, that just made him smart. Not necessarily dangerous. It wasn't like he could kill a Dementor, so the escape had been relatively harmless. "But they'll catch him, won't they? I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out for him too..." Hermione said nervously.

"If Black's as smart as he seems, he won't come anywhere near Hogwarts," I put in.

We were silent for a little while as I tucked myself back into the corner of the compartment. "What's that noise?" Ron asked suddenly. We all sat up and listened. A faint, tinny sort of whistle was coming from somewhere in the corner, up in the luggage racks. We started to look all around the compartment. "It's coming from your trunk, Harry."

There was something in the luggage carriage. There was something that didn't sound very good that seemed to be coming straight from Harry's suitcase. Probably something new that wanted to eat or kill us. Ron stood up and reached into the luggage rack. A moment later he had pulled the Pocket Sneakoscope out from between Harry's robes. At least this time it wasn't something that wanted to kill us. The Sneakoscope was spinning very fast in the palm of Ron's hand and glowing brilliantly. It was the first time that I'd seen the present actually work.

Hermione stood up from her spot next to me to peer at the Sneakoscope like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Is that a Sneakoscope?" she asked interestedly.

"Yeah... mind you, it's a very cheap one. It went haywire just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Harry," Ron said.

"Were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" Hermione asked shrewdly.

To be fair, it was a good question. We weren't always the most trustworthy people in the world. "No! Well... I wasn't supposed to be using Errol," Ron corrected. I snorted at him as Hermione narrowed her gaze. Not completely terrible, but it might have been enough to get it to spin. "You know he's not really up to long journeys... but how else was I supposed to get Harry's present to him?"

"You could have asked me to borrow Dai to send it," I said.

"How would I have gotten in contact with you?" Ron asked.

Turning back towards him, I narrowed my eyes. "This cool Muggle invention called a telephone," I said.

Of course I had seen before about how bad he was with using a telephone. Over the summer I had thought that his phone call would give Vermin a heart attack. Ron still paled at the thought. "I didn't think about that..." he muttered.

"Obviously," I whispered.

Harry was still watching the Sneakoscope. "Stick it back in the trunk or it'll wake him up," Harry advised Ron, as the Sneakoscope was whistling piercingly.

Harry nodded toward Professor Lupin. I did feel a little bad for Professor Lupin. He looked like he'd been through hell over the past few hours. He really needed to get a few hours of good sleep. Ron stuffed the Sneakoscope into a particularly horrible pair of Vermin's old socks, which deadened the sound, then closed the lid of the trunk on it. The four of us sat in silence for a little while, no one saying anything. I was still entranced with the new teacher. He seemed like he would at least be friendlier than the last two we'd had.

"We could get it checked in Hogsmeade," Ron said, sitting back down next to Harry. "They sell that sort of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff. Fred and George told me."

That had been one of the stores that Cedric had shown me when we'd gone together for my birthday last year. It was a neat little shop. "There's all sorts of stuff in Hogsmeade," I said, placing my legs up in Harry's lap.

He merely narrowed his eyes at me. "Yes. We're all aware of how much you know about Hogsmeade," he said.

We all knew that Harry was not too fond of my budding relationship with Cedric. "Oh, stop. Because of that entrance into Hogsmeade we were able to make the Polyjuice Potion. Which ended up not helping us that much, but still!" I snapped at him.

Everything that Cedric had done had actually ended up helping us more than he'd known at the time. I had eventually come to telling him everything during our meetings over the summer. "I don't know. I got some enjoyment out of the whole thing," Ron said, distracting me from my thoughts.

I looked over at him and saw that he was smirking. "Shut up," I muttered, knowing that he was talking about the accidental kiss with Malfoy.

During the brief confrontation, it was obvious that Hermione was not listening to us. It was almost funny the way that she was more interested what Hogsmeade was like. "Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" Hermione asked Ron and I keenly. "I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain -"

"Yeah, I think it is," Ron said in an offhand sort of way, "but that's not why I want to go. I just want to get inside Honeydukes!"

That was the candy store that the hidden entrance to Hogsmeade from Hogwarts was in. "Oh it's so good!" I chirped, remembering the few things that Cedric had gotten me from it.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

Ron glanced over at her. "It's this sweet shop," Ron said, a dreamy look coming over his face, "where they've got everything... Pepper Imps - they make you smoke at the mouth - and great fat Chocoballs full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, and really excellent sugar quills, which you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking what to write next -"

"That's what I eat all of the time," I interrupted.

They were very popular back in the States, and that was where I'd gotten my love for them. "But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?" Hermione asked, pressing us eagerly. I merely shrugged my shoulders at her. It was pretty cool. "In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 Goblin Rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack's supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain -"

"No one cares about the history of the place," I put in.

"I do," Hermione said.

"Exactly," I teased.

"- and massive sherbet balls that make you levitate a few inches off the ground while you're sucking them," Ron continued, who was plainly not listening to a word that Hermione or I were saying.

Hermione looked around at Harry. "Won't it be nice to get out of school for a bit and explore Hogsmeade?"

"It's lots of fun," I put in.

But that was when I remembered that Harry had never had the form signed and there was no way that anyone would let him out of the castle. "Expect it will. You'll have to tell me when you've found out," Harry said gloomily.

"What d'you mean?" Ron asked, suddenly paying attention again.

Harry shook his head sadly. "I can't go. The Dursley's didn't sign my permission form, and Fudge wouldn't either. And Tara's parents can't sign it as they're not my legal guardians," he explained.

"Even though they should be," I muttered under my breath.

Ron looked horrified. "You're not allowed to come?" he asked. Harry nodded at him. "But - no way - McGonagall or someone will give you permission -"

Harry and I both gave a hollow laugh. There was no way that that would happen. As much as I loved her, Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House, was very strict. She loved the students but she would never allow them to directly break the rules. While Dumbledore would look past bending the rules if it meant that something good would come out of it, Professor McGonagall was all for them. Last year I had been almost positive that she would get us into trouble for what we'd done in the Chamber of Secrets, while Dumbledore had given us six hundred points towards Gryffindor. Maybe we would be able to ask him.

Ron's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "- or we can ask Fred and George, they know every secret passage out of the castle -"

True enough. They were the ones that had accidentally let Cedric overhear about the passage that I knew. "Ron!" Hermione interrupted sharply. "I don't think Harry should be sneaking out of school with Black on the loose -"

"Yeah, I expect that's what McGonagall will say when I ask for permission," Harry said bitterly.

But there was one way that I knew how to get out of the castle without anyone seeing. "I know the secret passage out of the castle! We can get you through it and you'll be able to come with us," I said happily.

Hermione looked like I'd just suggested that we go into the Chamber of Secrets again. "Tara, that's a terrible idea! It's breaking school rules," she said irritably.

"We broke like fifty of them last year," I said.

"To stop a terrible crime from happening. Not to sneak into Hogsmeade for an afternoon of fun," she argued.

Narrowing my eyes at her, I folded my arms over my chest. "You know, you suck the joy out of everything," I said.

Hermione merely scoffed at me and nudged me towards the window. "You shouldn't even be leaving the castle," she pointed out.

There was no way that I was staying in the castle for someone to babysit me. I was going to be out there having fun like the rest of the students. "Good luck stopping me. I'm going to Hogsmeade, Hermione. And it wouldn't even be that dangerous for us. There will be plenty of other students and adults around to watch after us," I said.

"She's right, Hermione," Ron said, making me smile. "But if we're with him, Black wouldn't dare -"

"Oh, Ron, don't talk rubbish," Hermione snapped.

But he was right. Not exactly, but Black definitely wouldn't be anywhere near Hogsmeade. Not when it was so crowded with magical people. "No. He's right. Black doesn't want to be caught again. The only time that he would dare come after Harry and me is when we're alone. Even at Quidditch practice, we'll never be alone," I said quickly.

Hermione waved me off like I'd said nothing. "He doesn't care about that. Black's already murdered a whole bunch of people in the middle of a crowded street. Do you really think he's going to worry about attacking them just because we're there?" she asked, fumbling with the straps of Crookshanks's basket as she spoke.

"Don't let that thing out!" Ron shouted.

We all shushed him to be quiet, because Professor Lupin was still dozing quietly, but it was all too late. Crookshanks leapt lightly from the basket once the straps were loosened enough. At first everything was quiet. Crookshanks was reacting completely normally. Like a regular cat. He stretched, yawned, and sprang onto Ron's knees before we could stop him. That was enough to send everything into motion. The lump in Ron's pocket trembled and he shoved Crookshanks angrily away.

"Get out of here!" Ron shouted.

"Ron, don't!" Hermione cried angrily.

There they went, fighting with each other again. Ron was about to answer back when Professor Lupin stirred. We all stopped moving, watching him apprehensively, but he simply turned his head the other way, mouth slightly open, and slept on. We all let out a deep breath, thankful that we hadn't accidentally woken him up. Not that I wasn't excited to meet him, but in the event that we didn't get along right off of the bat, it would make for a very awkward train ride and entire year afterwards.

Alas, he didn't wake and we fell back into our normal conversations. The Hogwarts Express moved steadily north and the scenery outside the window became wilder and darker while the clouds overhead thickened. I sighed. I would definitely miss the warm air of London. Scotland was terribly cold. I didn't know how Seamus managed it all of the time. People were chasing backward and forward past the door of our compartment. Many of them seemed to be going to the bathroom of to try and find their friends. Crookshanks had now settled in an empty seat, his squashed face turned toward Ron, his yellow eyes on Ron's top pocket.

Wanting to stretch my legs, and relieve myself, I got to my feet and headed to the door. "Where are you going?" Harry asked.

"Bathroom," I answered shortly. "Jeez, you try and be discreet around here."

Everyone in the compartment - with the exception of Professor Lupin - laughed at my comment. I made my way out of the compartment, awkwardly stumbling over Harry's legs as I headed out into the hallway. I saw a number of my friends on the way and stopped to say hello. Seamus, Dean, Neville, Fred, George, Lee, Lavender, Parvati, Fay, Hannah, Susan, Justin, and Ernie. I would have stopped to say hello to my Ravenclaw friends (Terry, Michael, Anthony, Padma, and Lisa) but they were with Cho Chang, who still wasn't my biggest fan. So I merely went on to the bathroom, chatting with Ginny - who was also inside - before heading back to the compartment.

On my way back, I ran into Cedric. He was heading towards the bathrooms. The two of us hadn't seen each other since the near-kiss in the Leaky Cauldron. "Still following me, I see," I teased.

Cedric smiled and shook his head. "Cute. How are you?" he asked.

Unfortunately I'd still managed to blush slightly when he called me cute, despite the fact that it was only teasing. "So glad to be on the way back to Hogwarts! It seems a little strange, doesn't it? Muggle children can't stand the thought of going back to school, but for magical kids, this is the best time of the year," I said, leaning up against the wall to let the other students pass.

"Well we don't exactly have to do math or anything of the likes," Cedric put in.

My brows furrowed. Maybe I had really been that weird. "I always enjoyed math," I said.

Cedric sounded shocked that I had actually enjoyed math. "Did you?" he asked.

"Yeah. I did. I don't know, I was just good at it."

"Too bad I didn't have you in my Muggle schooling days." We both laughed at that. I remembered lots of kids wanting to be my friend because I'd always been good with math. "But that makes sense why you signed up for Arithmancy. If you're that good with math, you'll be good at it," Cedric said.

As far as I could remember, he was enrolled in Arithmancy at his own level. "You take it, right?" I asked.

Cedric nodded at me. "Yes. And I'm not too bad at it. I can help you if you ever need it," he offered.

That was definitely an offer that I would take up. But I didn't want to sound too excitable. "I might take you up on that." The two of us moved out of the way for a few students to pass. "So are you ready to start your O.W.L. level courses?" I asked.

Cedric laughed and shook his head. I imagined that it was the way that I would feel in two years. "Absolutely not. But I'll work on it," he said, running his hands through his hair.

"Well I'm always available as a very willing study partner," I teased.

It was always useful studying with Cedric, since he knew exactly what was going to be on the exams. "I somehow think that you're not a very good person to study with," he said. I stared at him and reacted with mock offense, placing a hand on my chest and gasping playfully. He merely smiled at me. "Knowing us, we'd end up distracted by everything except for our homework."

We both laughed at that one. It was completely true. "That might be a good point," I said.

Cedric dropped his voice slightly, leaning into me. "Did you ever find out more about, you know...?" he trailed off.

It was easy enough to figure out what he was talking about. And I definitely didn't want anyone to hear about. I wasn't ready for people to start hating me yet. I wanted to try and wait until the middle of the year, as we normally did. "I did, actually. We shouldn't talk about it here. Not with the rest of the school potentially listening in," I said.

Cedric nodded and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Just let me know if you ever want to talk about it," he said.

"I think I'll take you up on that." I glanced down at my Muggle watch and realized that I'd already been gone for far too long. "I'm gonna head back, but I'll see you at the Sorting Ceremony?" I asked, smiling up at him.

Cedric nodded. "Unless you'd like to fly another car into the Whomping Willow?" he teased.

Laughing loudly, I shook my head. The Ford Anglia was still running rampant in the Forbidden Forest, last that I'd heard. "No. Can't do it two years in a row. I'll have to find something else to do," I said.

"Good luck. Just don't get killed," he said.

"Not yet. Plenty of things that I've yet to do." Like get you to ask me on a stupid date. "See you later," I said, giving him a quick hug.

"Bye, Tara."

The two of us walked back to my compartment where I ducked back inside to see that the three of them were chatting happily back and forth. Although I noticed that Ron and Hermione were still tense about Crookshanks wandering around the compartment. And, of course, Harry glared at me when he saw that I was coming back with Cedric. It didn't help that Hermione waggled her eyebrows at me, which led to a nice half-hour discussion about what had taken me so long in the bathroom. I'd eventually had to grab Ginny and bring her over just to prove that I'd been with her for the majority of the time. I'd promised her that I would tell her everything later. I still hadn't mentioned the near kiss with Cedric.

Once I'd prove that I really was in the bathroom, we lapsed into our normal conversations as we continued towards Hogwarts. At one o'clock, the plump witch with the food cart arrived at the compartment door. "Do you think we should wake him up?" Ron asked awkwardly, nodding toward Professor Lupin. "He looks like he could do with some food."

Hermione approached Professor Lupin cautiously. I was about to tell her to leave him be, before I realized what she was doing. "Er - Professor? Excuse me - Professor?" she asked, poking at him softly.

He must have been really out of it. He didn't move. I wondered if maybe he'd had too much Firewhisky last night. "Don't worry, dear," the witch said as she handed Harry a large stack of Cauldron Cakes, and me a bundle of Sugar Quills. "If he's hungry when he wakes, I'll be up front with the driver."

She left afterwards as we started eating everything that we'd bought. "I suppose he is asleep? I mean - he hasn't died, has he?" Ron asked.

Hermione looked over at him and shook her head. "No, no, he's breathing," Hermione whispered, taking the Cauldron Cake Harry passed her.

Harry and I exchanged a Cauldron Cake and a Sugar Quill with each other. We continued to munch on our food and chat playfully back and forth as we continued towards Hogwarts. He might not have been very good company, but Professor Lupin's presence in our compartment had its uses. For one, no one else tried to come in and sit with us, considering that no one wanted to be around a teacher. But even better, mid-afternoon, just as it had started to rain, blurring the rolling hills outside the window, we heard footsteps in the corridor again. To my irritation, three of my least favorite people appeared at the door: Draco Malfoy, flanked by his cronies, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

Draco Malfoy and Harry had been enemies ever since they had met on their very first train journey to Hogwarts. It was also when Malfoy and I had gone from somewhat acquaintances to real enemies. Although he was friendlier towards me than the rest of my friends. Malfoy, who had a pale, pointed, sneering face, was in Slytherin House; he played Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team, the same position that Harry played on the Gryffindor team. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to exist to do Malfoy's bidding. They were far worse than Malfoy would ever be. They were both wide and muscled; Crabbe was taller, with a pudding-bowl haircut and a very thick neck; Goyle had short, bristly hair and long, gorilla-like arms.

"Well, look who it is," Malfoy said in his usual lazy drawl, pulling open the compartment door.

I rolled my eyes and turned towards him, pressing myself into the corner of the compartment. "Shocking that you'd run into us on the Hogwarts Express, the train that takes us all to Hogwarts, the school that we happen to all go to," I said shortly.

Malfoy's gaze snapped towards me. "Think you're funny, Nox?" he asked.

"I think I'm hilarious," I said quickly.

Malfoy merely rolled his eyes and looked over to Harry and Ron, whom he seemed to have a much easier time making fun of. "Potty and the Weasel." Crabbe and Goyle chuckled stupidly. "I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer, Weasley. Did your mother die of shock?" Ron stood up so quickly he knocked Crookshanks's basket to the floor. Professor Lupin gave a snort. It was enough to make Malfoy notice what had happened. "Who's that?"

Malfoy took an automatic step backwards when he realized that it was an adult sitting with us. "New teacher." Harry got to his feet, too, probably in case he needed to hold Ron back. "What were you saying, Malfoy?" Harry goaded, knowing that Malfoy would do nothing.

Malfoy's pale eyes narrowed; he wasn't fool enough to pick a fight right under a teacher's nose. "C'mon," he muttered resentfully to Crabbe and Goyle.

They started to head away from us, but I muttered, "Coward," before he could.

Malfoy immediately stopped in his tracks. Crabbe and Goyle were off to the side of the compartment, watching what was happening. Malfoy walked over to me and leaned close enough so that no one else could hear what he was saying. Harry almost immediately moved to get up. "Get away from her," Harry snarled.

"Relax, Potty," Malfoy snapped.

"I can handle it," I confirmed.

Harry didn't relax, but he did sit down. Malfoy leaned over me, almost pressing his mouth against my ear. "If I'm the coward and you're not, why don't you tell me how you did it?" he asked. I looked up towards him, wondering what the hell he was talking about. "The eyes... The Chapstick... I don't know how you did it, but I know that it was you."

My heart stopped. He'd never actually said it before, but I had known that he knew. Hearing him say that he knew it was me was different. Make him think of anything else. "Disappointed?" I asked.

"At?" Malfoy asked, looking very surprised.

"The fact that you might actually like me more than your little friend," I snapped.

That took Malfoy right out of his previously nearly entranced state. "I hate you," Malfoy said, straightening up this time. "You're a disgrace to your own name."

"So leave," I said.

Malfoy scoffed and looked away. "Let's go," he told Crabbe and Goyle.

The three of them fled the compartment and moved off down the hall. Harry and Ron sat down again, and I relaxed as Ron massaged his knuckles. "I'm not going to take any crap from Malfoy this year. I mean it," Ron snarled. Malfoy had always treated him the worst. "If he makes one more crack about my family, I'm going to get hold of his head and -" Ron made a violent gesture in midair.

"Ron, be careful..." Hermione hissed, pointing over to Professor Lupin.

But Professor Lupin was still fast asleep. And it didn't look like he was going to wake up at any time. And it turned out that I was right about him not waking up at any time soon. We soon forgot about Malfoy's appearance and went back to reacting like normal, enjoying the time that we had to catch up with each other and talk about our summers and the year to come. We ended up having quite a good time together, laughing and chatting about how, this year, we weren't going to have any near-death experiences. It didn't take long for us all to laugh about that one. We all knew that we would be almost killed at some point or another.

In the meantime, we continued heading straight towards Hogwarts. I really did wish that one day we could just Apparate to Hogwarts. The ride was definitely a long one. The rain thickened as the train sped yet farther north; the windows were now a solid, shimmering gray, which gradually darkened until lanterns flickered into life all along the corridors and over the luggage racks. It was getting into the night which meant that we would be at Hogwarts in another hour or so. And, as usual, the weather as we got closer wasn't too nice. The train rattled, the rain hammered, and the wind roared at the passing storm, but still, Professor Lupin slept.

"We must be nearly there," Ron said, leaning forward to look past Professor Lupin at the now completely black window.

Glancing over at him, I shook my head. We weren't there yet. We wouldn't be for a while. The words had hardly left his mouth when the train started to slow down. "No way. It's too early," I said, peering out of the window.

"Great," Ron said happily, getting up and walking carefully past Professor Lupin to try and see outside. "I'm starving. I want to get to the feast..."

"No, Ron, Tara's right. We can't be there yet," Hermione said, checking her own Muggle watch. "So why are we stopping?"

We were all right. The train was getting slower and slower. But there was no way that we were there yet. I peeked my head towards the window and couldn't make out anything. Not the shine from the Black Lake or the lights from Hogwarts Castle. We must have still been out in the fields and mountains. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows. We were still moving, but it was slow. Harry, who was nearest the door, got up to look into the corridor. I glanced over Hermione's shoulder to see what was happening. All along the carriage, heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments.

And then it started. The train came to a stop with a jolt, rocking back and forth. Harry was thrown back into the carriage as the door slammed shut. The distant thuds and bangs told me that luggage had fallen out of the racks in other compartments. A small bag of Hermione's fell into my lap and I gasped in surprise, shoving it to the floor, thinking that it might have been Crookshanks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and we were plunged into total darkness.

"Did we break down?" I asked, shattering the silence.

I was just barely able to see the outline of the others. "What's going on?" Ron asked, sounding very nervous.

"Ouch! Ron, that was my foot!" Hermione gasped. I could hear Harry feeling his way back to his seat. "Do you think we've broken down?"

"Dunno..." Harry muttered.

"Seems to be the only thing that would make sense," I put in.

The lights flickered for a moment, but remained otherwise off. That was when I realized that the temperature in the cabin had dropped drastically. I could see my own breath. Even for Scotland, at this time of the year it was far too cold. I grabbed my sweater and pulled it over my head. There was a loud squeaking sound that sounded almost like the gears of the train were trying to get back into motion. I saw the dim black outline of Ron, wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out.

"There's something moving out there. I think people are coming aboard..." Ron muttered.

That didn't sound good at all. My heart was thumping in my chest. There was no way. There was nothing good that could have been coming from this. No one ever stopped the Hogwarts Express. They could have just stopped us whenever we got to Hogwarts. There wasn't a chance that it could have been someone dangerous, was it? Of course it's someone dangerous, Tara. The compartment door suddenly opened and I sucked in a breath. But it turned out that it was just someone falling over Harry's legs.

"Sorry - d'you know what's going on? Ouch - Sorry."

It was only Neville, who had fallen onto the floor and was now trying to find his way to an open seat. "Hello, Neville," Harry said, grabbing onto Neville and pulling him up by his cloak.

"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?" Neville asked.

"No idea - sit down," Harry said.

We were all trying to shift around so that we could give him some room to sit down. Harry and Ron moved apart from each other and Hermione and I jammed together in the corner of our bench. There was a loud hissing and a yelp of pain as Neville tried to take a seat. Neville had tried to sit on Crookshanks and it hadn't gone well for either one of them.

"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," Hermione said.

She grabbed onto me so that I could lift her from the seat. I felt her brush by me and head straight to the door. I heard it slide open again, followed by a loud thud and two squeals of pain. "Hermione!" I shouted.

"Who's that?" Hermione asked.

"Who's that?" Ginny's voice called.

"Ginny?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione?" Ginny asked. "Who was the other voice?"

"It's me. Tara."

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked.

"I was looking for Ron -"

"Come in and sit down -" Ron interrupted.

"Not here! I'm here!" Harry cried hurriedly.

"Ouch!" Neville yelped.

"That's me!" I shouted, feeling Ginny sit on me.

They were all still chattering as I moved away from the window, towards the door, grabbed Ginny and slammed her down in the seat, and Hermione afterwards, pushing her towards the window. They were still chattering back and forth, trying to figure out what was happening as everyone attempted to rearrange themselves. I couldn't believe that Professor Lupin was still asleep, particularly with either Ron or Neville pushing up against him now. I couldn't tell who, considering the darkness.

The noise still hadn't died. "Would everyone shut up?" I hissed irritably.

"Quiet!" a hoarse voice hissed suddenly.

It appeared that Professor Lupin had woken up at last. His would have been the only voice that I didn't know. And I could hear movements in his corner of the compartment. His warning had been enough for all of us. None of us spoke. There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. It was enough to just barely see the outlines of each other. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames, similar to the ones that Hermione conjured. They illuminated his tired, gray face, but his eyes looked alert and wary. He appeared to be far older than I knew he was.

"Stay where you are," Professor Lupin said in the same hoarse voice.

He got slowly to his feet with his handful of fire held out in front of him so that he could see. The train rocked once more and Professor Lupin was thrown back into his seat. We all stopped moving for fear of what was happening. I noticed that everyone's breath could now be seen and there was ice forming along the windows. It had gone from cold to absolutely freezing in the compartment. Even the bottle of Gillywater was now ice. I noticed that there was an odd groaning sound coming from outside of the compartment; the gears of the train were now freezing. The train rocked violently again and I heard a few screams from up and down the corridor.

Once the train had stopped, Professor Lupin went to get to his feet again. But he never got the chance. Because, just outside the door, something was moving. We all watched in horror as a black-robed figure drifted to the door of our cabin and waved its hand at the handle. The door to the compartment slid easily open. If I could have found my voice, I would have screamed. The figure that towered to the ceiling was a Dementor. I'd never actually seen one before. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest.

Its decaying hands grabbed the door and pried it the rest of the way open as it entered the cabin. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood. My eyes darted downward, desperate not to look at what was walking into the cabin, and what I saw made my stomach contract. The other hand was protruding from the cloak and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water. It was reaching out towards me as the Dementor turned straight towards me, tilting what I assumed was its head, to the side; almost like it was confused.

But the Dementor was visible only for a split second. As though the Dementor had sensed my gaze - and apparently Harry's, too, as he was also staring at it - the hand was suddenly withdrawn into the folds of its black cloak. It was floating just off of the ground when I realized that something new was happening. The Dementor made a noise that made my spine straighten to the point that I was sure that it would break. The Dementor drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.

Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny shied away from the creature as Crookshanks hissed and Scabbers fled the scene. But Harry and I continued to stare at it. An intense cold swept over me, even worse than before. My breath caught in my chest. The cold went deeper than my skin. It felt terrible. It was inside my chest, inside my very heart. That was when it happened. The Dementor turned to me and began to swoop down on my body. I could see another behind it, coming for Harry. My eyes rolled backwards into my head. I couldn't see. I was going to die. My body began to convulse. There was a rushing in my ears as though I was being dragged under water.

The rattling of the Dementor was growing louder and louder. I could feel it deep in my soul. The man that was standing at my side. Strong and tall, watching me like I was everything to him. It wasn't just that. I could feel it inside of my very bones. My desperation to be with him. The pain in me because I wasn't with him. The struggle that I felt by being away from him. There was a very void in my soul that was consuming me by not being at his side. The void was growing large and larger, consuming me. I felt my body hit the floor, and then nothing.

"Harry! Tara! Harry! Tara! Are you all right?" Hermione was shouting.

There was someone else that was slapping my face and splashing water on my face. My eyes blearily opened and I saw that the man - Professor Lupin - was standing over me. He had been splashing some of the previously frozen Gillywater on my face. I sucked in a huge breath, feeling like I could breathe for the first time in hours - and sat bolt upright. Professor Lupin backed off in time to give me a hand and raise me back to my feet. I very limply allowed him to place me back on the seat with Hermione, who held me in place.

"W - What?" Harry muttered.

He was waking up, too. "What happened?" I asked, breathing heavily.

Something terrible had just happened. I felt absolutely miserable. There were lanterns above me and I could feel that the floor was shaking underneath me, making me a little dizzy. The Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come back on. Wherever the Dementors were, they were gone now. Ron and Hermione left to kneel next to Harry, and Neville and Professor Lupin were watching now that I had recovered. Ginny was now holding onto me. I felt very sick and there was a cold sweat on his face. Ron and Hermione heaved Harry back onto his seat.

"Are you two okay?" Ron asked nervously.

I nodded weakly. "Yeah," Harry said, looking quickly toward the door. "What happened? Where's that - that thing? Who screamed?"

"No one screamed," Ron said, more nervously still.

Then he looked over at me, probably wondering if I had heard someone scream. I merely knitted my brows together. I hadn't heard anything like that. "Someone screamed?" I asked.

"Well what happened to you?" Harry asked.

What had happened to me? I honestly didn't have a clue. "I don't know. It was like a dream. An absolutely terrible dream. I felt like someone had dipped me in a bath of ice water. It felt like I would never be happy again, not until... I don't know," I muttered, unsure of what had happened.

Harry and I both looked around the bright compartment. Ginny and Neville were looking between the two of us, both very pale. "I didn't have that," Harry said. "But I heard screaming -"

A loud snap made us all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces. "Here," Professor Lupin said to Harry and me, handing us two particularly large pieces. "Eat it. It'll help."

We both took the chocolate but neither one of us ate it. "What was that thing?" Harry asked Professor Lupin.

"A Dementor," Professor Lupin said, who was now giving chocolate to everyone else. "One of the Dementors of Azkaban."

Everyone stared at him. I'd known what it was instantly, but the others had probably never even heard of a Dementor before. Professor Lupin crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket. "That's a Dementor?" Harry asked me.

I nodded at him, staring down at the piece of chocolate. "Yeah. When I was telling you about them, I've only read about them in books. That was the first time that I've ever seen one before," I explained.

"Eat. It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me," Professor Lupin said.

The six of us watched as he strolled past Harry and me and disappeared into the corridor. "Are you sure you're both okay?" Hermione asked, watching Harry and I anxiously.

I merely stared down at the ground. I couldn't get the feeling of emptiness to go away. It still felt like I was desperate to feel something, anything. "I don't get it... What happened?" Harry asked, wiping more sweat off his face.

"Well - those things - the Dementors - stood there and looked around. I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see its face - and you - you -"

Ron took over the story for Hermione. He still looked scared as he looked over at Harry. "I thought you were having a fit or something. You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching. Tara, your eyes rolled back into your head and it looked like you had stopped breathing."

The thought disturbed me more than I had thought that it would. I'd heard stories of Dementors before, but none of them did any justice to what an attack by one actually felt like. "And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked toward the Dementor, and pulled out his wand and he said, 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' But the Dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned around and sort of glided away," Hermione explained.

That was when my head shot up. Sure, Professor Lupin was a fully trained wizard, but if he'd done what I thought that he had, he must have been good. They were difficult, no matter what. "Like an animal?" I asked.

Hermione glanced over at me, surprised. "It was more like a wisp, but it might have been an animal," she said.

"Patronus," I explained, earning befuddled looks from all over the compartment. "They keep Dementors at bay. Tough bit of magic, even for an adult."

"It was horrible," Neville said, in a higher voice than usual. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"

"I felt weird. Like I'd never be cheerful again..." Ron said, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably.

Unfortunately I still felt like I wasn't ever going to be happy again. There was still the strange void that made me feel like someone had sucked out my soul. Of course, that was basically what happened. If the Dementor had gotten just a little bit closer to me, it would have performed the Kiss, and I would have been even worse off. Harry came to sit next to me and the two of us grabbed each other's hands. Ginny, who was huddled in her corner looking nearly as bad as I felt, gave a small sob. Hermione went over and put a comforting arm around her.

As much as I would have liked to go and help her, I didn't feel quite up to it. So I stayed with Harry on our bench. "But didn't any of you - fall off your seats?" Harry asked awkwardly.

"No. Ginny was shaking like mad, though," Ron said, suddenly looking uncomfortable again.

For as familiar as I was with magical creatures and how strange people could get, I didn't understand what had just happened. I wasn't overly familiar with how Dementors worked or how they affected different people. All I knew was that one had just nearly performed the Kiss on me, and I was reasonably certain that the same thing had almost happened to Harry. I still felt weak and shivery, as though he were recovering from a bad bout of flu, and the empty void still hadn't gone. I also felt the beginnings of shame. Why had we gone to pieces like that, when no one else had? At least Harry was in the same boat as I was. We were both affected by it.

Professor Lupin had come back in the meantime. He paused as he entered, looked around, and said, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know."

Knowing that it was rude for the two of us to have been given something and not even take it, I picked up the chocolate that had been on my lap a moment beforehand, and took a bite out of it. At first I couldn't see how it would help, but I quickly realized that the chocolate was a good thing. To my surprise I felt warmth spread suddenly to the tips of my fingers and toes. It still felt a little empty inside of my body, but I felt about ten times better than I had a few minutes ago.

"Thank you," I said, smiling up at Professor Lupin.

"You're welcome. We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes. Are you all right, Harry, Tara?" Professor Lupin asked.

Neither Harry nor I asked how Professor Lupin knew our names. "Fine," Harry muttered, embarrassed.

"We'll be okay. We appreciate it," I said, still feeling the burning embarrassment.

If anything, we should have been the ones that hadn't reacted to the Dementor. Weren't we the ones that were always supposed to be handling the worst of things? It didn't matter. We didn't talk much during the remainder of the journey. There wasn't anything left to say that didn't have something to do with the Dementor attack. At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station and there was a great scramble to get outside. We were among the first of the people to exit the train. Owls hooted, cats meowed, and Neville's pet toad, Trevor, croaked loudly from under his hat. It was freezing on the tiny platform as rain was driving down in icy sheets.

At least it wasn't quite as bad as being on the train. "Firs' Years this way!" a familiar voice called.

Some of the lightness from before the Dementor attack had returned to my body. I didn't feel like I was completely back to normal, but with every passing moment I was feeling better and better. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I turned and saw the gigantic outline of Hagrid at the other end of the platform, beckoning the terrified-looking new students forward for their traditional journey across the lake. They were already getting off to a good start, considering the Dementor attack an hour beforehand. They got to ride the boats as the rest of us took the carriages.

"All righ', you four?" Hagrid yelled over the heads of the crowd.

The four of us waved at him, but had no chance to speak to him because the mass of people around us was shunting us away along the platform. The upper years were all desperate to get away from the place where a Dementor had just been. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I followed the rest of the school along the platform and out onto a rough mud track, where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students. Each were either pulled by an invisible horse or maybe a Thestral. I was hoping that they were just autonomous. As we climbed inside and shut the door, the coach set off all by itself, bumping and swaying in procession.

It definitely didn't smell so good inside. The coach smelled faintly of mold and straw. I was exhausted as we took our seats in the small coaches. I felt better since the chocolate, but still weak. Ron and Hermione kept looking at the two of us sideways, as though frightened we might collapse again. If they kept looking at me like I was going to keel over and die, I was going to lose my mind. We weren't that weak. It was just because we were closer to the Dementor than they were. As the carriage trundled toward a pair of magnificent wrought iron gates, flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars, I saw two more towering, hooded Dementors, standing guard on either side.

Now I was certain that I was going to puke. A wave of cold sickness threatened to engulf me again. I merely leaned back into the lumpy seat and closed my eyes until we had passed the gates. Why the hell were the Dementors here? They were rotten, terrible, creatures. They shouldn't be at a school with kids running rampant. The carriage picked up speed on the long, sloping drive up to the castle, almost as if they, too, were desperate to get away from the Dementors. Hermione was leaning out of the tiny window, watching the many turrets and towers draw nearer. At last, the carriage swayed to a halt, and Hermione and Ron got out, leaving Harry and I to climb out a moment later.

As Harry stepped down first, giving me a hand out, a drawling, delighted voice sounded in his ear. "You fainted, Potter? Had a stroke, Nox? Is Longbottom telling the truth? You actually fainted?" Malfoy asked, laughing at us.

"Some of us - the ones with souls - actually react to Dementors," I snapped.

He merely laughed at me as he walked forward. I was more than irritated to see Malfoy elbow past Hermione and nearly shove her to the ground. Thankfully someone was around to keep her from hitting the ground. As Harry and I tried to head up into the castle and ignore whatever it was that Malfoy wanted to make fun of us for this time, he managed to block our way up the stone steps to the castle, his face gleeful and his pale eyes glinting maliciously.

"Shove off, Malfoy," Ron said, his jaw clenched.

"Did you faint as well, Weasley? Did the scary old Dementor frighten you too, Weasley?" Malfoy asked tauntingly.

"Is there a problem?" a mild voice asked.

It turned out that Professor Lupin had just gotten out of the next carriage. I turned back and smiled gratefully. He would easily turn into my favorite professor if he was able to keep Malfoy away from me and save me from creepy creatures like Dementors. Maybe school this year wouldn't be half bad. Malfoy gave Professor Lupin an insolent stare, which took in the patches on his robes and the dilapidated suitcase. My gaze narrowed on him. So what if he was a little poor or had a hard time in life? He was good in my books.

With a tiny hint of sarcasm in his voice, he said, "Oh, no - er - Professor," he said.

Without giving Professor Lupin a chance to say anything back, he smirked at Crabbe and Goyle and led them up the steps into the castle. We all glared at him for a moment before Hermione prodded Ron in the back to make him hurry. We waved off Professor Lupin and the four of us joined the crowd swarming up the steps. It was easier this year than it had been the first time that we'd done it two years ago. Last year we'd merely run up on the grounds because of our trip in the Ford Anglia. We were led through the giant oak front doors, into the cavernous entrance hall, which was lit with flaming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors.

It felt good to finally be home. I was sure that I'd never been so happy to get back to Hogwarts. The summer had been annoyingly boring and I was ready to get away from the protective nature of everyone back home. At least I'd be allowed a little more freedom here and have something to fill up my days. The door into the Great Hall stood open at the right and we followed the crowd toward it. I was thrilled to finally get to the castle. My stomach was growling and I was starving from having not eaten much today.

But we had barely glimpsed the enchanted ceiling, which was black and cloudy tonight, when a voice called, "Tara! I heard that -"

"Potter! Granger! Nox! I want to see the three of you!"

Cedric had barely gotten his words out what Professor McGonagall had shouted over him. He'd just made his way over to us and we both smiled. "Wonderful," I muttered to Cedric, sure that we were in trouble. "We'll talk after, okay?"

"Alright," Cedric said, patting me on the shoulder and heading towards the Great Hall.

We had been here for only five minutes. How could we have already done something to get ourselves in trouble? Harry, Hermione, and I turned around, surprised. And why wasn't Ron being involved in whatever this was? Professor McGonagall, who was the Transfiguration teacher and head of Gryffindor House, was calling over the heads of the crowd. She was a stern-looking witch who wore her hair in a tight bun; her sharp eyes were framed with square spectacles. She was very nice, but had a knack for following the rules. We fought our way over to her with a feeling of foreboding. Professor McGonagall had a way of making me feel I must have done something wrong.

"There's no need to look so worried - I just want a word in my office," she told us. "Move along there, Weasley."

Well as long as we weren't in trouble that was the important part. Ron stared after us as Professor McGonagall ushered Harry, Hermione, and I away from the chattering crowd. We accompanied her across the entrance hall, up the marble staircase, and along a corridor. I'd only been in her office once before, after we had defeated the Basilisk a few months ago. Hopefully this would be a nicer visit. Once we were in her office, a small room with a large, welcoming fire, Professor McGonagall motioned the three of us to sit down.

She settled herself behind her desk and said abruptly, "Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead to say that you were taken ill on the train, Potter. You, too, Nox."

My face burned with embarrassment. I did appreciate that Professor Lupin had been there to help us out, but it was rather awkward that he had alerted our Head of House that we had fallen ill. Before Harry or I could reply, there was a soft knock on the door and Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, came bustling in. If I wasn't red in the face before, I definitely was now. It was bad enough that we'd passed out, or whatever we had done, without everyone making all this fuss. And Malfoy would only make it worse.

"I'm fine," Harry said quickly, "I don't need anything -"

"We were fine," I interrupted

Madam Pomfrey didn't seem surprised at all to see that it was Harry and me. "Oh, it's you two, is it?" she asked, ignoring this and bending down to stare closely at us. "I suppose you've both been doing something dangerous again?"

We weren't really that bad. "It was a Dementor, Poppy," Professor McGonagall said.

The three of us exchanged a dark look, and Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly. Had the teachers not known about this? "Setting Dementors around a school," she muttered, pushing back Harry's hair and feeling his forehead. She was brushing mine back, too. "They won't be the last ones who collapse. Yes, they're all clammy. Terrible things, they are, and the effect they have on people who are already delicate -"

"I'm not delicate!" Harry said crossly.

"It was attempting to give us the Kiss! We defeated a Basilisk, we're not delicate!" I defended ourselves.

The last thing that we were was delicate. In fact, we were far from it. "Of course you're not," Madam Pomfrey said absentmindedly, making me grind my jaws together. She was now taking his pulse. "Thankfully it didn't succeed. Nothing can undo it."

"What do they need? Bed rest? Should they perhaps spend tonight in the hospital wing?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"I'm fine!" Harry said, jumping up.

Despite remaining seated, I shouted with him, "No, thank you!" It was bad enough that we had fainted. The thought of what Draco Malfoy would say if we had to go to the hospital wing was torture.

We would be avoiding that at all costs. "Well, they should have some chocolate, at the very least," Madam Pomfrey said, now trying to peer into Harry's eyes.

"We've already had some. Professor Lupin gave us some. He gave it to all of us," Harry said.

Madam Pomfrey briefly lifted her head up to smile. "Did he, now? So we've finally got a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who knows his remedies?" she said approvingly.

"Are you sure you feel all right, Potter? Nox?" Professor McGonagall asked sharply.

"Yes," Harry said as I nodded along with him.

Professor McGonagall stared at him for a moment before nodding. "Very well. Kindly wait outside while I have a quick word with Miss Granger and Miss Nox about their course schedules, then we can go down to the feast together," she said. Harry nodded and left with Madam Pomfrey. Once the door h ad closed, she turned back to us. "Ladies. You are aware that some of the classes that you signed up for occur at the same time?"

"We weren't. We were just hoping that we could take them," I said awkwardly.

Did that mean that we wouldn't be able to take everything that we had picked? "How badly does the schedule overlap?" Hermione asked.

Professor McGonagall pulled out a piece of paper and looked over it. "Ancient Studies and Arithmancy are at the same time. Nine o'clock to ten o'clock in the morning. The same goes for Muggle Studies with you, Miss Granger. Study of Ancient Runes also overlaps with Care of Magical Creatures," she explained to us.

My heart sank. I didn't want to give up Care of Magical Creatures but I also really loved Study of Ancient Runes. The same went for Ancient Studies and Arithmancy. "So we can't take all of them?" I asked sadly.

Professor McGonagall sighed softly and shook her head. "Technically, no," she said.

What the hell did that mean? "Technically?" Hermione asked.

She must have been as confused as we were. Hermione and I exchanged a concerned glance. "Are either one of you aware of what a Time-Turner is?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Yes, ma'am," we both said, unsure of where she was taking this.

"This is one of the few Time-Turner's left in existence," Professor McGonagall said.

Professor McGonagall pulled out a long golden-chained necklace with an hourglass in between two circles that cranked in opposite directions. There was only so much that I knew about them. The Ministry of Magic had encased an Hour-Reversal Charm in the Time-Turners they created, for added stability. The number of times one turns the hourglass corresponds to the number of hours one travels back in time. However, they could only stay in the past for five hours at a time, without the possibility of serious harm to the traveler or to time itself. It had an odd inscription on it.

I mark the hours, every one,  
Nor have I yet outrun the Sun.  
My use and value, unto you,  
Are gauged by what you have to do.

Professor McGonagall took the Time-Turner back. "They are very dangerous when used improperly. Altering timelines is a dangerous business. However, there are some circumstances in which a Time-Turner can be helpful. You both have the highest marks of your year." Hermione and I exchanged a proud smile. "Miss Nox, I'm correct in assuming that you'd like to be an Auror after Hogwarts?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"And Miss Granger?"

"Would saying Minister of Magic be a bit too much?" Hermione asked sheepishly.

Both Professor McGonagall and I smiled at her. "Not at all. That is why I'll be entrusting you two with this," she said, handing the Time-Turner over to us. "It will allow you to attend classes that occur in the same time frame. You will exist in two places at once and be able to retain information from both classes. Once the hour is up, only the last of your copies will continue on into the next hour. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," we said together.

"About half a twist will set you back the hour so that you can get to the next class. Keep it tucked in like a necklace. And, most important, when the copies are around, do not stand together. Let no one see that you are a duplicate," Professor McGonagall warned.

"Yes, ma'am."

"We are just borrowing it for this year to see how it works out," Professor McGonagall told us.

"Thank you so much," I said happily.

I let Hermione take the necklace so that she could tuck it into her shirt, wearing it like a necklace. "We won't let you down, Professor," Hermione promised, looking very determined.

"I would hope not. It will be very difficult to keep up, I promise you both that," Professor McGonagall told us.

We both nodded. "We can handle it," Hermione said.

"Of course," I added.

"This is a tremendous responsibility," Professor McGonagall added.

"We understand, Professor," I said.

She nodded at us with something that looked almost like a smile. "You will trade off with the Time-Turner. Ensure that you never lose it. And tell no one, not Mr. Potter or Mr. Weasley, that you possess this," Professor McGonagall warned. It almost made me laugh. She knew just how untrustworthy we could be about keeping secrets. "They are very old and very delicate."

"Yes, ma'am," we both said.

Professor McGonagall smiled at us once more, ensuring that Hermione had the Time-Turner hidden away, and motioned for us to come with her. "Let us be on the way then. I'll keep in contact with you both over your progress with the Time-Turner," Professor McGonagall said.

We both nodded at her as we got us to leave the room. This was definitely the most excited that I'd been in a long time. "This is so cool!" I cheered happily to Hermione.

She looked just as happy as I did. "Have you ever seen one before?" Hermione asked.

There were, in fact, very few people that had ever seen a Time-Turner before. "No. But I have heard of them. They're really rare and supposedly really dangerous," I said, pointing down to her chest.

"And Nox?" Professor McGonagall added.

"Ma'am?" I asked, turning back.

"I don't expect that your performance on the Quidditch Pitch will be any weaker."

"Absolutely not!"

And I meant it. There was no way that my performance would slip in Quidditch. That was the most important thing while we were at Hogwarts. School was important, too, but everyone knew that Quidditch was the most fun thing that we had at Hogwarts. We finally emerged from Professor McGonagall's office, both looking very cheerful about the interesting change in events, followed by Professor McGonagall. Harry was watching me curiously, but I merely smiled and shook my head. It would be a fun year. But Hermione and I would have to study a lot more with all of our classes, and we would have to keep the boys in the dark about everything.

Together the four of us made our way back down the marble staircase to the Great Hall. It was a sea of pointed black hats; each of the long House tables was lined with students, their faces glimmering by the light of thousands of candles, which were floating over the tables in midair. We must have missed the Sorting. They must have done it with someone that wasn't Professor McGonagall, as she was normally the one that did it. This year it was Professor Flitwick, who was a tiny little wizard with a shock of white hair, carrying an ancient hat and a three-legged stool out of the hall.

"Oh, we've missed the Sorting!" Hermione cried softly.

"Who cares? Do you know any new First Years?" I asked her.

"No, but I like watching it," she said.

New students at Hogwarts were sorted into Houses by trying on the Sorting Hat, which shouted out the House they were best suited to (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin). It had told both Harry and I that it would have preferred placing us in Slytherin, but due to our hardheadedness, we had both ended up in Gryffindor. Professor McGonagall strode off toward her empty seat at the staff table, and the three of us set off in the other direction, as quietly as possible, toward the Gryffindor table. People looked around at us as we passed along the back of the hall, and a few of them pointed at Harry and me. Had the story of our collapsing in front of the Dementor traveled that fast?

Wonderful. Another good start to another good year. The three of us sat down on either side of Ron, who had saved us seats. "What was all that about?" he muttered to Harry.

Harry started to explain in a whisper, but at that moment the Headmaster stood up to speak, and he broke off. Professor Dumbledore, though very old, always gave an impression of great energy. It was just something about it. He had several feet of long silver hair and beard, half-moon spectacles, and an extremely crooked nose. He was often described as the greatest wizard of the age, but that wasn't why anyone our age respected him. You couldn't help trusting Albus Dumbledore, just because of the way that he interacted with the students. And as I saw him beaming down at us, I felt really calm for the first time since the Dementor had entered the train compartment.

"Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast..." Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

There was a heavy silence as he paused. It made me sickened to think about what had happened. I'd been trying for hours to push off the attack from the Dementor. The entire thing was horrible and something that I wished to never have happen again. Of course, with the Dementors floating around the school, I had a feeling that we might end up running into them again. I remembered what Mr. Weasley had said about Dumbledore not being happy with the Dementors guarding the school. Not that I could blame him. Things like this could happen.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds, and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises - or even Invisibility Cloaks," he added blandly. Harry, Ron, and I glanced at each other. "It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors."

No part of me could understand how that would work. The Dementors were much more powerful than any of the Prefects. Not that they could understand that. It was part of the nature of a Prefect to be very proud. Percy, who was sitting a few seats down from me, puffed out his chest again and stared around impressively. It was the first time that I had laughed since being on the train. He just looked so foolish. Dumbledore paused again; he looked very seriously around the hall, and nobody moved or made a sound.

"On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year. First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore continued.

There was some scattered, rather unenthusiastic applause. But I, for one, was very interested in the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He was quite something. He knew how to cast a proper Patronus and knew the remedies to a Dementor attack. He seemed perfectly nice to me, and I was sure that he would be much better than Lockhart or Quirrell. Because of our bad luck with Defense professors recently, I could see why no one else was really clapping. Only those who had been in the compartment on the train with Professor Lupin clapped hard, myself among them. Professor Lupin looked particularly shabby next to all the other teachers in their best robes.

"Look at Snape!" Ron hissed at us.

Professor Snape, the Potions master of Hogwarts, was staring along the staff table at Professor Lupin. It was common knowledge that Snape wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, but even me, who hated Snape, was startled at the expression twisting his thin, sallow face. It was beyond anger. It was loathing. I knew that expression only too well; it was the look Snape wore every time he set eyes on Harry or me. They must have known each other at some point. There was bad blood between the two of them.

"As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin died away. "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

At the mention of Professor Kettleburn, I had glanced over at Cedric. The two of us had smiled at each other and laughed. Kettleburn was probably very glad that he didn't have to teach me. But at the second bit of news, my gaze tore away from Cedric. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I stared at one another, stunned. When we finally managed to join in with the applause, which was tumultuous at the Gryffindor table in particular, I looked up towards where Hagrid was seated. He was ruby-red in the face and staring down at his enormous hands, his wide grin hidden in the tangle of his black beard.

"We should've known! Who else would have assigned us a biting book?" Ron roared, pounding the table.

"That's wonderful for him," I chirped happily.

Hagrid would always be one of my favorite people around. He was the first staff member from Hogwarts that I had ever met and he was also one of the nicest adults that was around. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were the last to stop clapping. It was very easy to see that Hagrid was smiling down at us. I wished that he would have told this a little bit earlier. As Professor Dumbledore started speaking again, and the rest of the applause faltered, I saw that Hagrid was wiping his eyes on the tablecloth.

"Well, I think that's everything of importance. Let the feast begin!" Dumbledore cried.

The golden plates and goblets before us filled suddenly with food and drink. For most of the day I hadn't even been thinking about food. I'd been so concerned with Sirius Black and everything that had happened with the Dementor on the train. But I was suddenly ravenous, and I helped myself to everything that I could reach and began to eat. It was a delicious feast; the hall echoed with talk, laughter, and the clatter of knives and forks. It was nice getting the chance to catch up with everyone. It was so loud on the first day that it was even acceptable to call out to people at the other tables and say hello to friends that were in other Houses.

As happy as I was to hang out with them and see everyone else, I was also eager for it to finish so that we could go and talk to Hagrid. We knew how much being made a teacher would mean to him. Hagrid wasn't a fully qualified wizard; he had been expelled from Hogwarts in his Third Year for a crime he had not committed. It turned out that Voldemort had committed the crime, one of the reasons that Hagrid feared him more than the average person. It had been Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I who had cleared Hagrid's name last year.

At long last, when the last morsels of pumpkin tart had melted from the golden platters, Dumbledore gave the word that it was time for us all to go to bed. And I was definitely going to get to bed. That was all that I wanted. To get to bed and be ready for classes to start tomorrow, where Hermione and I would be able to use the Time-Turner for the first time. It was as the feast cleared and we were all allowed to move about the Great Hall freely that we got our chance to talk to Hagrid.

"Congratulations, Hagrid!" Hermione squealed as we reached the teachers' table.

"Congratulations!" I chirped.

Hagrid looked down at us, still smiling. "All down ter you four," Hagrid said, wiping his shining face on his napkin as he looked up at them. "Can' believe it... great man, Dumbledore... came straight down to me hut after Professor Kettleburn said he'd had enough... It's what I always wanted..."

"Tara!" Cedric called as Hagrid continued to sob happily. "Can we talk?"

I nodded at him and turned to Percy, who was trying to rile everyone up so that we could leave. "Oi! Percy!" I called out, making him turn towards me. "What's the new password?"

Percy shook his head, looking over at Cedric. "You can chat later. You'll have to come along now if you want to know the password," he said.

Fred walked up and smacked Percy on the back of the head. "Don't be such a prat, Perce. It's 'Fortuna Major'," Fred said, looking over at me.

"Thanks," I said.

He nodded and walked off with the rest of the Gryffindor's. I waved for Cedric to wait for me for a moment as I turned back to Hagrid. Overcome with emotion, he buried his face in his napkin, and Professor McGonagall shooed us away. We all waved at Hagrid and told him that we couldn't wait for Care of Magical Creatures to start. Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined the Gryffindor's streaming up the marble staircase and I waved them off, letting them know that I would be with them in a few minutes. I very tired now but I wanted to speak to him for a few minutes.

"So what's up?" I asked, walking back over to Cedric.

He smiled at me and sighed, bringing me slowly towards the Gryffindor Common Room. Not that he really knew exactly where it was. "I heard about what happened on the Hogwarts Express," he said.

My heart dropped into my stomach. "Of course you did... Is that going around now?" I asked worriedly.

Cedric shifted awkwardly as he looked at me. "A few people have heard," he muttered.

That was enough confirmation for me. "Everyone has," I groaned.

Cedric nodded, crossing his arms over his chest as we walked up the stairs. "A Dementor was on the train. It was a pretty big deal that it was here," Cedric said. I nodded at him, now wishing that we had flown the Anglia into the Whomping Willow again. "Plus when people found out that you and Harry had reacted to it -"

"It tried to give us the Kiss!" I shouted, unable to stop myself from saying it. Cedric jumped slightly in surprise and I grimaced, feeling guilty for snapping at him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that. Just makes me a little stressed."

Cedric's face drained of color. "I didn't know that," he said softly.

"Did you see the Dementor?" I asked.

Cedric nodded at me, seemingly very bothered. "One passed our carriage but it didn't come in. What happened? When it...?" he trailed off, unable to actually bring himself to say it.

Whatever it was, it had been extremely strange. I didn't really know how to explain it. "I don't know. I just went into this horrible, coma, kind of. I saw myself standing with someone. It was like someone had ripped out my soul. I just needed to be with him. It was the worst thing I've ever felt. This desperation to be with him. This desperation to have him accept me," I explained as best I could.

Cedric suddenly looked awkward once more. "Like you were in love with him?" he asked.

Laughing softly, I shook my head. I knew well enough what being in love was at least supposed to feel like, and that wasn't it. "No. Not like that. Like a partnership almost," I answered.

There was something that looked almost like relief on Cedric's face. He walked over to me and pulled me into a hug. "It was just something that the Dementor made you feel. Don't be embarrassed for passing out. No one can just get over the Dementor's Kiss. Or even a close call. You're stronger than most people that I know," he told me.

An irritating blush flooded my cheeks. "Thank you," I muttered under my breath.

We stood together for a while before Cedric spoke again. "So what happened with Black?" he asked.

The two of us continued to walk up the stairs as I told him everything that I could. It was nice to confide in someone that was outside of Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Getting that extra opinion helped sometimes. I explained all about Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's argument with Mom and Dad and the warning Mr. Weasley had just given Harry and me before we'd left for the Hogwarts Express. I even clarified a little bit more about the conversation that I'd overheard between my parents the night that I'd come back from seeing Snuffles, who I explained that I now was starting to believe might have been a death omen.

"Maybe you shouldn't go to Hogsmeade," Cedric said after a long silence between the two of us.

But that was the last thing that I wanted. I wanted to go to Hogsmeade, whether it was on a date with Cedric, or just for the day with my friends. "I'm going. Nothing is going to stop me. I'm not going to be scared of everything for the rest of my life. Sometimes you just have to keep moving along. If something happens, I'll deal with it when it does," I said bullheadedly.

Instead of looking serious and telling me that I should have known better, like I had thought that Cedric might do, he merely laughed at me. "You know, nothing seems to faze you," he said, seeing my bewildered look.

"Oh, trust me, it does. I just try not to react unless I have to," I said, laughing.

"I've said it before. Gryffindor through and through. You're a brave girl," he said.

"Thank you."

"You ready for classes tomorrow?" Cedric asked, probably trying to get my mind off of everything that was bothering me.

And there were certainly a lot of things that were bothering me. "Absolutely. I need something to keep me distracted from everything that's been going on," I said brightly.

Cedric smiled and brought me in for a quick hug. "Just know that you can talk to me whenever you need," he said.

That was something that I had known for a long time. He was just that kind of person. "I know," I said, bringing him in for another hug. "And I appreciate that. But it was just a freaky incident. I'll be fine, though. As long as the Dementors don't come visiting the castle too much and as long as I don't get within a few feet of Malfoy."

Cedric laughed once more. Malfoy was a thorn in my side that Cedric had kept me from killing more than once over past few years. "Try and keep yourself out of trouble?" he asked me.

"You know me. I'm never in trouble," I chirped, shrugging my shoulders.

He shook his head at me. "Right. I almost believed you there for a second," he said, making me laugh softly. "I'll see you at breakfast, Tara."

"Night, Cedric."

The two of us smiled at each other and I walked back to give him another hug. It was good to know that we would be around each other a lot more frequently this year, and without our parents to embarrass us. I let go of Cedric and turned to sprint up the remaining staircases that would lead me to the hidden passage with the Gryffindor Tower. I managed to get there right with the rest of the students, who had been slowed down by the new First Years. I had wanted to get there in time to ensure that Fred had given me the right password. It would have been so like him to give me the wrong one so that I would be locked out all night.

"Password?" the Fat Lady in the pink dress asked as we approached.

"Made it," I panted, coming up to stand with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Coming through, coming through!" Percy called from behind the crowd. "The new password's 'Fortuna Major'!"

So he had told me the right password. I would have to thank him for that later. "Oh no," Neville moaned sadly. He always had trouble remembering the passwords.

We walked into the Common Room and I smiled brightly. It had been a long day. "Night, everyone!" I called.

All of my friends turned back and waved to me. "Goodnight, Tara," they called back.

Together with Hermione and Ginny at my sides, as we were going to head up and have ourselves a girl's night with Lavender, Fay, and Parvati, we walked through the Common Room and let out a deep breath. We'd somehow managed to make it back here in one piece. Our large group headed up the stairs and I gave Harry and Ron quick hugs when the girls and boys divided toward our separate staircases. I climbed the spiral stair with no thought in my head except how glad I was to be back. We walked into the familiar circular room with the five four-poster beds and I collapsed with Hermione and Ginny onto mine, the three of us already giggling. It was good to finally be back home.


	42. Talons and Tea Leaves

When the first morning of our Third Year arrived, it was me, surprisingly enough, who was ready first. Not that I had much to do. My clothes were all already laid out and it didn't take me long to brush through my hair and teeth, while Hermione hopped in the shower immediately, trying to tame her hair. It was something that we had chatted about over the summer. She wanted to finally start doing her hair. The other girls were still stumbling around and getting ready so I decided to head downstairs and check if Harry and Ron were downstairs yet.

To my surprise, they weren't. It seemed that even they were taking a long time getting ready. I groaned and dropped into the large chairs by the fireplace to wait for them. I smiled at a few of our friends walking by - all who seemed very excited for the first day of classes - as I waited. I was twirling my wand in my hands with my bag at my feet when I realized that two shadows were standing above me. I turned to say good morning to Harry and Ron, but I quickly realized that it wasn't them.

Instead it was the twins, both of whom looked very happy about something. "Good morning, boys," I chirped.

"Good morning, Tara," Fred said, sitting on the edge of the chair.

"Freddie," I greeted. George came and sat down on the other arm of the chair. I knew that there was something that they wanted. "Can I help you boys with something?"

"Actually -" George started.

"You can," Fred finished.

That didn't bode well for me. "And what's that?" I asked.

George glanced over at me and grinned. "We were just walking back and forth through the corridors this morning when we overheard Pretty Boy Diggory trying to tell his friends that he didn't happen to be going to Hogsmeade with a certain girl," George said.

All I could do was hope that my face didn't drain of color. They knew that I had a crush on him, but I didn't want to make it even more painfully obvious than it already was. "Fascinating. And I should care because?" I asked.

"Because she happens to be in Gryffindor. That was all that his friends got out of him," Fred put in.

"And there aren't a hundred other girls in Gryffindor?" I asked.

"Sure there are. But there's just something about the time that the two of you spend together, and the fact that no one in Gryffindor spends as much time with him as you do," George said.

My heart skipped a beat. "Maybe it's a secret admirer kind of thing," I said.

"And would that bother you?" Fred asked teasingly.

Nothing bothered me more than the fact that it would bother me. In fact, it would bother me a good deal if I found out that Cedric actually liked someone else in Gryffindor. He had made me think that we really were eventually going to end up together. Even Hermione thought that we would end up together. We were just taking our time... Unless he really did like someone else. Did he?

"You two are idiots. Get lost, yeah?" I asked sharply.

"We're just talking to you, Tara," George said.

"Getting defensive, are we?" Fred asked.

"Nothing has happened," I weakly defended myself.

The moment that the words escaped my mouth I knew that I shouldn't have said it. It was stupid of me to say something like that. Now they would know. The twins perked up at my comment. "We knew that it was you," George said happily.

Rolling my eyes at them, I shoved the boys away from me. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"We're just trying to help you," Fred said.

And I knew that it was a complete lie. As much as I loved them both - and they loved me - I knew that they wanted something. "Uh-huh. You two are more likely to help me over a cliff," I said, making them both laugh. "You're glad that you overheard because now you have something to hold over my head. Something that I won't want you to tell Harry or Ron."

"So you two are going out?" Fred asked.

"No," I said, a little sharper than I meant to. "Nothing has happened. But... In the event that something does happen, I'd like to keep it quiet. For a while, at least. So what will it take?"

They exchanged a quick look, smiling at each other. "We'll let you know," George finally said.

"You two are awful," I groaned.

"We know!" he said brightly.

Once more the two of them laughed. It wasn't long before Ron and Harry appeared at their side. I jumped in surprise, hoping that they hadn't overheard anything that either one of us had said. "What are you three talking about?" Ron asked curiously.

"Actually," George started, "we were just talking about how Tara here -"

"Good bye, boys!" I interrupted loudly.

Jumping from the chair, I grabbed the twins by the shoulders and shoved them out of the Common Room. They laughed the entire way out into the Great Hall. Harry and Ron watched them go with wide eyes. Once they were gone and I had managed to calm myself down, I smiled at Ron, Harry, and Hermione, who had finally emerged from downstairs.

"What was that about?" Harry asked.

"Nothing," I said quickly. "Ready for breakfast?"

Everyone nodded at me as we turned to leave the Common Room. The entire school was buzzing with excitement over the start of the new school year. I saw all of the nervous First Years walking back and forth, trying to figure out which way was the right way down to the Great Hall. Like the upperclassmen had done with us three years ago, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I told more than one First Year which way was back to the Great Hall. It was good that we were finally ready to get breakfast. I was starving. And I was dying to get to my classes. The new extra classes would be amazing.

When Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I entered the Great Hall for breakfast the next day, the first thing I saw was Draco Malfoy. Unfortunately I couldn't even focus on smiling at the new First Years trying to calm themselves down before class. No. It was stupid Draco Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherin's with a very funny story. And that told me that it was something to do with Harry and me. As we passed, Malfoy did a ridiculous impression of a swooning fit and there was a roar of laughter.

Obviously he was dramatically regaling the story of the Dementor on the Hogwarts Express. "Oh, good," I muttered.

My jaws ground together as we walked. "Ignore him. Just ignore him, it's not worth it..." Hermione said.

She was standing right behind Harry and me as we walked towards the Gryffindor table. Ron and Hermione were together behind us. I felt Hermione grab onto my shoulder to keep me from doing anything stupid. "Hey, Potter! Nox!" Pansy Parkinson shrieked. Even better. She was a Slytherin girl with a face like a pug. I'd given her a black eye the year before while we were interrogating Malfoy about the Heir of Slytherin, but I'd hated her long before that. "Potter! The Dementors are coming, Nox! Pretty pathetic! Woo!"

"You want a black eye, Parkinson?" I asked loudly, drawing much of the attention of people near us. Parkinson looked up at me and paled slightly. "I don't need a wand to get to you."

Just as I thought that she might have responded to me, Cedric walked up to my side, forcing her to fall silent. He was a Prefect and that meant that she had to watch her mouth around him. "If you want to hit her, I'll turn the other cheek," he told me.

I giggled softly and nodded at him. "Thank you," I said softly.

Before he got the chance to say anything back to me, Fred and George came to stand next to me. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest at the sight of them. "Oh, Cedric," George greeted, "we were just -"

I stomped down roughly on his foot, cutting George off and making him groan in pain. I grabbed both Fred and George by the arms and dragged them off, smiling back at Cedric. "See you later," I called back.

"Bye, Tara," Cedric said through a laugh.

Once we were out of eat-shot, I turned back to the twins. "Shut up!" I barked.

The three of us dropped into our seats at the Gryffindor table. I sat next to Hermione and Harry with Fred and Ron across from us, and George on the other side of Harry. I immediately dug into my food, getting it down quickly. I was hungrier than I thought that I was. "New Third Year course schedules," George said, passing them over.

"Fantastic," I said happily, taking the schedule.

Hermione was the only other person to take the schedule happily. Ron groaned the moment that he grabbed it and Harry was still downtrodden about Malfoy's being an ass. "What's up with you, Harry?" George asked.

"Malfoy," Ron said, sitting down on the other side of the table and glaring over at the Slytherin table.

It was infuriating, how much of an ass Malfoy could be about things. Dementors were seriously dangerous. They didn't exactly kill people, but they were extremely dangerous. They could suck out souls. What about that was funny? Nothing. But the Slytherin's always had been major jerks. George looked up in time to see Malfoy pretending to faint with terror again. He was laughing and pointing over towards Harry and me. I wanted to say something to him, but I knew that it would only result in another comment about our unfortunate kiss last year.

George ground his teeth together before turning back to us. "That little git. He wasn't so cocky last night when the Dementors were down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?" George asked, drawing my attention towards him.

"Nearly wet himself," Fred said, with a contemptuous glance at Malfoy.

Had that really happened? I wished that I had been there to see that happen. "Did he?" I asked Fred curiously.

Fred nodded at me as I dug into the first of what was sure to be a number of cups of coffee. "Yeah. And it's not like he's got much to affect him," Fred said, taking the last piece of bacon off of my plate.

I was too interested in what he was saying to make an issue of it. "What do you mean?" I asked.

Fred glanced over at me and frowned. "Dementors feed off of sad and hard memories. Malfoy's had everything handed to him in life and never had to risk a finger. But you, you battled a Basilisk and defeated You-Know-Who twice. Same goes for Harry," Fred explained, motioning between us.

It was something that I hadn't even thought about. The chance that maybe there was a reason that the Dementor focused in on Harry and me more than anyone else. As far as I knew, we were the only two that they had directly attacked. It couldn't have been a coincidence. We were the ones to meet him face to face. We were the ones that had actually battled him. We were the ones that had seen all of the horrible things that we had. We were the ones that both had strange connections with Voldemort. Maybe we really were more susceptible to Dementors for those reasons.

"You think that's true? Why it affected us so much?" I finally asked Fred.

"I think that you're a number tougher than Malfoy," Fred said, pressing a kiss against my forehead. I smiled softly at him. "He'd still be passed out if one had tried to give him the Kiss."

"Thanks, Freddie," I chirped happily.

"Anytime, love."

"I wasn't too happy myself," George said, drawing my back attention towards them. "They're horrible things, those Dementors..."

"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" Fred asked.

In fact, they did make you feel like you'd stepped into a Muggle refrigerator. "You didn't pass out, though, did you?" Harry asked in a low voice.

He was still concerned that we had passed out. I wanted to think that what Fred had said was right. "Forget it, Harry. Dad had to go out to Azkaban one time, remember, Fred? And he said it was the worst place he'd ever been, he came back all weak and shaking... They suck the happiness out of a place, Dementors. Most of the prisoners go mad in there," George explained.

Harry and I exchanged a nervous look with each other. "Anyway, we'll see how happy Malfoy looks after our first Quidditch match," Fred said, making me smile softly. I certainly did miss Quidditch. "Gryffindor versus Slytherin, first game of the season, remember?"

"As long as I don't break my collarbone again," I muttered.

"We've got your back," George said, patting me on the back.

"That's reassuring," I groaned.

The boys all laughed at me. The only time Harry and I had faced off against Malfoy was in the Quidditch match last year, and Malfoy had definitely come off worse. Which was kind of pathetic, considering that Harry had broken his wrist and fractured his forearm while I'd broken a finger and my collarbone. At least we'd won, even considering the many injuries that we'd walked away with after being chased around by a fixed Bludger. Feeling slightly more cheerful about things, I helped myself to another pot of coffee.

Hermione was examining her new schedule, which I planned to do once I'd drank enough to fully wake myself up. "Oh, good, we're starting some new subjects today," Hermione said happily.

Ron glanced over her shoulder to read her timetable. I noticed a frown quickly mar his face. "Hermione, they've messed up your timetable. Look - they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time," he said. Hermione and I exchanged a nervous look as Ron reached over for mine a moment later. "Tara, actually, yours has the same issues."

"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall," Hermione explained.

"That's what we were in her office for. It's been fixed. They just didn't change the written schedule," I continued.

Unfortunately Ron had already seen the issue and was now laughing. "But look, see this morning? Nine o'clock, Divination. And underneath, nine o'clock, Muggle Studies. And..." Ron leaned closer to the timetable, disbelieving at what he was seeing. "Look - underneath that, Arithmancy, nine o'clock. Tara, you've got Arithmancy and Divination at the same time. I mean, I know you're both good, but no one's that good. How're you supposed to be in two or three classes at once?"

"Don't be silly. Of course we won't be in multiple classes at once," Hermione said shortly.

We couldn't risk the boys finding out that we were using a Time-Turner to go to all of our classes. "Like we said, we've worked it out," I snapped, trying to end the conversation.

"Well then -"

"Pass the marmalade," Hermione interrupted.

"But -"

"Oh, Ron, what's it to you if our timetable's a bit full? I told you, we've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall," Hermione snapped, effectively ending the conversation.

It didn't look like Ron was very happy that we had ended the conversation right there without explaining anything more, but we didn't care. We couldn't talk about anything more than that without getting ourselves into trouble with Professor McGonagall. Thankfully saving us from a somewhat awkward conversation, Hagrid entered the Great Hall. The four of us looked up to smile at him. He was wearing his long moleskin overcoat and was absentmindedly swinging a dead polecat from one enormous hand.

"All righ'?" he asked eagerly, pausing on his way to the staff table. "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five getting' everthin' ready... hope it's okay... me, a teacher... hones'ly..."

"You'll be great, Hagrid. Don't worry," I said brightly.

Hagrid thanked me quickly and I nodded. He looked like he would either faint or scream with excitement. I was thrilled for him. But I was also a little nervous, hoping that he wouldn't do anything too extreme for the first lesson of the year. Hagrid had a penchant for dangerous animals that he thought were adorable. My favorites were a man-eating three-headed dog, an aging and rather violent Acromantula, and an overly-excitable Norwegian Ridgeback. Hagrid grinned broadly at us and headed off to the staff table, still swinging the polecat.

"Wonder what he's been getting ready?" Ron asked, a note of anxiety in his voice.

I could only assume that he was thinking the same thing that I was. "Every professor has to get things ready for their first lesson. Hagrid's not the only one. Anyhow, I suppose we'll find out in a few hours," I said, trying to give Hagrid the benefit of the doubt.

For nearly an hour we all sat together and chatted in excitement as we waited for the start of the new school year. Hermione and I would have to use the Time-Turner for the first time this morning, as she had Muggle Studies, Divination, and Arithmancy, and I had the latter two. She would have to use the Time-Turner again after Divination. It wasn't long before I noticed that the Great Hall was starting to empty as people headed off towards their first lessons. Ron checked his schedule for where we were supposed to go.

"We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there," Ron said.

"Has anyone actually been there?" I asked curiously.

"No," everyone said together.

I'd been up in the South Tower - which was also the Astronomy Tower - but I had never been to the North Tower. All I knew was that it was off in one of the furthest reaches of Hogwarts. The four of us finished breakfast hastily, said our goodbyes to Fred and George - who were each sure to try and mess up my hair and take my books before I left - and walked back through the hall. As we passed by the Slytherin table, Malfoy did yet another impression of a fainting fit. The shouts of laughter followed us into the Entrance Hall.

That was when I couldn't take it anymore. I turned back, furious with Malfoy, ignoring the shouts from my friends to come back. "Get a new joke, Malfoy," I hissed, stomping up to him.

Malfoy merely grinned lazily at me. "Don't need one. I've got a walking one right in front of me," he said, motioning to me.

The others at the Slytherin started laughing at the joke as I rolled my eyes. Why the hell were they all such asses about everything? I noticed out of the corner of my eyes that Hermione, Ron, and Harry had come back over to see what I was doing. Malfoy was sitting at the table and smirking up at me. I smiled back at him and leaned forward. Malfoy looked shocked that I was coming so close to him - as did Parkinson - but he had no clue what I was doing. I reached for the goblet of water behind Malfoy and grabbed it. I laughed under my breath as I took it and threw it on him, soaking his front.

Malfoy looked horrified at what I had done as I slammed the goblet back onto the table and smirked at him. The Slytherin table were sitting in shock as the rest of the Great Hall started cheering and laughing. No one was particularly fond of Malfoy. I could hear Ron and Harry laughing loudly and Hermione chiding them that I shouldn't have done that.

"You're right. I'm the walking punchline," I said, turning and leaving before Malfoy could say anything.

"Tara!" Percy shouted.

I turned back to him and rolled my eyes. Of course he would be the Prefect to catch me in doling out just desserts. "Just get on with it, Percy. How many points?" I asked shortly.

"Five," Percy started, breathlessly, "but, honestly -"

Five points was nothing. Not after our first year when I'd gotten two hundred and five points taken away from Gryffindor for sneaking out of the Gryffindor Tower after curfew. The four of us walked away from Percy without saying another word. I heard Percy calling for me to come back, but we had other places to go. As far as the boys were concerned, we had to go to Divination, but Hermione and I would be going to Arithmancy first and then double-back for Divination.

Once we were out of ear shot of Percy, Ron looked over at me and slapped me on the back. "Good one, Tara!" he shouted, making us all laugh.

"He deserves so much worse than that," I muttered under my breath.

"It was a good start," Harry said.

"You lost us five points," Hermione growled.

Ron and Harry looked over at Hermione like she'd lost her mind. Which she might have. Five points was totally worth getting to dump the goblet on Malfoy. "Five points that were well worth it," Ron pointed out.

As he and Harry went to complaining about Malfoy, I grabbed Hermione by the arm and yanked her into me. "Hermione! Arithmancy, let's go," I said, taking the two of us and slipping away from the boys.

Hermione and I walked behind one of the pillars in the side of the castle to make sure that no one was around. We could have gotten in a ton of trouble for using the Time-Turner. I was almost positive that Professor McGonagall would kill us if she realized that we'd been caught. And we'd probably be expelled with our wands snapped. Hermione handed me the Time-Turner necklace as the two of us headed towards the seventh floor.

Thankfully the boys wouldn't even notice that we weren't in Divination with them the first time around until we turned back the clock and headed up there with them. It was rather funny that everyone technically had to take their classes twice because Hermione and I had the Time-Turner. I would have loved to rub it in Cedric's face, but I knew that I couldn't. This was the one thing that I couldn't share with anyone.

The two of us made our way into Classroom 7A and took seats up in the front. There were a few other Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students that I didn't know, and a few Slytherin's. It was a small class so all four Houses were put together. To my extreme pleasure, Malfoy wasn't in the class. But there was Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, and Daphne Greengrass. Daphne wasn't half-bad, as she rarely joined in on Malfoy's jokes, but Theodore and Blaise were both some of Malfoy's lackeys. I noticed that Hermione kept me talking so that I couldn't be bothered by their continuous jokes.

It turned out to be the most interesting class that I'd ever taken. I was automatically thrilled that I'd signed up for it. We learned that Arithmancy was a method of divination by numbers first used by the ancient Greeks. They assigned values to the letters in the names of combatants to foretell the outcome of battles. Later, in the ninth century BC, the Chaldeans in Arabia practiced a form of Arithmancy that divided their alphabet into three parts, each part composed of seven letters which they attributed to the then known seven planets. We were still using that system, thousands of years later.

The most basic form of Arithmancy - the one that we'd learned about in our first class - was used with the names of people you wanted more information about. We'd each gotten to do our own names in each of the three categories; character, heart, and social. It turned out that my character was a three, my heart was an eight, and my social was a four. Each one meant something different.

For my character, it represented the idea of completeness or wholeness. Three indicated talent, energy, an artistic nature, humor, and social ease. Threes are often lucky, easygoing, and highly successful, but they can also be unfocused, easily offended, and superficial. It was rather true. For my heart, eight indicated the possibility of great success in business, finance, and politics. It meant that I was extremely practical, ambitious, committed, and hard working. But I could also be jealous, greedy, domineering, and power-hungry. Eight's are said to be the most unpredictable of numbers and can indicate the pinnacle of success or the depths of failure; the potential to go either way is present from the beginning.

That was something that had chilled me to the bone, but I'd forced myself to put a smile on my face. I didn't want to worry anyone. As creepy as it was that Arithmancy was strangely accurate, it was also rather fun. And that was the part that I tried to focus on. With my social being a four, I indicated stability and firmness, enjoying hard work. We were practical, reliable and down to earth; preferring logic and reason to flights of fancy. Although we could be stubborn, suspicious, overly practical and prone to angry outbursts.

By the end of class, everyone was chatting back and forth excitedly about what had happened and what our numbers meant. It was probably one of the most entertaining classes that I'd ever had. The two of us sprinted out of the classroom quickly and ducked behind one of the pillars. Hermione looped the Time-Turner necklace around me and gave it a full twist. We watched as time went backwards quickly and I laughed as I saw myself throw the water on Malfoy again. Hermione and I both grinned as we sprinted forward to walk behind Harry and Ron, the two of them totally clueless as to what had just happened.

"That Time-Turner is incredible," I whispered to Hermione as we walked.

"Even I'll agree with you there. What did you think of Arithmancy?" she asked.

The two of us were slightly breathless as we tried to calm down. "I liked it a lot. But I've always been good with numbers. Certainly will be more fun than Divination," I groaned as we headed out of the Great Hall.

"Divination might be interesting," Hermione said.

Harry seemed to finally realize that we had gone from standing in front of them to standing behind them. He turned back and gave us a scrutinizing stare. "Weren't you two just standing right there?" he asked confusedly, pointing ahead of himself.

"What are you talking about? We were here the entire time," I said, brushing past him.

As we walked past Ron and Harry, I heard the two of them wondering how we had managed to get from one place to another. We grinned at each other as we headed towards the North Tower. It turned out that the journey through the castle to North Tower was a long one. It ended up feeling more like a work out than trying to get to class. Forget Oliver making us run laps around the Quidditch Pitch, he should have just made us run from one end of the castle to the other. Two years at Hogwarts hadn't taught us everything about the castle, and we had never been inside North Tower before.

"There's - got - to - be - a - short - cut," Ron panted as we continued to walk.

It felt like ten hours had passed since we had left the Great Hall. The four of us panting filled the air, only making things even worse. We just sounded exhausted. Even further than the Arithmancy classroom, we climbed the seventh long staircase and emerged on an unfamiliar landing, where there was nothing but a large painting of a bare stretch of grass hanging on the stone wall. We stopped dead in our tracks, wondering which way the Divination classroom was.

"I'll ask Fred and George at lunch. They have to know one," I panted.

"I think it's this way," Hermione said, peering down the empty passage to the right.

"Can't be. That's south. Look, you can see a bit of the lake outside the window," Ron said.

And he was right about that. We must have been going the wrong way. In the meantime, Harry was watching the painting. I glanced over with him. A fat, dappled-gray pony had just ambled onto the grass and was grazing nonchalantly. I smiled at the pony as it glanced up and brayed at us. I gave it a quick wave, smiling as it moved through the painting. A moment later, a short, squat knight in a suit of armor had clanked into the picture after his pony. By the look of the grass stains on his metal knees, he had just fallen off.

"Aha!" the knight yelled, spotting Harry, Ron, Hermione, and me. "What villains are these, that trespass upon my private lands! Come to scorn at my fall, perchance? Draw, you knaves, you dogs!"

There were very few times in my life that I'd found myself speechless. But this was one of those times. I didn't have a clue what to say back to the knight. Together we watched in astonishment as the little knight tugged his sword out of its scabbard and began brandishing it violently, hopping up and down in rage. But the sword was too long for him; a particularly wild swing made him overbalance, and he landed face down in the grass. As Harry seemed to be slightly concerned with the knight, I started to giggle.

I'd never met a Hogwarts portrait like this one. "Are you all right?" Harry asked, moving closer to the picture.

"Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back, you rogue!"

The knight seized his sword again and used it to push himself back up, but the blade sank deeply into the grass and he fell once more. I laughed at the fact that, though he pulled with all his might, he couldn't get it out again. Despite the fact that we would likely be late, I was having fun watching the knight try to figure out how to get the sword out of the grass. Finally, he had to flop back down onto the grass and push up his visor to mop his sweating face.

"Is he serious?" I whispered to the others.

The others nodded at me, somewhat blankly. "Listen, we're looking for the North Tower. You don't know the way, do you?" Harry asked, taking advantage of the knight finally being quiet.

"A quest!" The knight's rage seemed to vanish instantly. He clanked to his feet and shouted, "Come follow me, dear friends, and we shall find our goal, or else shall perish bravely in the charge!" He gave the sword another fruitless tug, tried and failed to mount the fat pony, and quickly gave up. "On foot then, good sirs and gentle ladies! On! On!"

Hermione snorted under her breath. "Gentle," she muttered.

"Shut up," I growled, knowing that it was a hit at me.

The two of us laughed as turned and headed up to the North Tower. We had to hurry behind the knight because he was running, clanking loudly, into the left side of the frame and out of sight. Exchanging a quick look with each other, we all hurried after him along the corridor, following the sound of his armor. Thankfully he was wearing armor that was too big for him or else we definitely would have lost him. From time to time we spotted him running through a picture ahead.

"Be of stout heart, the worst is yet to come!" the knight yelled.

A second later we saw him reappear in front of an alarmed group of women in crinolines, whose picture hung on the wall of a narrow spiral staircase. They clearly didn't like him very much. Not that I could blame them. Puffing loudly, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I climbed the tightly spiraling steps, getting dizzier and dizzier at the height and speed that we were climbing, until at last we heard the murmur of voices above us. After what felt like an hour, we had finally reached the classroom.

"Farewell!" the knight cried, popping his head into a painting of some sinister-looking monks. "Farewell, my comrades-in-arms! If ever you have need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!"

"Uh - Bye," I muttered awkwardly.

"Yeah, we'll call you," Ron muttered as the knight disappeared, "if we ever need someone mental."

The four of us exchanged a bewildered glance before heading up the last few steps and emerged onto a tiny landing, where most of the class was already assembled. I came to stand next to Seamus and glanced upwards. How the hell were we supposed to get up to the classroom? There were no doors off of this landing, but Ron nudged Harry and pointed at the ceiling. I glanced up with them and saw that there was a circular trapdoor with a brass plaque on it.

"'Sybill Trelawney, Divination teacher,'" Harry read. "How're we supposed to get up there?"

It seemed that we weren't the only ones that were wondering how we were supposed to get up into the classroom. It wasn't like we could just float up there. The door was closed and no one was tall enough to reach up to pull it down. But we quickly figured out how we were supposed to get up to the classroom. As though in answer to Harry's question, the trapdoor suddenly opened, and a silvery ladder descended right at Harry's feet. Everyone got quiet at the sight.

"After you," Ron said, grinning at him.

Harry climbed the ladder first. I went up after him, everyone else quickly following behind me. I emerged into the strangest-looking classroom that I had ever seen. And I'd seen some crazy classrooms before. In fact, the room that we were in didn't look like a classroom at all. It looked more like a cross between someone's attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. It looked a little bit like Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, the store in Hogsmeade that Cedric had taken me to last year.

At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with dark red scarves, giving the room the reddish tinge. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle. It made my head spin slightly. It was driving me insane already. At least I wasn't allergic to anything.

The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups. Just being in the room was driving me insane. I hated messes like this. It was why I tried to avoid my dorm room as much as possible. Lavender was a very messy person and her side of the room drove me up the wall. Ron appeared at Harry and I's shoulder as the class assembled around us, all talking in whispers.

"Well this is weird," I muttered.

There were a few people muttering their agreement. "Where is she?" Ron asked.

A voice came suddenly out of the shadows, a soft, misty sort of voice. "Welcome. How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

All eyes quickly turned towards the voice. My jaw almost dropped at the sight. My immediate impression was of a large, glittering insect. Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and I instantly saw that she was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl. She reminded me of one of the cheesy fortune-tellers back in the States. Innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings. Everything that she was wearing must have been half of her weight.

"Sit, my children, sit," she said.

That was all that it took for everyone to jump into action. We all had been standing awkwardly, waiting for instruction. At her words we all climbed awkwardly into armchairs or sank onto poufs. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I sat ourselves around the same round table. We were in the center of the classroom. I noticed that everyone was hesitant to sit in the front of the classroom.

"Welcome to Divination," Professor Trelawney said, as she seated herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."

Everyone was staring blankly at her. Nobody said anything to this extraordinary pronouncement. Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl. She didn't seem to notice that we were all in awe of her statement and barely paying attention. Either that or she just didn't care. I had a feeling that it was the latter as she was barely even looking at us.

She waited a moment before continuing. "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you... Books can take you only so far in this field..." she muttered.

There were a few chuckles that were exchanged at her words. We all knew that it was because Hermione was in this class. She was so used to being able to learn the books by heart and know everything in a class. I'd always known that Divination was a very impractical magic for anyone that didn't have the Sight, and I'd tried to warn her, but she hadn't listened to me. Harry, Ron, and I glanced, grinning, at Hermione, who looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this subject.

I leaned into her and spoke under my breath. "Look at that. A subject that you can't learn from books. If nothing else, I'm glad that I took this subject just so that I can listen to you try and figure this out through textbooks," I teased, nudging her under the table.

"Don't be stupid. You can always learn from textbooks," Hermione hissed.

She was obviously very bothered by the fact that she might not be able to learn Divination. "Not necessarily. There are a number of things that take practice or natural skill to learn," I said.

Quidditch would have been one of them. That was why Hermione had never liked flying lessons. She wasn't good at it and couldn't learn through reading about it. "And what about you? You like to pass your subjects," Hermione pointed out.

"Of course. But I won't be heartbroken if I don't have a knack for Divination," I said honestly.

I didn't like doing poorly in classes, but I could manage when it came to Divination. "Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearing's, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. "It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy," she said suddenly to Neville, who almost toppled off his pouf. "Is your grandmother well?"

Everyone turned to face Neville nervously. "I think so," Neville said tremulously.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," Professor Trelawney said, the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings. Neville gulped and looked like he might pass out. Professor Trelawney was unperturbed by Neville's reaction. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Parvati Patil, "beware a red-haired man."

Parvati gave a startled look at Ron, who was right behind her, and edged her chair away from him. I couldn't believe that Ron was the person that she was supposed to avoid. Ron could be a little bit of a pain in the ass and had some very embarrassing moments, but there was no way that he was dangerous or anything of the likes. At the look on Ron and Parvati's faces, I snorted under my breath.

"Shut up, Tara," Ron growled, whacking me on the arm.

"In the second term we shall progress to the crystal ball - if we have finished with fire omens, that is," Professor Trelawney went on, still unaffected by our reactions. "Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."

Did that mean that someone was going to leave the class? Or did she mean that someone was going to die? A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, but Professor Trelawney seemed unaware of it. I couldn't help but exchanging a look with Harry. If there was anyone that was going to die by Easter this year, it would definitely be one of us. We were rather unfortunate when it came to getting hurt or doing things that could kill us. I noticed that a few other people were giving us looks, too. My jaws set.

"I wonder, dear," Professor Trelawney said to Lavender Brown, who was nearest and shrank back in her chair, "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?"

At least she wasn't telling her that she was going to be the one that would die by Easter. The color came back into Lavender's face quickly and I gave her a reassuring nod. It could have been much worse. Lavender, looking relieved, stood up, took an enormous teapot from the shelf, and put it down on the table in front of Professor Trelawney. Everyone waited anxiously to see what was going to happen next.

"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading - it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October," Professor Trelawney said.

In all honesty, it was almost funny the way that Professor Trelawney was talking to everyone. But that was mostly because she hadn't said anything to me yet and I couldn't believe what she was saying. She hadn't said anything that had come true yet. We could all make little assumptions. That was easy enough. But something settled in Lavender's eyes. She must have been really scared of something that was going to happen, because she was now trembling. I almost wanted to ask what she was dreading.

Suddenly Professor Trelawney's gaze turned to me and I started. "And you, my dear, you have a rather shrouded Inner Eye," she said wistfully.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"Your soul, dear," Professor Trelawney explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the entire world, "it's incredibly hard to read. I usually have a much easier time getting to know someone."

"Uh -"

But she continued without giving me a chance to ask what she meant. "Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing.

"Oh, and dear," she caught Neville by the arm as he made to stand up, "after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink."

Everyone was startled beyond belief. But we all made to grab our teacups and do as she had ordered. I got up from my seat and grabbed myself a teacup, going to pair off with Hermione. To my surprise, sure enough, Neville had no sooner reached the shelf of teacups when there was a tinkle of breaking china. My gaze turned towards him and my eyes widened. Was she actually a Seer? Professor Trelawney swept over to him holding a dustpan and brush, shocking Neville.

"One of the blue ones, then, dear, if you wouldn't mind... thank you..." Professor Trelawney drawled.

As Hermione and I sat back down with Harry and Ron, the four of us filled our teacups and quickly drained them. My mouth was burning from the temperature of the tea, but I wanted to get this over with. I already had a bad feeling that I wouldn't be very good at Divination. The four of us sat together as we swilled the dregs around. Just as Professor Trelawney had instructed, we then drained the cups and swapped with our partners.

We were all opening our books to pages five and six to read the tea leaves. "Right. What can you see in mine?" Ron asked Harry as I took Hermione's cup, going to work with the book.

"A load of soggy brown stuff," Harry said.

Both Hermione and I snorted under our breath as I tried to read through the book. The heavily perfumed smoke in the room was making me feel sleepy and stupid. "Brilliant," I told him before looking back to Hermione. "What do you see in mine?"

Hermione stared blankly at the cup. "Tea leaves," she said.

"Even more brilliant," I teased.

"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Professor Trelawney cried through the gloom.

We weren't the only ones. Everyone was trying to figure out what to say to not feel to stupid. Harry was clearly trying to pull himself together. "Right, you've got a crooked sort of cross..." He was consulting Unfogging the Future. "That means you're going to have 'trials and suffering' - sorry about that - but there's a thing that could be the sun. Hang on... that means 'great happiness'... so you're going to suffer but be very happy..."

"You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me," Ron said.

We all had to stifle our laughter as Professor Trelawney gazed in our direction. The boys glanced over so that I could read Hermione's. "Okay. I see a... bunch of crap. I'm useless at this," I muttered. It looked like a big brown blob to me. "I see a... book? So you like to read?"

Hermione laughed with the rest of the boys. "You might be even more useless than me. Is this a... bear? So you're... brave?" Hermione asked slowly.

It was the most unsure that I'd ever heard her when it came to schoolwork. "Well that makes sense, considering that I'm in Gryffindor," I said, laughing with her.

"My turn..." Ron peered into Harry's teacup, his forehead wrinkled with effort. "There's a blob a bit like a bowler hat. Maybe you're going to work for the Ministry of Magic..." He turned the teacup the other way up. "But this way it looks more like an acorn... what's that?" He scanned his copy of Unfogging the Future. "'A windfall, unexpected gold.' Excellent, you can lend me some. And there's a thing here, that looks like an animal... yeah, if that was its head... it looks like a hippo... no, a sheep..."

Professor Trelawney whirled around as Harry, Hermione, and I let out a snort of laughter. It was rather funny to overhear what everyone was trying to find in the teacups. "Let me see that, my dear," she said reprovingly to Ron, sweeping over and snatching Harry's cup from him.

My eyebrow rose as I glanced over at her. I could already guess that she was going to see something terrible in the cup, considering who Harry was. And, if she wasn't really a Seer, all she had to do was think back to what had happened in the past thirteen years and take a guess off of that. But still, I was interested to see what she would say. So, like everyone else, I went very quiet to watch. Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it counterclockwise.

"The falcon... my dear, you have a deadly enemy," she said.

"But everyone knows that," Hermione said in a loud whisper. Professor Trelawney stared at her. "Well, they do. Everybody knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."

The entire class turned to look at Hermione. Even I was staring at her sideways. I stepped down on her foot gently to get her to stop talking. People were used to me speaking like that. They expected it. But Hermione never spoke like that to teachers. Harry, Ron, and I stared at her with a mixture of amazement and admiration. Although Hermione was now cringing in pain. I had never heard Hermione speak to a teacher like that before. Professor Trelawney chose not to reply, which was probably smart. She lowered her huge eyes to Harry's cup again and continued to turn it.

"The club... an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..." Professor Trelawney said.

"Ah, the mountain troll with the club from our First Year," I muttered.

Professor Trelawney barely turned to glance at me. "It's metaphorical, my dear," she said.

My face flushed slightly. Maybe we would all be really terrible at Divination. At least we knew that no one in here was going to be a Seer. "I thought that was a bowler hat," Ron said sheepishly.

"The skull... danger in your path, my dear..." Professor Trelawney continued.

My head snapped upwards. Harry's cup certainly wasn't a happy one if that was some of what she was seeing in the tea leaves. Everyone was staring, transfixed, at Professor Trelawney, as she looked over the cup, curious to see if she would find anything else. She gave the cup a final turn, gasped, and then screamed. There was another tinkle of breaking china; Neville had smashed his second cup. Professor Trelawney sank into a vacant armchair, her glittering hand at her heart and her eyes closed.

Professor Trelawney sat in her chair for a moment before glancing up at me with wide and somewhat sad eyes. "Let me see your cup, dear," she said, almost demanding that I hand it over.

"No, thank you," I said quickly and nervously.

My protests fell on deaf ears. Professor Trelawney walked over to me and grabbed my cup. She gazed into it - turning the cup over twice - before letting out another piecing scream. Everyone jumped. "An alligator... Treachery... but on whose part? An arrow... bad news. The devil... evil influences. A needle... admiration. Just as I thought... My dear children - my poor dear children - no - it is kinder not to say - no - don't ask me... Two this year... awful coincidence," Professor Trelawney droned, reading over our cups.

Well that didn't sound good. It definitely sounded like I was going to have a pretty terrible life ahead of me. But what was she so afraid to say? "What is it, Professor?" Dean Thomas asked at once.

Honestly I was almost grateful that he had said something, despite being nervous for what was coming. I wanted to know what it was that was so terrible that she saw in our cups. It had to be something extremely awful if it was enough to make her scream. And it sounded like something rather rare, considering that she looked so shocked to see it. Everyone had now gotten to their feet, and slowly they crowded around our table, pressing close to Professor Trelawney's chair to get a good look at Harry and I's cups.

"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, "you both have the Grim."

"The what?" Harry asked dumbly.

Of course we had the Grim. Why did that even mildly surprise me? "Wonderful. What else is new?" I muttered.

Harry glanced over at me in surprise. "What is it?" he asked.

"I'm sure she'll tell you," I said, motioning towards Professor Trelawney.

Harry wasn't the only person in the classroom that didn't understand what the Grim was. Even Hermione knew what it was. But there were a few people that didn't. Dean Thomas - who was a Muggle-Born - merely shrugged his shoulders at Harry and me and Lavender Brown looked puzzled, but nearly everybody else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror. Even Ron looked horrified. I groaned and glanced down at the table. Once again we were going to be the freaks of the school.

Professor Trelawney looked shocked that Harry didn't understand what the Grim was. "The Grim, my dear, the Grim! The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear children, it is an omen - the worst omen - of death!" she cried loudly.

Even though I thought that Divination was a load of phooey, there was something about the way that the entire class reacted that made my stomach lurch. I started remembering all of the dogs that I had seen recently. That dog on the cover of Death Omens in Flourish and Blotts. The one that the manager had told us not to look at if we didn't want to see death omens everywhere. Too late. And Snuffles... Was he really not just a stray dog? Was there a chance that he was a Grim? No... No. He couldn't have been.

To my complete irritation, Lavender clapped her hands to her mouth too. Now everyone in the class looked absolutely shocked. I noticed that Dean was the only other person that didn't look completely horrified. He looked confused still. But everyone was looking at Harry and me, everyone except Hermione, who had gotten up and moved around to the back of Professor Trelawney's chair. My eyes followed her figure closely. This was the first time that I'd ever seen her act out against a teacher.

"I don't think it looks like a Grim," she said flatly.

"Thank you," I muttered under my breath.

Professor Trelawney surveyed Hermione with mounting dislike. "You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future," she told Hermione, who bristled at the comment.

Seamus Finnigan was tilting his head from side to side as he glanced into my cup. "It looks like a Grim if you do this," he said, with his eyes almost shut, "but it looks more like a donkey from here," he continued, leaning to the left.

The whole thing made me laugh under my breath. I couldn't believe that we were once more talking about how we were going to end up dead by the end of the year. "When you've all finished deciding whether we're going to die or not!" Harry yelled, taking everyone by surprise.

It even seemed to shock himself. As I glanced around the room I noticed that now nobody seemed to want to look at us. Save Hermione, who clearly thought that this was very ridiculous. "We're not going to die!" I barked, drawing some attention from my classmates, who all still looked very awkward, sitting around us. "Not for many years."

Our comments were falling on deaf ears. "I think we will leave the lesson here for today," Professor Trelawney said in her mistiest voice. "Yes... please pack away your things..."

That was a nice way to end the scariest class that I had ever been in before. It made me slightly sick to my stomach to know that this was the way that my year was starting. At least Lockhart was just annoying. Professor Trelawney was trying to predict my death. We all sat together for a while before remembering that Professor Trelawney had told us to leave. Silently the class took our teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away all of our books, and closed our bags. It was a little disheartening that even Ron was avoiding my eyes.

"Until we meet again, fair fortune be yours," Professor Trelawney said faintly. "Oh, and dear," she pointed at Neville, "you'll be late next time, so mind you work extra-hard to catch up."

Neville gave her a stunned look before nodding and walking off. Once we were all down out of Professor Trelawney's classroom, I glanced over at Ron, Harry, and Hermione. "Lovely first lesson of the semester," I muttered under my breath.

At least Arithmancy had been a little more fun. Not that the boys were supposed to know anything about that. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I took a long time descending the winding staircase in silence, saying nothing after my comment, and then set off for Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration lesson. Even despite the fact that Professor McGonagall was strict and very tough, I knew that I would enjoy her lesson much more than Divination. At least she wasn't going to tell us that we were going to die. It took us a long time to get to her classroom that, even early as they had left Divination, we were only going to be just in time.

Near the doorway I was cut off by Cedric. I stepped back and let the others walk ahead of me. "You look extremely bothered about something," he teased, coming to stand with me against the stone wall.

"I just had my first Divination lesson of the year," I muttered.

Cedric's eyes lit up slightly and I glanced over at him. What was he laughing about? "Ah, is it you that will be dying this year?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" I asked blankly.

Once more Cedric merely smiled. "Can't say that I'm surprised. Don't worry about it, Tara. That's what Professor Trelawney does every year. She predicts the death of some student or another," he said, practically making my jaw drop. She did this to some poor student every single year? "She predicted that my friend, Joseph, would die by eating some poisoned food. He nearly starved himself before he finally got over his fear, and he's still alive. Don't take her too seriously."

And as much as I didn't want to take her too seriously, I couldn't help but to think about Snuffles and the Grim. "But she did mention the Grim. I think it's a load of phooey, I really do, but, just in case..." I trailed off awkwardly.

Cedric placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "It's a stray dog, Tara. You know that it is," he said softly.

"I know, but -"

"If it was a Grim," Cedric interrupted, pulling me into a small hug, "it would have attacked you right there. It was a stray dog that came to see you. Probably sensed that you were a good person."

We pulled back from each other and I smiled at him. "You're oddly good at making me feel better," I said.

He laughed at me and nodded. "It's a job I'm happy to do," he said. I smiled at him and nodded. That was sweet to hear. It was moments like these that made me all the more excited to go to Hogsmeade with him in a few weeks. "By the way, I saw that shot you made this morning. Good to see that your aim isn't any worse than it used to be."

We both laughed loudly at his comment. "When it comes to Malfoy, my aim will always be on point," I said, still thrilled with my dumping water on him. I was sure that I would hear about it from Malfoy later.

"That's good to hear. How are you feeling since yesterday?" Cedric asked.

He was the first person to ask me how I was doing after the Dementor attack. It was something that almost surprised me. "Better, believe it or not. No more Dementors are that close to me, so I definitely like that. I'm just glad to be back at school where, somehow, this all is relatively normal," I said, flippantly motioning around us.

"No disembodied voices yet?" Cedric asked.

I glanced up at him with a small smile. "Not yet, thankfully. I'll let you know if I hear one," I said.

That was the last thing that I wanted. No more Basilisks or Voldemort attacks or anything of the sorts. "Tara, we're going to be late! Hurry up!" Harry shouted, poking his head out of Professor McGonagall's classroom.

"Professor McGonagall awaits. See you later," I told Cedric.

He smiled at me and nodded. "Better not be late," he said, motioning off to my classroom.

We exchanged a quick hug as I turned and walked away from Cedric. He was right about one thing. Being late to Professor McGonagall's classes was worse than not showing up at all. She was a stickler for all of the rules. I walked back into the room with Harry, the two of us choosing seats right at the back of the room, feeling as though I was sitting in a very bright spotlight. It was easy to notice the rest of the class continuously shooting furtive glances at us, as though we were about to drop dead at any moment.

Despite Cedric making me feel better for a few seconds, I was now thinking about everything that Professor Trelawney had said during our class. I hardly heard what Professor McGonagall was telling us about Animagi. It was a good thing that I already knew what they were. Mom and Dad had taught me enough about them; Dad had always seemed oddly knowledgeable on the subject. I wasn't even watching when she transformed herself in front of our eyes in to a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes.

"Really, what has got into you all today?" Professor McGonagall asked irritably, turning back into herself with a faint pop, and staring around at us all. "Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformation's not got applause from a class."

It almost made me feel a little guilty. It was rather impressive to see. I had seen her transform once before, in the first class of our First Year, when she had transformed after Harry, Ron, and I had been late, having not known the layout of the castle yet. It was quite something to watch. But it turned out that we weren't the only ones thinking about Professor Trelawney's class; the entire class was still thinking about her prediction. Everybody's heads turned toward Harry and me again, but nobody spoke.

Then, after a few beats, Hermione raised her hand. "Please, Professor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves, and -"

"Ah, of course," Professor McGonagall said, suddenly frowning. Was Cedric right about her always predicting a death? "There is no need to say anymore, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"

So it turned out that Cedric was right about her always predicting a death for one of the students. I couldn't believe that she really did that. I couldn't believe that Dumbledore allowed her to do that every year. He had a knack for eccentricity, but I would have thought that he'd drawn the line there. Maybe he didn't even know. He, just like Professor Trelawney, tended to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the castle except for on rare occasions. Although he did show up for dinner every night. In the meantime, as I thought about Dumbledore, everyone else stared at Professor McGonagall.

"Me," Harry finally said.

"Me, too," I added begrudgingly.

Professor McGonagall glanced over at Harry and me, fixing us with her beady eyes. "I see. Then you should know, Potter, Nox, that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school," she said. So Cedric was telling the truth about her predictions. "None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues..." Professor McGonagall broke off, and I saw that her nostrils had gone white.

She went on, more calmly this time, "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney..." She stopped again, and then said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "You look in excellent health to me, Potter, Nox, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

Hermione and I were the only two that laughed. Although I did see the corner of Harry's lips turn upwards. I almost immediately felt better. At least there were now two people telling me that there was no need to worry about my untimely death this year. It helped that it was harder to feel scared of a lump of tea leaves away from the dim red light and befuddling perfume of Professor Trelawney's classroom. Not everyone was convinced, however. Ron still looked worried, as did most of the class.

"Thanks, Professor McGonagall," I called out, earning a fond smile.

My stomach sank again when Lavender whispered, "But what about Neville's cup?"

The mildly happy air that had surrounded us for a few minutes was suddenly gone again. I glanced down at my paper and ignored everyone else as the class continued. Thankfully Mom and Dad had taught me plenty about Animagi that I was able to answer each one of Professor McGonagall's questions with ease. I had a feeling that she thought that I might have been cheating with my knowledge. When the Transfiguration class had finally finished, we joined the crowd thundering toward the Great Hall for lunch.

As we walked I noticed that Harry still had the same put-out look that I did. I glanced over at Harry and gave him a reassuring nod. "Well, Cedric said the same thing -"

"Because you should always believe what he says," Harry interrupted.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I shoved Harry past me. "Just wait until you get a first crush. I'm going to make you miserable," I told him, wrapping an arm over his shoulder anyways.

The four of us made our way into the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table. I immediately reached for a cup of coffee, needing the pick-me-up. We had only been at Hogwarts for a few hours and I already felt like I was going to die. It didn't help that we were mostly silent for the entire lunch hour. We were halfway through lunch when Hermione finally spoke up.

"Ron, cheer up. You heard what Professor McGonagall said," Hermione said, pushing a plate of stew towards him.

Begrudgingly listening to Hermione, Ron spooned stew onto his plate and picked up his fork but didn't start. "Harry, Tara," he said, in a low, serious voice, "You haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah, I have. I saw one the night I left the Dursley's'," Harry said. "Tara knew it."

He didn't realize that saying that would only make things even worse. Ron let his fork fall with a clatter. "Probably a stray," Hermione said calmly.

Before Ron could panic too much, I moved forward and grabbed the plate away from Ron, ensuring that he wasn't going to drop it on the floor. "It is a stray. I saw that dog a number of times. It never let me pet it but it never attacked me either. It was just a stray dog that found its way to Magnolia Crescent," I said, remembering the few times that I saw Snuffles around.

Ron looked at Hermione and me as though we had gone mad. "Hermione, if Harry and Tara have seen a Grim, that's - that's bad. You're a Pureblood, Tara, you should know how dangerous this is! My - My uncle Bilius saw one and - and he died twenty-four hours later!" Ron shouted.

"Coincidence," Hermione said airily, pouring herself some pumpkin juice.

Turning a heated glare on Ron, I snarled, "We're not going to die."

We had only ended up making Ron even angrier. "You two don't know what you're talking about!" I rolled my eyes at him. Like he said, I was a Pureblood, I knew exactly what I was talking about. "Grims scare the living daylights out of most wizards! You're a Pureblood, Tara. Don't you know about this?""

Rolling my eyes at him again, I nodded. "Of course, but I'd like to not die yet, so I'll be ignoring it," I said pointedly.

Hermione was the only one that seemed to share my sentiment. "There you are, then. They see the Grim and die of fright. The Grim's not an omen, it's the cause of death! And Harry and Tara are still with us because they're not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better kick the bucket then! Tara's got the right idea," Hermione argued loudly and irritably.

I had a feeling that it was mostly because she didn't like the fact that there was a subject that she wasn't naturally good at, and wouldn't get better at, no matter how much studying she did. While Hermione and I went back to eating and reading, Ron was still reeling over what we had said. I noticed that Harry was staring blankly at his plate. Ron mouthed wordlessly at Hermione, who opened her bag, took out her new Arithmancy book, and propped it open against the juice jug.

"I think Divination seems very woolly. A lot of guesswork, if you ask me," Hermione said, flipping through her Arithmancy book to start the homework that we had already been assigned.

"It is, unless you're an actual Seer, which very few people are," I said, poking at my fish.

"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in those cups!" Ron shouted hotly.

"Why are you so determined that it's really a Grim?" I asked irritably.

"You heard Professor Trelawney!" he shouted.

That time it was Hermione who was irritated by the comment. "You didn't seem quite so confident when you were telling Harry it was a sheep," Hermione hissed coolly.

"Professor Trelawney said you didn't have the right aura! You just don't like being bad at something for a change!" Ron shouted.

The moment that it had come out of his mouth I knew that it was the wrong thing to say. Hermione did not like being told that she was bad at something. He had definitely touched a nerve with Hermione. As I kicked Ron roughly in the shins, Hermione slammed her Arithmancy book down on the table so hard that bits of meat and carrot flew everywhere. Everyone sitting within a few feet of us jumped at the sudden movement. She even drew some surprise from the Slytherin table.

"If being good at Divination means I have to pretend to see death omens in a lump of tea leaves, I'm not sure I'll be studying it much longer! That lesson was absolute rubbish compared with my Arithmancy class!" Hermione shouted.

And the moment that she said that I could have slapped her. She hadn't been paying attention to what she was saying. As far as the boys were concerned we had been with them all morning. They weren't supposed to know that we had vanished for an hour earlier only to reappear as if no time at all had passed. Hermione gave me a quick nod as she snatched up her bag and stalked away. I assumed that she would be waiting for Care of Magical Creatures to start. She was probably out on the stone steps. Ron frowned after her.

"What's she talking about? She hasn't been to an Arithmancy class yet. You two haven't been yet, have you, Tara?" Ron asked us.

I turned towards him and waved him off, bringing out my own Arithmancy book so that I didn't have to talk about our overlapping classes. "Of course we haven't. Hermione just went to Professor Vector's office earlier to get to know her," I said quickly.

Both Harry and Ron looked very confused about Hermione's statement, but they knew that I was done talking about it. By the time that we were able to leave the castle and head to our Care of Magical Creatures, I was thrilled to be out of the castle. I was sick of being trapped inside. It was just nice to get some food in me and be out in the sunlight. As expected, Hermione was out on the stone steps and waiting for us to meet up with her. She was reading through her book but still looked very upset about our lunch conversation.

Tonight was much nicer than the night beforehand. Yesterday's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as we set off for our first ever Care of Magical Creatures class. Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other. Harry and I were walking in front of them so that we could talk about what we thought Hagrid might be doing. We were hoping for nothing too dangerous for his first lesson. Best to start small. But Hagrid didn't quite know what small meant. We went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

It was only when I spotted three only-too-familiar backs ahead of me that I realized that we must be having these lessons with the Slytherin's. I titled back my head and groaned in disgust. Malfoy was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling. I knew well enough to know that they were still laughing about the Dementor attack on the train yesterday. It would be their running joke for the next week. Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.

"C'mon, now, get a move on! Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here?" Hagrid asked as we walked to meet him in front of his hut. "Right, follow me!"

For one nasty moment, I thought that Hagrid was going to lead us into the Forbidden Forest; we had all had enough unpleasant experiences in there to last him a lifetime. But I should have known that even Hagrid was smarter than allowing us to do that. Dumbledore definitely would have never allowed us to do that. Hagrid ended up strolling off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, we found ourselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there. It made my stomach flutter with nerves.

"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" Hagrid called, motioning for everyone to gather around him. "That's it - make sure yeh can see - now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books -"

"How?" Malfoy interrupted coldly.

"Eh?" Hagrid asked.

"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated, speaking slowly and deliberately as if to embarrass Hagrid.

The way that he spoke to Hagrid infuriated me. He might not have always had the best judgement, but Hagrid was a good guy. Much better than Malfoy would ever be. Along with the rest of the class, I took out my copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which I had since bound shut with a thick belt that Dad had given me to keep in closed. Some, like Harry and I, had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips. No one had an opened one.

"Hasn' - hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" Hagrid asked, looking crestfallen. Our entire class shook our heads. "Yeh've got ter stroke 'em." The way that Hagrid said it was as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look -"

It was rather embarrassing that I hadn't thought of that. But Mom and Dad hadn't known what to do about the book either. Hagrid reached over and took Hermione's copy and ripped off the Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand. I repeated the actions, very nearly losing my thumb in the process. I slapped the book once I'd calmed it down. I was not getting kicked off of the Quidditch team because the stupid book bit off one of my fingers.

"Oh, how silly we've all been! We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!" Malfoy snarled.

"I - I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Hermione.

"Oh, tremendously funny! Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!" Malfoy continued, earning barks of laughter from the Slytherin's in the class.

I was glad to see that the Gryffindor's weren't laughing. "Shut up, Malfoy," Harry growled quietly.

Hagrid was looking downcast at the laughter and I knew that we all wanted Hagrid's first lesson to be a success. I turned back to Malfoy and glared. "You know how to open it, now can it," I hissed, cutting through Malfoy's laughter.

He was about to say something, probably to yell at me for the goblet of water that I'd tossed on him this morning - he must have changed since, seeing as he was totally dry by now - when Hagrid spoke over him. "Righ' then, so - so yeh've got yer books an'... an'... now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on..." Hagrid trailed off, seemingly having lost his spark.

We all watched as Hagrid strode away from us into the Forbidden Forest and out of sight. For a moment my stomach clenched nervously. That couldn't have been anything good. But I was smart enough to know that I had seen worse. We had encountered a Norwegian Ridgeback, a Basilisk, Voldemort (more than once), a giant Acromantula, and potentially a Grim. Whatever Hagrid had to show us for our first lesson couldn't have been any worse than the things that I had already encountered.

"God, this place is going to the dogs. That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him -" Malfoy ranted until Harry cut him off.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry repeated.

"Careful, Potter, there's a Dementor behind you -"

"Give it up, Malfoy!" I shouted loudly. It cut off all conversations in the class. Everyone glanced over at me in surprise. "It was funny the first thirty times you did it, it's not anymore."

Malfoy did not enjoy what I'd said to him. He stormed up to me, keeping his cronies back. Harry and Ron made a move to stand in front of me protectively, but I pushed them back. This was something that I could handle on my own. "Watch it, or I spill your secret," he hissed at me, leaning over me and placing his mouth against my ear.

It was something that had freaked me out in the past few months, but now I didn't care. He would have already spilled my secret if he meant it. "Go for it. You really want to admit to your girlfriend that you kissed me? And that you really like my Chapstick and eyes better than you like hers?" I asked lowly, motioning back to Parkinson.

To Malfoy's credit, he was as quick-witted as I was. "How would Diggory feel?" Malfoy asked.

My moment of hesitation was enough to tip off Malfoy. "He wouldn't believe you," I said, unsure of whether or not I believed myself.

"Should we test that theory?" Malfoy asked.

"You wouldn't dare," I hissed under my breath.

The entire class had gotten quiet to try and overhear our conversation, but that only meant that Malfoy and I got quieter. Until the moment that we genuinely would tell the secret, neither one of us really wanted it to get out. I noticed that Harry and Ron were very stiff and Hermione was watching with close eyes. Parkinson looked like she might try and light me on fire.

"You think I wouldn't?" Malfoy asked. I said nothing, unsure of whether or not he would. "How would Diggory feel if he knew that you weren't quite as innocent as you appear to be?"

"He knows better than anyone else that I'm not," I said determinedly. "What do you want, Malfoy? Why do you have to make my life so miserable?"

Malfoy hesitated for a moment, just the same way that I had before. "It's because I hate you," he finally said.

There was a hardness in his words that didn't quite match his eyes, no matter how hard he tried. "I don't think so. If you hated me, you would have let that jar crush me last year, but you didn't. Something else is going on. Want to tell me what it is?" I asked curiously.

An odd emotion flitted through his eyes, but it was gone before I could place it. "Oh!" Lavender squealed, pointing toward the opposite side of the paddock.

It broke the heated conversation between Malfoy and me. We both glanced upwards, not backing away from each other. But the moment that I realized how close he still was to me, I shoved him backwards. He stumbled backwards towards his friends as Harry and Ron pulled me back towards them. I finally managed to collect myself enough to see what Hagrid was bringing to us.

Trotting toward our class were a dozen of what I believed were Hippogriff's. They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-colored beaks and large, brilliantly, orange eyes. The talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly looking. Each of the Hippogriff's had a thick leather collar around its neck, which was attached to a long chain, and the ends of all of these were held in the vast hands of Hagrid, who came jogging into the paddock behind the creatures.

"Gee up, there!" Hagrid roared.

They had to have been Hippogriffs. They were the only creatures that I could think that looked like that. As he walked out to the paddock, Hagrid was shaking the chains and urging the creatures toward the fence where the rest of our class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached us and tethered the Hippogriffs to the fence. I was the only one that stayed where I was.

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. So they were Hippogriff's. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"

"Oh, I've always wanted to see a Hippogriff!" I cheered happily.

A few of the students were slowly getting over the shock and walking back towards where I was still standing. Namely the Gryffindor girls. The creatures were adorable. In a fearsome and strong kind of way. Once you got over the first shock of seeing something that was half horse, half bird, you started to appreciate the Hippogriff's' gleaming coats, changing smoothly from feather to hair, each of them a different color: stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut, and inky black.

"So, if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer..." Hagrid said, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

Once more the anticipation in the class had returned. People started sinking back to where they had been standing a moment before. It was easy enough to see that no one wanted to actually come up and see the Hippogriffs up close. They were plenty interesting from far away. After exchanging a look with each other, not wanting Hagrid's first lesson to be a complete failure, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I approached the fence cautiously.

The one thing that I knew about Hippogriff's was that they could get violent if provoked. "Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' Hippogriffs is, they're proud. Easily offended, Hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do," Hagrid informed us.

Well I definitely wasn't planning on insulting the Hippogriffs. I couldn't even imagine why someone would insult something as pretty as they were. Of course, we were with the Slytherin's, so the warning was definitely an important one. But they might deserve whatever the Hippogriff's would do to them. I would have enjoyed watching Malfoy get stomped into the ground by one of them. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle weren't listening to Hagrid; they were talking in an undertone and I had a nasty feeling that they were plotting how best to disrupt the lesson.

"Yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move. It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt," Hagrid continued, motioning towards the Hippogriffs again. "Right - who wants ter go first?""

Now that was something that actually made me a little nervous. As cute as they were - as incredible as it probably would be to touch one of them - I was a little nervous to get too close to them. What if they decided that they didn't like me? Most of the class ended up backing farther away in answer. For fear of making Hagrid's first lesson a failure, I stayed planted in my spot. In turned out that even Harry, Ron, and Hermione had misgivings. They backed away as the Hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like they were.

"No one?" Hagrid asked, with a pleading look.

Not wanting to ruin Hagrid's first lesson, and being a little curious about the Hippogriffs myself, I stepped forward. "What the hell? I'll go," I said.

There was an intake of breath from behind me, and both Lavender and Parvati whispered, "Oh, no, Tara, remember your tea leaves!"

As sweet as it was that they were concerned about me, I wasn't that concerned. I trusted that I could believe both Cedric and Professor McGonagall that Professor Trelawney's prediction was nothing more than something to scare us all. So I decided to ignore them. Harry, Ron, and Hermione gave me reassuring smiles as I walked forward. I was reasonably sure that I heard Parkinson talking about how I was going to become Hippogriff chow. I ignored her and climbed over the paddock fence to Hagrid.

"Good girl, Tara!" Hagrid roared, making me smile at him. "Right then - let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak."

His comment made me smile. That was a cute name for the Hippogriff. Hagrid moved forward, motioning me to stay where I was, as he untied one of the chains, pulled the gray Hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off its leather collar. Buckbeak seemed to be the largest of the Hippogriffs. I was hoping that he was the friendliest. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath. Malfoy's eyes were narrowed maliciously, probably hoping that Parkinson's comment would be proven correct.

"Easy now, Tara. Yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink... Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much..." Hagrid said, motioning me forward slowly.

Now the only thing that I wanted was to never blink again. As cute as the Hippogriffs were, I didn't want something to happen. I didn't want it to attack me before I could run. I didn't want to prove Professor Trelawney right. My eyes immediately began to water from keeping them open, but I didn't dare shut them. Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at me with one fierce orange eye. I got the sinking feeling that Buckbeak didn't like me very much.

"Tha's it. Tha's it, Tara... now, bow," Hagrid said.

He was still ushering me a little bit closer to Buckbeak. I found myself stuck in my place about ten feet away from him. I didn't want to be any closer to Buckbeak until I knew that he wasn't going to kill me. I also didn't feel much like exposing the back of my neck to Buckbeak, but I did as I was told. I gave a short bow and then looked up. The Hippogriff was still staring haughtily at me. It didn't move. That prompted me to dip a little lower into the bow, just in case. Buckbeak still remained where he was.

"Ah," Hagrid said, sounding worried. "Right - he's working on it. Just stay there, Tara -"

My heart was racing with the fear that Buckbeak was going to kill me. Obviously the animal didn't like me very much. But then, to my enormous surprise, the Hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into what was an unmistakable bow. My breath started to leave my lungs as I let out something similar to a hysterical laugh. There was a chance that I might die this year, but it was not going to come from Buckbeak the Hippogriff.

"Well done, Tara!" Hagrid yelled, ecstatic. "Right - yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"

As much as I wanted to back away, I did want to go up and see Buckbeak. He was definitely on the cute side. So I decided to listen to Hagrid and move slowly toward Buckbeak. I had a feeling that this might have been worth the brief fear of death. I reached out toward Buckbeak and smiled as I patted his beak several times. Buckbeak slowly moved his beak into the palm of my hand and I smiled as he gently nudged me. Buckbeak closed his eyes lazily, as though enjoying it. The class broke into applause, all except for Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were looking deeply disappointed.

"He's adorable," I told Hagrid, stroking underneath his jaw, feeling him let out something akin to a purr.

Hagrid smiled as he walked up to me. "Righ' then, Tara. I reckon he migh' let yeh ride him!" Hagrid cheered happily.

As excited as I was at the fact that I was actually petting a Hippogriff, I wasn't sure that I really wanted to pet him. That might have been where I drew the line. I loved animals - both Muggle and magical - but this was about as far as I wanted to go with it. In fact, this was already much more than I had bargained for. I liked to think that I was pretty much a master on a broomstick - much in thanks to Dad - but I wasn't sure a Hippogriff would be quite the same. In fact, I was sure that it wasn't. I was sure that I couldn't steer a Hippogriff.

"I'm good with sticking to broomsticks," I said sweetly, starting to back off.

But Hagrid wasn't hearing it. "Yeh climb up there, jus' behind the wing joint, an' mind yeh don' pull any of his feathers out, he won' like that," Hagrid informed me, moving forward.

Knowing that it wasn't really an option anymore - and refusing to look cowardly in front of Malfoy - I allowed Hagrid to help me onto Buckbeak's back. Hagrid showed me where to put my foot on the top of Buckbeak's wing and hoisted myself onto his back with Hagrid's help. I noticed that the rest of the class was watching with hesitation. Buckbeak stood up quickly. I wasn't really sure where to hold on; everything in front of me was covered with feathers. I didn't want to rip them out but I also didn't want to fall off of the animal.

"Go on, then!" Hagrid roared, slapping the Hippogriffs hindquarters.

Without warning, twelve-foot wings flapped open on either side of me, and I only just had time to seize the Hippogriff around the neck before we were soaring upward. I screamed loudly, very embarrassed, but I tried to forget about it. It was surprisingly easy, considering that I had not dying to focus on. It was nothing like riding a broomstick, and I knew which one I preferred. Buckbeak's wings beat uncomfortably on either side of me, catching me under my legs and making me feel like I was about to be thrown off.

But after a few minutes, as we started flying over the Black Lake, I started to smile. The ride became a little bit worth it. It was a lot of fun being on his back. I leaned back and cried out loudly and happily. It wasn't like riding a broom, but it was a lot of fun. I caught the Giant Squid briefly pop its head to of the water and I smiled, waving at it. I was sure that it flicked a tentacle at me. The glossy feathers slipped under my fingers and I didn't dare get a stronger grip. I now felt myself rocking backward and forward as Buckbeak's hindquarters rose and fell with its wings.

It was about five minutes before Buckbeak shot up into the air and he flew me back up to the paddock. I laughed loudly as we soared over it and made a quick lap around the paddock. Buckbeak floated up in the air for a moment before heading back to the ground. This was the bit that I had been dreading; I leaned back as his smooth neck lowered, feeling very much like I was going to slip off over the beak. But it wasn't long before there was a heavy thud as the four ill-assorted feet hit the ground. I just managed to hold on and push myself straight again.

The entire thing was definitely worth it. It was the most fun that I'd had in a long time. My fingers were slowly running through Buckbeak's feathers as he lowered himself to the ground, allowing me to jump off. "That was surprisingly fun!" I cheered to Hagrid.

"Good work, Tara!" Hagrid roared as everyone except Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"

Emboldened by my success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock. Hagrid untied the Hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock. Neville ran repeatedly backward from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees. I was watching with a hint of laughter. Ron, Harry, and Hermione practiced on the chestnut, while I watched, absentmindedly twirling my wand. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had taken over Buckbeak. He had bowed to Malfoy, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainful.

I was surprised that Buckbeak could tolerate him. "This is very easy. I knew it must have been, if Nox could do it..." Malfoy drawled. I ground my teeth together and glanced back at them. "I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you? Are you, you great ugly brute?"

"Quit being such an ass!" I shouted, furious at his treatment of the animal.

It turned out that I wasn't the only one that was furious at the words that he had said. Hagrid had warned us beforehand. We couldn't insult the Hippogriffs. They didn't take kindly to that. Before Malfoy got the chance to retaliate, Buckbeak did. It happened in a flash of steely talons; Malfoy let out a high pitched scream as Buckbeak reared upwards and slashed out at him. In the next moment, Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak back into his collar as he strained to get at Malfoy, who lay curled in the grass, blood blossoming over his robes.

"I'm dying! I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!" Malfoy was shouting, rolling around in the grass as the rest of the class panicked.

"Karma..." I muttered.

Harry, Ron, and I were the only ones who weren't even slightly panicking. "Yer not dyin'!" Hagrid said, who had gone very white. "Someone help me - gotta get him outta here -"

That was when I realized what the problem was. Even though it was funny that Malfoy was now injured, I hadn't realized that Hagrid could - and likely would - be blamed for the entire incident. Hermione ran to hold open the gate as Hagrid lifted Malfoy easily. As they passed, I saw that there was a long, deep gash on Malfoy's arm; blood splattered the grass and Hagrid ran with him up the slope toward the castle. My stomach was rumbling nervously. I hadn't thought that it was that bad. Very shaken, the Care of Magical Creatures class followed at a walk.

The Slytherin's were all shouting about Hagrid. "They should sack him straight away!" Parkinson cried, who was in tears.

"He deserved it, Pug-Face!" I yelled back at her.

Parkinson whipped around to face me. "What did you just call me?" she hissed.

"It was Malfoy's fault!" Dean snapped, coming to my defense.

And it really was his fault. We had been told not to say or do anything that would insult the Hippogriff. Unfortunately incidents in the classroom, even if they were the student's fault, were almost always pinned on the professor. There would be no way for Hagrid to make his way out of this one. Even if we all could back him up on the fact that he was in the right. Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly. I ignored them and brushed by. They weren't going to do anything. We all climbed the stone steps into the deserted entrance hall.

"I'm going to see if he's okay!" Pansy cried out, and we all watched her run up the marble staircase.

"Good riddance," I muttered.

That earned me a few good glares from the few Slytherin's that remained. They all looked very concerned that their ring leader was gone and injured. The Slytherin's, still muttering about Hagrid, headed away in the direction of their dungeon Common Room. I rolled my eyes at them and headed off with everyone else to get back up to the Common Room to change before dinner. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I headed upstairs to the Gryffindor Tower, irritably chatting about what had just happened.

"You think he'll be all right?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Who cares?" I snapped.

We all stared at each other. I didn't really want Malfoy dead, but I did like the fact that he was hurt by his own fault. "Course he will. Madam Pomfrey can mend cuts in about a second," Harry said.

The two of us had both had far worse injuries mended magically by the nurse. "That was a really bad thing to happen in Hagrid's first class, though, wasn't it? Trust Malfoy to mess things up for him..." Ron muttered, looking nervous.

And he was completely right about that. We talked with the rest of the Gryffindor's who had been in the Care of Magical Creatures as we all changed back into our night clothing. Everyone agreed that it was Malfoy's fault, but, unfortunately there was nothing that we could do about it. Hagrid was going to get in trouble. Probably not fired but definitely put on suspension. When six o'clock rolled around, we were among the first to reach the Great Hall, hoping to see Hagrid, but he wasn't there.

"They wouldn't fire him, would they?" Hermione asked anxiously, not touching her steak-and-kidney pudding.

"They'd better not," Ron said, who wasn't eating either.

Even I was picking at the salad that was placed in front of me. "No, but I'm sure that he's getting a warning," I said.

Harry was the only one of us that had been completely silent the entire time. I glanced backwards and saw that he was watching the Slytherin table. A large group including Crabbe and Goyle was huddled together, deep in conversation. My eyebrows narrowed at them as I desperately wished that I could do something to set them on fire. I knew that they were cooking up their own version of how Malfoy had been injured. Hopefully the contradicting stories between Hagrid, the Gryffindor's, and Slytherin's would be enough to save his job.

"Well, you can't say it wasn't an interesting first day back," Ron said gloomily.

And he was right about that. It was definitely the most interesting first day that we'd ever had. In our First Year it had been a little strange getting used to everything, but it hadn't been that interesting. In our Second Year we had mostly focused on Lockhart's disastrous first lesson. It had been busy and a little scary, but it hadn't really been interesting either. This year was definitely something interesting. We sat in the Great Hall for about an hour before I couldn't tolerate listening to the Slytherin's complaining about Hagrid or waiting for Hagrid to show up anymore. So we got up and made our way to go back to Gryffindor Tower.

We were nearing the doors when Cedric called out to me. "Tara. Hey," he called, running up to me.

Turning back to him, I smiled before waving my friends ahead of me. "You guys go on up. I'll be there soon," I said. They all nodded blankly. Even Harry, who normally would have made a stink about it, nodded and left. We were all too busy thinking about what was happening with Hagrid to really focus. I turned back to Cedric, trying to plaster on a happy face. "Hi. What's up?"

He merely walked towards me and smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I heard about what happened in your Care of Magical Creatures class. You okay?" he asked.

News about the incident must have spread like wildfire. "No. They can't fire him, can they?" I asked desperately.

"They aren't going to fire him," Cedric said confidently.

But I wasn't so sure about that, no matter what people said. "But Lucius Malfoy is still a powerful figure. He might not be a governor of Hogwarts anymore, but he does still mean a lot to some very powerful people in the Ministry," I said sadly. "They could -"

"Do nothing," Cedric interrupted. I sighed as we turned and headed upstairs towards Gryffindor Tower together. "At the end of the day it's Professor Dumbledore who's going to make the final decision on what happens with Hagrid. Everyone loves Hagrid, and everyone knows that you don't insult a Hippogriff. Is that what Malfoy did?"

"Yeah. He called it a stupid ugly thing. He should have known that it would happen," I mumbled.

Malfoy was a moron. It wasn't Buckbeak's fault that he had retaliated for Malfoy saying something that would have offended anyone. "The worst that they might do is put him on probation. But he's not going to be fired. Maybe they'll tell him to start with something a little smaller," Cedric said.

I appreciated the words of wisdom, but I was still nervous about what was happening. "Too bad Buckbeak didn't kill him," I muttered.

Cedric frowned at me. "You don't mean that," he said.

He was right. I didn't mean that. I didn't want Malfoy dead. I didn't want anyone dead. Save maybe Marge Dursley. "No. But I wish I did," I said sadly and irritably.

We headed up the flights of stairs and I found myself very tired at the movement. Today had actually been quite exhausting. "You're better than that. I know that you are," Cedric said, making me blush softly.

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about Hagrid. He's going to be fine," Cedric reassured me.

"I certainly hope so."

The two of us stared at each other as we turned another corner. "Interesting first day back," Cedric said, making me laugh softly.

This had definitely been the most interesting day that I'd ever had. The two of us continued walking up to Gryffindor Tower. "Yes. I suppose it was. I got to ride a Hippogriff," I said after a beat.

That much must have not been part of the news that was spreading through the school. Cedric's grin turned upwards. He looked very excited at the news. "That's amazing! What was it like?" he asked brightly.

Laughing under my breath, I shook my head. "Different than riding a broom. If you piss off your broom at least it doesn't turn around and try to kill you," I said, making him laugh. We stopped in front of the staircase leading up to the Fat Lady and I smiled at Cedric. I still couldn't tell him where the Gryffindor Common Room was. "I should go."

"Okay. I'll see you later. Don't worry about things, yeah?" Cedric asked me, sensing that I didn't want to talk anymore.

All I wanted was to ensure that Hagrid was okay and get to bed. "I won't," I said, fighting to smile.

Cedric moved into me and pressed a thumb underneath my chin. "Chin up, alright?" he asked teasingly.

I laughed and yanked my chin away from him, gently pushing him away from me. "Don't you pull that kid crap with me," I said, nudging him roughly.

Cedric laughed and shook his head. "You're not a kid," he said. Unless I was insane - which I very well might have been - he had given me a brief once over. I blushed madly. "See you tomorrow, Tara."

"That eager to see me, huh?" I teased, stepping into him.

"Always."

An irritating blush fell over my face as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss against my jaw, very close to my mouth. As I waved him off and headed towards the portrait of the Fat Lady, the blush only grew. I was sure that Cedric was laughing at me as I walked away. It must have taken at least three hours for that damned blush to go away. I was glad that the others were so distracted with what had happened with Hagrid in Care of Magical Creatures earlier that no one questioned why I looked like a walking tomato.

Unfortunately the blush did fade with time and it was replaced by the thoughts of what was happening with Hagrid at this very moment. I joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the big armchairs by the fire. I managed to jam myself in one with Fred and George. They were doing their Charms homework as I attempted to do my Transfiguration homework. I tried to chat with them and do my homework at the same time but both proved to be fruitless. My mind was too caught up on Hagrid. All four of us kept breaking off and glancing out of the tower window.

"There's a light on in Hagrid's window," Harry said suddenly.

My head immediately snapped up. I was laying across Fred's lap as George was plotting with Lee and Fred had fallen asleep in the chair, allowing me to slowly start drifting off on him. Ron looked at his watch as I leaned upwards, trying not to accidentally wake up Fred. Thankfully I was able to slip from the chair without bothering him.

"If we hurried, we could go down and see him. It's still quite early..." Ron said.

"I don't know," Hermione said slowly.

I knew that I saw her quickly glance from Harry to me and back to Ron. She must have been thinking that it wasn't safe. "We should go and make sure that he's alright," I told her.

Harry nodded his agreement. "We're allowed to walk across the grounds," Harry said pointedly. "Sirius Black hasn't got past the Dementors yet, has he?"

So we got up and put our things away. Once we had everything away we turned back and headed back into the Common Room. Considering that it wasn't curfew yet, no one said anything as we headed out of the portrait hole, glad to meet nobody on our way to the front doors, as we weren't entirely sure that we were supposed to be out. I was definitely glad that Peeves was nowhere to be seen. The poltergeist was sure to be somewhere around Hogwarts - I hadn't seen him yet - but I was hoping to put it off as long as possible.

The grass was still wet and looked almost black in the twilight. The sun was slowly setting and I knew that it would be after curfew by the time that we finally got back to Hogwarts. I would have to hope that no one would see us when we were ready to head back in a little while. When we finally reached Hagrid's hut, we all exchanged a look with each other before knocking.

A beat passed before Hagrid's voice growled, "C'min."

We pushed open the door to the hut and the four of us made our way inside. To my surprise, Hagrid was sitting in his shirtsleeves at his scrubbed wooden table; his boarhound, Fang, had his head in Hagrid's lap. Fang was always very good about knowing when Hagrid was hurting about something. One look told us that Hagrid had been drinking a lot; there was a pewter tankard almost as big as a bucket in front of him, and he seemed to be having difficulty getting us into focus. My heart sank. Nothing good had happened in his meeting.

"You need some tea, Hagrid," I said softly.

Both Hermione and I walked forward to start making him some hot tea. "'Spect it's a record," Hagrid said thickly, once he had recognized us. "Don' reckon they've ever had a teacher who lasted on'y a day before."

Had they really fired him? "You haven't been fired, Hagrid!" Hermione gasped.

"Not yet. But's only a matter o' time, I'n't, after Malfoy..." Hagrid said miserably, taking a sip of what I assumed was brandy out of the tankard.

Once Hermione and I had the tea to a boil, we walked back over to the boys. We all sat down, easily crowding in the chairs. "How is he? It wasn't serious, was it?" Ron asked Hagrid.

"Madam Pomfrey fixed him best she could, but he's sayin' it's still agony... covered in bandages... moanin'..." Hagrid said dully.

Harry and I exchanged a look with each other. "He's faking it," Harry said at once and I nodded my confirmation. "Madam Pomfrey can mend anything. She regrew half my bones last year. Trust Malfoy to milk it for all it's worth."

"School gov'nors have bin told, o' course," Hagrid said miserably. I nodded at him. I had a bad feeling that they were going to tell the school governors what had happened. "They reckon I started too big. Shoulda left Hippogriffs fer later... one flobberworms or summat... Jus' thought it'd make a good firs' lesson's all my fault..."

"It's all Malfoy's fault, Hagrid!" Hermione yelped earnestly.

"It was a wonderful first class! I had a lot of fun and so did everyone else," I added.

Besides being a little bit afraid of Buckbeak in the beginning, flying on his back was fun. "We're witnesses. You said Hippogriffs attack if you insult them. It's Malfoy's problem that he wasn't listening. We'll tell Dumbledore what really happened," Harry insisted.

"Yeah, don't worry, Hagrid, we'll back you up," Ron said.

We would all stand up for Hagrid no matter what happened here. We loved Hagrid. He was the best person that I had met at Hogwarts. He had taken good care of Harry from the time that he was an infant. He didn't deserve anything that had happened to him. I watched with a heavy heart as tears leaked out of the crinkled corners of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes. I had never seen him look that heartbroken before. He grabbed both Harry and Ron and pulled them into a bone-breaking hug.

Hermione and I watched from a slight distance. "I think you've had enough to drink, Hagrid," Hermione said firmly.

We watched as she took the tankard from the table and went outside to empty it. "Ah, maybe she's right," Hagrid said, finally letting go of Harry and Ron, who both staggered away, rubbing their ribs.

Hagrid heaved himself out of his chair and followed Hermione unsteadily outside. We stared at each other and heard a loud splash a moment later. We exchanged a nervous look when Hermione came back in. "What's he done?" Harry asked Hermione nervously.

Thankfully she had come back with an empty tankard. "Stuck his head in the water barrel," Hermione said, putting the tankard away.

Hagrid came back a moment later, his long hair and beard sopping wet, wiping the water out of his eyes. The tea was still boiling but we hadn't bothered taking it to Hagrid yet. "How about that tea, Hagrid?" I offered.

He shook his head at me. "Nah, I'm alrigh'. That's better," he said, shaking his head like a dog and drenching us all. I gasped, realizing just how cold the water was. "Listen, it was good of yeh ter come an' see me, I really -"

Hagrid stopped dead in his tracks. The rest of us hesitated, wondering what had just happened. That was when I realized that he was staring at Harry and me as though he'd only just realized that we were here. That was also when I realized that we probably shouldn't have been here. We weren't supposed to be out on the grounds in general, and particularly not Harry and I, considering that there was a mass-murderer potentially on his way to come and kill us in our sleep. And the Dementors guarding the castle didn't help.

"What d'yeh think you're doin', eh?" Hagrid roared, so suddenly that we all jumped a foot in the air. "Yeh're not to go wanderin' around after dark, Harry, Tara! An, you two! Lettin' them!"

"But we -" I started.

I never got the chance to finish my statement. Hagrid strode over to Harry and me, grabbed our arms, and pulled us to the door. "C'mon! I'm takin' yer all back up ter school an' don' let me catch yeh walkin' down ter see me after dark again. I'm not worth that!" Hagrid said angrily.

The four of us were all dragged from Hagrid's hut without another word. As much as I would have loved to be able to sit with Hagrid and tell him that things were going to be alright, Hagrid was not going to allow it. He marched us straight up to the Gryffindor Common Room, and watched as we walked through the Fat Lady's portrait, ensuring that we weren't heading anywhere else. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione went upstairs to go to bed - despite the early hour - I hung around the Common Room for a while.

Everyone was still hanging around, but most of the students went to bed soon enough. No one wanted to think about what was happening with Hagrid because of stupid Malfoy. Fred ended up waking up from his nap on the armchair to make some room for me to sit and talk things out. I ended up never getting to bed that night. Instead, I fell asleep in the oversized chair with my head in Fred's lap, just like earlier. Things could have been better for our first day back at Hogwarts, but I had faith that things would get better. They always did.


	43. The Boggart in the Wardrobe

It turned out that Malfoy didn’t reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning, when the Slytherin's and Gryffindor's were halfway through double Potions. I had been wishing that he would at least miss this class. I'd been very happy not seeing Malfoy for the past three days, considering that he'd been up in the hospital wing moaning and whining about how Buckbeak needed to be put down immediately. I'd been so angry to hear him say that - considering that we'd been passing by at the time - that Harry had been forced to drag me away from the hospital wing trying to get to him.

Ron remained adamant on the fact that Harry should have allowed me to go in there and suffocate Malfoy in his sleep. But he hadn't, and that meant that Malfoy was alive and somewhat well. Malfoy swaggered into the dungeon, his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, far more dramatically than needed. He could have been back in classes days ago. But he hadn't, and how he was acting as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle, rather than the little wimp that had been knocked to the ground by a Hippogriff.

Unfortunately they were only one table down from where Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were working, so that meant that we could easily overhear their conversation. “How is it, Draco? Does it hurt much?” Parkinson asked, simpering over him.

“Yeah,” Malfoy said, putting on a brave sort of grimace.

This only made Parkinson fawn over him even more. She leaned over him and pressed a small kiss against his shoulder. He winced in fake pain and she pulled away, immediately fawning even more over him. I rolled my eyes, biting back a comment about the strawberry Chapstick that I saw hanging out of her bag. The moment that she had finally pulled back from him and looked away, I saw him wink at Crabbe and Goyle. Harry must have seen it, too, because we both tensed.

"Oh, shut up," I growled under my breath.

That made the entire class fall even more silent than we had been a few moments before. It was Snape's class, so we were usually quiet anyways, considering that no one liked detentions with Snape, but my comment had only taken a away the few bits of conversation from before. Malfoy slowly turned back to me, a heated look in the back of his eyes.

"Problem, Nox?" he asked.

Deciding that I should let him have it, I turned my own chair and nodded. "Yeah. Grow the hell up," I said, earning some snickers from the other Gryffindor's. "Madam Pomfrey fixed you right away."

My comment was finally enough to earn Snape's attention. “Settle down, settle down,” Professor Snape said idly. He then glanced up at me and scowled. "Two points from Gryffindor for your profanity, Nox."

Grinding my jaws together, I leaned back in the chair and tried to brush it off. Snape had a particular hatred for both Harry and I while he loved Malfoy. I rolled my eyes at the point loss. Of course I was the only person that had gotten any points taken off. Malfoy snorted loudly as soon as he heard my punishment and I ground my teeth together even harder. If I had laughed on the off chance that Malfoy had gotten points taken off, I would have gotten twice as many points taken off and a good week of detention.

All of the Gryffindor's were annoyed at the point loss, but they said nothing more. Hermione sighed softly and went back to work. Harry, Ron, and I exchanged a scowl with each other; Snape wouldn’t have said ‘settle down’ if any one of us had walked in late, he’d have given us all a detention. But Malfoy had always been able to get away with anything in Snape’s classes; Snape was head of Slytherin House, and generally favored his own students above all others. He got on well enough with the Ravenclaw students - as they typically at least knew what they were doing in his class - tolerated the Hufflepuff's, but absolutely loathed the Gryffindor's; Harry and I above all others.

We were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution. It was easy enough. Mom had made me make it a few times when Dad had injuries from Quidditch. It was normally good enough for him to drink and reduce any swelling that he had in his joints. It meant that I was one of the first people done in the classroom. So I decided to help out Harry and Ron, who were both slower. Malfoy set up his cauldron right next to Harry and Ron unfortunately enough, so that they were preparing their ingredients on the same table, with Hermione and I across from them.

“Sir, sir, I’ll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm -” Malfoy started to say before being cut off.

“Weasley, cut up Malfoy’s roots for him,” Snape interrupted without looking up.

Snape also genuinely enjoyed embarrassing any of the Gryffindor's whenever he got the chance. Ron went brick red. “There’s nothing wrong with your arm,” he hissed at Malfoy.

That was exactly the reason why he was doing this. Because he knew that he could get away with it. Malfoy smirked across the table. “Weasley, you heard Professor Snape; cut up these roots,” he said.

My gaze snapped upwards at Malfoy's words. The Weasley's might not have been the wealthiest family in the entire world, but they were good and hard-working people. They weren't damned slaves. Ron seized his knife, pulled Malfoy’s roots toward him, and began to chop them roughly, so that they were all different sizes. It would end up messing up the entire potion for Malfoy. I watched with a small smirk on my face. At least Malfoy's potion wouldn't be good enough to warrant a passing grade, no matter how much Snape liked him.

Unfortunately Malfoy also knew about having to cut them up into equal sizes. “Professor. Weasley’s mutilating my roots, sir,” Malfoy drawled.

Glancing up at him, I snapped my jaws shut, forcing myself not to say anything too nasty. They were such horrible people. Every single Slytherin, with Malfoy and Snape at the top of the list, Parkinson not far behind them. Unfortunately Malfoy's comment finally got Snape to look up from whatever he had been doing. Snape got up and approached our table, stared down his hooked nose at the roots, then gave Ron an unpleasant smile from beneath his long, greasy black hair.

“Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley,” Snape ordered.

“But, sir -!”

That time my jaw dropped. How the hell was that fair? Chopping up the roots was the hardest thing for the potion, considering that they all had to be exactly the same size and cut exactly the same way. It always took up a lot of time trying to figure it all out. Unfairly enough, Ron had spent the last quarter of an hour carefully shredding his own roots into exactly equal pieces, the same way that everyone else had been doing.

“Now,” Snape said in his most dangerous voice.

It told us that there was nothing to be done about this. All of the Gryffindor's were sitting in silence with their jaws clamped tightly together. We all knew how unfair it was. The Slytherin's were chuckling under their breath, earning no ire from Snape. He only seemed to get mad when the Gryffindor's did something that he didn't like. Ron shoved his own beautifully cut roots across the table at Malfoy, then took up the knife again. He would never be able to finish the potion now at this rate, and it would mean a low grade for him.

“And, sir, I’ll need this shrivelfig skinned,” Malfoy added, his voice full of malicious laughter.

Snape glanced up and gave Harry and I the look of loathing that he seemed to reserve just for us. “Nox, since you're done, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfig. Potter, you can help,” Snape ordered.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Hermione's foot jammed down on top of my own. I cringed and clamped my mouth shut. She was right to tell me to not speak, and technically Snape had every right to ask me to do it. I had already finished. But Harry was the one that should have gotten out of it. Harry and I took Malfoy’s shrivelfig as Ron began trying to repair the damage to the roots he now had to use. The two of us managed to skin the shrivelfig as fast as we could and flung it back across the table at Malfoy without speaking. I'd made sure to throw some of it straight in his face. Despite what I'd done, Malfoy was smirking more broadly than ever.

As he finally got to work on his potion, Malfoy glanced up. “Seen your pal Hagrid lately?” he asked us quietly.

“None of your business,” Ron said jerkily, without looking up.

“I’m afraid he won’t be a teacher much longer,” Malfoy said in a tone of mock sorrow. “Father’s not very happy about my injury -”

“Keep talking, Malfoy, and I’ll give you a real injury,” Ron snarled.

"– he’s complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic. Father’s got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this," he gave a huge, fake sigh, “who knows if my arm will ever be the same again?” Malfoy finished.

"It's not lasting!" I snapped.

There was nothing lasting about the injury to his arm. It was already healed. He was just being a horrible person. “So that’s why you’re putting it on,” Harry said angrily, accidentally beheading a dead caterpillar because his hand was shaking, “To try to get Hagrid fired.”

I'd always known that he was trying to get Hagrid fired, and I knew that he would do it through the connections that his family had out there. "Of course he is! Why else would he be doing all of this?" I asked Harry irritably.

Not that I was angry about him. Just because Malfoy always got me riled up. "What a smart girl," Malfoy said teasingly.

With how tightly my jaws were clamped together, I was sure that my teeth were going to shatter at any given moment. "You're not going to get him fired. Dumbledore loves him and believes the best in him," I said determinedly.

"And what if the entire Ministry and all of the Hogwarts governors want him to step down?" Malfoy asked.

"Trust me when I say that not that many people care about you," I hissed.

There was something very angry in his eyes as he turned back to Ron and Harry. “Well, partly, Potter," Malfoy said, lowering his voice to a whisper. "But there are other benefits too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me.”

What the hell other benefits could there be? I couldn't understand what Malfoy meant, as much as I really wished that I could. My thoughts weren't on Malfoy for very long. A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. Not that it was anything surprising. Still, I glanced up, with everyone else, to see what had happened this time. Neville regularly went to pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear of Professor Snape made things ten times worse. His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned a dull orange.

And Snape was now walking around, trying to pick at everyone's potion. “Orange, Longbottom,” Snape said, ladling some up and allowing to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see. “Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn’t you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one cat spleen was needed? Didn’t I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?”

As usual, he had ignored all of the Gryffindor's that had produced perfect potions. He had walked by both Hermione and I without saying anything about the potion. Despite the fact that they were both perfect. Everyone's attention was now on Neville and I sighed. I couldn't believe the way that Snape treated him. I wished that Dumbledore would do something about Snape, but I knew that he saw the good in him. He saw the good in everyone. Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.

"He's such an ass," I growled under my breath.

"When isn't he?" Ron shot back.

He was right about that. Snape had been an ass since the first time that I had ever met him. “Please, sir,” Hermione interrupted, “please, I could help Neville put it right -”

“I don’t remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger,” Snape interrupted coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. “Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly.”

"That's cruel!" I shouted, unable to stop myself.

Snape turned his heated glare on me. "Five points from Gryffindor for your lack of manners, Nox," Snape hissed at me.

The moment that the words had escaped my mouth, I should have known that Snape would take away the points that I had earned in Charms the other day. Not that it bothered me. We would be able to get back another seven points. And it wasn't exactly unusual for me to walk out of Potions having lost at least a few points. I ground my teeth together and leaned back in my chair, digging my knife into the table, ignoring Malfoy's scathing smile. Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear.

“Help me!” Neville moaned to Hermione.

He probably would have asked me, too, but he knew that I was too furious to think straight. “Hey, Harry, Tara,” Seamus said, making me look up and see what had happened. He was now leaning over to borrow Harry’s brass scales. “Have you heard?" We both shook our heads. "Daily Prophet this morning - they reckon Sirius Black’s been sighted.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Where?” Harry and Ron asked quickly.

Honestly I wanted to pretend that I wasn't afraid of Sirius Black. But I was no fool. I knew just how dangerous Sirius Black was. I knew that I would be no match for a fully grown wizard who had managed to kill twelve Muggles and one wizard with one spell. It was the reason that my heart was now thumping loudly in my chest. Was everyone telling the truth? Was Sirius Black really planning on coming after Harry and I? On the other side of the table, Malfoy looked up, listening closely.

“Not too far from here. Dufftown," Seamus said, looking very excited.

That time I was sure that my heart stopped. Dufftown was a Muggle town just a few miles from Hogsmeade. It was only about twenty miles from Hogwarts. "That's just the next town over," I whispered.

The little borough had a low population and not much in terms of media. It was the perfect place for Black to hide out, especially if he was trying to get to Hogwarts. "It was a Muggle who saw him. ‘Course, she didn’t really understand. The Muggles think he’s just an ordinary criminal, don’t they? So she phoned the telephone hot line. By the time the Ministry of Magic got there, he was gone,” Seamus explained.

“Not too far from here...” Ron repeated, looking significantly at Harry and I.

He turned around and I turned with him. I realized that Malfoy was watching closely. "You don't think he'd come to Hogwarts, do you?" Dean asked, leaning over Seamus's shoulder.

"What reason would he have to come here?" I asked sharply, not wanting to reveal that Harry and I might be the reasons that he was trying to break into Hogwarts.

"With Dementors at every entrance?" Harry added.

Seamus scoffed and leaned a little bit closer. "Dementors? He slipped past them once. Who's to say he won't do it again?" he pointed out, making me feel sick to my stomach.

He was right. "I want to know how he did it," I muttered.

And I did want to know how he did it. No one had ever escaped from Azkaban before. How had Black managed it after so many centuries? "That's right. Black could be anywhere. It's like trying to catch smoke. Like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. Intriguing, isn't it?" Ron asked, looking between everyone.

"Not really," I muttered.

That was when I realized that Malfoy was still watching us. “What, Malfoy? Need something else skinned?” Ron asked sharply.

I knew well enough to know that Malfoy was always trying to listen whenever we said something about anything important. I'd seen him staring at us more than once whenever we were discussing either something dangerous or important. I glanced over at him and saw that Malfoy’s eyes were shining malevolently, and they were fixed on Harry and I. There must have been something that he knew, or something that he had been dying to say this entire time. He leaned across the table towards us.

“Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Potter?” Malfoy asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Harry said offhandedly.

Turning towards Harry, I smiled thinly. We had already been through enough terrible moments that we had brought on ourselves. During our First Year, we were the ones that had looked into the Sorcerer's Stone and figured out where they were hiding it. We were the ones that had conscientiously gone after it. Last year we were the ones that had discovered everything about the Chamber of Secrets and we were the ones that had made the decision to go after Ginny. It only made sense for people to think that we were going to try and catch Black on our own. Malfoy’s thin mouth was curving upwards into a mean smile. He had to know something.

Malfoy leaned forward and spoke even softer still. “Of course, if it was me, I’d have done something before now. I wouldn’t be staying in school like a good boy, I’d be out there looking for him," Malfoy said softly.

Well that was news. What the hell did that mean? “What are you talking about, Malfoy?” Ron asked roughly.

“Don’t you know, Potter?” Malfoy breathed, his pale eyes narrowing.

“Know what?” Harry asked.

He glanced over at me as if to ask if I knew what he was talking about. There were many things that I did know, but this was not one of them. I couldn't understand what Malfoy was smirking about. It made no sense to me. There was nothing that I could figure that he was laughing about, other than trying - and succeeding - to get me into trouble. Malfoy let out a low, sneering laugh. The three of exchanged a look with each other, wondering what he meant. Hermione was busy helping Neville.

Malfoy glanced over at me, his sharp gaze glittering. “Even you don't know, Nox? Maybe you’d rather not risk your neck. Want to leave it to the Dementors, do you? But if it was me, I’d want revenge. I’d hunt him down myself," Malfoy said lowly.

Was there a reason that we should be going after Black? “What are you talking about?” Harry asked angrily.

"What do you know?" I hissed irritably.

In my entirety, I knew that Malfoy wouldn't tell us. He opened his mouth to say something, probably give another cryptic clue, but he was interrupted by Snape. “You should have finished adding your ingredients by now; this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers and then we’ll test Longbottom’s,” he called to the class.

My jaws ground together. I hated Potions. For the sole reason that Snape was an asshole, and the Slytherin's drove me out of my damned mind. As Snape walked over to the cauldron, Crabbe and Goyle laughed openly, watching Neville sweat as he stirred his potion feverishly. Hermione was still muttering instructions to him out of the corner of her mouth, so that Snape wouldn’t see. I had a bad feeling that he would know anyways. Harry, Ron, and I packed away our unused ingredients and went to wash our hands and ladles in the stone basin in the corner.

We were standing close together so that no one could overhear us. “What did Malfoy mean?” Harry muttered to Ron and I as he stuck his hands under the icy jet that poured from the gargoyle’s mouth. “Why would I want revenge on Black? He hasn’t done anything to me - yet. Why would we want revenge on him?”

There had to be something far more going on here than what I had thought. "Maybe I can write Mom and Dad and see if there's something more about Black that I should know..." I reasoned softly.

Ron shook his head at us. “He’s making it up. He’s trying to make you two do something stupid,” Ron said savagely.

If there was anyone that hated Malfoy more than Harry or me, it was Ron. Mostly because of all of the cruel things that he liked to say about their family - and there were plenty of comments that he had. I assumed that most of them had come from his father. We went back to our table and I discreetly went to work on my Ancient Runes homework, keeping it out of sight of Snape. I didn't get to work on it long. With the end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.

Everyone glanced up to see what was happening. “Everyone gather ‘round, and watch what happens to Longbottom’s toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don’t doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned,” Snape said, his black eyes glittering unpleasantly.

Sighing at what was sure to not be a very nice conversation to follow, I stood up to see what was happening. The Gryffindor's all stood immediately behind Neville, watching fearfully. The Slytherin's looked excited. I placed my hand on Neville's shoulder, attempting to be a little more reassuring. Snape fixed me with an irritated glance, but since I was doing nothing wrong, he said nothing.

We watched as Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville’s potion, which was now the proper shade of green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor’s throat. There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape’s palm. The Gryffindor's burst into applause, myself the loudest. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

I was glad that nothing terrible had happened to Trevor. As strange as the toad was, Neville did love him. “Five points from Gryffindor,” Snape said quickly, which wiped the smiles from every face. “I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed.”

Unfortunately he was right about that. But at least Trevor wasn't dead. That meant that I was alright with the extra points being lost. I didn't love that we kept losing points, but I would manage to get over it. I gathered everything in my hands, placed my books back in my bag, and headed out of the dungeon. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I climbed the steps to the entrance hall. I was sure to get as far ahead as I could, not wanting to deal with Malfoy. But I was unfortunately still thinking about what Malfoy had said, while Ron was seething about Snape.

“Five points from Gryffindor because the potion was all right! Why didn’t you lie, Hermione? You should’ve said Neville did it all by himself!” he shouted as we walked.

But, at the same time as Ron had spoken, I grabbed Hermione and pulled her off to the side. We ducked behind a pillar and quickly turned the dial on the Time-Turner. It was getting a little tough to balance everything, but it was worth it to be able to take all of our classes. Today we were talking about what the numbers one through ten represented.

We learned that one represented the Demiguise. The creatures invisibility the absence of everything. The unicorn - because of its single horn - represented the number one. The dual horns of the Graphorn represented the number two. The triple-headed Runespoor represented the number three. The four-colored wings of the Fwooper represented the number four. The five legs of the Quintaped represented the number five. Because the maximum number of hours of a fire salamander's ability to survive out of fire was six hours, they represented six. The theory of the unknown was represented by the number seven. The eight-eyed Acromantula and nine-headed Hydra represented eight and nine, respectively.

We were finally out of Ancient Runes when Hermione and I darted back through the hallways of Hogwarts. A few people gave us surprised looks, probably considering that they had just seen us downstairs. It was getting hard to manage everything, but we were still doing it. As I glanced back towards where Harry and Ron were standing, I realized that they had been trying to talk to us. Harry and Ron both turned around, looking very confused that we were no longer there. We were now at the top of the steps, as the rest of the class passed them, heading for the Great Hall and lunch.

"I think that the boys were talking to us," I whispered to Hermione.

"They know that something's going on," she said.

Of course they knew that something was going on, but they would never figure it out. Harry was essentially a Muggle-Born and Ron didn't think enough. "They're too thick to figure it out," I pointed out.

“They were right behind us,” I could hear Ron say, frowning.

Both Hermione and I laughed. It was rather funny hearing them try and figure out how we were getting from one place to another. I smiled as we walked up the stairs to try and meet them. I was definitely going to end up losing weight with the constant running back and forth all over the castle. My breath was coming in short pants as Hermione and I tried to meet them. I saw Malfoy pass them, walking between Crabbe and Goyle. He smirked at Harry and walked towards us. He gave me a shocked look before walking off, probably because he'd just seen us.

As we stormed up the stairs, Cedric passed me in the other direction, the two of us running right into each other. "Oh! Sorry, I'm late, I'll see you soon!" I chirped at him, walking off.

"Weren't you just...?"

“There they are,” Harry said.

Cedric was giving me the same look that Malfoy just had. I turned back and waved him off as Hermione yanked me after her. He looked very confused as he shook his head and turned away, scratching at the back of his head, probably trying to convince himself that he hadn't just seen two of me. Hermione and I were panting slightly, hurrying up the stairs. She had one hand clutched around her bag while the other was hiding the homework that we had gotten down the front of her robes. As far as the boys were concerned, we only had Potions and Defense today.

“How did you two do that?” Ron asked.

“What?” Hermione asked as we joined them.

"What are you talking about?" I asked blankly.

Ron stared at us like we had lost our minds. “One minute you two were right behind us, the next moment, you two were back at the bottom of the stairs again," he said.

Hermione and I exchanged a quick look with each other. “What?” Hermione asked, trying to look slightly confused. “Oh - I had to go back for something."

Ron turned to face me. "You know that it's dangerous to go back to Snape's classroom alone," I explained.

Ron looked like he was about to speak, but Hermione spoke over him. "Oh no,” she muttered.

Despite the fact that we only had two classes today - that the boys were aware of - Hermione had five and I had three. That meant that we were carrying around a number of heavy books, particularly considering that we had three books for Study of Ancient Runes. Thankfully my bag was much stronger than the one that Hermione had. At all of the jostling from the running that we were doing, a seam had split on Hermione’s bag. I wasn’t surprised; I could see that it was crammed with at least a dozen large and heavy books. She was carrying more than what she needed.

"You need a stronger bag, Hermione," I pointed out, grabbing two and placing them in my bag for her.

"I know," Hermione panted.

“Why are you carrying all these around with you?” Ron asked her.

Hermione glanced up and glared at them irritably. “You know how many subjects I’m taking,” Hermione said breathlessly, shoving them back into their places. She then looked up at the boys angrily. “Couldn’t hold these for me, could you?”

“But -” Ron was turning over the books she had handed him, looking at the covers. “You haven’t got any of these subjects today. It’s only Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon,” he pointed out.

“Oh yes,” Hermione said vaguely, but she packed all the books back in to her bag just the same.

Knowing that Ron was getting suspicious, I glanced over at him. "It's called studying, Ron," I told him.

To my surprise, he glanced into my bag and narrowed his eyes when he saw that I was carrying my Ancient Runes books. "Why do you both have the Ancient Runes book? You only have Defense today," he pointed out.

"We're studying, Ron," I said shortly.

“I hope there’s something good for lunch, I’m starving,” Hermione added, grabbing me and marching off toward the Great Hall.

“D’you get the feeling Hermione and Tara aren't telling us something?” Ron asked Harry as we left.

But we were already gone. There was something massive that we weren't telling them but it was something that we couldn't afford to tell them. The two of us headed into the Great Hall and I seated myself next to Fred. He was reading over his own Care of Magical Creatures homework when I took a seat next to him, chatting softly about the class and how Hagrid was apparently very down these days, after being warned to be careful. The two of us sat together with the others until it was time for us to leave to go to class. It would be our first Defense lesson of the semester.

We were all chattering excitedly when the class started. I was more than a little annoyed to see that we shared this class with the Slytherin's, too. We seemed to share a number of our classes with them this year. Professor Lupin wasn’t there when we arrived at his first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. We all sat down, took out our books, quills, and parchment, and were deep into our own conversations when he finally entered the room. Professor Lupin smiled vaguely and placed his tatty old briefcase on the teacher’s desk. He was as shabby as ever but looked healthier than he had on the train, as though he had had a few square meals.

It made me happy to see that he was doing better. “Good afternoon. Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today’s will be a practical lesson. You will need only your wands,” Professor Lupin informed us.

A few curious looks were exchanged as the class put away our books. I jammed mine back into my bag before standing up and looking around at everyone else. No one seemed to know what we were doing. Despite two full years of having Defense classes, we had never had a practical Defense Against the Dark Arts class before, unless we decided to count the memorable class last year when Gilderoy Lockhart had brought a full cage of Cornish Pixies to class and set them loose.

"As long as we're not talking about Cornish Pixies," I muttered.

I'd thought that it was quiet enough for no one but Harry to hear me, but unfortunately I hadn't been as quiet as I thought that I was. "Cornish Pixies?" Professor Lupin asked, turning to me with a small smile.

"Long and very weird story," I answered bashfully.

Professor Lupin smiled at me. “Right then. If you’d follow me,” he said, once everyone was ready to leave.

The entire class was puzzled but also very interested. It meant that we all got to our feet anyways and followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom, the Gryffindor's in the lead. He led us along the deserted corridor and around a corner, where the first thing that we saw was Peeves the Poltergeist, who was floating upside down in midair and stuffing the nearest keyhole with chewing gum. I had been wondering when I would run into him. Peeves didn’t look up until Professor Lupin was two feet away; then he wiggled his curly-toed feet and broke into song.

“Loony, loopy Lupin. Loony, loopy Lupin, loony, loopy Lupin,” Peeves sang loudly.

He must have already known who Professor Lupin was. He usually took at least a few minutes to figure out a new song and dance routine to figure out what new song to sing to insult new staff. Rude and unmanageable as he almost always was, Peeves usually showed some respect toward the teachers. It was rather odd to hear him sing something like that to a teacher. Everyone looked quickly at Professor Lupin to see how he would take this; to my surprise, he was still smiling, as if he'd been expecting it.

“I’d take that gum out of the keyhole if I were you, Peeves. Mr. Filch won’t be able to get in to his brooms,” Professor Lupin said pleasantly.

Argus Filch was the Hogwarts caretaker, a bad-tempered, failed wizard who waged a constant war against the students and, indeed, Peeves, who was his least favorite inhabitant of Hogwarts Castle. Save me, perhaps. He was still angry from last year when he'd briefly thought that I had killed or Petrified Ms. Norris, his awful tabby cat. He had even tried to choke the life out of me. I still hadn't gotten over it. Peeves paid no attention to Professor Lupin’s words, except to blow a loud wet raspberry. Professor Lupin gave a small sigh and took out his wand.

"I wonder if Peeves was here when Professor Lupin was a student? Maybe that's why he's still being a jerk," I whispered to Hermione.

Professor Lupin turned back, shocking me. "As a matter of fact, he was," Professor Lupin told me.

How the hell had he still heard me? I was sure that I had been quieter than that. He had hearing like a damn cat. I leaned into Hermione's ear and whispered, "He's got stunningly good hearing."

"As a matter of fact, he does," Hermione said.

We were both staring sideways at Professor Lupin. His hearing was almost superhuman. “This is a useful little spell,” he told our class over his shoulder. “Please watch closely.” He raised the wand to shoulder height, said, “Waddiwasi!” and pointed it at Peeves.

It was a spell that I had never heard before. I wondered if it might have been something that he had come up with himself. There were plenty of spells that people created themselves. With the force of a bullet, the wad of chewing gum shot out of the keyhole and straight down Peeves’s left nostril; he whirled upright and zoomed away, cursing loudly. The entire class erupted into laughter, even the Slytherin's. It was no secret that the entire student body hated Peeves with all of their beings.

“Cool, sir!” Dean said in amazement.

“Thank you, Dean,” Professor Lupin said, putting his wand away again. “Shall we proceed?”

We set off again, the class looking at shabby Professor Lupin with increased respect. As we walked I thought about the letter that my parents had sent me the other day, once I'd told them how I was settling in. They had mentioned that his full name was Remus Lupin. The moment that I had read the letter, I'd nearly laughed. Someone in his family really liked wolves. Remus was essentially a reference to the mythological character of the same name, who was raised by wolves. And Lupin was a form of the Latin 'lupus', translating to the word 'wolf'.

There was something about his name that made me smile, and almost made me wonder if he might have had a werewolf somewhere in his family. There was a chance that he might have had one. His name could have been an homage to him. I had written back and forth to my parents and they had spoken to me about having Professor Lupin as our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. They had seemed thrilled and had admitted to me that they had gone to school together, mostly referring to him as Remus in our letters. It told me that they must have been close in their school days.

Our class walked through the empty corridor and I looked around. There wasn't a single soul in sight, although I knew that some of the upper-year students were hanging around during their free periods. I noticed that people were now whispering softly, wondering where we were supposed to be going. I turned towards Harry, who shrugged his shoulders. Professor Lupin eventually led us down a second corridor and stopped, right outside the staff room door. I only knew that it was the staff room because I'd been in once before.

“Inside, please,” Professor Lupin said, opening it and standing back.

Everyone walked inside and took their places. The staff room, a long, paneled room full of old, mismatched chairs, was empty except for one teacher. I glared darkly when I saw that Professor Snape was sitting in a low armchair, and he looked around as the class filed in. Of course he was here. I hoped that he wouldn't hang around. I didn't want anyone to be embarrassed by potentially messing up in front of him. His eyes were glittering and there was a nasty sneer playing around his mouth. Professor Lupin came in after everyone else and made to close the door behind him.

But Snape stopped him. “Leave it open, Lupin. I’d rather not witness this.” He got to his feet and strode past the class, his black robes billowing behind him. At the doorway he turned on his heel and said, “Possibly no one’s warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear.”

It wasn't just me - almost everyone grit their teeth in irritation. While the Slytherin's all began giggling at Snape's proclamation, all of the Gryffindor's began mumbling under their breath. Neville went scarlet at the statement. I turned and glared at Snape; it was bad enough that he bullied Neville in his own classes, let alone doing it in front of other teachers.

Professor Lupin had raised his eyebrows. “I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation, and I am sure he will perform it admirably,” he said.

A small smile fell over my face. I hated Snape more than most people in Hogwarts and it was nice to have someone to put him in his place. A sudden thought struck me. If my parents had known Professor Lupin - whom they had told me was their age - and they'd gone to school with Snape - as they had told me about how they hadn't gotten along - did that mean that Professor Lupin and Snape knew each other? Maybe this was a school rivalry that was lasting into adulthood. Neville’s face went, if possible, even redder. Snape’s lip curled, but he left, shutting the door with a snap.

It made me smirk down at the ground. I turned towards the other three and dropped my voice into the lowest whisper that it could go. "Do you get the feeling that they don't like each other very much?" I asked softly.

"I don't think that Snape likes anyone," Ron pointed out.

I raised my brows and nodded at him. "Fair point," I said.

“Now, then,” Professor Lupin said.

It broke our attention from the door that Snape had just vanished out of. I was glad that at least he was gone. I didn't want him here and making Neville even more nervous. Professor Lupin was beckoning the class toward the end of the room, where there was nothing but an old wardrobe where the teachers kept their spare robes. We had been forced to hide in it last year as we'd overheard the teachers telling each other that Ginny Weasley had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall.

A few people jumped backwards in alarm. I jumped slightly, but didn't back away. I trusted Professor Lupin to know what he was talking about. “Nothing to worry about. There’s a Boggart in there," Professor Lupin said.

Tilting my head back, I gave a small groan. We'd had a Boggart in Ilvermorny more than once. They were pretty commonly found in the States. In Ilvermorny we were forced to learn about them in our First Year, considering that there were so many of them. While many people feared them or at least became nervous around them, they merely annoyed me. Neville gave Professor Lupin a look of pure terror and Seamus eyed the now rattling doorknob apprehensively. When I was little they had turned into giant needles, a dentist, and briefly a garden snake.

It had been a long time since I had seen one, but I had a feeling that it would still annoy me. "Gross," I muttered.

Professor Lupin glanced up and smiled at me. “Gross indeed, Tara,' he agreed, turning back to the rest of the class. "Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces. Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I’ve even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice. So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a Boggart?”

I went to answer the question, but Professor Lupin gave me a look that was clearly asking me to let someone else answer it. Hermione put up her hand. “It’s a shape-shifter. It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most,” Hermione said.

“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” Professor Lupin said, making Hermione glow. “So the Boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a Boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears." Neville let out a small sputter of terror that Professor Lupin chose to ignore. This means that we have a huge advantage over the Boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?”

The way that he had spoken had clearly startled Harry. His head shot right up to look at Professor Lupin and his face drained of color. I snorted under my breath and forced myself to say nothing. I knew the answer but I didn't want to accidentally get him in trouble. Trying to answer a question with Hermione next to you was definitely nerve-wracking. She was bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet with her hand in the air, which must have been very off-putting for Harry, but he had a go.

“Er - because there are so many of us, it won’t know what shape it should be?” he half-asked and half-answered.

Turning towards Harry, I smiled. At least he was right. “Precisely." Hermione put her hand down, looking a little disappointed. “It’s always best to have company when you’re dealing with a Boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug? I once saw a Boggart make that very mistake - tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening. The charm that repels a Boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a Boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing. We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please... riddikulus!” Professor Lupin instructed.

“Riddikulus!” the class said together.

It made me smile. This would definitely be a fun lesson, considering that we had some very entertaining fears in between the students. "This class is ridiculous," Malfoy groaned from behind us.

Turning back to him, I rolled my eyes and spoke loudly enough for him to hear me but not loud enough for Professor Lupin to hear me. "Shut up, Malfoy. Upset that no one is paying attention to you anymore?" I asked.

Before he got the chance to say anything too nasty back to me, Professor Lupin continued speaking. “Good. Very good. But that was the easy part, I’m afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough," Professor Lupin said, earning the attention of the kids that looked quite fearful of the wardrobe. "And this is where you come in, Neville.”

Poor Neville looked like he might keel over and die at any given second. I felt a little bit bad for him. He looked absolutely terrified. I had a feeling that this was the last thing that he wanted to be doing. He probably thought that he was going to do terribly and the Boggart would kill him. But I had faith that he was going to do wonderfully. The wardrobe shook again, though not as much as Neville, who walked forward as though he were heading for the gallows. As he walked past me, I pat him reassuringly on the back.

He turned back to give me a weak smile before walking up to the wardrobe. “Right, Neville. First things first: what would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?” Professor Lupin asked.

He hesitated for a moment. The things that scared us most in the world... This could end up being a potentially very scary first class. But I was interested in seeing what Neville's worst fear was. He seemed to be frightened of a great deal of things. I wasn't sure if he would be able to pick out just one. Neville’s lips moved, but no noise came out.

“I didn’t catch that, Neville, sorry,” Professor Lupin said cheerfully.

Neville looked around rather wildly, as though begging someone to help him, then said, in barely more than a whisper, “Professor Snape.”

For a moment we all hesitated. I stared at him for a good few seconds before bursting out into laughter. It wasn't just me. The moment that I had let out a bark of laughter, nearly everyone else followed. Some of the Slytherin's laughed, but most of them were laughing antagonistically. The Gryffindor's thought that it was genuinely funny. If Neville was embarrassed, he didn't show it. Because even he grinned apologetically. Professor Lupin, however, looked thoughtful.

“Professor Snape..." Professor Lupin hummed thoughtfully. "Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?” he asked.

“Er - yes. But - I don’t want the Boggart to turn into her either,” Neville said quickly.

That made everyone smile. I'd never directly met Neville's grandmother, but I had seen her from a distance and she'd always looked frightening. “No, no, you misunderstand me,” Professor Lupin said, now smiling. “I wonder, could you tell us what sort of clothes your grandmother usually wears?”

Now I understood what he meant. He wanted to make the Boggart Snape end up in Neville's grandmother's clothes. It made me snort in amusement. Neville looked startled. “Well... always the same hat. A tall one with a stuffed vulture on top. And a long dress... green, normally... and sometimes a fox-fur scarf,” he explained.

“And a handbag?” Professor Lupin prompted.

“A big red one,” Neville said.

This ought to be good. “Right then. Can you picture those clothes very clearly, Neville? Can you see them in your mind’s eye?” Professor Lupin asked. A few people - mainly Pureblood's - were smirking.

“Yes,” Neville said uncertainty, plainly wondering what was coming next.

“When the Boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will assume the form of Professor Snape. And you will raise your wand - thus - and cry ‘Riddikulus’ - and concentrate hard on your grandmother’s clothes. If all goes well, Professor Boggart Snape will be forced into that vulture-topped hat, and that green dress, with that big red handbag,” Professor Lupin explained.

That time it didn't take a bark of laughter from me. We all started howling with laughter. Even the Slytherin's were chuckling softly. I noticed that even Professor Lupin's lips tilted upwards. I assumed that I was right about him not getting along with Snape during his own time at school. Maybe that was why he had picked Neville. Or maybe he just wanted to pick the underdog. Either way, he was already my favorite Defense teacher. The wardrobe wobbled more violently at the sound of our laughter.

“If Neville is successful, the Boggart is likely to shift his attention to each of us in turn. I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical,” Professor Lupin prompted.

The room went deathly still as everyone thought about their greatest fears. My mind went reeling at the thought of the things that scared me the most in the entire world. I wasn't really sure. What scares me the most in the world? My first thought came quickly with Lord Voldemort - a Voldemort that had returned to full strength. What could I do to make him funny? There literally wasn't a thing that I could think of that was funny about him. I didn't really even know what he looked like so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Before I had even managed to start to plan a possible counterattack on a Boggart Voldemort, a horrible thought hit me. There were other things that I was afraid of. I cringed when I remembered the feeling of the Basilisk chomping down on my thigh and tearing through the muscle. Before I could think of how to defeat a Basilisk Boggart, another image came floating to the surface of my mind. A rotting, glistening hand, slithering back beneath a black cloak. A long, rattling breath from an unseen mouth. A cold so penetrating it felt like drowning.

Maybe I could do a Dementor? I shivered, then looked around, hoping no one had noticed. Many people had their eyes shut tight. I wondered if Harry was thinking the same thing that I was. "I'm not sure that this sounds like fun anymore," I muttered under my breath.

"Voldemort... Dementor... Basilisk... I don't have anything that could be even mildly humorous," Harry admitted.

It turned out that we were thinking the same thing. "Me either," I whispered.

Ron was muttering to himself, “Take its legs off.”

Both Harry and I exchanged a small smile. I was sure that I knew what that was about. Ron’s greatest fear was spiders. We had seen just how badly he was afraid of spiders when we had accidentally been taken to Aragog the Acromantula's nest last year while we were on the hunt for the Chamber of Secrets. The entire time I was sure that he was going to die from fright.

“Everyone ready?” Professor Lupin asked.

No. As annoying as Boggarts were, when I was a kid I'd only been afraid of little things. But now I had real things to be afraid of. There were real and absolutely terrible things that I had encountered. I felt a lurch of fear in my stomach. Suddenly I knew that I wasn’t ready. How could I make a Dementor, Basilisk, or Voldemort less frightening? But I didn’t want to ask for more time; everyone else was nodding and rolling up their sleeves. But they had much less frightening fears.

Professor Lupin glanced at the cabinet and flicked his wand. I watched curiously as the door swung open and we were momentarily left in anticipation. It wasn't long before a rattlesnake emerged from the wardrobe. I cringed in disgust - which was obviously Parvati's fear as she was shaking in fear - as the rattlesnake slithered and writhed before us. But just a moment later it started to become confused. There was a loud crack and the Boggart became a single, bloody eyeball.

“It’s confused! We’re getting there! Dean!” Professor Lupin shouted.

Dean hurried forward at Professor Lupin's prompting. We all watched as there was another loud crack and the eyeball faded from sight. Just a second later the eyeball became a severed hand, which flipped over and began to creep along the floor like a crab. It was a little disgusting to see. I'd never seen someone take care of a Boggart with so many people around. It was fun watching the Boggart turn from creature to creature. I laughed as person after person moved forward to get their own turn with the Boggart.

“Riddikulus!” Dean yelled.

Once more everyone stepped back to watch what was going to happen with the Boggart. There was another very loud snap, and the hand was trapped in a mousetrap. There was exchanged giggles at the sight of the hand now locked in a furious battle with the mousetrap. I did want to ask Dean why he was afraid of a severed hand.

“Excellent! Ron, you next!” Professor Lupin yelled.

For a moment Ron hesitated. I knew that he didn't want to have to see the spider. But eventually Ron leapt forward. There was another crack before the trapped hand transformed again. Quite a few people screamed when they realized what it was. The Boggart had transformed into a giant spider, six feet tall and covered in hair. Many of the students in the class backed away in fear. I was one of the few that stood near it. There weren't that many people that still hadn't gone up against the Boggart. The spider was now advancing on Ron, clicking its pincers menacingly. For a fearful moment, I thought Ron had frozen.

“Riddikulus!” Ron managed to bellow.

The spider’s legs vanished as it hit the ground. Everyone laughed softly as it rolled over and over; Lavender Brown squealed and ran out of its way as it came to a halt at my feet. My heart lodged itself in my throat as I waited. Everyone fell silent to see what would happen. I raised my wand, ready to attack, but the Boggart took a long time to transform. For a while the legless spider merely looked up at me. It was like it was staring into my soul, which I imagined that it was. Whispers were starting to break out in the classroom.

My heart was beating rapidly as I waited to see what it would transform into. Professor Lupin looked like he was about to move forward to allow me to leave the Boggart, but it finally chose what to shift into. The Boggart transformed into a miniature version of the Basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets. The vast majority of the class screamed and ran off when they saw it. I raised my wand to get rid of it, but it shifted once more. It turned into something that I assumed was Voldemort - earning more screams - and flashed past as a Dementor briefly. There were lots of anxious watchers. It wasn't confused by everyone else. It was confused by me. Finally it chose what to turn into.

The sight that I saw made me stagger backwards. Unlike everyone else's, my Boggart didn't just shift into an inanimate object or an animal, my form of the Boggart had shifted into an entire scene. I was standing in a dark forest. No. It wasn't a forest. It was a graveyard... The same one from my recurring nightmare back in my First Year. But that wasn't what was causing the screams that now echoed in the classroom.

It was the fact that there was a fully-regenerated Voldemort standing next to me. His black robes were whipping around him with an invisible wind and he was smiling brightly. A large snake was curled around our feet, keeping the two of us close together. I stood next to Voldemort, looking happy and healthy, with a cruel stare in my eyes. I looked older than I was right now. Maybe around sixteen or seventeen. There was only one difference about myself. My eyes were no longer their typical brown with flecks of blue. No. They were red... Just like his.

Something else occurred to me at that moment. I realized with a terrified start that it was the same image that I had seen in the Mirror of Erised when confronting Professor Quirrell and Voldemort two years ago. It was the exact same thing that I had seen. But this time everyone was around to see it. My heart skipped a beat as I stared at it, the Boggart advancing as everyone else stepped back. The entire class had stopped screaming to watch the scene closely. How was this happening? They were all staring at me, obviously frightened. I raised my wand weakly.

"Come on, Tara! Don't let it get to you," Professor Lupin called, shattering the tense silence.

I gasped and nodded, walking forward to the Boggart. "R-Riddikulus!" I called, my voice shaking.

To my complete surprise, the spell had been strong enough that it worked, even despite the fact that the way that I said wasn't very clear. The Boggart shifted into a pair of four bouncing red balls, the only remainder of the scene that had just been before us. I wanted to pretend like things were over, but the damage had already been done. As Professor Lupin called for us to continue working on the Boggart I sank back into the crowd, noticing a few students backing away from me slightly. Even Malfoy was watching me with a hesitant face. Only Harry looked unperturbed.

“Here!” Professor Lupin shouted suddenly, hurrying forward.

There was another loud crack as the four bouncing balls vanished into thin air. We all glanced back and forth to see where it had gone. I leaned back against the stone wall and sank down slightly. For a second, everyone was looking wildly around to see where it was. We were all staring sideways to see what was going on now that the Boggart was facing down against Professor Lupin. Then I spotted it. Just above us, hovering near where Professor was standing, was a silvery-white orb hanging in the air.

“Riddikulus!” Professor Lupin called almost lazily. There was another crack as the Boggart landed on the floor as a cockroach. “Forward, Neville, and finish him off!”

There was another loud crack as the Boggart made a final transformation. I was making sure to stand back so that I didn't make that same scene, or anything of the likes, to reappear. The last thing that I wanted was for anyone else to see what was happening. I glanced around a few bodies to see that Snape was back. This time Neville charged forward looking determined.

“Riddikulus!” he shouted.

Despite everything that was happening, I did laugh at the split-second sight that I had of Snape in his lacy dress. The hat and bag were some of the funniest things that I had ever seen. It made not just me - but everyone standing around me - laugh. Neville let out a great bark of laughter at the sight, as the Boggart exploded, burst into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone.

“Excellent!” Professor Lupin cried as the class broke into applause. Even I was clapping, glad that the Boggart was gone. “Excellent, Neville. Well done, everyone... Let me see... five points to Gryffindor for every person to tackle the Boggart - ten for Neville because he did it twice... and five each to Hermione and Harry.”

The Slytherin's were the only ones that hadn't faced the Boggart and I grinned sideways. “But I didn’t do anything,” Harry said.

Professor Lupin glanced over at Harry and smiled. “You and Hermione answered my questions correctly at the start of the class, Harry. Very well, everyone, an excellent lesson. Homework, kindly read the chapter on Boggarts and summarize it for me... to be handed in on Monday. That will be all,” Professor Lupin said lightly, waving us off.

My smile had long since faded. I now felt a little bit sick to my stomach. I was one of the new people that hadn't reacted very well to the defeat of the Boggart, mostly because I was concerned about the form that it had taken. Talking excitedly, the class left the staff room. I knew that I wasn't the only one that was bothered. Harry was bothered because he hadn't gotten a chance with the Boggart. It had come close to him once and Professor Lupin had been sure to step in front of him and stop him. I almost wished that he had done the same with me.

“Did you see me take that banshee?” Seamus shouted excitedly.

“And the hand!” Dean added, waving his own around.

“And Snape in that hat!” Neville added.

“And my mummy!”

A beat passed as we exited the staff room that I heard someone else speak. “I wonder why Professor Lupin’s frightened of crystal balls?” Lavender asked thoughtfully.

Unfortunately they were the only ones that were talking about the Boggart. Everyone else was chatting away about the thing that my Boggart had transformed into. It made me sick to my stomach. Here came another year of people avoiding me like the plague because of something strange that had happened to me. As we headed towards the staircase to head into the Great Hall, a thought suddenly hit me, almost stopping me dead in my tracks. It wasn't a crystal ball... It was the moon. But why was he afraid of the moon? He couldn't be a... No. Of course not. That was silly.

Thankfully Ron's voice broke off my thoughts. “That was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson we’ve ever had, wasn’t it?” Ron asked excitedly as we made our way back to the classroom to get our bags.

"Fascinating. It was fun," I mumbled absentmindedly.

And it really had been fun until I'd seen my Boggart. Thankfully none of my friends said anything about it, probably because they knew how creeped out I was. “He seems like a very good teacher,” Hermione said approvingly. “But I wish I could have had a turn with the Boggart -”

“What would it have been for you? A piece of homework that only got nine out of ten?” Ron interrupted, sniggering.

Any other day I would have laughed. But right now there was something that I had to find out about. As I grabbed my bag, I turned back to the others. "I'll be right back," I told them.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked.

"Forgot something," I muttered.

It was very obvious that they didn't understand what I was talking about. They each opened their mouths to say something, but I walked off without giving them the chance to say anything else. Instead I shouldered my bag and darted off another one of the hallways before turning back and making a full circle back to the Defense classroom. I wanted to make sure that no one was in the classroom when I went back to speak to Professor Lupin. I knew that he would be there. I walked back into the classroom and headed towards the back, going upstairs where his office was, and walked in.

He was sitting behind his desk marking papers and glanced up at me with a smile as I walked in. "I had a feeling that you would be back," Professor Lupin said, placing down the parchment and quill.

"Sorry to be predictable," I said, laughing softly.

Professor Lupin smiled at me and motioned me forward. "Come in. Sit," he said. I walked forwards and shut the door behind me, taking a seat at one of the two chairs that were sitting in front of his desk. Professor Lupin waved his wand and a thermos appeared out of thin air. "Coffee?"

Arching an eyebrow, I nodded sweetly at him. "Yes, please," I said, watching as he poured both of us cups. "I think that you're the only Englishman that I've met that prefers coffee to tea."

Professor Lupin glanced up at me, swirling one of his sugar cubes around in the cup. "Actually I do prefer tea. But Professor Dumbledore tells me that you prefer coffee," he said, giving me a pointed look.

Smiling awkwardly, I nodded. I guessed that it really was easy to tell that I was an American. "Professor Dumbledore, as usual, is correct. Comes from being raised mostly in the States, I suppose. Fun fact, John Adams declared tea a traitor's drink. You know, the whole Revolutionary War. He said that tea must be universally renounced. There was an unofficial boycott on tea in the British Colonies so people united and vowed only to drink coffee," I said, unable to stop myself from babbling, considering that I was so nervous.

Professor Lupin smiled at me as I began to sip from the coffee mug. "I see that you paid attention in your Muggle history classes," Professor Lupin said.

In all honesty, I hadn't really liked my history classes in Muggle school. But I did enjoy reading the textbooks when I was out of class and didn't need to listen to my teachers drone on. "I did. I've always liked history. Magical and Muggle," I said honestly.

Professor Lupin smiled as I took a long gulp of the coffee. "I assume that you didn't come for a cup of coffee," he said.

And he was completely right. "No, although I do appreciate it," I said happily, placing the mug back on his desk. "I actually came to ask you about the Boggart. I know that you can't tell me why I'm afraid of... that." My gaze dipped as my voice trailed off. Professor Lupin nodded at me to continue. "But I wanted to know if it's at all possible to be afraid of something that you deeply desire?"

Professor Lupin sat for a moment and gazed up at the ceiling. He looked back down and nodded at me. "As a matter of fact, I believe that makes perfect sense. To desire something is to fear something else. Once we have what it is that we desire more than anything else, where is there to go? We've gotten exactly what we wanted. It becomes a fear of the unknown. We must learn to find something new to strive for," he said, very reasonably.

But there was something different about what had happened to me. "But to want something and fear it?" I asked.

Professor Lupin shook his head. "It's not uncommon to want something and fear it," he told me.

The fear that I saw looked like I wanted to be Voldemort's right-hand woman. I would never want that. I wanted him dead and gone, for good. "I don't want that - What you saw," I said quickly.

"I believe you."

And the way that he was looking at me told me that he really did believe me. "I don't want to be loyal to Voldemort and his creepy pet snake." The corner of Professor Lupin's lips tilted upwards. "I don't want him to come back and I certainly don't want to ever really meet him," I continued.

At this point I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince myself or him. "I believe you, Tara. I do," Professor Lupin reassured me.

"You're the only person that will, save some of the Gryffindor's. Unfortunately no one else ever believes that I'm not crazy," I said, earning a soft chuckle from Professor Lupin. "You know, every year that we're here in Hogwarts, something happens and the entire school ends up trying to avoid me or hate me."

Professor Lupin's brows furrowed. "How's that?" he asked.

"Well there's always something that ends up making me look terrible. Two years ago I got two hundred and five points taken away from Gryffindor in one night, losing up the House Cup - until we got it back later," I said.

A bark of laughter escaped Professor Lupin's mouth. He shook his head and leaned back in his chair. "I think you may even have your father beaten for the most points ever lost," he told me.

My brows knitted together. "Did you know my father?" I asked.

Professor Lupin took a deep breath before nodding. "Very well, as a matter of fact. We were dorm mates in our years here at Hogwarts," he admitted. My jaw nearly dropped. That was why Mom and Dad had seemed so happy to hear about my new Defense teacher. They knew him. "I knew both your father and your mother. Wonderful people, both of them."

There was a small smile written across my face. "I didn't know that. But I did write them on the first day and tell them all about what was going on. They seemed to know you by the way that they were writing to me," I said.

"We knew each other well."

"Anyways, in my Second Year the school found out that Harry and I were Parselmouths."

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I was definitely expecting him to react. But he didn't. Professor Lupin merely nodded thoughtfully. "Yes. Your parents mentioned that," he said.

Obviously there was something that I was missing here. "Have you been in contact with my parents?" I asked.

"On and off for many years," Professor Lupin admitted.

"Why haven't I ever met you?"

Professor Lupin smiled softly at me, refilling my mug. "We felt it best that until certain... issues had been ironed out, it was best that you were left only in the care of your parents," he said.

Issues? What kind of issues were there? The Wizarding War? It had ended by the time that I was two. There were lots of things to be cleaned up, but they could have at least introduced me. Professor Lupin seemed like a wonderful man. I would have liked to meet him earlier in my life. But that was when I remembered the picture that I had been given last year. The picture of my parents with Harry's, the day that I was born. There were three men standing in the background. My father, James, potentially Professor Lupin, and two others. Could they have been the five dorm mates from their year?

"I have a picture of me the day that I was born. My Mom and Dad are in the photo with me, obviously, and James and Lily are standing by the bed. There are three men in the corner of the picture, not quite visible. You're one of them, aren't you?" I asked, hoping that I wasn't overstepping my bounds.

Professor Lupin smiled fondly. "I believe I am," he admitted. There was something a little bit funny at the thought that my teacher had been present the day that I was born. "You were very young when I moved and didn't see your parents again for many years. I hear you're quite the Quidditch player. Like your father?"

I nodded excitedly. "Yes, sir. Alternate Chaser right now since all of the main positions were filled during my First Year," I said proudly.

Professor Lupin chuckled softly. I got the feeling that he wasn't a player, but likely enjoyed the game. "Your father did relay to me how you'd gotten on the team. He was very proud. I look forward to seeing you in your first game," Professor Lupin said. I smiled brightly, hoping that I wouldn't disappoint. "Harry, too. He's on the team as well, isn't he?"

"Seeker."

"Impressive. Both of you."

"Thank you, sir."

We sat in a brief silence, drinking the cups of coffee. I stared out the window for a moment before Professor Lupin spoke again. "What did you mean about desiring something?" he asked.

"Two years ago..." I trailed off, realizing that admitting all of the rules that I'd broken might not be such a good idea.

Even Dumbledore didn't know everything that we had done to find the Stone. "If Professor Dumbledore didn't expel you for whatever it is that you did, I certainly can't," Professor Lupin said, sensing my hesitation.

Laughing softly, I nodded and launched into the entire explanation. "Two years ago we found out that someone was trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, which was being protected here in the castle. We found out where it was and how to get to it. Past all of the traps and riddles that the teachers had laid out. We ended up meeting Voldemort - disguised in the back of our old Defense professors head - down in the dungeons. Professor Dumbledore had hidden the Stone inside something called the Mirror of Erised.

It shows us what we most desire in the entire world. Voldemort told me to look at it. And I did. And I saw the same thing that the Boggart turned into today. In my Sorting two years ago, the Sorting Hat told me that it didn't want to put me in Gryffindor. It wanted to put me in Slytherin. It told me that I had a great darkness inside of me. A desire for power. But... I can't have a great darkness in me. I can't. Earlier this week in Divination Professor Trelawney read my tea leaves and I still think she's nuts but she saw treachery, bad news, evil influences, admiration... She even saw the Grim," I explained.

"Have you seen a Grim?" Professor Lupin asked.

For a moment I hesitated. Maybe it wasn't a wise choice to say that I'd seen a black dog. But I eventually decided that withholding the truth wouldn't help my cause. "Well... I've seen a big black dog wandering the neighborhood that I live in. It comes near me but it never actually lets me pet it. I think it's a male," I muttered.

Something sparked in Professor Lupin's eyes. But it wasn't fear, it was more of a curiosity. "A big black dog?" he asked.

"Yeah. It looks a little bit like a German Shepard but it's huge. I thought that it was just a stray but -"

"Don't worry yourself," Professor Lupin interrupted, smiling reassuringly at me. "There are stray dogs all over the place. Remember that Divination is a very imprecise branch of magic."

That was what everyone was saying, but there was still something bothering me. In fact, the Grim really didn't bother me at all. "I know... But the Mirror of Erised and the Sorting Hat and now the Boggart," I mumbled.

Professor Lupin leaned forward slightly. "Would you like to know what I think?" he asked.

"I would love that," I said honestly.

"There are many people that have been under the Sorting Hat since the beginning of Hogwarts. And I've found that the Sorting Hat never listens to requests unless it believes that these people show qualities of the House that they request," Professor Lupin said.

There was a time that Dumbledore had said almost the exact same thing to reassure both Harry and me. "Professor Dumbledore told me something similar," I said.

"The Sorting Hat wouldn't have placed you in Gryffindor unless it thought that you were capable of being there."

And I knew that. I knew that I had enough Gryffindor traits about myself, but there were clearly some Slytherin traits that I possessed too. "But what it said about me. Could that really be true?" I asked weakly.

Professor Lupin folded his arms and knitted his fingers together. I felt my heart lodge itself in my throat. "It could be, but I have a feeling that it isn't. Not all fears mean so explicitly what we think that they do. I believe that your fear is one of them. Perhaps not as black-and-white as it appears," he told me.

Maybe that was the truth, but it still bothered me that I should have been in Slytherin. "If I hadn't asked to be in Gryffindor, I'd be in Slytherin right now," I admitted glumly.

"Perhaps. But do you know why it placed you in Gryffindor?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Because I asked?"

Professor Lupin smiled and nodded. "Precisely. You were brave enough to ask. I once had a friend that came from a long line of Slytherin's. He didn't want to be there. But he was resigned to his fate. He ended up being placed in Gryffindor. It was shocking to him and his family. He made himself out to be quite a wonderful Gryffindor for many years," he explained.

There was a small smile on my face until the very end. He had been a wonderful Gryffindor. Had something happened? "Did something happen to him?" I asked cautiously.

Professor Lupin let out a soft breath. "Yes. But, as I said, he made the perfect example for many years. I suppose that my point is that we can listen to what fate wants to tell us," he continued, changing the subject. "You can go after the fate that the Mirror of Erised proposed to you. Or you can make a new one for yourself. Fear in necessary in life. But to move on you must learn to grow past it and never let it consume you. From what I see where I'm sitting, you make quite the Gryffindor."

It was nice to hear that he thought that I was the perfect example of a Gryffindor, but I wasn't always so sure. "I'm a Parselmouth, I lost two hundred and five points in one night, I have a blatant disregard for the rules, and I seem to get detentions left and right," I deadpanned.

"So you simply know another language. Did you know that Professor Dumbledore can understand Parseltongue?" Professor Lupin asked. My jaw dropped. I'd had absolutely no idea. "He can't speak it, but he can understand it."

"I didn't know that," I muttered dumbly.

"Very few do. I hear that you lost two hundred and five points because you were attempting to lead a dragon that had been rescued by your friend Hagrid off of school grounds to a better life with you friend Ron's brother. You lied and took the blame for yourself to attempt to keep your friends out of trouble," Professor Lupin said, making me smile. "You found your way onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team because you were standing up for a friend.

"You may have broken rules to get down into the dungeons, but you saved many lives in the process. You may have broken even more rules to find the Chamber of Secrets, but you once more ended up saving many lives. I had many friends - including your father - get detentions at least twice a week. I believe your friends, Fred and George, are very similar in this manner. I doubt they'll become Dark Wizards, just the way that I doubt you will be. Did you hear everything that I just said?" he asked.

"Yes, sir."

And he was right about everything, as much as I didn't want to admit it. "Does that person sound brave to you?" Professor Lupin asked, only furthering his point.

"They sound like they don't think very much before doing what they do," I said, earning a small smile, "but they do sound brave."

Professor Lupin laughed under his breath. "Those tend to be the defining traits of a Gryffindor," he said.

"Thank you, sir."

Professor Lupin nodded. "You're very welcome. You're a bright girl, Tara. You think a great deal. Sometimes that's a very good thing. Other times, not so much. Remember, you're young. Enjoy this time of your life. Before you know it, it'll be over," he said.

He was very right about that. I'd always had a terrible habit of overthinking everything. "Thank you." I was about to leave when I remembered something. "Can I ask you something else?" I asked.

"Certainly."

"Why didn't you let Harry have a turn with the Boggart?"

If my question had surprised him, he didn't let it show. Professor Lupin merely smiled softly at me. "Because I knew that the Boggart would either turn into Voldemort or a Dementor," Professor Lupin said.

My jaw nearly dropped. I had said Voldemort's name a few times, but there were a number of people that didn't mind hearing it. My parents were some of the few that didn't mind hearing it. But even they rarely said it. Dumbledore, Harry, myself, and my parents were the only people that I'd ever heard say his name aloud. Professor Lupin smiled at me, probably well aware that his use of the name had shocked me. No one ever used the name. Of course, if my parents said it and they were friends, I shouldn't have been that surprised.

"And I didn't think that either one of those would be suitable for class," Professor Lupin continued. "To be fair, I should have realized that you might have had a very similar fear. I apologize."

A small smile appeared on my face. I knew that he hadn't thought about it. "Apology accepted. At least now everyone knows what a Basilisk looks like," I said, earning an earnest laugh from Professor Lupin.

"I hear that you found yourself in a fight with one."

How much had Mom and Dad been talking with Professor Lupin? Apparently quite a bit. "And won. Nearly got my leg torn off, but we still won," I said proudly.

Professor Lupin smiled and took up my coffee mug. "Take it easy on your mother this year. Julia is a dear friend and I do believe that every year you're putting her a little bit closer to a heart attack," he said, his eyes shining.

We both laughed softly. I knew that Mom was beside herself with everything that I did. But I would try to be good this year. "I'll keep that in mind. I'm so sorry. I'm treating you like a psychologist and that's not what you're here for," I said, suddenly realizing that we had gotten far off track of what I had originally come in here to talk about.

"It's quite alright, Tara. I'm here to help in whatever way I can," Professor Lupin said, smiling reassuringly at me.

"Thank you."

Professor Lupin nodded and stood from the chair. I took it as a sign to do the same. "You should run along. We've been here for some time and it's getting close to dinner," he pointed out.

Glancing up at the clock, I realized that he was right. It was almost time to head down to dinner. "Thank you, for everything, Professor," I said.

"You're welcome, Tara. I'll see you in class," he said.

Professor Lupin smiled and walked me out of the room. He closed the door gently behind me and I smiled, heading down the stairs and walking out of the Defense classroom. I walked out into the hallway and tilted my head backwards. I let out a soft breath as I tossed my bag back over my shoulder and started towards the Great Hall. My stomach was starting to rumble and I groaned, far past ready for dinner. I felt much better than I did an hour ago. There were still concerns about what the Boggart had turned into, but I did feel much better. I still knew that that people would be weary of me for weeks to come.

As I rounded another corner towards the Great Hall, I ran straight into someone, dropping my bag. I glanced up and saw that it was Cedric, who was leaning down to grab all of my things. My books had gone flying across the hallway along with some of my other things. I stood with my arms crossed, watching him with a small smile.

"Why is it that you must tackle me every time we see each other?" I asked teasingly as he walked back up to me with my bag.

"Cute," Cedric teased, handing me back my bag. "Where were you coming from?"

He was looking around to see where the rest of my friends were. We were the only two in the hallway. "Defense Against the Dark Arts. Kind of," I said quickly, when I realized how confused he looked. "I was in a meeting with Professor Lupin. I wanted to talk about class today."

Cedric smiled and nodded. "Ah. How are you liking him?" he asked.

Smiling brightly, I leaned back against the wall with Cedric. "He's wonderful. The best Defense professor that I've seen," I said honestly.

Cedric nodded. "I agree. We were practicing the Stunning Spell and sending each other flying all over the staff room. I think that we ended up breaking a few of the chairs, but it was fun," he explained, making me laugh at the images that were popping up in my head.

"It sounds like fun," I said, grinning at the thought of him being thrown backwards through a wooden chair.

We stood together for a moment before Cedric placed a hand behind my back, walking me towards the Great Hall. "What did you do today?" Cedric asked.

"Battled a Boggart," I mumbled, slightly irritably.

As much as I did like Professor Lupin and as interested as I was in his Defense class, I didn't like looking like the freak that was afraid of becoming Voldemort's right-hand woman. Cedric smiled at me. I assumed that he had learned about Boggarts from Professor Quirrell (Voldemort) but had never faced one himself.

"Fun. Did you get to go up against it?" Cedric asked.

"I did," I said, trying to brush off any conversation about what I'd seen. "Neville ended up beating it, you know?"

Cedric looked a little bit surprised. He - like everyone else - knew that Neville was mostly a disaster when it came to classes. "That's wonderful for him. I know how tense things can be with Neville. He's a good student, he just needs some confidence," Cedric said. I nodded blankly at him. "But you don't sound very happy about the Boggart. Something happen?"

It just showed how well Cedric knew me. He could tell by the way that I was acting or speaking, whether or not I was okay. "Doesn't something always happen?" I asked, laughing bitterly.

Cedric smiled too. "Fair point. Tell me," he said. I clamped my jaws together. As much as I knew that he wouldn't, I didn't want him to think that I was a freak. "Come on, tell me."

Cedric's hand was on my shoulder and I sighed, leaning into him slightly. "Well I suppose that I have to start with what happened two years ago. When we met Quirrell and Voldemort down in the dungeons, he was standing near the Mirror of Erised. Remember me telling you about it?" I asked, remembering our conversation once I'd been released from the hospital wing.

Obviously he remembered it too. "Yeah. And I remember what you saw in it," Cedric said, his voice lowering slightly.

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. "That was what the Boggart turned into for me. But I didn't understand what it meant, to have something that I feared above all else but also desired more than anything. It didn't make sense. That's where I was. I was talking to Professor Lupin about it," I explained, flippantly waving back towards his office.

Cedric sighed and stopped us where we were. He turned towards me and grabbed my wrist, entwining our fingers. "Boggarts are nasty creatures, Tara. Don't worry about it," he said.

Before I could stop myself, I said, "You're too nice to me."

Cedric looked like I had slapped him. "Excuse me?" he asked.

For a moment I wished that I hadn't said it. But I did mean what I had said. And that was why I explained myself. "Just what I said, you're too nice to me. With everything that happens and everything that I manage to drag you into. You should be losing your mind by now. And I spend most of our time together complaining about how complicated my life is. You could be around your fellow Hufflepuff's talking about classes and instead you're here listening to me question why a Boggart turned into me respecting and following a fully-regenerated Voldemort," I said, feeling a little guilty.

He had no reason to be here. He should have been allowed to enjoy himself. But he was always listening to me and my insane problems. Cedric smiled and pressed a kiss against my hairline. "But yet I'm here anyways," he pointed out.

But why was he here anyways? Did he really like me that much? "I -"

"Right, wrong, or indifferent, you are one of my best friends, despite all of that," Cedric interrupted.

The corners of my lips turned upwards. For all of the terrible things that I did around him, he seemed to always be happy to have me around. "Well I'll always be glad for your friendship," I said, feeling a little bitter.

More recently I had found myself wanting more from the friendship. It wasn't surprising, considering that I was almost fourteen and had had a crush on him for almost three years. "You know that you'll always have it. No matter what. You mean the world to me," Cedric said, making me blush again.

"You mean the world to me, too," I muttered. We started walking back towards the Great Hall and I cleared my throat, looking back at him. "How's studying for your O.W.L.'s coming?"

Cedric threw back his head and laughed. There was something in his laugh that sounded a little bit hysterical. I smiled, feeling very bad for him. "I think that I'm slowly losing my mind. I'm looking forward to being able to go to Hogsmeade for a few hours just to get out of the castle," he said, glancing around at the walls.

My spine straightened a little. "Is the first trip coming up soon?" I asked.

Cedric nodded. "Yes. Should be around Halloween," he said.

"I'm so excited for it!"

"Are you going?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

Cedric coughed awkwardly and ran his hands back through his hair. "Well..." he trailed off.

I was no fool. I knew that he, like everyone else, was afraid of having me out and about with Sirius Black out and looking for me. "Let me guess. Sirius Black?" I asked irritably.

Not that it was his fault. I knew that he was concerned for my well-being. "I just don't want anything to happen to you out there," Cedric said.

And as much as I liked knowing that he cared for my safety, I was bull-headed and I felt myself bristle slightly. I could manage myself just fine. "I appreciate your concern but there are going to be over a thousand witches and wizards out there, many of them being fully trained. Black would be a fool to attack me out there," I said determinedly.

"He's mad," Cedric reasoned.

"But not a moron," I put in.

Cedric sighed and I grinned at him. This was what I meant about the ways that I managed to drive him out of his mind. "There wouldn't be any way of talking you out of this?" he asked me.

"You'd be wasting your breath," I said honestly.

Cedric merely laughed. "Of course." The two of us went back to walking towards the Great Hall. Now I could hear voices drifting down the hallway. "Are you going with your friends?" Cedric finally asked.

Was that his way of officially asking me if I wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him? I couldn't tell. "They haven't even said when the first Hogsmeade weekend was so no one has really talked about it yet. I'd be going with Ron and Hermione. We're reasonably sure that Harry can't go," I said sadly.

Cedric frowned slightly. "That's too bad for Harry," he said.

And it really was. He would have gotten that stupid form signed if Marge Dursley wasn't such a horrible person. "I'll pick him up something so that at least he kind of feels like he got out there," I said.

"That's sweet of you. You'll be going with Ron and Hermione then?" he asked.

I knew what he was doing. It was the same thing that I did. He was nonchalantly fishing for information. "Unless I get a better offer," I teased, turning to look at him with a knowing smile.

"What would be a better offer?" Cedric asked.

"I'll let you know," I said vaguely.

"I'm sure that you'll get a better one at some point," he said.

"Maybe once someone can make the first move."

The two of us stopped walking as I gave him a very pointed stare. He smiled at me and I felt my heart pound in his chest. I really liked him and I was sick of waiting for one of us to make the first move. So I finally decided that I was going to make the first move. I just wanted to see if we were destined to be something more than friends, or if we were better off as just friends.

"Would I be a better offer?" Cedric asked.

My stomach fluttered slightly. "Give it a try," I said.

It made me feel lighter than air, knowing that we were finally going to give it a try. "Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me? Whenever the first weekend is," he asked, making me smile.

Play it cool, Tara. "We could do that, I suppose," I said nonchalantly.

"Great."

"Thanks for finally making the first move," I teased.

"Thanks for forcing it." We both smiled as we headed back towards the Great Hall. My stomach rumbled slightly as we walked. I was starving. "Hungry?" Cedric asked teasingly.

"Yeah. I have this weirdo that keeps talking to me, keeping me away from dinner," I said.

We both laughed at that. "He sounds like a jerk," Cedric said.

I laughed and gently shoved into him. "He's not half-bad."

Cedric gave me a long smile. "What do you say we get some food in you?" he offered.

"I say that's a damn good idea."

We smiled at each other as we walked into the Great Hall. I blushed slightly as all heads turned towards us and whispers started breaking out around the students. "I'll see you around, Tara?" Cedric asked, before heading towards the Hufflepuff table.

Trying desperately to avoid the scathing glares from my friends, I turned towards Cedric and nodded. "I would certainly hope so. Honestly I don't know how you go so long without seeing me. I'm a joy to be around," I teased.

We both laughed once more. "Yes, you are. Which is why I'll be seeing you soon," Cedric said.

"See you later, Cedric."

"Bye, Tara," he said, doing nothing more than giving me a tiny hug.

It was definitely because everyone was watching us closely. Almost everyone was already at dinner. It probably didn't look good that I had been gone for an hour and I was just coming to dinner with Cedric and no one else. I merely blushed and waved off Cedric, going and joining my friends. It was a long dinner where everyone was trying to ask me what had happened and where I'd been followed by my attempting to say that I was just asking Professor Lupin about our assignment on Boggarts. I was also trying very hard to avoid Fred and George making kissy faces at me for the entire dinner.

As we walked out of the Great Hall, I grabbed Hermione and yanked her off to the side slightly. "Where were you two?" Hermione asked, before I could say anything.

"Just talking. But the first Hogsmeade weekend should be coming up around Halloween," I said.

"Wonderful! It should be exciting," Hermione said happily.

I nodded my agreement, making sure that the boys couldn't hear me. "It might just be you guys going," I admitted softly.

"You aren't going?" Hermione asked confusedly.

Blushing softly, I shook my head. "No. I'll be going. But Cedric just asked me if I would go with him. Granted I had to kind of goad him into it, but he did ask me," I said.

Hermione's head snapped up and a wide grin spread over her face. "What happened? Tell me!" she shouted excitedly.

Her sudden shout made Ron and Harry turn back to see what had happened. "I'll tell you everything later," I whispered.

We managed our way up to Gryffindor Tower, myself trying to ignore Hermione's sideways grin. I was sitting in one of the overstuffed arm chair, finally having won it from Fred. We had been fighting over a seat in it for hours. I was bouncing back and forth between doing my Arithmancy, Charms, Transfiguration, Divination, Ancient Runes, and Defense homework that I had. I was just lucky that Music, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy, and Ancient Studies, didn't have much homework yet. I was halfway through my essay on Animagi when my head shot up as I remembered something.

"Oh, Merlin, I just realized something!" I whisper-shouted eagerly.

Everyone glanced up. "What?" Ron asked.

He, Hermione, and Harry were sitting with me around the fireplace. "When I first met Malfoy in Twilfitt and Tatting's before the start of our First Year, our parents were the ones that greeted each other first. When Mom met up with Malfoy's, she called her Narcissa Black, rather than Malfoy," I explained.

The comment obviously went over Ron and Harry's heads. But Hermione, as usual, caught the connection. "You think Black is Malfoy's uncle?" she asked.

Now Ron and Harry knew what I was talking about. "No. I know enough to know that she only had one sister. Bellatrix Lestrange, nee Black - the Death Eater," I explained. Harry and Hermione were staring blankly at me, but Ron blanched. "I'm thinking he might have been her cousin. The Black's are a very old and noble house. Large, too. If anyone knows all about Black and his past, it would be Malfoy. Of course his father would have told him all about it."

We were all remembering Malfoy's comment in Potions. He knew something that we didn't. And, if Black was family, that would be why. "So you think that he really knows something?" Harry asked.

"I think so," I said softly.

The last thing that we needed was people overhearing our conversation. "How do we get it out of him?" Harry asked excitedly.

Perhaps even more than me, Harry wanted to know what Malfoy was talking about. "We can't," I said, particularly motioning to Harry and Ron. "But I think I can."

"How? He hates you," Ron pointed out.

To my surprise, it was Hermione. "No, he doesn't," she interrupted, finally putting down her book.

"Yes, he does," Ron argued.

I sat back and let them argue it out. Hermione would make the points that I was going to. "You've never noticed that Tara's really the only one of us that he doesn't regularly insult? He's allowed her to throw water on him and hit him without retaliating. He might not like her but he certainly likes her more than the rest of us. If anyone can get it out of him, she can. You've seen how strange their relationship is," she pointed out wisely.

Ron was merely staring at her blankly and there was a sour look on Harry's face. "She makes a valid point. I think I can manage to get it out of him. I don't know how yet, but I'll figure it out," I said honestly.

There had to be a way for me to get him to tell me what he knew. Maybe if I was nice to him for a while. As much as it would pain me, I wanted to know what Malfoy was talking about. We deserved to know. And whatever he knew had to be accurate. As much as I hated Lucius Malfoy, I knew that he knew what he was talking about. Hopefully I would manage to weasel it out of Malfoy in the coming weeks, before things got much worse with Black's escape.

"You don't think that Malfoy... likes you?" Ron asked, shattering the thoughtful silence.

"No!" Harry and I yelled at the same time.

I turned towards him and furrowed my brows. "Why are you saying no?" I asked.

"Because you're my sister and I'll kill him if that little creep gets anywhere near you," he snarled.

"Thanks, brother," I teased.

We all laughed as we went back to our homework. There wasn't much that we would be able to do until I could figure out what to do about Malfoy and getting the secret of Black out of him. I would be able to do it, it would just take me time. I was confident about that. As I laid out my Transfiguration essay, I laid back in the chair and began checking it over. It had definitely been a strange day and I was sure that it would continue to be a strange year, as usual, but there was actually something keeping me excited about this year.


	44. Flight of the Fat Lady

In no time at all, Defense Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favorite class. Even after the Boggart debacle, he remained one of my favorite professors that we'd ever had. He was certainly my favorite Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. And that was for far more than the fact that our parents had been friendly. It was good to say that even the kids had since forgotten about my incident with the Boggart, considering that Professor Lupin had taught us so many other interesting things. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherin's had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.

"Look at the state of his robes. He dresses like our old house elf," Malfoy would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin would pass in the halls.

He had been cruder than usual over the past few weeks and I couldn't understand why. Maybe it was because Hagrid hadn't been fired yet. Ron's comment about Malfoy potentially liking me had caused a big stir with Harry, who was now a little more protective of me than normal. And it had caused me to watch my mouth around Malfoy a little more recently. He must have noticed, since he was no longer throwing insults around at me. It was almost strange, the way that we were managing to get along these days.

It also helped that whenever he started to go off on his tangent, I tried to remind myself that he would have been different had he been brought up around anyone other than Lucius Malfoy, who was an absolutely horrible human being. I also knew enough to know that he wasn't really a normal child. He was always trying to prove himself. At least no matter what I did, I had a family that loved me. He hadn't exactly been brought up in the best of circumstances, but that didn't change the fact that he had always been a real jerk about things. This year would be no different.

We were heading towards Defense Against the Dark Arts as a large group when he'd insulted Professor Lupin this time. I turned back to him and narrowed my gaze. "Incredible how money still doesn't buy class," I snarled, just loud enough for him to hear me.

Despite trying to hold it in, I'd been unable to do it. Malfoy whipped back towards me as the noise in the hallway dropped. "What was that, Nox?" Malfoy asked, ignoring the people who were watching.

"You heard me," I snapped.

Before Malfoy could say anything, Hermione grabbed my wrist and yanked me towards her. "Don't you want him to tell you what he knows about Black?" she hissed in my ear.

"Yes," I started, "but -"

"So play nice. Don't rise to his bait," Hermione warned.

And she was completely right. But that didn't mean that I wanted to admit it. "Whatever," I growled under my breath.

Unwilling to say anything more, I allowed Hermione to yank me away from Malfoy and towards our next class. In the meantime we passed back through the the Defense Against the Dark Arts hallway and I smiled at Professor Lupin as he passed. He gave me one in return, stopping to speak to a few other students. It was good considering that Malfoy always had something nasty to say about Professor Lupin. But no one else cared that Professor Lupin's robes were patched and frayed.

His next few lessons ended up being just as interesting as the first. After Boggarts, we went and studied Red Caps; they were nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed. We talked about their appearances in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had gotten lost. I'd even wondered if now we might have had some Red Caps in the dungeons or the Chamber of Secrets, considering what had happened to Harry and I there over the past two years. From Red Caps we had moved on to Kappas; they were creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds. They reminded me a bit of Grindylow's.

Despite how amusing Defense Against the Dark Arts was this year, I only wished that I was as happy with some of my other classes. As interesting as Ancient Studies was, it also kept me very busy. It was like having another History of Magic class. Arithmancy was also rather fun. Hermione seemed to like it too, considering that she was so good with numbers. Professor Vector was very strict and loved homework, but it took a lot of work to be able to actually make good marks. So far Hermione and I were the top students in the class. We also had Study of Ancient Runes, which wasn't too difficult, but Professor Babbling gave a large amount of homework. Best was Music, which was very little homework, but I loved being able to sing without bothering anyone.

None of those were anywhere near as bad as the worst class that we had. Worst of all - as always - was Potions. Snape was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one was in any doubt why. The story of the Boggart assuming Snape's shape, and the way that Neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, had traveled through the school like wildfire. Snape didn't seem to find it funny, despite the fact that everyone else, including the Slytherin's, thought that it was funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.

Just like Harry, I was also growing to dread the hours that I spent in Professor Trelawney's stifling tower room, deciphering lopsided shapes and symbols, trying to ignore the way Professor Trelawney's enormous eyes filled with tears every time she looked at either one of us. I couldn't like Professor Trelawney, even though she was treated with respect that was bordering on reverence by many of the class. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had taken to haunting Professor Trelawney's tower room at lunch times, and always returned with annoyingly superior looks on their faces, as though they knew things the others didn't. They had also started using hushed voices whenever they spoke to Harry r me, as though we were on our deathbed. It had led to me not speaking to them much.

Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures. It was something that really was upsetting, considering how excited Hagrid had been once he'd first heard about becoming a teacher. Unfortunately Care of Magical Creatures had, after the action-packed first class, become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence after Buckbeak the Hippogriff had attacked Malfoy. We were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence. I hadn't even known that they were actual creatures until the second class.

Although I did vaguely remember Mom telling me a little bit about them. "Why would anyone bother looking after them?" Ron asked, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the flobberworms' throats.

"Because they are useful," I muttered.

Ron's head snapped towards me. "How?" he asked.

They were used mostly to thicken potions, since we did use them a fair amount now in Potions with Snape. I turned towards Ron and rolled my eyes. "Honestly, do you ever open your book?" I asked dully.

"That's what I have you for," Ron teased, nudging me.

I laughed under my breath and shoved him away from me. "That's what you'll say until you get a T on your O.W.L.'s because you couldn't copy Hermione and I," I said, watching my flobberworm sit still on the wooden pallet.

"I'll study!" Ron shouted.

"For two days prior to the exam doesn't count," I muttered.

Ron's face flushed slightly. "That's not what I do," he said under his breath.

"Yes, it is," Hermione and I said together, effectively ending the conversation.

As irritating as classes were becoming, at the start of October, Harry and I had something else to occupy ourselves. It was something so enjoyable it more than made up for my not-always satisfactory classes. The Quidditch season was approaching, and Oliver Wood, Captain of the Gryffindor team, called a meeting on Thursday evening to discuss tactics for the new season. It was something that had finally made a smile fall over my face. And it was good to get me outside to have some time to enjoy the gorgeous weather while we still had it.

In the meantime, Quidditch was the best sport in the world. There were seven people on a Quidditch team: three Chasers, whose job it was to score goals by putting the Quaffle (a red, soccer-sized ball) through one of the fifty-foot-high hoops at each end of the field; two Beaters, who were equipped with heavy bats to repel the Bludgers (two heavy black balls that zoomed around trying to attack the players); a Keeper, who defended the goal posts, and the Seeker, who had the hardest job of all, that of catching the Golden Snitch, a tiny, winged, walnut-sized ball, whose capture ended the game and earned the Seeker's team an extra one hundred and fifty points. There were also the alternates - which was my job.

Oliver Wood was a burly seventeen-year-old, now in his Seventh and final year at Hogwarts. He was one of the first friends that I'd made with someone that wasn't in my year, and I'd become quite fond of him over the past few years. It would be sad to no longer have him around after this year. We were all hoping that he would make his way onto a professional team. There was a quiet sort of desperation in his voice as he addressed his seven fellow team members in the chilly locker rooms on the edge of the darkening Quidditch Pitch.

Oliver was pacing back and forth in front of us. "This is our last chance - my last chance - to win the Quidditch Cup. I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it. Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. Okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world - injuries - then the tournament getting called off last year." Oliver swallowed, as though the memory still brought a lump to his throat.

Honestly it made me feel a little bit bad that we had mostly lost the Quidditch Cup over the past two years because of Harry and me. The match had been called off in our First Year because Harry and I had missed it. We had been down in the dungeons defeating Quirrell and Voldemort and had been nearly fatally injured, ensuring that we'd missed the final game and our chance at the Cup. Even though we'd done it for a good reason, I did feel bad about losing what should have been an easy win. We hadn't been able to win it our Second Year either. The entire tournament had been called off due to the Basilisk attacks last year.

"But we also know we've got the best - ruddy - team - in - the - school," Oliver continued, punching a fist into his other hand, the old manic glint back in his eye. "We've got three superb Chasers."

Oliver pointed at Alicia Spinner, Angelina Johnson, and Katie Bell. They were our three main Chasers on the team. They had each been on the team at least one year before Harry and I had gotten on the team. Each one had been injured during at least one game that I'd played with them. Unfortunately for them, they'd been forced to sit out, but luckily for me, I'd been allowed to step in and had made some magnificent shots. It made me sure that once they were out in the real world after their own graduation, I'd be allowed to be a main Chaser.

"We've got two unbeatable Beaters," Oliver continued.

"Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us," Fred and George said together, pretending to blush.

I snorted under my breath as Fred leaned forward, using my back as a prop. "And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" Oliver rumbled, glaring at Harry with a kind of furious pride. "We have an incredible alternate Chaser who's made goals no one else could."

My cheeks flushed of color. I didn't want him saying anything until we won the tournament this year. "Don't say that just yet," I mumbled nervously.

"And me," Oliver added as an afterthought.

He was always so focused on what the rest of us did, sometimes he forgot about what he was supposed to be doing. "We think you're very good too, Oliver," George added, earning a few chuckles.

"Spanking good Keeper," Fred said.

"You are pretty damn good," I agreed.

Oliver barely realized that we'd said anything. He gave a quick nod before continuing his pacing. "The point is, the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry and Tara joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing..." he trailed off sadly.

There was something so dejected in his voice that it even broke my heart. Oliver was the best Quidditch Captain that the entire school had. And I was speaking as even Cedric was the Captain of the Hufflepuff team. He had always been so good about getting us to practice all of the time and making sure that we were the best team in the school. The problem was that circumstances tended to make things bad for us. Oliver was speaking so dejectedly that even Fred and George looked sympathetic. It was what told me that we didn't have an option this year. We were going to win the Quidditch Cup this year.

"Oliver, this year's our year," Fred said.

"We'll do it, Oliver!" Angelina chirped.

"Definitely," Harry added.

"We've got it!" I said confidently.

Full of determination, our entire team started training sessions, three evenings a week. We were out more than any of the other teams. Slytherin was also training, as we were the first game of the season. Oliver had us out on the Quidditch Pitch for hours on end, but it was great to be back out there. Particularly because we were so excited to be back in the running for the Cup. The weather was getting colder and wetter, the nights darker, but no amount of mud, wind, or rain could tarnish my wonderful vision of finally winning the huge, silver Quidditch Cup. All I wanted was to get that Cup and rub it in Malfoy's face.

It also helped that now that we were in the season, the rest of the teams were training too. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, who weren't playing yet. Cedric and I had talked about Quidditch a lot over the past few weeks as we drew closer to the first Quidditch game of the season. We were frequently teasing each other over how each one of us was determined to win the Cup this year. I was determined to win it for Oliver - who was in his last year - and Cedric was determined to win it for himself - to prove that he had what it took to be a Captain, considering that this was his first year. I was still determined that we would win. After all, Gryffindor hadn't failed to lose a match that Harry and I had played in and I intended to keep things that way.

Harry and I returned to the Gryffindor Common Room one evening after training, cold and stiff. We were both freezing from flying around the Quidditch Pitch. It was definitely colder than I had been thinking that it would be. My robes were dripping with rain and mud, but we had started perfecting our moves. I knew that there would be no doubt that we would beat Slytherin when the first game rolled around in a few weeks. I shivered, still draped in Fred's cloak, pleased with the way practice had gone. I pulled myself a little tighter into the cloak, glancing around the excited Common Room.

It was louder than it normally was. Harry and I walked over towards the fireplace to dry off. "What's happened?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione, who were sitting in two of the best chairs by the fireside and completing some star charts for Astronomy.

"Please don't tell me someone died," I said, sitting on the edge of Hermione's chair.

By the looks on their faces, I assumed that no one had died. "First Hogsmeade weekend. End of October. Halloween," Ron said, pointing at a notice that had been pulled up on the end of the battered bulletin board.

The cold momentarily forgotten, my lips turned upwards. Cedric was right about the first Hogsmeade weekend and now it meant that it was finally time for my first date with him. "Awesome! Just what I thought," I said excitedly.

"Excellent. I need to visit Zonko's. I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets," Fred said, walking over towards us. He had followed Harry and I through the portrait hole. He jammed himself onto the other end of the chair arm that I was sitting on. "Planing a romantic date?"

"Oh, shut up," I snapped, shoving him away from me. "Any chance you'll stop hanging that over my head?"

"No," Fred said quickly.

"Great," I groaned.

The two of us smiled at each other as Fred leaned over the chair and looped an arm over my shoulder. I smiled as his fingers worked their way into the wool of his cloak that he had long since donated to me. "Hey, Diggory's not a half-bad guy," he said.

My gaze turned up to him confusedly. I thought that he didn't like Cedric. I had thought that no one liked Cedric. "But?" I asked.

We were silent for a moment as Fred nodded at me, giving me a long stare. It was almost like he had something that he wanted to say. "Just be careful. And let us know if he gets a little too handsy," he said, nudging me.

Laughing under my breath, I smiled at him. "Sure thing. Thanks, Freddie," I said.

He nodded and pressed a quick kiss against the side of my head. He looked like he might say something else but decided better of it, instead getting up and leaving to go sit with Lee Jordan and George. In the meantime I crammed myself into the chair with Hermione, allowing a few Fifth Years to take the other seats. Harry threw himself into a chair beside Ron, his high spirits obviously ebbing away. He had been smiling and laughing all the way back from Quidditch practice. Now he looked like someone had stepped on his moment. Hermione seemed to read his mind.

Then again, we all knew what his problem was. "Harry, I'm sure you'll be able to go next time. They're bound to catch Black soon. He's been sighted once already," Hermione said, only a little reassuringly.

"Black's not fool enough to try anything in Hogsmeade. Ask McGonagall if you can go this time, Harry," Ron said. As much as I liked the idea, I had a feeling that Professor McGonagall would never allow it. "The next one might not be for ages -"

"Ron!" Hermione gasped. "Harry's supposed to stay in school -"

"He can't be the only Third Year left behind. Ask McGonagall, go on, Harry," Ron said.

"Yeah, I think I will," Harry said, making up his mind.

Smiling at him, despite knowing that it wouldn't work, I nodded along with the plan. At least they would try something. Hermione's gaze shifted towards me. "You shouldn't even be going, Tara," Hermione said determinedly.

"Too damn bad," I snapped, refusing to stay behind. "My parents signed my permission form -"

"Before they knew that Black had escaped," Hermione interrupted.

"I don't care! I'm going, damn it. It's a civilian area. If Black is there, he's hiding out. He's not fool enough to attack me out in the open. I'll be fine with everyone else out there," I argued.

"But still -"

"I'm going," I interrupted Hermione.

As much as I liked that Hermione cared enough for me to keep me safe, I really just wanted to enjoy a day in Hogsmeade. "Lay off of her, Hermione. She's right, she'll be fine. The two of you have to go," Ron said, motioning between Harry and me.

Harry frowned as I glanced back at him. "And we will," I said determinedly.

It really did bother me that Harry wasn't going to be able to go to Hogsmeade with us this time. I was hoping that at some point he would be able to go. Some point before next year. That would be far too long. Maybe I could get Fred and George to help him out without Hermione overhearing. She didn't want to hear about our breaking the rules. More than we already had. Hermione still opened her mouth to argue why we shouldn't go to Hogsmeade as it wasn't safe, but at that moment Crookshanks leapt lightly onto her lap. A large, dead spider was dangling from his mouth.

"Does he have to eat that in front of us?" Ron asked, scowling.

"As much as I love cats, Hermione, that's kind of gross," I said awkwardly.

There was just something strange about the cat. "Clever Crookshanks, did you catch that all by yourself?" Hermione cooed.

I'd always loved cats, they were some of my favorite animals around. But there was something far too weird about Crookshanks. Most of the time it seemed like the cat was a real human. It was just the way that he was always around and listening whenever we were saying something important. And the way that he seemed to really hate Ron. Crookshanks slowly chewed up the spider, his yellow eyes fixed insolently on Ron.

"Just keep him over there, that's all. I've got Scabbers asleep in my bag," Ron said irritably, going back to his own star chart.

Yawning softly, I dropped into the chair with Hermione. I was exhausted from the practice that we'd just come from, but I knew that I had some work that I really needed to do. But all I wanted was to drop into the fluffy four-poster that was right upstairs. I had already finished my Astronomy chart, but there were other assignments that I'd yet to finish. It was right about now that I was starting to wish that I hadn't taken all of the classes that I did. I pulled my bag towards myself, took out parchment, ink, and quill, and continued my work from earlier.

"You can copy mine, if you like," Ron said, labeling his last star with a flourish and shoving the chart toward Harry.

I glanced over at the chart and shook my head. "It's wrong," I said under my breath.

Ron's head snapped up. "You're not even good at Astronomy," he said.

"You're right, I'm not. But I am good enough to know that your chart is wrong, considering that mine is already done and I had it double-checked by an older student," I said, showing him my own chart.

Cedric and I had plans to meet up in the library once a week where we could check over each other's work. He was always good about correcting the mistakes that I made on my Astronomy charts. "Who? Diggory?" Ron asked sharply.

He wasn't wrong. "Well..." I muttered awkwardly.

Before I finally admitted that it was Cedric who had helped me with my star chart, Fred came over and plopped himself on the edge of the chair. "No, I helped," he said, before I could say anything.

My head snapped up towards him and I fought to keep my face steady. Ron looked shocked. "You did?" he asked blankly.

I couldn't understand why Fred had taken credit for it, but I appreciated it. Ron would listen to his brother far before he would listen to Cedric. "Of course. I'm not an absolute monster, after all," Fred said, leaning over and staring down at Ron's star charts. "You know that your chart is wrong?"

Ron's face went as red as his hair. "So I've heard," he muttered.

As Ron went to fixing his star chart, I glanced up to Fred. "Thanks," I said softly.

"Don't mention it. Now you owe me two," Fred teased.

"Great," I mumbled.

In the end, Ron and Harry went to copying my own star chart. I mostly let them have it because I knew that they would never manage to figure it out without me, considering that they wouldn't be allowed up in the Astronomy Tower. Hermione, who disapproved of copying, pursed her lips but didn't say anything. I was grateful for it. While we continued doing our homework, I noticed that Crookshanks was still staring unblinkingly at Ron, flicking the end of his bushy tail. He looked furious about something. Then, without warning, he pounced.

"Oi!" Ron roared, seizing his bag as Crookshanks sank four sets of claws deep inside it and began tearing ferociously. "Get off, you stupid animal!"

Despite knowing that one of the animals could have been seriously hurt, it was always kind of funny watching Ron and Hermione try to wrangle in Crookshanks and Scabbers. I was just curious why the two of them hated each other than much. It seemed to go way past a cat and rat, Tom and Jerry, kind of thing. Ron tried to pull the bag away from Crookshanks, but Crookshanks clung on, spitting and slashing. There was a good chance that one of them was going to get shredded to pieces from Crookshanks, who looked like he was going to die getting to Scabbers.

"Ron, don't hurt him!" Hermione squealed.

In the meantime, the whole common room was now watching the commotion. I sank back into my chair slightly, hoping that no one was looking at me. It was rather embarrassing that the two of them were always fighting and getting into it with each other. Now they were dragging two animals into it. Ron whirled the bag around, Crookshanks still clinging to it, and Scabbers came flying out of the top. Things only got worse from there.

"Catch that cat!" Ron yelled as Crookshanks freed himself from the remnants of the bag, sprang over the table, and chased after the terrified Scabbers.

The entire Common Room had erupted into laughter. "You've got to admit, they make good entertainment," I mumbled to Harry.

"That they do," he agreed, laughing under his breath.

Glancing back towards everyone else, I smiled at the scene. George made a lunge for Crookshanks but missed. The damn cat was fast. Scabbers streaked through twenty pairs of legs and shot beneath an old chest of drawers. Everyone was trying to catch them, but it was almost impossible. Crookshanks skidded to a halt, crouched low on his bandy legs, and started making furious swipes beneath it with his front paw. Ron and Hermione hurried over; Hermione grabbed Crookshanks around the middle and heaved him away; Ron threw himself onto his stomach and, with great difficulty, pulled Scabbers out by the tail.

"Look at him!" Ron shouted furiously to Hermione, dangling Scabbers in front of her. "He's skin and bone! You keep that cat away from him!"

"Crookshanks doesn't understand it's wrong! All cats chase rats, Ron!" Hermione yelled back, her voice shaking.

"There's something funny about that animal! It heard me say that Scabbers was in my bag!" Ron shouted, trying to shove a very squirmy Scabbers back into his pocket.

"Oh, what rubbish," Hermione said impatiently. "Crookshanks could smell him, Ron, how else d'you think -"

"That cat's got it in for Scabbers! And Scabbers was here first, and he's ill!" Ron shouted, ignoring the people all around us that were starting to giggle.

And that was when I started to get a little bit embarrassed. I didn't want them to keep shouting like that and drawing the attention of everyone else. "Oh, shut up! Both of you! Just take turns having your animals down here. Hermione, that cat is a nightmare. Ron, Scabbers is already old and ill," I drawled, ignoring the shocked looks of both Ron and Hermione.

They didn't look very happy that I had said that to them, but it was the truth. Crookshanks was a nasty little cat that had still been in the Magical Menagerie because it was a jerk. And Scabbers was so old that he shouldn't have even been alive anymore. We all knew that much. Hermione huffed and fell back into her spot on the chair, trying to get back to her homework. She obviously didn't want to talk anymore. She only wanted to comfort an irritably hissing Crookshanks. Ron looked like he might say something, thought better of it, and marched through the Common Room and out of sight up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

Everyone watched him go silently. "That didn't go well," Harry muttered to me.

"I didn't expect that it would," I whispered back.

We fell into a comfortable silence after that. The three of us had better things to do than steam. We had work to be done. It was saying something that Ron never came back down that night. I didn't see him again until the next morning at breakfast. But Ron was still in a bad mood with Hermione next day. He barely talked to her all through Herbology, even though he, Harry, Hermione, and I were working together on the same Puffapod. It was a good thing that it was something that Ron understood so that he didn't have to ask Hermione for help, or even break the tense silence. All we were doing was pruning it.

"How's Scabbers?" Hermione asked timidly as we stripped fat pink pods from the plants and emptied the shining beans into a wooden pail.

Pruning Puffapods was incredibly boring but at least I didn't have to think about it too much. "He's hiding at the bottom of my bed, shaking," Ron said angrily, missing the pail and scattering beans over the greenhouse floor.

"Careful, Weasley, careful!" Professor Sprout cried as the beans burst into bloom before our eyes.

It was enough to make everyone laugh. Thankfully we were able to make it through the rest of the class without issue. Although it was very tense and very silent as Ron and Hermione were still furious with each other. We had Transfiguration next. It would be another rather demure class. We weren't do much of anything more than practicing turning teapots into tortoises. It was pretty obvious that most people were still having trouble with it, but I had perfected it a long time ago. Mom and Dad had always been oddly good with Transfiguration.

Harry, who had resolved to ask Professor McGonagall after the lesson whether he could go into Hogsmeade with the rest of us, joined the line outside the class trying to decide how he was going to argue his case. We had chatted softly about it during the walk back to the castle and I'd told him that he would have to settle with just doing it like a Band-Aid and asking at once without getting off topic. He was distracted, however, by a disturbance at the front of the line. I glanced up with him.

What could possibly be the problem now? We seemed to have always been having problems. Lavender Brown seemed to be crying towards the front of the pack of students. Parvati had her arm around her and was explaining something to Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were looking very serious. They were rarely seen not laughing so I knew that it had to be a big deal if the two of them suddenly looked serious.

"What's the matter, Lavender?" Hermione asked anxiously as we went to join the group.

"You okay?" I asked softly.

Parvati glanced over at us and frowned. "She got a letter from home this morning. It's her rabbit, Binky. He's been killed by a fox," Parvati whispered, trying not to let Lavender overhear.

"Oh. I'm sorry, Lavender," Hermione said.

Immediately I sighed and grabbed Lavender's hand. She drove me nuts sometimes but I did feel bad for her. "I used to have a rabbit, Lavender. I'm really sorry. I know what it's like to lose one," I said softly.

"I should have known!" Lavender yelled tragically. "You know what day it is?"

I barely knew what day of the week it was. I certainly didn't know the date. "Er -" Hermione said slowly.

At least someone else didn't know the date. "The sixteenth of October! 'That thing you're dreading, it will happen on the sixteenth of October!' Remember? She was right, she was right!" Lavender cried.

Everyone started exchanging looks. My stomach sank to the floor as I realized what had just happened. One of Professor Trelawney's predictions had just come true. Many of hers had already come true. Now I realized that they would start thinking that the prediction about Harry and I's fate would come true. And was there a chance that it would? Harry and I gave each other a lingering stare, both obviously thinking the same thing. The whole class had gathered around Lavender by now. Seamus shook his head seriously.

"It's gotta be a coincidence," I mumbled, sensing the eyes on me.

Hermione hesitated; then she said, "You - you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?"

Hopefully things weren't as bad as they seemed. "Well, not necessarily by a fox," Lavender said, looking up at Hermione with streaming eyes, "but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't I?"

This was a good thing. Maybe it meant that Professor Trelawney had been wrong about her prediction and Lavender was just overreacting. "Oh." Hermione paused again. "Was Binky an old rabbit?" she asked.

"N - no! H - he was only a baby!" Lavender sobbed.

Hermione and I exchanged another look with each other. I knew that she was thinking the exact same thing that I was. It made no sense for Lavender to have been dreading the death of her baby rabbit. I hadn't started getting nervous for my own rabbit until he was pushing five years old. Maybe Lavender was just trying to fit the incident to the prediction because she was already scared of what Professor Trelawney had said. Parvati tightened her arm around Lavender's shoulders.

"But then, why would you dread him dying?" Hermione asked. I was glad that she did it before I did. Parvati glared at her. "Well, look at it logically." Hermione turned to the rest of the group. "I mean, Binky didn't even die today, did he? Lavender just got the news today." Lavender wailed loudly. "And she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock -"

"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender. She doesn't think other people's pets matter very much," Ron said loudly.

Hermione glared as I glanced at everyone. "But she's got a point," I said softly.

It was a good thing that Professor McGonagall opened the classroom door at that moment. Hermione and Ron were glaring daggers at each other, and when we all got into the classroom, they seated themselves on either side of Harry and me and didn't talk to each other for the whole class. Hermione was on my side and Ron was on Harry's others. As class drawled on Harry and I wrote back and forth about how he would bring it up to Professor McGonagall at the end of class. The bell finally rang at the end of the lesson but it was she who brought up the subject of Hogsmeade first.

"One moment, please!" Professor McGonagall called as our class made to leave. "As you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Halloween. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"

Neville put up his hand. "Please, Professor, I - I think I've lost -"

"Your grandmother sent yours to me directly, Longbottom. She seemed to think it was safer." There were a number of snorts from the other students. "Well, that's all, you may leave," Professor McGonagall said.

"Ask her now," Ron hissed at Harry.

"Oh, but -" Hermione began.

"Go for it, Harry," Ron said stubbornly.

He wasn't going to let Hermione get a word in. "Can't hurt. Give it a try," I told Harry, nudging him gently.

With that the four of us stumbled backwards and hung back against the wall to wait for him. We wanted to see what was going to happen. We wanted to make sure that Harry was going to get to go to Hogsmeade. With the constant death threats and whatnot he deserved to have a day of fun with the rest of us out in the village. Harry waited for the rest of the class to disappear, then, with a nudge from Ron and me, headed nervously for Professor McGonagall's desk.

"Yes, Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked.

Harry took a deep breath. "Professor, my aunt and uncle - er - forgot to sign my form," he said. Professor McGonagall looked over her square spectacles at him but didn't say anything. "So - er - d'you think it would be all right mean, will It be okay if I - if I go to Hogsmeade?"

Professor McGonagall looked down and began shuffling papers on her desk. "I'm afraid not, Potter. You heard what I said. No form, no visiting the village. That's the rule," she said. The three of us exchanged a sad look with each other.

"But - Professor, my aunt and uncle - you know, they're Muggles, they don't really understand about - about Hogwarts forms and stuff," Harry said, while we egged him on with vigorous nods. "If you said I could go -"

"But I don't say so," Professor McGonagall said, standing up and piling her papers neatly into a drawer. "The form clearly states that the parent or guardian must give permission." She turned to look at him with an odd expression on her face. Was it pity? That's what it looked like. "I'm sorry, Potter, but that's my final word. You had better hurry, or you'll be late for your next lesson."

There was nothing that could be done at that point. As we left Ron called Professor McGonagall a lot of names that greatly annoyed Hermione. Even I thought that he was getting a bit excessive. Rules were rules and we had already gotten away with breaking a large number of them. Hermione assumed an 'all-for-the-best' expression that ended up making Ron even angrier. I rolled my eyes and pulled out a pad to draw on instead. Harry had to endure everyone in the class talking loudly and happily about what they were going to do first once they got into Hogsmeade.

"There's always the feast. You know, the Halloween feast, in the evening," Ron said, in an attempt to cheer up Harry.

"Yeah, great," Harry said gloomily.

"I'm so sorry, Harry," I said, grabbing his shoulder.

"It's alright."

That was when I realized that there was a way to get Harry into Hogsmeade. "You know, there is that secret passage that Cedric showed me. I could show it to you and you could meet us out there," I said happily.

Harry's lips turned up in an excitable smile. We had both almost forgotten about the hidden pathways in Hogwarts that would bring him out to Hogsmeade. "That's a terrible idea!" Hermione said, making Ron and me scowl at her. "And what if there's a Dementor in the passage?"

"There won't be. It connects straight from Hogwarts to Honeydukes. Dumbledore would never let a Dementor in there," I said brightly.

"Either way, that's breaking the rules," Hermione said.

"You didn't seem to mind doing it last year," I snapped.

"That was for a good cause!" Hermione defended.

"So is this!" I said.

Harry placed a hand on my shoulder and pushed the two of us away from each other. "It's alright, Tara, honestly. I'll be fine. Maybe I'll get to go at some point," Harry said sadly.

That was unfortunately all that we could do with Harry unwilling to break the rules. The Halloween feast was always good, but it would taste a lot better if he was coming to it after a day in Hogsmeade with everyone else. All day Harry moped around sadly. Dean, who was good with a quill, had offered to forge Vermin's signature on the form, but as Harry had already told Professor McGonagall he hadn't had it signed, that was no good. Ron halfheartedly suggested the Invisibility Cloak, but Hermione stamped on that one, reminding Ron what Dumbledore had told them about the Dementors being able to see through them. Percy had what were possibly the least helpful words of comfort.

"They make a fuss about Hogsmeade, but I assure you, Harry, it's not all it's cracked up to be," he said seriously. "All right, the sweetshop's rather good, and Zonko's Joke Shop's frankly dangerous, and yes, the Shrieking Shack's always worth a visit, but really, Harry, apart from that, you're not missing anything."

Harry looked even sadder than before. "You're completely useless, Percy," I said.

He glared at me but otherwise ignored my comment. I spent the rest of the night doing anything possible to make Harry feel a little better about everything that had happened. I was trying to convince him that he would eventually get out to Hogsmeade but he still looked no happier. Eventually we had gone to bed with me feeling very guilty over what had happened to Harry. He definitely wouldn't be able to go this year unless we could figure out another way to bend the rules that was actually safe.

In the coming days my birthday came and went. It was mostly a slow day. We had classes but the weather was nice. So we were able to go out and get some time in to play soccer with each other. Thankfully Oliver didn't really want to practice on the player's birthdays. We all had a good day together but we didn't make much of a fuss over my birthday. Not the way that we had the past two years. It was mostly because we would be out in Hogsmeade in a matter of days and we would be able to have fun out there together.

Our little group would have plenty of fun once we were at Hogsmeade. Although I wasn't really sure that we would actually do anything together during the Hogsmeade visit. Instead I was going to be out on a date with Cedric during the trip. The thought was the one thing that managed to keep me happy while Harry was still very downtrodden about being unable to go with us. The morning of my birthday the two of us had ran straight into each other while we had been attempting to go to our classes after breakfast.

"Happy birthday, stranger," Cedric said, embracing me in a hug.

"Thank you," I said happily, stepping back and crossing my arms over my chest. "What? No present?"

Cedric laughed and shook his head. "You didn't get me one," he teased.

Nudging him softly, the two of us set off down the hallway. "I already promised that I'd get you something when we were out in Hogsmeade," I said.

"Exactly," Cedric teased, flicking me on the nose.

"So I'll meet you out on the carriages beforehand?" I asked.

"Sure. We can ride over together."

"Gonna take me to Madam Puddifoot's again?"

Cedric blanched slightly as he turned to me. He looked sickened at the thought of our first failed semi-date. "Absolutely not. I don't think that Madam Puddifoot ever wants to see you in her shop again," he told me.

"The feeling is mutual," I said.

Cedric smiled at me as the two of us headed off towards our first classes. "I've got a whole plan," Cedric said.

"A plan, huh?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Gonna tell me about it?"

Cedric laughed as if it was the funniest thing that he had ever heard. My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Of course not. That's what makes it a surprise," Cedric teased.

"I'm not overly fond of surprises," I said.

There were a number of surprises that had happened to me. The stupid boxes - that thankfully I hadn't gotten in a long time - the Sorcerer's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, and now whatever was coming with Sirius Black. No. Unfortunately I'd always had a really bad time with surprises. And I had a funny feeling that I was going to continue having a really bad time with surprises for the rest of my life. It was just part of my charm. Surprises that mostly ended up being almost deadly.

"I think that you'll like this one," Cedric said.

"I suppose that I'll just have to trust you," I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

He grinned at me. "Yes. You will. And, honestly, when has trusting me ever led you astray?" Cedric asked.

Had his advice ever led me astray? I couldn't remember a time. "Never, to be fair," I said brightly.

We both smiled at each other. The two of us laughed as Cedric stopped outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. "I'll meet you out by the carriages when it's time to go, alright?" Cedric asked. I nodded brightly. Finally. My first real date. "Hey!" I turned back to him. "Try not to find someone that makes you a better offer, yeah?"

Trying to play it up a little, I smiled. "I already got the best offer." I was very pleased to see that, for once, Cedric was the one that blushed. "Turned him down because I already made a promise to someone else," I added with a teasing smile.

Cedric laughed heartily at me. I was glad to see that I hadn't hurt his feeling. "Cute," Cedric said, still laughing.

"Glad you finally recognized it," I said brightly.

"See you later, Tara," Cedric said.

"See you on Halloween," I said.

Unfortunately my date had not been as secretive - as much as I would have loved for it to be - as I had thought that it would be. Someone must have overheard Cedric and me talking one time. Either that, or one of my bratty friends had said something. Because news of our upcoming date had spread like wildfire throughout the school. It led to the two of us not being able to talk in the following weeks. Neither one of us were fond of the looks that we were getting. I noticed that certain people were now reacting to me a little differently since they had heard about my upcoming date.

Sometimes it seemed like the entire school was more excited for it than I was. Perhaps they all wanted to see what was going on between the two of us. When we, ourselves, didn't really even know what we were. Hermione didn't say much, because she knew how awkward I felt about everything. Fred and George hadn't stopped making kissy noises once in the past few weeks. Lavender, Parvati, and Fay all wanted me to tell them all about the date once it was over. As did the Quidditch team, although Oliver was just hoping that I would be able to distract Cedric from the Hufflepuff team. Ron and Harry were not happy about the date. Ron had tried multiple times to get me to come with him and Hermione.

But it wasn't going to work. I was going to go on my date and I was going to enjoy myself. Although there were certain people that seemed hellbent to change that. Namely Draco Malfoy and Cho Chang. Neither one of them had liked the new stage of the relationship that Cedric and I had found ourselves in. Cho Chang was frequently shooting me nasty glares and occasionally making comments with her friends about how 'no self-respecting English man would want a miserable American.'

That was just the way that Cho Chang felt about me. And she made sure that everyone else knew about the way that she felt about me. Even better was the way that Draco Malfoy had been acting lately. He seemed to hate me more than usual. He thought that it was pathetic. There were a number of comments about how stupid Gryffindor's and Hufflepuff's were. And he now seemed to be having a good time talking about everything that I lacked. Charisma, intelligence, and beauty - all of which normally would have made me a very unpopular date. Thankfully Cedric ignored the rumors.

Although the more that Malfoy insulted me, the more that I thought on Ron's words from last month. Ron had mentioned that he thought that Malfoy was starting to become a little fond of me. But I couldn't believe that. We might have been friendly at first, and had a few nice moments ever since, but we were mostly enemies. But... Was there a chance that Malfoy liked me? I knew that he had been a little more hostile towards me lately, and it was only after news of my date spread.

On Halloween morning, nearly a month after Cedric had originally asked me on a date, I awoke with everyone else and got ready for my first official date. I made sure to wear everything that I had that was the nice. My white winter coat, deep blue shirt, and a pair of tighter jeans. Once I was sure that I had everything together and ready to leave, I headed out of the dorms, went down to breakfast with a smile, but quickly noticed Harry. He looked as though he was feeling thoroughly depressed. He was weakly doing his best to act normally.

"We'll bring you lots of sweets back from Honeydukes," Hermione said, looking desperately sorry for him.

"Yeah, loads," Ron said.

He and Hermione had finally forgotten their squabble about Crookshanks in the face of Harry's difficulties. They looked happy for now, but I knew that it would only be a matter of time before they were at each other's throats again. Perhaps in a few weeks, once the Hogsmeade weekends were forgotten about.

"I'll get you something while I'm out," I promised Harry.

"Don't worry about me," Harry said, probably in what he hoped was, an offhand voice, "I'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."

But it really wasn't an offhand voice at all. I was about to say something to Harry when a hand fell on my shoulder. I jumped slightly and turned back to smile at Cedric. "Ready to go?" Cedric asked.

"Just a second," I said.

He nodded at me and I smiled, darting back over to where Harry was standing with Hermione and Ron. Harry glanced up at me and then looked back at Cedric. "Still spending the day with him?" Harry asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Have fun out there," Harry said, smiling weakly.

That was enough to stun me. "What?" I asked dumbly.

He hadn't wanted me to go on this date at all for weeks. Now he was giving me his blessing. Harry smiled at me. "You're my best friend, Tara. You're more than that. You're my sister." I smiled at him. "But you're fourteen. You're not a baby anymore and I can't keep treating you like one. So go out there and have a good time," Harry said.

Slowly I brought him into a hug. "Thanks, Harry. That means a lot," I said softly.

"I know," Harry said.

"I didn't want to go out there alone with him and have you not okay with it," I admitted.

Harry smiled sideways at me. "I don't love it, but there's nothing that I can do to stop you, and Diggory's a nice enough guy," Harry said.

It made me snort. I knew that he still didn't really like that I was going out with Cedric. "After all, it'll let the two of them have their first date together," I teased, motioning over to Ron and Hermione.

Harry laughed loudly at me. "If they don't kill each other first," Harry said, making me smile. "Have fun, Tara. See you later."

"See you later. I'll bring you back loads of stuff," I promised Harry, grabbing his arm as I walked by.

"Thanks. Hey, I mean it. Let me know if he gets out of line," Harry said.

The unfortunate thing was that Harry was about a third of Cedric's size. While Harry was lean and rather small in stature, Cedric was tall and built like a wall. "Sure thing, tough guy," I teased, patting Harry on the arm.

"And don't kiss him!" Harry called after me.

"Harry!"

"I mean it!"

"See you!"

As I darted off, Harry looked after me and smiled. I was heading back over to where Cedric was waiting for me with the rest of the students that were heading to Hogsmeade. Harry accompanied us all the way up to the entrance hall, where Filch, the caretaker, was standing inside the front doors, checking off names against a long list, peering suspiciously into every face, and making sure that no one was sneaking out who shouldn't be going. I noticed that he gave me a long scowl as I walked past. We would always hate each other.

"See you guys later!" I called off to Ron and Hermione as I walked past. "Maybe we'll meet up in the Three Broomsticks before heading back?"

They both smiled. "Sure. Make sure that you don't leave his side," Hermione said.

My smile fell. "I know," I groaned.

"And keep an adult within shouting distance," Hermione added.

"I know."

"Don't forget you have your wand too. You can do emergency magic, just in case."

"I know."

Ron shoved Hermione off to the side. "She's gets it, Hermione. Come on," Ron said, tugging Hermione with him. "Have fun on your stupid date. Don't kiss him!"

Quickly I whipped back around to where Ron and Hermione were still standing. "People say that Harry and I should be brother and sister, it's the two of you that need to be brothers. Kissing him... honestly," I muttered awkwardly, walking away.

As I walked over towards where Cedric was standing near the carriages were, someone's shout stopped me. "Staying here, Potter?" Malfoy shouted, as he was standing in line with Crabbe and Goyle. "Scared of passing the Dementors?"

"Like I said before, money doesn't buy class," I said, walking by.

"Enjoy your date, Nox. It'll be the last one that you ever get," Malfoy called after me.

I turned back and saw Malfoy was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. "That so?" I asked.

Malfoy slowly walked up to me. "The second he realizes that you're not at all what you appear to be," he said.

My eyebrow quirked. "And what's that?" I asked.

"Low rent, tasteless, weak, annoying, stupid... Need I go on?" Malfoy asked.

My jaw set. That was completely rude and uncalled for. "You're talking about me never getting another date. Why am I going out to Hogsmeade with one of the most popular guys in Hogwarts, while you're going out alone, only with your two cronies who are too stupid to act on their own, as company?" I asked, earning a long silence. "Enjoy the day, Malfoy."

And so I turned, without giving him a chance to tell me anything else. By the time that I finally made it back to Cedric I realized that he was watching me closely. "What was that about?" Cedric asked, looking back where Malfoy was standing and glaring at me.

"Nothing. Malfoy being himself," I said, waving him off.

"You okay?" Cedric asked.

"Fine. Just ready to get out of here."

Cedric nodded. "Alright. Shall we?" he asked, motioning towards the carriages.

"We shall," I said brightly.

So the two of us headed over towards our carriage. I was hoping that we would all be able to fit in one without anyone else. Not that I didn't love many other Hogwarts students, I just wanted it to be the two of us today. Cedric placed his hand on my back and gently pushed me along. I smiled as we took one at the back of the line for ourselves. But I was well aware that a number of whispers followed us as we climbed in together, Cedric letting me get in first, thankfully leaving it as only the two of us.

"Now I know how Harry feels," I muttered.

"What's that?" Cedric asked, turning to me.

"Everyone is whispering and pointing," I said, pointing out of the window. "It feels like we're in a fish bowl."

Cedric turned towards me, smiling. "Well you do have something in your teeth," he told me.

My jaw dropped and I lost a little bit of color in my face. That was embarrassing. "What?" I asked, horrified.

Cedric snorted under his breath and laid a hand on my knee. "I'm kidding. I'm just kidding," he said, gently patting me.

Laughing under my breath, I leaned back and kicked him in the shin. "You're such a jerk," I said loudly.

We both laughed as I tucked back into the seat slightly, closing my mouth and running my tongue over my teeth, just to make sure. "They're all just jealous that I got you to come to Hogsmeade with me," Cedric said, leaning back and looking out the window.

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head at him. They were not jealous of him. They were jealous of me. "Right... I think they're all wondering how stupid you have to be to come to Hogsmeade with me," I said.

"I don't care what they think. You're crazy but you're fun."

"Thanks," I said, smiling. We sat in silence for a few moments as I saw the rooftops and chimneys of Hogsmeade rising in the distance. "So now will you tell me where we're going?"

Cedric looked back over at me. "No," he said.

"Why not?" I asked irritably.

"Because it's a surprise."

"Are we at least going to the stores?"

Cedric grinned at me. "You don't leave much to the imagination, do you?" he asked.

"Surprises in my life tend not to work out too well."

"This one will. I promise."

Now was that the truth? Promises and surprises never worked out in my favor. Maybe some small ones, but certainly not anything that happened to me. "I'll hold you to that," I said, frowning at him.

Cedric stood from his side of the carriage to move onto mine. I smiled when he looped an arm over my shoulders. "You do tend to have a number of troubles surrounding you. You're quite the troublemaker," Cedric teased, tightening his arm over me slightly.

"Do you not have enough room for trouble in your life?" I asked slowly.

"Just the trouble that you bring," Cedric said, looking down at me.

My chin turned up so that I could look at him and I blushed madly. "I'm not that much of a troublemaker," I said awkwardly, looking away from him.

You're on a date with him! Get over it and flirt with him! "Yes, you are," Cedric said.

"Yet you're here," I teased.

"Shows just how good my judgement is," Cedric shot back with.

"Now that was uncalled for," I said, pretending to be offended.

Cedric laughed and shoved me slightly. "That was plenty called for!" Cedric barked. I scoffed and leaned back in my seat a little more, shoving his arm off of my shoulder. "Need I remind you of the letter that you wrote, telling me that you knew where the Chamber of Secrets was and you were going to go battle a Basilisk to save Ginny Weasley from You-Know-Who, without telling me where it was."

To be fair to him, that really was a mistake on my part. I couldn't believe that I had done something like that to him. It wasn't very wise on my part. "And we all came out of it alive," I said, grinning at him. "See? It all worked out."

"You're still insane," Cedric said.

"It's all a part of my charm," I teased.

We both smiled at each other as the carriages came to a stop. I glanced out the window to see that we had finally arrived at Hogsmeade. I smiled at the sight. It was decorated for Halloween. "Here we are," Cedric said.

"It's just as gorgeous as it was the first time I saw it," I muttered, smiling at the sight.

"Come on," Cedric said.

He pushed open the door and climbed out of the carriage. He turned back and held out a hand for me to jump out. I grabbed his and allowed him to pull me from the slightly lifted carriage. That was much better than me falling out face-first. I blushed slightly as his hands lingered on my waist to help me out. The two of us started walking through the hoards of Hogwarts students and I blushed again. They were all staring at us. For a while I thought that Cedric would release my hand but instead we walked together with him intertwining our fingers.

There had to have been a permanent blush forming on my face. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't calm it down. Even with the cold weather in Hogsmeade. The two of us enjoyed our date together for a while. We didn't do much for the first hour or so that we were walking back and forth through the streets but we talked about classes, our friends, families, and everything else that we could think of. He bought us a hot Butterbeer to share in the meantime. There was a lightness in me that I hadn't felt in a long time.

In fact I wasn't sure that I could ever remember feeling as light as I did right now. It was something that I hadn't been so grateful for in a long time. Eventually we headed into Dervish and Banges. We had come here for my birthday last year but we hadn't gotten much of a chance to actually look through it beforehand. We stared at a pair of Spectrespecs - which I wasn't quite sure what they did - Omnioculars - which were rather fun to have during the Quidditch matches - and a Quick-Quotes Quill - which I wanted for classes.

Eventually we passed through the section of the store that held the different Sneakoscope brands. "A Sneakoscope. Ron bought one for Harry but we're pretty sure that it doesn't work," I said slowly, picking it up and looking at it.

"Does it work?" Cedric asked curiously.

"Sometimes but it only lights up at weird times. No one abnormal is ever around. Although one time Fred and George were putting beetle eyes in Percy's tea," I said slowly.

Cedric snorted under his breath. "Sounds like the twins," he said. I nodded my agreement. "There are lots of ones that don't work. Tourist junk."

He was right about that much. The two of us continued to march through the aisles in Dervish and Banges before I found something else that caught my attention. "Huh... A Bludger weighs a hundred and forty-nine pounds," I said curiously.

"Took one straight to the collarbone and kept going," Cedric said, walking up behind me.

Turning to him, finding us almost pressed together, I grinned up at him. "I'm a hell of a player. I'll be expecting you to make some pretty spectacular moves this season, Quidditch Captain," I teased, poking him in the chest.

"You Gryffindor's better watch out. We've got some great new moves," Cedric said.

"Wanna share?" I asked sweetly.

Cedric snorted under his breath and leaned over. He flicked me on the nose and I laughed, batting him away. "You're not that slick," Cedric said, pushing me back into the shelf. "Come on. There's something else that I wanted to show you."

"Okay."

So the two of us walked over and headed out towards the next shop. We were walking together in silence for a little while and I tucked myself into my coat. I always forgot just how cold it was in Scotland except in the middle of summer. The two of us headed over towards Dominic Maestro's Music Shop - one of the places that he had brought me last year. We walked inside and stood by the fire hearth for a minute. Which was nice, considering that it was freezing. I spotted a number of students from my music class.

I glanced over to Cedric and smiled. "Why are we here?" I asked curiously.

As far as I knew, Cedric wasn't much for being musically inclined. But he did know that I was. "Come with me," he said.

So I nodded and walked with him. The two of us walked back into one of the studios in the back of the shop. It was rather nice to be in one of them. Everything was top-of-the-line. There were instruments that were charmed all throughout the room. I noticed that most of them were charmed so that they could pick up a tune once you started playing or singing. Cedric must have booked the room so that we could use it for a little while. All of the things in here were much nicer than they were back at Hogwarts, where everything was used and old.

"You're going to sing for me?" I asked teasingly, turning back to Cedric.

"The opposite," Cedric said, motioning to a chair in the middle of the room.

My jaw nearly dropped. I'd never sang for anyone before. Only my parents and a few friends. So I laughed and walked away from the center of the room. "I don't think so," I said, giggling softly.

Cedric grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the center of the back room. "Come on. Please. I want to hear," Cedric said.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the chair, seating us back on it. "I..." I said slowly, trailing off when I realized that I didn't have much of an argument left. "Don't laugh."

"You have my word," Cedric promised.

The music started on a slow and low pace. I assumed that it could tell the kind of song that I wanted to sing. The guitar, violin, and piano all immediately picked up the tune while I waited before starting the song in mezzo-soprano.

"Kiss me too fiercely  
Hold me too tight  
I need help believing  
You're with me tonight.

"My wildest dreamings  
Could not foresee  
Lying beside you  
With you wanting me

"Just for this moment  
As long as you're mine  
I've lost all resistance  
And crossed some borderline

"And if it turns out  
It's over too fast  
I'll make every last moment last  
As long as you're mine

"And though I may know  
I don't care  
Just for this moment  
As long as you're mine

"Come be how you want to  
And see how bright we shine  
Borrow the moonlight  
Until it is through

"And know I'll be here  
Holding you  
As long as you're mine."

Cedric was silent for a moment as the piano faded out. I blushed and looked down at my lap. He reached over and grabbed my hand. "That's really pretty. You have a wonderful voice," Cedric said.

"Thank you. It's meant to be a duet," I said slowly.

"Did you write that?" he asked.

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head. "No way. It's from a Muggle musical," I explained. Cedric grinned at me. "I sing. I'm not creative enough to write songs like that."

"Either way, you sounded fantastic," he said.

My blush only increased. I hadn't thought that I was that good. I'd always thought that I was just average. Maybe one day I would have to perform in my music class. "Thanks. Are you done with embarrassing me?" I asked sharply.

"Never."

To almost prove his point, Cedric pulled out something from his pocket. It was a little vial of something that he had placed on a chord that looked like it could act as a necklace. "What is that?" I asked curiously.

"Your voice." My eyebrow quirked. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "I know that I'll never get you to sing that again, so I decided to take matters into my own hands," he said, showing me the vial again.

Of course. It was his own little recording of my voice. "You're terrible!" I barked.

Cedric grinned and tucked the necklace into his shirt. "I'll never show anyone else. You have my word," Cedric promised.

"I'll kill you if you do," I said seriously.

"I trust that you will. Come on."

So the two of us made our way out of the building. Which was good for me, because now people were starting to quietly question what Cedric and I were doing in the studio together, since you couldn't see in front the outside. As we walked out, I tried to snatch the vial from his neck - wishing that I hadn't been stupid enough to fall for his trick - but Cedric saw me coming. He merely wrapped an arm over my shoulders and dragged me out with him. Together we headed towards Gladrag's Wizardwear.

As we walked into the store, Cedric glanced over at me. "I'm going to find you a present," he said, grinning wickedly.

"Wonderful," I said brightly.

The two of us walked in between the shelves that were set up all over the place. The store was hard enough to navigate as we walked through. I found a rather funny sweater that shrunk on the wearer that I liked. Cedric thought it was a bad idea that I have something like that. In retrospective, he was right. We found watches that always told you the wrong time to mess you up, shoes that forced you to walk faster to actually be on time, eye masks that would actually put you to sleep, and self-cleaning shoes. Finally Cedric settled on what he wanted.

"This one!" he cheered happily, showing it to me.

It looked like a normal golden locket. "A necklace? How normal," I said.

"Take a look."

That was when I realized that it wasn't just a normal locket. Of course it wasn't. We were in a magical store. Cedric showed me the locket as he popped it open, sliding his thumb over the catch. It was a locket that actually changed between my favorite memories as it managed to read my mind, or something of the sorts. It showed a picture of me meeting Cedric over two years ago, our embrace after my encounter with the Sorcerer's Stone, and our hug after the Chamber of Secrets. Finally it settled on showing a picture of the two of us playing Quidditch over the summer.

"Like it?" Cedric asked.

He turned back and hooked it over my neck. I was smiling brightly as it laid a few inches underneath my collarbone. "Love it," I said, fingering the golden locket.

"Good," Cedric said. We walked over to the cashier, Cedric paid for the necklace, and we walked back out into the streets. I was shivering a little bit from the cold air that was blasting through the streets of Hogsmeade. I shivered slightly, running my hands over my arms. "Are you cold?"

"A little bit," I admitted.

"Here," Cedric said.

He pulled his coat off of his shoulders and moved to place it over me. I stepped back and shook my head. "No. It's yours," I said quietly.

"You're cold. Take it. I insist," Cedric said.

"Thank you."

Once more I blushed as Cedric slipped the coat off of himself and slung it over my shoulders. It still had all of the heat from his body and I smiled. It was extremely comfortable. The two of us headed back through the streets as he threaded our fingers back together. I smiled and walked pressed up against him, kicking through the snow. I noticed that many of our fellow Hogwarts students were watching and muttering under their breath about us. I could see them all pointing and whispering curiously. I sighed irritably and continued walking.

"Don't worry about them," Cedric said softly, pulling me into him.

"They keep talking about... us," I muttered awkwardly, unsure of what to call us in front of Cedric.

"Let them."

"They're going to think that you're insane for coming out with me," I pointed out.

He was one of the most popular people in Hogwarts. People would think that he was insane for coming out on a date with me. Plenty of people thought that I was good to be friends with, but they didn't want to date me. They wanted to be able to run from the girl that had a strange connection with Voldemort, had a knack for getting hundreds of points taken away at once, was a Parselmouth, and now had Sirius Black - a convicted murderer - after her. Dating me was definitely not the wisest of choices.

Cedric smiled down at me. "I don't care. I'm happy to be out here with you," he said.

The smile that fell over my face was rather embarrassing. Everyone knew that I had a crush on Cedric, but at least now he knew too. And I was about one hundred percent positive that he had a crush on me. At least that awkward part of our relationship was over. But now came navigating this new part of the relationship. The two of us headed over to the Hogsmeade Post Office and I smiled as we played with some of the owls. Somehow Dai and Rusty must have known that we were there because they came over and flitted around us for a few minutes before affectionately nipping at our fingers and flying off again.

Finally we headed back out into the snow. We headed over towards my favorite store in Hogsmeade afterwards. Or one of my favorites. The whole alley was incredible. We walked into Honeydukes and squished ourselves into the throng of people that were trying to move around. There was a massive amount of Hogwarts students walking in and out of the store. The two of us had to drop hands just so that we could walk through and take a look around the store. We were over by the window when I noticed something.

"Check it out," I told Cedric, poking at his shoulder. He glanced up and looked at the sign that I was motioning to.

By Order of the Ministry of Magic

Customers are reminded that until further notice, Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Sirius Black. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall.

When Cedric had finished reading over the notice he shook his head and looked over at me. "Filch was saying that we'd have to be back earlier than usualbecause of the shops closing earlier than normal," Cedric told me.

When had he said that? I must not have been listening. "That's too bad," I muttered under my breath.

Together we walked through the store and managed to get ourselves massive amounts of candy. It seemed that everyone in the store was trying to get themselves food and whatnot until the next appearance of a Hogsmeade day. Cedric and I both ended up checking out with a fair bit. It turned out that I had even more than he did. Even though a lot of the candy was for Harry, I knew that I would end up eating most of it. And the Sugar Quills were all for me. Mostly something to keep me occupied when things got bad - which I knew that they would.

Cedric was waiting for me at the door as I paid for my things. He looked down at my bag and laughed. "How do you not weigh a thousand pounds?" he asked curiously.

Snorting under my breath, I shrugged my shoulders. "I suppose that I'm lucky. And I play a lot of Quidditch," I said, pulling out a Sugar Quill.

"You're addicted to those things," Cedric pointed out.

"It's kind of a problem. Chocolate Frog?" I offered, pulling one out of my bag.

"Absolutely. And that's why I got you these," Cedric said, pulling out a bundle of Sugar Quills.

I laughed loudly and pulled him into a hug. "You're the best!" I cheered.

"Glad that you've finally recognized that."

We both laughed as we started our trek a little further out into Hogsmeade and away from the hustle and bustle of the main street. We headed back into the snow and I shivered, freezing from the awful weather. As we walked I spotted the ridiculous little tea shop in the back of the street. There were a number of boys that were being dragged in by their dates and they looked horrified. I noticed that a number of them were looking after me longingly. Probably because they could tell that I was on my way anywhere but the little shot.

"No Madam Puddifoot's this time?" I asked teasingly, motioning over to the little pink store.

Cedric glanced over and laughed, pushing me past. "We can go by and see how long it takes you to get the two of us kicked out?" Cedric offered.

It really wouldn't take me very long to get kicked out. Madam Puddifoot had barely wanted us there in the first place when we had been there last year. So we passed the store, the two of us laughing loudly. I noticed that a few girls with their dates were glaring as us as we passed. Or more appropriately, me. It was exactly the way that I had expected. None of them wanted to see me on a date with Cedric Diggory. They all wanted to be in my place. It did make me smile that they weren't. Instead the two of us went out to the Shrieking Shack.

There was no one else out there. "Romantic," I teased, as we walked up to the abandoned shack.

"I figured that you'd like it," Cedric said.

"You figured right." We walked past the fences and I stared at the building. How the hell were we supposed to get in? How did anyone get in? Or was it only ghouls and ghosts who could float through walls? "No way to get in?" I finally asked Cedric.

He shook his head at me as we walked up and down the fence. "Nope. No doors or windows. Supposedly the most haunted building in all of Britain. Shrieks and screams at all hours of the night. We have no idea why it's here or who built it," Cedric said, making me laugh.

"Creepy," I said.

"You want me to hold your hand?" Cedric asked teasingly.

"Oh, shut up," I snapped, shoving him off to the side. Cedric laughed and wrapped an arm over my shoulder. "Why don't you go inside, tough guy?"

He laughed as I started nudging him in the chest. "Oh, I'm far too scared to go in there," Cedric said, patting himself on the chest.

We both laughed as Cedric grabbed me over the shoulder and started dragging me with him through the snow. We laughed and chatted as we walked back and forth. It had been a long time since I'd felt so happy and carefree. I wasn't thinking about any of the troubles that normally started to plague me. We headed back to the center of Hogsmeade and pushed our way through the throng of people. It was rather hard - seeing as it was so crowded - but I liked being out with him. We headed into another store called Spintwitches Sporting Needs. It was extremely crowded.

Right in the window was the Firebolt on display. It took us almost ten minutes to make it up to the display. I put my hand on the broom and sighed deeply. "One day, darling," I said longingly.

Cedric laughed and took his place behind me. "Does your dad have the Firebolt yet?" he asked curiously.

Turning back towards him, I nodded, the two of us moving closer towards the back of the store to let the others take a look at the Firebolt. "He gets it next week. Already told me that he was planning on going back to the States to fly around the Stars Quidditch Pitch to get some miles in on it," I said sadly, staring wistfully after the new broom.

"Jealous?" Cedric asked teasingly.

There was never something that I was more jealous of. Particularly because I knew that Dad wouldn't even let me use it. Just like when he had first gotten the Nimbus 2000. He had made me wait months before letting me try it out. "Extremely. I don't think that Dad will even let me touch it," I said despairingly.

"Think he'll let me touch it?" Cedric asked.

"I think he'd sooner blast off your hand," I teased.

We both laughed as Cedric looped an arm over my shoulder, picking up the price tag. It was over three hundred Galleons. We both scoffed and laughed. There was no way that either one of us had that much money. I could beg and plead with Mom and Dad all that I wanted; they were never going to let me get something that expensive. No grades, good behavior, or seeing them as much as possible would do the right things for me. I would just have to wait until it came down in price.

"I thought so," Cedric said, walking us slightly away from the broom, since there were others who wanted to see it. "You know, even if you have a Firebolt, you still won't win our match in a few months."

"You lost last year, you'll lose this year, and you'll lose every year subsequently," I snapped playfully.

There was no way that he was beating us. Not now that he was the captain. I knew that he would never let me live it down. "Don't be so cocky. You're going to lose eventually," Cedric said.

"You know that I haven't lost a single Quidditch match since I've been on the Gryffindor team?" I asked.

Cedric nodded, looking a little proud. "I know. You'll have to keep that going," Cedric said.

"I intend to."

"Just make sure you beat Slytherin next month, yeah?"

"I'd rather eat my foot than lose to them," I said seriously.

"Keep it that way," Cedric said.

We both laughed as we left the shop. There was no way that I would ever let Slytherin beat us. I hated them more than anything, strictly because Malfoy was on their team and was so big-headed about everything else. We walked into Tomes and Scrolls, the bookstore in Hogsmeade. It was one of my favorite places in Hogsmeade. I loved the smell of parchment and the warm fireplace that oozed golden light all throughout the stone front of the store. We walked in and picked up some of out favorite books from childhood to show to each other.

There were a number of squashy chairs in Tomes and Scrolls - just like in the Gryffindor Common Room - that we sat in. Although there was only one chair left, so we had to squeeze into it together. It ended up being a little cute. He sat down in the chair and I fell sideways over his lap so that we could show each other our books and sip on some coffee, which I teased him over. He had never actually tried coffee before so I quite enjoyed watching him complain over the bitterness of the drink while I complained over all of the sugar that he put in his tea.

Our tastes in books were a little more similar than our taste of drinks. We both ended up loving The Tales of Beedle the Bard, as most Wizarding World children did. His favorite story was The Tale of the Three Brothers. My favorite had always been the Fountain of Fair Fortune, which Cedric had laughed at, since it was a little bit of a girly story and I wasn't exactly a girly type of person. But I maintained that it was the most entertaining of the stories, although I was partial to his favorite, too. After a few hours we finally put the book down and simply sat in the chair, chatting back and forth.

But I was well aware that a number of people were watching the two of us gradually get closer and closer. Cedric seemed to notice my discomfort. "Want to go to Zonko's?" he offered.

"Sure!"

That was another place that I had been looking forward to going. Cedric helped me up out of the chair before following me out. I was glad to get away from some of the scathing glares that were being sent my way by students who were in chairs of their own. We headed back onto the snow-lined streets and headed out towards Zonko's Joke Shop, where students were pouring out onto the street. It was very busy. Cedric briefly left to go and grab something - a birthday present for one of his friends in Hufflepuff - as I went to looking through the shelves to get something for Harry.

"Having a good date?"

Jumping at the sudden noise, I whirled around to see that Fred Weasley was standing over me and grinning. He had one arm on each side of me. "Merlin!" I barked, placing a hand over my chest. "You scared me."

"Everyone is talking about it," George added, stepping onto my other side.

"No they aren't," I hissed.

But they were. I knew that they were. My face was burning as I realized that people had been watching us all day, something that I was really embarrassed about. "Just look around," Fred said, pointing to the people standing around us.

"Are they really?" I asked, blushing madly.

"They are," George said.

Well that was incredibly embarrassing. "If you're planning on kissing him at any point, you may want to make sure that you're not anywhere near any other students," Fred advised.

"Freddie!" I barked. Both he and George laughed. I placed my hand on their arms and shoved them away from me. "Goodbye, boys. Go bother someone else."

"Don't be cruel, Tara, we're leaving," George said, ruffling my hair as he passed.

I swatted his arm away and turned back to glare at Fred, who hadn't moved yet. "Don't you have someone else to bother?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Probably. But I choose you," Fred teased.

He teasingly placed a hand under my chin and shook it around. I rolled my eyes and shoved him away from me, laughing under my breath. He was a pain in the ass but I really did enjoy having the twins around. I walked off to the side and picked up a few things that I thought that Harry might like. I knew that Ron and Hermione would get him some things, too, but I wanted him to feel like he had gotten to come today. So I picked up a few things before heading to the cashier, paying, and waiting for Cedric to make his purchases.

"What's that?" Cedric asked, pointing to my top package as he got over to me.

"Fanged Frisbee. I thought that Harry might like it," I said.

"That was nice of you."

"Honestly I think that it might be good for him to set the thing after his cousin, Dudley."

We both laughed loudly. I knew that Harry would love it. And we would have a lot of fun watching Dudley run through the yard in fear from the Fanged Frisbee. "Want to go get a hot Butterbeer?" Cedric offered as we walked out into the street.

"I'd love that," I said happily.

The two of us walked out of the store as Cedric threw an arm over my shoulder. I smiled as we started walking through the streets again. I was gently kicking the snow around as we walked towards the Three Broomsticks Inn. The whispers were still following us as we walked and I found myself to be a little embarrassed. There were so many Hogwarts students hanging around and Cedric was one of the most popular people in Hogwarts. And I was the freak who could talk to snakes and had a strange connection to Voldemort. We were a strange mix.

He would have been better off with someone a lot prettier and with a lot less of a complicated life. But, for some reason, he seemed to have picked me. Which I couldn't understand for the life of me, but I wasn't going to complain. We walked into the Three Broomsticks and I immediately stopped dead in my tracks. It was jam-packed with people who were mostly Hogwarts aged. Cedric managed to find us a table in the far corner, away from everyone else. The inn was very warm, crowded, and a bit smoky, but clean and welcoming. And a mirror behind the bar showed everyone.

"It looks so dark," I commented, sipping on the hot Butterbeer.

"It's darker than normal with the presence of Dementors in the area," Cedric explained.

A little shiver shot down my spine. Cedric noticed as he scooted a little closer to me and threw an arm over my shoulder. "That's awful," I muttered, letting Cedric pull me into him.

The thought of still having the Dementors in the area was sending a nasty chill all over my body. I hated them. "At least we were able to come out. I was going a little stir-crazy in the castle," Cedric said, laughing and running his hand through his hair.

"Because of your O.W.L.s?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. They're driving me insane," Cedric groaned.

Obviously he was very sick of all of the studying that he had to do for his exams. I could only imagine how I would manage in two years. "Well if you ever need to get away, you're more than welcome to come hunt me down. I could always use a break from my crazy life," I said, waving my hand flippantly around me.

"Being the best friend of Harry Potter must have a number of strings attached," Cedric said, making me laugh.

"It does," I said, remembering our time in both the Chamber of Secrets and the dungeons in our First Year. Both his fault. "But I don't mind it. He means the world to me. As crazy as he makes me and angry as I get at him, I am happy to have him in my life."

"You two are pretty close," Cedric said.

"Yeah. We are," I said.

"He's always seemed to like you," Cedric said.

My gaze snapped to him. Was he trying to insinuate that Harry liked me? Gross. "Well, I mean, yeah. We like each other. But it's nothing more than being best friends. When I was younger I asked my parents if we could adopt him." Cedric laughed softly. "We're nothing more than that. Never will be. We can't be. That would be... disgusting. He's like my brother," I said, making it a point to explain exactly what Harry meant to me.

"That's good to hear," Cedric said.

That didn't make much sense to me. "Good?" I asked blankly.

"Well... yeah. You know," Cedric muttered, looking a little awkward.

Of course. He wanted me to be friends with Harry and nothing more. Because, at least I thought, Cedric was interested in me. "I think I know," I muttered, taking a long sip of my hot Butterbeer. "Let me know if you ever want to take a break from studying."

Cedric glanced up at me with a grateful smile, probably happy that I had changed the subject. "You gonna entertain me?" he teased.

"Sure. I'll do back flips," I said.

Cedric raised one of his eyebrows. "Can you actually do a back flip?" he asked.

To be fair, I'd never actually tried to do a back flip before, but I could imagine that it wouldn't work out very well. "No. So if I do it and break something, I'm counting on you bringing me to the hospital wing," I teased, nudging him in the chest.

"I'll always take care of you," Cedric promised.

Stop blushing, you fool! "Aren't you sweet?" I teased, grabbing his chin and shaking his head.

Cedric laughed under his breath and pulled away from me. "The sweetest. After all, I did all of this for you," he said, motioning around us.

I turned back and rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. All you did was bring me around Hogsmeade," I said.

"And are you not having a wonderful time?" Cedric asked.

"No, I am. And I really do like the necklace," I said, twisting the necklace around in my fingers.

"I'm glad that you like it," Cedric said happily.

And I really did like it. It was one of the nicest presents that anyone had ever gotten for me before. But there was something that I wanted to see. "You wear it for a minute," I said determinedly.

"For?" Cedric asked.

"I want to see what your favorite memory is," I said.

Cedric laughed and nodded. "Okay," he said, moving towards me.

He reached around and pulled off the necklace to place it around his own throat. Then he opened it and showed me. I realized with a little start what it was. We were back in the middle of last year, the two of us sitting by the Black Lake, before everything had started happening. It was the moment from the photo frame that Cedric had given me for Christmas when I'd been upset about the Heir of Slytherin stuff. I was in the middle of a laugh and he was looking at me with a bright smile. I realized that the look he was giving me in the picture was the same one he was giving me now.

"Oh..." I mumbled, realizing that it was one of his favorite memories. Just like how my favorite memories were with him, his favorite memories were of me. "Yeah. That was a good day."

"It was," Cedric agreed.

"There's always something to smile about," I said, throwing his words back in his face.

"You'd do well to remember that," Cedric pointed out.

And he was very right about that. It was something that I needed to remember. "I try," I muttered.

Right now I had my something to be happy about. The fact that, even with everything that was happening, I could still manage to find a way to be happy. With nothing else bothering me. It was the first time in a long time that I could remember being happy and having not a care in the world. After a while I curled up into his side and glanced around as we chatted. I spotted Ron had Hermione in the middle of the inn and I smiled at them. Hermione gave me a thumbs up and smiled brightly, but Ron looked furious that Cedric had his arm around me and I was pressed against him.

About an hour passed before we finished our drinks and Cedric smiled at me. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"I think I am."

People were starting to stare again and I could hear the whispers rising over the rest of the crowd. Their comments were not anything else that I wanted to hear. So I got up and walked outside with him. We headed back out into the snow-covered stone path and headed out towards the woods, which was exactly where I wanted to be. Somewhere far away from everyone else for a chance to talk before it was time to head back to Hogwarts. As we walked I reached out and interlaced my fingers with his, letting Cedric know that I felt the same way. I noticed his lips pull upwards into a smile.

We were tripping through the tall piles of snowbanks and I laughed as we were barely able to pull ourselves over one. "Good place for a snowball fight," I said, kicking a large pile of snow.

"Well, if it's a snowball fight you want..." Cedric trailed off.

He jumped up and pulled away from me, grabbing a handful of snow, and throwing it straight into my face. I laughed and tried to sprint off, but Cedric grabbed me around the waist and pressed the snow into my hair. We were trying desperately to get away from each other. I was laughing as he chased after me. I wished that I was a little bit faster, but somehow Cedric was faster than me.

"Stop!" I shouted, still laughing.

"Sore loser!" Cedric teased.

The two of us laughed and I shrieked loudly as I sprinted off to collect some more snow. All I wanted to do was beat him in the snow fight. I knew that I could show him up. For a long while we threw snowballs back and forth, whacking each other in the face, back, chest, and legs. A few times I had swallowed some snow because I'd gotten a snowball straight to the face. I laughed as I dashed away from Cedric, but I was too slow. Cedric darted over to me and tackled me from behind and sent ups both sprawling into the snow. I laughed again as we spun across the snow together.

It was freezing but it was also the most fun I'd had in a long time. We were pressed together, with Cedric leaning over me. I knew that he was keeping himself supported over me so that he didn't crush me under his weight. My face started to heat up slightly as he gently wiped my hair out of my face. I was sure that we were about to kiss as he wrapped a lock of my hair around his finger and started leaning into me. But everything stopped when his eyes briefly darted down to my chest. I bristled slightly but quickly realized that he was only grabbing for my necklace.

Why? He'd already seen it. But that was when I realized. "What the hell is this?" Cedric asked angrily, pulling the Time-Turner out of my shirt.

"Nothing!" I said, grabbing the necklace back and trying to tuck it into my shirt again. "Just a necklace that my parents bought me."

"Sure it is," Cedric scoffed, slapping my hand away and grabbing the necklace again. He looked it over closely. "I've seen this before. Dad showed me pictures. Tara, this is a Time-Turner. Isn't it?"

He sounded very angry as we both sat up. "Well, you see -"

"These are illegal!" Cedric interrupted, yelling at me by now. "You're not just breaking Hogwarts rules this time, you're breaking the law. Are you insane? Messing with time is dangerous."

"If you'd let me talk -"

"How did you even get this?" Cedric interrupted again.

"I actually got it from -"

"You're actually going to make me lose my mind -"

"Cedric Diggory, shut your mouth for three seconds so I can explain!" I shouted, sick of being spoken over. He looked very surprised as he silenced himself. "Thank you. This Time-Turner was given to me completely legally. You wondered how I got from class to class when those classes are happening at the same time? This is how. Hermione and I share it. Professor McGonagall entrusted it with us because she knew that we were trustworthy. I just happen to have it right now. We use it to go to all of our classes. She made us swear that we wouldn't show anyone, not even Ron or Harry. I know how dangerous it is to have one of these. Please, Cedric, you can't tell anyone. We got special permission to use this from the Ministry of Magic as long as no one found out about it. You aren't supposed to know."

Cedric sat in silence for a few moments, still looking very surprised. He took the Time-Turner in his hand and looked it over closely. "So - So you have this legally?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Is that so hard to believe?" I asked sharply.

"A little," Cedric admitted.

Was it really that surprising? I didn't think that it was. But maybe it was. "It's been working well enough for us this semester. I just need you to swear to me that you won't say anything. I've been so careful up until now," I said seriously.

It was the first time that I had ever been serious like that in front of him. But I could be arrested for using a Time-Turner. Even though it was legal for me to have it, I was going to be in serious trouble if the Ministry found out that someone else had discovered it. I didn't need to be expelled from Hogwarts, sentenced to time in Azkaban, or have my wand snapped.

"You have my word," Cedric promised, helping me back to my feet. I smiled gratefully at him. "I knew that I was seeing you on opposite ends of the castle faster than humanly possible."

"You're seeing both versions of me as I get done everything that I need to get done," I said.

"That's actually pretty cool," Cedric said.

"Thank you. And thanks for not saying anything," I said gratefully.

Cedric grinned at me again. We both knew that him keeping this a secret was extremely important. "Not a problem. You're too pretty to rot in an Azkaban cell," Cedric teased, pressing a hand under my chin.

"Thanks," I laughed, pulling away from him.

"Come on now! All Hogwarts students are to head back to the castle immediately," Hagrid called off in the distance.

No way. There was no way that my day could be over already. I'd been having so much fun. "It can't be time already," I said sadly, leaning onto Cedric's shoulder and frowning.

"Unfortunately I believe that it is," Cedric said.

"Time flies when you're having fun," I said.

"So you had a good day?" Cedric asked.

It was the best damn time I've had in a long time, but I wish that you would kiss me already! "Believe it or not, I did. Thanks for taking me out here," I said, convincing myself not to say what I really wanted to.

"I was glad too. Are you riding back with your friends?" Cedric asked as we started walking towards the carriages.

"That eager to get rid of me?" I teased.

Cedric laughed as we continued to walk, even though I would much rather hide in one of the shops and live out here for the next few weeks. "Of course not. I'm sure that they're waiting to ask you about what happened today just the same way that my friends will," Cedric pointed out.

That was very true. Within a matter of hours everyone would be talking about what we had been doing on our date here, not that either one of us would tell them anything. Not that anything that serious had happened between us anyways. "They're not getting anything out of me," I said.

"Same here," Cedric agreed.

Before I could walk over to the carriage I remembered that I still had something of his. "Oh, let me give you your jacket back," I said, starting to slip out of Cedric's jacket.

He placed an arm on my shoulder to keep me from moving anymore. "Keep it. It looks better on you," Cedric said.

He was smiling at me and I laughed softly. Slowly I tightened the jacket and pulled it back onto my shoulders. "You keep letting me take your clothes and you're going to run out," I teased, remembering his scarf that I already had.

"Like I said, it looks better on you," Cedric said..

The blush on my face increased tenfold as Cedric walked towards me and stood in front of me. He grabbed the lapels of the jacket and and gently pulled it a little bit tighter around me. I stupidly blushed again. All he was doing was tightening the jacket because he knew that I was cold. There was nothing else. But maybe that wasn't the truth. Maybe there was something a little more than that. We stared at each other for a moment and I realized that he wasn't walking away from me. He was just standing in front of me and staring at me.

The look in his eyes was piercing. I gave him a slightly awkward smile as I debated on what I could go with; sarcasm or something sweet. But I never got the chance. Because Cedric thread our fingers together and started leaning in towards me. What is he doing? He's actually going to kiss me! Cedric Diggory is going to kiss me! Act on it, you idiot! So this time I leaned in towards him and neither one of us pulled back. Cedric still had his hands on the jacket as he tugged me to stand flush against him and placed a hand underneath my chin.

He tilted my head up slightly so that I could look at him. He gave me a final smile before slipping his eyes closed. My hands were shaking slightly as I placed them at Cedric's wrists. Whether it was to steady them or keep him from moving, I wasn't quite sure. Cedric pulled my head up and dropped his own as my eyes fluttered closed. And, just a second later, our lips very gently brushed each others. My heart skipped a beat as he pulled back. We smiled at each other and I giggled somewhat hysterically before he pulled me back. Our lips met in another gentle kiss and I felt his hand tighten slightly.

We were about to share a real kiss. My first real kiss. But just as he was about to deepen the kiss, a shout echoed across the field. "All Hogwarts students, back to the carriages!" Hagrid shouted.

The two of us both jumped back from each other. That definitely wasn't something that I had been expecting. And right before I'd had my real first kiss! Not the little brush of our lips and not the stupid kiss that I had exchanged with Malfoy while I had been pretending to be Parkinson. Maybe I could have come back and kissed him for real, but the moment had passed. So we both laughed and straightened ourselves out. Perhaps one day we would really get there. For now, it was a step in the right direction. Slowly we turned back to the carriages, both laughing and smiling.

"Of course," I muttered, running my hands through my hair.

"One day we won't be interrupted," Cedric said.

"Today is not that day," I said.

"No. It isn't," Cedric said.

"Tara! Let's go! We've got stuff for Harry," Ron shouted from one of the carriages.

"Ron!" Hermione barked at him.

Cedric and I turned to each other and started to laugh. Of course they were going to interrupt me. Well, Ron was. Hermione wanted us to have our moment, even though it already passed. "I think that's my cue," I said, looking back at Cedric.

"Ced! Come on!" a boy about Cedric's age in a Hufflepuff scarf shouted.

"And there's mine," Cedric said, turning back to me. "I had fun today, Tara."

"Me, too," I said.

"See you at the feast."

"See you."

We smiled at each other. I knew that we were both debating on moving in for a kiss. But it wasn't the right time. Everyone was watching us right now and I didn't want my first real kiss to be in front of an audience. No. I would have to wait just a little while longer. Maybe next year... Cedric moved forward and pressed a kiss against my cheek. I blushed brilliantly as we exchanged a quick hug and headed back to our respective carriages. I jammed my way in between Ron and Hermione and grunted, kicking my feet up in between them.

"Isn't that his?" Ron asked, pointing at the coat.

"Hello, Ronald. I had a nice day, too. Thank you for asking," I said.

"What happened?" Ron asked, ignoring me.

"I had a wonderful time," I said happily.

"Did he kiss you?" Ron asked sharply.

Well, he would have, if Hagrid didn't shout at everyone getting back to the carriages. "Stop!" I barked, feeling very embarrassed. I didn't want to think about it right now, in case I accidentally let it spill. Then everyone at school would know within a matter of days, and that would be a nightmare. "Even if he did, I wouldn't tell you."

"So he did?" Ron asked.

"No!" I shouted.

"Good," Ron grunted.

"So I can trust that you'll tell Harry that we didn't kiss each other?" I asked sharply.

"Of course," Ron said.

Hermione was rolling her eyes. "Honestly, Ron," she groaned.

"So where did you guys go?" I asked curiously, wanting to change the subject.

The three of us leaned back in our chairs as we headed back towards Hogwarts. As good of a day as I had had, I was excited to get back and see how Harry had managed to spend his day. We ended up spending the ride back telling each other all about our days. They had gone to the same places that Cedric and I had gone and - as expected - Ron had thought that we were sitting too close together at the Three Broomsticks. I had then gone to teasing them about how close they were sitting and that had easily shut them up.

Eventually we arrived back at Hogwarts and headed straight up towards the staircases. I briefly caught Cedric's eye and blushed as I headed upstairs towards Gryffindor Tower. At this point I just wanted to make sure that Harry wasn't too depressed. We did still have the feast, anyways. As we headed upstairs, Ron and Dean started chatting back and forth with each other. I took the time to grab Hermione and pull her off to the side to tell her everything that had happened. She was thrilled about the almost-kiss and swore not to say anything to the boys.

"There you go. We got as much as we could carry," Ron said.

The three of us walked into the Common Room and headed straight over to where Harry was sitting on the couch. He looked very bored, a little bothered about something, and slightly jealous. But we changed all of that when the shower of brilliantly colored sweets fell into Harry's lap and I tossed the Fanged Frisbee on top. It was now dusk and the Halloween feast would be coming soon. Ron, Hermione, and I were pink-faced from the cold wind and trying very hard not to look as though we'd had the time of our lives.

"Thanks," Harry said, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. "What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?"

For a moment we hesitated on saying where we had gone. Because it wasn't really a great idea to tell him. We didn't want to make him anymore put out but we both knew that it was the right idea to tell him. And so we did. We told him everywhere that we went. Although they had been asking about all of our days, I let them talk. They had ended up going to Dervish and Banges, Zonko's Joke Shop, into the Three Broomsticks for foaming mugs of hot Butterbeer - the one place I had seen them - and many places besides.

"The post office, Harry! About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, all color-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there!" Hermione chattered excitedly.

"Honeydukes has got a new kind of fudge; they were giving out free samples, there's a bit, look -" Ron started before Hermione spoke over him.

"We think we saw an ogre, honestly, they get all sorts at the Three Broomsticks -"

"Wish we could have brought you some Butterbeer, really warms you up -"

"Neither one of you are helping," I interrupted.

They both looked a little abashed as Harry smiled and pushed me back. I didn't want to be cruel to them, but they weren't helping Harry get over not being able to go to Hogsmeade. "How was your date?" Harry asked.

"It was good," I said simply.

"That's it?" Harry asked, surprised.

There was no way that I was speaking anything more about it - unless it was to Hermione - until other people stopped talking about it. "Until the rumors die down and I know that you won't go blabbing about what happened, I'm not saying anything more than that," I snapped.

"Do you know?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Of course," Hermione scoffed.

Harry's jaw dropped. "That's not fair! You've known me longer," he huffed.

"I don't know either, and we've been friends longer," Ron reasoned.

"I know. But Hermione's a girl," I pointed out.

There were certain things that they didn't need to know. And right now I wanted to talk to them about anything but my date. Right now I just wanted to change the subject. Thankfully Hermione took my cue. "What did you do? Did you get any work done?" Hermione asked, looking anxious.

"No," Harry said. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office. And then Snape came in..."

He proceeded to tell us about how Professor Lupin invited Harry for tea in his office. He apparently asked why he was not given the chance to fight the Boggart. Professor Lupin didn't want Voldemort to appear in the classroom. Which was very wise, although we didn't expect that I would have a Boggart turn into Voldemort. They had evidently been interrupted by Snape, who had a steaming goblet, that Professor Lupin promptly drank. Harry was worried that Snape was poisoning Professor Lupin to get his teaching position, but Professor Lupin was unheeded. Ron's mouth fell open.

"Lupin drank it? Is he mad?" Ron asked.

Hermione checked her watch. "We'd better go down, you know, the feast will be starting in five minutes," she said.

Which was fine by me, considering that I was really hungry. I didn't get much of a chance to eat anything other than the bit of candy and some other things that I had gotten a chance to much on while I had been out in Hogsmeade. In the meantime I had been really waiting to eat at the feast, which always had the best food. I quickly went upstairs and changed - putting Cedric's coat over the back of my chair - and headed back down to the Common Room. Then we hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd. They were still discussing Snape.

"But if he - you know," Hermione dropped her voice, glancing nervously around, "if he was trying to - to poison Lupin - he wouldn't have done it in front of Harry."

"Yeah, maybe," Harry said as we reached the entrance hall and crossed into the Great Hall.

"You're all morons," I snapped, earning strange looks. "Snape is the same age as our parents. I told you all that my parents and Professor Lupin were in school together. That would make them all the same age. Whatever it is that Snape doesn't like about him, it's an old school rivalry, nothing more. The same reason that he doesn't like Harry because of James and he doesn't like me because of my father. Did it never occur to any of you that Snape is the Potions Master of the school? Just looking at Professor Lupin, you should know that he's sick. Whatever Snape gave him was probably the antidote that Dumbledore asked him to make. Snape is loyal to Dumbledore and Dumbledore is loyal to Professor Lupin. The only thing there is a strange illness and a hatred from childhood carried over into adulthood."

They were all staring at me like I'd lost my mind. But I didn't care. I was right. Snape was a giant jerk but he wasn't a murderous criminal. Hermione shifted anxiously on her feet. "She makes a point..." Hermione muttered, trailing off.

"And you're supposed to be the smart one," I huffed.

"You're far too observant for someone normal," Ron pointed out.

"Thanks," I said, smiling brightly. "Plus there's the fact that every time that you all think that something's happened, you're always wrong. It wasn't Snape who was after the Sorcerer's Stone, it wasn't Hagrid who opened the Chamber of Secrets, and Malfoy wasn't the Heir of Slytherin. If any of you would ever listen to me, these problems we have would be solved much earlier."

The four of us laughed as we headed towards the Gryffindor table. "You're like Sherlock Holmes. You make these grand assumptions out of nothing," Hermione pointed out, making me laugh.

"Who's Sherlock Holmes?" Ron asked.

Harry, Hermione, and I all exchanged looks. "I'm buying you a Muggle library card for Christmas," I told Ron blandly.

The three others laughed as Ron gave me a sidelong look. I couldn't believe that he didn't know who Sherlock Holmes was. I thought that everyone knew who Sherlock Holmes was. As we walked into the Great Hall I smiled. The Great Hall was been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats, and many flaming orange streamers, which were swimming lazily across the stormy ceiling like brilliant water-snakes. It was gorgeous, just the way that it always was.

The food was delicious, as always; even Hermione, Ron, and me, who were all relatively full to bursting with Honeydukes sweets, managed second helpings of everything. Harry kept glancing at the staff table. I rolled my eyes at him, knowing that he was watching to see anything strange. Professor Lupin looked cheerful and as well as he ever did; he was talking animatedly to Professor Flitwick. I moved my eyes along the table, to the place where Snape sat. The only thing that I could tell was that Snape's eyes did seem to be flickering toward Professor Lupin more often than was natural.

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. It seemed to be something new this year. I hadn't seen them ever do something like that before. Of course, the last two years we had missed most of the feast. I had missed the end during my First Year because of the troll and Hermione incident, and during the Second Year we had been at the Deathday party. The ghosts popped out of the walls and tables to do a bit of formation gliding; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had a great success with a reenactment of his own botched beheading.

It had earned a long round of applause. While we were all eating the rest of the dessert - particularly where I got the chance to have some chocolate cake - I noticed that people were starting to look at me again. I rolled my eyes and dug a little further into my cake. I really didn't want to hear them all talking about my date. I knew that they were. I could hear them all talking about my date with Cedric earlier, which was very embarrassing for me. It didn't help that each time that I looked over at Cedric I would catch his eye and blush as he winked at me.

It had been such a pleasant evening that my good mood couldn't even be spoiled by Malfoy, who shouted through the crowd as they all left the hall, "The Dementors send their love, Potter!"

"When do you think he'll get a new joke?" I asked irritably.

"Never," Ron said.

Which, unfortunately, was likely the truth. It was incredibly annoying that Malfoy was still talking about the Dementor attack. The good thing was that the only people who were still laughing about it were the Slytherin's. Everyone else seemed bored about the whole thing. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I followed the rest of the Gryffindor's along the usual path to Gryffindor Tower, but when we reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, we found it jammed with students.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" Ron asked curiously.

For a moment I peered over the heads in front of me. The portrait seemed to be closed. The portrait was never close. "Let me through, please," Percy's voice echoed as he walked by, coming bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password - excuse me, I'm Head Boy -"

And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. My heart lodged itself in my throat. Whatever had just happened wasn't very good. The silence wasn't good at all. There was never any silence around the castle that was good. It meant that something bad was happening. And I had known that something bad was coming. I'd been feeling it in my bones for a few weeks. Then I heard Percy speak again, in a suddenly sharp voice.

"Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

"What happened?" I asked Percy as he came back towards us.

But he ignored me. People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe. "What's going on?" Ginny asked, who had just arrived.

If only we actually knew what was going on. But none of us knew what was going on. All I knew was that, if Professor Dumbledore was coming, it meant that nothing good was happening. Professor Dumbledore only came whenever there was a big problem. A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait in hurried movements; the Gryffindor's squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I moved closer to see what the trouble was.

"Oh, my..." Hermione grabbed Harry's arm.

That was when I realized what the problem was. "Merlin... That's not someone's idea of a sick joke," I whispered.

"So what is it?" Harry asked confusedly.

"Haven't the faintest," I muttered.

And I really didn't. I didn't have the slightest clue what was happening right now. All I knew was that something dangerous was happening in the castle. The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas were now littering the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely. I couldn't see where the Fat Lady had gone. Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him.

"We need to find her. Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady," Dumbledore said.

"You'll be lucky!" a cackling voice cried.

Everyone turned back to see who had appeared. I rolled my eyes. It was one of my least favorite people, ghosts, animals, or anything else in Hogwarts. It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry. Was this something that he had done? I couldn't imagine him going this far.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

To my surprise, Peeves's grin faded a little. It wasn't just because Dumbledore was asking about something. It was because whatever had happened was scaring even Peeves. And that wasn't a good thing. As usual, Peeves didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his normal cackle.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," Peeves said happily. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.

"Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

"Oh yes, Professorhead," Peeves said, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."


	45. Grim Defeat

The air was eerily silent as my skin crawled. My parents had spoken about him that night. Dad had asked Mom if he thought that Sirius Black was going to come after them. Them being Harry and me. Mom had said that she knew that he would. And she had just proven herself right. Sirius Black was here... in the castle. Trying to break into the Gryffindor Common Room. But to do what? Was he trying to kill us? Trying to hold us hostage? Question us about something. Everything was staring back and forth as I glanced over to Harry and grabbed his hand.

There was no coincidence that Sirius Black was attempting to break into the Gryffindor Tower. Gryffindor, not any of the other Houses. The one House that Harry and I were in. The one place that we were almost destined to be. The one place that I was very grateful that we weren't. Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindor's back to the Great Hall. Our House walked in mostly silence as people tried to process what had just happened. Plus the air was a little too tense to speak. I stood in the corner with Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

Thankfully no one was passing looks at me. Because, as far as they were all concerned, they had no idea that there was any relation between Sirius Black and us. But there was. Something. I just wasn't sure what. Chatter began to rise around the Great Hall but I found myself unable to speak. Not until I knew that Sirius Black was out of the castle and far away from me. Not that it really mattered anymore. He could get past the Dementors and enchantments. How? Was he that determined to get here?

Obviously there was something in here of great importance to Sirius Black. Enough to risk getting caught and going back to Azkaban. Was murdering Harry and me worth it? Maybe... We were eventually joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused. Apparently all they knew was that something had happened at the Gryffindor Tower and the rest of the school was put on alert. I was very surprised when Cedric almost immediately walked over to me. He was at least lucky enough to have changed into his pajamas.

Stepping away from my friends for a moment, I walked off with Cedric towards the back corner, sitting on the edge of the Gryffindor table. "Do you know what's happening?" Cedric asked. Before I could say anything else, Cedric asked, "Are you alright?"

It made a small smile appear on my face. He was a good person. Someone who always wanted to make sure that I was alright before anything else. "The Fat Lady. Her portrait was destroyed. Torn to shreds because she wouldn't let Sirius Black in." Cedric's eyes widened slightly. "He's here. In the castle. He was trying to get into the Gryffindor Common Room," I said, my voice shaking slightly.

"Who told you that?" Cedric asked slowly.

"Peeves," I answered.

That didn't sit well with Cedric. I knew that it seemed like Peeves was a liar, but I did believe that Sirius Black really had made his way into the castle to hurt someone or take something. "Are you sure it's not one of his jokes?" Cedric asked curiously. I shook my head. "The castle is warded. The Dementors are watching. There's no way that Black could get in here."

"Well he did. He's here," I said, a little snappier than I had meant to. I took a deep breath and grabbed one of Cedric's hands, lacing our fingers together. "Peeves is an ass but he doesn't lie to Professor Dumbledore."

Cedric pulled me into him slightly and I let out a deep breath. "It's gonna be alright, Tara," he said, wrapping an arm over my shoulders. "The professors will be looking for him. No one is going to let you or Harry or anyone else get hurt."

"How did they miss him?" I asked desperately, thinking about the Dementors that surrounded the school.

"I'm not sure, but it's going to be okay. I promise you," Cedric said, placing a gentle kiss in my hair.

The only reason that people weren't watching us was because something a little more interesting had happened. Because Sirius Black was somehow inside a warded castle. "Thanks. I can't believe he's here..." I whispered, dropping my head into Cedric's chest.

"He might not be. They might be mistaken," Cedric said, brushing my hair back.

"Everyone knows what he looks like," I argued.

"Well... At least everything is exciting again," Cedric tease, poking me in the hip.

"You're useless," I snapped, laughing bitterly.

Cedric smiled and gently nudged me again. "I'm just kidding," he said.

At that same moment, Professor Dumbledore strode back into the Great Hall. Everyone silenced themselves as they stood to listen to what was happening. My friends walked over to me and I half-expected Cedric to head back to his friends. Instead, they came a little closer to him and he stood with me. Cedric kept an arm wrapped around my waist, almost as if he was expecting me to drop at any moment, as we listened to Professor Dumbledore explain what had happened.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore said as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately." Percy looked immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts." Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..."

One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the Great Hall. Everyone gasped softly and stepped back. I was a little disappointed that we would have to be staying in the Great Hall, considering that it didn't look very comfortable, but it was better than dead. That was all that mattered to me. And it might be a little fun. Like one big sleepover. If only the Slytherin's were gone. The tables stood themselves against the walls; another wave from Dumbledore and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well," Professor Dumbledore said, closing the door behind him.

For a while I just stood there and stared, wondering what the hell had just happened. We were about to have a very uncomfortable night together. I knew that much. Sleeping bags were never that nice and I wasn't overly fond of camping. The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly now the Professor Dumbledore was gone with most of the rest of the teachers in the school; the Gryffindor's were now telling the rest of the school what had just happened with the Fat Lady.

"Everyone into their sleeping bags! Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!" Percy shouted.

It was only a little after nine at night but I knew that they wanted us asleep, rather than chattering away about how Sirius Black was somewhere around here. "C'mon," Ron said to Harry, Hermione, and me.

Hermione nodded for me to say goodbye to Cedric and grabbed a sleeping bag for me. So they seized four sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner. "I'll be right there," I called after them.

"Okay," Harry said.

As everyone started to find their places to sleep, I turned back to Cedric. "I'm sorry that we've disturbed your sleep," I told him honestly.

"That's alright. I'm just concerned about you," Cedric said.

"Thanks. I'll be okay. I just want to know that he's not here," I said, running my hands through my hair.

If he was gone, or if they were mistaken and he was never here in the first place, that would definitely make me feel a lot better. "Even if he was here, he's no idiot. He's not going to still be in the castle. He's long gone by now and he won't try anything again. Everything is going to be okay," Cedric said determinedly.

"One year. I just wanted one normal year," I groaned, pressing my forehead into his chest.

"Nothing is ever going to be normal with you around," Cedric teased.

"I wish it was."

"Come here."

It was enough to make me smile. There weren't many people that actually made me smile when I was stressed like this. Cedric pulled me into a hug and I smiled as he pressed a kiss into my hair. If we weren't standing around another thousand or so people, I might have thought about bringing him in for another kiss. A real kiss this time. But it was the wrong time and we both knew that. Perhaps if we ever got another chance to go out on another date. So I just settled for staying in his arms.

"We should get to bed. I think Percy's going to have a fit if we don't get in there soon," Cedric said.

We both laughed. "That's true. Goodnight, Cedric," I said.

"Goodnight, Tara." Just as I was about to leave, Cedric caught my arm and pulled me back. "Hang on. Take this," Cedric said, slipping the robe off of his shoulders and handing it out to me.

It made me laugh as I grabbed the robe and slipped it over my shoulders. It was very soft and very warm. "You know, I do have enough money to pay for my own clothes," I teased, pulling it a little tighter around me.

Cedric laughed. "You can give it back in the morning. Those just don't look very comfortable to sleep in," he said, pointing to my jeans and button-down shirt.

"Thanks. Goodnight," I chirped.

"Goodnight, Tara."

We exchanged a quick hug before I turned back and headed towards where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were waiting for me. Harry glanced over at me and his eyes immediately locked onto the robe that I was wearing. I noted that his eyes narrowed a little bit and I blushed. Of course that was the first thing that he would notice.

"Diggory's?" Harry asked irritably.

"That's what you're concerned about right now?" I snapped.

"Do you think Black's still in the castle?" Hermione whispered anxiously, changing the subject.

"Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be," Ron said.

Was there a chance that Black really was still in the castle? I would have thought that he would have been long gone by now. "It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know," Hermione said as we climbed fully dressed into our sleeping bags and propped ourselves on our elbows to talk for a few moments. "The one night we weren't in the tower..."

Yes... It was lucky. Oddly lucky. A little too lucky. Not just chance. This was something more. "I reckon he's lost track of time, being on the run. Didn't realize it was Halloween. Otherwise he'd have come bursting in here," Ron said.

But how wouldn't he have realized that it wasn't Halloween? Calendars were hanging up everywhere and the decorations were all over the cities. Not just the Muggle cities, but the magical ones too. No. There was no way. He had to have known that it was Halloween. And, being a Hogwarts student once himself, he would have known that we weren't in the Great Hall. Hermione gave a nasty shudder. All around us, people were asking one another the same question. How on earth did he get in?

"Maybe he knows how to Apparate," a Ravenclaw a few feet away said. "Just appear out of thin air, you know."

"Disguised himself, probably," a Hufflepuff Fifth Year said. He was one of Cedric's friends.

"He could've flown in," Dean suggested.

"Honestly, am I the only person who's ever bothered to read Hogwarts: A History?" Hermione asked us crossly.

"Probably. Why?" Ron asked.

"I've read it. I know what you're talking about," I said.

"Of course you do. Because the castle's protected by more than walls, you know. There are all sorts of enchantments on it, to stop people entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate in here. And I'd like to see the disguise that could fool those Dementors. They're guarding every single entrance to the grounds. They'd have seen him fly in too. And Filch knows all the secret passages, they'll have them covered," Hermione said.

She was right about that. Getting in would have been very hard for Black. Something had to have happened. "Hang on. You mentioned something about not knowing that it was Halloween," I told Ron, wanting to bounce ideas off of them.

"Yeah. So?" Ron asked.

Now they were all watching me. I was always the person that could manage to think things through rationally. "That doesn't make any sense. Everything is decorated. Muggle kids are trick-or-treating. Costumes, candy, the whole nine yards. Everyone, including Sirius Black, would know that it was Halloween," I said irritably.

The more I thought about it, the less that it made sense. "What are you getting at, Tara?" Hermione asked confusedly.

"What's the one day that Black would know that we're not in the castle?" I asked.

Hermione started to shake her head. "I don't understand," she said.

Sighing at their stupidity, I lowered my voice slightly. "Think about it. Black went here himself. He knows that there are Hogsmeade weekends. But they change every year. But everyone knows that Halloween weekend - that Saturday - is the first trip in. Every other trip varies from year to year," I explained, hoping that they would understand.

As usual, they didn't. "Still not following," Ron said.

"He knew that we would be out of the castle. He knew that almost everyone was gone. He knew that if he wanted to get into the castle, this was his best bet," I explained.

"What are you thinking?" Hermione asked, seemingly catching on to what I was talking about.

"He would have believed that Harry and I were out in Hogsmeade. He wouldn't have known that Harry was still in the castle. And he came during the feast. He went here, like I said. He knew that everyone would be down at the feast tonight. There's always the Halloween feast. He would have heard it, anyways. He knew what today was," I reasoned.

And that was when everyone else caught on to what I was talking about. "So you're thinking that he didn't actually want to hurt anyone?" Harry finally asked, looking very unconvinced.

"Yeah. I'm thinking that he wanted this to be a secret. I think he wanted something in Gryffindor Tower and he was trying to do it under cover. But the Fat Lady wouldn't let him in and he got angry," I reasoned as well as I could.

"What would he have wanted?" Hermione asked.

Now that was the big problem. "I don't know. Something of ours, maybe?" I wondered, motioning between Harry and myself.

"What do we have that would mean anything to him?" Harry asked.

"Not a clue," I said.

"The lights are going out now! I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!" Percy shouted.

The candles all went out at once. It was enough to make everyone groan and lay down on their pillows. It wasn't like we could do anything while we couldn't see. But there was no way that people were actually going to go to sleep. Not with all of this happening. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the Prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. What with that, and the whispering that still filled the hall, I felt as though I were sleeping outdoors in a light wind.

Once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the hall to check that everything was quiet. Some people were starting to fall asleep as the night wore on but I was unable to actually fall asleep. Instead I curled myself into the sleeping bag, and Cedric's robe, and went to staring at the necklace that Cedric had given me. Right now it was showing me the quasi-kiss that we had shared in Hogsmeade earlier today. It felt like a year ago. When I wasn't staring at the necklace, Harry and I would play thumb wars, seeing as neither one of us could sleep.

Around three in the morning, when many students had finally fallen asleep, but I still hadn't, Professor Dumbledore finally came in. It was enough for Harry and me to immediately close our eyes and pretend to be asleep. Out of a little slit in my eye, I watched him looking around for Percy, who had been prowling between the sleeping bags, telling people off for talking. Percy was only a short way away from Harry, Ron, Hermione, and me, and Harry, Ron, and I quickly pretended to be asleep as Dumbledore's footsteps drew nearer.

"Any sign of him, Professor?" Percy asked in a whisper.

"No. All well here?"

"Everything under control, sir."

"Good. There's no point moving them all now. I've found a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor portrait hole. You'll be able to move them back in tomorrow."

Apparently the Fat Lady was not coming back. Not that I blamed her. She must have been terrified. "And the Fat Lady, sir?" Percy asked.

"Hiding in a map of Argyllshire on the second floor. Apparently she refused to let Black in without the password, so he attacked. She's still very distressed, but once she's calmed down, I'll have Mr. Filch restore her."

Well that would be alright. I liked the Fat Lady just fine but she did make some rather strange passwords. They were always long and complicated. At least the new person might have some easier ones. But who would have been crazy enough to take the spot of someone who had been attacked by Sirius Black? That was the unnerving thought. I supposed that we would figure it out soon enough; in the morning when it was time to go back. I heard the door of the hall creak open again, and there were more footsteps.

"Headmaster?" a voice called. It was Snape. I kept quite still, listening hard. "The whole of the third floor has been searched. He's not there. And Filch has done the dungeons; nothing there either."

"What about the Astronomy tower? Professor Trelawney's room? The Owlery?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"All searched..." Snape said.

"Very well, Severus. I didn't really expect Black to linger," Professor Dumbledore said.

"Have you any theory as to how he got in, Professor?" Snape asked.

Very slowly I raised my head very slightly off of my arms to free my other ear. "Many, Severus, each of them as unlikely as the next," Professor Dumbledore said.

So there were apparently ways that made sense for Sirius Black to get into the castle. Of course, he had been at Hogwarts for seven years. It only figured that he had learned the ins and outs of the school. And, of course, Dumbledore would know about Sirius's personality after knowing him for so long. Eventually I opened my eyes a fraction and squinted up to where the teachers stood; Dumbledore's back was to me, but I could see Percy's face, rapt with attention, and Snape's profile, which looked angry.

"You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before - ah - the start of term?" Snape said, who was barely opening his lips, as though trying to block Percy out of the conversation.

"I do, Severus," Dumbledore said, and there was something like warning in his voice.

"It seems - almost impossible - that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed -"

"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it," Dumbledore said, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn't reply. "I must go down to the Dementors. I said I would inform them when our search was complete."

"Didn't they want to help, sir?" Percy asked.

"Oh yes. But I'm afraid no Dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am headmaster," Dumbledore said coldly.

But my thoughts were still halted on what they had said before. Concerns before they had appointed someone. And the only new professor was Professor Lupin. Did they have reason to be concerned? It didn't make sense. Professor Lupin was a good man. I believed that. Percy looked slightly abashed. Dumbledore left the hall, walking quickly and quietly. Snape stood for a moment, watching the headmaster with an expression of deep resentment on his face; then he too left. I glanced sideways at Ron, Harry, and Hermione. They had their eyes open too, reflecting the starry ceiling.

What was all that about? Ron mouthed.

And that remained the question for quite some time. What the hell was happening? The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days, as much as Harry and I tried to avoid the conversations. Not when we knew the truth; that he was likely coming to try and kill us for some unknown reason. The theories about how he had entered the castle became wilder and wilder as time passed; Hannah Abbott, from Hufflepuff, spent much of our next Herbology class telling anyone who'd listen that Black could turn into a flowering shrub.

The Fat Lady's ripped canvas had been taken off the wall and replaced with the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat gray pony. Nobody was very happy about this. We all hated that Sir Cadogan was now the owner of the portrait. Everyone now knew where the Gryffindor Common Room was since it was he was so loud every time that we tried to come in and give the password. I had seen the sympathetic smiles from other Houses. Sir Cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords, which he changed at least twice a day.

"He's a complete lunatic. Can't we get anyone else?" Seamus asked Percy angrily.

"None of the other pictures wanted the job. Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer," Percy said.

"Brave," I scoffed as I walked by.

"Can you believe this?" Dean asked, sidling up next to me.

"Why couldn't this have happened to Slytherin?" I groaned, pushing my head into his shoulder.

"Can we just trade portraits?" Dean offered.

"Perfect!" I chirped. Although I knew that there was no portrait for the Slytherin Common Room, I couldn't say anything. Because that would lead to a very awkward conversation about how I knew that. "We should arrange it with Fred and George."

"Planning it already," Dean teased.

Sir Cadogan, however, was the least of my worries. Although he really did annoy me, there were a number of other things that were much more annoying these days. I was now being closely watched. Not just me, but Harry, too. We both were, considering that people were terrified that Sirius Black was going to try and attack us at any given second. Teachers found excuses to walk along corridors with me, and Percy Weasley (acting, we both suspected, on his mother's orders) was tailing us everywhere like an extremely pompous guard dog.

It led to some very awkward shouting matches between the two of us. Well... me shouting at him and him standing very awkwardly. He didn't look happy and it had led to me getting a number of detentions and having points deducted. Not that anyone minded. They were curious about why teachers were acting so oddly around Harry and me. I didn't plan to tell them the truth. To cap it all off, Professor McGonagall summoned Harry and me into her office, with such a somber expression on her face that I thought that someone must have died.

"There's no point hiding it from you any longer, Potter, Nox," Professor McGonagall said in a very serious voice. "I know this will come as a shock to you, but Sirius Black -"

"We know he's after us. We heard Ron's dad telling his mum. Mr. Weasley works for the Ministry of Magic," Harry interrupted wearily.

"My parents talked a little bit about it. It's okay, Professor. We get it," I said honestly.

There seemed to always be something horrible happening to us. Honestly, it couldn't have been that much of a surprise. Professor McGonagall seemed very taken aback. She stared at us for a moment or two, then said, "I see! Well, in that case, Potter, Nox, you'll understand why I don't think it's a good idea for you to be practicing Quidditch in the evenings. Out on the field with only your team members, it's very exposed, Potter, Nox, -"

"We've got our first match on Saturday! We've got to train, Professor!" Harry shouted, outraged.

"We have to! We've worked so hard!" I shouted over him.

There was no way that we weren't going to be practicing Quidditch at any point. That was one of my favorite places to be in Hogwarts. Out in the Quidditch Pitch. They couldn't take that away from us. Plus we had the Slytherin match in a few weeks. And I was dying to pound Malfoy into the sand again. Professor McGonagall considered us intently. I knew that she was deeply interested in the Gryffindor team's prospects; it had been she, after all, who had suggested us as Seeker and alternate Chaser in the first place. We waited, holding our breath.

"Hmm..." Professor McGonagall stood up and stared out of the window at the Quidditch Pitch, which was just visible through the rain. "Well... goodness knows, I'd like to see us win the Cup at last... but all the same, Potter, Nox... I'd be happier if a teacher were present. I'll ask Madam Hooch to oversee your training sessions."

"Yes, ma'am," I said happily.

If it was just a teacher that we needed to be present - as much as I felt like a big baby - I would take it. There was no way that I was getting removed from the Quidditch team. Partially because I loved Quidditch and I really wanted to play, and partially because then we would have to explain why we were being removed, and that would mean revealing that a lunatic madman was out to kill us. Like people hadn't had their issues with us enough over the past two years. It was only a matter of time before they started to wonder why Harry and I were always around the teachers now.

But thankfully no one questioned Madam Hooch's appearance. She simply told everyone that she was there just in case the Dementors traveled a little too close to the Pitch. A few days of very wet and muddy practices passed before I realized that I really needed to speak to Malfoy about what was happening. As much as I hated to admit it, he knew something that I didn't. The way that he had gone on about Black that day on the train, something about how he would go after him himself if it was Malfoy. It didn't make sense. He knew something and I wanted to know what it was.

So after practice one day I sprinted back up to the castle and caught Malfoy and his cronies on the way back to the Slytherin dormitory. "Malfoy!" I barked, causing them to stop in their tracks.

Malfoy turned back, looking surprised to see me. "What, Nox?" he droned, attempting to look bored.

"I need to speak with you," I said stiffly.

Everyone looked at me. They looked very irritated to see me. "Is that so?" Malfoy asked, folding his arms over my chest.

Parkinson looked the least bit thrilled to see me. "Yes," I said sharply. Malfoy nodded as I turned back to the rest of his friends. The rest of his little minions who were all staring at me that didn't need to hear what I had to say. "Well? Private conversation. Leave."

"Go on. I'll catch up," Malfoy finally said, looking over at his friends.

"Draco -"

"Listen to your owner," I interrupted Parkinson. She gave me a heated glare. "Head out."

"Why you -"

"Go, Pansy," Malfoy snapped, interrupting her from advancing on me. It surprised me. I would have thought that he would let her attack me. "I'll be there soon." She huffed irritably but walked away from me anyways. Malfoy then turned back and grinned at my disheveled state from the muddy and wet practice. "You look nice."

"Shut up," I snapped, not wanting to hear him talk to me about anything other than what I wanted to hear. "I need to talk to you."

Malfoy snorted, looking very unimpressed with what I wanted. "Planning on hitting me, throwing something on me, or insulting me?" Malfoy asked.

All of the above, normally. "This time? No. I actually need to speak to you about something," I said.

"Your pathetic crush on Diggory?" Malfoy asked.

"You're hilarious. No," I snapped. "Jealous?"

He was jealous. I knew that he was jealous. Not that I could figure out why. We both hated each other. Maybe he just wanted to have all of my attention to annoy me. "Pleased that he's taken your attention. I hate listening to you," Malfoy snapped irritably, looking less than happy to see me. "And, on that note, I'll be leaving."

"Wait!" I barked. I jumped after him and grabbed him around the wrist. He gave me a sideways stare and I awkwardly coughed as I released him, immediately stepping backwards. "You said something the other week. About how you would have gone after Black himself if it was you. What were you talking about?"

An incredulous look settled in Malfoy's eyes. "You honestly don't know?" he asked.

"Obviously not," I snapped.

"Ask your parents, Nox. Not me."

"Just - tell - me," I seethed each word in between breaths. "I'll even ask nicely. Please, Malfoy?"

There was something pleased on his face. It was enough to infuriate me. I shouldn't have said anything like that. He wouldn't let me live that down. "I almost like hearing you beg," Malfoy said teasingly.

"You're repulsive," I snapped, shoving him away from me.

"Yet here you stand," Malfoy pointed out.

"Because I need something!"

"Another kiss?"

It always somehow came back to that one stupid kiss. The one stupid kiss that I would never be able to get away from. "That you still haven't told anyone about? Why not, Malfoy? You make the threat enough," I said, trying to stay strong about everything.

"You honestly want me to tell someone?" Malfoy asked.

"No. I would be furious if you told someone. But I am curious why you haven't told anyone."

Malfoy hesitated for a moment. "Because then I'd have to own up to the fact that I kissed you. I'll find a way to hold it over your head, Nox. Like telling your precious Diggory," he teased, stepping into me.

"Like I said before, he won't believe you," I sneered.

But it was a lie. Somehow, if Malfoy was able to get out the truth of what had happened that night, Cedric would believe him. Because he'd seen me getting the ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion. He would know the truth. Maybe he would understand that the kiss was sprung on me surprisingly, but I really didn't want to have to answer those questions. And I didn't want to have to lead up to a question that people were going to start asking me. Did I have feelings for Malfoy? No.

"No? I saw you two before you got on the carriages," Malfoy said teasingly.

He saw the kiss. I thought that no one had seen the kiss. "So?" I asked, trying to keep straight-faced.

Malfoy knew that he had gotten to me, even though he said nothing. "So... I would imagine that he knows all about your fondness for the strawberry Chapstick," Malfoy said, making my jaw drop. I wished that my jaw hadn't. I really wished that I hadn't worn it on my date. "And how else would I know about that unless I kissed you?"

"If you tell him, everyone else will find out. Do you really want the whole school knowing?" I sneered.

"I don't care. But I think you will. Pretending that he was your first kiss and not me," Malfoy teased.

My jaw dropped open. I knew that I had never said it in front of him. He was just taking a guess that I had never had a kiss before. And I didn't want him to know that. "You were not my first kiss!" I barked irritably.

Malfoy grinned, knowing that he was right. He, unfortunately, had been my first kiss. And no one could change that. Not even me. "Yes, I was. And that's something I'll gladly hang over your head for the rest of your life," Malfoy teased. Furiously, before I could think better of it, I grabbed onto Malfoy's shirt and shoved him back into the wall. All I wanted was to know about Black. "If you wanted to get rough, you just had to ask."

He was grunting under his breath. I knew that I had hurt him from the force. "You're disgusting. Tell me. I know that you know more than you're letting on. Your mother's maiden name is Black. I remember that much from when we first met. You're related to him. You have to know," I said, trying my very hardest not to sound desperate.

"You really want to know?" Malfoy asked.

"Yes."

"Ask your parents."

"Malfoy, please."

A small grin settled over his features. "Beg one more time," he told me.

"You're such an ass. Just tell me what happened," I barked.

All I needed was a simple explanation so that I could figure out what was happening. Malfoy leaned towards me and pressed his mouth almost against my ear. My heart was pounding in my chest. I didn't like him standing this close to me. Some strange feeling that I immediately regarded as disgust shot through me. But I didn't push him away. Because I needed to know the truth.

"He's the reason your parents were almost killed," Malfoy said.

My stomach immediately turned in knots. My legs were already tired from the practice and I was already weak from having gone to the practice without eating. But now I felt sick to my stomach. My legs were quivering underneath me as Malfoy pulled away from my ear, grinning at me. He was kidding. He had to be kidding. Voldemort was the one that had almost killed my parents but Harry had managed to stop him. What did Sirius Black have to do with my parents almost being killed? I couldn't understand that.

"What?" I finally managed to ask.

"Ask them if you want to know more," Malfoy said.

"Malfoy!" I shouted after him.

He couldn't just say that and then walk away from me. He had to tell me what the hell that meant. He had to explain. Malfoy turned back to me and grinned. "Good luck in the first game," Malfoy called back.

"Aren't you going to be there?" I asked dumbly.

We were playing Slytherin. Malfoy was their Seeker. "Of course," Malfoy said, grinning sideways.

In the days that followed with what had happened with Malfoy, I found myself unable to tell Harry or the others. I wasn't really sure why. Perhaps it was because there was a good chance that Malfoy was lying to me. In fact, I was almost positive that Malfoy was lying to me. He was an ass and he was trying to make me forget about the game. He was just trying to distract me from Quidditch. And that was what I had to focus on. Not what Sirius Black wanted with me, not the many ways that Malfoy was an ass, and not about my ever-lasting crush on Cedric.

The weather worsened steadily as the first Quidditch match drew nearer. It was like one of the hurricanes that used to hit us when we lived in Florida. But that didn't mean that we were giving up so easily. Undaunted, the Gryffindor team was training harder than ever under the eye of Madam Hooch. They mostly thought that it was because of the terrible weather, which was the way that we needed it to stay. Then, at our final training session before Saturday's match, Oliver Wood gave the team some unwelcome news.

"We're not playing Slytherin! Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead," Oliver said, looking very angry.

My jaw dropped. Why hadn't Cedric said anything? And was that the reason that Malfoy was giving me that smile the other week? "Why?" the rest of the team chorused.

"Oh, I knew he was giving me that smile for a reason!" I said angrily, remembering Malfoy's smile.

He was saying it to get me distracted! I knew that he was lying about the reason that Sirius Black was after us. "Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm's still injured. But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances..." Oliver said, grinding his teeth together furiously.

"Those giant babies! I knew they were weak," I snapped irritably.

Oliver looked over at me and gave me a irritated nod. "We all know they're weak," Oliver said.

It made perfect sense as to why they didn't want to play. I didn't really want to play either. It would be nasty conditions. It would be like the hurricanes back home. They practically were like the hurricanes. We would have to be careful. Visibility was not good; it was almost impossible to see more than five feet in front of you. The winds were so loud that it was impossible to hear the plays being called. No matter who we played, it would be a hard match. There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day, and as Oliver spoke, I heard a distant rumble of thunder.

"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm! He's faking it!" Harry howled furiously.

"He's always been faking it!" I barked.

With the exception of the first day that it had happened, there had never really been anything wrong with his arm. "I know that, but we can't prove it," Oliver said bitterly. "And we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new Captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory -"

Angelina, Alicia, and Katie suddenly giggled. My face went from slightly flushed from practicing, to a pale white from knowing where this was going, to a bright red from embarrassment. They started looking over at me and I pushed my head into my lap. At this point even Fred and George were starting to laugh. Harry was rolling his eyes, as he usually was, considering that he still wasn't overly-fond of my quasi-relationship with Cedric. Oliver was not happy with the sudden change in mood.

"Oh, no," I said, blushing furiously.

"What?" Oliver asked, frowning at the lighthearted behavior.

"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" Angelina asked me.

"Strong and silent," Katie said, and they started to giggle again.

My face was burning with embarrassment, knowing that they were doing it to try and mess with me. "And he happens to have a giant crush on, Tara," Alicia said loudly, poking me on the shoulder.

"Stop," I muttered.

"They went out on a date together a few weeks ago," Angelina said.

"Stop it!" I barked.

"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," Fred said impatiently.

My head snapped over to him. "Don't be rude," I said, before I could think better of it.

Everyone turned to look at me and I blushed again, dropping my head into my lap. Fred smirked and laid an arm over my shoulder. "That's right. You've got a crush," he teased, poking me in the cheek.

I shoved him away from me. "Why are we talking about this? Can we just focus on the match?" I asked desperately.

"You went on a date with the enemy?" Oliver asked, annoyed.

"Oh, Oliver... It was just one date!" I shouted, trying to get them to stop laughing and teasing me. Even Harry was laughing by now. "And he's not the enemy. He just happens to play for another team."

"Look! She's being protective," Katie cried, still laughing.

"I hate all of you," I muttered.

Finally it seemed that they were done messing with me. Mostly because we really did need to figure out a new method. Hufflepuff played very differently from Slytherin. "I don't know why you're worried, Oliver, Hufflepuff is a pushover. Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?" Fred asked.

"We were playing in completely different conditions!" Oliver shouted, his eyes bulging slightly. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"

"Oliver, calm down!" Fred said, looking slightly alarmed. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously."

It was enough to make us all laugh. But it was also enough to convince Oliver that we had to be training. Constantly. It was enough to make me constantly wish that I wasn't on the team. I had no chance to actually study or do any of my work, Oliver was being such a ranting and raving lunatic about how we had to win the match. It was enough to drive me crazy. But I would manage. Somehow I was managing. But not easily. I barely got the chance to speak to my friends and I definitely had no time to even think about my relationship status.

The day before the match, the winds reached howling point and the rain fell harder than ever. There was no way to get letters out and ask Dad how to play in the weather like this. We would just have to hope that it might be a little bit nicer in the morning. But there was no indication that the weather would be calming down anytime soon. It was so dark inside the corridors and classrooms that extra torches and lanterns were lit just so that we could see. The Slytherin team was looking very smug indeed, and none more so than Malfoy.

"Ah, if only my arm was feeling a bit better!" Malfoy sighed as the gale outside pounded the windows.

Just as I made my move to get up and punch Malfoy as hard as I humanly could, Hermione yanked me with her as we continued down the hallway. Oliver wanted to squeeze in one more practice so I was already in my Quidditch robes - which, I had a feeling, would be permanently stained with mud after all of these practices. We were just down the hallway when a hand locked onto my arm and pulled me away from my friends. I squeaked in surprise as Cedric yanked me off to the side of the hallway with him. I smiled and pushed a hand through my hair, enjoying the last few moments that it would be dry.

"I heard you and your friends talking the other night," Cedric said.

It was a few weeks ago that we had been in the Great Hall sleeping. But I knew that Cedric was listening. I knew that he was still awake. "I knew that you were close enough to hear," I said, leaning back against the wall.

"That's not a bad theory. It actually makes sense. There was something that he wanted so he picked the one day that everyone would be down at the feast," Cedric said.

He was the only one that had openly agreed with my theory. "But why? What does he want? Why would he risk coming here? He has to know that Hogwarts is one of the most dangerous places for him to be right now," I said confusedly.

"Maybe there's something here that means more than another potential incarceration," Cedric reasoned.

"I want to know what," I said.

Cedric let out a little breath. "Tara… Stay out of it. You're going to get hurt," Cedric begged.

"I've managed worse odds the last two years," I said.

How did he even have any hair left? I thought that he would start tearing it out with everything that I did to him. "One of these days you're really going to get yourself hurt. I don't want to see that. Please, don't do whatever you're considering," Cedric said slowly.

Smiling at him, I walked forward and grabbed his hand. "You're a good man, Cedric." He smiled at me. "But I have other things on my mind these days," I teased, poking him in the chest.

And that was the truth. Oliver had kept me so busy with the match that I hadn't even had time to think about Sirius Black. "The match," Cedric said.

"The match. I thought that it would be Slytherin."

"Malfoy still complaining about his arm?"

"Yes. He just doesn't want to play in this weather."

We looked outside the window, where the storm was still raging on. "It is pretty terrible weather. We didn't even want to have to play in this weather," Cedric admitted. No one wanted to play in weather like this. Sunny days were much easier. "But we'll manage."

"Maybe. But you'll lose," I teased, nudging Cedric in the chest.

Cedric gave me a sideways smile. He knew that I was determined to win the match. "We'll see about that. I hear that your friends are nervous about losing the match," Cedric said teasingly.

"They think that you're quite impressive," I admitted.

"Ah. Well, I am."

"Watch that head. You're starting to sound like me," I teased.

"Good luck out there, alright?" Cedric said, lying a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah. You, too," I said. Cedric started to walk away and I shouted after him, "We're still going to win!"

"Not a chance, Nox!" Cedric called back.

My eyebrow quirked. I couldn't remember him ever calling me anything but Tara or Elephant. "Nox?" I asked.

"When it comes to Quidditch, we're not friends," Cedric said.

My laugh that escaped me was very loud and ugly. "I'll keep that in mind," I called back.

But there was no chance for me to even think about what was coming tomorrow. My mind was constantly on what was going to happen in the match tomorrow. I couldn't think of friends or anything else. Not even schoolwork. I had no room in my head to worry about anything except the match tomorrow. Oliver kept hurrying up to Harry and me between classes and giving us tips. The third time this happened, Oliver talked for so long that we suddenly realized that we were ten minutes late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and we set off at a run.

Oliver was shouting after us, "Diggory's got a very fast swerve, Harry, so you might want to try looping him -"

"Class, Oliver! Remember we're still in school!" I interrupted, shouting back.

"Oh!" Oliver gasped.

Obviously he had forgotten that it was his final year here and he had N.E.W.T.s to worry about these days. We didn't have any serious exams or anything like that to be worried about, but we did have class. And right now I really didn't want to be late to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I really liked Professor Lupin and I didn't want to give him - the first Defense professor that I'd liked - any reason not to like me. The two of us skidded to a halt outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, pulled the door open, and dashed inside.

"Sorry we're late, Professor Lupin, we -"

Harry stopped speaking dead in his tracks the moment that we realized that something was wrong. Because it wasn't Professor Lupin who looked up at us from the teacher's desk; it was Snape. Harry and I exchanged a bewildered look. Had we accidentally walked into the wrong classroom? No. I was sure that we weren't in the dungeons. I knew that we were in the right room. I glanced around and realized that we were in the right room. It was all of our friends. So why was Snape in here?

"Professor Snape," I said lowly.

He was glaring irritably at the two of us. "Well spotted, Nox. This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter, so I think we'll make it ten points from Gryffindor each." My nails dug into my palms. "Sit down," Snape ordered.

For a moment I went to move to my seat. But Harry didn't. "Where's Professor Lupin?" Harry asked.

"He says he is feeling too ill to teach today," Snape said with a twisted smile. "I believe I told you to sit down?"

But Harry stayed where he was and, in turn, so did I. "What's wrong with him?" Harry asked.

Snape's black eyes glittered. "Nothing life-threatening," Snape said, looking as though he wished it were. "Five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it will be fifty."

"Sit down," I hissed at Harry.

Slowly Harry and I walked to our seats and sat down. Snape looked around at the class irritably. "As I was saying before Potter and Nox interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far -"

"Please, sir, we've done Boggarts, Red Caps, kappas, and Grindylows," Hermione said quickly, "and we're just about to start -"

"Be quiet. I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organization," Snape said coldly.

"He's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," Dean Thomas said boldly, and there was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the class. I murmured my agreement with them.

Snape looked more menacing than ever. He hated when we all disagreed with him. "You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly overtaxing you - I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and Grindylows. Today we shall discuss..."

Out of the corner of my eye I watched him flick through the textbook, to the very back chapter, which he must have known that we hadn't covered. "The last chapter?" I muttered under my breath.

"Probably the hardest," Ron whispered back.

"- werewolves," Snape finally said.

Why would Snape pick werewolves of all things? That was due to be one of the last things that we covered, not one of the first. No wonder Lupin and Snape hated each other. They had hated each other in school and clearly it had covered into adulthood. It was enough to make me laugh. Now he wasn't just trying to make Professor Lupin miserable. He was trying to make the students miserable. By making us cover werewolves. Why them? They were complicated creatures and had nothing to do with what we had been studying before.

That was when everything clicked in my mind. The strangeness surrounding Professor Lupin. The fact that when we had first seen him, he had slept like the dead. It was the beginning of the month, right after the full moon. He fell sick about once a month and looked miserable when he did. Pale, sickly, with scratches and torn clothes. It was a full moon last night. But it was really his fear of the Boggart. That was what really tipped me off. He wasn't afraid of a crystal ball. He was afraid of the moon. Because he was a werewolf. And this was Snape's warning.

My book slipped out of my hands and slammed onto the floor, making a loud bang. The entire class - and Snape - whirled around to me. "Nox!" Snape shouted, startling me.

"Sorry. Sorry... Just... got a little startled," I muttered dumbly.

Something odd flitted through Snape's eyes but it was gone before I could place it. "By simple directions?" Snape sneered, making my jaw set as I picked up my book. "Ten points from Gryffindor for disrupting class."

"But -"

"Should we make it twenty?" Snape interrupted.

"No," I muttered.

How was it fair to take points away from me just because I'd dropped a stupid book? "But, sir," Hermione said, seemingly unable to restrain herself, "we're not supposed to do werewolves yet, we're due to start hinkypunks -"

"Miss Granger. I was under the impression that I am teaching this lesson, not you. And I am telling you all to turn to page three hundred and ninety-four," Snape said, in a deadly sort of calm voice. He glanced around the classroom again. "All of you! Now!"

It was enough to get us all to start opening our books and getting back to work. My stomach was churning as I flipped open to the page for werewolves and spotted all of the cruel depictions in them. Maybe Professor Lupin was a werewolf, but that didn't make him a bad man. He was one of the best people that I had met in a long time. Werewolves were people, too. They just had to be careful during a certain time of the month. With many bitter sidelong looks and some sullen muttering, the rest of the class opened their books.

"Which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?" Snape asked.

There were a number of differences but I chose to stay silent. I knew what Snape was doing. He was attempting to get everyone to realize that Professor Lupin was a werewolf and, in turn, fired. That was what he'd meant the other night about his reservations over hiring Professor Lupin. Likely there was something else - regarding Sirius Black - but the whole being a werewolf thing probably had something to do with it. Everyone sat in motionless silence; everyone except Hermione, whose hand, as it so often did, had shot straight into the air.

"Anyone?" Snape asked, ignoring Hermione. His twisted smile was back. "Are you telling me that Professor Lupin hasn't even taught you the basic distinction between -"

"We told you," Parvati said suddenly, "we haven't got as far as werewolves yet, we're still on -"

"Silence!" Snape snarled. "Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a Third Year class who wouldn't even recognize a werewolf when they saw one. I shall make a point of informing Professor Dumbledore how very behind you all are..."

"Please, sir," Hermione said desperately, whose hand was still in the air, "the werewolf differs from the true wolf in several small ways. The snout of the werewolf -"

"That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all," Snape said coolly.

Hermione went very red, put down her hand, and stared at the floor with her eyes full of tears. I growled under my breath at Snape. He was always such an ass about everything. Particularly when it came to anything having to do with Gryffindor. It was a mark of how much the class loathed Snape that we were all glaring at him, because every one of us had called Hermione a know-it-all at least once, and Ron, who told Hermione she was a know-it-all at least twice a week was actually stupid enough to act on it.

"You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don't want to be told?" Ron said loudly.

The entire class knew instantly that he had gone too far. Snape advanced on Ron slowly, and the room held its breath. "Detention, Weasley. And if I ever hear you criticize the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed," Snape said silkily, his face very close to Ron's.

No one dared to make a sound throughout the rest of the lesson. Not even me. Of course my head was already a little preoccupied with the thought of Professor Lupin actually being a werewolf. I wondered if anyone else had picked up on it. If Hermione had. I didn't want to say anything to her just in case she hadn't. Hermione wasn't always known for having the most level-head. We sat and made notes on werewolves from the textbook, while Snape prowled up and down the rows of desks, examining the work we had been doing with Professor Lupin.

"Very poorly explained... That is incorrect, the kappa is more commonly found in Mongolia... Professor Lupin gave this eight out of ten? I wouldn't have given it three..."

Each person had done something unsatisfactory with at least one of their essays. Mostly all of them. I noticed that Snape was particularly harsh to Ron's. Although he wasn't really nice to anyone's. It was enough to make me want to drive my quill through his hand. He was such a jerk. But there was nothing that we could do about it at this point. We just had to sit here until he was ready to let us leave. When the bell finally rang, at last, Snape held us all back, much to our displeasure.

"You will each write an essay, to be handed in to me, on the ways you recognize and kill werewolves. I want two rolls of parchment on the subject, and I want them by Monday morning. It is time somebody took this class in hand. Weasley, stay behind, we need to arrange your detention," Snape announced.

Two entire rolls of parchment on werewolves? There was plenty that we could write about them - as they had a very long and complicated history - but that didn't mean that I wanted to write two rolls of parchment on it. Not while I had other classes and other things to worry about. Harry, Hermione, and I left the room with the rest of the class. But we waited until we were well out of earshot, as Snape had hearing like a bat, then burst into a furious tirade about Snape.

"Snape's never been like this with any of our other Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, even if he did want the job. Why's he got it in for Lupin? D'you think this is all because of the Boggart?" Harry asked Hermione and me.

"I don't know. But I really hope Professor Lupin gets better soon..." Hermione said pensively.

For a moment I thought about saying something, but I decided against it. "Like I said. Old school rivalry. He's just taking it a step further than any of us were expecting," I muttered under my breath.

Ron caught up with us five minutes later, in a towering rage. "D'you know what that asshole -"

"Ron!" Hermione shouted.

"- is making me do? I've got to scrub out the bedpans in the hospital wing. Without magic!" Ron seethed, ignoring Hermione's cry.

"Gross," I muttered.

He was breathing deeply, his fists clenched. "Why couldn't Black have hidden in Snape's office, eh? He could have finished him off for us!" Ron continued to seethe as we walked off.

"Sorry, Ron," I said, patting his arm.

Unfortunately there was nothing that I, or anyone else, could do to get Ron out of his detention. He had spoken poorly against a teacher and like as not, that was against the rules. I woke up extremely early the next morning; so early that it was still dark. It must have been the middle of the night. For a moment I thought that the roaring of the wind had woken me. Then I felt a cold breeze on the back of my neck and sat bolt upright. Peeves the Poltergeist had been floating next to me, blowing hard in my ear.

"What did you do that for?" I hissed furiously.

Low enough so that none of the rest of my dorm mates would hear me. There was no use waking any of them up too. I would suffer alone. Peeves puffed out his cheeks, blew hard into my ear again, and then zoomed backward out of the room, cackling. I rolled my eyes and flopped over in bed. He was such a pain in the ass. Peeves was the worst ghost at the school. Strictly because he was the only one that actually messed with the students. And came into the dorms, which was kind of creepy.

Annoyed, I fumbled for my alarm clock and looked at it. It was half past four. Cursing Peeves, I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, but it was very difficult, now that I was awake, to ignore the sounds of the thunder rumbling overhead, the pounding of the wind against the castle walls, and the distant creaking of the trees in the Forbidden Forest. In a few hours I would be out on the Quidditch field, battling through that gale. Finally, I gave up any thought of more sleep, got up, dressed, picked up my Nimbus Two Thousand, and walked quietly out of the dormitory.

As per usual, I managed to find my way to the Astronomy Tower. It was a very good chance that I knew when the students in the other years had Astronomy so that I knew that no one else would be in the tower. I made my way to the edge of the tower - momentarily debating flying off - but decided against it. I didn't need to accidentally go crashing into the Whomping Willow. So I decided to just curl up against the side of the tower and watch the rain pound against the grounds. It wasn't long before the door creaked open.

For some reason, I wasn't very scared of getting caught up here by someone. "I think I'm starting to get some of your habits," Cedric teased. I smiled as I glanced back at him. He, too, was in his robes. "Woke up early and this was the first place that I could think to go."

"I tend to rub off on people," I teased, as Cedric took his spot next to me. "I was hoping that the weather would get a little better by now."

"We all were. But it looks like we're going to have to play in this."

"Unfortunately. Why are you up so early?" I asked curiously.

"The storm was keeping me awake. You?" Cedric asked.

"Peeves," I grumbled irritably.

"He is pleasant."

We both laughed as I leaned up against Cedric and stared out at the rain. I always did like days like this. There was something about the weather that was pleasant. I wished that we didn't have to play in it, but it was fun to watch the rain. Cedric eventually wrapped an arm over my shoulder and tugged me into him. We both laughed as I leaned back against his chest and curled up. His fingers intertwined with my own and I blushed madly, even though holding hands should have been nothing to blush at.

For almost two hours we chatted back and forth about everything and anything. But I noticed that he did avoid the subject of Sirius Black, which I was grateful for. I had been thinking about that far too much. For a while I thought about giving away the truth about Professor Lupin - just to talk to someone about it - but I knew that it was better to keep it to myself. If there was anyone that I should talk to about it, it was Professor Lupin. So instead we just chatted about everything else. All of the lighthearted things that I wanted to talk about.

He had teased me about the match more than once. We spent much of the next two hours trying to get each other to tell us about the game and what our plays were. It wasn't working out in either one of our favor, but it was fun to hear about how our practices had been going. Hufflepuff had been forced to make a lot of last minute changes and had started training a lot more since, up until just a few weeks ago, they had thought that they wouldn't be playing for another few weeks. It was a rush job, but Cedric made a good captain and he had done a good job getting them all together.

Finally the sun was starting to rise and I groaned. It was time to get up and get ready for the game. "Do I get a good luck kiss before the game?" Cedric teased as he offered me a hand up.

Scoffing at him, I gently shoved him in the chest. "Yeah, right. You can get a victory one, once we win," I teased.

"You're going to lose, Nox," Cedric said.

"We'll see, Diggory."

"Meet you out there."

He was giving me a sideways smile as I rolled my eyes. "Better not go easy on us," I shouted after him.

Cedric turned and walked backwards, away from me. "Never," he said.

It made me smile as I gathered my things. My broomstick and the pads that I hadn't yet put on. It wasn't quite late enough to go downstairs and get something to eat. So instead I headed back to the Gryffindor Tower - following Cedric for a few moments as he headed to the Hufflepuff dormitory - before I walked over to Sir Cadogan's new portrait. He was giving me a long and loud tirade about how I was supposed to be out on the battlefield of the Quidditch Pitch. It took me almost ten minutes just to argue for him to let me back into the Common Room.

"Tara?" Harry's voice called.

I jumped slightly at his voice and turned to see him sitting by the fireplace. "Hey," I said, trying to calm myself down.

"Did you ever go to sleep?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. I've just been up for a few hours. Stupid Peeves woke me up hours ago and the weather has kept me up since then," I said.

Harry nodded. "Peeves got me, too," he said.

Had Peeves woken up everyone on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team? Probably... He loved causing chaos. "Idiot. Anyways, I was up in the Astronomy Tower," I explained.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course," he said.

As we headed over towards the portrait hole - to head back to the Great Hall to try and eat something before the match - I spotted a little flash of orange in the corner. It was probably Crookshanks trying to eat Scabbers again. The cat really had it out for that rat. As Harry opened the door to let us get through, something brushed against his leg. I glanced down and saw that I was right about it being Hermione's cat. Harry bent down just in time to grab Crookshanks by the end of his bushy tail and drag him outside.

"Harry... Be careful. I don't like that cat any more than you do but it is an animal," I said, gently nudging Crookshanks further into the Common Room.

Harry rolled his eyes at me. "I know, Tara. But look at this thing. You know, I reckon Ron was right about you," Harry told Crookshanks suspiciously. I rolled my eyes at him. It was just a nasty cat. "There are plenty of mice around this place - go and chase them. Go on." He started nudging Crookshanks down the spiral staircase with his foot. "Leave Scabbers alone."

"Man he hates that rat," I commented, watching Crookshanks stalk off.

"You'd almost think it was personal," Harry said.

We both nodded. He was a very odd cat indeed. The noise of the storm was even louder in the Common Room and the rising sun did nothing to help the conditions. I knew better than to think the match would be canceled; Quidditch matches weren't called off for trifles like thunderstorms. They wouldn't even be called off for a tsunami. Nevertheless, I was starting to feel very apprehensive. Cedric was a large guy. Seekers were usually light and speedy, but his weight would be an advantage in this weather because he was less likely to be blown off course than by Harry.

For a moment I thought about saying something to Harry about my meeting with Cedric this morning, but I ultimately decided against it. Harry and I whiled away the hours until dawn in front of the fire, getting up every now and then to stop Crookshanks from sneaking up the boys' staircase again. We were chatting back and forth, talking about Quidditch plays and how we could possibly manage to win the game today - which was seeming less likely by the moment. At long last we thought it must be time for breakfast, so we headed through the portrait hole alone.

"Stand and fight, you mangy cur!" Sir Cadogan yelled.

"Oh, shut up," Harry yawned.

"Twit," I muttered.

He was the most infuriating painting in the castle. And there were a number of paintings that I really didn't like in the school. The two of us headed down into the Great Hall where no one was sitting there yet. We sat together for almost twenty minutes before more people finally started arriving. I was able to revive a bit over a large bowl of porridge, and by the time I had started on toast, the rest of the team had turned up. I noticed that everyone was leaving our team - and Hufflepuff's - alone. They were giving us the chance to talk strategy before the game.

"It's going to be a tough one," Oliver said, who wasn't eating anything.

"Stop worrying, Oliver, we don't mind a bit of rain," Alicia said soothingly.

"We've practiced in worse. It'll be fine," I said determinedly.

But that wasn't the truth. This was the worst weather that I had seen in a long time. It was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the Quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went. Just before our team entered the locker room, I saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, laughing and pointing at us from under an enormous umbrella on their way to the stadium.

"What are you laughing at, Malfoy?" I sneered.

"A drowned rat," Malfoy shot back.

"You -"

I started to advance on him, desperate to drown him in the water and standing mud, but I wasn't able to get any closer to him. Angelina caught my waist to keep me away from him. "Leave him! He's not worth it," Angelina shouted.

And she was right. So, begrudgingly, I allowed her to throw me back towards the locker rooms, as much as I would have loved to drown Malfoy. Lying to me about why Sirius Black was after me and insulting me every chance that he got... Idiot. So I sat in the back of the locker room while the team changed into their scarlet robes. I had already changed. Then we waited for Oliver's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly and beckoned us to follow him.

Everyone felt terribly for him. This was his last year and last chance to win the Quidditch Cup. We wanted to do it for him but it would take a win today. Or, at least, not too bad of a loss. It was not going to be an easy game. The wind was so strong that we staggered sideways as we walked out onto the field. It would be almost impossible to fly in this. The Nimbus would have enough of a problem. What about the rest of their brooms? They weren't nearly as good. If the crowd was cheering, I couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder. Rain was splattering into my eyes. How on earth was anyone going to see in this?

How the hell would we even be able to see the goalposts, hear any announcements, or see the balls moving back and forth? There were no lights on the Quidditch Pitch that we would be able to use to see anything. The Bludgers were going to blend right into the darkness that was surrounding the Pitch. My gloves were good enough to keep touch with the Quaffle if I had to step in, but even that would be hard with the wind and rain pelting at us. It would be incredibly painful to fly around and even harder to see. I jumped, startled, as a hand laid itself on my shoulder.

My goggles were helping with the rain but it was still hard to tell that it was Cedric. "Good luck," he called.

He almost had to shout just so that I could hear him. "Get ready to hand over that win, Diggory," I shouted back.

"We'll see, Nox," Cedric teased.

That was the last chance that we got to speak before Oliver wrapped a hand around my arm and dragged me off to the side. The Hufflepuff's were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary-yellow robes. Cedric walked back over towards his team. Oliver looked furious. Probably thinking that I was still going out with the 'enemy.' The Captains walked up to each other and shook hands; Cedric smiled at Oliver but Oliver now looked as though he had lock jaw and merely nodded. It was enough to make me laugh. Cedric was as friendly as ever, but Oliver was determined to win and ferocious about Quidditch.

I could just barely see Madam Hooch's mouth form the words, "Mount your brooms. Alternates to the side."

"Good luck!" I shouted, although I was sure that no one could hear me.

It was almost impossible to move out of the Pitch. The sand was turning into mud with the water from the rain. My feet were currently stuck in the mud and it was very hard for me to manage to yank myself out of my position. So I stepped out to the side with some help from the Hufflepuff alternate - a Fourth Year boy - and the two of us just barely managed to throw ourselves down onto the bench. We were just barely shied away from the rain but the wind was almost pulling me straight off of the bench.

The two of us sat and chatted back and forth - very loudly as it was still almost impossible to hear over the roar of the wind and rain - as we watched the game from below. I barely saw Harry pull his right foot out of the mud with a squelch. In the meantime I saw Harry swing his leg over his Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant - they were off. Harry rose the fastest, but his Nimbus was swerving slightly with the wind. There were a number of people who were swerving in the wind.

Obviously it was almost impossible for anyone to manage to keep themselves together. They were having a very hard time trying to manage themselves in the wind. Even I was getting pushed around by the wind and I was on the ground. It was almost impossible to see and I couldn't even hear the commenting. I had no idea what the score was. All I knew was that apparently everyone was managing themselves alright, considering that we hadn't needed the alternates yet. Every now and again I could see little flashes of gold or scarlet, but that was it.

Although within five minutes, even though I was sitting under the overhang for the alternates and injured players, I was soaked to the bone and frozen. The weather was awful and I was sure that we were all going to have hypothermia or frostbite by the time that the game was over. Even after almost ten minutes I hadn't gotten used to the obstructed vision. I was hardly able to see my teammates, let alone the tiny Snitch. For a while I could see Harry fly backward and forward across the field past blurred red and yellow shapes. He was the fastest of any of the players.

That was how I knew that it was him. I still had no idea what else was coming in the game. It was impossible to hear the score or anything of the likes. Although eventually the Hufflepuff alternate was called in and I took a guess that something had happened to one of them. By the time that one of their Chasers came in, I realized that they had been hit pretty badly by a Bludger. I still couldn't hear the commentary over the wind. The crowd was hidden behind a sea of cloaks and battered umbrellas. By the screams I was judging that a few people were almost getting hit by the Bludgers.

Without the commentary it was impossible to tell what time it was or how long the game had been going on. It didn't matter. The game would keep going until someone caught the Snitch. Obviously the players were having a lot of trouble holding their brooms straight. The sky was getting darker by now, as though night had decided to come early. More than once I could see near collisions between the players. Everyone was now so wet, and the rain was so thick, that I could hardly tell them apart. Enemy or teammate.

But the flash of lightning lit up the sky enough for me to see it light the tail end of Angelina's broom on fire and send her plummeting to the ground below. "No! Angelina!" I shouted, in fear for her.

Thankfully she'd managed to handle herself alright during the fall. She looked dazed and her broom looked ruined, but she wasn't seriously hurt. "Nox! Get in there!" Madam Hooch shouted at me.

"Good luck up there," Angelina called as we passed each other.

"Thanks."

Just like with Harry earlier, I had a very hard time getting my feet out of the mud. Wavering up into the air was incredibly hard. I could feel myself shaking on the broom - which was having a very hard time keeping itself steady. But I forced it to rush forward, taking a few seconds too long to realize that I was going in the wrong direction. I couldn't even see where the other players were. So I hovered for a moment, waiting to see if I could spot the bulk of the players. That would be where the Quaffle was. I was very nearly unseated by a speeding Bludger but Fred - or was it George? - managed to beat it away from me at the last second.

To my surprise I eventually managed to catch sight of the bulk of the players just underneath me. I pushed the Nimbus as fast as it could go - wavering in the wind the entire time - to drop down and into the game. The other players looked a little surprised at the sudden addition but were gone from my sight just a moment later. Eventually I spotted Alicia with the Quaffle. One of the Hufflepuff players kicked the Quaffle out from her arms and I spotted it raise into the air. I instantly dropped down and managed to catch it.

My grip on the Quaffle was very weak as I shot back and forth on the field. I was spinning in and out through the players as I desperately tried to get to our end of the goalposts. I couldn't even see them. Where the hell had they gone? I was about to slam into one of the posts - about five feet underneath the lowest one - when I suddenly jolted to a stop and weakly threw. Thankfully their Keeper wasn't able to even see me underneath him. The throw was less than impressive - as he hadn't even been able to see me - but it did go through the post.

The ding from the bell sounded across the field. But I couldn't tell if people were cheering or what the score was. The Quaffle was caught by someone down underneath me. One of the Hufflepuff players, considering that they were wearing yellow. I spotted either Alicia or Katie speeding after the new owner of the Quaffle and I went straight up in between the two girls, flying in the triangular pattern that Oliver had made us practice so frequently. We were tailing the new owner of the Quaffle, who finally noticed that we were behind him.

He tucked tail and turned underneath us, heading back towards our own posts. That was what I was hoping for. We streaked down behind him and I nodded for Alicia and Katie to follow my lead. I knew exactly what to do with this. Alicia and Katie ducked down and shot up underneath the Hufflepuff player, startling them. They dropped the Quaffle and I grinned, speeding my broom down to catch it just before it hit the mud. The cheers erupted from the stadium as I started to pelt back over to our goalposts. If I could come up and underneath the Keeper would never see me.

But just as I thought that I realized that I was being tailed by one of the Hufflepuff Beaters, who was smacking one of the Bludgers to get it to follow me. I was speeding in and out of the players near the bottom of the field with the Quaffle tucked underneath my arm. I could hear Oliver shouting at me to head back to the goalposts, but I knew what I was doing. I just had to find another Hufflepuff player. Finally I spotted the yellow robes of one and I grinned. As the Beater knocked the Bludger in my direction I sped off to the right before speeding back to the left.

Straight in the direction of the other Hufflepuff player. The other Beater, if I was seeing correctly. He took aim to smack the Bludger at me and I waited, hearing the horrified shouts from my team. But just as the Bludger rocketed towards me, I tucked tail and turned from the second Hufflepuff player. The Bludger ended up going straight past me and whacking into the first of the Hufflepuff Beaters. I grinned and shot up into the air. That would make one less of their players to worry about. The stadium erupted into cheers as I sped back towards the goalposts.

With the Quaffle still tucked firmly between my arms I shot back up into the air, immediately protected on both sides by Alicia and Katie. The three of us were winding in and out of the Hufflepuff Chasers. It was very hard to try and avoid them - as they were fast and hard to see. The rain was still pelting at me and I just barely managed to get a grip on the Quaffle as I rose straight up towards one of the goalposts. Alicia and Katie crossed behind me to cut off the other Chasers as I leaned upwards on the broom and tossed it through the topmost goalpost.

It just barely missed the fingertips of the Keeper. Another goal, even in this disgusting weather. I liked to think that Dad would be proud. If only he could be here to see it. He always had liked playing in dismal conditions. With the first flash of lightning since the one that had struck Angelina's broom came the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle. What the hell was happening? Did someone else get injured or was it getting too dangerous? I could just see the outline of Oliver through the thick rain, gesturing me to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the mud.

"I called for time-out!" Oliver roared at the team. "Come on, under here."

We all tried to huddle at the edge of the field under a large umbrella. It was just enough that if we stood, squished together, we were able to manage it. I stood in between Fred and George, who were very good for blocking the icy air. It was the first time that I had been mildly warm or dry since the start of the game. I could see that the Hufflepuff team was doing the same. They all looked very cold and tired, as did our own team. Harry took off his glasses and wiped them hurriedly on his robes. It must have been almost impossible for him to see.

"What's the score?" Harry asked.

He sounded exhausted. "We're fifty points up. Nice job, Tara," Oliver said.

"Thank you," I chirped tiredly.

"But unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."

"I've got no chance with these on," Harry said exasperatedly, waving his glasses.

For a moment I hesitated. How the hell were we going to do something about his glasses? We could give him a pair of goggles but they would start fogging up. The rest of us could deal with the obscured vision. We didn't have glasses and the objects that we needed to see - the goalposts, Quaffle, and Bludgers - were much larger than the Snitch. At that very moment, Hermione appeared at our shoulders; she was holding her cloak over her head and was, inexplicably, beaming.

"I've had an idea, Harry! Give me your glasses, quick!" He handed them to her, and as we all watched in amazement, Hermione tapped them with her wand and said, "Impervius! There!" she said, handing them back to Harry.

"Genius!" I chirped.

I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about that spell. "They'll repel water!" Hermione said.

Oliver looked as though he could have kissed her. "Brilliant!" Oliver called hoarsely after her as she disappeared back into the crowd. "Okay, team, let's go for it!"

So we all launched back up into the air as the game resumed play. The lightning was now lighting up the sky - making it a little easier to see - but that also meant that we would have to be careful. Obviously Hermione's spell had done the trick. We were all still numb with cold, still wetter than I had ever been in my entire life, but obviously Harry could see. Full of fresh determination, our team launched into gear. Harry urged his broom through the turbulent air, staring in every direction for the Snitch, avoiding a Bludger, and ducked beneath Cedric, who was streaking in the opposite direction.

As we played I also started looking around the field to see if I could spot the Snitch. Anything to try and help. We were up. We didn't really have to worry about the points right now. Now it was all about ending the game. Catch the Snitch and end the damn game. Before someone really got hurt. The weather wasn't getting any better but we weren't going to stop playing. The one thing about Quidditch - despite how much fun it was - was that it could end up being a very dangerous game. People - like me - were injured in every single game.

As I sped around the top of the field I noticed that there were a handful of players at the bottom of the field. The Quaffle must have been down there. I sped downwards and into the thick of the players, barely managing to speed in and out of them. A few times I felt someone's robes whip across my face as I would come very close to knocking straight into someone. But no one else had been hurt and, as far as I could tell, no one else had managed to make another goal. Which was better than Hufflepuff making a lot of goals.

Just as I sped underneath who I believed was Cedric, I spotted the Quaffle up in midair, going in between a few of the players. I wasn't sure who was trying to catch it but I knew that I had to take the risk. I couldn't let it get back into Hufflepuff's hands. So I managed to catch it in thin air - noticing that it was headed for a Hufflepuff player - and immediately started speeding towards the goalposts. With the Quaffle in my hands, I shot upwards in the air, spun out of the way of one of the Hufflepuff players - a Beater, I thought - shot back down, and tossed the Quaffle while I was still upside down.

To my utter surprise it went straight through the goalpost. There was what I assumed to be a roar of the crowd, but it was drowned out. There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. The storm was getting closer and closer over the castle. The closer that it got the more that we were risking being out here. But unless someone requested that the match be rescheduled - which no one would, since Gryffindor was winning - we would keep playing. No matter that this was getting more and more dangerous. Harry needed to get the Snitch quickly.

In the meantime, we still had to play Quidditch. So I turned, intending to head back toward the middle of the field, but at that moment, another flash of lightning illuminated the stands, and I saw something that distracted me completely - the silhouette of an enormous shaggy black dog, clearly imprinted against the sky was shining down on me. I hesitated up in the air, staring straight at the imprint. And then something drew me to look downwards. Right there, motionless in the topmost, empty row of seats, was the black dog itself.

The same damn one that had been in Magnolia Crescent. It was Snuffles. Or, perhaps more appropriately, it was the Grim. My already icy and numb hands slipped on the broom handle and my Nimbus dropped a few feet. It was enough to shock me back into it. I steadied the broom out, trying to keep it from dropping the near one hundred foot drop to the ground below. Shaking my sodden bangs out of my eyes, I squinted back into the stands. The dog had vanished. The imprint in the sky was gone, too.

Was there a chance that I had just seen it? "Tara! Pay attention! Harry!" came Oliver's anguished yell from the Gryffindor goal posts. "Harry, behind you!"

Had I not been the only person to see it? Had Harry seen the Grim too? Not good. Did that meant that we were actually seeing the Grim? Was Professor Trelawney actually predicting something real? But what was Oliver talking about? I looked wildly around. Cedric was pelting up the field, and a tiny speck of gold was shimmering in the rain-filled air between them. He had found the Snitch. Somehow, after what had likely been almost an hour, he had found the Snitch. With a jolt of panic, Harry threw himself flat to the broom-handle and zoomed toward the Snitch.

He shot past me a moment later. "Come on! Faster!" I could hear him growl at the Nimbus as he passed.

In the meantime I had to get to the Quaffle. Try and make as many points as I could before someone caught the Snitch. Just in case we lost, I had to get as many points as we possibly could. But something odd was happening. An eerie silence was falling across the stadium. Had something bad happened? I still couldn't see anything. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was as though someone had turned off the sound, as though I had gone suddenly deaf. I touched my ear but heard the gentle ruffling of my hair. I wasn't deaf. So what was going on?

No. I wasn't deaf. It was something much worse. Because, right then, a horribly familiar wave of cold swept over me, inside me, just as I became aware of something moving on the field below... What were all of those black figures? Were the teachers marching out onto the Pitch? What was happening? Before I'd had time to think, I had taken my eyes off of the game and looked down. At least a hundred Dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at me, were standing beneath me. It was as though freezing water were rising in my chest, cutting at my insides.

They were coming up towards me but I was drowning. How did that make any sense? I didn't have time to ponder it. Because I had been hovering in the middle of the field - right as the game was being played around me - it didn't surprise me that someone hadn't seen me in time. I must have been about fifty feet in the air as I slammed straight into someone. Or, more appropriately, they slammed right into me. I tried to right myself out on the broom but it was impossible. I had lost my balance and I was reasonably sure that it was gone by now.

People were screaming all around me. Were they the people in the stands or was it the person that had slammed into me? I knew that the person that had slammed into me had managed to right themselves. They were screaming my name. Or was that all in my head? Time felt like it slowed and the ice went straight through my veins as I went plummeting back towards the ground at full speed. There was something clawing out at my robes. Was it the Dementors, coming to give me the Kiss? I didn't have long to ponder it.

The ground suddenly came into contact with me. The fifty foot drop going at probably almost seventy miles an hour didn't help when I slammed into the ground on my side. Instantly a furious pain shot through me. I was sure that I was dead. But the pain told me otherwise. The pain that felt like someone had actually lit me on fire. Although I knew that something was broken. Multiple something's were broken. Maybe everything was broken. Maybe I would be wheelchair bound. I groaned and looked up to see that Cedric was leaning over me.

Was he the one that had collided with me? Maybe. It wasn't like it was very easy to see and he was the one that was racing around trying to catch the Snitch. It was very likely that he was the one that had hit me. Blood was coating my teeth and I coughed as I spit the blood up. Internal bleeding. Not good. My vision was very foggy. I was sure that I was about to pass out. Even more so, I was sure that something inside of me was ruptured. There was no doubt in my mind that I was in very bad shape from the fall.

"Tara. Tara!" Cedric shouted, pressing a hand against my face. The moan that escaped my mouth was absolutely pathetic as my head rolled around on my shoulders. "Are you alright? Oh, no. Are you alright?"

"I think something's broken. I think a lot of things are broken," I moaned.

"Why couldn't we have landed the other way around?" Cedric asked, mostly himself.

So he had been the one that had collided with me. "That makes two of us wondering that," I muttered.

The words were slurred. It wouldn't be long before I lost consciousness. I was sure of that. Right now I was trapped underneath Cedric. His legs were over mine as rain and lightning continued shooting down around me. I was buried down in the dirt and mud as everything was getting sloshed up around me. If I didn't need a shower before, I definitely needed one now. I could see blood running into the dark mud. I was absolutely sure that I was going to be sick. Or maybe die. Maybe both. Cedric brushed some blood and mud away from my forehead. My head was starting to roll back.

"Tara?" Cedric pleaded.

"I'm gonna pass out," I whispered.

"You're okay. It's going to be okay. Calm down," Cedric said, almost sounding like he was trying to convince himself.

"Get me... Get me... hospital," I muttered, unable to say anything more.

"Okay. Okay." Cedric leapt off of me and started to place his arms underneath me. "Come on. Let's get you to the hospital wing. We're going to be there soon. Just hang on, okay?"

The pain was still radiating through me. Everything was killing me. My spine felt like it was about to snap in half. My head felt like it was splitting. My legs were likely broken. My ribs felt like they were poking into my heart and lungs. Then suddenly I heard it. A voice as cold as ice. My eyes were starting to shut as I glanced up and saw it. Dementors. Almost a hundred of them. They were all swarming down on me. Cedric couldn't see them, as he was still looking straight down at me.

"I need her... She is vital..."

"Master... She is just a child..."

"She will end it."

"D - Dementors," I muttered fearfully.

What was happening? Something was happening to me. The Dementors were swarming down around me. Their mouths - blank voids with rotting teeth or something along those lines - were coming closer and closer to my face. It felt like everything was being sucked out of me. My soul and my desire to live. To be with him... I had to get to him... He needed my help... Numbing, swirling white mist was filling my brain... What was I doing? Why was I freezing? Why did I feel like I was going to die? He wouldn't let me... He needed me... I was falling, falling through the icy mist.

How could you?

We were your friends!

Were those my parents? It sounded like them. Had they died, too? Was something happening to them? I had to get to them. To help them, and then get to him. I needed him. "Th - They're going to hurt them. Kill them," I whispered.

"Tara..." Cedric's voice called. It sounded like he was a million miles away. "Tara!"

"Mom... Dad..." I whispered.

A shrill voice was laughing. There was a horrible hissing noise. Screaming. So much screaming. There was a vague thought in the back of my mind that told me that it was me. Hands were grasping at me but I was trying to get away. They were going to take me from him. They couldn't take me from him. I needed to be with him. We could change everything. Everything would work. Now there was a woman who was screaming. A flash of brilliant green light. A pain that was worse than the one that I was feeling shot through me. My soul must have been gone... Then I knew no more.

"Lucky the ground was so soft."

"I thought they were dead for sure."

"But he didn't even break his glasses."

"Well she broke just about every bone in her body."

"She fell fifty feet."

Apparently I wasn't dead. The blankness that had been in my mind before was gone. What the hell had happened to me? Had I gotten caught up in a stampede? Had I done something that I shouldn't have done? This was worse than the Basilisk and the time down in the dungeons. That must have been one hell of a show that I had put on out there. I could hear the voices whispering, but they made no sense whatsoever. I didn't have a clue where I was, or how I'd got there, or what I'd been doing before he got there. All I knew was that every inch of me was aching as though it had been beaten.

"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."

Scariest... the scariest thing... hooded black figures... cold... screaming... desire... Now it all made perfect sense. Suddenly I remembered at least some of what had happened. At least, the most important part. My eyes snapped open. I was lying in the hospital wing. The Gryffindor Quidditch team, spattered with mud from head to foot, were gathered around my bed. Ron and Hermione were also there, looking as though they'd just climbed out of a swimming pool. Harry was in the bed next to me, looking dead. Cedric was here, too, sitting at the foot of my bed.

"Tara!" Fred yelled.

Cedric immediately leaned forward with everyone else. He didn't touch me but he did get close. "Tara, you're alright," Cedric said breathlessly.

"I think I got hit by a bus," I groaned.

Cedric smiled, as did everyone else that was sitting around us. "Just about. You fell almost fifty feet. I tried to catch you but I couldn't." So he was the person that had been clinging onto my robes. Not the Dementors. "I'm sorry, Tara. I'm so sorry," Cedric muttered.

He looked heartbroken. I would have moved my arm to try and place it over his own, but I couldn't. Everything hurt. It was impossible for me to move in the slightest. "It's okay," I muttered honestly.

"How are you feeling?" Fred asked.

"Awful. Did I break anything?" I asked, knowing that I had.

It must have at least been a leg break. Maybe an arm, too. I had landed on my side, after all. "I think it would be easier to give you a list of the things that you didn't break," Cedric said.

It must have been really bad. Hermione shifted forward. "He's right. You broke a few of the vertebrae in your spine, your collarbone -"

"Again?" I interrupted.

Hermione nodded. "Yes. Again." I had broken something in my spine. I must have come pretty close to being paralyzed. Since I could move my toes, I knew that I wasn't. "Your knee, a little fracture in your skull, your femur, tailbone, a piece of your sternum, tibia, and your right hip. You had a number of smaller breaks in your tibia, ulna, foot, toes, fingers, wrist, and ribs," Hermione explained.

If there was any chance that my parents had heard about the accident, I was sure that they must have been beside themselves. Mom would be panicking while Dad would be a mix of impressed and horrified. "Are there even any bones left in the body?" I asked irritably.

"Not many," Hermione answered bashfully.

No one was touching me. It was likely because things were still broken or the bones were very weak from being reset. "Madam Pomfrey fixed up most of the bigger breaks. Not to worry. In the morning you'll be as good as new. And they'll fix up some of your other injuries," Cedric said.

Other injuries? That didn't bode very well for me. "My face is screwed up, isn't it?" I asked bashfully.

"A few cuts and bruises but it could be worse," Cedric admitted.

I supposed that it could have been much worse if all that came out of the game was a few cuts and bruises. And they could be fixed relatively easily. "You scored three goals, though!" Fred said, trying to make me smile.

"Thanks. I'm very proud of myself," I muttered. As I shifted slightly, I felt a horrible pain shoot from the tips of my toes to the crown of my head. "Everything hurts."

Cedric immediately jumped off of the bed. "Let me see if I can get Madam Pomfrey to give you something for it," he said.

"Thanks."

"Harry!" Fred said suddenly. That was when I realized that he actually looked extremely pale and white underneath the mud. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Or maybe the near-death of his friends was a better choice of words. "How're you feeling?"

There was still some bit of me that was very fuzzy about what had happened. All I could remember was zooming through the Quidditch field. The horrible weather and everything else. But that was when I remembered just how strange the match had become in a matter of minutes. It was as though my memory was on fast forward. Suddenly everything made sense. The lightning - the Grim - the collision with Cedric - and the Dementors... All of which had clearly almost killed me.

"What happened?" Harry asked, sitting up so suddenly we all gasped.

Obviously he felt much better than I did. "You fell off. Must've been - what - fifty feet?" Fred asked.

"Why don't you have breaks?" I asked Harry a little nastier than I'd meant.

It wasn't his fault that he clearly wasn't as injured as I was. It was mostly my own fault. I shouldn't have just been hanging around in the air. But the stupid Grim and Dementors had distracted me. "Professor Dumbledore managed to show him down during the fall. No one saw your fall in time," Fred explained.

"Lucky you," I grunted at Harry.

"We thought you'd died. Both of you," Alicia said.

She was shaking and looked like she was about to pass out. Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were extremely bloodshot. That was when I realized that almost everyone had either been crying or they were pale in the face. They were all afraid that Harry and I had died. It must have been quite the scene to watch the two of us nearly get killed. At least once a year we always did something that made people think that we had died. The fight with Voldemort down in the dungeons, the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, and now the life-threatening falls in the Quidditch match.

"But the match. What happened? Are we doing a replay?" Harry asked.

That was when I remembered that he was right. I hadn't even thought about what had happened to the game. "Oh. I didn't even think about that. What happened? We were up before the Dementors. But no one caught the Snitch, right?" I asked quickly.

The last that I had known we were up by about sixty points. I thought that no one else had thrown the Quaffle through the hoops. I had been the last one to possess it. And as for the Snitch... Harry and Cedric had both been chasing after it the last that I had checked. Harry fell before being able to catch the Snitch. And Cedric rammed right into me before the end of the game. So no one had caught it. Right? But no one said anything. The horrible truth sank into me like a stone. There was no way that we -

"We didn't - lose?" Harry asked.

"Tell me we didn't lose," I said desperately.

"Diggory got the Snitch," George said. My jaw dropped. When had that happened? I hadn't seen the Snitch. "Just after the two of you fell. He had it in his hands when he landed on you, Tara. But he let go of it immediately once he realized what had happened to you. It didn't matter. He had already caught it. He didn't realize what had happened. When he realized that you two were half-dead, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch. But they won fair and square... even Wood admits it."

We had lost... We had actually lost... "He tried to call it off?" I asked weakly.

"Yeah. He didn't want to win that way. Not seeing how badly you two were injured," George admitted.

"Particularly you," Fred said, looking at me.

"Where is Wood?" Harry asked.

And suddenly I realized that he wasn't there. "Still in the showers. We think he's trying to drown himself," Fred said.

On a normal day it would have been enough to make me laugh. But not today. I couldn't believe it. On one hand, I was right about Cedric being a good man. He had offered to call off the match because of how badly we had been injured and because of the Dementors. But it didn't change anything. In the end, it was fair. He had caught the Snitch before Harry could. Evidently before things even got bad. They had won fair and square. I put my face in my hands, my fingers gripping at my hair. Harry was doing something similar. Fred grabbed Harry's shoulder and shook it roughly.

"I can't believe we lost," I said desperately.

Fred leaned over and pressed a kiss into my hair, since I wasn't nearly healthy enough to take the same shoulder-shake that he had given Harry. "It's alright, Tara. C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the Snitch before," Fred said helpfully.

"There had to be one time you didn't get it," George said.

"It's not over yet," Fred said.

"We lost by a hundred points, right? So if Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin..."

A hundred points? That meant that no one else had scored after me. It was just because Cedric had caught the Snitch. "Hufflepuff will have to lose by at least two hundred points," George said.

"But if they beat Ravenclaw..."

"No way, Ravenclaw is too good. But if Slytherin loses against Hufflepuff..."

"It all depends on the points - a margin of a hundred either way -"

The two of them chatted back and forth about how it would work out. They were right. There was a chance that we could still win the Quidditch Cup. But that wasn't what was bothering me right now. Both Harry and I lay there, not saying a word. They had lost... for the first time ever, I had lost a Quidditch match. Dad told me that he had lost at least one match every year that he had played on the Gryffindor Team - with the exception of his Fifth and Seventh Years. But me... I had never lost. Every single game that we had played in, we had won.

They had all been impressive wins too. Mom and Dad were always so proud of me for what I had done during the Quidditch matches. I was even thinking about being a professional player in recent years. I had been trained since I was a little kid by Dad. But now I had lost. And it really bothered me. Because I knew that I was better than how I had played; and I was still bothered by the sight of the Grim and the appearance of the Dementors. After ten minutes or so, Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave us in peace and bring more medicine.

She must have been chatting with Cedric. "We'll come and see you later," Fred told us. "Don't beat yourself up, Harry, you're still the best Seeker we've ever had. Tara, you're one of the best Chasers I've ever seen. Professional or not."

"Thanks," I muttered.

Cedric could tell that I was bothered by the loss. Mostly because I couldn't even argue that it was the Dementors or the Grim. They had actually been better than us. "Feel better, alright? I'll come see you later," Cedric said, pushing my muddy hair off of my forehead.

"Thanks." He was about to walk off when I caught his arm. "Hey. I heard about you trying to replay the match. I appreciate it. But they're right. You won fair and square," I admitted bitterly.

"I don't want to win if it means you getting hurt like this," Cedric said.

"Had worse," I said.

"Really?" Cedric asked disbelievingly.

The Basilisk might have been a little worse with the whole poison thing, but it had been fixed relatively quickly by Fawkes. This would linger. "No. Not really," I admitted awkwardly.

"Out, Mr. Diggory. You may return later," Madam Pomfrey called.

She was standing over by the counter. It looked like she was mixing up something that we could use for medicine, which was exactly what I wanted. Cedric leaned down and placed a kiss on my cheek. "I'll visit soon," Cedric said.

"Thanks. See you," I said, as friendly as I could.

But it was very hard. It would take a few days before I was no longer upset about the loss. It was even worse that I gave Dad play-by-plays about the games after they happened. I really didn't want to admit what had just happened during this game. I didn't want to admit that this was the first time that I had lost a Quidditch match. The team, and Cedric, trooped out, trailing mud behind them. Madam Pomfrey shut the door behind them, looking disapproving at her now dirty floors. Ron and Hermione moved nearer to Harry and I's beds.

"Dumbledore was really angry," Hermione said in a quaking voice. "I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wand, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the Dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away... He was furious they'd come onto the grounds. We heard him -"

"Then he magicked you onto a stretcher. And walked up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were..." Ron said.

Of course they thought that we were dead. It was the same thing that had happened when we were coming out of the dungeons. We had been passed out and looking like we were very close to being dead. Ron's voice faded, but I hardly noticed. I was thinking about what the Dementors had done to me... about the screaming voices. Mom and Dad shouting at a traitor. The desperation. And that horrible, cold, voice. With the weaselly helper. Who were they? I looked up and saw Ron and Hermione looking at us so anxiously that I quickly cast around for something matter-of-fact to say.

Harry beat me to it. "Did someone get my Nimbus?" he asked.

I'd almost completely forgotten about the broom. "Oh, yeah. Mine, too. Where is it?" I asked, looking around.

Ron and Hermione looked quickly at each other. "Er -" Ron said awkwardly.

"What?" Harry asked, looking from one to the other.

He cast a quick glance over at me. I shrugged my shoulders. It didn't make any sense to me. I couldn't even remember what had happened to my broom. "Well... Harry. When you fell off, it got blown away. And... You kind of landed on yours, Tara," Hermione explained hesitantly.

"And?" Harry pushed.

"And it hit - it hit - oh, Harry - it hit the Whomping Willow," Hermione explained.

My insides lurched. That was what had happened to Harry's broom. What the hell had happened to mine? I was smart enough to realize that if the brooms had somehow gotten knocked into the Whomping Willow, there was a good chance that we were going to be looking for a few new brooms. The Whomping Willow was a very violent tree that stood alone in the middle of the grounds and certainly held a grudge against Harry, Ron, and me.

"And?" Harry asked.

I found myself dreading the answer. "Well, you know the Whomping Willow. It - it doesn't like being hit," Ron said hesitantly.

"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," Hermione said in a very small voice.

"And mine?" I asked.

Maybe mine was still okay. Maybe it had a little bit of damage that could be repaired. "Cedric brought up yours. But... Like I said, you landed on it. Pretty hard. Almost fifty feet in the air is a really hard landing," Hermione said slowly, her face turning red.

"Get it over with, Hermione," I said weakly.

They were using the same kind of voices that a person would use to speak to someone that was about to die. Trying to help them out even though they knew that the end was coming. And I knew that the end was coming for our brooms right now. Slowly, Hermione reached down for a bag at her feet, turned it upside down, and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed, the only remains of Harry's faithful, finally beaten broomstick. She then lifted up my own Nimbus, which was cracked in half and splintered in three different places, completely irreparable.


	46. The Marauders Map

Madam Pomfrey ended up insisting on keeping Harry and me in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend. We didn't argue or complain, as it was almost impossible for the two of us to move anyways, but neither one of us would let her throw away the shattered remnants of our Nimbus Two Thousand's. I had a feeling that I would never be able to give it up. Not after everything that I had been through. We both knew that we were being stupid, knew that the Nimbus's were beyond repair, but we couldn't help it; we both felt as though we'd lost one of our best friends.

Unfortunately I had written to Mom and Dad about the Nimbus Two Thousand and what had happened during the game. They had come to visit Harry and me - just to ensure that we were okay - before flying back home. Dad had agreed that at the end of the summer we could go back out and get me a new broom. Maybe a Nimbus Two Thousand and One. We had agreed to give Harry Dad's old Nimbus Two Thousand. We would just have to wait out the rest of the year. Once they were sure that we were alright, Mom and Dad had headed back home with a promise that we'd talk soon, and to not take the loss too hard.

We had a stream of visitors, all intent on cheering us up. Hagrid sent us a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages, which did actually make me smile. Ginny, blushing furiously, turned up with two get-well cards she had made herself, which sang shrilly unless Harry and I kept them shut under our bowl of fruit. But I appreciated the thought. The Gryffindor team visited again on Sunday morning, this time accompanied by Oliver, who told Harry and me (in a hollow, dead sort of voice) that he didn't blame us in the slightest. Ron and Hermione left our bedside only at night.

To my ultimate surprise, there had even been another visitor that I'd had once. The night of the incident at the game - in the middle of the night when I was struggling to get ready for bed - I was coming out of the bathroom in the hospital wing. It was very difficult, seeing that my bones were still fragile from the impact, but I was managing to limp back to bed. Harry was currently trying to clean himself up. I was shocked enough to see that Malfoy was standing at the edge of my bed. He was uninjured, so why was he here? I had my hands linked in my towel to dry off my hair.

There wasn't a chance that he was here to see how I was doing, was he? "Come to finish me off?" I asked, dropping the towel on the bed.

"Come to see how you are," Malfoy said, scowling at me.

Well that wasn't the nicest thing that I had ever heard before. Here he was, seeing how I was, still scowling at me like I was his worst enemy. I folded my arms over my chest. "You're joking?" I half-asked and half-said.

"Obviously not, Nox," Malfoy snapped.

He didn't look that happy to see me but he had come here anyways. "Well..." I trailed off awkwardly. "I'm alive. Doing okay. Have you come to visit Harry, too?"

Of course I knew the answer. He might have come to see me because of our quasi-friendship, but there was no way that he was here to see Harry. He absolutely hated Harry. He only severely disliked me. "Of course not," Malfoy scoffed.

"Well you've seen that I'm alive, as much as that must disappoint you. Now you may leave," I barked.

Maybe he'd come to laugh at me and my injuries. "Here," Malfoy snapped.

Was I insane or was I seeing something akin to relief in his eyes? Relief that I was alive? I couldn't quite figure out what the look in his eyes was. I definitely saw the irritation, but I wasn't sure what else was there. Malfoy reached behind him and tossed a big box at me. I gasped but just barely managed to catch it, groaning as it hit me in the chest. It was heavier than I had been expecting and my chest was definitely sore as I'd broken a few ribs during the fall. I glanced down at what was in my arms and noticed that it was a large box of candy.

My eyebrows knitted together. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Seriously? I fell fifty feet and broke almost every bone in my body. And you gave me a box of chocolates?" Malfoy rolled his eyes at me. I wasn't really sure what I was getting at. I was just annoyed with him. "After you lied to me and told me that Black is the reason that my parents were almost killed?" I snapped irritably.

Maybe that was what the problem was. Maybe he felt bad for feeding me that lie. Malfoy gave me a strange look - another one that I couldn't read. "Glad you're not dead," Malfoy said blandly.

"Really?" I asked disbelievingly.

Malfoy actually gave me something that looked a touch like a smile. "I would be very bored without you to insult," he said.

There it was. He couldn't be too nice to me for too long. "Get out," I snapped. Malfoy grinned sidelong at me. "And just remember, when Slytherin plays its first match I'll be cheering for you to fall fifty feet from your own broom."

Malfoy scoffed. "I'm not scared of Dementors," he teased.

And that was where any hope that I'd had for Malfoy went out the window. He was an ass. I set a nasty glare on him as I walked over and placed my hand against Malfoy's chest, pushing him backwards. "Out," I snapped at him.

"No goodbye kiss?" Malfoy teased.

"Now!"

"Don't be rude, Nox." And so he was gone.

There had been something strange going on between myself and Malfoy for a long time. It had been the same strange feeling that I'd been getting with him since he'd saved me from the falling jar during Lockhart's disastrous Cornish Pixies lesson last year. I couldn't figure out what was going on between the two of us. Friendship, something more, or did we still hate each other? I hated it and I wanted him to stay away. Just so that I could go back to hating him easily. I didn't like the idea that we could be friends, or even something more one day.

That was not something that I wanted to think about. Instead I liked thinking that Cedric had been coming to visit me. Other than Hermione and Ron, he was the person that was here the most. I knew that he still felt bad about what had happened at the game, even though I kept insisting that it wasn't his fault. He had been with me most of the time and had gotten me everything that I needed. He had even been helping me get my homework done. Which was good, since I hadn't been studying much. He even offered to let me borrow his old Cleansweep Eleven. Not a great broom, but it would work until I could get a better one.

The worst part about the whole thing was that I had received another one of those perfectly wrapped black boxes. One that I hadn't gotten in a long time. I'd been horrified to see it in the middle of my pile of presents when I'd awaken the day after the match. Harry had been with me when I'd opened the box and we had waited for Ron and Hermione to show them, too. My hands were shaking so badly that I'd almost dropped it everywhere. It had been so long since I'd seen one. I'd almost forgotten about the mystery sender.

When we had opened the box I had almost screamed and dropped it. The only reason that I hadn't dropped the box was because Madam Pomfrey was standing just feet away when I had opened it and I didn't want anyone else knowing what was going on between myself and my mystery helper. Inside the box were two severed rat tails. Hermione had let out a fearful shriek and Ron had gasped, almost immediately leaving to check that Scabbers was okay - which he was. The tails were laid out in the same pattern that I was so used to. Eighty-three. There was a note along with it.

Find your true enemy

What did it mean? We spent hours upon hours thinking about it, only stopping when someone came to visit. Even then I was distracted about the note. Enemy... I knew who the enemy was. Sirius Black and Voldemort. Both wanted me dead. And what did a rat have to do with anything? Was it just something that was meant to scare me? Hermione told me that it was likely because we were missing something obvious but the rat tails had only been to scare me. Ron hated whoever sent it to me because he had been concerned about Scabbers. And Harry... Harry was almost as bothered as I was.

It was what was now causing my lack of sleep. Over the weekend - all three days before we were allowed to leave - I hadn't been able to sleep. I had gotten maybe a total of six hours all weekend. But it had been almost impossible. I kept dreaming of the boxes and the mystery man and that was only upsetting me even more. Everyone thought that it was just because of the loss. And that was partly it. So everyone kept trying to cheer us up. But nothing anyone said or did could make Harry or me feel any better, because they knew only half of what was troubling the two of us.

Though we had told Ron and Hermione about the boxes, we hadn't mentioned anything about the Grim, which I learned that he had seen, too. We hadn't even told Ron and Hermione, because we knew Ron would panic and Hermione would scoff. The fact remained, however, that it had now appeared three times. Twice it had been followed by near-fatal accidents; the first time, I had nearly been run over by the Knight Bus; the second, fallen fifty feet from my broomstick.

The only time that it hadn't almost killed me was when I had seen it in the playground. Was there a chance that it was a different dog and now I was seeing the Grim? No. I knew that the dog that I had seen - Snuffles - was the same one that had nearly attacked me before the Knight Bus and had watched the game. Could people actually get close to Grim's? What did that mean? Was the Grim going to haunt the two of us until we actually died? Were we going to spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders for the beast? Chances were that it wouldn't have to wait long...

It seemed that we were always about to die. That was only another part of it. Then there were the Dementors. Harry and I had exchanged stories about what we had heard when the Dementors had come to attack. Harry and I were both feeling sick and humiliated every time we thought of them. We kept getting affected by them and last time we had almost died. Everyone said the Dementors were horrible, but no one else collapsed every time they went near one. No one else heard echoes in their head of the ultimate betrayal or a baby girl that was needed or their dying parents.

No. That was just us. Something that neither one of us could bring ourselves to say to anyone else. We weren't really sure that we could say anything. They would just start panicking. I still didn't really understand what was happening every time that the Dementors got too close. I didn't understand what I was hearing. At least Harry knew what he was hearing. I heard something about a baby girl that was needed, an ultimate betrayal to my parents, and my burning desire to be with that unknown man. I didn't understand what any of it meant.

At least Harry knew. Now Harry knew who that screaming voice belonged to now. Just like I relived what I had heard over and over again during the night hours in the hospital wing while I lay awake, staring at the strips of moonlight on the ceiling, Harry did, too. When the Dementors approached him, he heard the last moments of his mother's life, her attempts to protect him from Lord Voldemort, and Voldemort's laughter before he murdered her. It was probably worse than mine. He was actually hearing the death of his own parents.

Over the past few days I had dozed fitfully, sinking into dreams full of clammy, rotted hands and petrified pleading, jerking awake to dwell again on whatever piece of the nightmare was haunting me that night. Every single night it was something else. The Dementors giving me the Kiss, my desire that shot straight through my chest, my parents screaming with a desperation that I had never heard before - not from people who were that brave - and that horrible ice-cold voice. Was it Voldemort? It seemed to be. And I had a terrible feeling that the baby girl might have been me.

Do you remember me? That was what Voldemort had asked me during our First Year. He'd never wanted to kill me. Not in the Chamber of Secrets. It didn't make sense and it was haunting me even in my dreams. I was sleeping on Sunday night when I awoken to find myself in the entrance hall of the school. I knitted my brows as I walked into the Great Hall. No one was there. That was, until I spotted a man lingering in the distance, up at the teacher's table. I couldn't make out his features but I knew that he was the same man that had been helping me for the past two years.

He saved me the trouble of speaking first. "Do you see what's happening?" the man asked.

"Sirius Black. He's here. He's in the castle," I said.

Obviously he wouldn't answer me. I already knew that. He was willing to help me, but he wanted me to figure things out for myself. "Not in the castle," the man answered flippantly.

We knew that much. But there was the question that remained. "So where is he?" I asked.

"Close."

He knew... I knew that he knew... "Tell me!" I shouted.

"You already know. You've already seen him," the man said.

My eyebrows knitted together. I had never seen Sirius Black. Unless he meant in the newspapers or on the Muggle television. "No, I haven't. I saw evidence that he was here in the castle. But I didn't see him. No one except for Peeves and the Fat Lady saw him," I said dumbly.

"Look closer."

It was the same thing that the man told me every time that I got something wrong. "You've told me that before. It doesn't work. Obviously I'm not smart enough to figure it out," I snapped irritably.

"Don't be a fool. It's not becoming of you," the man said.

My eyebrows creased again and my jaws clamped shut. I had no rebuttal to that. "I'm not being a fool. Tell me the truth. Why is he here? What does he want with us?" I asked.

"Open your eyes."

"They are!"

"More," the man ordered. "Wake up, Tara."

"Wake up, Tara," Harry's voice came. I jumped upright from the bed and wiped a little bit of sweat off of my brow. It was just a dream... The man was only in my mind. Harry looked a little concerned for me. "It's time for class."

"Oh..." I muttered dumbly. "Alright. Let's get ready."

The two of us took turns getting ready in the bathroom. While I was in there I realized that I looked almost as bad as I had when I'd started having the nightmares about Voldemort in our First Year. The only reason that it wasn't worse was because it had only been a few days, not a few weeks. But I would get there soon enough if it kept up like this. Once I was back into my uniform I nodded at Harry that I was ready to leave. Just so that we could get out of the depressing confines of the hospital wing - which was slowly making me go crazy.

It was definitely a relief to return to the noise and bustle of the main school on Monday, where we were forced to think about other things, even if it meant that we had to endure Draco Malfoy's taunting. Unfortunately the boy that had given me the box of chocolates was gone and now he was back to being intolerable as usual. Malfoy was almost beside himself with glee at Gryffindor's defeat. He had finally taken off his bandages and celebrated having the full use of both arms again by doing spirited imitations of Harry falling off his broom. Never me, though.

Not that it made much of a difference. He was annoying me as much as he was annoying Harry. Particularly because I was already on edge with my dreams and encounter with the Dementors. We could have seriously been killed. Not that he seemed to care. The Slytherin's all thought that he was very impressive with his jokes and Pansy Parkinson seemed to like to do impressions of my own fall. I was more than pleased when Cedric took twenty points from Slytherin for impersonating a near-fatal accident and winked at me before walking off. It was the first time that Gryffindor liked him since the loss.

Just a few days after our release of the hospital wing, Malfoy spent much of our next Potions class doing Dementor imitations across the dungeon; Ron finally cracked about halfway and flung a large, slippery crocodile heart at Malfoy, which hit him in the face and caused Snape to take fifty points from Gryffindor. It was enough to make me let out a barking laugh. He looked stunned and everyone knew that crocodile hearts were absolutely disgusting. Slimy, smelly, and heavy. Parkinson was horrified at Ron's actions and started screaming every foul name she knew.

"He deserved it!" I shouted at her.

"So did you! Too bad Diggory's a Hufflepuff, which, by the way, is the only reason that he saved you. Not some deluded crush that you think he has. He's just kind. I'd have let you fall," Malfoy said.

That sent the class into an utter pandemonium that Snape was unable to contain. Of course there was a great bit of laughter from the Slytherin's at Malfoy's comment about Cedric. But what genuinely bothered me was that he had just said that he was glad that I had lived only a few days ago. What was it with him? So I picked up a piece of one of the school scales and threw it straight at Malfoy, silencing the shouting in the room. It hit him so hard that he fell from his seat. When he looked back up he had a bloody nose and I realized that his nose was likely broken.

That sent the class into another uproar. The Gryffindor's were laughing as the Slytherin's were howling in fury. The boys immediately jumped in front of me to stop one of the Slytherin's from hurting me while Parkinson fawned over Malfoy. In the meantime Snape howled at us - louder and scarier than I had ever heard - to sit back down. It was enough to get everyone to be quiet and sit back down. Malfoy was holding his bloody nose and scowling at me. Snape took eighty points from Gryffindor and threatened detention for the rest of term if I even dared to move for the rest of the lesson.

"For your unnecessary violence against another student," Snape hissed, in a very deadly manner.

"What's a broken nose compared to a broken everything?" I muttered under my breath.

He probably heard me but made no motion against it. Needless to say, everyone was deathly still and silent throughout the rest of the class. We all simply worked in silence. Malfoy was sent to the hospital wing with Parkinson to help him and he scowled at me the entire way out. Not that I really cared. I wished that I had done more. Many of the Gryffindor students - despite losing so many points - were patting me on the shoulder as Snape nastily tore apart everything that I did with our potions. There was a good chance that he now hated me even more than Harry.

"He's such an ass!" I barked irritably.

"Well you did throw a scale at Malfoy," Hermione muttered sheepishly.

"Did you hear what he was saying?" Ron howled.

"Of course I did! But it is against the rules to fight with each other," Hermione added.

When we were allowed to leave I practically tore out of the room. "If Snape's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I'm skiving off," Ron said as we headed toward Professor Lupin's classroom after lunch.

"I'm with you," I mumbled.

"Check who's in there, Hermione," Ron ordered.

We had spent the entire lunch complaining about how much we hated Snape. Hermione did make it a point to say that I was lucky that I hadn't gotten detention that night. And she was right about that. But that didn't mean that I had to like him. I still hated him more than anything else. He was an ass and always would be. I had also had to awkwardly explain why Gryffindor was now one hundred and thirty points down. Since it was Snape - who notoriously hated Gryffindor - no one had seemed that bothered. And it was still early in the year. We could make up the points later.

Hermione peered around the classroom door. "It's okay!" she called back.

The four of us ducked into the classroom a moment later. Thankfully Snape was long gone from the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Professor Lupin was finally back at work. It certainly looked as though he had been ill. His old robes were hanging more loosely on him and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes; nevertheless, he smiled at the class as we took our seats, and everyone burst at once into an explosion of complaints about Snape's behavior while Professor Lupin had been ill. Or transforming, as I expected.

"It's not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?"

"We don't know anything about werewolves -"

"- two rolls of parchment!"

Ron's complaint about having to do two rolls of parchment was enough to make me snort under my breath. "Did you tell Professor Snape we haven't covered them yet?" Professor Lupin asked, frowning slightly.

The babble immediately broke out again. "Yes, but he said we were really behind -"

"- he wouldn't listen -"

"- two rolls of parchment!"

Ron's comment was again one of the loudest. I rolled my eyes at him. Two rolls of parchment was annoying but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Especially when we had O.W.L.'s coming up in the next few years. We would have to get used to writing long essays like that. And it wasn't like there was a lack of things to write about when it came to werewolves. Professor Lupin smiled at the look of indignation on every face.

"Don't worry. I'll speak to Professor Snape. You don't have to do the essay," Professor Lupin said.

"Oh no," Hermione said, looking very disappointed. "I've already finished it!"

"Yeah. I was getting close to being done, too," I muttered.

But it was probably for the best that I hadn't finished it. Mostly because my essay would tell Professor Lupin that I knew exactly who and what he was. At least we ended up having a very enjoyable lesson. The most enjoyable one that we had been through since Snape had come in a few days ago. Professor Lupin had brought along a glass box containing a hinkypunk, a little one-legged creature who looked as though he were made of wisps of smoke, rather frail and harmless-looking. Although they could definitely be dangerous.

"Lures travelers into bogs. You notice the lantern dangling from his hand?" Professor Lupin asked, as everyone continued jotting down notes. "Hops ahead - people follow the light - then -"

The hinkypunk made a horrible squelching noise against the glass. Everyone started to laugh at the little creature. It was definitely rather amusing. It was much nicer than having to deal with Snape and his nasty comments about how we were doing everything wrong. When the bell rang, everyone gathered up their things and headed for the door. I was trailing in back of everyone else, waiting for Ron, Harry, and Hermione to finish gathering up their things. The moment that we all turned to leave, we were called back.

"Wait a moment, Harry, Tara. I'd like a word."

Harry and I doubled back and watched Professor Lupin covering the hinkypunk's box with a cloth. We stared at each other and shrugged. I had no idea what Professor Lupin wanted with the two of us. Unless it was to ask about the match, which I really wasn't in the mood to talk about. I was still upset that we had likely cost Gryffindor the Quidditch Cup. Oliver's last chance to win it. All because of the damned Dementors and Grim. As Professor Lupin started to pack up his things, I smiled at him.

"We're glad to see you back," I said sweetly.

"Thank you, Tara. I heard about the match," Professor Lupin said, turning back to his desk and starting to pile books into his briefcase, "and I'm sorry about your broomsticks. Is there any chance of fixing them?"

"No. The tree smashed it to bits," Harry said.

"Mine is cracked in too many spots. We're not getting those brooms back," I explained.

Professor Lupin sighed. "They planted the Whomping Willow the same year that I arrived at Hogwarts. People used to play a game, trying to get near enough to touch the trunk. In the end, a boy called Davey Gudgeon nearly lost an eye, and we were forbidden to go near it. No broomstick would have a chance," Professor Lupin explained.

"Why did they plant it?" I asked.

"I'm not exactly sure," Professor Lupin said, rather unconvincingly.

"Did you hear about the Dementors too?" Harry asked with difficulty.

Professor Lupin looked at him quickly. "Yes, I did. I don't think any of us have seen Professor Dumbledore that angry. They have been growing restless for some time... furious at his refusal to let them inside the grounds... I suppose they were the reason you fell?" he asked.

"Yes," Harry said.

Professor Lupin turned to me. "Although I hear a collision with another player was cause for your collapse?" he asked.

"Yes. I hesitated in the air when I saw the Dementors. Cedric Diggory was attempting to get the Snitch at the same time. We collided in midair. He tried to stop me but couldn't manage it," I said, rubbing my arms at the memory of the impact.

"That was good of him," Professor Lupin said.

"It was my own fault. I should have been paying a little more attention. They just distracted me," I said.

Professor Lupin looked like he might have been debating on hugging us. But he didn't. Harry hesitated, gave me a look, I nodded, and then he asked the question that had been bothering us before he could stop himself. "Why? Why do they affect us like that? Are we just - ?"

"It has nothing to do with weakness," Professor Lupin said sharply, as though he had read our mind. "The Dementors affect you two worse than the others because there are horrors in your past that the others don't have."

"I don't understand what that has to do with me," I said.

"You've battled Voldemort face-to-face twice. You know how close to was to your parents being killed. You were still there when he attacked that night in Godric's Hollow. Even though you might have been an infant at the time, there are likely things that your mind has locked away. Hardships that you might not remember, but did happen," Professor Lupin explained.

For a moment I hesitated. I wanted to say something, to ask him what it was that he meant, but I hesitated. Because I was sure that it was something that I would find out. It was something that someone would tell me or I would discover when the time was right. In the meantime no one would tell me. Maybe they didn't even know the truth. So I nodded, despite not understanding. A ray of wintery sunlight fell across the classroom, illuminating Professor Lupin's gray hairs and the lines on his young face.

"Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can't see them. Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life. And the worst that happened to you, Harry, Tara, is enough to make anyone fall off their broom. You two have nothing to feel ashamed of," Professor Lupin explained.

"When they get near me..." Harry trailed off and stared at Professor Lupin's desk. "I can hear Voldemort murdering my mum."

Professor Lupin looked at us again. "I hear him, too. But he was saying something about needing a a girl. A child. There's another man with him. Mousy. I can't see him but I can hear his voice. High-pitched. Sniveling. And my parents calling someone a traitor. They're shouting it," I admitted.

That time we definitely caught Professor Lupin's attention. His gaze shot up to me and for a moment I thought that he would say something. But he didn't. Because there was really nothing to say to that. There was no way that he could comfort us. Not unless he knew exactly what had happened. Professor Lupin made another sudden motion with his arm as though to grip our shoulders, but thought better of it. Just like before. Unfortunately we were in school and there was the debate of appropriateness. There was a moment of silence.

"Why did they have to come to the match?" Harry asked bitterly.

"They're getting hungry. Dumbledore won't let them into the school, so their supply of human prey has dried up... I don't think they could resist the large crowd around the Quidditch field. All that excitement... emotions running high... it was their idea of a feast," Professor Lupin said coolly, shutting his briefcase with a snap.

"I've never seen that many of them before," I said.

"Azkaban must be terrible," Harry muttered.

Professor Lupin nodded grimly. "The fortress is set on a tiny island, way out to sea, but they don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're all trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most of them go mad within weeks," he said.

"But Sirius Black escaped from them. He got away..." Harry said slowly.

Professor Lupin's briefcase slipped from the desk; he had to stoop quickly to catch it. He had astoundingly fast movements for someone who was so sickly. Which only added to my theory. He was just that sickly looking because he hadn't slept last night. Because he had been transforming all night. Because he had likely sustained injuries at night while he was in his werewolf form. It was very hard to keep my mouth glued shut. I was so desperate to say something to him about it.

"Yes," Professor Lupin said, straightening up, "Black must have found a way to fight them. I wouldn't have believed it possible... Dementors are supposed to drain a wizard of his powers if he is left with them too long..."

"You made that Dementor on the train back off," Harry said suddenly.

"There are - certain defenses one can use. But there was only one Dementor on the train. The more there are, the more difficult it be comes to resist," Professor Lupin explained.

"It's a Patronus. The thing that you used on the train. Right?" I asked.

Professor Lupin looked surprised that I knew what it was. "Yes. It is," Professor Lupin said.

"What defenses? Can you teach me?" Harry asked at once.

"Could you teach both of us?" I asked quickly, sending Harry a little scowl for not including me. He flushed slightly. "That way that'll never happen at another Quidditch match."

"Is that your motivation?" Professor Lupin asked, a wry smile on his face.

"Well also to keep them away from me. They're awful," I said.

"I don't pretend to be an expert at fighting Dementors, Harry, Tara... quite the contrary..." Professor Lupin said.

"But if the Dementors come to another Quidditch match, I need to be able to fight them -"

"Exactly!" I interrupted Harry. "They could hurt a student... It will help to have more people that know how to fight them."

Professor Lupin smiled. "You are very much like your father," he said.

"Thank you," I said, smiling softly.

Professor Lupin looked into Harry and I's determined faces, hesitated, then said, "Well... all right. I'll try and help. But it'll have to wait until next term, I'm afraid. I have a lot to do before the holidays. I chose a very inconvenient time to fall ill."

"Thank you!" I chirped happily.

"We'll be there," Harry said happily, before turning to me. "Come on. We should get going."

If I was going to say something, I wanted to say it now. Before I lost my nerve. "You go ahead. I'll be right there. I just need to speak to Professor Lupin for a few minutes," I said, forcing myself not to back out.

"Okay," Harry said.

The two of us waited for Harry to walk out of the classroom and shut the door behind him. Then Professor Lupin turned to me and smiled. I tried to open my mouth and force myself to spit out the truth. Just say it, you idiot! I wanted to say it before I lost my nerve. But my mouth had chosen now to stop working. I wasn't sure how to say it to keep myself from getting expelled. And if there was the off chance that I was wrong... I was sure that I would never be able to look Professor Lupin in the eyes again.

"What else can I help you with, Tara?" Professor Lupin asked, sensing my hesitance to speak first.

"I - I wrote that essay."

"I'm very sorry that you already wrote it."

"I was bored in the hospital wing while I was recovering from the injury. I - I just... um... I don't know why I'm here, actually," I said awkwardly, looking anywhere but at his face.

Professor Lupin took in a deep breath, let it out, and gave me a bitter smile. He knew where this was going. "I get the sense that there's something that you want to say," he said.

"Yes..."

"I can give you extra credit for the assignment if you'd like to hand it in? Not that you really need any. You have almost a perfect score in the class," Professor Lupin offered.

"Oh. I don't think that I should hand in the assignment. I - uh - I gave examples of real life werewolves," I said, trying to lead myself into the conversation slowly.

"I see," Professor Lupin said slowly.

"You know... Fenrir Greyback." Unless I was wrong, I saw Professor Lupin give a little cringe. "Wagga Wagga Werewolf. Silas Crump," I said, trailing off dumbly.

"Anyone else?"

"Yes... But someone that I do look up to," I said quickly.

"Is that so?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Yes. I don't hold that prejudice. My mother and father taught me to never judge someone for something that they can't control. They were very pro-werewolf," I said.

"They were when we were children, too," Professor Lupin said.

It was his own way of telling me that he was. I was sure that it was. Because my parents had trusted him. And that gave me every reason to trust him. He had never given me any reason not to trust him. And if he hadn't said something yet, I could only assume that I was right about thinking that he was a werewolf. So I decided to just go for it.

"So... You are?" I asked, so quietly that I wasn't even sure that he had heard me.

Professor Lupin gave a bitter smile as he started pacing in front of me. "I figured that when Professor Snape set the essay someone would manage to figure it out. It should come as no surprise that you were the one," he said.

"I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have said anything," I said dumbly.

Professor Lupin smiled and shook his head. He motioned for me to follow him and I went, sitting behind at his desk with him. "Please, Tara. Your mother was the first of my friends to figure it out," Professor Lupin said.

"She was?" I asked.

"Yes. She recognized the signs. Just the way that you did, I'm sure?" Professor Lupin asked.

"I had a feeling after the Boggart but the essay confirmed it," I explained.

Professor Lupin smiled like he was almost proud of me. "You certainly are my brightest student, Tara. And as exceptionally kind as your mother," he said, making me smile at him. "She never had an issue about my lycanthropy."

Now I understood why my mother and father had always taught me to never fear werewolves. It made total sense now. "There's no reason to fear it. As long as you can manage to contain yourself during the full moon and transformations there's no need to be afraid of them." Professor Lupin smiled as I hesitated, something occurring to me. "Can I ask what happened?" I asked.

Be a little ruder, Tara! My eyes went wide and I was about to take it back, but Professor Lupin spoke first. "Of course. Shortly before I turned five, I was attacked by Greyback," Professor Lupin explained.

"Oh... Oh I'm so sorry," I said, gasping softly.

Fenrir Greyback was, perhaps, the most savage werewolf alive today. He regarded it as his mission in life to bite and to conta minate as many people as possible; he wanted to create enough were wolves to overcome the wizards. He had become so savage that even his human form was starting to meld in with his werewolf form, making him appear permanently as a werewolf. Apparently Voldemort had promised him prey in return for his services. Greyback specialized in children... Bite them young and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards

Somehow Professor Lupin had managed to escape. "That's alright. It's been a long time and I've since gotten over it. As I slept peacefully in bed, Greyback forced open my window and bit me. My father managed to reach the bedroom in time to save me and to drive Greyback out of the house using a number of powerful curses. The deed, however, was already done, and I became a full-fledged werewolf from that point on," Professor Lupin explained.

"Professor Dumbledore knows this? Everyone knows this?" I asked curiously.

Was there a chance that no one knew? Or was this something that was common knowledge. "Many people at Hogwarts didn't know. But some did. My closest friends. Your parents. The staff. Professor Snape," Professor Lupin explained.

"He found out on accident, I suppose?" I asked, referring to Snape.

"A very near accident. But he managed to get away and everyone was okay."

"I suppose that's good. What about during your transformations?"

"Not to worry, I had a place to go. I still have a place to go. You and the other students are completely safe."

That wasn't something that I had ever had a doubt about. "I trust you, Professor Lupin. My parents did and so do I," I said, smiling at him.

"I'm very glad to hear that, Tara," Professor Lupin said.

"And I swear that I will never repeat this to someone," I promised.

"I would very much appreciate that. And I do believe that's the dinner bell. You should get on your way, Tara."

"Thank you, Professor Lupin."

"Thank you, Tara. For keeping my secret and feeling that you could come and speak to me about it."

The two of us smiled at each other. We were in a good place right now. I finally knew the truth but I had sworn to never repeat it. Because I would have been furious if I was a werewolf and someone had repeated it. We exchanged a few nice comments as I sat at his desk, having a cup of tea. The moment that I finished I got up and headed straight to dinner. The others asked me what had happened, but I had merely told them that I had a question about the hinkypunk. As promised, I didn't say anything about Professor Lupin's secret.

What with the promise of anti-Dementor lessons from Lupin, the thought that I might never have to hear Voldemort looking for some child and feeling that horrible desire to be with some man, and the fact that Ravenclaw flattened Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match at the end of November, my mood took a definite upturn. So did Harry's. I had a feeling that Cedric might have thrown the match to try and even things out a little bit for the rest of the season. I would have to yell at him for that if he did. Because I needed to know what he had done.

It turned out that Gryffindor were not out of the running after all, although we could not afford to lose another match. We would have to win the rest of them and win with high points. Oliver became repossessed of his manic energy, and worked the team as hard as ever in the chilly haze of rain that persisted into December. I was sure that we were all going to have hypothermia within a few days. On the bright side, I saw no hint of a Dementor within the grounds. Dumbledore's anger seemed to be keeping them at their stations at the entrances.

Two weeks before the end of the term, when I would finally get a break from all of the craziness in Hogwarts, the sky lightened suddenly to a dazzling, Opaline white and the muddy grounds were revealed one morning covered in glittering frost. As much as I did love Christmas, I was still used to the warm winters back in Florida. I could never get used to the icy blasts of air and snow that fell in Scotland. It was a good thing that I still had Fred's winter cloak. He had simply learned that I wasn't going to give it back.

Inside the castle, there was a buzz of Christmas in the air. Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, had already decorated his classroom with shimmering lights that turned out to be real, fluttering fairies. The students were all happily discussing their plans for the holidays. Both Ron and Hermione had decided to remain at Hogwarts, and though Ron said it was because he couldn't stand two weeks with Percy, and Hermione insisted she needed to use the library, we weren't fooled; they were doing it to keep him company, and I knew that he was very grateful.

So far I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. Whether or not I wanted to stay in the castle or head out to go back home. I knew that Cedric was going to ask me to go out if I decided to go back home but I also didn't want to leave Harry in the castle. Although I knew that Ron and Hermione would be there to keep him company. To everyone's delight except Harry's, there was to be another Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of the term. I smiled softly. If I decided to stay at Hogwarts from the holiday, I would be able to at least go out with Cedric to Hogsmeade.

"We can do all our Christmas shopping there! Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!" Hermione said cheerfully.

We all felt terribly for Harry, but there was nothing to be done. We would just have to be resigned to spending Christmas with him. Resigned to the fact that he would be the only Third Year staying behind again, Harry borrowed a copy of Which Broomstick from Oliver, and decided to spend the day reading up on the different makes. He had been riding one of the school brooms at team practice, an ancient Shooting Star, which was very slow and jerky. Even Cedric's old broom that I was using was better. We both definitely needed a new broom though.

Just a few days before the Hogsmeade trip, I was leaving Transfiguration with everyone else and heading to lunch. "Nox!" Professor McGonagall called, halting my movements. "I'd like a word."

"Yes, Professor?" I asked, motioning for my friends to head out.

She motioned for me to come over towards her desk. "Obviously you are aware of the situation with Sirius Black being on the loose and having been spotted both in the castle and surrounding villages. You know that yourself and Mr. Potter are in danger," Professor McGonagall said.

"I'm aware."

Automatically I knew that something was wrong here. The way that she was speaking to me. "Because of this, I need you to know that the teachers and staff here have decided that it is unsafe for you to be in Hogsmeade with the rest of the students until Sirius Black is apprehended. Not without an escort and we can't use our already limited resources to have anyone following you. It is for your own safety," Professor McGonagall said.

My jaw dropped. There was no way that they could keep me out of going to Hogsmeade. That wasn't fair! Sirius Black wasn't going to do anything to me. He was too far away. He obviously wasn't in the castle anymore. Maybe he was gone from the area now that he knew how many people were on the lookout for him. Either way, I had to be allowed to go to Hogsmeade. It was the one thing that I had been looking forward to. Because I really wanted to go back out on another date with Cedric.

"But my parents signed the slip!" I shouted.

Professor McGonagall shifted uncomfortably. "That was before we knew how serious this was. I'm sorry, Nox. But you did get to go into Hogsmeade once. You've seen the village. Nothing changes," she said regretfully.

"Professor -"

"I'm very sorry, Nox. I genuinely am," Professor McGonagall said, actually looking heartbroken for me. "But this is for your own safety."

"Alright. Thanks, Professor," I said lowly.

"You can keep Potter company," Professor McGonagall offered.

"Yeah. I suppose," I muttered.

It looked like she might have said something else, or at least wanted to say something else, but she didn't. Likely because she knew that I was upset and there was nothing more to say about it. So I headed out of her classroom and slung my bag over my shoulder. At least one thing was true; I was going to be able to sit with Harry and keep him company. Which was a benefit. At least neither one of us would be alone. The moment that I walked out I was corned by Cedric. He looked much happier than I was.

"You hear the next Hogsmeade trip is coming up soon?" Cedric asked, grinning at me.

"Yeah. I saw," I said.

"Want to go? I promise I won't drag you to Madam Puddifoot's," Cedric teased.

My jaws set. I would have been going out on another date. And maybe I would have gotten a real kiss this time. "As much as I would love that, I can't. I'd even rather go to Madam Puddifoot's all day. But I can't," I growled.

"Better offer?" Cedric teased.

He was trying to get me to play along. "With Sirius Black being in the area it means that I'm not safe out there. The teachers think that it's a bad idea that I would be out there without protection and they don't just want to have someone following me all the time. So, until Sirius Black is apprehended, I'm barred from going on the trips to Hogsmeade," I explained.

Cedric's face fell as he moved forward and grabbed my hands. "Oh... Tara, I'm really sorry," Cedric said softly.

"It sucks but I guess I'll get over it," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"I wanted to go out with you again. Make up for the game."

It was enough to make me smile slightly. "That's alright. I'll live. I know that it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have been just hanging there but the Dementors got to me. It was just an accident," I said honestly.

"I'll bring you something back, alright?" Cedric offered.

"You don't need to," I said.

He could tell that I wasn't into the conversation in the slightest. Cedric stepped into me and playfully jabbed me in the stomach before poking slightly at my cheeks. "Come on. Cheer up," Cedric said.

"How? Some psychopath is after me and now I can't even go to Hogsmeade to enjoy myself," I muttered.

"Alright. Then I'll cheer you up," Cedric said determinedly.

"How's that?" I asked.

If there was ever someone that was good at getting me to smile no matter what, it was Cedric. Surprising me slightly, Cedric ran over to me and grabbed around my hips, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. I laughed hysterically, actually feeling a little bit happy, as he dragged me down the hallway. He was holding me tightly around the back of the thighs. There was no way that I would have been able to pry myself away from him and in the back of my mind I knew that I didn't want him to. Because I was actually happy right now.

Something that I hadn't thought that I would feel for a while. He ran the two of us up and down the hallway as I kicked at his back, trying to get off of his shoulders. But he was too strong. Eventually he finally dropped me near the edge of the wall and I laughed again, my head spinning slightly. I grabbed onto his arm to make sure that I wasn't about to fall. The two of us smiled at each other for a moment before he leaned in. My heart skipped a beat as he leaned forward and gently kissed me. He kept one hand against the side of my face and I smiled.

He only lingered for a moment before pulling back. He didn't push for more, since he knew that I was upset. "Now look at that. You're smiling," Cedric teased.

"Stop," I said, shoving him back slightly. "I wanted to be upset."

Cedric gave a small smirk. He knew that he had gotten to me. "You know that I'm not going to let you stay upset. I want you to be happy," Cedric said, giving me another smile. "And I'm really sorry about Hogsmeade. But I promise that I'll bring you something back."

"Like?" I asked.

"Well that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?"

"I still don't like surprises."

"I know. But I do."

"Have fun out there," I said, a little more bitterly than I'd meant.

"I'm really sorry that you can't go, Tara," Cedric said.

Shrugging my shoulders again, I leaned back against the wall. "At least I got to go once. And Harry's here in the castle. Maybe the two of us will go do something," I said, looking around us.

"That's the spirit. Come on. It's dinnertime," Cedric said.

He placed a hand on the back of my shoulder and gently pulled me along with him. For a moment the two of us walked with our hands linked. I leaned my head against his shoulder as he placed a small kiss in my hair. My heart was fluttering slightly. At least, if nothing else, Professor McGonagall's warning against me going to Hogsmeade had placed the two of us in the castle together. As we got to the Great Hall, Cedric released my hand and we walked back in. I noticed that many of the girls were glaring at me, despite the fact that we weren't touching anymore.

It was something that had been happening since we had gone to Hogsmeade together. And the rumors had only briefly died down about us when I had been injured during the Quidditch game. Of course, the way that Cedric had reacted after my impact had only made the rumors run rampant again and they hadn't stopped since. The two of us gave each other a quick hug before I turned and went to take my place between Harry and Hermione. They asked what had happened and I regretfully told them about what had happened with Professor McGonagall.

None of them looked happy that I wasn't going to be allowed to go to Hogsmeade. Hermione had commented that it was probably safer that I don't go. After a very loud tirade from Ron she had apologized and told me that she was sorry that I couldn't go and had promised to get me something from Honeydukes. Ron had offered to distract Filch. I had laughed but told him that it wasn't worth getting caught. Harry was not happy to hear that I had been barred from Hogsmeade but he was happy that at least he wouldn't be alone. It was the only bright side to the whole thing.

In the meantime, as the days passed, I noticed that word began to spread that I would not be going to Hogsmeade this time around. Someone must have overheard me saying that I wasn't going to be there. Although it became quickly obvious that no one knew why, which made me perfectly happy. I didn't want anyone to know about my condition with Sirius Black. But it just made the rumors worse. Because now everyone was assuming that Cedric didn't ask me back out to Hogsmeade after our last date and now I was too embarrassed to go.

Unfortunately it meant that I just had to accept the rumors. Because I couldn't tell them the truth about what had happened. But it was incredibly embarrassing having people say that. I wasn't sure what Cedric was saying, but I had asked him to keep the truth about Sirius Black. They didn't need to know what was happening. That meant that Cedric was likely just having to tell people to mind their own business. Which would only make things even worse. Of course. Just when I was thinking that things couldn't get any worse for me. Now I had to add stupid rumors to my plate of things to deal with.

Over the past few days I had gotten a number of condolences. Of course they weren't serious. The girls that had come up to me were all laughing and seemed to be pleased that Cedric had apparently 'come to his senses' about seeing someone like me. I had come very close to hitting someone more than once. People were also simply enjoying making fun of me. And I was now noticing that some other girls were starting to flirt with Cedric, now that they thought that he had no entanglements. It was infuriating me.

On the Saturday morning of the Hogsmeade trip, Harry and I bid goodbye to Ron and Hermione, who were wrapped in cloaks and scarves. They looked very guilty about everything that had happened but we merely shrugged them off and wished them a happy time. Then we turned up the marble staircase, just the two of us, and headed back toward Gryffindor Tower. Snow had started to fall outside the windows, and the castle was very still and quiet. It made it feel lonelier than I had in a long time.

"Sorry you can't go this time," Harry said.

"For once, it's not your fault," I teased, making Harry laugh. "Wanna find something to do?"

"Sure." The two of us headed off to try and find something to amuse ourselves. Which would be hard to do, since we were both a little depressed. "You alright? You've seemed kind of out of it the past few days."

"Just annoyed," I growled.

"About?"

"You don't want to hear."

"Do too. Tell me."

Taking a deep breath, I leaned back onto Harry's shoulder, knowing that I would probably annoy him. "I'm just annoyed that since I couldn't go to Hogsmeade people now think that Cedric didn't want to go out with me again. And he did ask me but I had to tell him the truth. Now girls are flirting with him and making fun of me," I said, hearing the little whine in my voice.

Harry grabbed my shoulder and pulled me off to the side. His hands were tight over my arms. "Don't listen to them, Tara. Anyone with eyes can see that Diggory's got a huge crush on you," he said, surprising me.

"I know... But we haven't really said whether or not we are anything to each other and it's just... weird."

"He kissed you at Hogsmeade, right?"

My head snapped over to him. "What?" I asked dumbly.

Harry laughed and rolled his eyes. "I'm no idiot. I know that the way that you've been looking at Diggory, how panicked he was when you were hurt at the last game, and the way that you've been so bothered by the comments... something happened." Harry was smarter than I gave him credit for. "Am I right?" Harry asked, after a beat.

"Yeah," I admitted awkwardly.

"Was that the only time?" Harry asked.

"He just kissed me in the hall last week when I was upset," I said.

Harry nudged me in the shoulder. "See? He likes you," Harry said.

"But he can't actually say that he does. Or tell others that he does."

"Ask him about it."

That would have made for an awkward conversation. "I can't even think of what I would manage to say," I mumbled.

"Psst - Harry! Tara!"

What the hell was that? Who else was actually staying here? Other than the few older kids who had seen Hogsmeade a number of times and were now bored of the whole thing. The both of us turned, halfway along the third-floor corridor, to see Fred and George peering out at us from behind a statue of a hump-backed, one-eyed witch. My eyebrows raised. What were they doing out here? They were always out at Hogsmeade whenever they could, seeing as it was the only time that they could get out to Zonko's.

"What are you doing? How come you're not going to Hogsmeade?" Harry asked curiously.

"Missing out on a trip to Zonko's?" I asked.

"Of course not," George said, as if I was being a complete moron.

"We've come to give you a bit of festive cheer before we go," Fred said, with a mysterious wink.

"That sounds dangerous," I commented.

"Such little faith, Tara. Come in here," Fred said.

When it came to the two of them doing something that looked very untrustworthy, they were very right about me having little faith in them. Fred nodded toward an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue. Harry and I followed Fred and George inside, exchanging a look with each other. We couldn't help but to wonder what was happening. Fred and George were some of the few who knew the truth about my being barred from Hogsmeade, as I had complained to them about it one day. George closed the door quietly and then turned, beaming, to look at Harry and me.

"Early Christmas present for you, Harry. Something to share with Tara until she's allowed back," George said.

"Something that's going to blow up in my face?" I asked dully.

"You think we're so cruel," George said.

"Maybe because I remember your present from two years ago," I said.

"But it made you laugh," Fred said, poking me in the waist.

I laughed and shoved him away from me. "Now that is true," I admitted.

They both laughed as I took a step back to see what they were doing. Apparently something that wasn't going to blow up in my face. Which I liked, considering that it had taken me two weeks to grow back my eyebrows last time. Fred pulled something from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the desks. Harry and I moved forwards to see what it was. It was a large, square, very worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it. I raised my brow and turned towards them, suspecting one of Fred and George's jokes. Harry was still staring at it.

"What's that supposed to be?" Harry asked.

"This, Harry, is the secret of our success," George said, patting the parchment fondly.

"A piece of blank parchment?" I asked.

"Don't be daft," George said, making me scowl.

"It's a wrench, giving it to you, but we decided last night, your need's greater than ours," Fred said.

"Anyway, we know it by heart. We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore," George said.

"And what do I need with a bit of old parchment?" Harry asked.

"A bit of old parchment!" Fred exclaimed, closing his eyes with a grimace as though Harry had mortally offended him. "Explain, George."

"Well... when we were in our First Year, Harry, Tara - young, care- free, and innocent -"

Both Harry and I snorted. That was probably one of the funniest things that I had ever heard either one of them say. And they were some very funny people. But I knew that Harry was laughing at the exact same thing that I was laughing at. We both obviously doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent. Judging by the way that Mrs. Weasley would yell at them, they likely never had been.

"- well, more innocent than we are now - we got into a spot of bother with Filch," George finished.

"Shocking," I muttered.

"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason -"

"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual -"

"- detention -"

"- disembowelment -"

"- and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."

"Wow, Filch hasn't even given me disembowelment as on option," I said, giving them a small smile. And Filch really hated me. "Although he did try to choke me to death."

"Well you did Petrify his cat," Fred said.

"Shut up!" I barked.

"Don't tell me," Harry said, starting to grin.

"Well, what would you've done? George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb, I whipped the drawer open, and grabbed - this," Fred said, motioning back to the parchment.

"Not bad, boys," I said, grinning.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know. We don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was, though, or he wouldn't have confiscated it," George said.

"And you know how to work it?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes. This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school," Fred said, smirking.

"You're winding me up," Harry said, looking at the ragged old bit of parchment.

"Oh, are we?" George asked playfully.

"Get on with it, boys," I barked.

George took out his wand, touched the parchment lightly, and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Snorting under my breath, I looked straight down at the parchment. It sounded like something that Fred and George would have come up with. Although I was sure that someone else had come up with it. I watched in fascination as, at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed:

Messrs. Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. My jaw dropped when I saw it. This was definitely something incredible. This was something that I had never thought that I would ever see. Nothing like this. And I had seen some pretty amazing magic. But the truly remarkable thing were the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labeled with a name in minuscule writing. It was definitely useful. And I realized pretty quickly that this was how Cedric had known about the witch statue.

Astounded at the map, Harry and I bent over it. We were careful not to touch it, fearing that if we touched it, the words would vanish. Like one of Fred and George's jokes. A labeled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; the caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris, was prowling the second floor; and Peeves the Poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as my eyes traveled up and down the familiar corridors, I noticed something else. The map showed a set of passages that I had never entered. And many of them seemed to lead...

"Right into Hogsmeade," Fred said, tracing one of them with his finger. "There are seven in all. Now, Filch knows about these four," he pointed them out, "but we're sure we're the only ones who know about these. Don't bother with the one behind the mirror on the fourth floor. We used it until last winter, but it's caved in - completely blocked. And we don't reckon anyone's ever used this one, because the Whomping Willow's planted right over the entrance. But this one here, this one leads right into the cellar of Honeydukes. We've used it loads of times. And as you might've noticed, the entrance is right outside this room, through that one-eyed old crone's hump."

"Cedric showed me this entrance before. I can't believe I didn't think about it!" I said, feeling very stupid.

Fred and George whipped around to me. I realized a second too late that I shouldn't have said anything. "How did Diggory know?" George asked, an accusatory note in his voice.

"He overheard you two idiots talking. Showed me one day," I said, faulting them.

"Have to be more careful about that in the future," Fred said, exchanging a look with George.

"Thanks. Got me out on my birthday last year," I said.

"You should've brought us back something," Fred teased, throwing an arm over my shoulder.

I rolled my eyes and shoved him off of me. "Shut up," I barked.

They all laughed as George went back to the parchment. "Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," George said, patting the heading of the map. "We owe them so much."

"Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of law-breakers," Fred said solemnly.

"Right," George said briskly.

"Who are they?" I asked, looking down at the map.

Fred came to stand over my shoulder. "We're not sure. Old students, somewhere in the last generation or two," Fred explained.

"Don't forget to wipe it after you've used it -"

"- or anyone can read it," Fred said warningly.

"Just tap it again and say, 'Mischief managed!' And it'll go blank," George finished.

"So, young Harry," Fred said, in an uncanny impersonation of Percy, "mind you behave yourself."

"See you in Honeydukes," George said, winking.

"Thank you, boys!" I chirped.

"Our pleasure, Tara," George said.

Fred was not quite as easy to get lost. "Remember. Now you owe us another one," he said, leaning in my ear.

"Get out," I barked, shoving him away from me. "See you boys out there."

The two of them each gave me a smile and I laughed. They were annoying as hell but at least they were being helpful today. The twins then left the room, both smirking in a satisfied sort of way. There were a few times where the twins really came through for me. Harry and I stood there, gazing at the miraculous map. There was actually a chance that we could get out of here and into Hogsmeade. I watched the tiny ink Mrs. Norris turn left and pause to sniff at something on the floor. If Filch really didn't know... we wouldn't have to pass the Dementors at all...

But even as I stood there, flooded with excitement, something I had once heard Mr. Weasley say came floating out of my memory. Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where it keeps its brain. This map was one of those dangerous magical objects Mr. Weasley had been warning against... Aids for Magical Mischief-Makers... but then, we only wanted to use it to get into Hogsmeade, it wasn't as though we wanted to steal anything or attack anyone... and Fred and George had been using it for years without anything horrible happening...

Plus I had been down that passage before. And nothing terrible had happened to me other than a few little trips and falls. Harry traced the secret passage to Honeydukes with his finger. We stared at each other for a moment before nodding. We would be just fine doing it. Then, quite suddenly, as though following orders, Harry rolled up the map, stuffed it inside his robes, grabbed me, and hurried to the door of the classroom. He opened it a couple of inches. There was no one outside. Very carefully, we edged out of the room and behind the statue of the one-eyed witch.

What did we have to do? I couldn't remember. Harry pulled out the map again. Two new ink figures had appeared upon it, labeled Harry Potter and Tara Nox. Those figures were standing exactly where the real Harry and Tara were standing, about halfway down the third-floor corridor. I watched carefully. Our little ink selves appeared to be tapping the witch with our minute wands. Harry quickly took out his real wand and tapped the statue. Nothing happened. We exchanged a look and then looked back at the map. The tiniest speech bubble had appeared next to our figures. The word inside said, Dissendium.

"That's it. I just forgot," I whispered.

"Dissendium!" Harry whispered, tapping the stone witch again.

All at once, the statue's hump opened wide enough to admit a fairly thin person. Just as it had when Cedric and I had gone to Hogsmeade through it. Harry glanced quickly up and down the corridor, then tucked the map away again. He motioned for me to go first and I did so, allowing him to give me a hand. I let out a little whoop as I slid a considerable way down what felt like a stone slide, then landed on cold, damp earth. I stood up, looking around. It was pitch dark as it had been before. Then Harry hoisted himself into the hole headfirst, and pushed himself forward.

Harry held up his wand, muttered, "Lumos!" and looked around. We were in the very narrow, low, earthy passageway. Harry raised the map, tapped it with the tip of his wand, and muttered, "Mischief managed!" The map went blank at once.

"I'll go first. I've been down here before," I said.

"Nothing in here?" Harry asked.

"Nope. A little hard to walk in but it'll let us right out in Honeydukes," I explained.

"This is great," Harry said happily.

"You'll love Hogsmeade," I said, smiling.

"You can go meet up with Diggory."

My head jerked over to where he was standing, even though I couldn't see much more than his outline. "You really are supportive of this, aren't you?" I asked, still somewhat surprised.

"Not really," Harry admitted, making me smile. "But I don't want to see what you'll do when I get a crush on someone so I'm doing this in hopes that you'll be nice."

"Just make sure it's a nice girl. Or I'll kill her and beat you up," I said.

"Thanks, Tara. And I'll kill Diggory if he hurts you," Harry offered.

"Thanks, tough guy," I teased.

The two of us smiled as Harry folded the map carefully, tucked it inside his robes, then moved forwards. As he was standing against me, I noticed that his heart was beating fast. He must have been both excited and apprehensive. Of course, I understood. I had been nervous the first time that I had been down here, too. As we walked I noted that the passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant rabbit than anything else. Harry and I hurried along it, stumbling now and then on the uneven floor, just as I had the first time, with Harry holding his wand out in front of him.

It took ages, as it did the first time, but we had the thought of Honeydukes to sustain us. And I might have been able to hunt down Cedric. What joy that might give me to throw it back in the faces of some of the girls who had been laughing at me for not getting a second date. Plus I would finally get to restock my Sugar Quills, which were getting low again. Harry and I didn't speak, just in case the Dementors could hear us. After what felt like an hour, the passage began to rise. Panting, Harry and I sped up, my face hot and my feet very cold.

Ten minutes later, we came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above us. Careful not to make any noise, the two of us began to climb. A hundred steps, two hundred steps, I lost count as we climbed, watching my feet... Then, without warning, Harry's head hit something hard. I couldn't help but to snort at the thought that he had run right into the trapdoor. Harry stood there, massaging the top of his head, listening. I couldn't hear any sounds above us. Very slowly, Harry pushed the trapdoor open and peered over the edge.

We were in the Honeydukes cellar, which was full of wooden crates and boxes. Harry climbed out of the trapdoor and gave me a hand up before replacing it. I grabbed his arm and pulled him forwards. Harry and I crept slowly toward the wooden staircase that led upstairs. Now I could definitely hear voices, not to mention the tinkle of a bell and the opening and shutting of a door. Hogwarts students coming to buy something. We would have to move quickly. Suddenly I heard a door open much closer at hand; somebody was about to come downstairs.

"And get another box of Jelly Slugs, dear, they've nearly cleaned us out," a woman's voice said.

"Hurry up!" I hissed.

A pair of feet was coming down the staircase. We leapt behind an enormous crate and waited for the footsteps to pass. I heard the man shifting boxes against the opposite wall. We might not get another chance. Quickly and silently, Harry and I dodged out from our hiding place and climbed the stairs; looking back, I saw an enormous backside and shiny bald head, buried in a box. We reached the door at the top of the stairs, slipped through it, and found ourselves behind the counter of Honeydukes. We ducked down, crept sideways, and then straightened up.

Right into the main storefront of Honeydukes. I smiled at Harry and nudged his shoulder. He had finally gotten his trip out to Hogsmeade, despite the rather strange way that he had been forced to go about it. Honeydukes was so crowded with Hogwarts students that no one looked twice at Harry or me. Not that it mattered. They didn't know that we weren't allowed here. We edged among them, looking around. Harry suppressed a laugh, mentioning to me that he was imagining the look that would spread over Dudley's piggy face if he could see where we were now.

It made me snort. He was right about that. If the Dursley's could ever manage to bring Dudley into Hogsmeade, there was a chance that they could never get him to leave. He would have loved Honeydukes. There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, and the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned.

Along yet another wall were 'Special Effects' sweets. Those were the ones that Fred and George always seemed to be giving me to try and make me look like a fool. Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!'), fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons.

"There they are!" I said, spotting Ron's flaming hair and Hermione's bushy hair.

"Come on. Let's go give them a surprise," Harry said ,tugging me along with him.

"Awesome," I chirped happily.

The two of us continued to move forward through the throng of people. It was very hard to beat them all back as they were standing so close to one another and the store was small anyways. Harry and I managed to squeeze ourselves through a crowd of Sixth Years and saw a sign hanging in the farthest corner of the shop: Unusual Tastes. I cringed and walked past it. That didn't look good. But Ron and Hermione were standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavored lollipops. Harry and I grinned and sneaked up behind them.

"Ugh, no, Harry and Tara won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect," Hermione was saying.

"How about these?" Ron asked, shoving a jar of Cockroach Clusters under Hermione's nose.

Harry and I exchanged a disgusted look before stepping up behind the pair. "Definitely not," Harry and I said together.

Their reaction was rather comical. Ron nearly dropped the jar. He had to place it back on the counter quickly before he actually did drop it and would then have to pay for it. He and Hermione whirled around to look at us. We both smiled, letting them know that they weren't imagining things. Ron jumped forward and gave the two of us hugs, making both Harry and I laugh. Hermione moved forward a moment later, looking just as surprised but a little more irritable that we were here.

"Harry! Tara!" Hermione squealed. "What are you doing here? How - how did you - ?"

"Wow! You two have learned to Apparate!" Ron said, looking very impressed.

"'Course we haven't," Harry said.

Rolling my eyes at Ron, I leaned back against a display. "It's not even legal until we're of age, you idiot. Not to mention that you can't Apparate into and out of Hogwarts. Listen a little more next time," I snapped.

"So how'd you two do it?" Ron asked.

Harry and I exchanged a look, obviously wondering if we should tell them about the way that we had gotten here. But eventually I shrugged at Harry and motioned for him to go ahead. So Harry dropped his voice so that none of the Sixth Years around us could hear him and I helped tell Ron and Hermione all about Fred and George and how they had given us the Marauder's Map. Once we had finished I noticed that Ron looked annoyed and Hermione looked very concerned.

"How come Fred and George never gave it to me! I'm their brother!" Ron shouted, outraged.

"You honestly think that they would have given it to you?" I asked.

"But this would have been so cool!" Ron barked.

"Well we have it now," I said brightly.

"But Harry isn't going to keep it! He's going to hand it in to Professor McGonagall, aren't you, Harry?" Hermione said, as though the idea of possibly keeping the map was ludicrous.

"No, I'm not!" Harry yelped.

"Don't be stupid!" I barked.

"Are you mad? Hand in something that good?" Ron asked, goggling at Hermione.

"Hermione, this thing is great!" I said excitedly.

"If I hand it in, I'll have to say where I got it! Filch would know Fred and George had nicked it!" Harry said.

And there was no way that I was getting Fred and George in that much trouble. Not from Filch, who was bad enough. "But what about Sirius Black?" Hermione hissed.

"What about him?" I asked.

"He could be using one of the passages on that map to get into the castle! The teachers have got to know!" Hermione said.

"There's no way that he'll know, Hermione," I said.

That was a stupid thought. "He can't be getting in through a passage," Harry said quickly. "There are seven secret tunnels on the map, right? Fred and George reckon Filch already knows about four of them. And of the other three - one of them is caved in, so no one can get through it. One of them is got the Whomping Willow planted over the entrance, so you can't get out of it. And the one I just came through - well - it's really hard to see the entrance to it down in the cellar, so unless he knew it was there..."

He was obviously having some doubt about everything. But I was determined that Sirius Black couldn't get into the castle through the passages. "He would also have to slip by about three hundred residents in Hogsmeade. There's no way that he could do that without alerting someone. Or the owners of Honeyduke's. They'd hear him," I explained to Hermione.

"But... What if?" Hermione asked.

There was no what if. Sirius Black was not getting into the castle. There was no way. Absolutely not. But... was there a chance that Hermione might have been right? As she so usually was? I exchanged a look with Harry and noticed that he was hesitating, too. Because now we were both wondering if she might have been right about everything. What if Black did know the passage was there? After all, he had once been a student. Ron, however, cleared his throat significantly, and pointed to a notice pasted on the inside of the sweetshop door. The one that I had spotted last time with Cedric.

By Order Of  
The Ministry Of Magic

Customers are reminded that until further notice, Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Sirius Black. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall.

Merry Christmas!

"See? I'd like to see Black try and break into Honeydukes with Dementors swarming all over the village. Anyway, Hermione, the Honeydukes owners would hear a break-in, wouldn't they? They live over the shop! Just like Tara said!" Ron said.

"Yes, but - but -" Hermione seemed to be struggling to find another problem.

"There are no problems with this, Hermione," I said determinedly, not wanting to think of the alternative.

"Look, Harry and Tara still shouldn't be coming into Hogsmeade. He hasn't got a signed form! And Tara's been barred from being here until Black has been caught! If anyone finds out, they'll be in so much trouble! And it's not nightfall yet - what if Sirius Black turns up today? Now?" Hermione asked.

She always had been a little bit of a buzzkill. "Mione, have some fun! It's only a few hours," I said, grabbing her hands.

"He'd have a job spotting Harry and Tara in this," Ron said, nodding through the mullioned windows at the thick, swirling snow. "Come on, Hermione, it's Christmas. They deserves a break."

Hermione bit her lip, looking extremely worried. We all exchanged a look with each other. There was no way that we were going back to Hogwarts after everything that we had gone through to get out here. We were keeping that Mauraders Map and not giving it back. Hermione was looking in between us, probably wishing that we would give it back. Ron looked very excited. Harry and I exchanged a look with each other, grinning madly. We knew exactly how to get Hermione to agree that this was the right thing.

"Are you going to report me?" Harry asked her, grinning.

"Oh - of course not - but honestly, Harry -"

"Too late!" I interrupted.

"Seen the Fizzing Whizbees, Harry?" Ron asked, grabbing us and leading us over to their barrel, cutting off anything that Hermione might have been getting ready to say. "And the Jelly Slugs? And the Acid Pops? Fred gave me one of those when I was seven - it burnt a hole right through my tongue. I remember Mum walloping him with her broomstick." Ron stared broodingly into the Acid Pop box.

"Seriously?" I asked.

The corners of my lips turned towards as I started to smile. Just a second later the giggling started. That sounded like something that Fred would have done. "Yeah. Stop laughing!" Ron said, whacking me on the arm.

"Oh, come on. That's kind of funny. And Fred was only nine. He didn't know any better," I said.

"Reckon Fred would take a bit of Cockroach Cluster if I told him they were peanuts?" Ron asked.

"I reckon he'd put a tarantula in your bed. Or your shoes. Or pants," I said, grinning as I saw him becoming more and more distressed.

"Stop!" Ron shouted.

We all laughed and headed deeper into the store, with me picking up a package of Sugar Quills. When Ron, Hermione, and I had paid for all of our sweets, the four of us left Honeydukes for the blizzard outside. It was automatically freezing and I realized just how hard it was to actually look through the snow. Hogsmeade looked even more like a Christmas card than it normally did; the little thatched cottages and shops were all covered in a layer of crisp snow; there were holly wreaths on the doors and strings of enchanted candles hanging in the trees.

The whole thing was gorgeous. I wished that I could have come out here earlier. Been out here the entire time. It would have made a nice date for Cedric and me. Maybe I could find him and get him to go out somewhere, but it would take me some time to find him in this. And I might not even be able to. Hogsmeade was large and there were hundreds of students out here right now. As we trudged through the snow, I shivered; unlike the other two, Harry and I didn't have our cloaks. We headed up the street, heads bowed against the wind, Ron and Hermione shouting through their scarves.

"That's the post office -"

"Zonko's is up there -"

"We could go up to the Shrieking Shack -"

"In this weather?" I shouted back.

"Well -" Hermione started.

"What about the Sporting Goods shop? They have the Firebolt!" I shouted excitably.

It looked like Harry might have been about to agree with my plan, but Ron interrupted. "Tell you what, shall we go for a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?" Ron asked, his teeth chattering from the cold.

"Okay... I suppose that's fair," I said.

If it was anything like it had been last time, it would at least be really warm in the Three Broomsticks. I was more than willing to go in for a Hot Butterbeer; the wind was fierce and my hands were freezing, so we crossed the road, and in a few minutes we were entering the tiny inn. I could practically feel myself defrosting. It was extremely crowded, noisy, warm, and smoky. Just as it usually was. A curvy sort of woman with a pretty face was serving a bunch of rowdy warlocks up at the bar. She was the same bartender that I had seen last time.

"That's Madam Rosmerta. I'll get the drinks, shall I?" Ron offered, going slightly red.

"Do you have a crush on her?" I asked, giggling softly.

Ron blushed madly again. "Shut up, Tara," he snapped bashfully.

"Go flirt with her, big guy," I teased.

Ron shoved me away from him as I laughed under my breath. The moment that he walked off I glanced with him. There were a number of people over at the bar. It would take him forever to get the drinks. As my gaze followed Ron I noticed that Cedric was there, too. He was sitting at the corner of the bar. His friends were in a booth towards the front of the shop. He must have been waiting to get them all drinks, just as Ron was doing. I was pleased to see that the only girls that were with them were girls that I knew, from Cedric's explanations, were platonic friends.

Harry must have seen where I was looking. "Go say hi," Harry said.

Smiling at Harry and Hermione, I gave them a small hug. "I'll be right back." They both nodded as I jumped up and ran straight up behind Cedric. It would be a good time to mess with him. "One of those for me?" I asked softly.

Cedric jumped about a foot in the air before whipping back around. He looked shocked at my sudden appearance. "Please tell me that someone didn't put Firewhisky in my drink and I'm just hallucinating that you're here. Actually, on second thought, please tell me that someone did put Firewhisky in my drink and you're really not here," Cedric said slowly.

Apparently he wasn't quite as happy to see me as I had thought that he would be. "And here I thought that you would be excited to see me," I said, folding my arms over my chest.

"I'm very excited to see you. But, Tara, you're not supposed to be here. How did you even get here?" Cedric asked sharply.

For a moment I opened my mouth to tell him about the Mauraders Map before I remembered that it was definitely against the rules. I trusted Cedric to not say anything about it, but I didn't want to get him sucked into it. Just in case someone found out about the map. As few people needed to know about it as possible. So I decided to just go with the one way that he wouldn't question it.

"The statue that you showed me," I said.

Cedric smiled and nodded. "Ah... So I take it that Harry is here, too?" Cedric asked, glancing around the bar.

"Yep. Towards the back of the bar with Ron and Hermione," I explained.

Although Ron was still standing up at the bar, talking with Rosmerta. "Be careful while you're out here, Tara. If you get caught out here you're going to get in so much trouble. The both of you," Cedric said.

"Relax. I can manage myself," I said.

"But, in other news, I am very happy to see you," Cedric said brightly.

At least he was happy to see me. For a moment I had thought that he wasn't very happy to see me. But maybe I could throw this back in the faces of the girls who had laughed over the fact that we weren't going out together. Cedric grabbed my shoulders and brought me into a hug. I giggled softly as he grabbed my hand and led me back behind the bar so that no one could see us. I raised a brow, wondering what we were doing. It was nice that at least we were out of sight from everyone else. No more rumors this time. Actually... they were destined to get worse.

"Have you been hearing everyone else talking?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

"About?" Cedric asked.

Literally everyone had been talking about it. How was there a chance that he hadn't heard the new rumors? "Honestly. Do you ever listen?" I asked.

"Not when it's about things that don't concern me or things that I don't care about," Cedric said.

"It kind of does concern you. Everyone is thinking that something happened because I didn't come to Hogsmeade and you did. I guess they're thinking that something happened during our last trip to Hogsmeade, which drives me nuts. It's so embarrassing. Although I can't talk about what happened so I can't even tell them the truth. And now everyone is..." I trailed off, not wanting to admit it.

"Is?" Cedric prodded.

"All of those girls... they..." I trailed off again, unsure of how to put it.

"They?"

"Don't make me say it," I whined.

"What? They're flirting with me?" Cedric asked, a tiny teasing note to his voice.

"Yes!" I barked irritably. "Because they think that you and I didn't... I don't know... I don't even know what was going on between us. No one ever tells me anything. Not you. And I - Just - Please stop me anytime you want."

The last thing that I wanted to do was continue to make myself look like a fool. I looked like a complete idiot while I was standing in front of him. But I was normally being an idiot when I was around him. I could never manage to keep myself all together when I was in front of him. Cedric was grinning at me and I rolled my eyes. He must have thought that this was hysterical. Maybe he would laugh and tell all of his friends about this later. But I knew that he was a much better person than that. He would never do that. Not to me, at least.

"It's kind of funny watching you struggle for words," Cedric teased.

"Don't laugh at me," I said slowly.

Cedric stepped into me and placed a hand against my shoulder, keeping the two of us standing together. "I like you, Tara. I like you a lot," Cedric admitted.

An embarrassing blush settled over my face. "How could you not like me?" I asked teasingly.

"Watch that head," Cedric teased. "And I really like going out with you."

"So?" I asked, sensing that something else was coming.

"I was thinking that maybe when we get back home in a few months, when we're not at school, we can hang around a little more."

A shot of embarrassment went radiating through me. I was such an idiot for thinking that he might have wanted to really go out with me. "Ah. You don't want people to see us together," I said slowly, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"That is not what I meant. That's not at all what I meant," Cedric said quickly, knowing that he had offended me. "I just meant... I know that you don't like people staring at you and making comments."

"Well you're right about that," I muttered.

"So I was thinking that being back home, no one will see us together. We can do whatever we want and no one will be there to start rumors. It might be a little bit easier," Cedric explained.

Now I felt a little stupid for automatically assuming that he hadn't wanted to go out with me. He knew just how the rumors bothered me so he was trying to come up with a compromise. Something sweet of him to do. "Well... I suppose that's not a bad plan," I admitted.

"I swear I won't find a girl that I like better in the meantime," Cedric said.

"That would be impossible," I said haughtily.

Cedric gave me a long look that told me that he was only slightly amused. Then his lips turned upwards. "Plus it might be a little easier. You can focus on whatever impressive thing that you and your friends are going to do to save the school that barely knew that it was in trouble," Cedric said.

It was enough to make me laugh loudly. "There you go," I agreed, shoving him backwards. "I've got Sirius Black, the Grim, and somehow managing to get Oliver to win the Quidditch Cup this year. And you've got your O.W.L.'s to focus on in the meantime."

"But we'll do something when we get back home?" Cedric asked.

"It's a date."

"Yes, it is. In the meantime..."

"Yes?"

The gaze that he was giving me was enough to make me blush. Cedric grabbed my arms and gently pushed me backwards. I stumbled back into the wall and started giggling softly. A moment later he leaned down and pressed a small kiss against my lips, just as he had twice before. But this time it was a real kiss. My first real kiss. It was much longer. My heart skipped a beat as Cedric pushed the hair from my face. My arms looped over the back of his neck as his hand wound around to the back of my neck before settling over my lower jaw.

It was everything that I would have wanted a real first kiss to be like. Cedric had me gently pushed back against the wall as his hands went around my waist. I was sure that he could feel my heart thundering in my chest. My head tilted upwards so that I could meet his lips a little easier. I could feel my lips break into a smile. Finally, far too soon, he stepped back from me and smiled. My face must have been a brilliant red. My breathing was slightly ragged as he leaned forwards and gave me another small kiss on the lips. My heart was still fluttering excitedly.

"There's my promise," Cedric said.

"It's a good promise," I whispered.

Cedric grinned sideways at me. His hair was a little ruffled and I moved forward to try and fix it. "Have fun with your friends. And don't get caught," he said, laughing and pulling my hands away.

"Relax. I got it," I said.

For a moment I turned to head back to my table when Cedric called out to me. "Oh, Tara?" I turned back and smiled. "Are you going home for Christmas?" Cedric asked.

At some point soon I would definitely have to find out the answer to that. "I think so. I'm going to take the late train though. Stay with Ron, Harry, and Hermione as long as I can. But I was thinking about maybe staying," I said, not giving a definitive answer.

"Well, if you go home, maybe we can hang out," Cedric offered.

That was definitely a good reason to go back home. But I was still going to bat it back and forth for a while. "Yeah. I'd like that," I said. I leaned up on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss against he cheek. "See you up at the castle."

"Have fun. See you later. Did you want a drink, by the way?" Cedric asked, motioning back to the bar.

"Ron's getting them for us. You can get the next one, yeah?" I teased.

Cedric laughed. "Deal." I was about to walk away when he called back to me. "Tara! Where's your cloak? I've never met someone who hated the cold more than you do," Cedric said.

"Well... we kind of had to leave suddenly. Didn't have time to grab it. Don't you dare offer me yours!" I barked.

"Why not?"

"Because I already have too many of your clothes."

"Like I said, they look better on you." I glared at him. "Fine... Don't take the cloak. Take this, at least," Cedric said, handing me the coat that he was wearing.

For a moment I just stared at it. "Black does look nice on me," I finally admitted teasingly.

"Just take it," Cedric goaded.

"One of these days I've give you a dress or something," I teased.

"You own a dress?" Cedric asked, making a very valid point.

"Alright. Fine. I don't own a dress. But I'm going to give you your clothes back at some point," I said determinedly.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure your friends are getting sick of waiting for you. You should head out. I'll see you later," Cedric said.

"See you," I chirped.

The two of us gave each other another quick hug. Although Cedric leaned in and pressed a small kiss against the side of my mouth. That's never going to not make me blush. I let him head out first. Just to keep the rumors from now changing again. I could deal with the ones about us not having a second date. Those would end soon enough. So I headed back to the table where Harry and Hermione were still waiting. I gave Cedric a quick wink as I walked by his table and he snorted into his drink. I noticed that Ron was still waiting at the bar to grab our drinks.

Harry and Hermione had picked a table at the very back of the room, where there was a small, vacant table between the window and a handsome Christmas tree, which stood next to the fireplace. They both smiled at me as I took a seat, immediately barking at Harry not to ask me what had happened. That one kiss was something that didn't need to be repeated. Maybe to Hermione, but that would be without Harry and Ron around. Ron came back a minute later, carrying four foaming tankards of hot Butterbeer.

"Merry Christmas!" Ron said happily, raising his tankard.

"Merry Christmas, everyone!" I cheered.

The four of us clanked the tankards together and downed the drink. It was extremely warming after the ice cold storm outside. "So what did Cedric say?" Hermione asked, after a few minutes.

"How many of his clothes do you have?" Harry asked, finally taking notice of the coat.

"Stop it!" I barked.

"That means a lot," Harry said.

Rolling my eyes at him, I shoved Harry and wrapped my frozen hands around the warm tankard. "He said that he wanted to actually go out over the summer. Like more dates, holding hands, and not worrying about having everyone around. Get to see what's there without everyone in school watching and whispering about us," I admitted, keeping my voice low.

"That's really sweet. We're happy for you!" Hermione chirped. But the boys stayed silent. "Right?"

"Right," Ron muttered.

"Sure," Harry added.

"That's convincing," I said.

The three of us stared at each other for a moment. I stared at Harry and Ron with an irritable glance. They were so annoying. They had agreed that we would be okay. "Saw you snog him," Ron finally said lowly.

Harry's head snapped over. "What?" he asked.

"Thank you, Ron!" I barked, whopping him over the back of the head. "Oh, Harry, I'm fourteen."

"And he's sixteen," Harry said.

"So?" I asked.

"So -"

"I thought that you were okay with the two of us being together?" I interrupted.

Harry and I exchanged a long stare with each other. I could see Ron and Hermione watching out of the corner of their eyes. "Just..." Harry trailed off, making me smile. "Never snog him in front of me."

It made everyone smile at each other. It was enough to make everyone laugh. They were idiots. But they were my idiots. And I wouldn't trade them for the world. "Deal. But I will gossip about it to Hermione," I said, Hermione squealing slightly.

"I'm all for it," Hermione chirped.

"Gossip about it somewhere else," Ron groaned.

I picked up a peanut that was on the table and tossed it at him. He threw another back at me, almost landing in my drink. "You boys are such babies. Get yourselves girlfriends so I can tease you both," I snapped.

It was enough to make us all laugh again. We sat in silence for a little while. Something that I relished. I was sick of the rumors constantly following me around and the constant thoughts of Sirius Black. I liked the peace and quiet of the Three Broomsticks. As the others chatted softly, I drank deeply. It was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted and it seemed to heat every bit of me from the inside. Or maybe that was Cedric's coat. A sudden breeze ruffled my hair. The door of the Three Broomsticks had opened again. I looked over the rim of my tankard and choked.

There went my jovial mood. And likely my admission to Hogwarts. Because I was explicitly breaking the rules of someone who had just entered. Someone whom you never wanted to mess with. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had just entered the pub with a flurry of snowflakes, shortly followed by Hagrid, who was deep in conversation with a portly man in a lime-green bowler hat and a pinstriped cloak - Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic. A large number of people who could have easily gotten me in a ton of trouble for being here.

"Oh, Merlin," I whispered.

In an instant, Ron and Hermione had both placed hands on the top of Harry and I's heads and forced us off our stools and underneath the table. I immediately sprang forwards and hit the ground in a painful thump. Dripping with Butterbeer and crouching out of sight, Harry and I clutched our empty tankards and watched the teachers' and Fudge's feet move toward the bar, pause, then turn and walk right toward us. Just crouching here wouldn't work. And I would have to do something with Cedric's coat, that had now been given a Butterbeer bath.

Somewhere above us, Hermione whispered, "Mobiliarbus!"

The Christmas tree that had been sitting beside our table rose a few inches off the ground, drifted sideways, and landed with a soft thump right in front of our table, hiding us from view. Staring through the dense lower branches, with Harry pressed right up against me, I saw four sets of chair legs move back from the table right beside ours, then heard the grunts and sighs of the teachers and minister as they sat down. Next I saw another pair of feet, wearing sparkly turquoise high heels, and heard a woman's voice. Rosmerta, undoubtedly.

"A small Gillywater," Rosmerta said.

"Mine," Professor McGonagall's voice said.

"Four pints of mulled mead," Rosmerta said.

"Ta, Rosmerta," Hagrid said.

"A cherry syrup and soda with ice and umbrella."

"Mmm!" Professor Flitwick said, smacking his lips.

"So you'll be the red currant rum, Minister."

"Thank you, Rosmerta, m'dear. Lovely to see you again, I must say. Have one yourself, won't you? Come and join us," Fudge said.

"Well, thank you very much, Minister."

Not good. This was definitely not good. I exchanged a panicked look with Harry before glancing back at the table. I watched the glittering heels march away and back again. My heart was pounding uncomfortably in my throat. Why hadn't it occurred to me that this was the last weekend of term for the teachers too? And how long were they going to sit there? This whole thing was going to be a huge problem. We needed time to sneak back into Honeydukes if we wanted to return to school tonight. I didn't want to be stuck here all night. Hermione's leg gave a nervous twitch next to me.

"How will we get back?" I whispered nervously.

"They'll have to leave at some point," Harry said, sounding even more panicked than me.

"And the Dementors?" I asked, realizing the real problem here.

Definitely not good. This whole thing was anything but good. "Just don't panic. We're going to figure it out," Harry whispered.

"So, what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?" came Madam Rosmerta's voice.

At least we might have an interesting conversation to overhear. I saw the lower part of Fudge's thick body twist in his chair as though he were checking for eavesdroppers. Then he said in a quiet voice, "What else, m'dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you heard what happened up at the school at Halloween?"

"I did hear a rumor," Madam Rosmerta admitted.

"Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid?" Professor McGonagall asked exasperatedly.

"Do you think Black's still in the area, Minister?" Madam Rosmerta whispered.

"I'm sure of it," Fudge said shortly.

There was something that he wanted up at the castle. I didn't doubt that for a second. He would be here until he got it. Hopefully it wouldn't be Harry or I's life. "You know that the Dementors have searched the whole village twice?" Madam Rosmerta asked, a slight edge to her voice. "Scared all my customers away... It's very bad for business, Minister."

"Rosmerta, m'dear, I don't like them any more than you do. Necessary precaution... unfortunate, but there you are... I've just met some of them. They're in a fury against Dumbledore - he won't let them inside the castle grounds," Fudge said uncomfortably.

"I should think not. How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around?" Professor McGonagall asked sharply.

"Hear, hear!" tiny Professor Flitwick squeaked, whose feet were dangling a foot from the ground.

"All the same, they are here to protect you all from something much worse... We all know what Black's capable of," Fudge said.

They thought that none of the kids in the bar were listening. This might have been a good chance to hear something worth hearing. "Do you know, I still have trouble believing it. Of all the people to go over to the Dark Side, Sirius Black was the last I'd have thought... I mean, I remember him when he was a boy at Hogwarts. If you'd told me then what he was going to become, I'd have said you'd had too much mead," Madam Rosmerta said thoughtfully.

"You don't know the half of it, Rosmerta. The worst he did isn't widely known," Fudge said gruffly.

"The worst?" Madam Rosmerta asked, her voice alive with curiosity. "Worse than murdering all those poor people, you mean?"

Harry looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn't sure where that was going. "I certainly do," Fudge said.

"I can't believe that. What could possibly be worse?" Madam Rosmerta asked.

"You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta. Do you remember who his best friends were?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Naturally," Madam Rosmerta said, with a small laugh. "Never saw one of them without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here - oh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the triple act, Sirius Black, Marcus Nox, and James Potter!"

Did I really just hear them say something like that? Either way, I reacted before my brain could properly process what they had just said. And it turned out that it wasn't just me. Harry and I dropped our tankards with two loud clunks. Ron kicked him while Hermione kicked me. We couldn't draw attention to ourselves. Not right now. But my head was swirling. My father... My smart and strong father had been best friends with Sirius Black. I had known about him being friends with James Potter, but I had never known about Sirius Black. I hadn't even known that they were in the same year.

"Did you know?" Harry whispered.

"No," I said weakly.

"Precisely. Black, Nox, and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang," Professor McGonagall said. I exchanged another look with Harry. "All very bright, of course - exceptionally bright, in fact - but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers -"

"I dunno. Fred and George Weasley could give 'em a run fer their money," Hagrid chuckled.

"You'd have thought Black, Nox, and Potter were brothers! Inseparable!" Professor Flitwick chimed in.

"Of course they were. Potter trusted Black and Nox beyond all his other friends. But even he trusted Black more. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best man when James married Lily. Black was best man when Marcus married Julia. Then they named him godfather to Harry and Tara. Harry and Tara have no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment them," Fudge said.

Harry and I exchanged another look as I slapped a hand over my mouth. He was our... godfather? I hadn't even known that I had a godfather. My parents had kept that from me for so many years. They hadn't told me the truth. How could they have not told me the truth? Because the idea would torment me, apparently. They hadn't told me that. I couldn't believe that they hadn't told me that. They obviously knew that I could handle some intense things. I would have rather known the truth than have to find out this way.

"Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?" Madam Rosmerta whispered.

"Worse even than that, m'dear..." Fudge dropped his voice and proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that the Potters and Nox's knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding somewhere near Marcus and Julia. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn't an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."

"How does that work?" Madam Rosmerta asked, breathless with interest.

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat. "An immensely complex spell, involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find - unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the Secret-Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their sitting room window!" Professor Flitwick squeaked.

"The Nox's already had their Secret-Keeper. Marcus had begged Black to do it, but Black couldn't. Claimed he didn't want the responsibility. And they couldn't have James do it, since they needed one themselves," Fudge continued.

"So who was theirs?" Madam Rosmerta asked.

"Remus Lupin. A good choice. Likely what kept them from being murdered along with the Potter's," Fudge said.

Harry and I exchanged another look with each other. Of course... Professor Lupin had said himself that he had known and been friends with my parents. And that explained why he had been so nice to me. "So Black was the Potters' Secret-Keeper?" Madam Rosmerta whispered.

"Naturally," Professor McGonagall said. "James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were, that Black was planning to go into hiding himself... and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters' Secret-Keeper himself."

"He suspected Black?" Madam Rosmerta gasped.

"He was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements. The Nox's had already been in hiding for a long time with Tara. Indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who," Professor McGonagall said darkly.

"But James Potter insisted on using Black?" Madam Rosmerta asked.

"He did," Fudge said heavily. "He was much more insistent than Marcus had been. And then, barely a week after the Fidelius Charm had been performed -"

"Black betrayed them?" Madam Rosmerta breathed.

"He did indeed," Fudge continued. "Black was tired of his double-agent role, he was ready to declare his support openly for You-Know-Who, and he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters' death. But, as we all know, You-Know-Who met his downfall in little Harry Potter. Powers gone, horribly weakened, he fled. It left Tara and her family alive and Harry orphaned. And this left Black in a very nasty position indeed. His master had fallen at the very moment when he, Black, had shown his true colors as a traitor. He had no choice but to run for it -"

"Filthy, stinkin' turncoat!" Hagrid said, so loudly that half the bar went quiet.

"Shh!" Professor McGonagall hissed.

"I met him! I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry from Lily an' James's house after they was killed! Jus' got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead, an' his parents dead... an' Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin' motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin' there. I didn' know he'd bin Lily an' James's Secret-Keeper. Thought he'd jus' heard the news o' You-Know-Who's attack an' come ter see what he could do. White an' shakin', he was. An' yeh know what I did? I comforted the murderin' traitor!" Hagrid roared.

"Hagrid, please! Keep your voice down!" Professor McGonagall begged.

"How was I ter know he wasn' upset abou' Lily an' James? It was You-Know-Who he cared abou'! An ' then he says, 'Give Harry ter me, Hagrid, I'm his godfather, I'll look after him.' Ha! But I'd had me orders from Dumbledore, an' I told Black no, Dumbledore said Harry was ter go ter his aunt an' uncle's. Black argued, even argued that Harry should go to Marcus an' Julia, but in the end he gave in. Maybe he knew where they were. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get Harry there. 'I won't need it anymore,' he says.

"I shoulda known there was some thin' fishy goin' on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin' it ter me for? Why wouldn' he need it anymore? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace. Dumbledore knew he'd bin the Potters' Secret-Keeper. Black knew he was goin' ter have ter run fer it that night, knew it was a matter o' hours before the Ministry was after him.

"But what if I'd given Harry to him, eh? I bet he'd've pitched him off the bike halfway out ter sea. His bes' friends' son! But when a wizard goes over ter the Dark Side, there's nothin' and no one that matters to 'em anymore," Hagrid finished.

"How many times I saw him playing with Tara when she was a baby... How much he loved her... I can't believe that he would have done it. But he did," Professor McGonagall sobbed.

My hand shot up over my mouth to cover the horrible strangled sob that threatened to escape my mouth. Harry reached over and placed a hand on my knee. But I gently pushed him off. I wasn't so sure that I wanted anyone touching me right now. Not even Harry. Not when I knew that Sirius Black had once held me. Played with me. Apparently loved me. Not enough to keep him from joining Voldemort though. Suddenly I found myself wishing that I had stayed in the castle today. A long silence followed Hagrid's story and Professor McGonagall's comment.

Then Madam Rosmerta said with some satisfaction, "But he didn't manage to disappear, did he? The Ministry of Magic caught up with him next day!"

"Alas, if only we had. It was not we who found him. It was little Peter Pettigrew - another of the Potter's' and Nox's' friends. Maddened by grief, no doubt, and knowing that Black had been the Potter's' Secret-Keeper, and knowing that he would likely find the Nox's, he went after Black himself," Fudge said grimly.

"Pettigrew... that fat little boy who was always tagging around after them at Hogwarts?" Madam Rosmerta asked.

"Hero-worshipped Black, Nox, and Potter," Professor McGonagall said. "Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often rather sharp with him. You can imagine how I - how I regret that now..." She sounded as though she had a sudden head cold.

"There, now, Minerva. Pettigrew died a hero's death. Eyewitnesses - Muggles, of course, we wiped their memories later - told us how Pettigrew cornered Black. They say he was sobbing, 'Lily and James, Sirius! How could you? Were you after Marcus and Julia next?' And then he went for his wand. Well, of course, Black was quicker. Blew Pettigrew to smithereens..." Fudge continued explaining.

Professor McGonagall blew her nose and said thickly, "Stupid boy... foolish boy... he was always hopeless at dueling... should have left it to the Ministry..."

"I tell yeh, if I'd got ter Black before little Pettigrew did, I wouldn't've messed around with wands - I'd've ripped him limb - from - limb," Hagrid growled.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Hagrid," Fudge said sharply. "Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad would have stood a chance against Black once he was cornered. I was Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Catastrophes at the time, and I was one of the first on the scene after Black murdered all those people. I - I will never forget it. I still dream about it sometimes. A crater in the middle of the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him... a heap of bloodstained robes and a few - a few fragments -"

Fudge's voice stopped abruptly. There was the sound of five noses being blown. That was the part of the story that everyone had known. The part that I had told Harry. At least, part of the part. But now I felt sick. Because now I knew that Peter Pettigrew had also been a friend of my parents. So had Professor Lupin. That must have been the reason that he had reacted so strangely when Harry and I had brought up Black. Because he had also been friends with him. The thought made me want to throw up the Butterbeer.

"Well, there you have it, Rosmerta. Black was taken away by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad and Pettigrew received the Order of Merlin, First Class, which I think was some comfort to his poor mother. Black's been in Azkaban ever since," Fudge said thickly.

Madam Rosmerta let out a long sigh. "Is it true he's mad, Minister?" she asked.

"I wish I could say that he was," Fudge said slowly. "I certainly believe his master's defeat unhinged him for a while. The murder of Pettigrew and all those Muggles was the action of a cornered and desperate man - cruel... pointless. Yet I met Black on my last inspection of Azkaban. You know, most of the prisoners in there sit muttering to themselves in the dark; there's no sense in them... but I was shocked at how normal Black seemed. He spoke quite rationally to me. It was unnerving. You'd have thought he was merely bored - asked if I'd finished with my newspaper, cool as you please, said he missed doing the crossword. Yes, I was astounded at how little effect the Dementors seemed to be having on him - and he was one of the most heavily guarded in the place, you know. Dementors outside his door day and night."

"But what do you think he's broken out to do? Good gracious, Minister, he isn't trying to rejoin You-Know-Who, is he?" Madam Rosmerta asked.

"I daresay that is his - er - eventual plan," Fudge said evasively. "But we hope to catch Black long before that. I must say, You-Know-Who alone and friendless is one thing... but give him back his most devoted servant, and I shudder to think how quickly he'll rise again..."

There was a small chink of glass on wood. Someone had set down their glass. "You know, Cornelius, if you're dining with the headmaster, we'd better head back up to the castle," Professor McGonagall said.

One by one, the pairs of feet in front of Harry and I took the weight of their owners once more; hems of cloaks swung into sight, and Madam Rosemerta's glittering heels disappeared behind the bar. The door of the Three Broomsticks opened again, there was another flurry of snow, and the teachers had disappeared. But I couldn't bring myself to move. I simply sat on the floor and stared blankly off in the distance. This was all too much. Far too much for someone who was only fourteen.

"Harry? Tara?"

Ron's and Hermione's faces appeared under the table. They were both staring at the two of us, lost for words. And, in all honesty, we were lost for words, too. For a moment I glanced over and stared at Harry. He was looking at me as if to ask if I knew anything that they were talking about. I just barely managed to shake my head. Because I hadn't known anything that they were talking about. And I wasn't sure what to say. I only knew one thing. I wasn't going back home for Christmas. My parents just kept lying to me. It begged the question, what else were they lying about?


	47. The Firebolt

What happened after that revelation was mostly a mystery to me. Neither Harry nor I had a very clear idea of how we had managed to get back into the Honeydukes cellar, through the tunnel, and into the castle once more. I just remembered not speaking to Ron or Hermione about it. I remembered getting to my feet and immediately leaving, without another word, Harry on my tail. All I knew was that the return trip seemed to take no time at all, and that I hardly noticed what I was doing, because my head was still pounding with the conversation that I had just heard.

Instead my entire focus was on everything that had just happened. Everything that I had overheard. All of it. The many things that no one had ever dared to tell me. Harry and I walked side-by-side but barely looked at each other or spoke. There were only a few sentences that we exchanged. I just ensured to tell him that I had absolutely no idea about anything that they had said. Harry just asked if what they had said was plausible. The moment that I said that it was likely completely true was the last thing that either one of us said.

Now my head was spinning with thoughts about what had just happened as I tried to ignore Harry's prescience. He was only making me feel even guiltier. Even though I hadn't done anything. But still... Why had nobody ever told me? I had grown up in the Wizarding World. Why the hell didn't I know this? I was directly involved. Dumbledore, Hagrid, Mr. Weasley, Cornelius Fudge... my goddamn parents. Why hadn't anyone ever mentioned the fact that Harry's parents had died because their best friend had betrayed them?

As we walked I found tears threatening to spill over the edge of my eyes. Even though I had just been an infant at the time that everything happened, it somehow felt like it was my fault. I knew that Harry didn't think that, but I couldn't stop thinking that I had done something wrong. My parents certainly had... I couldn't believe that they didn't tell me that all of that had happened. They had numerous chances. Every time that they told Harry something about James and Lily they had left that much out. Why? It would have been better to hear the truth than learn about it this way.

This way was even worse. Because it was like being hit straight in the chest with a Bludger. I knew how that hurt. I knew what it felt like to have the wind knocked out of you. At least now I understood that conversation that I had overheard back home before the year had started. They had been concerned that Sirius Black was coming after us because... he had done so with them once before. Mom said that she knew that he would come after us. It turned out that she was right. But she apparently had never thought to tell me that much...

Ron and Hermione ended up watching Harry and I nervously all through dinner, not daring to talk about what we had all overheard, because Percy was sitting close by us. When we went upstairs to the crowded Common Room, it was to find Fred and George had set off half a dozen Dungbombs in a fit of end-of-term high spirits. Harry and I didn't want Fred and George asking us whether we'd reached Hogsmeade or not - seeing as we weren't quite chipper and ready to speak quite yet - sneaked quietly up to the empty dormitory and headed straight for Harry's bedside cabinet.

As he started rooting through his things, I went to find what I wanted. I grabbed a piece of parchment and one of Harry's quills, quickly dipping it in a black inkwell. I sat on the edge of Harry's bed and quickly scrawled out a messy letter to my parents. It was a little hard to read and my thoughts were very jumbled, but I had a feeling that my point came across perfectly clearly. I did not want to speak with them anytime soon and I would officially not be coming home for Christmas break. I couldn't sit through meals and face my parents after they had lied to me for so long.

The moment that I finished the letter, I sent it off with Hedwig - whom was already hanging around in the room. I darted up to my room, grabbed what I needed, and sprinted back to Harry's dorm. Shifting back on the bed, I started going through the photographs with Harry. It took me a few moments before I spotted the same picture that I had. The one from the day that I was born. Those three men that were standing in the corner of the picture. One of them was Professor Lupin - just as he had told me. One was also likely Peter Pettigrew. And the third must have been Sirius Black...

Harry was pushing his books aside back in the dresser as my hand lingered on the slowly-shifting form of Sirius Black with his dark coat whipping around his ankles. Harry quickly found what he was looking for - the leather-bound photo album Hagrid had given him two years ago, which was full of wizard pictures of his mother and father. He sat down on his bed, drew the hangings around us, and started turning the pages with me watching over his shoulder, searching. We were searching for a long time until...

Harry stopped on a picture of his parents' wedding day. It was a picture that my own parents had in their office back home. It had been a long time since I had stared at it. I laid my hand gently on Harry's legs. There was his father waving up at him, beaming, the untidy black hair Harry had inherited standing up in all directions. There was his mother, alight with happiness, arm in arm with his father. My parents were standing at their sides, wedding rings on their fingers, and laughing happily. And there... that must have been him. Their best man... I had never given him a thought before.

If I hadn't known it was the same person, I would never have guessed it was Black in the old photograph. It was the only old picture that I had seen with his face visible. Other than that, it had always been his mugshots. His face wasn't sunken and waxy, but handsome, and full of laughter. Had he already been working for Voldemort when this picture had been taken? Was he already planning the deaths of the two people next to him? Was he planning on killing the other two? Did he realize he was facing twelve years in Azkaban, twelve years that would make him unrecognizable?

My hand gently lingered on Black's face for just a moment. I had heard stories before. That he was apparently quite chipper and friendly during his own days at Hogwarts. Had it all been a guise? Was he always the monster that had taken so long to uncover? How had Mom and Dad taken so long to realize who he genuinely was? It didn't matter, I supposed. The only thing that mattered was that he was arrested again. But the Dementors didn't affect him. I stared into the handsome, laughing face again. He didn't have to hear Lily screaming as she died if they got too close. Or that awful longing.

Sirius Black must have lost his sanity long ago. It was the only thing that could explain how he could still speak and act like a functional human being when Fudge went to visit him before his breakout. It would only make him even more dangerous when the time came that he ran right into us. I was sure that he would. Harry suddenly slammed the album shut, startling me, reached over and stuffed it back into his cabinet, took off his robe and glasses and stared down at the sheets. The hangings were still hiding us from view. The air suddenly felt stifling.

"I'm gonna go," I said, quickly hopping up from the bed.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked, sitting upright.

"I'm not sure. I just need to leave for a while. I need to get out of here."

"Stay, Tara."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tara!"

Even though it wasn't my fault, there was a horrible and overwhelming feeling of guilt. Because apparently you want to betray your friends just the way that Black betrayed his. "I didn't know, Harry. I'm sorry. I didn't know," I stuttered.

"It's okay. It's - It's not okay. But I know that you didn't know. Come on. Stay with us tonight," Harry said, moving to get out of the bed.

"No, I - I just need to leave. I'll see you later," I said.

Before Harry could say anything else - before I could be convinced to just stay with him - I turned on my heel and dashed from the room. Thankfully downstairs, no one tried to stop me. A few people did call after me, but no one actually sought me out to get me to stop. I assumed that they were too busy thinking about the start of their holiday. But I couldn't think about a holiday. It no longer felt like Christmas was in the air. So I just went to wandering the corridors of the castle, listening to the clocks tick away the minutes.

Eventually the clocks started ticking away the hours. I could tell because the sun had officially set, the echoes from the Common Rooms across the castle had gone down, and there was no lingering chatter from the professors. The castle had gone eerily still. But I didn't return to the dorm. I merely paced back and forth through the hallways. I knew that I would get in a ton of trouble if someone caught me out here, but I couldn't force myself to go back. Not to pretend to be asleep or dodge Hermione's many questions that would likely be thrown my way.

But that didn't mean that I was planning on stopping. In fact, it was just the opposite. I couldn't be anywhere around here. I wanted to be far away from all of my problems. Unfortunately there were only so many places that I could go to hide in Hogwarts - being a solitary castle and all that. So I just kept walking. I wanted to never have to look at my parents again. I knew that I would have to speak to them at some point, but I didn't have to do it right now. Not while I was furious with what they had kept from me. I just couldn't believe that they were lying to me this whole time.

A hatred such as I had never known before was coursing through me like poison. That horrible man. Someone who had been a friend to my parents. Their best friend. They loved him. I could tell in the pictures that they must have loved him. Just the way that I loved my friends. An even more horrible fear coursed through me at the thought that I might - one day soon - turn into Sirius Black. Betray those I cared most about to Voldemort. But I couldn't do that. I could see Black laughing at me through the darkness, as though somebody had pasted the picture from the album over my eyes.

The monster that I shared an incredible personality likeness to... As I walked, I watched, as though somebody was playing me a piece of film, Sirius Black blasting Peter Pettigrew (who resembled Neville slightly) into a thousand pieces. I could hear (though having no idea what Black's voice might sound like) a low, excited mutter. 'It has happened, My Lord... the Potters have made me their Secret-Keeper' and then came another voice, laughing shrilly, the same laugh that I heard inside my head whenever the Dementors drew near...

My hands were shaking with something in between nerves and pulsing anger as I continued to walk long into the night. My head was spinning with all of my nightmarish thoughts. The idea that I could become like Sirius Black and my irritation with Mom and Dad. My thoughts were so overwhelming that I didn't see it until the last moment. A shadow at the end of the hall. One of the teachers, more than likely. But I didn't try to run off and hide. I would get in trouble either way. The figure moved towards me quickly when I realized that it was Cedric - a Prefect, not a teacher.

"Tara?" Cedric asked, walking into the candlelight. "What are you doing?"

"Walking," I answered blandly.

Cedric laughed under his breath to meet me halfway. "Yeah. I see that." His smile was still bright. He hadn't realized there was a problem yet. Of course, I had been happy the last time that I had seen him. "You're not a sleepwalker, are you?" Cedric asked.

"No."

"It's late. Past curfew. You'll get in trouble if someone finds you."

"Someone did find me," I pointed out.

Cedric snorted and shook his head. "Funny. Come on. Let's get you back," he offered.

"I'm not going back," I said determinedly.

"Tara..." Cedric said exasperatedly. "Come on."

"Take the House points away if you want," I said.

That was enough to indicate that things weren't okay with me. Cedric's brows furrowed together. "Come here," Cedric said, opening his arms to me. I walked towards him very slowly. "Are you crying?"

"Am I?" I asked softly.

Cedric raised a hand to right underneath my eyes and wiped away a few tears. It turned out that I was crying. "What happened? You were fine just a few hours ago," Cedric said.

"Can we... uh... can we go somewhere to talk?" I asked, clearing my cracking voice.

"Of course. Come on."

The two of us turned away from the way that I had been walking. Cedric wrapped an arm around my lower back to push me wherever we were going. I noticed that he had a slightly possessive grip on me. I tried to stifle my sobs and act like an adult, but I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried. So Cedric wrapped his arm up around my shoulders and kept me pressed tightly into his side. His arms were holding my shaking body steady. He pressed a soft kiss into my hair as we headed upstairs. I had no idea where we were going. I was just simply following him blindly.

Although it was very hard to keep from tripping over the stairs, Cedric was keeping a tight grip to make sure that I didn't fall. Eventually we left the grand staircases and started up a winding passage. I realized a moment later that he had brought me up to the Astronomy Tower. The same place that I always went to when something was bothering me. The place that Cedric had found me so many times before. Of course he would bring me here when I was very obviously upset about something. Just one of the many ways that he showed me that he really did know me.

"Come on. Sit down," Cedric goaded.

The two of us walked over to the overhang of the Astronomy Tower where I had spent so much of my time just pondering what was happening to me. Cedric took a seat first before offering me a hand and letting me sit down next to him. I slowly turned to Cedric with the intent to explain to Cedric what happened when, instead, I burst into tears. Cedric hushed my gently as he pulled me into his side. I pressed my nose into his chest as I began to sob even harder. He never tried to push me off. He merely let me stay there and cry loudly.

One of his hands went up to my hair to gently brush it back off of my forehead. He still didn't speak. I simply curled into his side with my knees pulled up to my chest. All I could see was that awful image of myself with the Boggart and in the Mirror of Erised. What if I did just what Black had done? Why had no one even told me that he was my godfather? I wished that I would have stayed with Harry and tried to talk it out but I just couldn't bring myself to look at him any longer. Not after learning what I had.

Without a clock or anything like that around us, I had no idea what time it was. Which meant that I didn't have a clue how much time had passed. Maybe it had just been a few minutes. Maybe it had been about an hour since he had found me. Maybe there was a chance that it had been a number of hours. I supposed that it didn't matter. Cedric didn't make any indication that he wanted to leave. He just let me lay against his chest, sobbing softly. I didn't want to alert anyone that we were up here. Not that I cared for myself, but I didn't want to get him in trouble.

Finally I wiped my eyes and gently pushed myself off of him. "Thanks for being my babysitter," I said softly.

Cedric smiled. "I'll always be here to babysit you," he teased.

We both laughed as I rolled my eyes. There was a good chance that I would always need a babysitter. It was a good thing that there were a number of people in my life who were around to babysit me. The two of us stared at each other for a moment as I gently laid a hand on his chest. He was such a wonderful person to deal with me and all of the drama that I brought into his life. I leaned up to him slowly as he smiled down at me. I just wanted to let him know how grateful I was for him. So I pushed up on my heels and gently pressed a kiss against his lips.

Cedric held me against him for a moment before he let me pull away. He brushed away some dried tears and pressed a kiss against my forehead. "Want to tell me what's wrong?" Cedric asked quietly.

"It's a long story and kind of a strange one," I said.

"Well the only other thing that I would be doing tonight would be monitoring the halls for students out of bed."

"You caught me."

"I did. And I am now much more entertained than I was before. So tell me what's going on. Come on, I want to know. As bad as it might sound, your issues fascinate me."

My eyes narrowed as I whopped him in the chest. "You're such a jerk," I groaned.

Cedric caught my hand and pulled me back into his lap. "I'm kidding, I'm only kidding," Cedric said quickly, obviously trying to push the smile off of his face. "Come on, Tara. Tell me."

"You really want to hear?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, I really do."

"It's a long story. I'm not so sure that you want to hear it," I said bashfully.

For some reason, I really didn't want to tell Cedric about Sirius Black. I wasn't sure why. It wasn't like I had picked him out to be my godfather. "Come on, Tara. Tell me before I have to drag it out of you," Cedric teased.

"You're not intimidating," I said blandly.

Cedric shoved me off to the side, making me laugh softly. "Come on. Now I really want to hear," Cedric goaded.

If nothing else, telling him what was going on would probably make me feel a little bit better. So I decided to just go for it. If nothing else, just to blather on about it and try to vent. So I sat back against the stone wall and told him everything that I knew about Sirius Black up until we were at the Three Broomsticks earlier. I told him everything about what I heard and felt when Dementors were near before telling him all about the Grim that I had spotted at the match. I let him know that it was the reason that I had stopped flying and had gotten knocked out of the air by him later.

It took me a little longer to go forward with the next part of the story. Thankfully Cedric merely sat patiently as I tried to gather the words to explain what I had just learned a few hours ago. But eventually I managed to get through the entire conversation that we had overheard. Cedric was good and silent so that I could tell him everything. I even took a few chances to involve the things that my parents had told me about Sirius Black, making it as clear to him as I had thought it had been to me that they had never indicated that they knew or were friends with him.

The one thing that bothered me the most... Eventually I got around to mentioning that he was apparently my godfather - and Harry's. I could tell that my comment was obviously getting to Cedric as he jerked slightly at my words. When I finally finished my story, he sat still for a long time. Obviously he was thinking over what I said and I didn't want to rush that thought process for him. The only thing that I didn't tell him was about my fear that I would one day turn into Sirius Black - betraying my friends and family to Voldemort.

"So..." Cedric finally started, looking uncomfortable. He had a few false starts before finally finding his words. "Sirius Black is your godfather? Yours and Harry's?"

"Evidently," I said blandly.

"And no one ever told you?" Cedric asked.

"No."

"Do you remember him at all?"

For a moment I hesitated. There really weren't that many memories that I had from before I was three-years-old or so. "No. He would have been in Azkaban before I turned two. Or around that time, anyways. Before I can remember," I said honestly.

"Well... I never know why you think that I won't take these things well," Cedric said after a long silence.

We both laughed as I rolled my eyes. "Stop it," I snapped, shoving him off.

"It's not your fault, Tara. What happened to Harry's parents," Cedric said softly, reaching over and placing a hand on my leg.

"I know. It would be ridiculous to think that it's my fault. I was a baby. Of course it's not my fault. But that doesn't make things any easier. There's still some weird paranoia in the back of my mind that I could have changed something," I said, trying to push off thoughts of what my genuine concern was. I didn't want him to know about that. "Which is stupid, I know."

"It's not stupid. You're a good person, Tara. That's why. You carry the guilt from things that happen, even if they have nothing to do with you," Cedric said, wrapping his hand around mine.

"Yeah, and it's horrible. How could my parents have not told me?" I asked.

Not that he would have known the answer. But he answered me anyways. "Honestly... just think about it. What were they supposed to say?" Cedric asked. I raised a brow, unsure of what he meant. "One of their best friends and your own godfather turned his back on them and betrayed them and got Harry's parents killed?"

"I would have liked anything better than this. Feeling like I got hit by a speeding train," I half-joked.

Cedric smiled softly and pressed another kiss against my hair. I sighed and shook my head again. "They didn't want you to have to carry around that chip on your shoulder. They were likely hoping that you would never find out. When Black escaped they must have been debating on what to do," Cedric said.

"I could tell that they were a little antsier. I thought that it was just because he had broken out," I said.

"It's okay, Tara," Cedric consoled.

The two of us stared at each other again before I let out a little whine. Cedric laughed under his breath as I dropped my head back against the stone wall - which was very painful. A moment later Cedric's arm wrapped around my waist and he pulled me into him. I felt just a little bit better now that he had just listened to me. It made me feel a little better just being able to say everything that was on my mind. But it didn't help that it was all still on my mind. It would be on my mind until this was all over and Sirius Black was either captured or dead. That still wouldn't end every problem in my life.

"How the hell did this happen?" I asked. Cedric gave me a long stare. "My life used to be so normal. At least, as normal as it can get being a wizard. Now it's so weird. Something crazy is always happening to me."

"What was it that you once said? So it comes with the territory of being best friends with Harry Potter," Cedric said.

Snorting under my breath, I nodded. He was right about that. Actually, I was right about that. "Yes. I suppose that's true. But the whole Sirius Black thing would have happened with or without him. Although being with Harry only makes things a little worse," I mumbled.

"No one could ever accuse you of having a boring life."

"I guess."

"Tara... I know it's hard, but try not to be angry with your parents."

"Why not?" I asked, slightly meaner than I'd meant to.

But it didn't faze him. Cedric sat across from me, the two of us sitting with the toes of our shoes pressed against each other's. "Because they love you. They love you more than anything. Obviously they didn't tell you because they wanted to protect you. They didn't want you to have to think about the fact that your godfather was a convicted murderer," Cedric explained.

Grouchily, I gave Cedric a gentle shove. "Stop making sense. I wanted to be mad," I grumbled.

"Oh, come on. You know that I'm right," Cedric said brightly.

"Yes. I do know that. Which makes me mad," I said.

"Smile," Cedric said, poking me in the collarbone. I laughed and shoved back away from him again. "Come on. It's not your fault. Nothing about this was your fault."

"I know. It's just one of those awful feelings."

"You know, you can't pick your godparents. You can't even pick your parents. But you also can't change the fact that they do love you. They'll always love you."

"I just sent them a letter."

"What did it say?"

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head. They would likely send me a very angry and slightly offended letter back. "Nothing that nice. Mostly that I didn't want my parents to talk to me because I was so angry about Sirius Black. I told them that I would be spending Christmas at Hogwarts with my real friends. The people who don't hide things from me," I muttered, now feeling embarrassed about it.

"That was nice of you," Cedric laughed.

"I realized a little too late that I shouldn't have said that. Written that. Whatever. It wasn't very good of me, was it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Cedric thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. "They'll understand, Tara. They will. They're going to know that it'll take you some time to move past everything. To understand why they hid it from you," Cedric explained.

"You're too rational. Stop," I snapped.

"Well if it keeps you from flinging yourself off of the Astronomy Tower," Cedric said.

It was enough to make the corners of my lips tilt upwards. Even though I really wanted to scowl at him again. "Trust me, I like myself a little too much to keep me from doing that," I said.

"Well that's about how I feel right now."

"O.W.L.'s going that well, huh?"

"They're really that good. It's exhausting. Something for you to look forward to whenever you get into your Fifth Year."

"All of that on top of whatever other terrible thing I'll have to deal with in my Fifth Year."

What on earth would I be dealing with in my Fifth Year? It would be something else. I was sure of it. First Year we had dealt with the Sorcerer's Stone and having to keep it protected. Of course, we had thought that it was Snape who had been trying to steal it. It had been even worse when we had realized that it was Voldemort and Quirrell. Second Year had been the killer Basilisk and the memory of Voldemort - not to mention everyone's fear of me because I was a Parselmouth. Now it was Sirius Black breaking out of Azkaban to kill Harry and I - his godchildren.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Cedric said.

"We'll see," I mumbled.

"You'll let me know, yeah?"

"I'll have to have someone to complain to."

"Well I will gladly listen."

"What will I ever do in my Sixth and Seventh Years? You'll be graduated by then and I'll have to find someone new to complain to. Or you could fail and stay behind with me," I teased.

Cedric snorted under his breath. "I don't think so. How about letters?" Cedric offered.

"I'll take it." The two of us sat in silence for a while as I twirled the laces on my boots. "How do you not get sick of all of this?" I asked after a few beats, throwing my hands up in the air.

"All of what?"

"Me. Constantly having some insane problem that needs taking care of. Far more than you signed up for," I said softly.

There was a chance that I was about to drive him out of my life for good. But he really didn't deserve to be sucked into all of my insane problems. "I think anyone that's friends with you should expect a normal life," Cedric said, making me laugh. "Come on, Tara. Everyone knows how crazy your life is. I do. And I don't mind. I'm here to help."

We sat in silence for a few moments before the corners of my lips tilted upwards at a thought. "I think I have a career path for you to follow," I said suddenly.

"Is that so?" Cedric asked curiously.

"Yeah. You should be a private investigator."

"What's that?"

Did we not have those in the Wizarding World? I supposed that I had never thought about it before. "It's a Muggle thing. It's a person who's hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. They look up whatever you want them to. You know, they find missing family members and find out secrets that people have been hiding," I explained.

Cedric was silent for a while as he tried to process my explanation. "Like a stalker?" Cedric finally asked.

The two of us stared at each other before I burst into laughter. Cedric was staring at me like I had lost my mind, as he did so often. "Yeah. That's kind of what they are. I never thought about it like that," I giggled.

"Are all Muggle professions like that?"

"Do you even know any Muggle jobs?"

"Some of them. I went to a Muggle school for a few years," Cedric said.

"Did you?" I asked.

He had never told me much about his childhood. I had always thought that he was home schooled for his entire life. "It was right outside of London. But when I started to display my powers, my mother and father pulled me out of school. They started to home school me until it was time for me to go to Hogwarts," Cedric explained.

So I was right about him being home schooled for most of his life. It turned out that he had gone through the same problem that most wizards and witches did. Displaying powers at a young age. I nodded blankly at Cedric. We sat in silence for a few moments before a sudden thought hit me. It was something that he had said. Cedric had never mentioned his mother before; not that I could remember, anyways. This was the first time that he had ever mentioned her. I had always thought that she was dead or his parents had divorced long ago. Something to make her an uncomfortable topic.

"What happened to your mother?" I asked, hoping that I wasn't overstepping my bounds.

Cedric's head whipped over to me and I paled. I had definitely overstepped my bounds. "What?" he asked, surprised.

"Your mother. You - You never mention her," I said awkwardly.

Cedric smiled and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, Tara, nothing happened to her. She's just busy with work. She's not home too often. She travels a lot. All over the world. She only gets to come home from time to time. It's just something that I've had to get used to," Cedric explained.

My jaw dropped. I had never felt so stupid. Of course I had just jumped to conclusions. "Oh..." Cedric raised a brow at my bewildered state. "I thought that she was dead!" I shouted stupidly.

"What? No!" Cedric barked.

"Well you never mentioned her!"

"I guess I never really thought about it. I didn't think that you would jump to the conclusion that she was dead," Cedric laughed.

"Well now I feel like an idiot," I said.

My face was bright red from my idiotic statement. Cedric laughed and shook his head again. "Don't. I should have mentioned something about her. She's a Quidditch recruiter. That's how she got me into the sport. I used to go with her sometimes. She's just out all over the world a lot. Brings back some cool things though," Cedric said.

"I wonder if she's ever met my father," I muttered absentmindedly.

Cedric shook his head. "Doubt it. I think your father started before she worked in that industry," he said.

"Dad would be fascinated if he heard about that. He loves to talk about how wonderful he is with new people," I joked.

We both laughed. As much as I loved my father, he was definitely big-headed. It was where I had gotten that personality trait. "My mother definitely wants to meet you," Cedric said.

My eyebrow quirked. "Your mother knows about me?" I asked.

Cedric's face turned bright red. "Well... I tell her about my friends," he muttered.

I couldn't help it. A shot of hurt went through my chest. "Oh, of course. And we're good friends, aren't we?" I asked sharply. Cedric's gaze dropped and I cringed, feeling very embarrassed. "Sorry. I couldn't help it."

Cedric shook his head and leaned into me. "You had every right to say it." But I really didn't. I was being an ass. "No. I told her about you when I met you, actually. Back when we were getting fitted for robes. I told her all about how your father is Marcus Nox. She was fascinated. Apparently I used to talk about you more and more. My mother realized that I had a crush on you much earlier than I did," Cedric said.

A monstrous blush filled my face and spread all the way down to my chest. "That's the first time you've said it," I muttered.

"Figured that you've earned it by now," Cedric teased.

"Shut up," I snapped playfully, shoving him away.

Cedric laughed again as he sat upright and yanked me into him. "She knew when I mentioned in a letter how concerned I was for you during your First Year. When you weren't sleeping. You started looking worse and worse," Cedric said.

"Well you were worried," I reasoned.

"And that worry has never gone away."

"Really?"

Was he still worried about me? Even after all of this time? "I know that you're capable to protect yourself. Trust me, I know that." He must have, considering that I had managed to survive all that I had. "But sometimes I think that you forget that you aren't invincible. You get involved in things that are so much more dangerous than yourself. So much bigger. Maybe one day you'll learn," Cedric said softly.

"Learn what?" I asked.

"Just how much danger you put yourself in," Cedric said.

"Trust me, I know how much danger I put myself in."

"Okay. Fine. How much you scare me."

"Sorry. You don't deserve that."

"But yet I stay anyways," Cedric said.

"A fault on your part, I suppose," I teased.

Something flitted through his eyes. "Yes. It is definitely a fault on my part," Cedric teased. My jaw dropped as I leaned over and slapped him roughly on the arm. "I'm just kidding! You do amuse me, Tara. I like seeing what you're going to do next."

"I'll let you know when we get there." We sat in silence for a moment before something dawned on me. One of the few things that I was still excited for. "I'm going to learn a Patronus," I said brightly.

Cedric gave me a very surprised look. "You know how hard those are?" he asked.

"I'm aware. But I'm sick of feeling completely useless whenever they're around. The Dementors. I want to learn so I'm going to learn," I said determinedly.

"Are you teaching yourself?" Cedric asked.

Laughing loudly, I shook my head. "No. Professor Lupin is teaching Harry and me. We were complaining about how we were so affected by the Dementors and he offered that there were certain defenses. We convinced him to teach us the Patronus after the holidays," I explained.

"You'll have to let me know if that works," Cedric said.

"Of course. I'll be even better than you," I teased.

"Oh, I don't doubt that," Cedric said, brushing my hair back off of my shoulders.

"Charmer," I teased.

We both stared at each other before grinning. I knew that we could only act serious for so long. So we both started to laugh as I whopped Cedric over the shoulder. A second later he shifted over and leaned back against the wall with me. I laughed again as I slipped down against the stone wall and placed my head on his shoulder. I had almost forgotten how comfortable he made me. My head turned into his shoulder slightly as I pressed a tiny kiss there. He nudged me gently as he pressed a kiss against the top of my head.

His arm fell over my shoulders after a moment and I smiled, tucking into him. Cedric was just about twice my own size so I enjoyed just sitting with him. He was literally a life-size pillow. Harry and Ron were wonderful to nap on, but neither one of them were much bigger than me. We sat together in silence as Cedric thread our fingers together. His free hand wound up to underneath my chin. He very slowly tilted my head up so that we were looking each other in the eyes. I leaned up as he leaned down to press a small kiss against my lips. We stayed together in the sweet and gentle kiss for a minute.

What started as a sweet kiss quickly turned into something a little more... romantic, I supposed that it was. Cedric leaned into me and placed his other hand - the one that had been threaded with mine - behind my neck. It brought me closer to him and pressed me roughly against him. It was something that I realized that I needed after the stress of the day and finding out the truth. I just needed a moment to relax and remember that things could always get better. And they would. I just needed some time to let off steam and complain; time to let everything soak in.

As Cedric gently pushed me back against the wall, I laughed again, wrapping an arm over his shoulders. Something that kept the two of us pressed roughly against each other. My breath almost escaped me at the kiss. Cedric's hand gently wrapped in my hair, pressing it back off of my forehead and pushing it off of my front. My problems seemed to dissipate within seconds. Something that I didn't imagine would happen. It was incredibly relieving just to spend a few moments not thinking about Sirius Black or anything else.

It was funny to think about how long went by that I didn't think that Cedric liked me back. There was a good chance that Cedric hadn't liked me back in the beginning. I was just a little kid at first. But things had changed. We had both grown up and had done so together. One day I must have suddenly looked like something else. No longer a sister, but maybe a potential girlfriend. I just couldn't believe that right now, in the middle of the night, we were in the Astronomy Tower, kissing each other. It was definitely not something that I ever imagined would happen.

It was something that I would never be able to believe. Even though I had been right here, I was sure that I would never be able to believe it. It was happening to me right now and I couldn't believe that it was happening. It was definitely something that I never planned on telling anyone else. Maybe Hermione, one day. After she couldn't yell at me for explicitly breaking the rules of Hogwarts. All I knew was that I definitely didn't plan on ever telling Harry or Ron. They would never let me hear the end of it.

After a few beats I leaned over and Cedric grabbed my ankles, swinging my legs over his lap. I giggled against his lips as my face lit up a brilliant red. It was a good thing that I was so light. I couldn't believe that this was really happening. After I had wanted it for so long, too. I wasn't sure how long passed, but it must have been a long time. We finally separated, both breathing heavily. I gathered my breath for a moment before leaning forwards and pressing another soft kiss against his lips. It happened twice more before we finally broke apart.

His fingers were still pressing against my neck and spine, making the hair on my arms stand on end. "You're not going home, then?" Cedric finally asked.

There was a good chance that my parents really wanted me back home, but I needed some time to figure out what to say to them. "No. I can't face my parents after all of this. I know that they'll try and justify it and maybe it will make sense. But, for right now, I want to stay away from them. I don't want to forgive them. I just want to be angry for a while," I explained rather childish.

"I understand. Too bad, I did want to see you," Cedric said.

"I wanted to see you, too. But I don't want to be at home," I muttered.

"Think maybe you can sneak out of the castle on Christmas day?" Cedric asked.

The corners of my lips tilted upwards as I wrapped my arms around my knees. "Look who's encouraging bad behavior now," I teased, shoving into him.

"Your fault, of course," Cedric teased.

"Funny." As for the thought of actually getting to Hogsmeade on Christmas day, that sounded like something fun. "Yeah. I think that maybe I could swing it. Got any plans?" I asked.

"Got a few. Meet me at the Three Broomsticks at noon?" Cedric offered.

"Sure. Got a special date planned?" I asked teasingly.

"In a way," Cedric said.

There was something bright on his face that told me that he did have something fun planned. Which made me perfectly happy. So we smiled at each other as Cedric moved back against the wall and let me lay against his chest. I giggled softly as he practically picked me up and dragged me back against the wall. A moment later he leaned around my own body and pressed a hand through my hair, leaning over my shoulder to give me a lingering kiss. My heart was beating so erratically and loudly that I figured that Cedric must have been able to hear it.

When we finally broke the kiss, I gave Cedric a long stare. "Should you be walking around right now?" I asked.

It was his job to make sure that nothing was happening and the students weren't out of bed. Cedric shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "Probably. But there's nothing that interesting in the castle happening right now. At least now I get to take a little break and there's no chance of one of the teachers coming to check on me," Cedric explained.

"Will they come up here?" I asked.

"No. The Astronomy Tower was on my patrol and seeing as I'm here..." Cedric trailed off.

"Wonderful," I said brightly.

The last thing that I wanted was for someone to interrupt us right now. Especially because we would both get into a ton of trouble. Which I didn't need right now. Because that would only warrant more letters from Mom and Dad about my terrible behavior in school, which was something that I couldn't deal with, considering that they were the ones who had lied to me for so long. But I didn't want to think about them. Not right now. Not until I could actually have a calm discussion with them about everything.

Instead I focused on Cedric. The night with him that I likely wouldn't get again for a long time. Not until summer, if even then. Mom and Dad would definitely be keeping a close eye on us if they figured out that we were sort-of dating. I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind as the two of us simply chatted back and forth for a long time. Thankfully nothing about Sirius Black, because he knew that I wanted to get my mind off of that. Hours passed as we chatted and the sun started to slowly rise in the distance. I found myself very grateful for the distraction of having him talk with me.

As the sun started to rise in the distance - signaling that it was probably somewhere between four and five in the morning - I asked if he was okay with being awake for this long. The morning would likely be miserable for him without any sleep. I would be miserable either way. Thankfully Cedric told me that he would have been on patrols anyways and that he would be able to sleep on the train when they were headed back home tomorrow. I kept forgetting that the winter holiday was about to start. I would still be in the castle, so at least I would be able to try and sleep in.

It wouldn't matter whether or not I would be able to sleep. There was a good chance that I wouldn't sleep either way. So I might as well make the most of being awake. Since no one was there to see either one of us - which meant no rumors to be spread - the two of us exchanged a number of sweet kisses and loud bursts of laughter as we messed around and harassed each other. For a moment I felt as light as air, which was relieving, after the day that I had been through. It was also nice to keep my mind off of Sirius Black as the two of us talked about everything but him.

Over the entire night, he did manage to comfort me about a few things that I had confided in him with. Everything from the Boggart and Mirror of Erised - which he mentioned didn't mean anything and I could overcome it - to my simple anger with my parents. I was definitely feeling a little bit better about things, but I still didn't want to go home for the holidays. I couldn't face them right now. I didn't want to see them for a while. We would be able to talk about everything and confront each other much more calmly over the summer holiday.

By then, likely whatever disaster was coming would already be over. Who knew? Maybe Sirius Black would come to confront us. I supposed that I would find out in a few months. Not long after the sun started to peek over the horizon I drifted off against Cedric's chest while in mid-sentence. I remembered hearing his laughter as I fell asleep. It must have been the early hours in the morning - maybe passing six or so. Not that I cared. And it didn't seem that he cared much either.

When I finally managed to wake up in the morning I could tell that not much time had passed. The sun was still in the lowest parts of the sky - telling me that I hadn't been asleep for much more than an hour or two. But now I was exhausted. Mostly because I had barely managed to sleep tonight after an exhausting day. I had barely gotten an hour - if it had even been that much. Cedric was somehow still awake. He was twirling his wand around in his hand. He grinned down at me as I looked hazily up at him.

"Good morning," Cedric greeted.

"I feel hungover," I groaned.

"Do you even know what a hangover is like?"

To be fair, I had no idea what a hangover was like. I had never even seen someone hung over before. "No. But this is what I imagine it to be like. How long was I out for?" I asked.

"A little under an hour. We should get going. It'll be time for the students to start heading out to the trains," Cedric said.

"Okay."

He was right that we really needed to get moving. The trains left early in the morning. It meant that they would likely be on their way in under an hour. That meant that we had to get going to ensure that no one saw us. That would make for an awkward conversation. So the two of us got to our feet; I was very stiff from sitting on the stone floor for hours. I smiled at Cedric as we descended the staircase and he walked me out of the Astronomy Tower. Sunlight was now streaming through the castle windows. I groaned at the sight. I was awake almost all night.

"Thanks for staying with me last night," I said.

"My pleasure. I'll see you on Christmas, yeah?"

"Yeah. I'll meet you there."

"Good." Cedric leaned in to give me a small hug. "I'll see you then."

"Have a safe trip home." Cedric started to walk away as I smiled at him. He looked happy and I knew that my smile was mirroring his. At least I would see him again on Christmas, which was good, seeing as I didn't want to be trapped in the castle for two weeks. "Hang on!" I called him back.

Cedric turned back. "What is it?" he asked.

"Did you get me a Christmas present?" I asked teasingly.

Cedric smiled. "I did. And I'll give it to you on Christmas," Cedric said.

"You're no fun."

"I'm plenty of fun. Did you get me a present?"

"Sure. My presence in your life," I teased.

Cedric snorted under his breath and shook his head. "Funny."

"Thank you," I said brightly.

Where had I gotten my big head from? Probably from Dad. He was always the one that had to keep getting knocked down by Mom. I immediately shook those thoughts away. I didn't want good memories. I wanted to be angry. Slowly Cedric and I walked up the staircase that would lead up to the Gryffindor Tower. I didn't want to walk him all the way there - seeing as they were supposed to be secret from the other Houses - but we came close. We stopped just two hallways away from Sir Cadogan's portrait.

"You should get back in there. I would hate for either one of us to have to explain what happened last night. You think your friends are giving you a hard time now," Cedric said only half-teasingly.

"Well I'll just tell them that I cried all night. They'll get over it when they know that I blubbered to you like a baby," I said truthfully.

"You can cry on my shoulder whenever," Cedric said.

"Aren't you just my perfect Prince Charming?" I teased.

Cedric's brows knitted together. "Prince Charming? That's sweet."

"Have you never heard of Prince Charming?"

Cedric gave me a funny look. "Apparently not," he said slowly.

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe that he had never heard of Prince Charming before. "You must have grown up under a rock." Cedric scowled at me. "Prince Charming is the price from the classic fairy tale Cinderella. He's her prince. When she loses her slipper at the ball he searches all over the kingdom until he finds the girl whose foot it fits," I explained.

Cedric nodded blankly. But a few moments later he glanced up at me confusedly. "Only one girl has that sized shoe?" Cedric asked.

My jaws flapped for a moment. "Shut up," I snapped.

Perhaps it had been stupid of me to never realize that it didn't make sense that only one person had that sized foot. Cedric laughed. "He can't remember this girl's face? Someone whom he claims to love," Cedric pointed out.

"Pretty much," I said, realizing that he was completely right. "Well she was all dressed up for the ball. She was normally a housemaid to her stepmother and stepsisters who treated her like garbage. It was the only time that she got out."

"Sounds very girly."

"It is. But it's a cute movie."

"You'll have to show it to me one day."

Maybe that could be something that we could do over the summer. It might have been a little fun watching him listen to those goofy songs. "I will. I should head upstairs. Thanks for babysitting me," I said sweetly.

"My pleasure."

"Have a safe trip home, alright?"

"Of course. I'll see you on Christmas."

"See you then."

It turned out to be a very good thing that I had run into Cedric in the hallway. I felt about fifty times better now than I did earlier. It did help to talk it out by an impartial third party. I would be able to talk it out with Harry soon enough. Not now, but soon. Cedric moved forward and placed a hand on my waist, pressing a small kiss against my mouth. I laughed softly - still unable to process that we were really kind-of together - under my breath as he gently pushed my hair back and ran a thumb underneath my chin.

A moment later we pulled apart and I smiled up at him. He must have gone through another growth spurt lately, because he seemed to be taller than he was last time I had really looked at him. We exchanged a quick hug before departing from each other, just before I started to hear the calls of the students who were heading to breakfast and then the train. I slipped quietly into the Common Room. Only two or three people were already awake. They looked to be Sixth Years; tired and ready to go home for a while.

How lucky they were. Instead I was going to stay at the castle because I was too big of a baby to face my parents. No one else was downstairs and it was no one who wanted to speak to me. All of my friends must have been asleep. So I decided to follow suit. I darted up the stairs and got changed quickly back into my pajamas. I had still been wearing what I was wearing when we went to Hogsmeade. I had to be quiet since Hermione and the others were still asleep. Parvati, Lavender, and Fay would be awake soon enough to get ready to leave.

Grabbing my spare clothes, I quietly walked into the bathroom and bolted the door behind me. I showered quickly and dropped my head against the stone tile, trying to put myself to sleep. Once I was done I got changed into something comfortable to lay around in. I was exhausted by now and would likely need a nap later. It had been a while since I had actually had a normal night's sleep. By the time that I was out of the shower, everyone was gone. Hermione was likely already downstairs and the others were probably on the way to Hogsmeade Station.

Slowly heading downstairs, I realized that my friends were all in their chairs. Harry scooted over on the couch to make room for me. "Harry, Tara, you - you two look terrible," Hermione said carefully.

"Oh, thanks," I growled.

Very quickly Harry explained to me about his own night. It turned out that Harry hadn't gotten to sleep until daybreak. He had awoken to find the dormitory deserted, dressed, and gone down the spiral staircase to a Common Room that had been completely empty except for Ron, who was eating a Peppermint Toad and massaging his stomach, and Hermione, who had spread her homework over three tables. That was when I had come downstairs, looking just as miserable as he did. I leaned my wet head onto Harry's shoulder. He didn't complain.

"Where is everyone?" Harry asked.

"Gone! It's the first day of the holidays, remember?" Ron asked, watching us closely.

"That's nice for them," I mumbled.

"So you decided to stay?" Hermione asked.

That was when I remembered that I had told them that I would be going home today, too. They must have been surprised to see me here. "Yeah. Don't want to be at home," I muttered.

"It's nearly lunchtime; I was going to come and wake you up in a minute," Hermione said.

"It's lunchtime?" I asked, surprised.

"Almost," Ron said.

Maybe I had been in the shower for a little longer than I had originally thought. Which was fine by me. I wanted these two weeks to go by quickly so that I could get back into the routine of classes. And I really wanted to learn my Patronus. Harry slumped down as I threw my legs over his lap, pressing my head down into his shoulder. Slowly I turned my head to look past the fire. Snow was still falling outside the windows. Crookshanks was spread out in front of the fire like a large, ugly, ginger rug.

"You two really don't look well, you know," Hermione said, peering anxiously into our faces.

"I'm fine," Harry said.

"Just a long night. Didn't sleep much," I said.

Hermione's eyebrows knitted disbelievingly. "You didn't come back to the dorm last night," Hermione pointed out. I really wished that she hadn't said that. "I didn't see you until I woke up this morning. Didn't even see you. I just heard the shower running."

"Yeah. I was wandering the castle," I admitted.

Already I missed the lighter air with Cedric. Everyone here was being far too serious. "All night?" Hermione asked.

"Yes."

"That's against the rules!" Hermione shouted.

"So?" I asked irritably. I wasn't in the mood for a lecture. "I wasn't caught. I just needed some time to be by myself and roam around. I needed to think about everything that was happening."

"You were wandering the castle all night and didn't get caught?" Hermione asked.

"I ran into Cedric," I said.

"In the middle of the night?" Ron asked.

Ron and Hermione looked very curious. Harry still looked like he was about to fall asleep. "He's a Prefect. He was doing his rounds. He saw me and brought me up to the Astronomy Tower to talk it all out and keep me from having to come back. It also kept me safe from someone spotting me," I answered as vaguely as I possibly could.

"You spent the night with him?" Ron asked, aghast.

That was enough to catch Harry's attention. He bolted upright, knocking me off of his shoulder. "Sitting up in the Astronomy Tower!" I barked, annoyed at their insinuation. "Come on. Honestly? There are so many better things to be doing with your time. Like wondering about what the hell we heard yesterday afternoon."

"You spent the night with some guy in the Astronomy Tower," Ron said, still unable to process what I had done last night.

"I spent the night with a guy that I've known for three years talking things out. Can we just change the subject, please?" I asked irritably.

Hermione was the first one to realize that I really didn't want to talk about last night. "Harry, Tara, listen," Hermione said, exchanging a look with Ron, "you must be really upset about what we heard yesterday. But the thing is, you mustn't go doing anything stupid."

"Don't we always go and do something stupid?" I growled.

"Like what?" Harry asked them.

"Like trying to go after Black," Ron said sharply.

That time it was Harry and I who exchanged a glance. We could both tell they had rehearsed this conversation while we had been out. Neither one of us said anything. "You won't, will you, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Because Black's not worth dying for," Ron said.

"We don't seem to die easily," I pointed out.

Again, Harry and I exchanged a look. Then we looked back at them. They didn't seem to understand at all. "D'you know what I see and hear every time a Dementor gets too near me?" Harry asked. Ron and Hermione shook their heads, looking apprehensive. "I can hear my mum screaming and pleading with Voldemort. And if you'd heard your mum screaming like that, just about to be killed, you wouldn't forget it in a hurry. And if you found out someone who was supposed to be a friend of hers betrayed her and sent Voldemort after her -"

"There's nothing you can do!" Hermione interrupted, looking stricken. "The Dementors will catch Black and he'll go back to Azkaban and - and serve him right!"

"He's not normal, Hermione!" I shouted, unable to hold in my outburst. "He doesn't give a damn. He betrayed his best friends. When the Dementors come too close to me I can hear my parents begging with him, asking how he could dare betray them."

My loud words were now making them all stare at me like I had lost my mind. But I hadn't even told them the worst part. Because I chose to omit the part where I felt the burning desire to be with him. The man whom I was gradually believing to be Voldemort. I knew that it would only make things even worse and make them even more afraid for me. And I didn't dare tell them about my fear that one day I might do to them just what Sirius Black was done to Harry's parents and mine. Betray them to Voldemort and get them killed.

"You heard what Fudge said. Black isn't affected by Azkaban like normal people are. It's not a punishment for him like it is for the others," Harry said, obviously trying to get the attention away from me.

"So what are you saying? You want to - to kill Black or something?" Ron asked, looking very tense.

"Don't be silly," Hermione said in a panicky voice. "Harry and Tara don't want to kill anyone, do they?"

This time when Harry and I looked at each other, I couldn't read his face. Because I knew that he was thinking the same thing that I was. We really didn't know. This wasn't something that had an easy answer. Again, Harry and I didn't answer. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew that he felt the same. All I knew was that the idea of doing nothing, while Black was at liberty, was almost more than I could stand. What the hell was I supposed to do? Was there anything that I could do? There was no way that I could go up against a wizard as trained as Black was.

"Malfoy knows. Remember what he said to me in Potions? 'If it was me, I'd hunt him down myself... I'd want revenge,'" Harry said.

"You're going to take Malfoy's advice instead of ours?" Ron asked furiously.

He was right. I had almost forgotten about that. "No. He told me. He told me that Black was the reason that Harry's parents were dead. I yelled at him for being a liar. But he wasn't lying. He was telling me the truth the entire time," I said blankly.

Had Malfoy actually been trying to help me? Maybe... I could talk to him? Write a letter? I hated him so much, but he might have been one of the few people who could help me here. "Listen... you know what Pettigrew's mother got back after Black had finished with him? Dad told me - the Order of Merlin, First Class, and Pettigrew's finger in a box. That was the biggest bit of him they could find. Black's a madman, you two, and he's dangerous -"

"Malfoy's dad must have told him," Harry said, ignoring Ron. "He was right in Voldemort's inner circle -"

"Say You-Know-Who, will you?" Ron interjected angrily.

"Get over it, Ron," I snapped.

"- so obviously, the Malfoy's knew Black was working for Voldemort -"

"- and Malfoy would love to see you blown into about a million pieces, like Pettigrew! Get a grip. Malfoy's just hoping you'll get yourself killed before he has to play you at Quidditch," Ron finished.

"We're not going after him. Relax," I snapped, just to get them to stop speaking.

"Harry, please," Hermione said, her eyes now shining with tears, "Please be sensible. Black did a terrible, terrible thing, but d-don't put yourself in danger, it's what Black wants... Oh, Harry, you'd be playing right into Black's hands if you went looking for him. Your mum and dad wouldn't want you to get hurt, would they? They'd never want you to go looking for Black!"

"I'll never know what they'd have wanted, because thanks to Black, I've never spoken to them. Tara got to spend more time with them than I did," Harry said shortly.

He's right... I had never thought about that. "Oh... thanks for that," I muttered angrily.

Because he was right. I had spent almost two years with Harry's family. He had barely gotten to spend a year with them. I didn't have any memories of them but... How would I have felt? If my own parents had died before I could remember them and knowing that my best friend spent more time with them than I did? Horrible, probably. Harry gave me a look that was probably something of an apology but I ignored him. Because I wanted to be angry. There was a silence in which Crookshanks stretched luxuriously flexing his claws. Ron's pocket quivered.

"Look," Ron said, obviously casting around for a change of subject, "it's the holidays! It's nearly Christmas! Let's - let's go down and see Hagrid. We haven't visited him for ages!"

"No!" Hermione said quickly. "Harry and Tara aren't supposed to leave the castle, Ron -"

"Who cares?" I interrupted.

"Yeah, let's go, and I can ask him how come he never mentioned Black when he told me all about my parents!" Harry said suddenly, sitting upright.

"You can't honestly think that he would have wanted you to know about Black? He thinks - probably just like they do - that you're going to go after him," I snapped.

Further discussion of Sirius Black plainly wasn't what Ron had had in mind. "Or we could have a game of chess or Gobstones," Ron said hastily. "Percy left a set -"

"No, let's visit Hagrid," Harry said firmly.

Obviously there was no room for argument. Which, surprisingly, didn't bother me. It wouldn't be a half-bad trip. At least Hagrid wouldn't yell at me and he would keep the others from speaking to me about Sirius Black. So we all ran to get our cloaks from our dormitories and set off through the portrait hole. As we left, Sir Cadogan started shouting about how we needed to stand and fight, before calling us a few rather nasty and old-fashioned insults. Then we headed down through the empty castle and out through the oak front doors.

We made our way slowly down the lawn, making a shallow trench in the glittering, powdery snow, our socks and the hems of our cloaks soaked and freezing. There was no worry about anyone catching us being out here. For once we were allowed to go out to Hagrid's hut. Although they wouldn't be happy if they caught Harry and I out here. Not that I cared. The Forbidden Forest looked as though it had been enchanted, each tree smattered with silver, and Hagrid's cabin looked like an iced cake. Ron knocked as we arrived, but there was no answer.

"He's not out, is he?" Hermione asked, who was shivering under her cloak.

Ron had his ear to the door. "There's a weird noise. Listen - is that Fang?" Ron asked. Harry, Hermione, and I put our ears to the door too. From inside the cabin came a series of low, throbbing moans. "Think we'd better go and get someone?" Ron asked nervously.

"That's not Fang. That's Hagrid," I said, surprised.

"Hagrid!" Harry called, thumping the door. "Hagrid, are you in there?"

Something had happened to him. It was very obvious that those throaty sobs weren't from Fang. Fang was louder and howled while Hagrid simply sounded like he was drowning. It was definitely Hagrid. There had to have been something bad that had happened. Wonderful... Another bad thing to add on top of everything that was already happening. There was a sound of heavy footsteps, then the door creaked open. Hagrid stood there with his eyes red and swollen, tears splashing down the front of his leather vest.

"Oh, Hagrid. Are you okay?" I asked worriedly.

"You've heard?" he bellowed, and he flung himself onto Harry's neck.

What the hell had happened in the few days since I had last seen Hagrid? Hagrid being at least twice the size of a normal man, having him fling himself onto Harry was no laughing matter. Harry, about to collapse under Hagrid's weight, was rescued by Ron, Hermione, and I, as we seized Hagrid under an arm and heaved him back into the cabin. Even with four of us, it wasn't an easy task. Hagrid allowed himself to be steered into a chair and slumped over the table, sobbing uncontrollably, his face glazed with tears that dripped down into his tangled beard.

"Hagrid, what is it?" Hermione asked, aghast.

Harry spotted an official-looking letter lying open on the table. I followed his gaze and scowled. "What's this, Hagrid?" Harry asked.

Hagrid's sobs redoubled, but he shoved the letter toward Harry. "Read it," I said.

"Dear Mr. Hagrid,

"Further to our inquiry into the attack by a Hippogriff on a student in your class, we have accepted the assurances of Professor Dumbledore that you bear no responsibility for the regrettable incident."

"Well, that's okay then, Hagrid!" Ron interrupted Harry, clapping Hagrid on the shoulder. But Hagrid continued to sob, and waved one of his gigantic hands, inviting Harry to read on.

"However, we must register our concern about the Hippogriff in question. We have decided to uphold the official complaint of Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and this matter will therefore be taken to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. The hearing will take place on April 20th, and we ask you to present yourself and your Hippogriff at the Committee's offices in London on that date. In the meantime, the Hippogriff should be kept tethered and isolated.

"Yours in fellowship...

There followed a list of the school governors. My stomach churned. They were going to execute Buckbeak. "Oh. But you said Buckbeak isn't a bad Hippogriff, Hagrid. I bet he'll get off," Ron said hopefully.

"We can vouch for him! Buckbeak didn't hurt any of the other students," I said quickly.

He was very sweet for a Hippogriff. I didn't want him to get hurt. He had been overly-nice to me. "Yeh don' know them gargoyles at the Committee fer the Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures!" Hagrid choked, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "They've got it in fer interestin' creatures!"

"We can help, Hagrid. Let us help. Just tell us what we can do," I said, grabbing his huge hand.

"There's nothin' to do!" Hagrid sobbed.

There was no way that we could let Buckbeak die. He meant the world to Hagrid and Hagrid meant the world to us. It wasn't his fault that Malfoy was an ass who had insulted a Hippogriff - something that Hagrid had warned not to do. A sudden sound from the corner of Hagrid's cabin made Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I whip around. Buckbeak the Hippogriff was lying in the corner, chomping on something that was oozing blood all over the floor. My heart went out for the poor thing.

"I couldn' leave him tied up out there in the snow! All on his own! At Christmas," Hagrid choked.

For a moment Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I looked at one another. To be completely honest, we had never seen eye to eye with Hagrid about what he called 'interesting creatures' and other people called 'terrifying monsters.' On the other hand, there didn't seem to be any particular harm in Buckbeak. In fact, by Hagrid's usual standards, he was positively cute. And I had ridden him. He hadn't hurt me. I got up and crossed the room. I barely had to duck down for Buckbeak to bow back at me. He seemed more demure than usual. I immediately sat down and started petting Buckbeak.

"You'll have to put up a good strong defense, Hagrid," Hermione said, sitting down and laying a hand on Hagrid's massive forearm. "I'm sure you can prove Buckbeak is safe."

"Won' make no diff'rence!" Hagrid sobbed. "Them Disposal devils, they're all in Lucius Malfoy's pocket! Scared o' him! Ad if I lose the case, Buckbeak -"

Hagrid drew his finger swiftly across his throat, then gave a great wail and lurched forward, his face in his arms. We could not let them execute Buckbeak. I exchanged a panicked look with the others. "What about Dumbledore, Hagrid?" Harry asked.

"He's done more'n enough fer me already. Got enough on his plate what with keepin' them Dementors outta the castle, an' Sirius Black lurkin' around," Hagrid groaned.

Ron and Hermione looked quickly at Harry and me, as though expecting us to start berating Hagrid for not telling us the truth about Black. The two of us then looked at each other. There was no way that we could say anything to Hagrid right now. Not when he was that fragile. I shook my head at Harry. Not right now. Not to Hagrid after he had learned about Buckbeak's impending execution. Right now Harry and I couldn't bring ourselves to do it, not now that we saw Hagrid so miserable and scared. I knew how that felt.

"Listen, Hagrid," Harry said, "you can't give up. Hermione's right, you just need a good defense. You can call us as witnesses -"

"I'm sure I've read about a case of Hippogriff-baiting where the Hippogriff got off. I'll look it up for you, Hagrid, and see exactly what happened," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"We can figure it out, Hagrid. Don't worry," I promised.

Hagrid howled still more loudly. Harry, Hermione, and I looked at Ron to help us. "Er - shall I make a cup of tea?" Ron offered awkwardly. Harry and I stared at him.

"Really?" I asked irritably.

"It's what my mum does whenever someone's upset," Ron muttered, shrugging.

At last, after many more assurances of help, with a steaming mug of tea in front of him, Hagrid blew his nose on a handkerchief the size of a tablecloth and said, "Yer right. I can' afford to go ter pieces. Gotta pull meself together..."

"Don't worry, Hagrid. Things are going to be okay with Buckbeak," I promised.

Fang the boarhound came timidly out from under the table and laid his head on Hagrid's knee. "I've not bin meself lately," Hagrid said, stroking Fang with one hand and mopping his face with the other. "Worried abou' Buckbeak, an' no one likin' me classes -"

"We do like them!" Hermione lied at once.

"Yeah, they're great!" Ron said, crossing his fingers under the table. "Er - how are the flobberworms?"

"Dead. Too much lettuce," Hagrid said gloomily.

"Oh no!" Ron said, his lip twitching.

"An' them Dementors make me feel ruddy terrible an' all," Hagrid said, with a sudden shudder. "Gotta walk past 'em ev'ry time I want a drink in the Three Broomsticks. 'S like bein' back in Azkaban -"

He fell silent, gulping his tea. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I watched him breathlessly. No one ever spoke about Azkaban. Not the prisoners who sometimes managed to get out. Not the people who visited. And seeing as Dementors couldn't exactly speak, that I had heard, anyways. As far as I knew, none of us had ever heard Hagrid talk about his brief spell in Azkaban before. Not since last year, when it had happened. He had been in Azkaban for about two months or so and hadn't looked quite healthy when we'd seen him.

After a pause, Hermione said timidly, "Is it awful in there, Hagrid?"

"Yeh've no idea. Never bin anywhere like it. Thought I was goin' mad. Kep' goin' over horrible stuff in me mind... the day I got expelled from Hogwarts... day me dad died... day I had ter let Norbert go..." Hagrid said quietly. His eyes filled with tears. Norbert was the baby dragon Hagrid had once won in a game of cards. None of us had been quite so friendly with him. "Yeh can' really remember who yeh are after a while. An' yeh can' really see the point o' livin' at all. I used ter hope I'd jus' die in me sleep. When they let me out, it was like bein' born again, ev'rythin' came floodin' back, it was the bes' feelin' in the world. Mind, the Dementors weren't keen on lettin' me go."

"But you were innocent!" Hermione said.

Hagrid snorted. "Think that matters to them? They don' care. Long as they've got a couple o' hundred humans stuck there with 'em, so they can leech all the happiness out of 'em, they don' give a damn who's guilty an' who's not," Hagrid said. He went quiet for a moment, staring into his tea. Then he said quietly, "Thought o' jus' letting Buckbeak go... tryin' ter make him fly away... but how d'yeh explain ter a Hippogriff it's gotta go inter hidin'? An' - an' I'm scared o' breakin' the law..." He looked up at them, tears leaking down his face again. "I don' ever want ter go back ter Azkaban."

The trip to Hagrid's, though far from fun, had nevertheless had the effect Ron and Hermione had hoped. Though Harry and I had by no means forgotten about Black, we couldn't brood constantly on revenge if we wanted to help Hagrid win his case against the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. It meant that we now at least had something to do with our time and I had something else to worry about. There was no way that I could let sweet little Buckbeak be killed. He wasn't a bad animal, Malfoy was just an idiot.

So Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I went to the library the next day and returned to the empty Common Room laden with books that might help prepare a defense for Buckbeak. As the days passed, I ignored the letters that arrived from my friends and family and instead worked on trying to help out Buckbeak. The four of us sat in front of the roaring fire, hardly ever moving, slowly turning the pages of dusty volumes about famous cases of marauding beasts, only speaking occasionally when one of us ran across something relevant.

"Here's something... there was a case in 1722... But the Hippogriff was convicted - ugh, look what they did to it, that's disgusting -"

"This might help, look - a Manticore savaged someone in 1296, and they let the Manticore off - oh - no, that was only because everyone was too scared to go near it..."

No matter how many days passed and how many books we managed to completely comb through, it became quickly obvious that there was no way that we were finding something to help Buckbeak with. It seemed that Hagrid would just have to come up with a good defense and hope that he would be able to call witnesses to the stand for the Hippogriff. Meanwhile, in the rest of the castle, the usual magnificent Christmas decorations had been put up, despite the fact that hardly any of the students remained to enjoy them.

Thick streamers of holly and mistletoe were strung along the corridors, mysterious lights shone from inside every suit of armor, and the Great Hall was filled with its usual twelve Christmas trees, glittering with golden stars. Sometimes I lingered in the halls by myself just to try and soak up the holiday cheer - which was very absent in my life these days. A powerful and delicious smell of cooking pervaded the corridors, and by Christmas Eve, it had grown so strong that even Scabbers poked his nose out of the shelter of Ron's pocket to sniff hopefully at the air.

On Christmas morning, I was woken by Hermione throwing her pillow at me. I immediately shot up in bed to see what was happening. She was sitting on the edge of the bed and smiling at me. I knew that she was hoping that I would be happy today, as I so clearly hadn't been for a long time. And she was right. It was present time and afterwards I would be able to go out to Hogsmeade on my lunch day. It sounded like the first genuinely good day of the holiday was about to start. I reached back for my own pillow and hurled it back at Hermione.

"Oi! Presents!" I chirped, running over and tugging on her ankles.

She laughed and shoved me away. "I'll meet you in there," Hermione called.

"Hurry up!" I shouted.

Hermione rolled her eyes and flopped off of the side of the bed, making me smile. She would be awake soon enough. She just had to hurry up. I wanted to open presents and try and have a good day. I quickly changed into my clothes for the day - considering that I would be going out soon enough and not just lounging around all day - before heading out of the dorm. I stopped long enough in the Common Room to rip open the package that I knew was from Mrs. Weasley and toss on her knitted sweater. Then I headed up to the boys. Ron was already ripping the paper off his presents.

Harry was still trying to wake up. "Merry Christmas, boys!" I chirped.

They would have to bring all of their things downstairs, considering that was where Hermione and I's presents were. "Merry Christmas, Tara!" Harry shouted, jumping off of the bed and pulling me into a hug.

"Merry Christmas, Tara," Ron said, barely looking up from his presents. I rolled my eyes. "Another sweater from Mum... maroon again... see if you've got one."

"Oh, I got one, too. A blue one," I said, motioning to my own.

Ron looked up and nodded. He looked horrified that I was daring to wear it out in semi-public. But I thought that they were cute and she clearly put a lot of effort into them. "Where are your presents, Tara?" Ron asked.

"Downstairs. Figured I'd harass you two first," I said.

The boys nodded as I plopped myself down on the edge of Harry's bed to watch them start rifling through their presents. Harry - like us - had gotten his own sweater. Mrs. Weasley had sent him a scarlet sweater with the Gryffindor lion knitted on the front, also a dozen home-baked mince pies, some Christmas cake, and a box of nut brittle. I had gotten some more homemade fudge and a pair of hand-knitted slippers. As Harry moved all of her presents aside, we both spotted a long, thin package lying underneath.

"What's that?" Ron asked, looking over, a freshly unwrapped pair of maroon socks in his hand.

"Dunno..." Harry muttered.

"Looks kind of like a broom," I said, surprised.

If Harry got a new broom, I certainly wanted one. That had always been at the top of my list. I had wanted one for a long time. The Nimbus 2000 had been great, but it was gone now and I was ready for a new one. Not that I wasn't grateful to Cedric for letting me borrow his, but it was getting old and a little useless. Harry ripped the parcel open and gasped as a magnificent, gleaming broomstick rolled out onto his bedspread. I sprang off of the bed at the realization that I had been right. Ron dropped his socks and jumped off his bed for a closer look.

"I don't believe it," Ron said hoarsely.

"You're joking! How the hell did you get one of those? That's not fair!" I howled.

It was a Firebolt, identical to the dream broom Harry and I had gone to see almost every day in Diagon Alley. My dream broomstick... Its handle glittered as he picked it up. Even from where I was sitting, just a foot away, I could feel it vibrating. Harry let go; it hung in midair, unsupported, at exactly the right height for him to mount it. My jaw dropped. I wanted one so badly. Harry's eyes moved from the golden registration number at the top of the handle, right down to the perfectly smooth, streamlined birch twigs that made up the tail.

"Who sent it to you?" Ron asked in a hushed voice.

"Look and see if there's a card," Harry said.

Ron ripped apart the Firebolt's wrappings. "Nothing! Blimey, who'd spend that much on you?" Ron asked.

"Well," Harry started, sounding stunned, "I'm betting it wasn't the Dursley's. Maybe your parents?"

If my parents had sent him one - maybe for lying about Black - they had damn well better send me one, too. "Doubtful. They won't even get me one. And if it was Mom and Dad, they would have sent a card with it," I reasoned.

"Who would have sent this?" Harry asked.

"I bet it was Dumbledore," Ron said, now walking around and around the Firebolt, taking in every glorious inch. "He sent you the Invisibility Cloak anonymously..."

"That was my dad's, though," Harry said. "Dumbledore was just passing it on to me. He wouldn't spend hundreds of Galleons on me. He can't go giving students stuff like this -"

"That's why he wouldn't say it was from him! In case some git like Malfoy said it was favoritism," Ron said.

It wasn't a bad idea or theory, but I just couldn't believe that the Headmaster would do something like that. "I really doubt that it would be Dumbledore. No one spends that much money on someone that they aren't directly related to," I said.

"Hey, Harry," Ron gave a great whoop of laughter, "Malfoy! Wait 'til he sees you on this! He'll be sick as a pig! This is an international standard broom, this is!"

"I can't believe this," Harry muttered, running a hand along the Firebolt, while Ron sank onto Harry's bed, laughing his head off at the thought of Malfoy. "Who -?"

"I know," Ron said, trying to control himself, "I know who it could've been - Lupin!"

Harry and I exchanged a bewildered look with each other. Lupin liked him just fine, but there was no way. He didn't have enough money. I was sure about that. "What?" Harry asked, now starting to laugh himself "Lupin? Listen, if he had this much gold, he'd be able to buy himself some new robes."

"Yeah, but he likes you," Ron said. "And he was away when your Nimbus got smashed, and he might've heard about it and decided to visit Diagon Alley and get this for you -"

"What d'you mean, he was away? He was ill when I was playing in that match," Harry said.

"He didn't see the match. He told me that he wanted to, though," I said.

"Well, he wasn't in the hospital wing. I was there, cleaning out the bedpans on that detention from Snape, remember?" Ron asked.

But there was no way. Where would Lupin have been? He would have come to the game. He had promised Mom and Dad that he would have come to the game to see me play. After all, he used to watch Dad play when they had been students. So where had he been? Either way, I couldn't see that Lupin had bought Harry the broom. He likely didn't have the money and I would have been a little upset if he had bought Harry a broom and not me. After all, he had liked both of our parents and he liked both of us. Harry frowned at Ron and me.

"I can't see Lupin affording something like this," Harry finally said.

"He likes me just as much as he likes Harry. Why would he get Harry one and not me?" I offered.

"Because he knows that Harry would never be able to afford one on his own," Ron explained.

"I really doubt that, Ron," I scoffed.

"What're you three laughing about?"

Hermione had just come in, wearing her dressing gown and carrying Crookshanks, who was looking very grumpy, with a string of tinsel tied around his neck. I couldn't believe that he hadn't ripped her to shreds while she was trying to put that on him. I would have if she had tried to do that. Suddenly I realized that I was the only one who wasn't wearing a dressing gown or my pajamas. I kind of wished that I was still in them, but it would be time for me to leave soon enough. So I could complain to Cedric about not having a Firebolt. He would likely complain with me.

"Don't bring him in here!" Ron said, hurriedly snatching Scabbers from the depths of his bed and stowing him in his pajama pocket.

But Hermione wasn't listening. She dropped Crookshanks onto Seamus's empty bed and stared, open-mouthed, at the Firebolt. "Oh, Harry! Who sent you that?" she asked.

"No idea. There wasn't a card or anything with it," Harry said.

To my great surprise, Hermione did not appear either excited or intrigued by the news. On the contrary, her face fell, and she bit her lip. "What's the matter with you?" Ron asked.

"I know you're not a Quidditch fan, but this is incredible," I said.

"I don't know, but it's a bit odd, isn't it? I mean, this is supposed to be quite a good broom, isn't it?" Hermione asked slowly.

Ron sighed exasperatedly. "It's the best broom there is, Hermione," he said.

"So it must've been really expensive..." she continued.

"Probably cost more than all the Slytherin's' brooms put together," Ron said happily.

"It's the most expensive broom in the world," I continued.

"Well... who'd send Harry something as expensive as that, and not even tell him they'd sent it?" Hermione asked.

"Who cares?" Ron said impatiently. "Listen, Harry, can I have a go on it? Can I?"

"I don't think anyone should ride that broom just yet!" Hermione said shrilly.

Harry, Ron, and I looked at her. "What d'you think Harry's going to do with it - sweep the floor?" Ron asked.

We all snorted. There was no way that something was wrong with it. It was just a broom. But maybe I was blinded by the fact that I really wanted to go out and take it for a ride. It looked like so much fun. And it would be so fast. I would have been able to get out of range of any of the other Chasers within seconds... But before Hermione could answer, Crookshanks sprang from Seamus's bed, right at Ron's chest.

"Get - him - out - of - here!" Ron bellowed as Crookshanks's claws ripped his pajamas and Scabbers attempted a wild escape over his shoulder.

Ron seized Scabbers by the tail and aimed a misjudged kick at Crookshanks that hit the trunk at the end of Harry's bed, knocking it over and causing Ron to hop up and down, howling with pain. As Hermione and Ron shouted at each other, Harry and I stared down at the floor and tried not to laugh. Crookshanks's fur suddenly stood on end. A shrill, tinny, whistling was filling the room. The Pocket Sneakoscope had become dislodged from Vermin's old socks and was whirling and gleaming on the floor.

"I forgot about that!" Harry said, bending down and picking up the Sneakoscope. "I never wear those socks if I can help it..."

The Sneakoscope whirled and whistled in his palm. Crookshanks was hissing and spitting at it. "You'd better take that cat out of here, Hermione," Ron said furiously, sitting on Harry's bed nursing his toe.

"Calm down. Both of you. You're going to have a heart attack," I said.

Ron merely scowled at me. "Can't you shut that thing up?" he added to Harry as Hermione strode out of the room, Crookshanks's yellow eyes still fixed maliciously on Ron.

Harry stuffed the Sneakoscope back inside the socks and threw it back into his trunk. Had that stupid thing been whirring since he had first gotten it? All that could be heard now were Ron's stifled moans of pain and rage. Scabbers was huddled in Ron's hands. It had been a while since I had seen him out of Ron's pocket, and I was unpleasantly surprised to see that Scabbers, once so fat, was now very skinny; patches of fur seemed to have fallen out too. Something was really wrong with him. It seemed to be far more than old age as the rat approached death.

"He's not looking too good, is he?" Harry asked.

"It's stress! He'd be fine if that big stupid fur ball left him alone!" Ron growled.

"He's old, Ron," I whispered.

Honestly I was trying to be comforting. But I knew that Ron wouldn't appreciate it. Although he was so angry with Hermione that he barely heard me. But I was now remembering what the woman at the Magical Menagerie had said about rats living only three years, and I couldn't help feeling that unless Scabbers had powers he had never revealed, he was reaching the end of his life. He was... twelve? Way too old for a non-magical rat. And despite Ron's frequent complaints that Scabbers was both boring and useless, I was sure Ron would be very miserable if Scabbers died.

"Okay, enough. Let's bring your things downstairs and start opening presents," I said slowly, trying to break the tense air.

"Oh, yes, I got you all your presents already!" Hermione chirped, coming back upstairs.

"Me, too!" I said.

The thought of opening more presents was enough to snap Ron out of the angry haze that he had been in a moment before. "What is it with girls and Christmas?" Ron grumbled, coming downstairs.

Okay. Maybe he was still a little angry. "What is it with boys and being completely brainless?" I shot back.

"Come on. Present time," Harry said.

Christmas spirit was definitely thin on the ground in the Gryffindor Common Room. Hermione had shut Crookshanks in her dormitory, but was furious with Ron for trying to kick him; Ron was still fuming about Crookshanks's fresh attempt to eat Scabbers. Harry and I gave up trying to make them talk to each other as he devoted himself to examining the Firebolt, which he had brought down to the Common Room with him. For some reason that seemed to annoy Hermione; she didn't say anything, but she kept looking darkly at the broom as though it too had been criticizing her cat.

As Harry played with his new broomstick, I started to go through my own presents. Harry had already opened the rest of his. As usual, he didn't have many. Ron and Hermione were going through theirs on opposite ends of the Common Room. I handed everyone their presents in an effort to try and make them calm down a little bit. I ended up giving Harry a Snitch that played music as it flitted around, matching the speed or the tempo with the speed that it flew. Hermione got a fancy new ink and quill set. Ron got an expensive and rare Honeydukes candies that were only seasonal.

Everyone definitely enjoyed their presents. As Harry continued to play with the Firebolt and see what was happening with the new broom, he started to use the Snitch, letting it flit around the room playing Christmas music. I ran upstairs and got my book on broomsticks to let Harry read through the Firebolt section. Ron was eating the candy that I had bought him, sharing with the rest of us. Hermione was scribbling out a letter to her parents to wish them a happy holiday.

In the meantime I went through my own presents - more than the others had. That was exactly why I would get them such extravagant gifts on the holidays and on their birthdays. Harry had given me a new set of Chaser gloves and a new Quaffle, which I needed. I used them so much that it wasn't shocking that I went through them so fast. Neville had given me a large package of Honeydukes chocolate, as I was always complaining that they never left out enough chocolate at dessert time. Dean bought me a book on Muggle soccer with a note that promised him a game when he got back.

Ron had gotten me a large and soft Stars blanket. I appreciated the thought, considering that he really liked the Chudley Cannons. Fred and George had sent me more of their own creations, with another note that told me not to use them without the twins around. I laughed and placed it away carefully, wanting to make sure that it didn't blow up on me. Hermione had given me a few journals to write in with adorably sparkly ink. Oliver had given me a new set of Quidditch boots, since mine were falling apart. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie all gave me different chocolates and candies.

To my surprise, I had also gotten a present from my parents. I had almost thought that they wouldn't send me anything after the rather rude letter that I had sent them. They had sent me a long letter telling me all about Sirius Black and who he had been to them during their seven years at Hogwarts, reasoning with me about why they had kept their friendship with him a secret. They had also sent me some money to get whatever I wanted, a large bundle of Sugar Quills, a photo album with pictures of us, and a promise to buy me a new broom when I came back home.

Clearly they felt extremely bad about what had happened. The promise of a new broom was almost enough to make me forgive them right then and there. And, honestly, I had almost already forgiven them. Especially with the detailed letter about their friend and his betrayal. But this would be enough to maybe sucker a Firebolt out of them. But then, to my surprise, in the back corner of the room was a package shaped just like the one that Harry's Firebolt came in. I darted over and pulled the wrappings off in one movement. This is not from my parents. So... who?

"Oh... Look!" I chirped happily, raising the Firebolt.

Harry and Ron sprang over the couch to look at it. "You got one, too!" Harry yelled excitably.

"Yeah. I think I did," I muttered disbelievingly.

"Who would spend that much money on you?" Ron asked.

Hermione spoke before I got the chance to. "This isn't good. Those brooms are expensive. For both of you to be sent one... You're sure that they're not from your parents?" Hermione asked.

"No. I got a present from them. It's not from them," I said.

"Who would send you one of them?" Hermione asked.

"Who knows?" I asked carelessly. "But it's great! I'm sick of riding those horrible school brooms."

"Tara..." Hermione muttered.

"What?" I asked irritably. "These brooms are some of the best in the -"

My voice dropped off when I realized that I had missed a present. "What's wrong?" Ron asked, sensing the change in atmosphere.

"Look," I whispered.

How hadn't I seen it before? It was sitting right there. Just where it had been sitting last year... My stomach was churning in horror as I realized that it wasn't over. My problems weren't even close to being over. They were continuing. Harry, Ron, and Hermione glanced over to see what I had been praying wouldn't happen today. That one thing that I hadn't wanted to see. I stared in horror at the perfectly wrapped black box, feeling my legs quivering in fear. I couldn't believe that it was there. Another one of those damned boxes. They had finally sent me another one. It had been so long.

"It's another one..." Harry said, finally breaking the silence.

"Don't touch it. I've got it," I said quickly.

The last thing that we needed was to find out what happened when someone who it wasn't designed for touched it. So I walked over and picked up the box before bringing it over to my chair. I very slowly peeled open the lid to see what was inside of it. As I opened it, I screamed and dropped the box to the ground. The moment that the others saw it, they screamed, too. Harry slowly picked it up. A dead rat. One word was carved into the side. Enemy. And below that was the same number. Eighty-three.

"What - What would they have sent that for?" I gasped, placing a hand over my mouth.

"It's got to be a joke! Someone saw us with Scabbers and Crookshanks that day," Ron reasoned, his voice shaking.

"You should really report these, Tara," Hermione said slowly.

An irrational anger shot through me. "To who? What would I even say? I've been getting these crazy packages a few times a year with something freaky inside - sometimes a warning - and one number attached each time. Eighty-three. They won't know what that means. No one will," I said quickly.

"Get rid of that thing," Harry said.

Ron picked it up, looking a little sick. "What do you think it means?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing!" Ron shouted before I could. "Someone is just playing a cruel prank."

"But -" Hermione started.

"Ron's right. It's Christmas," I interrupted. No more of these damn boxes and everything else that was terrifying me controlling my life. I was going to go out and celebrate Christmas like I had originally planned. "Someone is just trying to ruin my day. Probably Malfoy. He hasn't been too happy with me lately. I'm - I'm going to go out for a while."

Weakly I stumbled out of the chair. "Where are you going?" Hermione asked.

"Out," I answered plainly.

"Obviously," Hermione scoffed.

"I'm going to go wander around Hogsmeade for a while," I said.

"Tara!" Hermione barked.

Harry knew what I was going out for. I had already told him, just so that someone knew, just in case. "Just let her go. Want to take the Invisibility Cloak?" Harry asked, knowing that I needed a few moments.

"No. I think I'll be fine. See you guys later. Ron, you can play with the Firebolt if you want," I said.

"Thanks, Tara!" Ron said brightly.

"Break it and I'll kill you," I said seriously.

We all laughed at each other - save Hermione, who still looked very concerned. Harry tried to brush off her concern to let me leave. "Come on. Let's see what they can do," Harry said, grabbing his own Firebolt. "Tell Diggory we said hello."

"Shut up," I snapped.

It was enough to make everyone, even Hermione, laugh. It made me smile. I just couldn't think about that stupid box... It was no big deal. Just a cruel joke from some kid who didn't like me very much. So I grabbed my coat before heading out of the Common Room and to the one-eyed witch statue, quickly giving it the password. I yanked myself up and dropped down into the passage without getting caught. Not that there were too many people to catch me left in the castle. I headed down the passage with my wand lighting the way, straight towards Honeydukes.

Finally I managed to arrive at Honeydukes, just a few minutes before it was time to meet Cedric. I slipped through the trapdoor and sprinted through the back of the store without getting noticed, which was good, because I knew that people would question why I was there if they saw me. I headed straight out into the snow and trekked through Hogsmeade, enjoying being outside of the castle for the day. It was nice to just have some fresh air away from the questions and concerns of my friends. I wandered into the Three Broomsticks and immediately spotted Cedric.

Being Christmas morning, there weren't many people in the pub. Rosmerta only had it open until three o'clock, anyways. I darted up behind Cedric, excited to see him again. Things were far too tense with Harry, Ron, and Hermione this morning. Things with Cedric had always been lighter. And I definitely needed some lightness today. The only happiness that I had really had was at the very beginning of the morning, opening most of the presents, and the teasing just before I left. I slid forward quietly and threw my arms over Cedric's shoulders, startling him.

"Merlin... I had no idea that you were there," Cedric laughed.

His chest was rising and falling quickly. But he glanced back to see me hanging over his shoulder and gave me an upside down hug. "You must have known that I was coming," I teased, falling into the seat next to him.

"Yes, but to be completely honest, I thought that you would be late," Cedric said.

"Now that was uncalled for."

"You're not exactly good with timing."

"I resent that! I should just go back to Hogwarts."

Cedric leaned over and grabbed me, sitting me back in the chair next to him. I laughed softly as I stumbled back into the chair. "No! No. Besides, I'm stuck here until two," Cedric laughed.

"What are you doing at two?" I asked curiously.

"Dad is bringing us back home to see the rest of the family to exchange presents and catch up. Mom is going to meet us there. She's in Croatia right now," Cedric explained.

"That's nice. Sounds like much more fun than the rest of my Christmas."

"Is it just the four of you?"

"From Gryffindor? Yes. I believe so."

Cedric leaned over and threw an arm over my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Tara. I really am," he said softly.

"That's okay. I'll live," I muttered.

"You alright?" Cedric asked. My head slowly tilted up so that I could meet his gaze. Did I really seem that depressed? Apparently. Maybe I just hadn't noticed after being stuck with three other high-strung people for a week. "You seem a little down for Christmas."

Shrugging my shoulders, I shook my head. "Just a weird past few days. Everything from finding out about what happened with Sirius Black, Ron and Hermione are constantly fighting, and... I don't know," I muttered, trying to shake it off. For whatever reason, I really didn't want to tell Cedric about the boxes. He didn't need to know about that. "Doesn't matter."

"It always matters," Cedric said.

"I think this is one thing that I don't need to tell you," I said.

"Come on, Tara," Cedric goaded.

For a moment I thought about saying something, but I couldn't bring myself to. He deserved to not have to know about this one thing. "It's okay, Cedric. I'm just irritated with everything that's been happening lately. I kind of wish that I had gone back home. Being at the castle right now just feels wrong," I said, reveling being in the Three Broomsticks.

"I'm sorry. I'm glad that you could get out for just a little while," Cedric said.

"Thanks. Me too. I'm glad that you invited me out."

"I'm glad that you came out. That way I could give you my present in person."

"Oh. Am I going to like it?" I asked teasingly.

"I certainly hope so," Cedric said brightly.

He leaned down and I watched as he grabbed whatever it was that he had gotten me. I had almost forgotten about his present. But thankfully I had managed to remember just before I had left the Common Room this morning. That was the one good thing about everyone being gone. I could leave my things out everywhere and not worry about someone touching it. Cedric handed me a gift bag and I pulled out a wrapped package, narrowing my eyes at it irritably. Cedric laughed. I rolled my eyes as I unwrapped the package and raised a brow. It was a leather-bound journal.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Open it," Cedric said.

So I followed his order. I was definitely curious to see what it was. It wasn't blank like the ones that Hermione had given me for Christmas. This one was written in, to my surprise. My eyes started flitting over the pages as I started to read through the journal. Cedric was being polite enough to not really watch me. Instantly I recognized Cedric's handwriting. I had seen enough of his assignments. I flipped through the pages and smiled to myself. He had been writing in it since the beginning of the year. The pages were dated. They were all memories of the two of us, written out from his version.

They started from the very moment we met and went over the next three years, up until present date. Some of the things were what he wished that he had done, things that he wished that he had said, and the many times that he had come close to kissing me before he actually did that day in Hogsmeade a few weeks ago. Some of them were moments that I couldn't even remember happening. He obviously had a much better memory than I did. I smiled as I got to the later memories. The ones from after he kissed me.

There were even thoughts of the future. Plans that he wanted to make for the two of us during the summer. Some things that he wanted to show me and places that he thought that I would like. Everything made me smile. It would be so much fun. All of the things that he wrote sounded like a blast. There were ten pages at the back of the journal that were empty. Cedric had written a note across the top of one of the pages to pick places and things that I wanted to do. Enough so that we could really see what we were to each other by the end of the summer.

"This is great," I said happily, closing the journal. "I'll have to read through it later."

"Take your time. I didn't write it for you to read it all at once," Cedric said. "I'm sorry that it's not the best -"

"It's great. You put a lot of thought into this," I interrupted.

Cedric smiled somewhat bashfully. "Yeah. I did. You have some very thoughtful gifts yourself so I figured that I could try and do the same. And... There are so many times that you look like something is bothering you. So I wanted to give you something to smile about," Cedric said.

"There's always something to smile about. Right?" I asked, remembering the photo frame that he had given me for Christmas two years ago.

"Right," Cedric smiled.

"My turn, I suppose?"

"Good luck beating mine," Cedric teased.

"Shut up. I should take it back."

"Just kidding."

"Here you go."

Reaching over, I grabbed my messenger bag and handed it over to him. I hadn't taken the time to wrap it. I had always been bad about that. It was a large portrait frame that Cedric slipped out of the bag. He smiled as he looked down at it. The letters inside the frame spelled out Hogwarts. Each one of the letters had between ten and fifteen black and white moving magical pictures in them. They were all of the two of us all around the school. I had gotten Collin Creevey to give me some of the pictures that he had taken before he had left for the holiday.

The pictures were all sorts of different things that the two of us had been doing at some point or another during our time at Hogwarts together. Some were of the two of us playing Quidditch. Actually, that was most of them were. Some were of us in the halls, laughing, or just talking. We were having a good time and smiling in each of them. We were hugging in one of them and in another we looked like we might have been close to kissing. There were multiple pictures of the two of us shoving each other around.

The backdrop of the frame was something that I had done when I was bored. It was something that I had done one day when I just couldn't stand thinking about Buckbeak's impending trial anymore. So I had decided that - instead of leaving the backdrop the normal white - I was going to get a little crafty, which was something that I didn't normally do. So I had filled in the background with overlapped letters that Cedric had sent to me over the years. I had taped them all together and placed them in a quilted pattern in the backdrop. Just so that he knew that I didn't get rid of them.

"This is..." Cedric trailed off.

Suddenly I felt as embarrassed as he had when I had been reading his present. "If you don't like it, I can get you something else," I said quickly. "I just got a little bored over the holiday and I was feeling crafty -"

"No. It's lovely. It's perfect. I love it. Congratulations, you actually managed to outdo my present," Cedric teased.

We both laughed. "I'm really glad that you like it," I said.

"It's better than anything that you could have bought me."

"Good."

As we placed our presents off to the side, the two of us sat together and enjoyed the early afternoon. For a moment I thought about telling him about the Firebolt, but I figured that it would be something more fun to surprise him with later on. So we talked about anything and everything as we sat together. He told me stories about the beginning of his holiday and what he had been doing to keep himself busy and even mentioned that his mother had been home for a few days. It was the first time that I had really heard about her. I genuinely loved listening to his stories.

Once he was done telling me everything that he had been doing over the past few days I went ahead and told him about the beginning of my holiday. I mentioned a little bit about Buckbeak's trial and Cedric sighed, telling me that Buckbeak would be okay as long as he was calm when they came to see him. I mentioned that I had been happy through most of the break, even with Buckbeak. I really had thought that it was fun right up until Christmas morning. Although I told him that it was just because of the stressful argument about Crookshanks, not about the mystery 'present'.

After a while we got up from the table and started walking back and forth throughout Hogsmeade. Since it was Christmas break, neither one of us were questioned about being out of the castle. They thought that we were just visitors. We went in and out of the stores, not running into a single person that we knew, which was nice because it meant no more rumors. We didn't buy anything while we were there, but we did have a lot of fun trying things on and joking together.

Eventually we headed back out into the street and towards one of the street vendors that was positioned under an overhang. We stood in a short line filled with just a couple of families to buy ourselves two hot Butterbeer's. Cedric picked up the tab - making me scowl - as we continued walking back and forth. We eventually walked out towards the woods and started playing in the snow. Almost twenty minutes passed before my hands froze and we were forced to make our way back towards the Three Broomsticks. I knew that he had to head back home soon anyways.

As we lingered on the outside of the building, I smiled at Cedric. "I don't know how this happened, given the way that the day started, but I've actually managed to have quite a good one with you," I admitted.

"Good. Everyone deserves to have a good Christmas."

"Well you really helped."

"Anytime." Cedric laughed as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm looking forward to being back at Hogwarts," he muttered.

"Really? With O.W.L.'s coming up?" I teased.

"Once they're over, I'll be thrilled."

"Let me know if there's anything that I can do to help."

"Take them for me," Cedric said.

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head. "You really want me to fail your O.W.L.'s for you?" I asked.

"You're not that bad," Cedric said.

"Wow. That's quite the compliment," I teased softly.

He scowled at me as we both started laughing. It was the most that I could remember laughing with someone in a long time. Things were so serious. I just needed this one day to joke around. After a beat Cedric leaned in towards me. I leaned up on my tiptoes and pressed a small kiss against his mouth. I very briefly backed away before coming back and giving him another small peck. For a moment I lingered on my tiptoes with a slight hesitation. I was still a little bit awkward about starting these things.

But thankfully he wasn't nearly as awkward as I was about everything. He managed to save my horrible awkwardness when he placed a hand behind my neck - just the way that he had done up in the Astronomy Tower the other night - and brought me back to him. Our lips met again as he tilted my head back and deepened the kiss. I felt the snowflakes hitting my cheeks but I didn't dare back away. We merely stayed together for a long while as my heart pounded almost painfully against my chest.

What had once terrified me - the thought of kissing Cedric - was now something extremely comforting. It was the brightest part of my day. I laughed softly as Cedric gently stepped into me. I stumbled backwards, hitting the wooden wall of the building. One of his hands slid up my spine to rest at the base of my skull and knot in my hair as his other hand rested at my hip. I looped my arms back over his shoulders to keep the two of us together. I just wished that I was an inch or two taller. There was too much of a height difference between us.

My breath had escaped me long ago, but I couldn't bring myself to pull away. Suddenly someone cleared their throat from behind us. We shot apart as I stared in horror at Amos Diggory. "I hate to break up this moment, but Ced, it's time to go," Amos said.

"Of course," Cedric said, running a hand through his hair.

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Diggory," I said, my face a brilliant red.

"Merry Christmas, Tara," Amos said.

Amos and Cedric exchanged a little look before Amos nodded and stepped away to give us a moment. "Merry Christmas. I'll write you. And I'll be back to Hogwarts in a few days," Cedric told me.

"I look forward to it. See you. Have fun with your family," I said awkwardly.

"Thanks, Tara."

"Oh, that's so awkward!" I groaned, shoving my head into his chest.

"It's okay. He'll think it's funny."

"I don't think that I can ever look your father in the eyes again!"

"It was just a kiss."

All I could think about was how horrified I would be if Mom or Dad saw us doing what Amos just had. "Are you kidding? If my parents ever saw us do something like that... I would hate to see what they would do to either one of us," I said seriously.

"So I know never to kiss you in front of your parents," Cedric laughed.

"Well... my mother might laugh. I wouldn't let you let my father see you kiss me," I warned.

"Oh, I never intended to kiss you in front of him."

"I'll see you after the holiday."

"Merry Christmas."

"You, too."

The two of us smiled at each other after a moment. It would be a funny story in a matter of days. Right now it was the most embarrassing thing that could have happened to me. Cedric leaned in as we exchanged another small kiss. The only reason that I pulled apart as quickly as I did was because I could hear Amos snort softly in the background. I took a few small steps backward again, feeling very embarrassed all over again. I briefly darted over and hugged Amos - promising to say hello to Mom and Dad for him - before stepping back to watch them leave.

As much as I would have loved to stay with them for a while, I really didn't want to have to look Amos in the eye and keep seeing that horribly teasing look in his eyes. At least he wasn't angry though. Once they were gone, I turned and sprinted back through Honeydukes, ducking into the passage and heading back up to Hogwarts. I sprinted through the tunnel and all the way back to the Gryffindor Common Room to try and make the redness look like a flush from running and not from a blush. Once I arrived back, I saw that the others were still lingering around.

Just as expected, they were playing with the Firebolt's. Hermione was still reading up on magical creature's cases. Harry barely glanced up as I walked in. "How was the date?" Harry asked.

"It was really fun. Good to get out of the castle," I said, omitting the part about Amos.

"It sounds like you had fun," Harry said, noting the excitement in my voice.

Obviously they had not had as nice of a day as I had. They looked as angry as they had when I had left over two hours ago. "No more of this moping around. Come on!" I shouted, pulling them all to their feet.

"Where are we going?" Ron asked.

"To play soccer. I'm teaching you all," I said, grabbing the ball from the corner of the Common Room.

"Umm... No," Hermione said.

"I wasn't aware that I was asking. Let's go," I barked.

Out of the four of us, Hermione was definitely the least into sports. But I had seen her run. She was actually pretty fast. And I really didn't care if she wanted to play or not. We all needed to have some fun together. We all ended up laughing as I dragged the three of them out of the Common Room and out onto the grounds to kick around the soccer ball. It ended up being very hard to play in the snow, but we were having fun all being equally terrible - with the exception of Hermione, who was genuinely terrible. For the first time in a while, we were all laughing and having fun together.

It wasn't long before we stopped trying to play soccer. It was almost impossible for the four of us to be able to kick it back and forth. The snow was piling way over the ball and it meant that we couldn't kick it a distance. We continuously tackled each other into the snow and laughed as we wrestled each other around. It happened for hours before we headed upstairs and changed into something different for dinner, out of our snow-covered and now wet clothes. By the time that we had all showered and gotten back together, it was time for the feast.

At dinnertime we all went down to the Great Hall, to find that the House tables had been moved against the walls again, and that a single table, set for twelve, stood in the middle of the room. Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick were there, along with Filch, the caretaker, who had taken off his usual brown coat and was wearing a very old and rather moldy-looking tailcoat. There were only two other students, one extremely nervous-looking First Year and a sullen-faced Slytherin Fifth Year.

"Merry Christmas!" Dumbledore said as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I approached the table.

"Merry Christmas!" I chirped happily back.

"As there are so few of us, it seemed foolish to use the House tables... Sit down, sit down!" Dumbledore said. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I sat down side by side at the end of the table. "Crackers!"

Dumbledore sounded very enthusiastic about the whole thing, while offering the end of a large silver noisemaker to Snape, who took it reluctantly and tugged. I had always loved playing with them. With a bang like a gunshot, the cracker flew apart to reveal a large, pointed witches hat topped with a stuffed vulture. Almost instantly, I remembered the Boggart, caught Ron and Harry's eyes and we all grinned; Snape's mouth thinned and he pushed the hat toward Dumbledore, who swapped it for his wizard's hat at once. I looked away, not wanting to catch Snape's eyes.

"Dig in!" Dumbledore advised the table, beaming around.

Which was fine by me. With the exception of the Butterbeer and some candy from earlier, I hadn't eaten at all today. As I was helping myself to some roast potatoes, the doors of the Great Hall opened again. I briefly turned back and instantly wished that I hadn't. It was Professor Trelawney, gliding toward them as though on wheels. She had put on a green sequined dress in honor of the occasion, making her look more than ever like a glittering, oversized dragonfly. I hadn't seen her since the last Divination class and I wished that I wouldn't see her until the next.

"Sybil, this is a pleasant surprise!" Dumbledore said, standing up.

"I have been crystal gazing, Headmaster, and to my astonishment, I saw myself abandoning my solitary luncheon and coming to join you. Who am I to refuse the promptings of fate? I at once hastened from my tower, and I do beg you to forgive my lateness..." Professor Trelawney said in her mistiest, most faraway voice.

"Certainly, certainly. Let me draw you up a chair," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.

It never ceased to amaze me how nice Dumbledore could be to everyone - even someone like Professor Trelawney. While we all sat, eating awkwardly, Dumbledore did indeed draw a chair in midair with his wand, which revolved for a few seconds before falling with a thud between Professors Snape and McGonagall. I jumped slightly, trying to pretend that I hadn't. Professor Trelawney, however, did not sit down; her enormous eyes had been roving around the table, and she suddenly uttered a kind of soft scream.

"I dare not, Headmaster! If I join the table, we shall be thirteen! Nothing could be more unlucky! Never forget that when thirteen dine together, the first to rise will be the first to die!" Professor Trelawney shouted.

That's nice. "We'll risk it, Sibyl. Do sit down, the turkey's getting stone cold," Professor McGonagall said impatiently.

It was almost impossible not to laugh. I laughed softly and looked away. It was always rather funny listening to how much Professor McGonagall hated Professor Trelawney. Mostly because she thought that Divination was the most ridiculous kind of magic. Professor Trelawney hesitated for a long moment, then lowered herself into the empty chair, eyes shut and mouth clenched tight, as though expecting a thunderbolt to hit the table. We all watched curiously. Professor McGonagall poked a large spoon into the nearest tureen.

"Tripe, Sibyl?" she offered.

Professor Trelawney ignored her. Eyes open again, she looked around once more and said, "But where is dear Professor Lupin?"

"I'm afraid the poor fellow is ill again," Dumbledore said, indicating that everybody should start serving themselves. "Most unfortunate that it should happen on Christmas Day."

My mind ticked back through the lunar cycle. Did it make sense? Yes, I supposed that it did. Last night was a full moon so he would be recovering from his transformation. "But surely you already knew that, Sibyl?" Professor McGonagall asked, her eyebrows raised.

Professor Trelawney gave Professor McGonagall a very cold look. "Certainly I knew, Minerva. But one does not parade the fact that one is All-Knowing. I frequently act as though I am not possessed of the Inner Eye, so as not to make others nervous," Professor Trelawney said quietly.

"That explains a great deal," Professor McGonagall said tartly.

Professor Trelawney's voice suddenly became a good deal less misty. "If you must know, Minerva, I have seen that poor Professor Lupin will not be with us for very long. He seems aware, himself, that his time is short," Professor Trelawney said. My stomach turned as I looked at her irritably. I shared in Professor McGonagall's obvious sentiment that Professor Trelawney should have stayed upstairs. "He positively fled when I offered to crystal gaze for him -"

"Imagine that," Professor McGonagall said dryly.

"I doubt," Dumbledore said, in a cheerful but slightly raised voice, which put an end to Professor McGonagall and Professor Trelawney's conversation, "that Professor Lupin is in any immediate danger. Severus, you've made the potion for him again?"

"Yes, Headmaster," Snape said coldly.

"Good. Then he should be up and about in no time... Derek, have you had any of the chipolatas? They're excellent," Dumbledore said.

It was nice that everyone stopped talking just for a few moments. I would have rather had the silence than the awkward argument. The First Year boy went furiously red on being addressed directly by Dumbledore, and took the platter of sausages with trembling hands. Professor Trelawney behaved almost normally until the very end of Christmas dinner, two hours later. The calm air about dinner was almost nice. Full to bursting with Christmas dinner and still wearing our cracker hats, Harry, Ron, and I got up first from the table and she shrieked loudly.

"My dears! Which of you left his seat first? Which?" Professor Trelawney asked.

"Dunno," Ron said, looking uneasily at Harry and me.

We weren't going to get hurt or die. Not right now and not for a long time. "I doubt it will make much difference unless a mad axe-man is waiting outside the doors to slaughter the first into the Entrance Hall," Professor McGonagall said coldly.

Even Ron - who didn't always like Professor McGonagall - laughed. Professor Trelawney looked highly affronted. "Coming?" Harry asked Hermione.

"No. I want a quick word with Professor McGonagall," Hermione muttered.

"Probably trying to see if she can take any more classes," Ron yawned.

The three of us smiled at each other as we made our way into the Entrance Hall, which was completely devoid of mad axe-men. It was nice to have a reasonably quiet walk back to the Common Room, but what I really wanted was to sleep until the new semester started. When we finally reached the portrait hole we found Sir Cadogan enjoying a Christmas part with a couple of monks, several previous headmasters of Hogwarts and his fat pony. He pushed up his visor toasted them with a flagon of mead. I snorted under my breath. He was drunk.

"Merry - hic - Christmas! Password?" Sir Cadogan asked.

"Scurvy cur," Ron said.

"And the same to you, sir!" Sir Cadogan roared, as the painting swung forward to admit us.

"He's insane," I muttered.

"Yes, he is," Ron said.

"Wanna work on the Firebolt's?" Harry offered.

"Yes!" I chirped happily.

Now that I was feeling the slightest bit better about my day after playing soccer and seeing Cedric, I was ready to revel in my new broomstick. I couldn't even be bothered with caring who had gotten it for me. The only thing I cared about right now was the fact that I had the Firebolt and I was planning on being the best rider on it. Maybe one day I would have to fly with Dad on his, since he now had his own. Harry and I went straight up to our dormitories, collected our own Firebolt's and I grabbed the new Broomstick Servicing Kit that I had gotten over the summer.

When we came back downstairs, I noticed that Harry had his own Firebolt and Broomstick Servicing Kit. His was the one that Hermione had given him for his birthday. We both brought our things downstairs and tried to find something to do with the Firebolt's; however, there were no bent twigs to clip, and the handle was so shiny already it seemed pointless to polish it. There was nothing to do until we flew them for the first time. So Harry, Ron, and I simply sat admiring it from every angle, until the portrait hole opened, and Hermione came in, accompanied by Professor McGonagall.

My eyebrows shot to the top of my forehead. What was she doing in here? It was very strange to see her here. Though Professor McGonagall was Head of Gryffindor House, I had only seen her in the Common Room once before, and that had been to make a very grave announcement. She had been telling us that Ginny had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets to be slaughtered by a Basilisk. Sort of. Harry, Ron, and I stared at her, the three of us holding the Firebolts. Hermione walked around us, sat down, picked up the nearest book and hid her face behind it.

"Hello, Professor," I said awkwardly.

"So these are it, are they?" Professor McGonagall asked beadily, walking over to the fireside and staring at the Firebolts. "Miss Granger has just informed me that you two have been sent a broomstick, Potter, Nox."

Harry, Ron, and I looked around at Hermione. I could see her forehead reddening over the top of her book, which was upside-down. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Well... yes," I said slowly.

There was something strange about the whole thing. Did she want something with the Firebolt? "May I?" Professor McGonagall asked, but she didn't wait for an answer before pulling the Firebolts out of our hands. She examined them carefully from handle to twig-ends, never placing it down. "Hmm. And there was no note at all, Potter, Nox? No card? No message of any kind?"

"No," Harry said blankly.

"We just figured that it was someone who didn't want to be recognized for such an extravagant gift," I said.

"I see... Well, I'm afraid I will have to take this, Potter, Nox," Professor McGonagall said.

"W - What? Why?" Harry asked, scrambling to his feet.

My jaw dropped as I sprang out of the chair. "No! It... They were presents," I said rudely.

She was the teacher and it was a bad idea to argue with her, but they were presents and Professor McGonagall had no right to take them from us. "They will need to be checked for jinxes," Professor McGonagall said. "Of course, I'm no expert, but I daresay Madam Hooch and Professor Flitwick will strip it down -"

"Strip it down?" Ron repeated, as though Professor McGonagall was mad.

"It shouldn't take more than a few weeks. You will have it back if we are sure it is jinx-free," Professor McGonagall said.

"Weeks? They were gifts!" I shouted, horrified.

That was insane! No way. We needed them for the next match, which was against Ravenclaw, where I had no intention of losing to Cho Chang. "There's nothing wrong with it!" Harry yelled, his voice shaking slightly. "Honestly, Professor -"

"You can't know that, Potter, Nox, not until you've flown it, at any rate, and I'm afraid that is out of the question until we are certain that it has not been tampered with. I shall keep you informed," Professor McGonagall said quite kindly.

"But -" I started.

Obviously my words did nothing for her. She didn't even let me get out my thought. Not that I knew what my thought was going to be. Maybe something about how we needed to win the next Quidditch match if we wanted a chance at the Quidditch Cup. Poor Oliver's last chance... Professor McGonagall turned on her heel and carried the two Firebolts out of the portrait hole, which closed behind her. Harry and I stood staring after her, the tin of High-Finish Polish still clutched in his hands and my twig shears about to slip out of mine. Ron, however, rounded on Hermione.

"What did you go running to McGonagall for?" he barked.

Suddenly I whirled around angrily. If I lost to Cho Chang in a few weeks because I didn't have the Firebolt, I would lose it. "Hermione! We were using those awful school brooms. We can't win a match on those! They can barely fly!" I shouted.

"I know," Hermione said bashfully.

"So why did you do that?" I hissed.

That was clearly enough for Hermione. She was sick of us barking at her. She must have thought that there was some good reason for her turning in our brooms to Professor McGonagall. But I didn't care what the reason was for. Nothing was so dangerous that it should have meant me losing the best broom in the world just hours after I had gotten it. And before I had even gotten a chance to rub it in Malfoy's face. Hermione threw her book aside. She was still pink in the face, but stood up and faced Ron and I defiantly.

"Because I thought - and Professor McGonagall agrees with me - that those brooms were probably sent to Harry and Tara by Sirius Black!"


	48. The Patronus

In the coming weeks, I made it a point to avoid Hermione. I didn't linger around the dorm too much and I rarely went places that she liked - the library, for one. I knew that Hermione had meant well, but that didn't stop me from being angry with her. I had been the owner of the best broom in the world for a few short hours, and now, because of her interference, I didn't know whether I would ever see it again. I was positive that there was nothing wrong with the Firebolt now, but what sort of state would it be in once it had been subjected to all sorts of anti-jinx tests?

After everything had happened, I had written to Mom and Dad, asking about what the anti-jinx tests could be. It had taken a few back and forth letters, but we had finally managed to write back calmly and agree that we would simply need to talk about everything once the year was over. They seemed to share in Hermione's sentiment that something about the broom could be dangerous. They told me that the anti-jinx tests wouldn't destroy the broom but it would likely take a while, considering that the teachers were already busy. I wasn't sure if I would have it back by the Ravenclaw match.

Harry was just about as angry as I was about Hermione's interference. It was nothing compared to Ron. Ron was furious with Hermione. As far as he was concerned, the stripping-down of two brand-new Firebolts was nothing less than criminal damage. Hermione, who remained convinced that she had acted for the best, started avoiding the Common Room. We supposed she had taken refuge in the library and didn't try to persuade her to come back. All in all, we were glad when the rest of the school returned shortly after New Year, and Gryffindor Tower became crowded and noisy again.

Things were far too tense with Hermione and Ron and Harry seemed to still be steaming about the Firebolt. If I couldn't have it with me, I didn't want to think about it. I ended up only telling Mom and Dad about the broom - and promising to let them know if and when I got it back. Dad already had his own Firebolt and had been using it for months. He had promised me that if I managed to keep mine (even though I could tell that they weren't happy that someone had bought me a gift that expensive) we would take them out to the Stars Quidditch Pitch over summer and race.

Because I was still upset about the broom, I made it a point not to tell anyone about the mysterious appearance of the Firebolts on Christmas morning. Even though I had originally wanted to rub it in Malfoy's face and very teasingly show it off to Cedric. But now I didn't even have proof that I had owned it for a brief time. I didn't want people to start asking me to see it. I ultimately decided that I was best off just waiting it out. It was seeming quickly that I was just going to have to use the Cleansweep 11 that Cedric had so kindly let me borrow.

The night before the new term started, I was curled up in one of the oversized chairs by the fireplace, soaking in the warmth as the snow slowly fell outside. My head was drooping onto Fred's shoulder as I started doodling in the margins of one of the empty pages that Cedric had given me. I didn't want to read it with Fred hanging over my shoulder. I knew that he would never let it go. He was working on what looked like Transfiguration homework that I assumed that he hadn't done over the break. Not that I was surprised. The only reason that I had done mine was because I had been bored.

Tucked into the back of the journal was the last letter that Cedric had written me. I had just gotten it two days ago, so I had never responded. I knew that he would already be back in the castle and I knew that he wouldn't have gotten it in time. So I just decided to give it some time and not worry about a response. After all, the term would start tomorrow morning. I would see him in the Great Hall first thing in the morning for breakfast. For now I was just doodling absentmindedly, messing around with nothing better to do.

"You're an awful artist," Fred said, peeking over my shoulder.

Scowling down at my work, I snapped the journal closed. He wasn't wrong. My imitation of Hogsmeade was awful. "Oh, thank you. You're an awful friend," I snapped.

Fred grabbed the journal out of my hands and tossed it onto the couch. "You seem oddly bitter," he said.

"Oddly?" I questioned.

Was I normally bitter? "Well you're never the friendliest person around, but now you're even more bitter than usual," Fred pointed out.

Apparently I was normally bitter. Maybe I would have made a good Slytherin... Since they always seemed to be angry about something. I scowled and tucked my head into my knees, which were pulled up to my chest. "You're such a sweetheart. Calling me bitter and unfriendly," I mumbled.

"But I like you, so none of that matters," Fred said happily.

He pulled me into his chest and I smiled, leaning up against him. "Well my life will always be good as long as you're around," I said sweetly.

Fred grabbed my chin and pulled me to look at him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Someone sent me a Firebolt for Christmas," I admitted.

"What?" Fred shouted.

Almost every head in the Common Room whipped towards us. I gasped softly, realizing that he had attracted everyone towards us. And I really didn't want people to know that I had gotten a Firebolt. Not until I got it back. Even then, maybe it would be fun keeping it a secret until the match. It would make for a marvelous surprise. I noticed that some people were giving the two of us funny looks and I immediately jerked my chin away from Fred, backing into the chair slightly.

"Quiet!" I hissed, shoving Fred.

Fred's face was slightly red as everyone started going back towards what they had been doing before. "What are you doing with it upstairs? If you've got the Firebolt, bring it down here! Let's have a look at it!" Fred chirped excitedly.

"I don't have it with me," I said.

"Where is it?" Fred asked.

"Professor McGonagall has it," I said.

"Why?" Fred asked, his eyebrows tilting upwards.

"Because it was sent to me with no note. No one actually said who had given it to me. Wasn't anyone that normally would have given me a gift, I know that. Anyways, Hermione got panicked and reported it to Professor McGonagall." Fred's jaw dropped as he shot a nasty look at Hermione. Not that she noticed. "She took it. They're working with Professor Flitwick to strip the broom and make sure that nothing is wrong with it. No jinxes or anything. I don't get it back until they've determined that it's safe," I explained.

"Why would they think that it's jinxed?" Fred asked.

"Because they think that it was sent to me by Sirius Black, who is, evidently, coming to kill me," I answered bluntly.

Fred's eyes bulged. "What?"

You shouldn't say things like that to people who don't know what you're talking about. "It's a long story. He's coming for Harry, too, so at least there's someone else in danger. He was sent a Firebolt too. Only makes them think even more that it was Black who sent the brooms," I said, still unsure whether or not I genuinely believed that it was Black who had sent the brooms.

"That doesn't make any sense," Fred said slowly.

"Oh, I know it doesn't," I scoffed.

"Wanna talk about Black?" Fred asked.

For a moment I hesitated. Did I want to talk about Black? I wasn't really sure. Definitely not in front of all of these people. "Not really," I finally said. All I wanted was to think of something happy. "Want to show me how to use my Christmas present?"

The corners of Fred's lips turned upwards. "Absolutely! Go get it," he goaded.

It didn't take anything more than that. I really did want to see what their Christmas package was. And I certainly wasn't fool enough to ignore their warning and open it without them. I knew what happened when I opened gifts from Fred and George Weasley. So I sprinted up the staircase, straight into my dorm, dug out the package that was underneath my bed, and sprinted back down the stairs. By the time that I got back to the Common Room - balancing the package in my arms - I saw that George was now in the chair with Fred, right where I was before.

As I headed back over to the twins, I spotted Lee Jordan just over in the corner. I smiled at him and waved before seating myself with the twins. George hopped out of the chair and came to sit on the floor to spread out the package. Fred and I were still perched in the chair as we started going through everything in the shallow package. It was just like a traveling store. They really were on their way to becoming actual businessmen. Once they started selling their products, at least. They had a wide array.

One of the things that they had, they had given me last year. It was their own brand of fireworks. They were unstoppable fireworks that were charmed to explode when struck with a Stunning Spell, and to multiply by ten when hit with a Vanishing Charm. They also had a rainbow colored sweet. With an Engorgement Charm, it made the tongue of the consumer swell to what was apparently at least four feet long. There was even a little green pill that the boys warned me not to eat. Evidently it caused constipation in the unknowing taker. That one had made me laugh loudly.

We went through the package for almost an hour. "Wow..." I said breathlessly, pawing through the case again. "Please tell me that you're not planning on using these on me?"

The twins laughed. "You think that we're so cruel," George teased, leaning against my knees.

"In general? Yes," I said truthfully.

Fred grinned and threw an arm over my shoulder. "We won't hurt you, Tara -"

"We love you," George picked up.

Laughing under my breath, I shoved Fred off of me and kicked George away. "Sure you do. I love you boys, too." Something fluffy and pink was sticking out of the corner of the package and I picked it up curiously. "What's this?" I asked, unwilling to believe that the twins were making anything nice.

George grinned and took the little object from me. "Ah. That's one of my favorites. Feathery Flamingo Flame Fuzzer. Or something like that," he said when I snorted at the name. "It's an explosive rocket."

Suddenly my laughter stopped. "Do not set it off near me," I snapped.

"So mistrusting," Fred teased.

Rolling my eyes, I started placing everything back in the package. Especially since Percy was now prowling the Common Room again. "You boys are really serious about this?" I asked, clearly surprising them. "Making a store and selling your products."

The twins exchanged a look. "Yes, we are," Fred said.

"And we want you to help," George continued.

Scowling at them, I shook my head. "By being your test dummy?" I asked flatly.

"Well..." Fred trailed off.

"No! Get a First Year to do it," I barked.

"We intend to," George interrupted.

"We need someone who's good with money management and advertising," Fred explained.

My eyebrows quirked slightly. Were they really asking me to be their secretary? As far as I knew, that was what someone who was good with money management and advertising did. That was what I could remember from when we learned about Muggle jobs when I had briefly gone to a Muggle school. On one hand, I was a little offended that they were asking me to do a job that was typically designated as a 'woman's' job. But on the other hand, I was impressed that they realized that would need more than just each other to make the products that they wanted to sell.

"You want me to be your secretary?" I finally asked.

Fred and George exchanged another look. "Until we're out of school and get the chance to open our own store, we'll have to do everything from inside Hogwarts. For some strange reason, you're oddly popular," Fred explained.

"Thank you?" I half-asked and half-said.

Was it that surprising that some people liked me? I was very likable. "You'll be great," Fred said brightly.

"When are you actually going to start selling these things?" I asked.

This would be incredible if the twins could actually make this work. The entire school would be ready to start buying from them before they were even ready to graduate. "Once we can start mass-producing everything. We're going to work on it over the summer," George explained.

"Quite impressive, boys," I commended.

They really had put a lot of thought into this. I was genuinely impressed. "Thank you, darling," Fred teased.

We all laugh as another shadowy figure fell behind me. I glanced back and smiled when I saw that it was Oliver. He looked somewhere in between nervous and happy. I could assume that it was because the Ravenclaw match was coming up, Harry and I didn't have our brooms, and Ravenclaw was one of the better teams. There was also the fact that we couldn't lose to them. If we lost, we would be out of running for the Quidditch Cup. Poor Oliver would lose it if he couldn't even be in the running for the Cup in the last year that he would be eligible.

"Tara. Can we talk?" Oliver asked.

The twins greeted Oliver quickly, who was barely able to respond. He looked very awkward. "Shoo. We'll talk later," I told the twins. They both patted me on the shoulder and took away their Christmas present. "Hey, Oliver."

"Hi, Tara. Good break?" Oliver asked.

"It was alright. Yours?" I asked.

"Not bad at all," Oliver said absentmindedly. It was obvious that he was thinking about Quidditch. That was the only time that he acted so skittish. "Where's Harry?"

"Over there," I said, pointing to the fireplace.

"Come with me," Oliver said.

So I managed to pull myself out of the chair - which was very difficult, as I was quite comfortable. The moment that I managed to get to my feet, Oliver wrapped an arm around my wrist and started dragging me off. I tripped over my feet as he pulled us towards the fireplace, barreling right through a few First and Second Years. I tried to turn back and apologize to them, but Oliver yanked me down next to Harry. Harry turned to me with a questioning look but I merely shrugged my shoulders, unsure of what this was really about.

"Had a good Christmas?" Oliver asked Harry. Without waiting for an answer, he sat down in between us, lowered his voice, and said, "I've been doing some thinking over Christmas, Harry, Tara. After the last match, you know. If the Dementors come to the next one... I mean... we can't afford you two to - well -"

For a moment I hesitated. His words weren't quite registering with me. What could we not afford? Another loss? Of course. We all knew that if we wanted to win the Quidditch Cup, we would have to win the game against Ravenclaw. And it would really help if we could win it by a good margin. But that was when I realized that he had mentioned that Dementors. And that was when I realized that Oliver had broken off, looking awkward. He was hinting that he didn't want to have to risk removing us from the team because we were so badly affected by them.

"We understand. Don't worry. We're getting it taken care of," I said quickly.

The last thing that I wanted was to lose my spot on the team. "We're working on it. Professor Lupin said he'd train us to ward off the Dementors. We should be starting this week. He said he'd have time after Christmas," Harry explained.

"We're learning the Patronus," I clarified.

Oliver's eyebrows rose sharply. He looked shocked. Harry still looked lost. "Patronus?" Oliver questioned. I nodded. "Those are tough."

"Yes, they are. But it's okay. We can manage," I said determinedly.

"Ah. Well, in that case - I really didn't want to lose you as Seeker, Harry. And we can't afford to lose you as the alternate, Tara," Oliver said, his expression clearing a little bit. I found myself very tense, realizing how close we had come to losing our spots on the Quidditch team. "Have you two ordered a new broom yet?""

"No," Harry said.

"Not yet," I snapped.

We didn't need to get ourselves kicked off now because we didn't have our new brooms. "What! You'd better get a move on, you know - you can't ride that Shooting Star against Ravenclaw! That Cleansweep isn't bad, but the Ravenclaw's can at least compete against that," Oliver clamored, horrified.

"They got themselves two Firebolt's for Christmas," Ron said, finally tuning into the conversation.

My gaze snapped over to him as my jaw tightened. "A Firebolt? No! Seriously? A - A real Firebolt? Two of them?" Oliver asked.

"Don't get excited, Oliver. We haven't got them anymore. They were confiscated," Harry said gloomily.

"Both of them?" Oliver asked.

"Both," I confirmed.

Any bit of lightness that had been in Oliver's eyes was long gone the moment that we told him that we no longer had the Firebolts. I knew exactly how he felt. I wanted my broom back. I had barely even touched it. At least Harry had gotten to play with his for the afternoon. As Oliver tried to process the horrible information that we no longer had the Firebolts, Harry and I took turns explaining all about how the Firebolts were now being checked for jinxes. All because of stupid Sirius Black... But we didn't mention that to Oliver.

"Jinxed? How could it be jinxed?" Oliver asked breathlessly, once he had processed everything.

"Sirius Black. He's supposed to be after us. So McGonagall reckons he might have sent them," Harry said wearily.

There went the idea that we might not have told anyone else about the Sirius Black thing. "Sorry, Oliver. We're working on getting them back as soon as we can," I said as hopefully as I could.

But that clearly wasn't an issue for Oliver. Waving aside the information that a famous murderer was after his Seeker and alternate Chaser, Oliver said, "But Black couldn't have bought two Firebolts! He's on the run! The whole country's on the lookout for him! How could he just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy two broomsticks?"

The corners of my lips turned upwards. I loved where Oliver's concerns laid. "We know," Harry started, "but McGonagall still wants to strip it down -"

"She hasn't guaranteed when we can get it back by. But we're hoping before the game," I interrupted.

Mostly I had interrupted him because I saw the look that was coming to Oliver's face. It all came the moment that Harry had mentioned that Professor McGonagall wanted to strip it down. According to Mom and Dad, the broomstick would be fine and in proper working condition unless it really had been jinxed. It would just take a while. No matter how many times I started to explain that the broomsticks would be fine as long as they weren't jinxed, Oliver didn't seem to be hearing it. Instead, he went pale.

"I'll go and talk to her, Harry, Tara. I'll make her see reason... A Firebolt... Two real Firebolts, on our team... She wants Gryffindor to win as much as we do... I'll make her see sense. A Firebolt..." Oliver sighed, stalking off dreamily.

Likely so that he could dream about it. I rolled my eyes and dropped down onto the couch with Harry to finish up my homework. That was all that I really wanted. If I managed to finish my homework, it would mean that for the next week or so I wouldn't have anything to do other than focus on my Quidditch skills. In the event that I couldn't get the Firebolt back, I needed to be able to fly Cedric's old Cleansweep 11 like a pro. Just like I knew that Dad could have. So I pulled out my Astronomy homework and started writing out my pain-in-the-ass star charts.

Classes started again the next morning. I ended up falling asleep on the couch downstairs as Fred and I went back and forth with my Astronomy and his Potions homework. I woke up in his lap, hardly able to remember the night before. That was what the homework started to do to me. It made my head spin and everything kept running together, especially with Quidditch now becoming an even bigger part of the semester. It took a large bit of goading from Fay and Lavender to get Fred and I up from the couches and moving for the first day of the new semester.

The last thing anyone - particularly me - felt like doing was spending two hours on the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for our enjoyment, and we spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs. I sat straight at the bonfire, not moving, barely able to function from the cold. I was still a Florida girl at heart. Even my cloak and Cedric's Muggle coat weren't helping. I must have looked like a marshmallow.

"Cold?" Hermione asked sheepishly.

"Yes," I answered bluntly.

"Have you even started your work?" Hermione asked.

"N - No," I stuttered, my teeth chattering.

"Why not?" Hermione asked sharply.

My head whipped over towards her as my jaws set together. Both because I was cold and I was irritated. "Because it's freezing, Hermione, and I can't bring myself to move," I snapped.

Hermione stared at me blankly for a moment. "You're still mad about the Firebolt."

"Yes. And I won't be any happier about it until I get it back."

"I'm sorry, Tara, but -"

"It's fine," I interrupted.

Hermione bashfully shifted on her feet for a few moments. Then she pulled something out from behind her back and handed it out to me. "Here. Fred tracked me down to give this to you," Hermione said softly.

"Oh. Thanks," I said, taking it from her.

For a moment I didn't know what it was. But the moment that I took it in my hands, I laughed. It was Fred's winter cloak. Of course he knew that I would have been freezing. I had complained about having to come out for Care of Magical Creatures for two hours before leaving for breakfast this morning. I snorted at Fred's very good deductive reasoning and slipped the cloak over my shoulders. If I didn't look like a marshmallow before - with the cloak and coat that I had already been wearing - I definitely looked like one now.

The moment that I had settled into the coat I reveled in the warmth. I was still freezing from the icy weather outside, but it was a little bit better now that I had the cloak. I was pathetic. Even Ilvermorny castle in the mountains of Massachusetts was warmer than this. But at least now I could move around and get some work done. As I slipped my hands into the pockets of Fred's cloak to try and warm them up before doing any real work, I realized that something was in the pocket. Oh, I hope it's a secret diary page that I can throw back at him.

As it turned out, it wasn't a secret diary page or anything like that. It was something even better. Something that I would have much rather been doing than just sitting around and working on salamanders that I already knew about. It was a list of ideas for potential new products for their business. I laughed as I leaned back and started reading through them. Along with each idea, where were also questions from the twins about how much each of the items should cost and what I thought would be the most popular. It was a lot of good planning on their part. They really were serious about this.

It was one of the few things that I had ever seen the twins genuinely serious about. It was nice. I loved the thought that they already knew what they were going to do once they were done with school. Of course, they only had a few more years left at Hogwarts. Like Cedric, they were in their Fifth Year. They only had two more years to go after this. If they wanted to make the store work, this was a great place to build up a network of buyers. It would be wonderful for the students to go home and show their younger and older siblings the products. I would have to mention that to the twins.

There was no doubt in my mind that Mrs. Weasley would be furious with them for working on their eventual store rather than their O.W.L.'s, but they just weren't interested in school. They had found a talent somewhere else. She would eventually realize that. One of their main issues was that this was the time that they had to start saving money to buy themselves materials for their products and a store space. As everyone worked around me and I finished up my own work, I started doing some math to show them how much they would need to save to get themselves a place that would work.

The first Divination lesson of the new term was much less fun. The only benefit was that it was inside and we were away from the snow. I was able to toss Fred back his winter cloak as I passed him in the hallway and give him a playful smile - letting him know that I had gotten his note and would start working on it. Professor Trelawney was now teaching them palmistry, and she lost no time in informing Harry and I that we had some of the shortest life line she had ever seen. The two of us exchanged a look, sighed, and I went back to my work for the twins.

It was Defense Against the Dark Arts that I was keen to get to; Harry was, too. The two of us were very jittery during lunch as we were waiting to get to Professor Lupin's class. Partially because it was one of my favorite courses, and partially because after our conversation with Oliver, I wanted to get started on the anti Dementor lessons as soon as possible. There was no way that we could risk getting removed from the Gryffindor Quidditch Team this close to the next game. It would be horrible for all of us and I was sure that Cho Chang would never let me forget it.

"Ah yes," Professor Lupin said slowly, when Harry and I reminded him of his promise at the end of class. "Let me see... how about eight o'clock on Thursday evening? The History of Magic classroom should be large enough. I'll have to think carefully about how we're going to do this. We can't bring a real Dementor into the castle to practice on..."

"That'll be great. Thanks, Professor," I said brightly.

"Of course. I'll see you both there," Professor Lupin said.

Harry and I walked out of the classroom feeling much better about things. We were going to learn the Patronus and things would already start getting better. We would be able to keep the Dementors away during the next Quidditch match, I wouldn't get chased off of the team because I was in danger of falling fifty feet off of the broom again, and it would be quite impressive to tell Mom and Dad about my new skill. The only bad thing was that we still didn't have our Firebolts. I supposed that would come next.

"What's that?" Ron asked as Harry and I walked out.

His gaze was focused on the paper that was in my hands. Fred and George's letter that they had slipped me. I quickly shoved it into my pocket, unsure of who they wanted to know about their project. "Nothing," I said quickly.

"That's Fred's writing," Ron said accusingly. "Or George."

Rolling my eyes, I stood on Harry's other side, away from Ron. "It's a love letter. Shove off, Ron," I snapped.

Ron narrowed his gaze at me. Harry seemed to be in deep thought. "Are they planning on putting another spider in my pillow?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"You'll have to wait and see," I said teasingly in a sing-song voice.

Ron rolled his eyes at me again as I ran around him and grabbed his shoulders, jumping up and putting my weight down. Ron's knees buckled but he laughed as he slung an arm over my shoulder. "Shut up, Tara. Still looks ill, doesn't he? What d'you reckon is the matter with him?" Ron asked.

Obviously he was referring to Professor Lupin. I was a little surprised that they hadn't figured it out yet. Not necessarily Harry, who was still essentially a Muggle-Born, but definitely Ron, being a Pureblood. I rolled my eyes as we walked down towards the Great Hall for dinner. There was a loud and impatient 'tut' from behind us. We all turned back to see what was happening. It turned out that it was Hermione, who had been sitting at the feet of a suit of armor, repacking her bag, which was so full of books it wouldn't close. Even with the Time-Turner, she was still barely able to manage.

I wasn't sure how she did it. She had three less classes than me and hers were harder and I was still struggling to keep up. Of course, I also had Quidditch. "And what are you tutting at us for?" Ron asked irritably.

"Nothing," Hermione said in a lofty voice, heaving her bag back over her shoulder.

"Yes, you were," Ron said. "I said I wonder what's wrong with Lupin, and you -"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Hermione interrupted, with a look of maddening superiority.

Of course she knew. I couldn't have been surprised that she was the other person who had figured it out. "If you don't want to tell us, don't," Ron snapped.

"So you do know?" I asked.

Hermione's head whipped over towards me. "Of course. Do you?" she asked curiously.

"Duh," I said carelessly.

"You know?" Ron asked, surprised.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

Should I have told them that he was a werewolf? I couldn't tell... Professor Lupin had asked me not to mention it... "It's really not that hard to figure out. Think about it," I said, trying to goad them.

They both stared at each other. "I don't get it," Harry finally said.

Harry was one thing - being that he hadn't been raised around all of this - but Ron should have known. Of course, he was a boy and boys were clueless. "I doubt it's something that Professor Lupin actually wanted people to know. I don't think it's really my business to be telling anyone," I told the boys, who looked upset. Then I turned to Hermione. "Does he know that you know?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. Does he know that you know?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Really?" Hermione asked, shocked.

"Yes. And I told him that I wouldn't repeat it," I explained.

Now it was obvious that the boys were upset with us for not telling them. "Are either one of you going to tell us?" Harry asked irritably.

"No," Hermione and I said together.

"You really aren't going to say anything?" Ron asked, sounding disappointed.

"No," I said.

"Are you?" Ron asked Hermione.

"No," she said.

Ron scowled. He was clearly more upset about the two of us keeping the secret than Harry was. "Well, fine. If you don't want to tell us, don't worry about it," Ron snapped, mostly at Hermione.

"Fine," Hermione said haughtily, and she marched off.

"She doesn't know. She's just trying to get us to talk to her again," Ron said, staring resentfully after Hermione.

"I'll bet you that she does know," I said.

Ron turned towards me, a shocked look in his eyes. "You don't seriously know. Do you?" Ron asked slowly.

"Yes, Ronald. I do," I said sharply.

"Tell us!" Ron barked.

Maybe I should have told them, but I had promised that I wouldn't mention anything about it. Plus I didn't know how Harry and Ron felt about werewolves. "No! I already told Professor Lupin that I wouldn't mention what's going on with him. Figure it out yourselves. It's not that hard," I snapped.

Ron turned towards Harry. "Do you get it?" Ron asked him.

"No," Harry said confusedly.

"Did Diggory tell you?" Ron asked.

A shot of indignation seared through my chest. "No. Believe it or not, I can manage things on my own! I don't need someone else to solve my problems for me!" I shouted irritably.

It was loud enough that a number of people had turned away from whatever they were doing to see what was happening. Harry and Ron stared at me like I had lost my mind. Maybe I had lost my mind. But it didn't matter. Forgetting about how hungry I was, I stormed off, heading far away from Great Hall. As I walked off, I rolled my eyes. Mostly at myself, but a little bit at the boys, too. Just because I was upset with myself for reacting the way that I had. Maybe there was a chance that I was a little bit irrational about how angry I got. But it didn't matter.

As I stalked off, I heard Ron and Harry calling for me to come back, but I had no interest in explaining to them why I was so angry these days. It wasn't like I even had a good reason to be angry. It was just my thoughts getting to me all over again. I wished that there was a way that I could turn them off. But I couldn't, so I was planning on sulking somewhere by myself for a while. I blew past a few students who were heading towards dinner as I headed off to... wherever. I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go.

Definitely not the Common Room. There was a good chance that Hermione would be up there soon enough and I wanted to avoid her for a while. So I merely stormed through the hallways angrily, trying to figure out where I wanted to go. Not the Astronomy Tower. Not in broad daylight. People would be in and out of there. I just knew that it had to be somewhere away from the boys for a little while. I was just angry about a number of things and now I was angry with myself for my outburst with Ron and Harry, which had definitely been unfair of me.

Just about five minutes after I had stormed away from the boys, I found myself up in the library. I wasn't sure why I had come all the way up here. I hadn't been here for a long while. I usually did my work in the Common Room because Madam Pince hated me. I walked through the throng of students and picked a table near the back of the library for myself. I placed myself down in the chair and picked up a book that was laid out on the table, opening it and staring down blankly at the pages. A few minutes went by before someone dropped into the chair in front of me.

"Nox," Malfoy said, by way of greeting.

My eyebrows arched slightly. What was he even doing here? And why was he sitting with me? I wanted to snap angrily at him to get him to leave me alone, but all that I said was, "You were telling me the truth."

Clearly that surprised Malfoy. It surprised me, too. "What?" he asked blankly.

"About Sirius Black. You were telling me the whole truth. He's the reason that Harry's parents are dead. He's the reason that mine were almost killed. He's the reason that I grew up in the States instead of England," I explained.

Malfoy nodded and leaned back in the chair. "Your parents tell you?" he asked.

"No. Overheard some teachers talking about what happened to Madam Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks. How did you know?" I asked curiously.

"My father told me about him and what he did."

So we had been right the entire time about Malfoy's father telling him. I laughed under my breath, running my hand back through my hair. "How could someone do that? Betray their best friends... their family... My parents told me that James and Lily and themselves did everything that they could for Black after his own family disowned him," I said, remembering their letter on Christmas.

"He was the first Gryffindor in a never-ending line of Slytherin. That's a betrayal in the Black family," Malfoy explained.

My eyebrow quirked up slightly. I rolled my eyes and slipped back in the chair. "It all seems so silly. The House prejudices," I said, waving my hand flippantly.

"You take part in them," Malfoy said.

Obviously he was referring to himself and his friends. I shook my head. "No. I just don't like you and none of your friends seem to like me very much. There are Slytherin's that I do get along with," I said sharply.

"If you don't like me, why are you sitting here?" Malfoy asked teasingly.

"You came and sat with me. I was already here. I'm not getting up, jackass," I snapped.

Malfoy grinned sideways and leaned over to pick up the book that I had been pretending to read. "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes... Muggle book?" Malfoy asked.

"It was already sitting here when I got here. But, yeah, that's a Muggle book. You must not have ever read it, then," I said.

"No," Malfoy scoffed.

Of course he had never read the book. Just because it was a Muggle thing. "Only magical books, right?" I asked.

"I'm a Pureblood," Malfoy said snappily.

"So am I," I shot back.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment before Malfoy's eyes narrowed. "We all know that your family doesn't take it seriously," Malfoy finally said.

My eyebrows quirked. "Take what seriously?" I asked.

"Your blood status," Malfoy said.

My eyes rolled so far back into my head that I was sure I could see my brain. "No. There are much better ways of telling who is and isn't a good person. I hate the blood prejudice. It's disgusting," I said irritably.

"It's not that bad," Malfoy said.

But it really was. Things were only going to get worse if Voldemort came back. Something that Malfoy's family were likely rooting for. "Sure it is. Tell me something. Have you ever heard of the Holocaust?" I asked carefully.

Malfoy's eyebrows rose. "No."

My eyes rolled back into my head. "Of course you haven't. It was a genocide during World War II in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, aided by its collaborators, systematically murdered some six million European Jews, around two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, between 1941 and 1945. The Nazis were racists and believed that their Aryan race was superior to others. An Aryan was anyone who was European and not Jewish, Romany or Slavic. They also thought Germany was a more important country than its neighbors.

"Sound familiar? Maybe it's not on the same level, but that kind of thinking is exactly what started one of the most horrific actions of modern day. You should go to a Muggle library sometime. You might even be able to find something here in one of the history books. It's not exactly a secret. The entire world knew. Look up a little bit about that. Everything that happened during those years. See what that kind of thinking does to someone," I explained irritably.

Malfoy's face fell as I explained what had happened all those years ago. It was a horrible scenario, but I was glad to see that it had gotten to him. That had been the plan. "You honestly think that a class warfare could go that far?" Malfoy finally asked.

"Sure. What do you think it was that Voldemort wanted to do?" I responded.

Malfoy's brows quirked in surprise. "You say his name," Malfoy commented.

"He wanted people to fear it. He wanted people to be terrified to say his name," I explained.

Anything that Voldemort wanted was something that I refused to do. Malfoy's brows rose again. "How do you know that?" he asked slowly.

"He told me. Down in the Chamber of Secrets last year. Malfoy... Voldemort wanted to do something just like what Adolf Hitler once did. So, yes, I do think that it's a little foolish that people take the Pureblood/Muggle-Born/Half-Blood thing so far. Come on, Malfoy. Your father was one of his biggest supporters. Shouldn't you know this?" I asked.

Malfoy scowled sharply. "I know that," he snapped.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment as I rolled my eyes. "Have you ever had one original thought in your life, Malfoy?" I asked.

"I have plenty of original thoughts."

"Oh? Tell me one."

For a moment, Malfoy was silent. I grinned down at my lap, knowing that I had him caught. But he finally spoke. "Pansy looked much better with those antlers that you gave her last year," Malfoy said seriously.

It took me a moment to completely process what he had said. It was even longer that the two of us just stared at each other. Had he really just said what I thought that he had said? He couldn't have... But he did. Just as quickly as I had been stunned into silence, I burst out into laughter. That definitely wasn't what I had been expecting him to say. After a beat, Malfoy started laughing, too. Just a moment later Madam Pince whipped around the corner to hiss at us to be quiet. We both apologized, but continued laughing through the half-hearted apologies.

She was likely the only adult that wouldn't have been surprised that the two of us were speaking. Once I had calmed down and wiped my eyes, I smiled at Malfoy. "I hate to admit that you were actually funny there for a moment," I said.

To my surprise, Malfoy almost smiled at me. "Thank you," he said softly.

We sat in a comfortable silence for a while. At least, as comfortable as we could get, being alone together. "Can I ask something?" I finally said, breaking the silence.

"I get the feeling that you're going to ask me even if I say no."

"You would be right about that." We both grinned. It was a little strange. Was this the kind of quasi-friendship that we would have had if I had been placed in Slytherin? Or would I have been in Parkinson's place? "Why are you dating Parkinson if you don't really like her?"

Malfoy stared at me for a few seconds before shrugging. "She's just there. She's enthusiastic," he said.

Any hope that I had had for Malfoy had suddenly gone out the window. That was a terrible reason to be with someone. "That sounds romantic," I scoffed. Malfoy rolled his eyes. "You know, you could find someone that you actually like. I can see how annoyed you get with her."

"So who would you recommend?" Malfoy asked, leaning in.

Here was a golden opportunity to harass him without actually causing him bodily harm, as I so often did. "Oh, I don't know," I said, shrugging playfully. "Someone who likes strawberry Chapstick and has brown eyes with little hints of blue -"

"Oh, ha-ha, you're not funny," Malfoy interrupted, scowling. But there was something softer than normal behind his gaze. "I still hate you, Nox."

For the first time in a long time, there was no venom in his voice. "Good. I hate you, too, Malfoy."

The two of us sat together in a comfortable silence for a moment. Malfoy finally looked back up at me. "I still don't know how you did it that day," Malfoy finally said. I raised a curious brow. "How you managed to get into the Slytherin Common Room dressed as Pansy."

"I'll never tell," I said, leaning in teasingly. "She still wear that Chapstick?"

Malfoy snorted. "Yes."

"And do you still like it?"

"Yes."

"And are her eyes still dull?"

For whatever reason, the two of us hesitated. I wasn't sure what it was, but there was something about my words that had just made things rather tense between the two of us. They had meant to be just a little teasing, but it had been something more. We just stared at each other for a while. I found myself becoming oddly nervous being around Malfoy right now. It was a feeling that I had only ever felt with one other person. And it wasn't a feeling that I was fond of. I was extraordinarily uncomfortable with it right now.

"Tara," a voice suddenly called. I turned back to see Cedric standing behind me. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." I turned back to Malfoy, who was scowling at Cedric. He didn't like him, considering how often Cedric stuck up for me in our arguments. "Thanks for... not being an ass, Malfoy," I said, laughing softly.

"See you around," Malfoy muttered.

The two of us exchanged a quick smile, something almost, not quite, friendly. But it was a start. Maybe we wouldn't always hate each other. Malfoy watched me carefully as he walked off. I smiled weakly as he stalked past Cedric. He looked a little irritable at his appearance but I was grateful for him. Although I still watched Malfoy strangely as he walked off. Once he was gone, I turned back and smiled at Cedric. He placed himself in the seat next to me, rather than across the table. He looked very confused.

"That seemed oddly civil," Cedric said, watching Malfoy leave.

"It was oddly civil."

"I didn't know that the two of you talked."

"We don't, usually. Anytime that we usually talk, we're yelling at each other and usually I end up hitting him or throwing something on him," I admitted. Cedric snorted under his breath. I was sure that we both remembered the many times that I had dumped water on him. "I think that was one of the calmest conversations that we've ever had. It was strange."

"Hmm..."

"You okay?" I asked curiously.

"What?" Cedric asked, sounding stunned that I had spoken. He looked over at me and nodded. "Yeah. I'm good."

But there was something in his eyes that told me that he wasn't completely good. Something was definitely bothering him. But I couldn't tell what it was, as much as I wished that I could. So I merely stared at Cedric. He wasn't looking at me anymore, so I was free to stare openly at him, giving him a scrutinizing stare, wondering what he was looking at. He was staring out towards the doors of the library and scowling at them. I raised a brow, unsure of what he was looking so angry about.

"Was there something that you needed?" I asked suddenly.

"No. I just wanted to come bother you," Cedric teased, looking a little happier.

"You also chased off Malfoy," I added.

"I would think you would be pleased about that," Cedric said curiously.

My head snapped over to him. Cedric was giving me a scrutinizing look. "What? No. I - I am pleased," I said quickly, oddly bothered by the thought that Malfoy and I could manage to be friends. "Trust me, it would have only been so long before I started yelling at him after he made some cruel comment. You saved me the trouble, the House points, and probably a detention."

"Well we would hate for that to happen," Cedric teased.

"Yes. We would."

"Are you feeling better? You look a little happier."

"I am feeling a little better. I'll feel even better once we've beaten Ravenclaw. We'll be back in the running for the Quidditch Cup," I said happily.

"I'm sure Oliver will be thrilled."

"I think he'll actually drown himself if we don't win it this year."

Cedric laughed under his breath. "Think you've actually got a shot?" Cedric asked.

"More than you do, jerk," I said, shoving into him.

That time we both laughed. I rolled my eyes as Cedric stood and turned back to look at me. "I want to show you something. Come here," Cedric said.

"Okay."

He turned back and offered me his hand up. Not that I needed it, but I appreciated it anyways. We both stood up and I followed Cedric blindly. I wasn't sure what he wanted to show me or where he was going, but I trusted him. We slowly made our way towards the back of the library and I raised a brow. We passed through a few shelves into one of the sections that I had never entered before. Because it was Muggle Studies. Of course it was the smallest and least used section of the library. I stood against a shelf with my arms crossed over my chest, confused as to why we were here.

"What are we out here for?" I asked.

"I wanted to talk and Madam Pince looked like she was getting angry," Cedric said.

"Talk? In the back corner of the library?" I asked teasingly.

Cedric laughed, easily picking up what I was hinting at. "You think so little of me."

"Just a little bit."

The two of us stared at each other for a moment before bursting out in laughter. He was right to bring us into the back corner of the library so that Madam Pince wouldn't get even more annoyed with us. "I overheard Oliver saying that you and Harry needed your Firebolts back to Professor McGonagall," Cedric said after a beat.

"You heard correctly."

"Firebolt... Like the broomstick?"

"Just like that."

"What?"

Cedric's normally slightly tanned face went completely pale. That was when I dumbly remembered that I hadn't told Cedric about the Firebolt. He didn't know because I had wanted him to see it as a surprise during our match against Ravenclaw. So I leaned back against the books, folded my arms over my chest, and launched into the explanation of Harry and I receiving the Firebolts. I even pointed out that I hadn't told him because I had wanted it to be a surprise. I then explained why Professor McGonagall had taken them with the curiosity of Sirius Black.

Cedric was silent for a while as he took in my story. "Well... I hate to say it, but Hermione was probably right. Those are really expensive. For someone to send you those and not even leave a note," Cedric reasoned.

"In the back of my mind, I know that she was right to do what she did. But it doesn't change the fact that it's upsetting," I said grumpily.

"You might have it back by the game."

"I'm hoping. I love that you let me borrow the Cleansweep but -"

"It's old. I know."

"We have to beat Ravenclaw if we want a chance at the Quidditch Cup. I can't even imagine not winning it this year."

"To be honest, you've deserved it every year since you and Harry have been on the team," Cedric said.

A small smile appeared on my face. "Thanks. I agree. But fate hasn't seemed to agree with us so far," I commented.

It would have been nice to get Oliver that Quidditch Cup that he so deserved over the past two years. But we all knew that it hadn't worked out that way for a reason. Maybe one day it would. Maybe by the end of the year we would finally have it. We smiled at each other as Cedric walked forward, standing almost pressed against me. I smiled and looped my arms back over his shoulders to exchange a small kiss with him. As we broke the small kiss, Cedric backed away and I gave him a teasing smile. Just a moment later, Cedric leaned in for another kiss.

That time we were both a little more receptive. I laughed as Cedric stepped into me and gently pushed me back into the row of books. My feet stumbled back over each other, but I was still laughing as I leaned back against the shelf. Not only did I like kissing and being around Cedric, I liked the slight nerves that I felt when we were together like this. Mostly because I knew that we couldn't get caught. Things would get very strange around Hogwarts if we did get caught. Suddenly I heard someone walking towards us, and we both sprang apart. I quickly turned and ripped a book off of the shelf.

"I think this is the book that you were looking for," I said.

Handing Cedric the book, he took it and smiled. Just a moment later, a Sixth Year Hufflepuff student walked past. Good thing we separated. It was someone who would know Cedric. "Hey, Ced," the boy said.

"Hey, Ted," Cedric greeted.

"Tara Nox, right?" Ted asked, turning to me.

"That's me," I said sweetly.

Ted smiled and offered me his hand. I reached over and grabbed it, giving him a good shake. "Good to meet you. Ted Higgins. Hell of a Quidditch player you are," Ted offered.

"Thank you," I said.

"Can you hand me that book behind you?" Ted asked.

He was pointing to a Muggle Studies book on the shelf above my head. I reached up, grabbed it, and handed it over. "Here you are," I said.

"Thank you. See you later, Ced. Good to meet you, Tara," Ted said.

"You, too," I offered.

"Good luck in that game against Ravenclaw in a few weeks," Ted said.

"Thank you," I said.

It was obvious enough that Cedric and I both had cheeks that were slowly reddening. We had almost been caught and it had been by one of Cedric's friends. Awkward. As Ted walked off - Cedric and I waving politely - Cedric turned back and smiled at me. Once he was gone the two of us started laughing at each other as we linked our hands and started walking back further into the shelves. Once we were almost to the back of the library Cedric grabbed me around the waist and I laughed again as he pressed another kiss against my mouth.

We lingered for a long time before we finally broke apart and I shifted slightly. "You're feeling daring today," I teased.

"Something a little bit fun about the danger," Cedric said.

We smiled at each other as I nudged Cedric in the chest. "Want to help me with my Astronomy homework?" I asked.

"I knew there was a reason that you kissed me."

"You're right. That's the only reason that I would ever kiss you."

"Cute."

"Come on. I'll do your Arithmancy homework for you," I offered.

"Ah... An almost fair trade. Come on," Cedric said.

We both laughed as I stumbled over my feet. Cedric looped an arm over my shoulder and pressed a quick kiss against my mouth. We stayed together for just a second as Cedric walked us back out of the shelves of books. As much as I would have loved to linger there, I really did have homework to do. We walked over to the chairs at a small table and settled into them. We started working but eventually had to spread out on the floor to do our work. Since we were in the back of the library, we could laugh and make a little noise without being bothered.

As much as I liked Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, they did take a lot of room to work on everything. It was a good thing that we were so far back in the library. We weren't disturbing anyone with everything that we had laid out. I eventually moved to working on one of my absolute least favorite things to do in the world. My star charts. At least I had Cedric to help. Meanwhile he was working on some numerology charts. We both ended up having to help each other more than once with our work.

The two of us ended up spending most of the later parts of our days in the library together. It was one of the rare times that we could actually hang out together for more than just a few minutes at a time. It was mid-evening when we both finally got ready to leave for dinner. Cedric walked me back towards the Gryffindor Tower and we shared a hug before parting ways. I would have loved to give him something a little more, but since there were so many people standing around, there was no kiss to be exchanged.

As I sat in the Common Room after dinner - which had gone relatively awkwardly, seeing as Hermione still wasn't talking to us - we headed back towards the chairs by the fireplace. Hermione looked too caught up with her homework to be bothered ignoring us. I spread out my Potions homework - the only homework that I hadn't done so far - and got to work. Ron and Harry were working on their Divination homework. I had mostly made up the answers to mine, as I so often did. A moment later the twins dropped into the chair, on either side of me.

"Oh, Merlin!" I grunted, as the twins started moving off of me. "Lay off the pumpkin pasties, will you?"

"Now that's rude," George said.

"And sitting on me isn't?" I asked.

"Did you get our proposal?" Fred asked, otherwise ignoring my comment.

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. "I did, boys. I'll be working on it. I gotta be honest, I'm really impressed. You two have done a lot of work to get this thing up and running," I praised.

"Thank you, Tara," George said.

"I'll take some time in the coming weeks and look at it. When are you going to start selling everything?" I asked curiously.

"Next year. We're going to spend the summer mass-producing everything and start testing them next year," Fred explained.

"We'll meet up over the summer and discuss," I agreed.

"You're a dear," George teased, ruffling my hair.

"Oh, I know. Do I get any of the proceeds?" I asked.

"You get our love and never-ending gratitude," Fred said, pressing a kiss against my temple.

"Wow, that's impressive," I said, shoving him away.

We all laughed as the twins slipped out of the chair, allowing me some room to breathe. But the moment that I shifted, Fred moved back into the chair with me. I rolled my eyes but allowed him and George to sit around me and work on their projects. I could tell that Ron and Harry wanted to know what we were doing but I had already promised the twins that I wouldn't tell anyone what they were doing until the two of them were ready. I knew that they didn't want it to get back to Percy and, in turn, their mother.

"You ready?" Harry finally asked, distracting me from my previous work.

"Of course," I said, standing up from my place with the twins and promising that I would work on it again later. "Nervous?"

"A little bit. You?" Harry asked.

"Mostly nervous that you'll be able to do it and I won't," I admitted.

When it came to magic, I was better than Harry at most of it, but we were about tied - with Harry being better sometimes - at Defense Against the Dark Arts. "You're a better witch than I am wizard," Harry said.

"Not at everything. Not always at Defense."

"Do you think that we can learn it?"

"I think that if there's anyone stubborn enough to learn the Patronus Charm at only thirteen and fourteen years old, it's us," I said honestly.

The charm was immensely difficult, but if anyone could do it this young, it was us. We laughed as we headed through the Common Room and out into the hallway. It was just before eight o'clock when we headed for the History of Magic classroom. We slipped through the castle reasonably quietly. The classroom was dark and empty when we arrived, but we lit the lamps with our wands and had waited only five minutes - chatting away softly - when Professor Lupin turned up, carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binns' desk.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"Another Boggart," Professor Lupin said, stripping off his cloak.

"Are there really that many of them in Hogwarts?" I asked curiously.

"We get them from time to time. I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like."

"Okay," Harry said, clearly trying to sound as though he wasn't apprehensive at all and merely glad that Professor Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real Dementor.

He had failed. "What about with me? The Boggart turns into..." I trailed off, unwilling to say it out loud.

Professor Lupin smiled. "Not to worry. I've already thought about that. I hate to ask, but... Do you remember how horrible you felt the day that the Dementors were out on the Quidditch Pitch?" he asked.

"Yes," I said gloomily.

"Remember that moment. Remember how fearful you were."

"Got it," I said, trying my hardest not to sound too upset about it.

"I'm very sorry to ask you to do that," Professor Lupin said, obviously guilty.

"It's alright," I said honestly.

"So..." Professor Lupin took out his own wand, and indicated that Harry and I should do the same. "The spell I am going to try and teach you two is highly advanced magic, Harry, Tara - well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm. As you seem to already know, Tara."

"I actually read the textbooks," I said, giving Harry a teasing smile.

Harry whipped around to me and scowled. "Shut up." Professor Lupin smiled as the two of us laughed. "How does it work?" Harry asked nervously.

"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus, which is a kind of anti Dementor - a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the Dementor. The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon - hope, happiness, the desire to survive - but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, Tara, that the charm might be too advanced for you two. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it," Professor Lupin explained.

"What does a Patronus look like?" Harry asked.

"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it."

"And how do you conjure it?"

"With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory."

For a moment Professor Lupin hesitated. I assumed that he was giving us a moment to figure out what our happy memories were. What's the right kind of happy memory?" I asked.

"The happiest memory that you can think of," Professor Lupin said.

"Right," Harry said, as I was trying to recall exactly what my happiest memory was.

"Okay," I muttered.

"The incantation is this." Professor Lupin cleared his throat. "Expecto patronum!"

"Expecto patronum, expecto patronum," Harry repeated under his breath.

"Expecto patronum," I muttered.

The words slipped out of my mouth over and over again as I tried to figure out what my happiest memory was. I assumed that Harry's would be something like being on his broomstick for the first time. It was a good start. Because, honestly, what was my happiest memory? I couldn't think of one, no matter how hard I thought back. Maybe Harry was on the right track. What about the moment that Professor McGonagall told me that I was going to be the alternate Chaser on the Quidditch team? Yes. That seemed like a good enough choice.

"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Yes," I said dumbly.

"Oh - yeah," Harry said. We nodded at each other and raised our wands. "Expecto patrono - no, patronum - sorry - expecto patronum, expecto patronum..."

"Expecto patronum. Expecto patronum, expecto patronum, expecto patronum. Expecto patronum!"

My words were just about as irritable as Harry's were. I could tell that we were both frustrated that even the first one hadn't worked. But this wasn't some simple First Year spell. This was something that some full-grown wizards couldn't do. But my last outburst of the spell was somewhat in anger. That was when it happened. The same time for both Harry and me. Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of our wands; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas. Mine fluttered up in the air before wafting away.

"Did you see that? Something happened!" Harry barked excitedly.

"Oh! I did it! We did it!" I corrected myself quickly.

"Very good," Professor Lupin said, smiling. "Right, then - ready to try it on a Dementor?"

"Yes," Harry said, gripping his wand very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom.

"I suppose," I said, following Harry to the center of the room.

Professor Lupin stepped forward and looked at us. "You're going to speak at the same time. It will be a little bit easier having the two of you trying to defeat the Dementor at the same time. Stay close together," Professor Lupin advised.

"Okay," I said.

"Right," Harry agreed.

"Good luck," I told Harry.

"You, too," he said.

Despite how hard I tried, I kept losing my focus. I couldn't keep my mind on that damned memory of Professor McGonagall telling me that I had accidentally made it on the Quidditch team. The spell likely wouldn't work, but I had to try. Then something else kept intruding... Any second now, I was going to feel it. I was going to feel that horrible burn. That desire for... well... whatever it was for. Something far more than just wanting to work for someone. It was like wanting to be a family with that person. Voldemort... being his child... maybe? I wasn't ready to feel that.

It was horrible. But I had to grow up and get over it if I wanted to stay on the Quidditch team. Professor Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled. A Dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turned toward Harry and I, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. The lamps around the classroom flickered and went out. The Dementor stepped from the box and started to sweep silently toward Harry and me, drawing a deep, rattling breath. A wave of piercing cold broke over me. I moved instinctively closer to Harry.

"Expecto patronum!" Harry and I yelled together. "Expecto patronum! Expecto -"

We both tried to continue shouting over the rattling breath of the Dementors. But soon enough we both started to drift off. I could hear Harry's voice failing him, just the way that my voice was failing me. Because it was happening. I was growing weak and shaky, just as I did every other time that the Dementors came near. By now the classroom and the Dementor were dissolving... I was falling again through thick white fog, and those voices were louder than ever, echoing inside my head. The mousy man and Voldemort.

"I need her... She is vital..."

"Master... She is just a child..."

"She will end it."

Again and again they argued back and forth over that girl. Over... me? The piercing cold settled into my chest as I fought so desperately to get to him. I needed to be with him... He needed me... Suddenly I jerked back to life. On the other side of me, I noticed that Harry was jerking awake, too. Clearly we had both been affected, just the way that we always were. We were both lying flat on our backs on the floor. The classroom lamps were alight again. Neither one of us had to ask what had happened. My head was throbbing from what had likely been an impact with the stone floor.

"Oh... that hurt," I grumbled.

"Sorry," Harry muttered, sitting up with a cold sweat trickling down behind his glasses.

"You okay?" I asked, slowly sitting up.

"I'm fine. Are you?"

"Sure."

"Are you two all right?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Yes..." Harry pulled himself up on one of the desks and leaned against it.

"Other than my head hurting, I'm good," I said.

Harry leaned over and gave me a hand. I took it and leaned up against the desk with him. "Perhaps next time we'll have to put pillows down underneath you," Professor Lupin joked.

"That actually sounds like a good idea," I said seriously.

We all smiled only somewhat awkwardly. My head was still throbbing from the impact. "Here." Professor Lupin handed us both a Chocolate Frog each. "Eat this before we try again. I didn't expect you two to do it your first time; in fact, I would have been astounded if you had. But you did very well. Both of you."

"It's getting worse," Harry muttered, biting off the Frog's head. "I could hear her louder that time - and him - Voldemort -"

"Mine, too." I could tell that Harry was getting nervous, so I knew that it was the right time to interrupt and bring the attention to myself. "It was like I could feel something. It was almost like something was drowning me. I heard his voice. He - He - I don't know. He needed something. Someone," I said weakly, trying to avoid saying that it was me.

Professor Lupin looked paler than usual. "Harry, Tara, if you don't want to continue, I will more than understand -"

"We're fine!" I interrupted quickly.

Clearly Harry was as interested in figuring this out as I was. "I do!" Harry said fiercely, stuffing the rest of the Chocolate Frog into his mouth. I followed a moment later, trying to stuff it in my mouth as quickly as possible. "I've got to! What if the Dementors turn up at our match against Ravenclaw? I can't afford to fall off again. If we lose this game we've lost the Quidditch Cup!"

"Oliver will kick us off of the team if we can't manage ourselves! I am not getting removed from the team a year before I can be a standard player," I said determinedly.

"All right then." Professor Lupin didn't seem thrilled that we wanted to continue, but he allowed for us to try again anyways. "You two might want to select another memory, a happy memory, I mean, to concentrate on. Those ones don't seem to have been strong enough," Professor Lupin suggested.

What the hell was a really happy memory that I had? I couldn't remember. I was a naturally relatively happy person. There were lots of happy memories that I had, it was hard to pick out just one. As I shuffled through my happiest memories, one began to stand out. The date that Cedric and I took out to Hogsmeade earlier in the year. I remembered that vague kiss that we had shared out in the snow. My first kiss - since the one with Malfoy absolutely didn't count. That was a happy memory. I remembered being happier than I had in weeks.

Gripping my wand, I moved back into the center of the room with Harry. "Ready?" Professor Lupin asked, gripping the box lid.

"Ready," Harry said.

"Absolutely," I said, trying hard to fill my head with happy thoughts about that kiss with Cedric, and not dark thoughts about what was going to happen when the box opened.

"Go!" Professor Lupin said, pulling off the lid.

Immediately both Harry and I stilled, trying to figure out where we were supposed to go from here. I knew that I had to say the spell, but I was nervous. Because I didn't want to have to see the Dementor and feel that horrible cold and desperation. But it was too late to stop. The trunk lid was thrown open. The room went icily cold and dark once more. The Dementor glided forward, drawing its breath; one rotting hand was extending toward Harry and me. We both instinctively took a step back.

"Expecto patronum!" Harry and I yelled. "Expecto patronum! Expecto pat -"

We were both trying so hard to keep up with each other. But the feeling was horrible. I couldn't stop it. The overwhelming sensation that was settling into my bones. That horrible desperation. The desire to be back with Voldemort. And that icy cold that made it almost impossible to speak or move. White fog was now obscuring my senses... big, blurred shapes were moving around me... then came a new sound of the same voice, speaking lowly, almost like it was pressed up against my ear.

"Come to me..."

It was him. Voldemort. He was back. And I had to be with him. He needed me... He wasn't going to be able to survive without me... I was the one person who could save him... My feet tripped over each other as I tried to find him. But where was he? Why couldn't I see him? I could hear him... There were the sounds of someone stumbling from a room - a door bursting open - a cackle of high-pitched laughter. There was a flash of green light. And then... I couldn't find him... Where had he gone? Where?

"One day soon, we will meet again..."

Suddenly Professor Lupin was tapping me hard on the face. On the other side of me, Professor Lupin was using his spare hand to do the same thing to Harry. I stared at them blankly, completely uncomprehendingly. This time it didn't take me nearly as long to figure out what was happening. This time it was only about a minute before I understood why I was lying on a dusty classroom floor.

"I heard my dad. That's the first time I've ever heard him - he tried to take on Voldemort himself, to give my mum time to run for it..." Harry mumbled.

Turning over towards him, I grimaced. Reaching over, I patted Harry on the hand, enclosing our fingers together. Professor Lupin leaned back to allow me room to do that. I didn't dare tell them what I kept hearing and seeing. Giving Harry a small nod, I motioned for him to clear his face. Harry obviously suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that Professor Lupin wouldn't see. I looked away for his privacy.

"You heard James?" Professor Lupin asked in a strange voice.

"Yeah..." Face dry, Harry looked up at me. "What did you hear?" he asked.

Should I have told him? I figured that I might as well go for it. "Voldemort. I'm not sure who he was talking to." Me. "He was telling them to come to him. Then something happened. I don't know. A bunch of banging and crashing and then he promised that one day soon they would meet again," I muttered carelessly.

"Who do you think he was -?"

"I don't know," I interrupted Harry, unwilling to talk about how I knew that he was talking to me. "It doesn't matter."

"Why - you didn't know my dad, did you?" Harry asked Professor Lupin, sensing my urgency to end the conversation.

"I - I did, as a matter of fact. We were friends at Hogwarts," Professor Lupin explained. I stayed silent, knowing that it was the wrong time to tell him about the true bond that he had shared with our parents. "Listen, Harry, Tara - perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced... I shouldn't have suggested putting you two through this..."

"No!" Harry yelled, getting up again.

A moment later I pushed myself to my feet. "We can do it! We're fine. One more try. Third time's the charm, right?" I asked teasingly.

"Yes. We'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is... Hang on..." Harry muttered.

He was right. Our memories weren't happy enough. We had to think of something else. What was it? I racked my brain. A really, really happy memory... one that I could turn into a good, strong Patronus... The moment when I had first told Harry that he was a wizard, and that he would be leaving the Dursley's for Hogwarts! If that wasn't a happy memory, having my best friend with me, I didn't know what was. Concentrating very hard on how I had felt when I had told Harry that he would be leaving Privet Drive, I got to my feet and faced the packing case once more.

"Ready?" Professor Lupin asked, who looked as though he were doing this against his better judgment.

"We're ready," I said determinedly.

"Concentrating hard?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Yes," I said.

"All right - go!"

He pulled off the lid of the case for the third time, and the Dementor rose out of it; the room fell cold and dark. "Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!" Harry and I bellowed again and again.

That terribly cold voice hissing inside my head had started again - except this time, it sounded as though it were coming from a badly tuned radio - softer and louder and softer again - and I could still see the Dementor - it had halted - and then a huge, silver shadow came bursting out of the end of Harry and I's wands at the same time, to hover between the two of us and the Dementor. No longer did I feel that burning desire. Though my legs felt like water, I was still on my feet - though for how much longer, I wasn't sure.

"Riddikulus!" Professor Lupin roared, springing forward.

There was a horribly loud crack, and Harry and I's cloudy Patronus's vanished along with the Dementor. Both Harry and I took a few steps back, grasping onto each other to keep from collapsing to the ground. As we stumbled back, we both sank into two chairs near us. I felt as exhausted as if I had just run a mile, and felt my legs shaking. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Professor Lupin forcing the Boggart back into the packing case with his wand; it had turned into the moon again.

"Excellent! Excellent, Harry! Wonderful, Tara! That was definitely a start!" Professor Lupin praised excitedly, striding over to where Harry and I sat.

"They're not corporeal," I muttered.

Professor Lupin looked over and smiled as Harry stared dumbly. "I wouldn't expect to see that for a long time. A Corporeal Patronus is extremely advanced. Even more than the one that the two of you just performed," Professor Lupin explained.

"Can we have another go? Just one more go?" Harry asked.

"Not now," Professor Lupin said firmly. "You two have had enough for one night. Here."

He handed Harry and I two large bars of Honeydukes' best chocolate. "Thank you," I said happily.

We now could defend ourselves from Dementors and I got some free chocolate. It was a win-win for me. "Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Okay," Harry said.

"Absolutely," I said brightly.

As Professor Lupin moved off, Harry and I started eating our chocolate. We were glancing at each other and laughing. That was probably the most excited that I had been in a long time. We had actually managed a Patronus. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't overly impressive, but we had managed. As I started eating my chocolate, leaning back in the chair, I noticed that Harry was deep in thought. Harry took a bite of the chocolate as we watched Professor Lupin extinguishing the lamps that had rekindled with the disappearance of the Dementor.

"Professor Lupin? If you knew my dad, you must've known Sirius Black as well," Harry said suddenly.

I stomped down on Harry's foot. Sure, they knew each other, but Harry really shouldn't have brought up Black and Professor Lupin, who turned very quickly. "What gives you that idea?" he asked sharply.

"Nothing - I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts too..." Harry said dumbly.

Professor Lupin's face relaxed. "Yes, I knew him. Or I thought I did," Professor Lupin said shortly, letting us know that he wasn't going to let us say anything more on the subject. "You'd better be off, Harry, Tara, it's getting late."

"Thank you for the lesson," I said, getting to my feet.

"My pleasure," Professor Lupin said.

The two of us smiled at Professor Lupin before leaving the classroom together. We were smiling at each other, but I knew that we both had our own thoughts that we were lost in. But we were still walking along the corridor and around a corner, then took a detour behind a suit of armor. I was now just blindly following Harry. He stopped and sank down on its plinth to finish his chocolate. I sat with him, grasping his hand. I knew that he wished that he hadn't mentioned Black, as Professor Lupin wasn't keen on the subject. My thoughts quickly wandered to Voldemort and the Dementor.

Despite being thrilled about the Patronus, I felt drained and strangely empty, even though I was so full of chocolate. I had finished mine long before Harry had, as I normally did, considering that it was chocolate involved. Terrible though it was to hear how much Voldemort wanted me - and feel how much I wanted to be with him - I knew that it was important. Because the day would come that Voldemort returned and I wasn't really fond of surprises where he was concerned. I already knew that I meant something to him. But what? What did I mean to him? And why? It didn't make sense.

"They're dead," Harry told himself sternly. I glanced up curiously. What was he talking about? "They're dead and listening to echoes of them won't bring them back. You'd better get a grip on yourself if you want that Quidditch Cup."

"Harry?" I asked softly.

Harry whipped towards me, obviously having forgotten that I was with him. "Sorry. Just talking to myself," Harry muttered.

Leaning towards him, I grabbed his hand and smiled weakly. "You don't have to say that to yourself. That's a horrible thing to think. That's why Professor Lupin is only having us do it once a week. Battling them isn't exactly a fun thing," I said slowly.

"I'm not sure if I hate hearing them, or..." Harry trailed off.

"You're glad just to hear their voices. Even if it's to hear that," I said, filling in the blanks.

Harry gave me a surprised look before nodding. I had a feeling that was his problem. I felt terribly for him. That had to be an even worse dilemma than mine was. "You know who Voldemort is talking to, don't you?" Harry asked suddenly.

Nodding blankly, I said, "I think it's me."

"Don't worry about him. I'll protect you, Tara," Harry said.

"Same here, tough guy," I teased.

We both laughed as Harry wrapped an arm over my shoulders. As much as the two of us bickered and despite the times that we would go with barely speaking to each other, I knew that we would always love each other. We were family. Always would be. Harry leaned over and pressed a kiss against my forehead. Despite the fact that I was almost a year older than him, Harry would always act like he was the older brother. It was proof enough when he had tried to give his own life for mine during our fight against the Basilisk.

For a while the two of us sat together and chattered back and forth. Mostly about how amazing it was that we were finally able to produce a Patronus and wondering what it would be when we were able to produce a corporeal one. Eventually we stood up, Harry crammed the last bit of chocolate into his mouth, and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. That night I managed to fall asleep on the couches of the Common Room - as I was so often known to do - with my head on Fred's chest and my legs thrown over George's as we continued working on their eventual joke shop.

As normal, days passed and Hogwarts went back to normal. Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Oliver, that was good news for Gryffindor, who would take second place if we beat Ravenclaw too. Which was had to do. Oliver therefore increased the number of team practices to five a week. That meant that with Professor Lupin's anti Dementor classes, which in themselves were more draining than six Quidditch practices, Harry and I had just one night a week to do all of our homework.

With the number of classes that I had, I was drowning in work and barely ever able to have fun. With Cedric on our quasi dates that we had around the castle, or with Fred and George, working on their joke shop. I felt badly for them, but insisted that if I couldn't get a chance to work on it after the end of this semester, it would happen over the summer. Just like my dates with Cedric. After all, he and the twins had their own problems with O.W.L.'s and their own Quidditch practices. Needless to say, over half of the castle was under strain.

Even so, no one was showing the strain nearly as much as Hermione, whose immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her. Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the Common Room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes; she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted. We hadn't spoken in a while, for far more than the broomstick issue. I was grateful that I hadn't taken as many classes as she had.

"Even you don't have that much work," Ron said one night as Hermione slaved away in her corner.

"I'm taking a lot of classes, but not as many as Hermione," I commented, working on Arithmancy.

"How's she doing it? How are you both doing it?" Ron muttered to Harry and me.

Rolling my eyes, I looked back down at the Arithmancy work. It was definitely tough but it would be well worth it once I was an Auror. That would be worth it. I leaned back and tried to keep my gaze away from Fred and George's work. I would have much rather been doing that. Ron was staring blankly at Hermione. Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. I had finished mine at Quidditch practice while Oliver hadn't been looking. Harry and I looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books.

"Doing what?" Harry asked.

"It's called studying, Ron," I commented.

"Not that!" Ron barked. "Getting to all of your classes! I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Hermione can't have been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! You, too. Don't you have both of those classes? And Ernie McMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she's never missed one of them either!"

"Did it never occur to you that maybe there's more than one section of the class?" I asked, trying to cover up the truth of the Time-Turner.

In the meantime, I switched over to Ancient Runes. "But that doesn't -"

"Quiet!" I interrupted Ron. "I'm trying to work out this rune chart."

"But -" Ron started.

"Do your damn work!" I barked.

Ron sent me a little scowl but otherwise said nothing. I rolled my eyes and went back to my homework. I was going to slap him if he kept harassing me about the problem with our class schedules. Besides, there were other things that I had to do. My homework, for one, which was something that I hadn't been able to do with my insane schedule. Just like me, Harry didn't have time to fathom anything - not even the mystery of our impossible schedules - he needed to get on with Snape's essay. Two seconds later, however, we were interrupted again, this time by Oliver.

"Bad news, Harry, Tara."

"Hello, Oliver," I said blandly, discreetly reminding him that saying hello was normally a good way to begin a conversation.

"I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolts. She - er - got a bit shirty with me. Told me I'd got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you two staying alive," Oliver explained.

That was just what Cedric had told me the other day. Oliver must have been trying the whole time. "Oh, Oliver..." I muttered.

"Just because I told her I didn't care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first. Or that I didn't care if it flew you straight into the stands as long as you could make a few impeccable shots." Oliver shook his head in disbelief. "Honestly, the way she was yelling at me... you'd think I'd said something terrible. Then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep them," Oliver said.

"And?" I asked.

Oliver screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall's severe voice. "'As long as necessary, Wood'... I reckon it's time you two ordered new brooms, Harry, Tara. There's an order form at the back of Which Broomstick... you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy's got," Oliver tried to offer helpfully.

"I'm not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good," Harry said flatly.

Oliver sighed and looked at me. "I'm holding out faith that we'll have them back in time. After all, how long can it take?" I said.

"Might not want to bet on that," Oliver warned.

He was right, but I couldn't bring myself to order a new broom. I really wanted that damned Firebolt. After all, Dad had one and had recently written to me about how wonderful it was. I could tell that both he and Mom were trying to make up to me the whole issue about not telling me about their friendship with Sirius Black. Honestly, by now I had gotten over it, but I refused to let them off so easily. Not when I had done numerous things that weren't that terrible that they had hung over my head for months. It was my turn now.

Eventually January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. Fred's winter cloak had permanently become mine. He hadn't even bothered to ask for his back, half because he knew that I would say no, and half because he felt badly for me. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, but neither Harry nor I had ordered a new broom yet. We were now asking Professor McGonagall for news of the Firebolts after every Transfiguration lesson, Ron standing hopefully at our shoulders, Hermione rushing past with her face averted.

"No, Potter, Nox, you can't have it back yet," Professor McGonagall told us the twelfth time this happened, before we had even opened our mouths. She already knew our rehearsed speeches. "We've checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the brooms might be carrying Hurling Hexes. I shall tell you once we've finished checking it. Now, please stop badgering me."

Things went from good to bad quickly. Fred and George were having problems with some of their new products - things that had once worked perfectly. But they had lost the incantation for the spell that they had made for their fireworks and now they imploded randomly, coming very close to burning us a few times. In fact, they had seared off Lee Jordan's eyebrows when he had been trying to use them. It was clear that they had lost the progress on those particular fireworks and would likely have to start all over again.

It wasn't just that. It was also the fact that I had almost no time to enjoy myself. Homework and Quidditch practice kept me constantly busy. Factor in that Cedric also had O.W.L.'s to be concerned with and the two of us almost never saw each other. It didn't help that I had recently noticed the female student body of Hogwarts seemed to have deemed Cedric completely single, and seeing as how I had stupidly told him that I wanted to wait until the summer to possibly become something real, he technically was.

Thankfully he never went on dates with any of the many girls who tried to flirt with him, but he never really shied away from them either. It greatly bothered me, but it wasn't something that I could say anything about. He had told me multiple times during our brief run-ins in the hallway that there was nothing going on with any of those girls (he must have seen how bitter I looked when I saw other girls hanging on him) and I tried very hard to insist that I wasn't that bothered. But if I saw Cho Chang flirt with him blatantly in front of me one more time...

To make matters even worse, our anti Dementor lessons were not going nearly as well as we had hoped. I'd been hoping that we could manage a weak corporeal Patronus, but that was unlikely. Several sessions on, we were able to produce an indistinct, silvery shadow every time the Boggart Dementor approached us, but our spells were too feeble to drive the Dementor away. All it did was hover, like a semi-transparent cloud, draining us of energy as we fought to keep it there. We both felt angry with ourselves, and Harry felt guilty about his secret desire to hear his parents' voices again.

"You're expecting too much of yourselves," Professor Lupin said sternly in our fourth week of practice. "For a thirteen and fourteen-year-old witch and wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You two aren't passing out anymore, are you?"

"I guess we just... I don't know. Thought that we might be able to beat the odds and produce a real one," I muttered.

"You've surpassed my expectations. Both of you," Professor Lupin said, smiling at us.

"I thought a Patronus would - charge the Dementors down or something," Harry said dispiritedly. "Make them disappear -"

"The true Patronus does do that. But you've both achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. If the Dementors put in an appearance at your next Quidditch match, you will be able to keep them at bay long enough to get back to the ground," Professor Lupin explained.

"Good. I'm not keen to break every bone in my body again," I said slowly.

"I won't be keen to watch that," Professor Lupin said seriously.

"You said it's harder if there are loads of them," Harry said.

"I have complete confidence in you both," Professor Lupin said, smiling. "Here - you two have earned a drink - something from the Three Broomsticks. Harry, you won't have tried it before."

He pulled three bottles out of his briefcase. "Butterbeer! Yeah, I like that stuff!" Harry yelled excitedly.

Obviously he hadn't thought before he had said it. My heart lodged itself in my throat. I couldn't believe that he could be so dense sometimes. He knew that saying that he had tried Butterbeer would easily tell Professor Lupin that he had somewhere gotten Butterbeer. Idiot. So I leaned forward and stomped down on his foot. Harry groaned and leaned over. It looked like he was about to shout at me, but he suddenly realized what I had stepped on him for. His little slip of the tongue. Professor Lupin raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Oh - Tara, Ron, and Hermione brought me some back from Hogsmeade," Harry lied quickly.

"I knew that he would love it. It's one of my favorite drinks," I said happily.

Hopefully the two of us speaking so quickly would fix our stupid little mistake. "I see," Professor Lupin said slowly, though he still looked slightly suspicious. "Well - let's drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I'm supposed to take sides, as a teacher," he added hastily.

"Weren't you a Gryffindor?" I asked curiously.

"I was," Professor Lupin said seriously.

"I think you're allowed to root for us, then," I said teasingly.

"Perhaps that's true," Professor Lupin said.

Just like all of the rest of the teachers, Professor Lupin would likely root for the House that he had been placed in once. "After all, we all know that Professor McGonagall really roots for Gryffindor and she wants everyone - even Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw - to beat Slytherin in any of the matches. She hates listening to Professor Snape gloat," I said.

Professor Lupin smiled. "I can't say that I blame her," he said.

We drank the Butterbeer in silence, until Harry finally voiced something that he had obviously been wondering for a while. "What's under a Dementor's hood?"

My stomach churned in a knot. What was under a Dementor's hood? That wasn't something that I knew. There were a number of things that I did know about - especially when it came to magical things - but that wasn't one of them. The only thing that I really knew was that if you got a good look at what was under the hood, they were likely planning on performing the Kiss on you. That was something that I - and likely everyone else - preferred to avoid in their lifetime. Professor Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully.

"Hmm... well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us. You see, the Dementor lowers its hood only to use its last and worst weapon," Professor Lupin explained, mostly to Harry.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"The Kiss. Right?" I interrupted.

Professor Lupin turned to me and nodded. "Yes. They call it the Dementor's Kiss," Professor Lupin said, with a slightly twisted smile. "It's what Dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and - and suck out his soul."

Harry accidentally spat out a bit of Butterbeer. "Harry! Gross," I complained, wiping off a bit of his splatter.

"Sorry," Harry muttered to me guiltily. "What - they kill - ?"

"Oh no. Much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no... anything. There's no chance at all of recovery. You'll just - exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever... lost," Professor Lupin explained. He drank a little more Butterbeer, then said, "It's the fate that awaits Sirius Black. It was in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform it if they find him."

As much as I had known about Dementors, it wasn't very pleasant to hear that about them. From someone who actually knew them. And, as furious as I was with Sirius Black and everything that he had done, I couldn't help but to feel the tiniest bit guilty for him and Professor Lupin. They had been best friends once. Now he was going to have to sit and watch that happen to his friend. I wondered what Mom and Dad thought of the whole thing. I sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth.

"He deserves it," Harry said suddenly.

There was only one person that I could think absolutely, unquestionably, deserved it - and it wasn't Sirius Black. "You think so? Do you really think anyone deserves that?" Professor Lupin asked lightly.

"Yes," Harry said defiantly. "For... for some things..."

We couldn't tell him how much we actually knew. I glanced over at Professor Lupin and felt my stomach churn with nerves. "Do you... Do you think that he deserves it?" I asked dumbly.

The moment that I had said it, I wished that I could have taken it back. That was a rude thing to ask. Professor Lupin sat thoughtfully for a while. "I think that sometimes it's very difficult to break apart the man that I knew at Hogwarts to the man that has spent the past twelve years in Azkaban. It's very hard to remember that he was not always the way that he is now," Professor Lupin said.

It was strange to say that I was the person who knew that feeling better than anyone else. Mostly because I was terrified of what might happen to me. What if I ended up doing the same thing that Sirius Black had done to my parents? To Harry's? What if I ended up getting him killed? Hermione or Ron? Fred and George? Cedric seemed to think that I was such a wonderful person, but he didn't now some of the darkest bits about me. The ones that I didn't even understand. The ones that I was too terrified to genuinely confide in anyone about.

People knew bits and pieces, but I was the only one who knew everything. I was the only person who knew all of the terribly strange things about me. Those horrible presents that I got with my somewhat protector. The dreams with the strange man. The burning desire to be with Voldemort. At least, I thought that it was Voldemort. The odd and unknown connection that we shared. And so much more. It didn't even come close to ending there. Not when I knew that I had a darkness in me. One that everyone could see and one that I was terrified would soon come to light.

In the back of my mind I wished that I could have told Professor Lupin about the conversation that we had overheard about Sirius Black in the Three Broomsticks; all about how we knew that Black had betrayed Harry's mother and father, and my own, but that would have involved revealing that we had gone to Hogsmeade that day without permission, and I knew that Professor Lupin wouldn't be very impressed by that. So I finished my Butterbeer along with Harry, thanked Professor Lupin, and left the History of Magic classroom.

"He was friends with him, right?" Harry asked, as we left.

Slowly I nodded. "One of his best friends. Mom and Dad told me about them," I answered.

For a moment I wished that I hadn't told him. I knew how upset that he was about the whole thing, but I also knew that he deserved the truth. "He still doesn't want to believe that he did it," Harry said, referring to Sirius Black and Professor Lupin.

He was right about that. "Of course not. They were friends," I reasoned.

"Were," Harry reinforced.

For whatever strange reason, I felt a little badly about Sirius Black and the Dementors. "Think about it from his point of view. What if... What if I had done something like that? Years passed and I was out of Azkaban and you knew that the Dementor's Kiss was awaiting me. Would you know for a fact that I deserved it?" I asked.

Harry's brows raised to the top of his head. "You would never do that," Harry said determinedly.

"Of course not," I said slowly.

It was a little tough to force the edges of my lips upwards into a smile. I had to smile at him. He couldn't know about what was happening. He couldn't know that there was a very good chance that I would end up doing just that. But it was Harry and I had to protect him. As much as he thought that he was the one who was always protecting me, there were a number of times that I had been the one to protect him. The two of us headed out into the hallway and I smiled as he wrapped an arm over my shoulder. I would be fine... I would never betray him... not any of them...

All the while that the two of us headed back towards Gryffindor Tower, I found myself half wishing that Harry hadn't asked what was under a Dementor's hood; the answer had been so horrible. I had known about the Kiss, but it didn't help to know a little bit more about it and to talk to someone who knew a person that would go through it. We were both so lost in unpleasant thoughts of what it would feel like to have your soul sucked out of you that we ended up walking headlong into Professor McGonagall halfway up the stairs.

"Do watch where you're going, Potter, Nox!" she barked.

"Sorry, Professor -"

"Sorry -" I interrupted.

"I've just been looking for you in the Gryffindor Common Room," Professor McGonagall interrupted. "Well, here they are, we've done everything we could think of, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them at all. You two have got a very good friend somewhere, Potter, Nox..."

With everyone interrupting each other, I was almost stunned to see that Professor McGonagall had managed to get in a real voice. And she had managed to say something that I genuinely wanted her to say. Something that I had been waiting for her to say for weeks. Something that I was thrilled to finally hear her say. Something that finally made me just the slightest bit happier. It wasn't just my own - Harry's jaw dropped. Professor McGonagall was holding out both of our Firebolts, and they both looked as magnificent as ever.

"Really?" I asked breathlessly.

"We can have them back? Seriously?" Harry asked weakly.

"Seriously," Professor McGonagall said, and she was actually smiling. "I daresay you'll need to get the feel of it before Saturday's match, won't you two? And Potter, Nox - do try and win, won't you? Or we'll be out of the running for the eighth year in a row, as Professor Snape was kind enough to remind me only last night..."

"Absolutely!" I said happily.

We finally got to have our Firebolts back. Professor McGonagall handed us the broomsticks back and I took mine without a word. My hands slowly ran over the wooden handle as I treated the broom like it was a newborn baby. It kind of was. This thing was basically my child. Speechless and giddy with glee, Harry and I carried the Firebolts back upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower. We were practically sprinting, our feet barely touching the floor as we ran. As we turned a corner, I saw Ron dashing toward us, grinning from ear to ear.

"She gave them back to you? Excellent! Listen, can I still have a go on it? Tomorrow?" Ron asked.

"Definitely. Break it and you're buying me a new one," I threatened seriously.

"Never," Ron said seriously.

"Yeah... anything... You know what - we should make up with Hermione. She was only trying to help..." Harry said.

Obviously he was feeling just as light as I was. Much lighter than I had been in a month. "Yeah, all right. She's in the Common Room now - working, for a change," Ron joked, making me smile.

"Oh. Shocking. Good to hear that she's taking a break," I teased right back.

We all snorted under our breath. To be completely honest, I did feel a little bad about everything that had happened with Hermione over the past month. We really had been icing her out and she had only been trying to help. And I supposed that there was no harm done. We had them back in time for the game. Finally we managed to turn into the corridor to Gryffindor Tower and instantly saw Neville Longbottom, pleading with Sir Cadogan, who seemed to be refusing him entrance. It had happened more times than I could count.

"I wrote them down! But I must've dropped them somewhere!" Neville was shouting tearfully.

"A likely tale!" Sir Cadogan roared. Then, spotting Harry, Ron, and I, he added, "Good even, my fine young yeomen! And my dear lady! Come clap this loon in irons. He is trying to force entry to the chambers within!"

"Oh, shut up," Ron said as the three of us drew level with Neville.

"I've lost the passwords! I made him tell me what passwords he was going to use this week, because he keeps changing them, and now I don't know what I've done with them!" Neville explained miserably.

"Just stay around someone whenever you come back to Gryffindor Tower. The other students will help you out until the Fat Lady comes back," I consoled him.

"Oddsbodikins," Harry said to Sir Cadogan, who looked extremely disappointed and reluctantly swung forward to let us into the Common Room.

It was extremely relieving to be back after such a long time that the two of us had been out and about. It had been a damn long day. And I was definitely thrilled to get to see that I would have the Firebolt for the game against Ravenclaw. I couldn't wait to beat Cho Chang and get to throw it in her face. Soon enough I might even manage to actually kiss Cedric in front of her. That could have been fun. There was a sudden, excited murmur as every head turned and the next moment, Harry and I were surrounded by people exclaiming over our Firebolts.

"Where'd you get it, Harry?"

"Tara, that's awesome!"

"Will you let me have a go?"

"Did your father send it to you, Tara?"

"Have you ridden it yet, Harry?"

"Ravenclaw will have no chance, they're all on Cleansweep Sevens!"

"Can I just hold it, Harry?"

"You got it back!"

After ten minutes or so, during which the Firebolts were passed around and admired from every angle, the crowd dispersed and Harry, Ron, and I had a clear view of Hermione, the only person who hadn't rushed over to us, bent over her work and carefully avoiding our eyes. She definitely still felt guilty about everything and obviously couldn't get a read on us. Pardoning myself from Fred and George for a moment, promising that I would be right back, I headed over with Harry and Ron to approach her table. At long last, she looked up.

"We got them back," Harry said, grinning at her and holding up the Firebolt.

"See, Hermione? There wasn't anything wrong with them!" Ron exclaimed.

"Well - there might have been! I mean, at least you know now that they're safe!" Hermione barked, defending herself.

"It's fine. They're back and they're fine and we're going to win the match!" I said eagerly, desperately wanting to end the fighting between us.

"Yeah, I suppose so," Harry said. "I'd better put it upstairs -"

"I'll take it! I've got to give Scabbers his rat tonic," Ron said eagerly.

"Can we see it?" Fred asked, reappearing at my side.

"If you do anything to it, I'll kill you both," I warned the twins.

"Never to a Firebolt," George said seriously.

"Sure. Here you go," I said.

Turning towards the twins, I handed them over the Firebolt. They carried it off and I watched as they sat down with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie, who all looked enamored with it. But none more so than Oliver, who looked like he might have a stroke. I knew that I could trust him to make sure that no one else dared to hurt the Firebolt. In the meantime, Ron took the Firebolt and, holding it as if it were made of glass, carried it away up the boys' staircase. I turned back to Harry and smiled somewhat awkwardly at Hermione.

"Can we sit down, then?" Harry asked Hermione.

"I suppose so," Hermione said, moving a great stack of parchment off a chair.

Just as usual, she was doing a massive amount of homework. I couldn't believe that she actually had enough time to do all of her homework. I was barely managing. But the one thing that I could say was that I had Quidditch and Hermione didn't. Maybe that was how she was managing. Harry and I looked around at the cluttered table, at the long Arithmancy essay on which the ink was still glistening, at the even longer Muggle Studies essay ('Explain Why Muggles Need Electricity') and at the rune translation Hermione was now poring over.

"You're done with that Arithmancy essay?" I asked, picking it up.

"Yes. Have you?" Hermione asked.

"Just finished it earlier today," I said, thinking about the messy piece of work that would likely only get me an average grade. "Not my finest work, but I was busy with Ancient Runes."

"Oh, yes. The rune charts take a long time," Hermione said, nodding.

"Yeah, they do," I said.

"How are you getting through all this stuff?" Harry asked her.

"Oh, well - you know - working hard," Hermione said.

Close-up, I realized that she looked almost as tired as Professor Lupin. But she wasn't a werewolf. She didn't have that excuse. She was just exhausted. "Why don't you just drop a couple of subjects?" Harry asked, watching her lifting books as she searched for her rune dictionary.

"I couldn't do that!" Hermione gasped, looking scandalized.

"Arithmancy looks terrible," Harry said, picking up a number chart.

"It looks much worse than it actually is," I cut in.

"Oh no, it's wonderful!" Hermione said earnestly. I nodded along with her. "It's my favorite subject! It's -"

But exactly what was wonderful about Arithmancy, at least in Hermione's mind, Harry and I never found out. At that precise moment, a strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase. The whole Common Room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. I gasped, the sound getting caught in my throat. It was Ron. I recognized the strangled yell from our First Year when we had played giant Wizard's Chess. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder - and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bed sheet.

"Look! Look!" Ron bellowed, striding quickly over to Hermione's table, shaking the sheets in her face.

"Ron! Come on, you're making a scene," I shouted, trying to quiet him.

"Ron, what - ?" Hermione started.

"Scabbers! Look! Scabbers!" Ron shouted.

His voice was becoming somewhat hoarse from all of the shouting. I wanted to get him to stop yelling, but I was almost a little curious to find out what was happening and what he was all upset about. We had just managed to become friends again... It literally hadn't even been five minutes. In the meantime, Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. Harry and I looked down at the sheet that Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like...

"Blood He's gone! And you know what was on the floor?" Ron shouted at Hermione into the stunned silence of the Common Room.

"N - No," Hermione said in a weak and trembling voice.

The entire Common Room was leaning forward to see what was happening. But no one really wanted to get that close. Ron got upset plenty of times, but no one had ever seen him really get that upset with someone. Not even Hermione. As we all watched out of the corners of our eyes, Ron threw something down onto Hermione's rune translation. Hermione, Harry, and I leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird, spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs. Crookshanks... Here we go again...


	49. Gryffindor Versus Ravenclaw

It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry with the other that I couldn't see how they'd ever make up. It was obvious enough by the way that they never spoke, and when they did, it was some kind of cruel remark from Ron. Hermione had never looked quite so afraid of him. Harry and I both wanted to do something to get them back together, but we were each too afraid to make the first move. Mostly because we didn't want to accidentally shatter the last remnants of friendship that they had - which were just barely hanging on.

Ron was enraged that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him, and was still trying to pretend that Crookshanks was innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds. Hermione, meanwhile, maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, that the ginger hairs might have been there since Christmas, and that Ron had been prejudiced against her cat ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.

Either way, there was no chance that either one of them was willing to make the first move and try to be friends with each other again. It had led to some very awkward evenings as Harry and I sat with Ron in the Common Room, with Hermione in the back corner slaving over her work, trying so desperately to avoid us. I had tried speaking with her a few times, but it had only been away from the boys as Ron was furious with her and Harry was trying to stay out of it. I already felt rather terrible for having iced her out for the past few weeks, especially now that things were worse with Ron.

Unfortunately I now knew just how upset Hermione was about everything. She really, genuinely, felt terribly about what had happened. But she also believed that Crookshanks really hadn't hurt Scabbers - which, of course, didn't help Hermione's case with Ron. I just knew that she was incredibly heartsick that Ron and Harry wouldn't talk to her. Well, Harry spoke to her sometimes, but it was tough with Ron always sulking around. Harry had almost been forced to choose sides. I had managed to get Harry to speak with her occasionally, but Ron absolutely refused.

Ron was even getting sick of me speaking to Hermione. Obviously he thought that I was supposed to be on his side - which I was. But that didn't mean that I was going to cut Hermione off, like I had already done before. I had tried to tell Hermione right after the incident that it was going to be okay, that Ron could get a new rat and that it was just in Crookshanks' nature to attack rats. It hadn't gone the way that I had hoped. Hermione had just gotten angry with me for believing that her cat had anything to do with it.

Personally, Harry and I were both sure that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers. There didn't seem to be much else of a choice in the matter. It only made sense. Scabbers always hung around with Ron. Where else would he have gone if he was still alive? He would be with his owner. Or, at least, we would have found him hiding somewhere. Unfortunately when we tried to point out to Hermione that the evidence all pointed that way, but that it wasn't her fault, she lost her temper with us too.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would! First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!" Hermione cried shrilly, instantly going back to her work.

She was stressed out with all of her classes - as she had already told me whilst we were using the Time-Turner one day - and having everyone blaming her for Scabbers' supposed death didn't help. Harry and I exchanged a look while Hermione started to stare down at her star chart. She didn't look happy with herself or us in the slightest. Letting out a deep breath, I caught Harry's wrist and dragged him away from the couch that we were sitting on.

"Come on," I muttered.

"Think they'll ever get over it?" Harry asked as we headed to the other end of the Common Room.

Staring back at Hermione, and then at Ron, who was still brooding, I shrugged my shoulders. "This time... I'm not so sure. Probably, but it'll take something terrible to bring them back together. You know how the four of us work," I said.

"That's true. We have a knack for getting into trouble, don't we?" Harry asked.

"We? Oh, no, it's you. As I've said before, it's your mess and I just keep getting dragged into it," I teased.

"But that doesn't stop you from being my friend, does it?" Harry shot back.

"Of course not. I enjoy your problems. They make mine seem insignificant."

"Thanks, Tara."

"Anytime, Harry."

It was just the way that we were. Constantly teasing each other, but always there to love and support each other. Brother and sister, despite not being related. A few days eventually passed since Scabbers had gone missing and he hadn't been found yet. Everyone was definitely sure that he was dead. It was really the only thing that made sense. Of course, with his death, things had gotten no better between Ron and Hermione. In fact, they were getting worse. Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard indeed.

"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was. And he's been off-color for ages, he was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly - one swallow - he probably didn't feel a thing," Fred said, probably in what he thought was a comforting way.

"Fred!" Ginny barked indignantly.

"That's really not helpful," I scowled.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," George said.

"He bit Goyle for us once! Remember, Harry?" Ron asked miserably.

"Yeah, that's true," Harry said.

"His finest hour. Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting tribute to his memory," Fred said, unable to keep a straight face. Even I cracked a smile. "Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new rat, what's the point of moaning?"

"It's sentiment, you twats," I snapped.

"It's just a rat," Fred whispered.

"But that's his pet. It would be like if... Hedwig came and attacked Dai, killing him."

"Rat and owl... Not a comparison to be made," Fred said.

"Your value of animal life is astounding," I said.

"You try living with that damned rat."

"That bad, huh?"

They hadn't really ever told me about anything that Scabbers had done to annoy them. Ron had always been the one complaining about him. "Just wait until you wake up with rat droppings on your pillow in the middle of the night," Fred said.

At least owls didn't do that. Not even Hale, who hated me. "Oh... gross..." I groaned.

"Exactly," Fred pointed out.

In a last-ditch attempt to cheer Ron up, Harry and I persuaded him to come along to the Gryffindor team's final practice before the Ravenclaw match, so that he could have a ride on one of our Firebolts after we had finished. That did seem to take Ron's mind off Scabbers for a moment. He was actually smiling for the first time in days. He had even asked if he could try and make a few goals on it. Grateful that he was finally smiling and excited about something, we set off for the Quidditch field together.

"Ready to get to it?" I asked Harry happily.

"Absolutely," Harry said, just as excited.

"I can't believe that you two actually have Firebolts," Ron said.

"You're more than welcome to take them out whenever you want, Ron," I said, shooting Harry a scowl that meant that he had better agree with me.

He nodded his consent. "Seriously?" Ron asked, surprised.

"Yes. Why?" I asked curiously.

"Usually you threaten to kill me or break my hands if I even talk about getting you to let me borrow the Firebolt," Ron pointed out.

And he was right about that. We all laughed as we marched out towards the Pitch. "Well... I'll still kill you if you hurt it... but I suppose that letting you borrow it isn't the worst thing that I could do," I admitted.

"Thanks," Ron said.

Anything to try and make him just the slightest bit happier. If we could get him happy, we could maybe get him to make up with Hermione. Madam Hooch, who was still overseeing Gryffindor practices to keep an eye on Harry and I, was just as impressed with the Firebolts as everyone else had been. She almost instantly grabbed us and pulled the two of us over into the corner so that she could check out the Firebolts with her own eyes. She took Harry's in her hands before takeoff and gave us all the benefit of her professional opinion.

"Look at the balance on it! If the Nimbus series has a fault, it's a slight list to the tail end - you often find they develop a drag after a few years. They've updated the handle too, a bit slimmer than the Cleansweeps, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows - a pity they've stopped making them. I learned to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too…" Madam Hooch trailed off regretfully.

"I'm sure that it was lovely," I said awkwardly.

But she completely ignored me. Instead she continued in this vein for some time, until Oliver said, "Er - Madam Hooch? Is it okay if Harry and Tara have the Firebolts back? We need to practice…"

It was almost extremely awkward the way that he said it. Madam Hooch looked up, seemingly stunned. "Oh - right - here you are, then, Potter, Nox. I'll sit over here with Weasley…" Madam Hooch said, sounding somewhat depressed.

"See you later. Have fun," I told Ron.

It would probably be a little boring sitting with Madam Hooch for most of the practice, but at least he would be able to watch us. It might be a little bit amusing. Madam Hooch and Ron left the field to sit in the stadium, and the Gryffindor team gathered around Oliver for his final instructions for tomorrow's match. For the first time since that first game that Harry and I played back in our First Year, I found myself a little nervous. We had to win this one for Oliver. It was his final chance and we both knew that he deserved it.

"Harry, I've just found out who Ravenclaw is playing as Seeker. It's Cho Chang," Oliver said.

She was actually the Seeker? I had thought that she was their alternate. "Honestly?" I asked disbelievingly, as Harry stared stupidly.

"Do you know her?" Oliver asked, surprised.

"Well enough... She's not a fan..." I said, referring to Cho's obvious and painful distaste for me. I turned to the twins. "Boys, do me a favor. Pelt a few Bludgers her direction."

Fred and George grinned wickedly. "Our pleasure," they said together.

The rest of the team started to chuckle. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were grinning; they didn't particularly like Cho either. "Don't worry. She'll be nothing compared to Harry," I reassured Oliver.

But he still looked nervous. "She's a Fourth Year, and she's pretty good… I really hoped she wouldn't be fit, she's had some problems with injuries…" Oliver explained.

"Bad ones?" I asked curiously.

"Not bad enough." Oliver - and myself - scowled his displeasure that Cho Chang had made a full recovery, then said, "On the other hand, she rides a Comet Two Sixty, which is going to look like a joke next to the Firebolts."

A large and somewhat maniacal grin fell over my face. I genuinely couldn't wait to show her up in the match. "I know it might be a little rude, but can one of you get injured? Or have something happen to your broom? I would love to show her up a time or two for everything that she's said to me," I said to the three Chasers.

The three girls smiled at me. "You really don't like her, do you?" Angelina finally asked.

"Not particularly," I muttered.

"What happened?" Alicia asked curiously.

Rolling my eyes, I tried to figure out a way to tell them that I didn't like her because she liked Cedric, without sounding jealous. Katie grinned and looked over at Alicia and Angelina. "Isn't it obvious?" Katie asked. The rest of the team stared at her blankly as I blushed. "Tara and Cho both like Cedric Diggory, but Cedric has eyes for Tara."

The girls started to giggle as Harry rolled his eyes. It looked like even Fred and George were now to the point of rolling their eyes about it. Oliver was busy working on plays and ignoring us. "Okay, can we stop?" I interrupted their chattering loudly. "She's annoying and acts like she's better than everyone else! That's why I don't like her. It has absolutely nothing to do with Cedric Diggory or my feelings towards him."

"Yes, it does," Harry put in.

As the rest of the team started laughing, I turned to Harry with a little scowl. "Thanks for that," I hissed.

Thankfully, as usual, Oliver was ignoring our banter with each other and thinking about the game. Oliver then gave Harry and I's brooms a look of fervent admiration, then said, "Okay, everyone, let's go."

So our team headed back out of the locker room and headed into the center of the Quidditch Pitch. I could see Ron and Madam Hooch sitting on the far end of the stadium. Ron was giving us a small smile as Madam Hooch's eyes were locked onto the Firebolts. Harry and I exchanged a small grin as we headed out into the sand. I could see Oliver and the rest of the team watching us curiously. It would be the first time that we would fly on the brooms and the first time they would see them in action. At long last, Harry and I mounted our Firebolts, and kicked off from the ground.

It was better than anything I could have ever dreamed. I had been on a number of brooms before - some of the best in the world - but none of them could hold a torch to the Firebolt. The Firebolt turned with the lightest touch; it seemed to obey my thoughts rather than my grip; it sped across the field at such speed that the stadium turned into a green-and-gray blur; at one point Harry turned it so sharply that Alicia screamed, then he went into a perfectly controlled dive, brushing the grassy field with his toes before rising thirty, forty, fifty feet into the air again.

In the meantime I was shooting back and forth throughout the field at top speeds. It was almost impossible to tell who was who, considering how fast I was going. All I could see was the blur of colors. I shot up straight into the air - grateful for my strong arm muscles to keep myself on the Firebolt - before plummeting back to the ground. I was barely two feet from the ground when I turned straight back upwards, heading back into the sky in a corkscrew motion before speeding back towards our goalposts in a series of never ending barrel rolls.

Once I straightened back up, I steadied the Firebolt to look back at Harry. "This is amazing!" I called across the Pitch.

"Whoo!" Harry screamed, rocketing back towards me.

"Liking it?" I shouted.

"Loving it!" Harry cheered.

As much as I had loved the Nimbus, it was nothing compared to the Firebolt. Not even Malfoy's broom would have been able to compete. It was a relief to be on the Firebolt after spending a few weeks on Cedric's old Cleansweep. There was nothing wrong with it, but it was an old and rather dull broom with no special features. Harry and I spent a long time shooting back and forth across the field as the rest of the team watched, fascinated with abilities of the Firebolts. I kept letting out loud rounds of laughter.

This was definitely the most fun that I had had in a long time. In fact, it had been months since I had had this much fun. It was definitely a good thing that someone had sent me the Firebolt. It would have been strange and extremely upsetting to have to play on the Cleansweep. As I shot all around the Pitch - managing to make four loops in under thirty seconds - I let out a number of loud whoops and excited calls. A few times Harry and I passed each other in midair and exchanged a quick high five. The rest of the team was laughing and watching the two of us.

Judging by the smile on Oliver's face, he knew that we were going to win with the Firebolts in our possession. "Oh, I don't care who gave me this broom! They're an angel!" I cheered happily.

"Can I have a go when you're done with it?" Oliver asked.

"Deal!" I shouted back.

"Harry, I'm letting the Snitch out!" Oliver called.

It was the first time that we were actually doing something that had to do with playing Quidditch, other than flying and learning how to use the new brooms. Everyone backed off long enough to see what was going to happen with the Snitch. We had to see just how good Harry was as a Seeker on the new broom. The Snitch darted up in the air and Harry gave it a five second head start. Harry then turned and raced a Bludger toward the goal posts; he outstripped it easily, saw the Snitch dart out from behind Oliver, and within ten seconds had caught it tightly in his hand.

The entire team cheered madly. There was no way that we weren't going to win the game. Harry was bound to be unstoppable with his newfound speed. Harry turned back to us and grinned before Oliver called for him to try catching the Snitch again, this time with a slightly longer head start. So Harry let the Snitch go again, gave it a minute's head start, then tore after it, weaving in and out of the others; I had to shoot off in the other direction when our Firebolts nearly collided. Not that again. Eventually he spotted it lurking near Katie's knee, looped her easily, and caught it again.

"Nice!" I shouted.

"Tara," Oliver called, drawing my attention, "let's have a go with the Quaffle!"

Nodding my consent, I headed over to the center of the Pitch. "Do keep away, Oliver!" Fred suggested.

The rest of the team grinned wickedly. Keep away was one of my favorite games. "Ready?" Oliver asked, bouncing the Quaffle in his hands.

"Let's do it!" I said excitedly.

The object of keep away was simple. It was everyone against me. Oliver and Harry would join Alicia, Katie, Angelina, as Chasers. They would keep the Quaffle in their possession and attempt to keep me from getting it. Fred and George would remain as Beaters. They would attempt to whack one Bludger towards me as I attempted to regain possession of the Quaffle. Keep away would end once I had managed to make three goals. Normally I got about five minutes to make my three goals. I almost always beat them.

Today I knew that I would. Immediately Oliver shot off to the far end of the Quidditch Pitch. Angelina and Alicia were guarding his sides. Harry took the lead as Katie took the rear. I shot off straight past Harry, narrowly missing his flight path, as I sped down towards the sand, barely skimmed it with the tips of my boots before shooting back up. Fred knocked a Bludger at me and I spun downwards, causing Katie to abandon her position behind Oliver. It gave me enough time to speed behind Oliver, kick the Quaffle out of his grip, catch it, and throw about sixty-five yards through the top hoop.

There was a large number of cheers as I sped the Firebolt up so quickly that no one else had any time to catch the falling Quaffle. Except for Harry. But I was a much better Chaser. It led to Oliver taking his own turn on the Firebolt to see if he could stop me on it. Even with him, it was no problem for me to keep control of the Quaffle. Everyone knew it. The moment that I had it in my hands I was able to twist, turn, loop, climb, and dive out of the way of any of the other players. It helped that I could be across the field within a matter of seconds - far faster than anyone else.

Seeing as playing keep away with completely useless, we tried with something else. It was obvious enough that someone would make a reason to sit out of the game for a while for me to step in and make some points - especially if we somehow ended up being Ravenclaw. We needed all of those extra points that we could get. All I knew right now was that I was clearly outstanding with the Firebolt. I could practically see Oliver laughing giddily as I looped around the field. He knew that we were going to win. There wasn't a doubt in my mind now.

It also helped that it didn't matter who I was working with. I was able to take the Quaffle from everyone - although Oliver did prove to be a challenge with his skill, and Harry with our matching brooms. We then moved on to something even more fun for me. Catching the Quaffle. Sometimes little tosses from just a few feet away as we rocketed through the Pitch. We spent some time on that to learn matching speeds. Other times it was from different angles and heights - something that I had always done well with. We also practiced long distance shots - my particular specialty.

Despite being the smallest girl on the team, I easily had the best throwing arm. And, if we were being completely honest, I was just as good, if not better, than the boys. The team was cheering me on the entire time as we worked on some new plays for the upcoming game. I was proud to say that I was definitely showing off the family name. I just wished that Dad could have seen me. I knew that he would be proud. So would Mom, although she would have been watching nervously through her fingers.

Even better was that the rest of the team was clearly having no problem keeping up with me. We had always worked well together. Even better was that I clearly worked the best with Fred and Harry, who were both easily able to anticipate my moves and work with me. We all ended up agreeing that I would have to come into the game at some point to help score some more points. The other Chasers were wonderful, but I worked a lot faster than they did. It was mostly because we needed to get up a little higher in the running for the Quidditch Cup.

It was easily one of the best practices that we had ever had; our entire team, inspired by the presence of the two Firebolts in our midst, performed our best moves faultlessly, and by the time we hit the ground again, Oliver didn't have a single criticism to make, which, as George pointed out, was a first. Usually he at least told us that we needed to quit goofing around. I assumed that he was so happy about how fast and well that we were playing, that he couldn't even think to start harassing us to behave. He was even letting Fred and George mess around more than usual.

"I can't see what's going to stop us tomorrow! Not unless - Harry, Tara, you two have sorted out your Dementor problem, haven't you?" Oliver asked, suddenly looking a little strained.

"Yeah," Harry said weakly.

"It'll be fine," I said numbly, thinking of my feeble Patronus and wishing it were stronger.

At least Harry's was just about as weak at mine was. But maybe in the moment we would be able to produce something stronger. Not that I wanted to see a Dementor at this match. "The Dementors won't turn up again, Oliver. Dumbledore would go ballistic," Fred said confidently.

"Well, let's hope not," Oliver said.

As we started to move off to the side of the Pitch - Harry getting pulled into a last-minute strategy session with Oliver - Fred fell into step with me. "You okay with the Dementors?" he asked.

Smiling at his obvious concern, I nodded. "Fine. I'm producing a feeble Patronus. Nothing great, but it would be enough to give me time to get to the ground without collapsing almost fifty feet," I said, remembering my horrible fall during the last game.

"Good. I don't want to see that again," Fred said.

Perhaps I had underestimated just how terrible that moment had been for my friends who were watching. "Trust me, I don't want to feel it again. I think I'll be able to manage if they come back," I said somewhat-confidently, twirling my necklace around my fingers.

"Anyway - good work, everyone," Oliver said. "Let's get back to the tower… turn in early -"

"We're staying out for a bit; Ron wants a go on the Firebolt," Harry told Oliver, motioning to me.

Nodding my consent, Oliver gave us a final warning to not stay out too late before turning away. I gave Fred and George small hugs, shoving George away from me when he ruffled my hair, before telling the girls that I would see them later. While the rest of the team headed off to the locker rooms, Harry and I strode over to Ron, who vaulted the barrier to the stands and came to meet us. Madam Hooch had fallen asleep in her seat. I didn't really want to sit here and watch Ron, but he needed to be in a better mood if we wanted any chance of him getting along with Hermione again.

"Here you go," Harry said, handing Ron his Firebolt.

"Have fun," I said.

Maybe there was a chance that the two of them would manage to get along again. That was what I really wanted. We just had to get them both in a relatively good mood and speaking again. It would go naturally from there. Ron, an expression of ecstasy on his face, mounted the broom and zoomed off into the gathering darkness while Harry and I walked around the edge of the field, watching him. It was clear that he was having a ton of fun as he shot all over the Quidditch Pitch - obviously having the time of his life.

"He looks like he's having fun," I said, following Ron's movements.

"Can you blame him?" Harry asked.

"Of course not. That was the best time I've had in a while," I said.

"Me too." Harry and I were silent for a while as we made a few trips through the center of the sandy pit. "Is that really why you hate Cho Chang?" Harry finally asked as we neared Madam Hooch again.

"Because she's annoying and stuck-up?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Mostly," I said offhandedly.

Harry stopped walking suddenly. I stared sideways at him, wondering what he had stopped me for. "Some of it is because of Diggory?" Harry asked curiously.

Now that's embarrassing. My face was turning a slight red as I stared at him. There wasn't much that was more awkward than that. "Well... yes... She just - She flirts with him right in front of me because she knows that I won't say anything!" I barked irritably. "All because I told Cedric that I wanted to wait until the summer to actually... I don't know - go out?"

"Why don't you two just make things official?" Harry asked.

"I hate the rumors."

"They'll start next year if you two come back dating."

He was right about that. And I really didn't want to just keep dating in secret until we both graduated from Hogwarts. The truth would have to come out eventually. "I know. I guess I would kind of like to rub it in her face. Are you actually telling me that I should go out with Cedric?" I asked.

"Those little puppy dog eyes that the two of you give each other..." Harry teased.

"Shut up," I barked.

Harry laughed and slung an arm over my shoulder. Chuckling under my breath, I threw it off of me. "Come on, Tara. Everyone knows that the two of you are going to end up together," Harry said.

"Thanks - I think," I said, making us both laugh.

Deciding that we shouldn't just waste training time, Harry and I went on a run around the Quidditch Pitch. We spent almost half an hour on our run - Harry tiring just moments before I did. I was used to Dad making me run those drills with him all day long. I was exhausted by now and knew that I would have a good night's sleep before the game tomorrow. Night had fallen before Madam Hooch awoke with a start - Ron still flying around on the Firebolt - and told Harry, Ron, and I off for not waking her, insisting that we go back to the castle.

None of us bothered to argue with her. We had already gotten longer than we had deserved. So Harry and I shouldered the Firebolts and then the three of us walked out of the shadowy stadium, discussing the Firebolt's' superbly smooth action, their phenomenal acceleration, and their pinpoint turning. There weren't enough good words that we had for the Firebolts. We were halfway toward the castle when Harry and I, glancing to our left, saw something that made my heart turn over - a pair of eyes, gleaming out of the darkness.

Instantly I stopped dead, my heart banging against my ribs. It was obvious enough that Harry had definitely seen it, too. We were both hesitating. My legs were quivering slightly. Was that the Grim? I hadn't seen it since the last match - which I was still trying to convince myself wasn't real - and I had been hoping that I would never see it again. I knew that everyone had told me that Professor Trelawney was insane and that her predictions were always wrong, but what if I was the one person whom she would be right about?

"What's the matter?" Ron asked.

Harry and I pointed. "That's not -?" I asked, unable to say the word.

Ron pulled out his wand and muttered, "Lumos!"

We were both terrified, obviously. We had no idea what was going to happen. If it was the Grim, was there a chance that it was going to come and attack me? Attack us? I certainly hoped not. I wasn't quite ready to die yet. I was used to all of the near-death experiences, but I wasn't ready to actually die just quite yet. With Ron's spell, a beam of light fell across the grass, hit the bottom of a tree, and illuminated its branches; there, crouching among the budding leaves, was Crookshanks. I let out a deep breath. I could tolerate Crookshanks. The Grim would have been a whole other problem.

"Get out of here!" Ron roared.

We all watching out of the corner of our eyes to see what was happening. Ron had always been the one of us to hate Crookshanks more than anyone else. And I really wasn't fond of the pudgy orange cat. We both watched as Ron stooped down and seized a stone lying on the grass, but before he could do anything else, Crookshanks had vanished with one swish of his long ginger tail. I whacked Ron in the arm. As much as I didn't like the cat, it wasn't right to start throwing rocks at Hermione's pet.

"See?" Ron asked furiously, chucking the stone down again. "She's still letting him wander about wherever he wants - probably washing down Scabbers with a couple of birds now…"

It was the wrong time to say anything to Ron about Crookshanks, especially to tell him that he was being rather cruel. So instead we both took a deep breath as relief seeped through us; I had been sure for a moment that those eyes had belonged to the Grim, which would have led to a new set of problems for us. Again we set off for the castle once more. Slightly ashamed of my moment of panic, I didn't say anything to Ron - nor did I look left or right until they had reached the well-lit entrance hall. I didn't need to say anything to Harry. He had obviously been thinking the same thing.

We were just heading towards the main staircase when a call came from behind us. "Tara." I turned back and smiled when I saw Cedric walking up to us. He looked like he was coming back from a Prefect meeting. "Glad I caught you," Cedric said.

"Hey," I said happily. I turned back to Harry and Ron, who were both staring at Cedric. Harry was staring blankly - looking only a tiny bit annoyed - while Ron was scowling. "Bye, boys."

"Whatever," Ron scoffed, turning towards the staircase.

"See you later," Harry muttered.

The two of them headed straight up the staircase, not bothering to say help to Cedric, not that he looked really annoyed about it. He was used to their standoffish behavior. "They always look so pleased whenever I catch you," Cedric teased.

Laughing under my breath, I shrugged my shoulders, noticing that Harry and Ron were still complaining about me as they walked off. "It doesn't matter that I'm an only child. I've got two perfectly-good brothers right there," I said, pointing back to them.

"I knew they didn't like me," Cedric said.

They were perhaps some of the few people in Hogwarts who didn't really like Cedric. "It's not really that they don't like you. I don't think that they've got much of a problem with you. It's the fact that you like me," I said, earning a small smile. "Actually, it's more of a problem that I like you."

Cedric grinned. "They don't trust me?"

"Can you blame them?"

Cedric was a teenage boy. So were they. I assumed that they were all thinking the exact same thing. "What do they think that I'm going to do to you?" Cedric asked, sounding only a tiny bit annoyed.

"I keep asking myself that same question," I said under my breath.

That was when I realized that I shouldn't have even said something like that. Because it was one of the stupidest and most embarrassing thing that I could have said. Idiot! He now knew exactly what I was thinking. Something that I hadn't even meant to say and something that I shouldn't have said. Cedric snorted under his breath as my face lit up a brilliant red. That wasn't what I had meant. Either way, it didn't really matter. Amos Diggory had said that we weren't allowed to be in his house alone and my parents would say the same thing once they found out.

Actually, Dad would probably never let me speak to Cedric again. "Is that the Firebolt?" Cedric asked, motioning to the broom.

I was extremely grateful that he had changed the subject, because my face was burning and my mind was wandering into some strange and embarrassing places. "No. It's a microwave," I teased.

"Cute." We both smiled as Cedric's brows knitted together. "What's a microwave?" Cedric asked.

My face fell. "Seriously?" Cedric merely shrugged his shoulders. I couldn't believe that he didn't know what a microwave was. Even I knew what that was. "You need to take Muggle Studies." Cedric scoffed. "It's a machine that Muggles use to heat up their food," I explained.

"Cool. Can I see it?" he asked, pointing to the broom.

"I will actually kill you -"

"I'm not going to hurt it," Cedric interrupted.

Smiling softly, I pulled the Firebolt off of my shoulders and handed it over to Cedric. "Here."

His eyes lit up just the way that Oliver's had the first time that I had handed him over the Firebolt. Cedric ran his hand over the wooden handle, being obviously quite careful. "Wow... This is... amazing," he muttered.

"I was thinking the same thing," I said.

Cedric laughed and handed back the Firebolt. "I'm officially extremely jealous," he admitted.

"Yeah. I know how that feels," I muttered.

"What?" Cedric asked, surprised.

Idiot! Don't tell him that you hate that other girls flirt with him! That would have been one of the worst things that I could do. Guys didn't like the kind of girls who were jealous of their friendships with other girls. And I wasn't. I didn't care who he had for friends. I cared about the girls who blatantly flirted with him right in front of me. The ones who knew that it would annoy me. Namely Cho Chang. My face lit up brilliant red and I tried to shake it off, determined not to look like too much of an idiot in front of him.

"Nothing," I muttered dumbly.

Sensing that I had said something to embarrass myself, Cedric changed the subject again. "Good practice out there?" he asked.

My face turned up in another bright smile. "It was actually really great. I really think that we're going to stand a chance out there. I mean, I don't think that I could tolerate losing a game of Quidditch to Cho Chang," I said quickly.

You're such a moron, Tara. Cedric's eyebrows raised. "Just Cho or the entire Ravenclaw team?" he asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I tried very hard to look nonchalant. "Either, I suppose," I said softly.

"Do you not like Cho?" Cedric asked curiously.

"Not particularly," I admitted.

"Why not?"

Why did Cho Chang hate me? That was the reason that I hated her. It had all started because she hated me first. She really didn't have a good reason. I had dropped ice cream on her shoes on accident before my First Year at Hogwarts. That was what had started it all. But she was also stuck-up, a perfectionist, and constantly followed the rules. Everything that I hated. Her crush on Cedric - mixed with my own interest in him - had only ever made things even worse between us. But I didn't want to admit that to him.

"Differing personalities, I suppose," I said carelessly. "Do you?"

Cedric nodded. "She's nice enough to me." My eyes narrowed but I tried very hard not to say anything about it. She was his friend. He had every right to be her friend. "But there's someone that I like much more," Cedric said, pulling me into him.

My lips turned upwards into a smile as I placed a hand on his chest and teasingly shoved him away from me. "Look who knew that they were getting into dangerous territory," I teased.

"Exactly," Cedric said, smiling.

The two of us laughed and rolled our eyes at each other. This was always why we got along so well. We could tease each other and not think anything of it. Just a moment later, Cedric grabbed my hand and pulled me with him. I stumbled behind him as Cedric walked us back towards a slightly dark hallway. It was back towards the Potions classroom - somewhere that I really didn't want to be. But it was also one of the few places that I knew no one would come looking for us. We would be uninterrupted back here.

Which was good, because I really did want to have some time with him. Mostly because we rarely got to see each other during the day. Especially not like this. I giggled under my breath as he gently pushed me back into the stone wall. It was cold but it felt good from my slightly sweaty body from the training. Cedric leaned down and pressed a small and rather soft kiss against my lips. I pushed away from him for just a moment so that I could carefully prop the Firebolt up against the wall before coming back to greet him another kiss.

Despite the multiple kisses that we had shared together, I was still nervous each time that we kissed each other. It was something that I wouldn't get over for a little while. At least, I figured that much. In the meantime, my heart was hammering in my chest as I wound my arms up around his shoulders. My fingertips were gently pressing against the base of his neck as we kept against each other. One of his hands eventually made their way up to knot itself in my windblown hair as the other wound back around my waist, pulling me flush against him.

There wasn't even an inch of room for me to be able to move. Not that I minded. I merely giggled as he deepened the kiss slightly. With the height difference between the two of us, I had to look upwards to actually meet him in the kiss. My hair already had a ton of knots in it from racing back and forth on the broom, but it was even worse now, with his hands running through it. My arms eventually loosened from his neck as they went down to rest on his chest, bunching up the fabric of the shirt that he was wearing.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure nearly how long we were together. Time seemed to lose all sense of meaning as the two of us stood up against each other. It didn't seem to matter either. I just knew that I was genuinely happy being with him. It seemed that I always was. We ended up separating for a little while to just chat before coming back to kiss each other again. We went back and forth between kissing each other deeply and exchanging little pecks. Our only sense of time was my occasional checks to my Muggle watch. It was a long time before we finally separated for good.

"We're getting close to curfew," I said regretfully.

The moment that I said it, I wished that I hadn't. I didn't want to go back to the Common Room. I wanted to stay here. "We are. I'll see you at the game tomorrow?" Cedric asked.

"Being a player, I kind of have to be there," I teased.

"Touché. Good luck, alright?"

"Thanks, Cedric."

"I'm putting money on you," Cedric said. My eyebrows rose. He was actually planning on betting? I didn't think that he ever bet on any of the games. "Don't you dare lose."

I had no intentions of losing ever again. But there was something else that had occurred to me. "You're betting?" I asked.

Cedric nodded. "Against my friend. He said that you would lose, after the game that..." As Cedric trailed off, I nodded, knowing what he was getting at. He was remembering the Dementors, and that was likely what his friend had been talking about. "But I know your secret weapon," Cedric said proudly, referring to my practice with the Patronus.

It might not have been the strongest Patronus in the world, but it was something. "True. You do. I won't lose you your money. I promise," I said, grabbing his hand.

"I know," Cedric said.

The two of us made our way out of the Potions hallway to head somewhere else. He needed to head off towards the kitchens while I needed to head up to the towers to avoid missing the curfew. Before we could actually go our separate ways, Cedric grabbed my waist and I laughed as he pulled me into him for another kiss. My arms wound their way around his waist as his gripped the back of my hips. We stayed together for a few moments before he pulled away, placing a hand underneath my chin, tilting my head up, and pressing another small kiss against my lips.

"Goodnight, Tara," Cedric said.

"Night, Cedric," I said breathlessly.

That was definitely something that I could get used to. I would have loved to see the look on Cho Chang's face if she could have seen the kiss that we had just exchanged. She would have lost it. Of course, Ron and Harry would have lost it, too. And Fred. And George. And a whole number of people. It was one of those moments that I almost wished that I was unpopular. At least no one would have cared about my relationship status. As Cedric walked down the hallway, he turned back to give me a small wink before heading out of sight.

Smiling brightly, I was just about to turn away and head up to Gryffindor Tower when another voice stopped me dead in my tracks. "Isn't that a sweet sight?"

Instantly I jumped up into the air. I hadn't thought that anyone else was here. My entire body whirled around to find Malfoy leaning up against the wall, grinning at me. My heart was thumping in my chest. Obviously he'd at least seen some of that. I scowled at him and found that he almost instantly scowled back at me. There went the slight friendship that we had managed to develop from the other week. Unfortunately it meant that this kiss was likely to be all over school in a matter of hours, because he clearly saw at least the last one that we had shared.

"Malfoy. What are you doing here?" I asked sharply.

Of course, he had more of a reason to be here than I did. The Slytherin Common Room wasn't far from here. Gryffindor Tower was on the other end of the castle. "Free country. Not quite curfew yet," Malfoy said carelessly.

"Voyeur, eh?" I teased.

"You're not being very discreet," Malfoy said, almost bitter.

"Oh? Like you and Parkinson?"

"Jealous?" Malfoy asked, grinning again.

Scoffing at him, I motioned back towards where Cedric had walked off. "As you see, I have someone," I said snappily.

Malfoy pushed off of the wall to come stand a little bit closer. "Someone that you only kiss in the darkest corners of the castle in the middle of the night for fear that someone might find you out. Sounds almost like he might be a little embarrassed about you," Malfoy said.

Don't punch him, Tara. Don't let him get his rise out of you. "It was my idea," I hissed.

"Sure it was," Malfoy said flippantly.

"Angry that someone might actually like me?" I asked.

Ron had once asked if Malfoy liked me. I had brushed it off at the time, but maybe it was something that I should have given a little more thought to. "Why would I care?" Malfoy asked sharply.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I moved towards him. "That's what I keep asking myself. Why do you care?" I snapped. Malfoy merely watched me with a straight face. "You're the only person besides Harry and Ron - who are like my brothers - that seems to care so much about my relationship with Cedric."

Malfoy shrugged his shoulders. "The entire school cares," he pointed out.

"Because Cedric's popular," I explained. He was popular and I was always the crazy American. We made an odd coupling. "But you care... why? You don't care about popularity unless it's yours."

"I don't care about you, Nox," Malfoy said quickly.

"Thanks," I deadpanned.

It really didn't offend me that much. It wasn't even close to the nastiest thing that Malfoy had ever told me before. "I just think that your attempts to be with Diggory - someone that clearly only wants you when no one else can see - is quite amusing. Pathetic, even for someone like you," Malfoy snarled.

Each one of his words was an insult to me. Not that it was anything surprising. He had always spoken to me like that. But it was starting to bother me more and more every time. "And here I thought that we might have made some progress the other week. You're such an ass. Why do you hate me so much, Malfoy? What the hell did I do to you?" I asked irritably.

For a moment it was obvious that I had thrown Malfoy. He hadn't been expecting me to say something like that. He had just been expecting me to scoff and walk away. "You're just pathetic," Malfoy said.

"Not good enough," I said determinedly.

"That's my reason," Malfoy said.

But that wasn't a good enough reason. I wanted to know exactly what it was that he was angry with me for. It didn't make any sense to me. Just because he hated Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who happened to be my best friends... Was that really the reason that he hated me? It didn't seem to be a good enough reason. We had actually gotten along rather well before that day on the Hogwarts Express, when Harry had first really met Malfoy. But that couldn't be enough of a reason just to hate me as much as he hated me. It was unnatural how much he despised me.

And I had noticed that he had hated me even more since realizing that Cedric and I were sort-of together. Could he have really liked me? I didn't want to think about it. Because that would have caused some strange changes in our relationship. But I was sick of dealing with Malfoy's mood swings. So, as he walked past me to leave, I grabbed his arm and shoved him back. He knocked into the wall as I stepped up against him and pressed him into the wall. I was desperate to know why he hated me as much as he did. He was going to give me an answer today.

"Why?" I asked.

"I don't hate you," Malfoy said.

It was so fast that it surprised me. "What?" I asked dumbly.

Yes, he did. I knew that he hated me. He had made that clear enough. "I don't hate you. I hate your friends," Malfoy said.

Everyone knew that Malfoy hated Ron, Harry, and Hermione. But everyone also knew that Malfoy hated me. "I know that you hate them. But you - you hate me too," I stuttered.

"No, I don't," Malfoy said.

"But you don't treat me like a friend," I reasoned.

"No."

"Why not?"

He still wasn't giving me my answer. Was it because he knew that it was annoying me? Or did he not want me to know the answer? The two of us stared at each other for a moment. I found myself reasonably nervous as Malfoy leaned forward and placed a hand on my arm. It took me a moment too long to realize that we were standing almost pressed up against each other. It was closer than I had ever been to him before - when I wasn't Pansy Parkinson, at least. It looked like he was about to pull me into him and kiss him. But he ultimately moved me off to the side.

"Nice broom," Malfoy said, spotting the Firebolt.

Stunned into silence, I watched Malfoy stalk off for a moment. But I quickly ran after him. "Hang on!" I shouted, running up to him and catching his arm. "Answer my question."

"Good luck tomorrow," Malfoy said slowly.

"Thanks..." I muttered awkwardly.

It was obvious enough that he wasn't going to give me the answer that I wanted. Not today, at least. Maybe this was something that I would have to wait for him to admit to me. So I merely walked numbly back to the Gryffindor Tower. I couldn't figure out what was going on with Malfoy. I hated him because of what a pain in the ass he was. But I also wanted to know what he felt about me. Obviously he didn't hate me. He had said that much. But what did he feel towards me? It didn't make any sense to me. It probably never would.

In the meantime, there were other things that I had to worry about. Like the Quidditch game tomorrow. So I decided to not worry about it. Instead I walked into the Common Room and headed straight in. It was warm from the fireplace and I smiled. It felt nice after the chill of the dungeons. So I sat in the far corner of the room by the fireplace. It had always been my favorite spot. As I looked around the Common Room, I couldn't find Ron or Harry. Hermione was no use. She was covered in stacks of books and hordes of paperwork. She would tell me to leave her be to work in peace.

Propping my book open on my lap, Lord of the Flies, I was left alone for just a few moments. I had only managed to flip two or three pages before the twins dropped next to me. "You look thrilled," George teased.

Fred pulled the book from my hands a moment later. Good thing I wasn't actually paying attention to that. "Malfoy was being an ass," I mumbled.

"What else is new?" Fred asked irritably.

He made a point. Malfoy had always been a pain in the ass. "That's fair. He was actually reasonably nice to me the other day." Fred and George raised their brows in surprise. "I guess that I was just hoping that we might have gotten over all of this... whatever he hated me for before. Evidently not," I said, almost annoyed at that fact.

"He's a prat, Tara," Fred said comfortingly.

"Not worth your time," George added.

They both wrapped their arms around me as I smiled. They could be annoying, too, but at least I loved them both. "Thanks, boys. Where are Harry and Ron?" I asked.

"Upstairs. They wanted to rest before the game," Fred said.

"Ron, too? He's not playing," I pointed out.

"We think he's sleeping with the Firebolt," George said. I snorted under my breath and nodded. That sounded like something that Ron would do right now. "Want to help us out with the company?"

"What the hell? Sure," I said.

It would be nice to take some time and do something to keep my mind off of what was happening with Malfoy - something that I had found myself thinking about quite a bit recently, which was very annoying. For a while we tried to get some work done. The three of us called over Lee Jordan to try and work on some business moves that the twins would have to make if they wanted to open up their store sometime over the next few years. Especially if they wanted to do it right after their graduation from Hogwarts.

Working on their store didn't end up working out for us too well. Instead I ended up just sitting with Lee, George, and Fred all night long and laughing about the stupidest things. It had been one of the easier nights that I'd had, with no work to do for the first time in a long time. Just worrying about the game. As had been happening so frequently lately, I ended up falling asleep on Fred with George and Lee across from us on the other couches. Fred had very clearly become a place of comfort for me, since I genuinely did trust him.

The next morning I ran upstairs to change into my Quidditch robes before heading back downstairs to wait for the Common Room. I went down to breakfast the next morning with Harry and the rest of the boys in his dormitory, all of whom seemed to think the two Firebolts deserved a sort of guard of honor. As I entered the Great Hall, heads turned in the direction of the two Firebolts, and there was a good deal of excited muttering. Harry and I exchanged an excited smile. And I saw, with enormous satisfaction, that the Slytherin team were all looking thunderstruck.

"Did you see his face? He can't believe it! This is brilliant!" Ron cheered gleefully, looking back at Malfoy.

For a moment I turned back to see what he was talking about. He was right. Clearly Malfoy hadn't caught the full significance of the Firebolt last night. Of course, it had been dark in the dungeons. Rolling my eyes, I turned back and looked back at the Gryffindor table. It was obvious enough that Oliver was thrilled with the attention. He was smiling brightly and proudly sitting tall at the table. It was rather sweet, because Oliver, too, was basking in the reflected glory of the Firebolts. This was his last chance. We had to beat Ravenclaw.

"We're glad to have helped out," I told Oliver sweetly.

"No one can believe that you two actually have them," Oliver said.

"Honestly I can't really believe it either. Oh, I'm so excited for the game!" I cheered, laughing happily.

"Me, too. Put them here, Harry, Tara," Oliver said, laying the brooms in the middle of the table and carefully turning them so that their names faced upward.

It didn't take long for the rumors of the Firebolts to spread all throughout the school. Just moments later, everyone began swarming the table to check it out. Even some of the Gryffindor's, all of whom had seen the Firebolts before. People from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were soon coming over to look. Even Cedric came over to congratulate Harry on having acquired such a superb replacement for his Nimbus. It was the one time that I had seen the two of them with the potential to be friends.

Cedric then came over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Gonna win that game, right?" he teased.

"Oh, absolutely. There's no way that I'll lose it. We'll lose it," I corrected myself quickly.

That was the wrong thing of me to say. We were a team. We all worked together. I couldn't forget that there were seven other people who played on the team with me. "Almost forget that you played on a team?" Cedric asked, laughing.

"Of course not. Do I get a kiss for good luck?" I asked playfully.

"I thought that we were enemies on the Quidditch Pitch?" Cedric said.

He was right about that. I had told him that before our own game. "Well we aren't playing against each other right now," I reasoned.

"Ah... Your offer is tempting."

"But?" I asked, sensing that he had something else to say.

Cedric moved forward towards me and dropped his mouth towards my ear and a warming sensation spread through my stomach. I was glad that everyone was too enamored with the Firebolts to pay any mind to us. "Win the game and then you get your kiss," Cedric said lowly.

"You're such a jerk," I said loudly.

He was laughing at the knowledge that he had gotten to me. His hand traced across the back of my neck, just around the top of my spine. I shivered slightly but I was determined to prove myself stronger than him. So I shoved him back away from me. I really did want a kiss before the game, but I had always liked the teasing relationship that the two of us had. I would feel extremely strange if the two of us ever became just strictly romantic. As Cedric walked off, Percy's Ravenclaw girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, asked if she could actually hold Harry's Firebolt.

"Now, now, Penny, no sabotage!" Percy said heartily as she examined the Firebolt closely.

"Penny?" I repeated.

Fred and George - who had been sitting on the other side of me from Harry - leaned over and lowered their own voices. "We think there's actually something wrong with him," Fred whispered.

"We keep trying to convince him to go see Madam Pomfrey," George said.

"I've never seen him that interested in someone before," I said.

"Neither have we," Fred said.

"Unless it's himself," George added.

Snorting under my breath, I tried to keep my noise down, knowing that Percy wouldn't appreciate that comment. "Penelope and I have got a bet on. Ten Galleons on the outcome of the match!" Percy told our team. Penelope put the Firebolt down again, thanked Harry, and went back to her table. "Harry - make sure you win. I haven't got ten Galleons."

His voice was more urgent than I had ever heard it before. But he had nothing to worry about. We would be able to win the match without problem. "We've got it, Percy. Don't worry," I said, patting Percy on the arm.

"Yes, I'm coming, Penny!" Percy called.

We all watched him out of the corner of our eyes with raised eyebrows. Because he very suddenly bustled off to join her in a piece of toast. It was the strangest thing that I had ever seen with Percy. He was always so big-headed. But he looked like he was either very infatuated or might have really been in love with Penelope. Either way, I guessed that it was kind of nice to see him with someone he cared about. But as I saw him integrating himself at the Ravenclaw table, I almost wished that I could do that. Sit at the Hufflepuff table with Cedric.

"Wow... He's really strange with her..." I commented, watching Percy sit with Penelope.

The moment that Ron opened his mouth - probably to insult Percy - someone else spoke over him. "Sure you can manage that broom, Potter?" a cold, drawling voice asked.

Everyone turned back to see what was happening. Just in the nick of time, someone new had arrived. Which was completely unsurprising. I should have known that he would show up before the game. I narrowed my eyes but noted that he wasn't even looking at me. Draco Malfoy had arrived for a closer look at the Firebolt, Crabbe and Goyle right behind him. It took me a moment to realize that he was only insulting Harry, which was fine, because I didn't want to speak with him until he gave me my answer about why he treated me the way that he did.

"Yeah, reckon so," Harry said casually.

"Got plenty of special features, hasn't it? Shame it doesn't come with a parachute - in case you get too near a Dementor," Malfoy commented, his eyes glittering maliciously.

Crabbe and Goyle sniggered. My jaw set. But I had promised myself that I wouldn't speak to him until I got my answer. So I tightened my grip on my water goblet and looked ahead of me. I noticed Cedric standing around the Hufflepuff table, looking like he was about ready to come and say something to us. But I shook my head at him. If there was one thing that I knew, it was that Harry could handle Malfoy's insults.

"Pity you can't attach an extra arm to yours, Malfoy. Then it could catch the Snitch for you," Harry said.

It wasn't just me. The Gryffindor team laughed loudly. It was rather nice to see that someone else could insult Malfoy, other than me, especially as I was always the one who was getting caught and getting in trouble for it. Malfoy's pale eyes narrowed, and he stalked away. I was halfway in between being angry and relieved that Malfoy hadn't said anything else to me. We watched him rejoin the rest of the Slytherin team, who put their heads together, no doubt asking Malfoy whether Harry and I's brooms really were Firebolts.

As the laughter died down, Harry turned back to me curiously. I raised a brow at his inquisitive look. "I think that was the first time that he ever came here and harassed you and you didn't say anything," Harry pointed out.

"Until he gives me an answer, I have nothing to say to him," I said.

"Answer?" Harry asked.

That was when I realized that I shouldn't explain that to Harry. He hated Malfoy enough. He didn't need to think that he might have had a crush on me. "It doesn't matter. He's just... weird," I muttered dumbly.

"He's been strangely nice to you lately," Harry said.

"Not really nice. He just... I don't know."

"Have you two ever -?"

Harry's voice dropped off and I turned to look at him. "What?" I asked cautiously.

Harry was suddenly looking very awkward. We never had been really good at talking about relationships. Maybe we would get a little better with time. "I don't know. He kissed you when he thought that you were Pansy Parkinson. But did something else ever happen? Did he ever find out that it was you?" Harry asked.

I'd almost forgotten that I had never told the others that Malfoy knew that - at least Parkinson - hadn't really been her. "He knows that it was me. Trust me. But he won't say anything. Mostly because there's no way that he could prove it. I don't know... Ever since he figured out that it was me - since he knew for sure - things have been odd between the two of us," I explained stupidly.

"Do you think maybe he really does like you?" Harry asked.

A jolt of horror went through me. What would I even do if Malfoy liked me? Scream? Laugh? Both? I wasn't sure. "I don't think so. I think he's just confused. He hated me and then he kissed me, even though he didn't know that it was me at the time," I explained.

It was the only thing that I could think that made sense. "Diggory, please," Harry said.

"Seriously?" I laughed.

It would have made more sense if he had wanted me to stay single forever. "I don't like Cedric either, but at least I can tolerate him. He's nice and obviously cares for you a lot. Malfoy is just an ass," Harry said.

"Don't worry, I have no interest in Malfoy," I said honestly. "I'd much prefer to be with Cedric."

"Just -"

"Don't let him get too handsy?" I filled in the blanks.

"Exactly," Harry said.

We both laughed and went back to breakfast. I slowly picked through my food, only eating the things that I knew would provide me the energy to win the match. I knew that I could. We could. There was no way that we were going to lose. There was no way that I was going to do that to Oliver. He had to have this win. We needed our fair shot at the Cup. And I wanted my winning kiss from Cedric. Not to mention that Malfoy and Cho Chang would never let me forget it if we lost this match with two Firebolts on the team.

At a quarter to eleven, the entire Gryffindor team set off for the locker rooms. My stomach was flipping nervously. Not really because of the game, but because of the thought of the Dementors. At least if Harry was up in the air, I would be able to produce a Patronus for him. At least, I would try. The weather today couldn't have been more different from our match against Hufflepuff. Which was definitely a good thing. It was a clear, cool day with a very light breeze; there would be no visibility problems this time.

Despite being nervous, I was starting to feel the excitement only a Quidditch match could bring. It had always been my favorite thing about being at Hogwarts. As we went into the locker room, I could hear the rest of the school moving into the stadium beyond. As always, they were here early. I took off my remaining black school robes, removed my wand from my pocket, and stuck it inside the undershirt that I was going to wear under my Quidditch robes. I only hoped that I wouldn't need it. I wondered suddenly whether Professor Lupin was in the crowd, watching.

"Got your wand?" Harry asked me as we all came back together.

"Yes. You?"

"Got it."

"You know what we've got to do. If we lose this match, we're out of the running. Just - Just fly like you did in practice yesterday, and we'll be okay!" Oliver said as we prepared to leave the locker room.

"We've got it, Oliver! We're going to win," I said cheerfully.

"Absolutely," Angelina added reassuringly.

We walked out onto the field to tumultuous applause. The Ravenclaw team, dressed in blue, were already standing in the middle of the field. Their Seeker - who was currently Cho Chang - was the only girl on their team. She was just a tiny bit taller than I was. But she had long black hair instead of my blonde. I noticed that she scowled at me before turning to smile at Harry as our teams faced each other behind our captains. Harry looked like someone had punched him in the gut as he bashfully stared towards the Ravenclaw team.

"What are you staring at?" I finally asked.

Harry turned towards me and motioned to the dark-haired girl. "Is that... Cho Chang?" he asked.

"That's her," I said irritably.

"Oh," Harry said awkwardly.

Suddenly he looked back at Cho Chang. My gaze narrowed on him. What the hell was he staring at her like that for? He couldn't have possibly been intimidated by her. "What do you look all wistful for?" I asked sharply.

"Huh?" Harry asked dumbly, looking back at me. "Oh - nothing."

That was when it hit me. I had seen that look before. I knew that look perfectly well. It was the same look that I used to get on my face when I looked at Cedric. Long before we had ever started somewhat-dating and long before he had ever really shown any interest in me. Yes, I knew exactly what that look was. Harry thought that Cho Chang was pretty. It was obvious enough that a crush on her was already forming. I didn't care if Harry had a crush or starting going out with someone - although I would tease him mercilessly about it - but it could not be her.

"No... No... Harry, no!" I cried.

"What?" Harry asked, surprised.

"You like her?" I howled.

"I don't even know her!" Harry defended himself.

We were drawing some attention from the rest of the team, but I didn't care. This was now the new biggest problem at hand. "So what? I thought that Cedric was cute before I ever spoke to him and look at where we are now. Harry, I will love and support you always, but there is no way that you can have a crush on Cho Chang," I hissed.

Anyone else, but not Cho Chang. No way. Never. Harry rolled his eyes and motioned towards the Hufflepuff section of the stands. "Now you know who I felt when I used to see you with Cedric," he said.

"Please, no," I begged.

"You just hate her because she talks to Diggory," Harry said.

That was definitely part of the reason, but that wasn't everything. She had started our little rivalry. "I hate her because she hated me first. For no damn reason!" I shouted.

"Wood, Davies, shake hands," Madam Hooch said briskly, and Oliver shook hands with the Ravenclaw Captain.

It had interrupted our conversation with each other. "We can talk later," Harry promised.

The only conversation that we were going to be having later was all of the reasons that Harry couldn't be with Cho Chang. At least Cedric was nice to Harry. Cho Chang absolutely hated me, and even if she ever dated Harry, that would never change. She would likely hate me even more. Maybe there was a chance that she would even poison Harry to me. Maybe now I really did know how Harry felt about my crush on Cedric. As Madam Hooch started pushing me off to the side, I realized that I had been steaming so much that I had ignored what had meant to be the start of the game.

"Alternates off to the side," Madam Hooch said, giving me a pointed look. I blushed and headed over to the bench. "Mount your brooms… on my whistle… three - two - one -"

It was rather amusing to watch the beginning of the game. Harry kicked off into the air and the Firebolt zoomed higher and faster than any other broom. He was well up into the air long before anyone else had even made it fifteen feet. It was enough to make me smile. There was no way that Cho would be able to outstrip him for speed. He would catch the Snitch, no problem. I watched as Harry soared around the stadium and began squinting around for the Snitch, listening all the while to the commentary, which was being provided by Fred and George's friend, Lee Jordan.

"They're off, and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. If Tara Nox is needed to step in at any point, Gryffindor will have two Firebolts on their team. According to Which Broomstick, the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship -"

"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" Professor McGonagall's voice interrupted.

"Right you are, Professor - just giving a bit of background information - the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and -"

"Jordan!"

"Okay, okay, Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor heading for goal…"

As Lee actually began commentating for the match, I slightly tuned out and started to watch what was happening up in the air. It was easy enough to see that Ravenclaw had the weaker team. Our players were faster and better trained. Harry streaked past Katie in the opposite direction, obviously gazing around for a glint of gold. Just behind him I noticed that Cho Chang was tailing him closely. My gaze narrowed and I wished that I could shoot her out of the sky. She was undoubtedly a very good flier - which annoyed me to admit. She kept cutting across him, forcing him to change direction.

"Show her your acceleration, Harry!" Fred yelled as he whooshed past in pursuit of a Bludger that was aiming for Alicia.

"Knock her off the damn thing!" I howled, loudly enough for most of the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and even some of the Slytherin section to laugh.

In the meantime I glanced back up at the sky to see what was happening. It was one of the longest that I had ever gone without playing in a game and I was getting twitchy to get in on the action. I could see Harry urging the Firebolt forward as they rounded the Ravenclaw goal posts and Cho fell behind. Her broom wasn't even close to being a match for his. Just as Katie succeeded in scoring the first goal of the match, and the Gryffindor end of the field went wild, I saw it - the Snitch was close to the ground, flitting near one of the barriers.

It was obvious that just as I had seen it, Harry did, too. Unfortunately Ravenclaw was good at playing keep away. We needed to rack up more points. Despite the fact that we were ahead and Harry was the better flier, we really needed to score a little bit more. At least we were keeping Ravenclaw from scoring. Harry suddenly dived; Cho saw what he was doing and tore after him. The closer that he got to the ground though, I knew that Cho wouldn't keep following him. Harry was speeding up, and excitement was flooding me; dives were his specialty and he was only ten feet away.

Then a Bludger, hit by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, came pelting out of nowhere. Fred and George were a little bit too slow to knock it off course for him. They were busy defending Alicia and Angelina from the other Ravenclaw Beater. Obviously that had been their plan. I growled under my breath as Harry veered off course, avoiding it by an inch, and in those few, crucial seconds, the Snitch had vanished. Unfortunately he would need some more time before spotting the Snitch again. More time for us to score, I supposed.

There was a great sound of disappointment from the Gryffindor supporters, but much applause for their Beater from the Ravenclaw end. Slytherin was obviously supporting Ravenclaw - as it always did whenever they were playing against Gryffindor. Hufflepuff seemed to mostly be supporting Gryffindor. Cedric had once told me that they thought most Ravenclaw's were a little too stuck up. George vented his feelings about the missed Snitch by hitting the second Bludger directly at the offending Beater, who was forced to roll right over in midair to avoid it.

Unfortunately he didn't fall off his broom. We watched the game together for a while - myself and the Ravenclaw alternate. He turned out to be quite nice. We were actually having a rather good chat. He was a Fourth Year who was also hoping to be a Chaser in a few years. He was determined that Ravenclaw would win but I kept telling him that there was no way. Especially now that we were starting to pick up pace. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were scoring more and more as time went on. Despite the fact that Harry hadn't found the Snitch again, we at least had the lead.

"Gryffindor leads by eighty points to zero, and look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn - Chang's Comet is just no match for it, the Firebolt's precision-balance is really noticeable in these long -"

"Jordan! Are you being paid to advertise Firebolts? Get on with the commentary!"

As the stadium erupted into laughter, I went back to watching the game. Ravenclaw was unfortunately pulling back; they had now scored three goals, which put Gryffindor only fifty points ahead. That wasn't something that we could afford. Because now we were in the danger zone. If somehow Cho got the Snitch before him, Ravenclaw would win. She wouldn't, but... Harry dropped lower, narrowly avoiding a Ravenclaw Chaser, scanning the field frantically. I saw it at the same time he did - a glint of gold, a flutter of tiny wings - the Snitch was circling the Gryffindor goal post.

It was right there. He was going to get it this time. If we couldn't be up in points, Harry at least needed to be able to get the Snitch. That would let us win anyways. Suddenly Angelina shot up next to the goalposts to try and make a goal. At the same time a Bludger was knocked right into her stomach. She slowly soared to the ground - looking like she might be sick. It had clearly been a little harder than she had been expecting it to be. I assumed that her original move had just been to get her out of the game for a little while.

She definitely hadn't been expecting it to hit her quite as hard as it had. I felt rather terribly for her. Especially because that had only happened to her because she had wanted to get me into the game - probably at Oliver's order. They all knew that I would undoubtedly have no issues scoring on my Firebolt. I never had a problem on any broom. Angelina landed on the ground where Madam Hooch escorted her over to bench. She didn't look terrible, but I knew that she was in pain. I walked over and grabbed her arm as Madam Hooch barked at me to get into the game.

"Three goals, alright?" Angelina asked.

"Got it," I said.

It would give us our lead back and a little more wiggle room in case something happened with Cho Chang. Angelina grabbed my arm as I walked to the center of the Pitch. "Get us back in the safety zone," she said.

"No problem," I said.

"Good luck!" Angelina cheered.

Instantly I moved into the center of the Quidditch Pitch. It would be easy enough to get into the swing of the game. Mounting the Firebolt, I kicked up and instantly shot straight up into the air. I had almost forgotten how fast these brooms were. Even though I had just ridden it yesterday. Instantly I started zooming in and out of the players up in the air. I could hear Lee starting to comment about the Firebolt, quickly shouted at by Professor McGonagall to get back to talking about the game. But I tried to tune them out. Right now my job was to play in the game and tune out everything else.

Just like with Harry, the other players were absolutely no match for my Firebolt. I easily outstripped the Ravenclaw players and the other girls from the Gryffindor team had already learned how to work with my Firebolt. Back in the stands I could hear everyone cheering for me. There was no doubt in my mind that I was the fastest person on the field right now. With the exception of Harry, who was busy slowly winding in and out of the field, trying to find the Snitch again. Clearly it had vanished again.

After a while of speeding in and out of the players, I spotted Fred starting to tail me. It was the same strategy that we had learned with Oliver during the few practices that we had done over the past few days. The two of us were winding in and out of the players as Fred was whacking the Bludgers towards me so that I could dive and get them punted right towards the Ravenclaw players. It was easy enough. They were so focused on trying to keep up with me that they hadn't even realized that the Bludgers were heading straight towards them.

None had connected just yet, but a few players had come close to being unseated. Not only that, but it had made them a little weary of flying near me. It also helped that I was able to quickly fly in and out of the all of the people who were playing, keeping them all from getting too close to each other. Which was good, since I had noticed that none of the Ravenclaw Chasers had marvelous arms. A Sixth Year boy had the Quaffle as I dove and Fred knocked a Bludger towards him. Startled, he dropped the Quaffle, and I managed to catch it.

It was the first time that I had managed to grab it, even though I had been playing less than sixty seconds. The cheers in the stadium went up as I began to shoot to the other end of the stadium. The others were trying to keep up with me, but they weren't even close to being a match. Plus Alicia and Katie were cutting them off to keep them on the other end of the stadium anyways. I shot up towards the goalposts and threw the Quaffle, easily scoring as George knocked a Bludger towards the Keeper. The entire stadium erupted into cheers.

While Lee started to compliment my flying - frequently mentioning the capabilities of the Firebolt - I shot down and caught the Quaffle just a foot above one of the Ravenclaw Chasers - who had also been trying to catch it. I grinned madly as I sped off away from him before he could get me back for taking what should have been his catch. I could hear Harry cheering for me as I attempted to speed back towards the goalposts. But Ravenclaw had managed to get their footing again. Their Beaters were definitely working hard to keep me off course.

But it didn't matter. I was still working much harder than the rest of the Ravenclaw team. They must have sensed that they were going to lose, because they were starting to work a little bit harder. Their plays were getting nastier and I noticed that almost everything was being aimed my way. Sneak attack, the large collections of Chasers trying to cage me in, and every Bludger headed straight for me. It didn't make much of a difference, other than making it just slighter harder to actually score and taking me a little more time.

Over the next five minutes, I managed to score twice more. We managed to keep Ravenclaw from scoring, even during the brief times that they had managed to regain control of the Quaffle. Alicia and Katie were definitely working well with me, taking the Quaffle just long enough to distract the others from me, who was always positioning myself a little bit better for an easy score. The few times that Ravenclaw had been able to catch the Quaffle, Alicia and Katie would manage to distract them long enough for me to provide a sneak attack and regain it.

The entire thing was almost a joke. It had to be the best game that we had ever played before. As I grabbed the Quaffle from Alicia, who had managed to catch it after Oliver had deflected a shot from a Ravenclaw Chaser, I noticed something strange. A grin creeped its way onto my face. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw that Harry had clearly managed to catch onto something. Likely the Snitch. Harry accelerated, eyes fixed on the speck of gold ahead that I could just barely see - but just then, Cho appeared out of thin air, blocking him.

"Harry, this is no time to be a gentleman!" Oliver roared as Harry swerved to avoid a collision. "Knock her off her broom if you have to!"

"Do it!" I added excitably.

Cho turned long enough to give me a little scowl. I winked at her, knowing that it would drive her nuts. I would win the game and eventually come back to school dating Cedric. Harry turned and caught sight of Cho; by now she was grinning, thinking she had won. The Snitch had vanished again. Harry turned his Firebolt upward and was soon twenty feet above the game. As I zoomed around the field, I saw Cho following him. She had decided to mark him rather than search for the Snitch herself. Way too easy. Well, if she wanted to tail him, she would have to take the consequences.

He would do the one thing that I knew that he could beat her with. It was one of the few things in Quidditch that Harry surpassed even me with. He dived again, and Cho, thinking he had seen the Snitch, tried to follow. It was going to end up being her mistake. As I shot through the players, I watched as Harry pulled out of the dive very sharply; Cho continued hurtling downward. Unfortunately she didn't smash into the ground. In the meantime, Harry rose fast as a bullet once more, and then saw it, for the third time - the Snitch was glittering way above the field at the Ravenclaw end.

If he could manage to get to that end of the field, it would be easy enough for him to work at the Snitch. As Harry shot to get the Snitch, I shot off to try and make another goal. We could manage to get way ahead in this, making it much easier to beat Slytherin in a few weeks. I shot through the players, narrowly avoiding a collision with one of the Bludgers. Just a moment later George shot up from underneath me and whacked the Bludger in the other direction, allowing me to soar on towards the Ravenclaw goals.

Knowing that the game was likely about to end, the Ravenclaw players started trying to cut me off and punt Bludgers at me. Fred and George quickly became my protectors as I got closer and closer to the goalposts. It was just a few more feet until I was in throwing range. It would be easy enough for me to make a goal. One more before Harry could manage to catch the Snitch and end the game. And put us in the finals for the Quidditch Cup. Harry and I both accelerated; so, many feet below, did Cho. Harry was winning, gaining on the Snitch with every second.

"Oh!" Cho screamed, pointing.

Distracted, both Harry and I looked down. I wanted to know what was happening. Unfortunately I was being stupid enough to not bother keeping up the game. But no one else had either. Everyone had stopped playing and the cheers in the stadium had died down. Everyone wanted to know what was happening. That was when I spotted it out of the corner of my eyes. Three Dementors, three tall, black, hooded Dementors, were looking straight up at Harry and me, about thirty feet below us on the ground.

My heart lodged in my throat but I didn't dare stop moving or drop what I had been doing. In fact, I didn't even stop to think. Just as I had learned to do before, I tucked the Quaffle down underneath one of my arms and tightened my grip on it as much as I could. No way that I could drop it now. With my arms free, I went to work defending myself, Harry, and everyone else in the stadium. Plunging a hand down the neck of my robes, I whipped out my wand and motioned right towards the three Dementors.

"Expecto patronum!" I roared.

At the same time, I had heard someone else - likely Harry - yelling the same thing. Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of my wand. It had been corporeal. I had managed it. But I couldn't see what it was. I was still busy thinking about the game. We had to win. I had promised Oliver that we would. I knew it had shot directly at the Dementors but I didn't pause to watch; my mind still miraculously clear, I looked ahead - I was nearly there. Just a few feet away from the goalposts and a tiny bit underneath them.

As Harry stretched out the hand still grasping his wand, I saw him just a few inches from the Snitch. One last goal and we would be perfectly set up for the finals. I tucked my wand back underneath my shirt and into my robes and I rocketed up into the air and chucked the Quaffle as hard as I could. The Keeper - still reeling from the emergence of the Dementors - missed my shot and it went straight through the goal. At the same time Harry managed to close his fingers around the struggling Snitch.

Everyone started to cheer and roar all around the stadium even louder, with how incredible the final moments of the game had been. And for once, I hadn't been injured. The Dementors hadn't even managed to affect me this time. I had never been so happy for a win. Madam Hooch's whistle sounded a moment later. Harry and I turned around in midair and saw six scarlet blurs bearing down on us; the next moment, the whole team was hugging me so hard that I was nearly pulled off my broom. The same was happening to Harry. Down below I could hear the roars of the Gryffindor's in the crowd.

"That's my boy!" Oliver kept yelling.

"You did it!" I cheered to Harry.

"We did it!" Harry called back.

"That Patronus -"

"It was amazing!" Harry interrupted me.

Alicia, Angelina, and Katie had all kissed Harry and hugged me so tightly that I thought we would meld together; George had gotten me in a grip so tight I felt as though my head would come off. In complete disarray, the team managed to make its way back to the ground. I practically sprawled to the ground and I would have, had Harry not managed to catch me. Harry and I got off of our brooms and looked up to see a gaggle of Gryffindor supporters sprinting onto the field, Ron in the lead. Before I knew it, we had been engulfed by the cheering crowd.

"Well done, Tara!" Fred yelled.

"Thank you!" I cried excitably as Fred pulled me away from a few First and Second Years who had been cheering for me. "We make quite the team, you and me."

"Yes, we do," Fred said.

He had been the reason that I had managed those first three shots without an issue. We had always worked well, not needing words to communicate and barely needing motions to figure out the others moves. I laughed as Fred picked me up and spun me around. Everyone knew that the two of us were thrilled about winning. It was also the first time that Fred would have a chance at the Quidditch Cup. And we were actually going to manage to win it because I had managed to score the extra points that we had really needed to help our lead in the standings.

"Yes!" Ron yelled, yanking Harry's arm into the air. "Yes! Yes!"

A moment later he picked me up from behind and shook me around. I laughed at Ron's surprising strength. "Well done, Harry! Nice shooting, Tara!" Percy shouted, looking delighted. "Ten Galleons to me! Must find Penelope, excuse me."

"Thanks!" I called after him.

"Good for you, Harry! Tara, you have got to teach me to shoot like that!" Seamus roared.

He had always loved Quidditch. I was kind of surprised that he had never actually tried going out for the team. Of course, that would have meant that he would take over my spot, which was a big no-no. I had earned this spot and I was going to have the full-time player status next semester. There was no way that I wouldn't. But I smiled at Seamus and nodded.

"Meet up with me over the summer. I'll teach you. Dad would love another student," I offered.

"Awesome!" Seamus cried.

"Me, too!" Dean added.

"Deal, boys," I said, giggling.

It would be fun to get together with the boys and play Quidditch. Normally when we met up it was to play soccer. "Ruddy brilliant!" Hagrid roared over the heads of the milling Gryffindor's. He turned to me and smiled brightly. "Yer father would be proud."

"Thanks, Hagrid," I said sweetly.

"Those were quite some Patronus'," a voice said in Harry and I's ears.

Surprised slightly, I jumped and whirled around. Harry turned just a moment after me. He looked almost as startled as I had been. It was thrilling to see everyone around us, cheering and clapping. It was somewhat surprising to see or hear someone who was still calm in all of the chaos. But it was someone who had always been known to be rather calm. Professor Lupin was standing there, and he looked both shaken and pleased.

"Thank you! It was all because of you," I said gratefully.

"You two managed those spells on your own," Professor Lupin said.

"But we couldn't have done it without you," I commented.

"Don't tell your father I said this, but he wasn't half the player that you are," Professor Lupin said, smiling at me fondly.

A broad smile erupted on my face. "Your secret is safe with me," I said.

Harry was laughing, too. I wondered if he was better than his father had been. "The Dementors didn't affect me at all! I didn't feel a thing!" Harry said excitedly, before turning to me. "Did they affect you?"

"Not at all," I said proudly.

"That would be because they - er - weren't Dementors," Professor Lupin said.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"Come and see," Professor Lupin said.

He led Harry and I out of the crowd until we were able to see the edge of the field. It was quite difficult, seeing how many people were milling around. By now some Ravenclaw's were down on the field congratulating Gryffindor on a game well played. Everyone knew that Oliver had wanted this so badly. The Slytherin's were leaving the stadium, upset that Gryffindor had won. Most of Hufflepuff House was down on the Pitch, celebrating with the rest of Gryffindor. Cedric was likely somewhere in there. I would have to find him after this.

"You gave Mr. Malfoy quite a fright," Professor Lupin said.

What was that supposed to mean? Harry and I stared at each other and then back where Professor Lupin was motioning. Lying in a crumpled heap on the ground were Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint, the Slytherin team Captain, all struggling to remove themselves from long, black, hooded robes. They were Hogwarts robes that had been covered from their emerald coloring. It looked as though Malfoy had been standing on Goyle's shoulders. Standing over them, with an expression of the utmost fury on her face, was Professor McGonagall.

"Oh, you are such an ass!" I shouted at Malfoy, somewhere in between laughing at their misfortune and anger for the scare. "Whatever is about to happen to him, he deserves it." That was when I remembered that we weren't allowed to curse. "Please don't take any points away for my profanity. He was just being such a jerk about the Dementors."

"I think I'll let it go this time," Professor Lupin said.

"An unworthy trick! A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!" Professor McGonagall was shouting.

It was obvious enough that they were going to get in a ton of trouble. That was wonderful for me. Malfoy deserved it for being such a pain in the ass all the time. And for nearly giving me a heart attack earlier. If anything could have set the seal on Gryffindor's victory for the Quidditch Cup at the end of the semester, it was this. Ron, who had fought his way through to Harry and I's sides, doubled up with laughter as we watched Malfoy fighting to extricate himself from the robe, Goyle's head still stuck inside it.

"Idiots," I groaned.

Maybe they would learn one day that they couldn't be assholes about everything. They would have to just start being gracious. Excitement running through my veins at winning the game, seeing Malfoy and his cronies getting punished, and beating Cho Chang, I was more than a little thrilled to see Cedric walking up to me. He was currently fighting his way through the crowd. I smiled as he walked up to me and allowed him to pull me up into his arms in a tight hug. His arms were around my waist as he let me fall back to the ground.

"You won me my bet," Cedric said happily.

"You thought I'd lose?" I teased.

"Not a chance," he said truthfully.

My excitement getting the best of me again - as I was bouncing up and down from the adrenaline - I jumped up and wrapped him into another hug. This time I couldn't help it. Neither one of us could, obviously. Because Cedric leaned down at the same time as I leaned up. Almost instantly we met in a kiss. This time I didn't pull back, but instead kissed him back. My arms wound around his neck to rest in his hair. The entire stadium went silent for a moment before erupting into cheers almost as loud as when we had won. The moment that we separated, I noticed Cho Chang scowling at me.

That was also when I realized that I couldn't take that back. We had kissed each other and now we were going to be pegged as a couple, which we sort of were. The entire school had just seen this. I could see everyone staring at the two of us in shock. Sometimes I forgot just how few people knew that the two us had kissed before. A few people - mainly girls who had crushes on Cedric were scowling at me - but mostly everyone else was cheering madly. At least Ron and Harry only looked a little annoyed with me.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't - I didn't mean to do that. Not in front of everyone," Cedric stuttered.

"If you hadn't, I think that I would have," I laughed.

"Well.. I suppose the cat is out of the bag," Cedric said, running his hands through his hair.

"I think so," I said.

"We're going to be the talk of the school. You're going to be the talk of the school now," Cedric said, reminding me that I was about to get everything that I really hadn't wanted.

"What else is new?" I asked, making Cedric smile. "What about you? Is Cedric Diggory officially off of the market?"

"He already was," Cedric said sweetly.

It was the first time that either one of us had officially confirmed to the other that we were really dating. Or whatever we were. Dating was probably the best word for it. I smiled as Cedric wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me in for another hug and kiss. There was no point in the two of us pretending that it hadn't just happened. The entire school was somewhere in between laughing and cheering for the two of us. That was kind of how I felt, too. A moment later a hand fell on my shoulder and I pulled back from Cedric.

It turned out that it was Fred. He wasn't smiling like he had when we had won. Now he looked a bit disgruntled about something. "Party time. Celebrating you and Harry. We're up in the Gryffindor Common Room," Fred said.

Turning back to Cedric, he smiled at nodded at me, gently pushing me away from him. "Go on. I have some explaining to do to my friends anyways. Good game, Fred," Cedric said.

"Thanks." As I stepped away, Fred made an annoying face at me. "Come on, lover girl," he teased.

"Funny," I snapped, turning back to Cedric. "See you around?"

Cedric walked forward and gave me another small kiss that barely lasted a moment, but still made my heart flutter with nerves. "Seems likely," Cedric teased.

"See you later," I said.

"Have fun at your party," Cedric called.

It was definitely going to be a good night. We had won the game, Cedric and I had come out as a couple, and now we were going to have a party. "Come on, Harry! Move it, Tara!" George yelled, fighting his way over. "Party! Gryffindor Common Room, now!"

"Right," Harry said, looking at me.

"What is that look for?" I asked sharply.

Surely he was planning on telling at me or something along those lines for making my kiss with Cedric such a public spectacle. But Harry managed to surprise me. "Believe it or not, it's not for anything. You two look happy together," Harry said.

"We are. So... you're not too mad?" I asked carefully.

"I'm not thrilled, but if you're happy -"

"I'm not giving my support for Cho Chang."

"I wasn't thinking about that," Harry said, blushing madly.

"Sure. Come on. Let's party!" I called.

This was no time to be upset or think about how annoyed Cho Chang made me feel. I had certainly managed to show her up today. Beating her in the game and kissing Cedric - whom she so frequently dangled in front of my face. Feeling happier than I had in ages, me and the rest of the team led the way, still in our scarlet robes, out of the stadium and back up to the castle. We barely got a moment to go up and change out of our sweat-stained robes and into normal clothes before heading back downstairs to get the party started.

It felt as though we had already won the Quidditch Cup. We likely would. The only person who we had to beat was Slytherin. While they were nasty to play against, we had always been much better than them. I was pleased to see that the party went on all day and well into the night. We must have been having the best party of the year. Fred and George - shortly after the game had ended and they had changed - disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of Butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets. I grinned madly at the sight.

They headed over to the middle table and dropped their goodies. "How did you do that?" Angelina squealed as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.

"With a little help from Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred muttered in Harry and I's ears.

"Well done," I chirped.

Fred walked over to the middle of the Common Room to let Ron and Harry have some time together. "So you and Diggory?" Fred asked. I raised a brow. "It's official?"

"Seems that way. I know that you don't like him," I said, sensing the direction of the conversation.

"Just don't want to see you get hurt," Fred said.

That was sweet. Another guy in my life to play the role of older brother. At least he actually was older than me. "Well he hasn't hurt me at all over the past three years. In fact, I think I'm the one that's normally giving him heart attacks with everything that I do," I said, laughing at the memories.

"He can join the club," Fred said.

"Come on, you think that me endangering myself is funny," I teased.

"Who told you that?" Fred asked sharply.

Obviously I had touched a nerve. "No one. I just... I don't know. I would have thought that you would think that it was funny or something like that," I said slowly.

Fred shook his head and handed me another Butterbeer. "I think that you endangering yourself is anything but funny. You're one of my best friends. The last thing that I want is to see you get yourself seriously hurt," Fred said.

A small smile turned up on my face as I grabbed his hand and threaded our fingers together. "Thanks, Freddie," I said happily.

"Hey," Fred said, placing a hand on my shoulder, "just let me know if Diggory gets out of line."

"I think there's going to be a line if he gets out of line," I said.

It was the truth. There were a number of people who would jump to my defense if Cedric ever hurt me. "I'll be first," Fred said.

"You might have to fight Harry for that right." Fred laughed softly at the true statement. It would be interesting to see them fight for the right to defend my honor. "Wanna dance?" I asked as the music picked up pace.

"I didn't know that you danced," Fred said slowly.

"Oh, I love to dance. Come on!" I chirped.

Despite not being the best dancer in the world by a long-shot, I always had loved dancing. Maybe because Dad used to let me dance on his feet. Or maybe it was because Mom had taken me to a few dancing lessons. Either way, it was a lot of fun. Fred laughed as I grabbed his hand and pulled him out into what we had made the dance floor in the middle of the Common Room. The two of us were laughing as we swayed and danced together for the music. He wasn't a great dancer either, but he clearly didn't mind looking like a fool with me.

It helped that we had the same taste in music. They were playing both magical and Muggle music. Most people actually knew the Muggle music, seeing as there weren't many Purebloods. I had fun explaining the Muggle songs to Fred. We danced together for a long time before eventually breaking away from each other. A number of people came up and tried to ask me about Cedric but I was very flippant about my answers. After all, we didn't really get much of a chance to really say what we were to each other. Dating? I guessed so. My first official boyfriend. It made me laugh.

Only one person wasn't joining in the festivities. As usual, Hermione, incredibly, was sitting in a corner, attempting to read an enormous book entitled Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. I couldn't believe that she was really reading at a time like this. I had work to do, too, but even I had managed to take the night off to mess around with my friends and celebrate. I pulled away from a conversation with Lavender and Parvati about Cedric while Harry broke away from the table where Fred and George had started juggling Butterbeer bottles to go over to her.

"Did you even come to the match?" Harry asked her.

"Of course I did," Hermione said in a strangely high-pitched voice, not looking up. She was obviously offended that he had suggested that she didn't care about our game. "And I'm very glad we won, and I think you two did really well, but I need to read this by Monday."

"Come on, Hermione, come and have some food," Harry said, looking over at Ron. I knew that we were both wondering whether he was in a good enough mood to bury the hatchet.

Maybe for tonight. "It'll be fun! Come dance with me," I said, grabbing her hand.

"I can't, Harry. And I can't dance, Tara," Hermione said, pulling her hand back.

"Everyone can dance," I argued.

Hermione still didn't bother looking at me. She was staring down intently at her paper. "I'm more surprised that you're not with Cedric," Hermione said somewhat blandly.

Sputtering a bit on my Butterbeer, I looked up at her. "You saw that, huh?" I asked stupidly.

"Everyone saw that," Hermione pointed out.

"Oh... Well that's awkward," I said, earning a little squeak that sounded like it might have been a laugh from Hermione. The first one I had gotten from her in a while. "I was hoping that a lot of people weren't actually paying attention."

"It'll be all over the school in a matter of days. You knew that would happen," Harry said.

"I know," I moaned, "but still -"

"Can't you two go gossip somewhere else? I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" Hermione interrupted, now sounding slightly hysterical. I couldn't believe that she was sitting down here anyways. It was too loud to actually work down here. "Anyway…" She glanced over at Ron too. "He doesn't want me to join in."

There was no arguing with that point, as Ron chose that moment to say loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them."

That was definitely the wrong thing to say. Hermione had been upset enough about everything that had happened with Ron and Scabbers. It had broken her heart and Ron's constant comments and icing her out really hadn't helped. At that moment, Hermione burst into tears. Before Harry or I could say or do anything, she tucked the enormous book under her arm, and, still sobbing, ran toward the staircase to the girls' dormitories and out of sight. We both sighed as I debated going after her. But I knew that it wasn't worth it. She was too upset right now. Maybe in the morning.

"Poor Hermione," I said softly.

"Can't you give her a break?" Harry asked Ron quietly.

"No," Ron said flatly.

"Ron. Come on. She feels terrible," I said.

"So?" Ron asked sharply.

"So, give her a break," I snapped.

The two of them needed to be friends again. It was too stressful having him hate her. "If she just acted like she was sorry - but she'll never admit she's wrong, Hermione. She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on vacation or something," Ron said.

Hermione never turned up again that night. She simply went to bed upstairs as we all slowly went back to the party. I still felt bad for what Ron had said to her, but if I was being honest, I was selfishly having fun at the party. The first time that I had really had fun in a while. The Gryffindor party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up in her tartan dressing gown and hair net at one in the morning, to insist that we all go to bed. No one wanted to, but we knew that it was wrong to argue with her. Harry and Ron climbed the stairs to their dormitory, still discussing the match.

Telling them that I would see in the morning, I stayed downstairs for a while. I knew that we would have to clean up everything eventually, and I was a little clinical when it came to keeping places that I lived clean. So as everyone else went upstairs and headed to bed, I started cleaning everything up from the party. Thankfully Fred and George stayed downstairs to help me clean up. By the time that we were done, we were so exhausted that we didn't even want to go back upstairs. We simply chatted away with each other until we all fell asleep on the couches.

That night I had a very strange dream. I was walking through what looked like the Forbidden Forest, my Firebolt over my shoulder, following something silvery-white. It was winding its way through the trees ahead, sulking low with prowling movements, and I could only catch glimpses of it between the leaves. Anxious to catch up with it, I sped up, but as I moved faster, so did my quarry. Eventually I broke into a run, and ahead I heard paws gathering speed. Now I was running flat out, and ahead he could hear leaves fluttering around. Then I turned a corner into a clearing.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Instantly I bolted upright, almost knocking heads with Fred, who had been sleeping on my stomach. "What the hell was that?" I asked, my heart pounding in my chest.

"It came from the boy's dormitory," Fred said.

"Sounded like Ron," George said.

What the hell were they doing up there? "Come on. Let's see what's going on," I said.

As the three of us stumbled up in the pitch black, it was almost impossible to watch my step. But I could still hear everything. "What's going on?" Seamus's voice asked from their bedroom.

As Fred and George went to their rooms to get their robes, I headed right upstairs to their dorm, only briefly stopping with Fred and George at their down. I thought that I might have heard the dormitory door slam. Sprinting back out to the staircase, I saw a little flash of something at the bottom of the staircase before heading into Harry and Ron's room. Just as I walked into the dorm, earning more screams from Ron, Dean lit his lamp. Ron stopped screaming and was now sitting up in bed, the hangings torn from one side, a look of utmost terror on his face.

"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!" Ron cried.

"What?" Harry hissed.

"Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! Woke me up!" Ron shouted

"You sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" Dean asked.

"Look at the curtains! I tell you, he was here!" Ron said desperately.

"What the hell are you all shouting about?" I asked, strutting further into the room.

"Sirius Black!" Ron said hoarsely.

"What? Did you have a bad dream or something?" I asked, unwilling to believe that Sirius Black had really just been in the boys' dorm.

"Look at my curtains!" Ron shouted, pointing to the torn drapery.

Was he really telling the truth? Was there a chance that it hadn't been a dream? Was there a chance that Sirius Black had really come back into the castle and was now trying to actually kill us? Maybe mistaking Ron for Harry. But... He would have walked past me. Why hadn't he killed me? Interrupting my train of thoughts, they all scrambled out of bed; Harry reached the dormitory door first, and we all sprinted back down the staircase. He might still be there. Doors opened behind us, and sleepy voices called after us.

"Who shouted?"

"What're you doing?"

Heading back down into the Common Room, I saw that we had managed to clean most of it up. There was no sign of all of the bottles and papers and plates that had been sitting around earlier. The furniture was back in line and we had cleaned up the confetti and everything else from the poppers that Fred and George had set off. Everything was in place and Sirius Black - and any trail of him - was gone. The Common Room was lit with the glow of the dying fire. No matter how hard I looked, I came to the same conclusion. It was deserted.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?"

"I'm telling you, I saw him!"

"What's all the noise?"

"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!"

By now we had definitely woken up the rest of the Gryffindor Tower. Everyone from the First Years on the first floor of the tower to the Seventh Years at the very top. Ron's voice had managed to carry and we weren't exactly making it a point to be too quiet right now. A few of the girls had come down their staircase, pulling on dressing gowns and yawning. Boys, too, were reappearing. I saw Hermione, Fay, Lavender, and Parvati from my own dorm had come downstairs and looked quite perturbed at their sleep being disturbed.

"Excellent, are we carrying on?" Fred asked brightly.

"Everyone back upstairs!" Percy yelled, hurrying into the Common Room and pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke.

"Perce - Sirius Black! In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!" Ron said faintly.

The Common Room went very still. No one liked the thought of Sirius Black being in the place that we were sleeping. "Nonsense!" Percy said, his voice high-pitched and looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron - had a nightmare -"

"I'm telling you -"

"Ron, that's ridiculous!" I interrupted, not liking the thought that someone had actually come to kill Harry and me. That had to be why he was here. "Fred, George, and I were asleep down here on the couches. If he had come through here, we would have heard him. And, remember, he wants me dead. This would have been his perfect chance."

"He was here!" Ron yelled.

"So how didn't we hear him?" I asked.

"You were asleep! He came upstairs, probably to finish off Harry first!" Ron yelled.

"I didn't see him pass back down here!" I yelled back.

Although I had seen a little shadow... It hadn't been the size of a person, but I had definitely seen something... No... I had just been waking up and I had been seeing things... That was it... "He was here!" Ron shouted.

"Now, really, enough's enough!" Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the Common Room and stared furiously around. She didn't sense the tense air. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy said, puffing himself up indignantly. I rolled my eyes. Now was not the time. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare -"

"It wasn't a nightmare! Professor, I woke up, and Sirius Black was standing over me, holding a knife!" Ron yelled.

Professor McGonagall stared at him. "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Ask him!" Ron seethed, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw..."

Ron couldn't even manage to speak his name. Not that I blamed him. If he had really seen that, I wouldn't want to say anything either. I wouldn't have been able to say anything about Sirius Black. I wasn't even sure that I could manage breathing. Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. She must have thought that this entire thing was some cruel joke or a plan to get us out of trouble for the party. But no one would joke about something like that. The whole Common Room listened with bated breath.

"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Certainly, good lady," Sir Cadogan cried.

There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the Common Room. He had really done that? Idiot! "You - You did? But - But the password!" Professor McGonagall yelled, sounding both stunned and infuriated.

"He had 'em! Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" Sir Cadogan cried gleefully.

Obviously he didn't understand that just because someone had the password didn't mean that they should be allowed into the Common Room. Harry, Ron, and I had proven that last year in the Slytherin Common Room. How had Black managed to get the passwords? That didn't make any sense to me. My heart was pounding in my chest. Sirius Black really had been in here. He had walked right by me... Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk.

"Which person, which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?" Professor McGonagall asked, her voice shaking with fury.

There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. That was when it dawned on me. I knew exactly what had happened. I knew exactly who had left the passwords out. It was the same person that I had suggested do just that so that he would be able to remember them. I had just very nearly helped a man almost kill Harry and me. I had just almost killed myself. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy-slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air. My day had suddenly gone from very good to absolutely terrible.


	50. Chapter Fifty

No one in Gryffindor Tower managed to sleep that night. Especially not me. Harry and Ron were also having a tough time sleeping after what had happened, seeing as the three of us had been so close to being killed. We might have been, had Ron not woken up and screamed, alerting Sirius Black that he had to leave. We all knew that the castle was being searched again, and the whole House stayed awake in the Common Room, waiting to hear whether or not Black had been caught. I noticed that a few people kept very protective stances around me.

Despite not being able to get back to sleep, I did curl up on the couches in between a few other people. Fred and George were at my sides. Their arms were protectively looped over me. I knew that they felt bad that they hadn't woken up. They felt terribly that I could have been killed because they hadn't heard what was happening. I kept insisting that it wasn't their fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. We just weren't paying enough attention and we were all too heavy of sleepers to have heard him creeping past us.

But no one had been able to see him or stop him before he had left. I feared that he wouldn't be caught this time. It was obvious enough that Black knew the ins and outs of the castle. They had said that he was a troublemaker. Maybe he knew all of the passages that Fred and George knew. Harry was sitting down at my feet, playing with the laces on my shoes that I still hadn't taken off. Ron was at the other side of my feet, placing with the laces on my robes. Professor McGonagall came back at dawn, only to tell us what I had feared. He had again escaped.

It led to another sleepless night, which was very unfortunate. By the time that we woke up in the morning, my eyes had dark bruises underneath them from the lack of sleep. My face was pale, making it look like I hadn't been out in the sun for weeks. I supposed that it didn't really matter. No one looked good. For the Gryffindor's, at least. We all looked horrible. Harry and I were at the top of that list. The moment that we headed out into the Great Hall for breakfast, I realized that Black's break-in to Hogwarts had once again become the talk of the school. The teachers had already told everyone.

Throughout the day, everywhere we went we saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Sirius Black; Filch was suddenly bustling up and down the corridors, boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the walls to mouse holes. All of the teachers seemed to be speaking to us about what had happened. I noticed that they were all watching us about as closely as they could have been. They were certainly concerned for Harry and I's safety even more these days.

Things were no better throughout the rest of the castle. Sir Cadogan had been fired. No one was particularly upset about that. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. Everyone was upset about them. They weren't very nice. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

As the day passed, I purposely took a few detours. There was something that I needed to see. And it seemed that Harry felt the same. Neither one of us could help noticing that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor remained unguarded and unblocked. It seemed that Fred and George had been right in thinking that they - and now Harry, Ron, Hermione, Cedric, and I - were the only ones who knew about the hidden passageway within it. We couldn't stop to get the Invisibility Cloak though. Teachers were constantly prowling the halls and we couldn't risk being spotted.

"D'you reckon we should tell someone?" Harry asked Ron and me.

"We know he’s not coming in through Honeyduke's. We’d have heard if the shop had been broken into," Ron said dismissively.

Although there was a thought that had been bothering me lately. A new issue that had occurred to me. "But... He was a student here once. He might know about it," I said slowly.

Their heads shot over to me. Clearly I had surprised them. As much as I loved keeping the passage open so that we could get to Hogsmeade whenever we wanted - which had proven to be very useful - it might have been something very dangerous. Apparently Sirius Black had been quite the prankster during his own days. Dad had mentioned a few times before that he knew how to get all over the castle. And Dad had known James Potter. James Potter had known Sirius Black. Could he have known about the passage? Was that how he was getting in and out without being caught?

"You seriously want to close that passage up? It's the only way that you and Harry can get into Hogsmeade right now!" Ron shouted.

Rolling my eyes at him, I shook my head. "Don't be stupid, Ron. Of course I don't want them to close up the passage," I said, earning a confused look from Ron. "But I'm also not fond of the idea of Sirius Black being able to enter Hogwarts and possibly kill me!"

"He walked right by you that night," Ron pointed out.

"Don't talk about it. I don't like thinking about it," I snapped. That wasn't something that I liked to think about. What could have happened...? "Fine, whatever. We won't tell anyone. We would have to explain how we knew about the passage anyways."

"Exactly," Ron said.

"I didn't think about that," Harry said slowly.

"Luckily for you, I did," I teased.

It was a good point. I didn't want to have to rat out Fred and George for having the map. Then we would have to say that we had been sitting on it for weeks and that would only make things worse for us. It seemed that we were going to have to just live with the hope that it wasn't that passage that was how Black kept getting into the school. And in the back of my mind, I was a little glad Ron took that view. If the one-eyed witch was boarded up too, Harry and I would never be able to go into Hogsmeade again. At least, until Black was caught for me.

Maybe one day my ban on Hogsmeade would be lifted and Harry would get that permission slip signed. In the meantime, we had to try and hide from Black. After the school had found out about Black entering the school - and not just entering an empty dormitory - everyone had been in an utter panic. But more people were fascinated to find out about what had happened. Once everyone had realized that no one had been injured, simply startled by Ron's screams, the school had fallen into the age-old pattern of finding out all of the details of a scandal.

With all of the people who had asked if I was alright, Cedric had been the first person outside of Gryffindor to check on me. The moment that I had walked into the Great Hall the day after Black's intrusion, he had come practically sprinting up to me. I had explained to him what had happened down in the Common Room, including the explanation that Black had walked right past me down on the couches and that I could have easily been killed. He had never looked so frightened for me. Once he had recovered from the truth, Cedric had tried to comfort me, saying that it was okay and I was safe.

It was something that I had greatly appreciated, but hadn't completely believed. If there was one upside to what had happened with Sirius Black entering the castle yet again, it was the thought that the entire school was now talking about Black's reentry to Hogwarts. It kept them all from talking about what had happened between Cedric and I after the Quidditch match against Slytherin. It was fine by me. I didn't want to answer a thousand questions. For now, our relationship had taken a back burner while everyone was concerned with what had happened in Gryffindor Tower.

Despite the fact that rumors of Cedric and I weren't the most important thing circulating Hogwarts, I did still notice the mutters that followed me around whenever I was walking back and forth through the hallways. Especially if Cedric was close by. People seemed to always be pointing and whispering. Things would get even worse whenever someone would see Cedric with me, when we had either linked hands of shared a small kiss. I was hoping that people would either get used to it or get over it soon enough.

It was pretty clear to me that many of the girls at Hogwarts hated me. Not the younger years. They couldn't have cared less. But pretty much every female from Third to Sixth Year now hated me, with the exception of most of Gryffindor. Slytherin had always hated me, so I didn't really count them. But it was clear that I was now much less popular than I ever had been before. With the females of Hogwarts, at least. The males didn't really seem to be reacting that much differently. Although Fred, George, Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville still weren't that thrilled with my relationship change.

As for the girls, I knew that most of them had been hoping that my relationship with Cedric had either been a ruse or something that was a little blown out of proportion. But it was the truth. Now they knew. It was something that made me quite happy. I got to throw it back in the faces of the girls that had started flirting with him once I hadn't been allowed back into Hogsmeade. Which they had thought meant that Cedric didn't want to me to come back out with him. Because I definitely wasn't going into depth with my connection to Sirius Black.

All over the castle, certain people were reacting a certain way. Some just seemed a little snottier around me. Others seemed to not care. But there were a number of people who clearly really hated what had happened between the two of us. Namely Cho Chang. It was definitely her who hated me more than anyone else. She looked like she was going to stab me at any given moment. We all knew that she had a crush on Cedric, and what made it even worse was the fact that she had hated me long before Cedric had ever been romantically involved with me.

On the other hand, Ron had also become an instant celebrity. Not for his relationship status, but because of what had happened with Sirius Black. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention to him than to Harry or me, and it was clear that Ron was rather enjoying the experience. It was almost funny listening to him recount the details. Though still severely shaken by the night's events, he was more than happy to tell anyone who asked what had happened, with a wealth of detail.

"... I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draft... I woke up and one side of the hangings on my bed had been pulled down... I rolled over... and I saw him standing over me... like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair... holding this great long knife, must've been twelve inches... and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I yelled, and he scampered."

Each time he told the story, I couldn't help but to roll my eyes at him. Not that I really meant to. But it was just hysterical listening to him recount the story. It seemed to be getting more and more dramatic with each time that he told it. Little details changed each time; Black was even more of a madman or the knife was closer to actually hitting him. He was clearly having a lot of fun telling the story and being the center of attention for once. So I didn't bother saying anything to him. I didn't want to step on his moment.

"Why, though?” Ron added to Harry and me as the group of Second Year girls who had been listening to his chilling tale departed. “Why did he run?"

"Because he'd been discovered. He had to leave before we made too much noise. He didn't want to be back in Azkaban," I answered.

"But he was right there," Harry pointed out.

As much as I wanted to believe that I was right about Black simply wanting to have not been discovered, I had recently had been wondering the same thing. Why had Black, having gotten the wrong bed, not silenced Ron and proceeded to Harry? He could have easily finished them off before heading back downstairs for me and then to Fred and George if they had woken up. Black had proved twelve years ago that he didn't mind murdering innocent people, and this time he had been facing five unarmed boys, four of whom were asleep, followed by another two boys and one girl, all asleep.

"Tara's right. He must've known he'd have a job getting back out of the castle once you'd yelled and woken people up. He'd have had to kill the whole House to get back through the portrait hole… then he would've met the teachers…" Harry said thoughtfully.

"Well I know one or two that I wouldn't have minded him taking care of," I mumbled slowly.

"Snape," Ron reasoned.

"Duh. Who else?" I snapped.

Snape was definitely one of the most irritating people that I had ever had the displeasure of meeting. He was only slightly lower on my list than Gilderoy Lockhart. To my surprise, Harry was shaking his head. If there was one person who hated Snape more than me, I would have thought that it was Harry. Snape had been out for Harry since day one of Hogwarts - as James Potter had been one of Snape's apparently numerous torturers. One of whom had been my own father. I turned to Harry curiously.

"Even I wouldn't want him dead," Harry said.

Perhaps that was true. "No. But maybe seriously maimed," I growled.

We weren't on good terms after I had gotten ten points taken from Gryffindor for calling Malfoy a prat following a rude comment about how Black should have stopped to kill Ron that night. "See?" Ron asked, distracting me from my thoughts. "Now that's perfect."

We all grinned at each other. Everyone would have loved for Snape to have been seriously maimed. It would have been something to make me laugh. Maybe if he fell into a hole and broke his leg or gave himself a concussion from a fall from a broom. Either way, I knew that we weren't having the worst of times. That title belonged to Neville, unfortunately enough. Neville was in total disgrace. Professor McGonagall was so furious with him she had banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits, given him a detention, and forbidden anyone to give him the password into the tower.

Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the Common Room every night for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him. It was one of those times where I wished that we were allowed some Muggle things, like cell phones. At least Neville could have texted someone to let him in. None of those punishments, however, came close to matching the one his grandmother had in store for him. Two days after Black's break-in, she sent Neville the very worst thing a Hogwarts student could receive over breakfast - a Howler.

The school owls swooped into the Great Hall carrying the mail as usual, and Neville choked as a huge barn owl landed in front of him, a scarlet envelope clutched in its beak. My jaw dropped the moment that I had seen it. I really didn't think that what he had done was that bad. It was just an accident and no one had been hurt - rather than being slightly startled. Harry, Ron, and me, as we were sitting opposite him, recognized the letter as a Howler at once - Ron had got one from his mother the year before.

"Run for it, Neville," Ron advised.

"Open that in private," I agreed.

Neville didn't need telling twice. He seized the envelope, and holding it before him like a bomb, sprinted out of the hall, while the Slytherin table exploded with laughter at the sight of him. I rolled my eyes, feeling very bad for Neville. Even when you didn't receive them, you always felt guilty when a friend got one. We all heard the Howler go off in the entrance hall - Neville's grandmother's voice, magically magnified to a hundred times its usual volume, shrieking about how he had brought shame on the whole family and using some not-so-nice words.

Having never spoken to Neville's grandmother before, I could only take guesses on her personality. But everyone knew from Neville's own words about what a menace she could be. I had heard her shouting at him many times before. I assumed that it wasn't too nice to have a Howler with her voice now shouting at him. I was too busy feeling sorry for Neville to notice immediately that I had a letter too. It was rather strange. Mom and Dad were normally the only ones to send me one, and I hadn't gotten one recently. Dai got my attention by nipping me sharply on the wrist.

"Ouch! Oh - thanks, Dai," I said.

In the meantime, something very similar was happening with Harry and Hedwig. After a moment, before I could grab the letter, Dai shot up into the air. It was at the same moment that Malfoy had said something rude about my 'tasteless' pet. Not that he didn't have an owl... I watched out of the corner of my eyes as Dai swooped over to the Slytherin table, whopped Malfoy over the head with his wing, bit him roughly on the ear, stole a piece of toast from Blaise Zabini, and shot back over to me. I smiled brightly at my owl as the rest of the Great Hall erupted into laughter.

Malfoy was glaring at me as Parkinson started wiping blood off of his ear. I laughed softly and went back to Dai, now that he seemed to be back for good. I smiled and rubbed in between his feathers. I hadn't seen him in a little while. I hadn't been getting too many letters from Mom and Dad after the initial revelation of their past with Black. In the meantime, we had either been too upset with each other, too busy, or had just forgotten. And I hadn't gotten much of a chance to go to the Owlery. So I was glad to see that he had finally brought me a letter.

Dear Tara,

How has school been? We haven't talked in a little while. We've missed hearing from you. But we know that you're busy and have exams to worry about in the coming weeks. We heard about the Quidditch game. Well done! We knew that you would be wonderful. The Firebolts are quite something, aren't they? I've loved riding my own. We'll have to take them out together one time.

We miss you at home. Everyone misses you. Vernon and Petunia don't, but what else is new? They've been very happy to tell everyone that Harry is doing dismally at his school for troubled boys, whatever it's called. We can't wait to see you when you get back home. We'll have to train a lot over the summer. You'll be full-time on your team next year!

How are classes going? How are things going with Sirius Black at the school? Has anything interesting been happening lately?

Love always,  
Mom and Dad (Hale, too).

Smiling softly, I folded the letter back up and placed it down on the table. For a moment I started sipping on the coffee that I had set out in front of me and chewing on a piece of bacon. I had been busy - but it wasn't with exams. It was with their stupid old friend. I appreciated their comment about the Quidditch games. Sometimes that was the most important part of school for me. As for Vermin and Horse-Face... damn them. Classes were a massive pain in the butt, Black had been eerily close to me, and anything interesting... I wasn't ready for them to know about Cedric just yet.

"Who's that from?" Harry asked.

"Mom and Dad. They say hello," I said.

Harry nodded, reading the letter over my shoulder. "Tell them that I said hello back." I nodded blankly, pulling out a blank piece of parchment. "Ah, anything interesting? Are you going to tell them about Diggory?" Harry teased.

"No! I'll tell them on my own time. If you tell them yourself, I'll kill you," I snarled.

Harry laughed, taking my letter to read it over. "They'll just catch you two snogging," Ron said, not even bothering to look up from his letter to Charlie.

"Who asked you? Shut up," I snapped at Ron before looking back to Harry. "What does your letter say?"

As Ron read over Charlie's letter - who apparently was doing very well and having a wonderful time with his dragons - Harry tore open the envelope that had come from his own sender. It definitely wouldn't be from Vermin and Horse-Face. They liked to pretend that Harry wasn't even alive while he was out at Hogwarts with us. IN the meantime, Hedwig and Dai were helping themselves to some of Neville's cornflakes. Dai kept squawking at me to pet him though. The note inside of Harry's folder said:

Dear Harry, Tara, and Ron,

How about having tea with me this afternoon ’round six? I’ll come and collect you from the castle.

WAIT FOR ME IN THE ENTRANCE HALL; YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED OUT ON YOUR OWN.

Cheers,  
Hagrid.

Right... I had almost forgotten that Harry and I weren't allowed to be alone at any given moment. It was a new rule. Not that they could really enforce it, but they definitely wouldn't be happy if they managed to catch us out in the halls by ourselves. We weren't even allowed to be alone, together. Mostly because that was pretty much just as bad as being alone. It meant that I spent most of my time with the rest of my friends, trying very hard to avoid being dogged by questions about Sirius Black or Cedric Diggory.

"He probably wants to hear all about Black!" Ron exclaimed.

"He has to already know," I commented.

"But not the whole thing," Ron continued.

"You honestly think that the rest of the professors haven't told each other what really happened? Hagrid knows, I promise you that," I said.

"So what else would he be calling us for?" Harry asked.

What else could he have been calling us for? I wasn't sure. "I don't know, but I don't think that it's to ask about Sirius Black. I mean, how can you be so sure about that?" I asked Ron.

"What else could it be?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure, but he doesn't seem that happy about it," I said, rereading the letter.

"He seems perfectly fine," Ron said flippantly.

Rolling my eyes, I went back to my breakfast. "Alright," I muttered.

I'd barely taken two bites when a voice came from behind me. "Hey, Tara."

Turning back, I smiled when I saw that it was Cedric. The two of us instantly locked eyes. There was a slight hush that fell over the Great Hall and I rolled my eyes, hesitating and waiting for the speaking to start again. I wanted to wait for whispers to start. Granted, they would be able the two of us, but at least they wouldn't be able to overhear what we were saying. Being a weekend, the two of us would be able to do something other than a five-minute conversation between classes or a quick hello in the Great Hall for breakfast or dinner.

Cedric was standing slightly back from the table as Ron and Harry rolled their eyes. I dropped the parchment, having forgotten about my letter to write to my parents. "Have fun with your boyfriend," Harry muttered, freeing me from them for the day.

"I'll be back at the Common Room before six," I said.

"See you," Ron said.

"Hi, Harry. Ron," Cedric greeted nicely.

"Hey, Cedric," Harry said bluntly.

"Hey," Ron greeted, emotionless.

That was all the two of them said before standing from the table and leaving the Great Hall, probably to do something far away from wherever Cedric and I would be. Cedric watched them leave, grinning at their backs. "Look at how happy they are whenever they see the two of us together," Cedric teased, looking back at me.

"They'll get over it," I said.

"Has the rest of the school?" Cedric asked.

"It's like you're deaf," I laughed.

How could he have possibly not heard all of the whispers that circulated the school about us? Cedric laughed, giving me a hand. "I've told you before, I don't listen to the gossip," Cedric said truthfully.

"Wanna go somewhere?" I asked.

"I would love that," Cedric said.

That was what I really wanted. I really didn't want to be around the rest of the school. I didn't care that they knew about the two of us. Not after what had happened at the game. It really didn't matter these days. Cedric offered me his hand up from the Gryffindor table so that we could leave the Great Hall. I could hear the chatter rise again as Cedric looped an arm over my shoulder and I blushed madly. Cedric snorted under his breath, knowing that I was embarrassed with all of the attention. As the two of us made our way out of the Great Hall, I smiled up at Cedric.

"You know, not listening to the gossip; that's a skill that I wish I had," I growled.

"You'll learn eventually," Cedric consoled. "So what are they all saying?"

"Well Sirius Black has more become the talk of the school lately. They've become a little less interested in the two of us. But I still hear the rumors. Most people seem to just be curious how the two of us ended up together," I explained.

"How did we end up together?" Cedric asked teasingly.

"You just couldn't leave me alone," I teased.

Cedric laughed, pulling me a little tighter. "Cute."

"Aren't I?"

It was probably the single most confident that I had ever been around him. Mostly because now I knew how he really felt about me. Cedric laughed and pulled me into a kiss. The hall wasn't that crowded because breakfast was still going on, but one or two people were wandering around. Thankfully no one commented on it, as couples kissed all the time and much more graphically. I had accidentally walked into those situations a number of times. Cedric and I stayed together for a few moments before I finally backed away, grinning up at him.

"Nice to do that without worrying about who's going to see us," Cedric commented.

So it turned out that I wasn't the only person who had been embarrassed for someone else to see us... "Maybe it was a good thing that you kissed me during the game," I said slowly.

"Me?" Cedric asked, aghast. "That was definitely you."

"Shut up," I snapped.

We both laughed as I shoved him away from me. That was absolutely his fault. Cedric waltzed back over and looped an arm over my shoulder as we walked. "What were Harry and Ron talking about?" Cedric finally asked.

"Oh, we got a letter from Hagrid. He wants to have tea with us tonight. To talk about something - Sirius Black, I'm sure - or something of the likes. He's coming to collect us at six," I explained.

"That should be fun. Hagrid's always been so nice."

"He is. Literally a gentle giant."

We walked in silence for a few moments before Cedric spoke again. "How are you doing with everything about Black?"

"Honestly, I'm a little creeped out," I admitted.

"He went up the boys' staircase, didn't he?"

"Yes... I fell asleep on the couch that night after the game. Down in the Common Room. He walked right past me. He had to have. That's the only way that he could get up there," I said, still unnerved by the thought that Sirius Black had walked right past me, sleeping and defenseless. "I know that he wants me dead. Why didn't he kill me? I was right there. Powerless to do anything to stop it."

Cedric sighed and pressed a kiss against my temple. "Well I'm glad that he didn't. Maybe he wanted to take care of Harry first," Cedric said.

Unfortunately Cedric's words didn't make me feel much better. "That's what they were thinking. But why go after Ron?" I asked.

"If the curtains were drawn, he might not have realized that it was Ron and not Harry," Cedric reasoned.

It was what everyone else had been thinking, including me. "But he slashed them open. Wouldn't he have noticed and turned? Ron said that he was still facing him when he woke up," I continued.

"Trying to make a clean getaway?"

"I don't know. The whole thing gives me a headache."

"Did you see anything when Ron woke up and screamed?"

Should I tell him what I saw at the base of the staircase? I didn't want to make him even more paranoid about my safety. But I decided to give it a try. "I thought that I might have seen a shadow in the corner of the Common Room, but now I'm wondering if I was just imagining it. I really don't know. I wish that I did," I muttered.

Cedric shook his head. "It's probably not safe to fall asleep down in the Common Room."

"I know. I'll have to start sleeping up in my dorm."

"What were you downstairs for?"

For whatever reason, I didn't particularly want Cedric to know that I had slept on the couch with Fred and George. "There was a party going on. You heard about that. I just fell asleep downstairs while I was trying to clean everything up. Didn't want to get yelled at by Professor McGonagall for the mess," I explained as loosely as possible.

"Were you alone?" Cedric asked. "Maybe Black didn't want to risk hurting you with others around."

There was really no point in lying. "Fred and George were downstairs too," I admitted.

To my complete pleasure, Cedric didn't seem bothered by the fact that we had been together. Perhaps because both of them had been there. "He could have wanted to try and avoid them seeing him attack you," Cedric reasoned.

Groaning, I ran my hands through my hair. "This is a nightmare. My entire life is a nightmare," I mumbled.

Cedric smiled, pulling my hands away from my face. "Come on. It's not that bad. So... you have a serial killer out to get you," Cedric said slowly and somewhat awkwardly.

"I think you've just helped my case," I teased.

"Your life is interesting."

"It's a disaster."

"Maybe. But it's a fun disaster," Cedric said seriously. My head snapped over to him as I laughed irritably and smacked him. He merely laughed at my irritation. "I'm just kidding. Tara, you're safe here."

"Sirius Black has broken in twice," I deadpanned.

Cedric's face flushed slightly. He knew that I was right. "The Fat Lady is back in her place, right?" Cedric asked. I nodded. "They have extra security measures all throughout the castle. Everyone is looking out for you and Harry. They're not going to let anyone hurt you two. It's going to be alright."

"I guess. Come on. Let's talk about something else. This drives me insane," I prompted.

"Alright. Wanna help me study for my O.W.L.'s?" Cedric asked.

"No," I said bluntly.

Cedric laughed. "That was honest."

"I don't even want to do my own homework."

"Bad student."

"I am not!"

Cedric laughed again. "Come on... Let's go study," he prompted.

"Buzzkill," I grumbled.

"I'll throw in a Sugar Quill."

A Sugar Quill... That was almost worth having to study on a weekend, which was honestly something that I should have been doing anyways. There was a lot of work that I could have been doing right now. Work that I had been too preoccupied to think about doing before. Cedric reached down into his messenger bag that was slung over his shoulder, pulled out a Sugar Quill, and tossed it to me. I laughed and caught it, immediately opening the wrapper and biting off the top.

"Think that you were going to run into me?" I teased.

Cedric smiled, pulling another one out for himself. "Actually I was looking for you. Hoping to run into you after breakfast," Cedric said.

"If only we could have phones here," I groaned.

Cedric grinned again. "It would make things much easier." At least he knew what a phone was. "I thought about sending Rusty with a letter asking you to meet me somewhere," Cedric continued.

"Luckily for you, it worked out. Are you serious about the library?"

"Yes, I am."

"Damn you," I barked.

While everyone else would be out having fun outside or enjoying their two days off of school, I would have to be in the library. It definitely wasn't the way that I wanted to spend my weekend. Cedric laughed at my irritation as he wrapped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me along with him. I rolled my eyes as we headed up towards the library. But we did have to take a detour to the Gryffindor Tower so that I could grab my things. Cedric waited for me out in the hall - apparently getting a few dirty looks from the Gryffindor boys - before I came back out.

It seemed that none of the Gryffindor boys were happy about our relationship. They liked me and didn't want to see me get hurt. I was glad that Cedric found the whole ordeal somewhat funny. As we headed back downstairs towards the library, with our things in tow, I made numerous complaints about how he was ruining my supposedly fun weekend. He merely ignored me, whopping me over the head. I really didn't want to study, but it was something for us to do together, since we had no classes together, weren't in the same year, and weren't in the same House.

We ended up taking a brief detour - Cedric's way to keep me from complaining that he didn't even give me the morning to not study - before winding up in the library. More complaints followed when I realized that it wasn't even ten in the morning yet. Cedric laughed and pulled me along with him, only stopping briefly to apologize to Madam Pince about the noise that we were making. I moved towards a table at the front of the library, the same place that I normally would sit at with Hermione. The same place that Malfoy had bothered me at the other day.

The moment that I went to sit in the chair closest to me, I felt Cedric's hand wrap around my wrist. He yanked me back from the seat - surprising my slightly - before dragging us back towards the furthest shelf of the library. The same place that we normally would sit together to avoid the stares of most of the students and Madam Pince's watchful eye. We took the floor rather than one of the dusty tables and spread out our homework. It took me a few barks from Cedric to actually get to work rather than just munching on my Sugar Quill and watching him work.

Eventually I finally gave in and started doing my Divination homework. Mostly because I really did have homework that I needed to get done. It was definitely my least favorite subject to work on - as I still thought that it was absolute hooey - but I had to get it done. I mostly just completely wrote down made-up answers on my assignment. Cedric looked like he was working on something with Defense Against the Dark Arts. I knew that he was good at it, but it was one of those subjects that you always had to study for.

"What are you working on?" I asked curiously.

"Defense," Cedric said.

"I know that. What in Defense?"

"Full Body-Bind Curse."

"Seriously?" I snorted.

Cedric finally looked up. "What?"

"That's such an easy one," I said.

Cedric scoffed and placed own his quill. "Alright, smarty pants. You do it," he huffed.

"Okay." I brought out my wand and lowly cried, "Petrificus Totalus!"

To my absolute pleasure, the spell ended up working absolutely perfectly. Just the way that it had when Neville had taken the spell from Hermione. Clearly I had surprised Cedric, who likely hadn't thought that it would work quite that well. His body snapped together on the ground - which was rather funny as he didn't have much place to move - before collapsing in his place. I leaned backwards, laughing loudly. The look on his face - frozen in time - was one of the funniest things that I had seen in a long time. It was very funny to see the horrified look in his eyes.

Even better was the fact that he wouldn't be able to get out of that position for a few minutes. I didn't know the Counter-Curse - or if there even was one - and I wouldn't have used it anyways. It was about five minutes before the spell finally wore off. My laughter had finally gone down to just a little giggle, but it kicked back up when he finally managed to come back to. He sat up slowly, clearly slightly dazed, as he stared at me blankly. It was enough to make me burst out into another fit of barking laughter.

Once he had finally managed to recover from what had happened to him he darted towards me and pushed me back against the wooden floor. I laughed as he placed himself over my back, sitting on me. At least he didn't shoot me back with the same spell. We had to be quiet enough to not get yelled at, but we weren't very good at it. The entire time that we were wrestling with each other, Madam Pince came back to yell at us three times. She had warned us that if she had to come back again, we would be kicked out. That was what finally got us to stop.

It took a long time, but we finally managed to settle down and get back to our work. We ended up spending a number of hours getting caught up on work. I made sure to catch up on all of the work that I had been behind with and I even managed to get ahead on the work that was going to be due over the next few weeks. It would at least make studying a lot easier. We went back and forth between talking to each other, sitting back and taking a half-nap, and actually doing our work all day. Not to mention some kissing that went on from time to time.

Thankfully no one caught us doing that, because I knew that it would get back to Harry and Ron and I would never hear the end of it. A few people did walk by during our time together, but I tried very hard to ignore them. Especially with all of the giggling and pointing that kept happening. Just after five-thirty, Cedric and I got to our feet and headed back to our own Houses for the evening. Cedric to spend time with his friends from his own House and me to go and see Hagrid with the boys. We were standing in front of one of the staircases before separating.

"Have fun with Hagrid," Cedric said.

"I will. See you later?" I asked.

"I think you will. I hear there's another Hogsmeade weekend coming soon."

"Did you?"

"I did. Think I might have a shot at a date?" Cedric asked brightly.

"If you're lucky," I teased.

We both laughed. "I'll see you at breakfast, yeah?" Cedric asked.

"See you there."

The two of us smiled at each other and laughed again. As much as I liked seeing Cedric at breakfast, there were always so many glances sent across the tables, seeing as we couldn't even sit together. That was one thing I missed about Ilvermorny. We could sit wherever we wanted. Everyone would always notice when Cedric and I locked gazes and that would just start a new wave of conversations about the two of us. So I would try to avoid his gaze, which was even worse, seeing as it would bring on teasing kissy noises from everyone near me.

At least we would have the summer to not have to exchange glances from across multiple tables. Cedric grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into him. I giggled slightly as I stumbled into him, pressing my lips against his own. His arms tightened around me slightly as my own wrapped up around his neck. It wasn't long before I heard a few giggles and I pulled away from Cedric. Parvati and Lavender were passing by us and laughing. They gave me the 'you-owe-us-an-explanation' look before disappearing up the staircase.

After another brief kiss, Cedric and I went about our business. He apparently wanted to spend the evening with his friends before dinner, and I had something else to be doing. Getting ready to head down to Hagrid's with Ron and Harry. It would be nice to see Hagrid, at least. As I walked into the Common Room, I spotted Ron and Harry, both of whom instantly asked about what I had been doing all day. Rolling my eyes, I ignored them and headed upstairs to my dorm. To my surprise, Hermione was already perched on her bed. For once she wasn't doing her work downstairs.

"Hey," I said, somewhat awkwardly.

It had been a long time since Hermione and I had really spoken to each other. I couldn't remember what had happened that had really made the two of us stop speaking. Either Hermione was just nervous to speak to me because of Ron, or she thought that I was really that angry at her. But I wasn't; in fact, I was trying to get Ron and Hermione to make up. Hermione glanced up from the book that she was reading and gave me a weak smile. She hadn't spoken to me since her eruption at the party after the last Quidditch match.

"Hi," Hermione said sheepishly.

Perching myself on the edge of her bed, I noted that she didn't yell at me to leave her alone. I took that as a good thing. "No homework down in the Common Room?" I asked.

"Ron doesn't want me there," Hermione said.

"So? Free country."

"I don't want to listen to his comments all day."

"I guess that makes sense."

We sat in silence for a few moments. I was glad that Lavender, Fay, and Parvati weren't here right now. They wouldn't let us take the chance to talk things out. "I didn't see you down there," Hermione finally commented.

"No. I haven't been around for most of the day."

"Where have you been?"

"Library."

"That's good to hear. Studying?"

"Somewhat."

Hermione smiled. She knew that it wasn't easy to get me to study. "Cedric must have been there," Hermione said.

She was definitely right about that. I smiled and blushed. "Good guess. Yeah, he found me at breakfast in the Great Hall. We started to spend the day together but he has O.W.L.'s soon. He was studying for those and I had stuff to do," I explained.

Hermione was smiling. "He's a good influence on you," she said.

"You know what? He is a good influence on me," I said, laughing. He definitely tried to get me to think things through and he got me to actually do my homework on time. "Do you like him?"

"I think the more important question is, do you like him?" Hermione pointed out.

That was definitely a good point. "Well it wouldn't really make sense if I didn't like him." Hermione smiled as we both giggled. "Yeah, Mione, I like him a lot. I've liked him for a long time. But you knew that," I said.

"I did." She had been the first person that I'd told when I had shared my first kiss with him. It's been a long time since you called me that," Hermione said.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"Mione," she clarified.

A sharp pang of guilt went through me. I should have said something to her much earlier. More than just the few moments whenever we needed to use the Time-Turner together. "We're best friends, Hermione. I'm really sorry for the way that I've been icing you out because of Ron. It's not fair to you. I'm going to have to sit them down and talk to them about it. We're all best friends," I said, grabbing her hand.

"We were," Hermione said sadly.

"Are," I corrected.

She gave a small smile. We would be fine, I just had to get Ron to stop being such a prat about things. "Are you going to talk to them today?" Hermione asked, somewhat nervously.

Obviously she didn't want to be turned down. Harry was easy. Ron was another story. "Yeah. Maybe with Hagrid is a mediator. He asked us to come see him today," I said.

"Oh."

"What is it?"

"Nothing. Enjoy your trip."

"I promise that I'll get them talking to you again."

"Thanks." Hermione and I flopped back onto her bed, staring up at the stone ceiling. Her head slowly turned to look at me. "You and Cedric make a really cute couple, by the way," Hermione said. I blushed softly, still embarrassed about everything. "Everyone's talking about it. Even with Sirius Black having broken into the school, you two are the center of attention."

"Honestly I can't believe that we're actually together," I said, a furious blush flooding my face.

Hermione leaned up on her forearms. "So you two are officially dating?"

"Yeah."

"Congratulations. I think you're one of the rare people that manages to turn their first crush into a real relationship," Hermione teased.

She was right. I hadn't even thought about that. I had actually managed to make my first crush turn into my first relationship. I laughed under my breath and gently kicked Hermione. "Better mine than yours," I teased.

Hermione's eyebrow rose. "What are you -?"

"Lockhart."

Hermione's face turned bright red. "Oh, stop."

"You deserved that. I can't believe that you ever had a crush on him. That man tried to erase my memory!" I barked.

"Okay, okay. I get it. He's not a good man."

We both laughed again. Not a good man was a bit of an understatement for Gilderoy Lockhart. I wasn't sure what would have been a better description for him, but it definitely wasn't good enough. Hermione and I laid in her bed for a while, legs draped over the others, as we chatted back and forth about Cedric, my new relationship with him, and the rumors that were running rampant around the school. Apparently my reputation had suffered slightly, considering that the two of us would disappear for long stretches of time. I blanched nervously at the thought. Not for a long time...

Finally I sat up and stared at the Muggle alarm clock that Hermione had. "It's almost six o'clock. I should leave. Hagrid will be here soon," I said, really not wanting to leave her alone again.

"Say hello for me," Hermione said.

"I will," I said, jumping up from the bed. "See you later. Hey... We'll talk later, okay?"

Hermione smiled and nodded, grabbing the book back from her bedside table. "Good. Five minutes isn't nearly enough time for you to tell me all about you and Cedric," she teased.

"Absolutely," I said brightly.

The two of us hugged each other before I grabbed my coat, heading back downstairs to the Common Room. Ron and Harry immediately started bugging me about where I had just gone - to which I had snappily replied that at least one of us had to be speaking to Hermione - which had silenced them almost immediately. Ron was still grumbling about Crookshanks. I knew that he would get over it. He just needed to hear someone reason it out and remember that, no matter what, he loved Hermione. As much as he would never admit it.

We were sitting on the couch for a few moments before Fred and George appeared at my sides. I almost instantly shooed them away, sensing where the conversation was heading. They wanted to tease me about where I had been all day. After a few missed tries of them teasing me about where Cedric and I had vanished to all day - which had caused a loud uproar from Ron and Harry - I had finally managed to get the twins to leave me in peace. Now that things with Black had died down, I could tell that the rumors with Cedric would start to spin up again.

Maybe there would be another break-in or something of the likes. The rumors about where we vanished for hours on end would quickly embarrass me. I was only fourteen! I didn't want... that. After barking at Harry and Ron to leave me alone and not believe the rumors, they finally let it rest. For a while, at least. When the clock finally struck six o’clock in the afternoon, Harry, Ron, and I left Gryffindor Tower, passed the security trolls at a run, and headed down to the entrance hall. Hagrid was already waiting for us.

"Hi, Hagrid!" I chirped. "Hermione says hello."

"Tell her I said the same," Hagrid prompted.

"When were you talking to Hermione?" Ron asked.

"When I was upstairs. We're still friends, Ron! So are you two, whether or not you like it," I snapped.

"Not until she gets rid of that damned menace of a cat. All right, Hagrid! S’pose you want to hear about Saturday night, do you?" Ron asked as we walked up to the giant.

"I’ve already heard all abou’ it," Hagrid said, opening the front doors and leading us outside.

"Oh," Ron said, looking slightly put out.

Of course he had wanted to tell Hagrid about what had happened with Sirius Black. He was running out of people to tell. But the professors were normally the first people to end up hearing about any attacks in the castle. The four of us headed off together through the misty grounds. There was a slight chill in the air but the sky was clear. At least the Quidditch Final would likely be played in sunnier conditions. But it also meant that Slytherin would be playing in the easiest conditions. It didn't matter. We would beat them. I knew it.

The first thing we saw on entering Hagrid’s cabin was Buckbeak, who was stretched out on top of Hagrid’s patchwork quilt, his enormous wings folded tight to his body, enjoying a large plate of dead ferrets. Averting my eyes from that unpleasant sight, I saw a gigantic, hairy brown suit and a very horrible yellow-and-orange tie hanging from the top of Hagrid’s wardrobe door. Was Hagrid planning a date? I immediately bowed to Buckbeak, who quickly gave one in return. Just so that I could pet him when he was done with his... dinner...

"What are they for, Hagrid?" Harry asked, pointing to the clothes.

"Buckbeak’s case against the Committee fer the Disposal o’ Dangerous Creatures. This Friday. Him an’ me’ll be goin’ down ter London together. I’ve booked two beds on the Knight Bus," Hagrid said.

Idiot! Of course he wasn't going on a date. I felt a nasty pang of guilt. Judging by the looks on Harry and Ron's faces, I figured that they must have felt guilty about it too. We had all completely forgotten that Buckbeak’s trial was so near. There was an uneasy look on Harry and Ron's faces. I could only hope that Hermione had been helping Hagrid with the case. The rest of us had also forgotten our promise about helping him prepare Buckbeak’s defense; the arrival of the Firebolts and my new relationship with Cedric had driven it clean out of our minds.

As evening dawned, Harry, Ron, and I took our seats in the oversized chairs. Fang the boarhound darted over and plopped himself in my lap. I grunted as Fang's overly-large body crushed me underneath him. At least he was cute. Hagrid poured us all tea and offered us a plate of Bath buns, but we knew better than to accept; we had had too much experience with Hagrid’s cooking. If there was one person who might have been a worse cook than I was, it was definitely Hagrid. Although he did make good tea.

"I like that tie, Hagrid," I said awkwardly, wanting to break the silence.

Hagrid smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Thank yeh, Tara. I got somethin’ ter discuss with yeh three." I gulped deeply. That was what Hagrid wanted. To talk about Hermione. "Mainly yeh two," Hagrid clarified, sitting across from us and motioning between Harry and Ron, all while looking uncharacteristically serious.

"What?" Harry asked.

"I figured," I commented.

"Hermione," Hagrid said, giving me a small nod.

"What about her?" Ron asked sharply.

Obviously he didn't want to talk about her. But that was enough to annoy me. "Are you kidding? She's hurting," I snapped.

The look on her face this afternoon had been heartbreaking. Hagrid pointed a thick finger at me, nodding. "Absolutely. She’s in a righ’ state, that’s what. She's bin comin' down ter visit me a lot since Chris'mas. Bin feelin' lonely," Hagrid said, making me feel a little sick. She was worse-off than I had thought. "Firs' yeh weren' talking to her because o' the Firebolt, now yer not talkin' to her because her cat -"

" - ate Scabbers!" Ron interjected angrily.

"Shut up!" I barked.

There was no need to protect his gross little rat. He could get a new one. Scabbers had been lucky to live as long as he had, anyways. "Because her cat acted like all cats do,” Hagrid continued doggedly. “She's cried a fair few times, yeh know. Goin’ through a rough time at the moment. Bitten off more’n she can chew, if yeh ask me, all the work she’s tryin’ ter do."

The Time-Turner... Did Hagrid know about that? Probably not. I assumed that he at least knew that she was taking far more than the average load. "That's what I told her at the beginning of the semester. Every time that I try to talk to her, she's always doing some work. She won't listen to me. She always ignores me and tells me to leave her alone and do her work. Today was the first time that I really got to speak to her," I explained.

Hagrid nodded somewhat blankly. I assumed that Hagrid was more upset with Ron and Harry - who had barely spoken with her. "She's afraid yer jus' gonna reject 'er," Hagrid explained.

That was what I had figured was happening when I'd seen her earlier. "I know."

"Still found time ter help me with Buckbeak’s case, mind… She’s found some really good stuff fer me… reckon he'll stand a good chance now," Hagrid said.

"That's wonderful news," I said brightly.

The last thing that I wanted was for Buckbeak to lose his case. He really was a sweetheart. "Hagrid, we should’ve helped as well - sorry -" Harry began awkwardly.

"I'm not blamin' yeh!" Hagrid roared, waving Harry’s apology aside. I was definitely glad that Hagrid wasn't blaming us for not being around to help. "Gawd knows yeh've had enough ter be gettin' on with. I've seen yeh practicin' Quidditch ev'ry hour o' the day an' night - but I gotta tell yeh, I thought you two'd value yer friend more'n broomsticks or rats. Tha's all."

Hagrid was completely right. We had been valuing things that were far less important than Scabbers and Crookshanks. Who cared about those two? Not me. Not really Ron or Hermione either. They were just upset with each other more than anything else. It was time that we changed that. We were best friends and nothing - not even Hermione's cat eating Ron's rat - was going to change that. As I scowled at the two boys, I noticed Harry and Ron exchange uncomfortable looks. They knew that Hagrid was right too.

"You're right, Hagrid. We've been terrible to her. I haven't been trying hard enough to help her out with her work," I reasoned.

"Really upset, she was, when Black nearly stabbed yeh, Ron," Hagrid said, earning a guilty look from Ron. "She’s got her heart in the right place, Hermione has, an’ you two not talkin’ to her -"

"If she’d just get rid of that cat, I’d speak to her again!” Ron interjected angrily.

"You're going to let that cat ruin your friendship?" I asked sharply.

"It's a menace!" Ron shouted.

My teeth ground together. "So? You know how many people hated Scabbers? Or how much I hate Hale? I don't let that ruin the relationships that I have with the owners," I snapped, thinking of Ron and my parents.

"But she’s still sticking up for it! It’s a maniac, and she won’t hear a word against it!" Ron yelled.

"Ah, well, people can be a bit stupid abou' their pets," Hagrid said wisely.

That instantly shut everyone up. No one wanted to be the person to hurt Hagrid because of what was happening with Buckbeak. It was definitely time that we talked about something else. Not our slight ousting of Hermione or Buckbeak's upcoming trial. Interrupting my thoughts, behind us, came the sound of Buckbeak spitting up a few ferret bones onto Hagrid’s pillow. We ended up spending the rest of our visit discussing Gryffindor’s improved chances for the Quidditch Cup. At nine o’clock, Hagrid walked us back up to the castle.

Not before I could spend a long time sitting and playing with Buckbeak. He was a sweetheart who I really didn't want to see get hurt. As we walked around the corner to the Great Hall, I smiled at Cedric, who was on watch for students out of bed. He gave me a little wink as I walked past and I blushed instantly, looking down to the ground. I could practically hear Ron and Harry rolling their eyes. To my absolute horror, Hagrid laughed. After grilling him for a moment, he promised that he wouldn't say a word to my parents as long as I told them when I saw them in person next.

It was something that I would have to tell them at some point. I couldn't just leave them in the dark. I wanted to be the one to tell them, not let someone else tell them or have us get caught - just the way that Amos did at Christmas. When we got back to Gryffindor Tower, we all hugged Hagrid and promised to see him soon. The first sight that I was met with when we entered was the large group of people who were bunched around the bulletin board in the Common Room. I raised my eyebrows as we headed towards it.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Hogsmeade, next weekend!" Ron chirped, craning over the heads to read the new notice.

"Yes!" I cheered excitedly.

"What d’you reckon?" Ron added quietly to Harry and I as we went to sit down.

Obviously he meant about us sneaking into Hogsmeade. We had to! I wanted to go out on another date with Cedric. "Well, Filch hasn’t done anything about the passage into Honeydukes…" Harry said, even more quietly.

"Perfect," I said, grinning madly.

The two boys glared at me. "You'll be going with Diggory, then?" Ron asked.

Rolling my eyes at them, I nodded slowly. "I'll spend some time with him, but I'll have to stay under the Invisibility Cloak for the most part. I can't get caught out there by the teachers. I'll spend most of the time with you guys," I said, trying to reach a compromise.

"We're honored," Harry teased.

I was about to snap at him that he was still my best friend and I had known him longer when a voice hissed, "Tara! Harry!" in my right ear.

Both Harry and I started and looked around at Hermione. It was the first time that she had really spoken to us out in public. At least, when it wasn't whenever she wasn't snapping at us to leave her alone so that she could study. Beforehand, the only times that we had spoken to each other were in private - upstairs in the dormitory. But right now she was sitting at the table right behind us and clearing a space in the wall of books that had been hiding her. All of those classes... she would definitely have to drop at least one of them.

"Hi, Hermione," I greeted.

This time she didn't seem very happy to see me. She actually looked rather worried. "Harry, Tara, if you go into Hogsmeade again… I’ll tell Professor McGonagall about that map!" Hermione threatened.

My jaws dropped. Looking between Harry and Ron, I realized that I hadn't misheard her. "Are you joking?" I asked dumbly.

"No!" Hermione gasped.

"Can you hear someone talking?" Ron growled, not looking at Hermione.

Apparently things wouldn't be getting better between them anytime soon. "Ron, how can you let them go with you? After what Sirius Black nearly did to you!" Hermione shouted, looking heartbroken. "I mean it, I'll tell -"

"So now you’re trying to get Harry and Tara expelled! Haven’t you done enough damage this year?" Ron yelped furiously.

Well that definitely wasn't the nicest thing in the world that he could have said. I thought about snapping at him to be nicer to her, but Hermione actually beat me to the punch. Or, rather, Crookshanks beat us both to the punch. Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but with a soft hiss, Crookshanks leapt onto her lap. Hermione took one frightened look at the expression on Ron's face, who looked like he might have a fit, gathered up Crookshanks, and hurried away toward our dormitory.

"So how about it?” Ron asked Harry and I as though there had been no interruption. "Come on, last time we went you didn’t see anything. You haven’t even been inside Zonko’s yet!"

"Oh, yeah! You have to see it. It's great," I said excitedly.

Honestly I didn't think that Hermione would tell Professor McGonagall. At least, if she did, I would have been really upset about it. Hermione was one of my best friends and I loved her, but she could really be a buzzkill at times. Harry hadn't seen much of Hogsmeade yet and I hadn't gotten much of a chance to hang out with Cedric, as a couple, outside of Hogwarts walls. Actually, I'd gotten almost no time. Not as an official couple, at least. Harry and I looked around to check that Hermione was well out of earshot.

"Okay. But you're right. We're definitely taking the Invisibility Cloak this time," Harry said.

There was no way that we couldn't go without it. We would be expelled for sure if they caught us out in Hogsmeade without it. There was no chance that we would get out of breaking even more rules. We had already broken far too many. As the days passed as we moved into next weekend, I noticed that Hogwarts was winding up for another Hogsmeade weekend. It was clear that a lot of people were hoping to go out to Hogsmeade with Cedric - considering that I couldn't - but I had a much better idea. One that I knew he would agree with.

A few days after I had seen the posting for the Hogsmeade weekend, I had found Cedric in the hallway between classes. After a brief moment spent catching up, Cedric had mentioned the upcoming weekend and what my plans were. I had just briefly told him to meet me at the Shrieking Shack at noon and told him to not dare mention it to anyone else. It would be private enough that no one else would see us. I could tell that he wanted to ask me how I was going to manage it, but he had merely laughed and rolled his eyes, playfully warning me not to get caught.

These days’ rumors were getting even worse about things with Cedric and I. Mostly because we had passed the almost two weeks mark and there had been no more words from Sirius Black. Some were innocent enough - catching us kissing in the back of the library or stealing a smooch between classes - but others were much worse - evidently seeing us stumble from an empty broom cupboard with ruffled clothes and hair. That one was absolutely false and I had never felt quite so embarrassed. Parvati had been the one to ask me about it.

The rumor had traveled all throughout Hogwarts in a matter of days. Thankfully it had ended when Cedric himself had told some of his friends to stop laughing about the very obviously made-up story. People were still suspicious that we might not have been completely innocent - which we were - but I was trying not to care. My real concern was that I was worried about how it might get back to my parents, both of whom I was planning on eventually telling, but in person and with time. Not right now and not through a letter. They would get far more protective once I told them.

On Saturday morning, Harry and I packed up his Invisibility Cloak in his bag, slipped the Marauder's Map into his pocket, and went down to breakfast with everyone else. We were both trying to look a little put-out about not being able to go. Hermione kept shooting suspicious looks down the table at us - as she obviously didn't believe me when I said that I wasn't going - but we avoided her eye and were careful to let her see us walking back up the marble staircase in the entrance hall as everybody else proceeded to the front doors.

"Bye! See you when you get back!" Harry called to Ron.

"Have a great time!" I added.

We were trying very hard to give somewhat upset looks. It had to be just the slightest bit believable. Ron grinned and winked. Before leaving, Cedric stopped at my side for a moment. He gave me a quick kiss - promising to pick me up something from Honeydukes - sent me a sideways grin, and walked off with his friends. They instantly started to harass him. I could tell by the look that I was getting from Cedric that he wanted me to be careful on my way out to Hogsmeade. Once most people were gone to the carriages, I turned back to Harry with a smile.

"Ready to go?" I asked.

"Let's move," Harry confirmed.

There was a little bit of a time limit that we had. So Harry and I hurried up to the third floor, with him slipping the Marauder's Map out of his pocket as we went. The two of us weren't supposed to be wandering the halls by ourselves, so we definitely had to be careful to ensure that no one saw us. Crouching behind the one-eyed witch, Harry smoothed it out. A tiny dot was moving in our direction. My heart skipped a beat as I squinted at it. We couldn't get caught out here. If nothing else, at least the minuscule writing next to it read Neville Longbottom.

But we had to get out of here before Neville spotted us. Harry quickly pulled out his wand, muttered, “Dissendium!” and shoved his bag into the statue, but before either one of us could climb in ourselves, Neville came around the corner.

Instantly we took a step backwards. "Harry! Tara! I forgot you two weren’t going to Hogsmeade either!" Neville cried excitedly.

"Hey, Neville," I greeted awkwardly.

"Hi, Neville," Harry said, moving swiftly away from the statue and pushing the map back into his pocket. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing," Neville shrugged. "Want a game of Exploding Snap?"

We could have brought Neville with us, but it would have been even more complicated and Neville wasn't the best person in the world to help keep secrets. As much as it would have been polite to ask Neville if he wanted to come with us, I knew that we couldn't. Plus there was also the issue that we knew how clumsy Neville could be. If we needed to move swiftly, Neville would definitely prove a hindrance. And we really didn't need to make and of the professors even more upset with Neville. So I shook my head with a little smile.

"We're a little busy, actually," I said dumbly.

"Er - not now," Harry started awkwardly. "We were going to go to the library and do that vampire essay for Lupin -"

"I'll come with you! I haven't done it either!" Neville said brightly.

"Er - hang on - yeah, I forgot, I finished it last night!" Harry corrected.

"Mine's been done for a while," I answered.

As much as I liked Neville, I really wanted him to take the hint. "Great, you two can help me!" Neville yelped, his round face anxious. Harry and I exchanged a look. What could we do? "I don't understand that thing about the garlic at all - do they have to eat it, or -"

Neville broke off with a small gasp, looking over Harry’s shoulder. I turned with him to see what was happening. My stomach lurched itself into my throat. Not good. Absolutely not good. It was one of the last people that I wanted to see. Right now and in general. It was Snape. He absolutely didn't look happy to see any of the three of us. Out of all of the Gryffindor students, we were likely his least favorite. Although Ron and Hermione were likely pretty high on that list too. Neville took a quick step behind Harry and I, whom he knew would defend him from Snape.

"And what are you three doing here?" Snape asked, coming to a halt and looking from one of us, to the other, to the last. "An odd place to meet."

To my immense disquiet, Snape’s black eyes flicked to the doorways on either side of us, and then to the one-eyed witch. Harry and I quickly exchanged a look with each other. We knew exactly what was going on. Snape knew what was beyond the one-eyed witch statue. He had to have known. He must have been at school around the time that the Marauder's Map was created. Or, if nothing else, he had to have known that this was a way out of the castle. At least he hadn't managed to catch us in the act of getting into the opening.

"We're not - meeting here. We just - met here," Harry stuttered.

"Just ran into each other. Happens sometimes," I said, as carelessly as I could.

"Indeed. You two have a habit of turning up in unexpected places, Potter, Nox, and you both are very rarely there for no good reason," Snape said. I supposed that he was right. Ms. Norris, Justin, and Nearly-Headless Nick had been Petrified just moments before we had found them. Not that we had done anything. "I suggest the three of you return to Gryffindor Tower, where you belong."

Damn him. He had to have known that we were trying to get out of Hogsmeade. He likely wanted to expel us, but he couldn't, considering the fact that he didn't see us doing anything against the rules. Seeing as Harry and I weren't supposed to be wandering the halls most of the time anyways, Snape was well within his rights to tell us to go back to Gryffindor Tower. So Harry, Neville, and I set off without another word. As we turned the corner, Harry and I looked back. Snape was running one of his hands over the one-eyed witch’s head, examining it closely.

So I was right. Snape did know about the statue. Maybe not how to open it, but he had to have known that it was a passage to Hogsmeade. Harry and I wandered back to Gryffindor Tower slowly, only managing to shake Neville off at the Fat Lady by telling him the password, then pretending that we had left his vampire essay in the library and doubled back. I had promised Neville that I would help him later, finally managing to get away from him. Once out of sight of the security trolls, Harry pulled out the map again and held it close to his nose.

There was no way that we could run into Snape again. He was surely bring us to Dumbledore, insisting that we were doing something against the rules - which was completely accurate. The third floor corridor seemed to be deserted by now. We had to get moving. We were already running late to meet Ron, and I was definitely running late to meet Cedric for our date. Whoops. Harry and I scanned the map carefully and saw, with a leap of relief, that the tiny dot labeled Severus Snape was now back in its office. We would make it out there.

Together Harry and I sprinted back to the one-eyed witch, muttered the spell, opened her hump, and I stepped back to watch Harry heave himself inside. For a moment I listened to him slide down to meet his bag at the bottom of the stone chute. Harry called up to me and I lifted myself somewhat awkwardly into the hump of the statue. I slid down the little slide and into Harry's arms. Once I had straightened myself out, I stepped back and let Harry wipe the Marauder's Map blank again. A moment later, the two of us set off at a run.

"Damn that was close," I panted, slipping on the stones.

"I'll say. We're gonna be a little late," Harry panted back.

"I know. I'll have to go straight to the Shrieking Shack. But I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Okay."

We would actually managed to make it there in time. I checked the watch on my wrist and saw that we were already pushing past twelve o'clock. By the time that I actually made it to the Shrieking Shack, there was a good chance that I would be at least half an hour late. Hopefully he wouldn't leave, thinking that I had gotten caught. Why can't wizards use cell phones? He was usually good about waiting for me - as my timing was never that great. The two of us jogged along the corridor, sweat soaking my forehead as we continued down the path.

Once we finally arrived at Hogsmeade, the two of us stopped, wiping our brows, before stepping underneath the Invisibility Cloak. It took us a few moments to wrap ourselves completely in it before we could leave. The moment that we were sure that we weren't going to be caught, Harry and I, completely hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, stepped into the cellar. It was finally easy to make it out into the store. We simply had to be very careful about not bumping into someone. After a minute, we emerged into the sunlight outside Honeydukes and prodded Ron in the back.

"It's us," Harry muttered.

"What kept you two?" Ron hissed.

"Snape was hanging around," Harry explained.

The clock inside Honeydukes was still ticking away, making me later and later for my date. "Drop me off near the pathway, alright? I need to go to the Shrieking Shack," I whispered.

"Okay," Harry said.

Together, the three of us set off up the High Street. As we walked, we stayed directly behind Ron, ensuring that our footsteps in the snow would mingle with Ron's. We definitely didn't want anyone to start getting suspicious. Harry kept an arm around my shoulders as I kept the corner of the Invisibility Cloak in my hands. The wind was whipping at us and I didn't want the Invisibility Cloak to fly off. As we continued towards the Shrieking Shack, I glanced around. I could see Cedric's friends and he wasn't with them. Maybe he was still waiting for me.

"Where are you two? Are you still there? This feels weird..." Ron kept muttering out of the corner of his mouth.

"Don't talk to people who others can't see. You'll look crazy," I snapped quietly.

"Right," Ron said.

"Here's the road," Harry said as we emerged on the edge of the pathway that led to the Shrieking Shack. "See you...?"

"Give me half an hour or so," I said.

"Have fun," Ron said.

"See you later. Be careful on your way back," Harry warned.

"Of course," I said.

Ducking out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak, I waved the boys off before darting away. I definitely needed to hurry up before Cedric got tired of waiting. Smiling at the feel of fresh air - rather than being stifled under the cloak - I headed over towards the Shrieking Shack. I could see Cedric standing near the fence, leaning back on it. As I walked up, I could see that Cedric kept looking down and checking his watch. Obviously he was wondering where I was. Which made sense, as I was almost half an hour late. I felt terrible that he might have been thinking that I blew him off.

"Hey," I panted, darting up to Cedric.

His head shot up in my direction. His bored and slightly irritable look vanished from his face as he smiled at me. He pushed himself off of the fence and towards me. "Tara. There you are," Cedric greeted.

"Sorry I'm late," I said.

Cedric caught me in a hug as I walked up to him. "That's alright. Something hold you up?" Cedric asked.

Scoffing under my breath, I nodded. "Snape. He caught Harry and I over by the three-eyed witch statue and we had to do a very circuitous route back to the statue. And we had to lose Neville along the way," I explained.

"Neville?" Cedric asked confusedly.

"Yeah. Did I not tell you that he wasn't allowed into Hogsmeade anymore?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

Cedric shook his head. "No. What happened?"

"Sir Cadogan - the guy who took over the Fat Lady's portrait after Sirius Black broke in - kept changing the password for the Gryffindor Tower. Neville couldn't keep track of them so he started writing them down. He must have lost the paper. One day clearly Sirius Black managed to pick it up and use the password to get into the Common Room. Neville's barred from all Hogsmeade trips until Black has been captured."

"I want to say that I'm sorry for Neville, but you could have been hurt."

"It was just a mistake. Thankfully it was no harm, no foul."

The two of us smiled at each other. It was the truth. I loved Neville. He was a good friend, despite everything that had happened between us, including my hitting him with numerous spells over the past three years. It was just an accident - him leaving out the passwords. To his credit, I could barely remember them, too. It just helped that I was usually with Hermione - who always knew them. Cedric moved into me and pressed a small kiss against my lips, placing his hand at my lower back, up against my spine.

When we pulled apart, Cedric reached down into his pocket. I raised a brow. "I brought this," Cedric said.

He pulled out a Sugar Quill and I laughed. My addiction to them really was a problem. "A man that knows the way to a woman's heart," I teased, unwrapping it.

"To your heart, at least."

I giggled softly. "What have you been doing for the day?"

Hopefully not standing here and waiting for me the entire time. "Visiting all of the stores. Went through some of the stores with my friends. They're all in the Three Broomsticks right now," Cedric said. That must have been where they were heading when I had seen them earlier. "Told them that I forgot something in the Post Office so that I could meet you out here."

"And how long have you been gone?" I asked.

Cedric glanced down at his watch. "About half an hour."

Despite everything in me wanting him to stay for the day, I knew that he couldn't. "You probably shouldn't be gone for too much longer. They're going to start getting suspicious," I reasoned.

"Just a little while longer," Cedric said, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"Sorry I took too long to show up," I muttered guiltily.

Cedric shook his head, brushing my hair back off of my forehead. "It's not your fault. Professor Snape always seems to show up at the least convenient times, doesn't he?" Cedric teased.

"Anytime that he's around me is inconvenient," I growled.

We both laughed as we plopped ourselves down in the grass outside of the fence to the Shrieking Shack. I was definitely happy to be out of the castle for a while. I was sick of all of the people whispering about me each time that I walked past. It was nice to have a reasonably calm afternoon. Not that the two of us were going to have a long time to sit together. But we got some time to sit around and share the few Sugar Quills that Cedric had bought in Honeydukes. I had teased him, letting him know that he was getting some bad habits from me.

Embarrassingly enough, I had blushed the moment that he said none of my habits were bad. Even the simplest of comments that he made to me made me blush like mad. It drove me insane. Maybe one day I would stop reacting so childishly to the things that he would tell me. But that day wasn't today. So instead I settled for picking at the grass as the two of us chatted back and forth. Cedric had me settled against his side, our hips pressing against the others, as my head fell against his shoulder, his fingers twirling around my hair.

The two of us ended up spending our half an hour together sitting outside by the Shrieking Shack the entire time. I would have loved to go into Hogsmeade and shot at the stores or get a Butterbeer, but I knew that we couldn't. I would be expelled for sure if someone caught me out here. And I was sure to be caught if I went into the street without the Invisibility Cloak. It wasn't just me who would get in trouble. Cedric would get in trouble too. So we merely sat outside and talked, eating the Sugar Quills and occasionally switching positions.

After a while, I finally leaned forward and kissed him. More than just the one little peck that we had given each other when we'd first met up. At least when we kissed out here, we weren't dealing with anyone watching us. No broom closet rumors for now. Although I was sure that they would start up again soon enough. Cedric almost instantly responded to the kiss. His hand gently splayed out over the back of my neck, keeping me pressed up against him. Not that I would have moved away. This was one of the rare chances that we got to just be together.

One of my hands was resting against his thigh as the other pressed up against his chest. My heart fluttered slightly. He was clearly quite strong from playing Quidditch. I could feel his muscles. And his heart, which was beating annoyingly normally. Not fluttering, like mine. Cedric's hand that wasn't wrapped around the back of my neck was underneath my jaw, allowing him to deepen the kiss slightly. My head tilted backwards slightly as Cedric's fingertips dug into my neck slightly. My own hand gripped onto his shirt, pulling at the threads.

We were together for what felt like ages before someone finally cleared their throat. Already knowing who it was, I blushed and pulled away from Cedric. I had been hoping that we wouldn't be in this position when they came to find me. As I turned back, I noticed that Ron was standing there, glaring at me. Obviously Harry was somewhere very close. He was likely also glaring at me. I pushed myself to my feet and took a step back from Cedric, laughing under my breath. Here we were, having another awkward moment.

"Hey, Ron," Cedric greeted.

"Cedric," Ron said, by way of greeting.

He sounded absolutely thrilled to see Cedric. I rolled my eyes. We were going to be chatting about my kissing Cedric in semi-public again. "I should get going then. I'm going to use the other excuse that I was getting my father a birthday present to get away from my friends so that I could stay out here longer, since everyone knows that you're not allowed out here," Cedric explained.

"I'll see you later," I said.

"Bye, Tara," Cedric said.

He was extremely polite about only pressing a small kiss on my lips, stopping to smile at Ron, before heading back up the pathway to High Street. I turned back from watching him leave to see Ron glaring at me. "Stop glaring at me," I snapped.

Despite not being able to see Harry, I meant it for him too. He had to have been glaring at me. "What is this place?" Harry asked.

"It's the Shrieking Shack," I said.

"Even the Hogwarts ghosts avoid it," Ron said as we leaned on the fence, looking up at it. I took a moment to dip back underneath the Invisibility Cloak. "I asked Nearly Headless Nick… he says he’s heard a very rough crowd lives here. No one can get in. Fred and George tried, obviously, but all the entrances are sealed shut."

"Fred and George have tried getting in there?" I asked curiously.

"Yes," Ron said.

"Idiots," I grunted.

We all laughed. They were such fools. Fred and George were going to get themselves killed if they kept making fools moves like trying to enter the Shrieking Shack. Feeling a little hot from my moments with Cedric, I was considering taking off the cloak for a few minutes when we started hearing voices nearby. I gasped softly. That was just what I was trying to avoid .Someone was climbing toward the house from the other side of the hill; moments later, Malfoy had appeared, followed closely by Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy was speaking.

"… should have an owl from Father any time now. He had to go to the hearing to tell them about my arm… about how I couldn’t use it for three months…" Crabbe and Goyle sniggered. "I really wish I could hear that great hairy moron trying to defend himself…'There's no 'arm in 'im, 'onest'… that hippogriff’s as good as dead."

Asshole. But I couldn't be concerned about that right now. "Oh, Merlin. Malfoy. Get back, quick!" I hissed.

How could Malfoy constantly be saying things like that? First of all, Buckbeak was adorable. Despite being a little frightened of him at first, he was really cute. And he was much friendlier the second time that I saw him. Harry grabbed my arm and pulled me back a few steps. We couldn't be too close to Ron. Although I did feel a little bad about leaving Ron technically alone with Malfoy, who definitely wouldn't leave Ron without a few nasty words. Malfoy suddenly caught sight of Ron. His pale face split in a malevolent grin.

"What are you doing, Weasley?" Malfoy looked up at the crumbling house behind Ron. "Suppose you’d love to live here, wouldn’t you, Weasley? Dreaming about having your own bedroom? I heard your family all sleep in one room - is that true?"

He really could be such an ass about everything. Harry seized the back of Ron’s robes to stop him from leaping on Malfoy. "Leave him to us," Harry hissed in Ron’s ear.

"What are we doing?" I whispered.

"Follow my lead," Harry said.

"Okay."

What were we doing? I was sure that Harry had some type of plan, but that didn't stop me from being confused about what was happening. Harry grabbed onto my hand and pulled me with him. That was when I realized where we were going. To the mud puddle not far from where I had planted myself with Cedric next to earlier. It made perfect sense now. The opportunity was too perfect to miss. Harry and I crept silently around behind Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle; we both bent down and each of us scooped a large handful of mud out of the path.

"We were just discussing your friend Hagrid. Just trying to imagine what he’s saying to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures," Malfoy told Ron. "D'you think he'll cry when they cut off his Hippogriff's -"

Absolutely not. No more chatting about what was going to happen to Buckbeak once the trial was over. The only person who needed to know was Hagrid and us, if he chose to tell us. Harry and I reared back with our hands of mud and tossed them as hard as they could. I had to slap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing as the mud splattered across the Slytherin’s. Malfoy’s head jerked forward as the mud puddles hit him; his silver-blonde hair was suddenly dripping in muck. Both Harry and I snorted as Malfoy tried to spit the mud out of his mouth.

"Good aim," I whispered to Harry.

"You too, Chaser," Harry whispered back.

"What the -?" Malfoy started, once he had cleared the mud out of his mouth.

The two of us were still giggling quite a bit. It was almost impossible for me to fall onto the ground from laughing. For once I could hit Malfoy without getting in trouble for it. In the meantime, Ron had to hold onto the fence to keep himself standing, he was laughing so hard. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle spun stupidly on the spot, staring wildly around, Malfoy trying to wipe his hair clean. Harry and I exchanged another look and nodded. We weren't stopping with just one handful of mud each. Not after everything that Malfoy had said.

"What was that? Who did that?" Malfoy snapped.

"Very haunted up here, isn’t it?" Ron asked, with the air of one commenting on the weather.

It was a god thing that Malfoy didn't know about the Invisibility Cloak. He could have easily gone back to one of the professors with a complaint about us. But right now they would have just been taking guesses. Crabbe and Goyle were looking scared. Their bulging muscles were no use against ghosts. Malfoy was staring madly around at the deserted landscape. Harry and I were sneaking along the path, where a particularly sloppy puddle yielded some foul-smelling, green sludge. We grinned at each other again.

If there was one thing even worse than getting mud thrown up all over yourself, it was getting some foul-smelling sludge thrown on you. Picking up the small pile of garbage, I reared back and aimed for Malfoy again. Harry was aiming for the other two. We both howled with laughter again as the chunks of sewage splattered all over those three. Crabbe and Goyle caught some this time. Goyle hopped furiously on the spot, trying to rub it out of his small, dull eyes. The bit that I threw hit Malfoy so hard that he fell back to the ground.

"Idiots," I laughed.

"Keep throwing. They'll never figure it out," Harry goaded.

"Of course not. They're far too dull for that," I agreed.

"It came from over there!" Malfoy yelled, wiping his face, and staring at a spot some six feet to the left of Harry and I.

Crabbe blundered forward, his long arms outstretched like a zombie. Harry and I dodged around him, picked up a stick, and lobbed it at Crabbe’s back. We both doubled up with silent laughter as Crabbe did a kind of pirouette in midair, trying to see who had thrown it. As Ron was the only person Crabbe could see, it was Ron he started toward, but Harry stuck out his leg. Crabbe stumbled - and his huge, flat foot caught the hem of the cloak. I felt a great tug, then the cloak slid off of our faces. For a split second, Malfoy stared at us.

"Oh, no," I gasped.

"AAARGH!" Malfoy yelled, pointing at our heads.

Then he turned tail and ran, at breakneck speed, back down the hill, Crabbe and Goyle behind him. Harry and I tugged the cloak up again, but the damage was done. This was definitely not a good thing. We were going to be in so much trouble the moment that Malfoy got back to the castle. And he would likely end up beating us there. I knew that he would go to Snape - who would love to get the two of us in trouble - the moment that he got back. It didn't help that Snape was looking for any reason to expel either of us.

"We're in for it, Harry," I said, panicked. "You know that Malfoy's going to tell someone that we were here! Snape saw us earlier in the hallway. He was already suspicious. He'll believe him!"

"We need to go," Harry said quickly.

"Harry, Tara!" Ron breathed, stumbling forward and staring hopelessly at the point where we had disappeared, "you two had better run for it! If Malfoy tells anyone - you’d better get back to the castle, quick."

"Wish us luck," I called.

"Run fast," Ron advised.

Well I definitely wasn't planning on walking. "See you later," Harry, said.

Without another word, the two of us tore back down the path toward Hogsmeade. We were walking as fast as we could while still trying to cover our footprints. "Faster, Harry. We've got to beat Malfoy back to the castle," I breathed quietly.

"We'll beat him," Harry said.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. We have to move. Come on!"

"What if we don't beat him?"

"We have to. Move it!" Harry barked.

If we weren't in trouble with Snape before, we were absolutely in trouble with him now. Whether or not we manage to beat Malfoy back, we would somehow get in trouble for this. At least Hermione would never have to go to Professor McGonagall. We had managed to get on trouble without her. Would Malfoy believe what he had seen? Would anyone believe Malfoy? Nobody knew about the Invisibility Cloak - nobody except Dumbledore. My stomach turned over. Dumbledore would know exactly what had happened, if Malfoy said anything. He might have liked us, but he also liked the rules.

We had gotten away with them enough over the past two and a half years. Our luck was running out. Back into Honeydukes, back down the cellar steps, across the stone floor, through the trapdoor - Harry and I pulled off the cloak, he tucked it under his arm, and the two of us ran, flat out, along the passage. Thankfully we were both fast runners. But there was the other issue. Malfoy would get back first. How long would it take him to find a teacher? He knew where Snape's office was. Panting, a sharp pain in my side from the dead sprint, we didn’t slow down until we had reached the stone slide.

"Wait!" I called, stopping Harry and motioning to the Invisibility Cloak. "Put that down. No one can see it."

"But -"

"We'll come back for it. Come on. We have to get to Gryffindor Tower."

Time was ticking. We would have to leave the cloak where it was, it was too much of a giveaway in case Malfoy had tipped off a teacher. Harry reached over and hid it in a shadowy corner, then we started to climb, fast as we could, our sweaty hands slipping on the sides of the chute. It was steeper than I remembered. Harry reached the inside of the witch's hump, tapped it with his wand, stuck his head through, and hoisted himself out. He grabbed me and pulled me out next. The hump closed, and just as we jumped out from behind the statue, I heard quick footsteps approaching.

"No, no, no," I breathed.

For a moment I thought about shouting at Harry to make a run for it. But it didn't matter who it was. If someone saw us out in the hallways, running from something, they would know that there was an issue. It didn't help that we weren't supposed to be out in public together. My heart lodged in my throat when I saw who it was. The worst possible professor for us to run into right now. The one who I had feared Malfoy would go for. It was Snape. He approached Harry and I at a swift walk, his black robes swishing, then stopped in front of us.

"So," Snape said.

The way that he was speaking told me that I wasn't going to like where this one was going. Definitely not good. Possibly the worst thing that we could have done today was get caught. There was a look of suppressed triumph about him. My heart was hammering in my chest but I tried to look as calm and collected as possible. We weren't doing anything wrong... just roaming the halls while everyone was out... The two of us tried to look innocent, all too aware of our sweaty faces and our muddy hands, which we both quickly hid in our pockets.

"Hello, Professor Snape," I said sweetly.

"Save it, Nox. Come with me. Both of you," Snape snapped.

Well that was completely useless... I stared at Harry and swallowed a lump in my throat. I should have known the two of us weren't going to be able to get out of this unscathed. Harry and I followed him downstairs, not daring to speak a word, trying to wipe my hands clean on the inside of my robes without Snape noticing. But he was too busy internally gloating with himself about how wonderful it was that he had caught us in the act. At least, that was what I imagined he was thinking. We walked down the stairs to the dungeons and then into Snape's office.

Harry and I had both been in here only once before, and we had been in very serious trouble then too. It seemed that any time either one of us were close to Snape, it was because we were in trouble. We even sat in the back of the classroom during Potions. As I glanced around the office, I noticed that Snape had acquired a few more slimy horrible things in jars since last time, all standing on shelves behind his desk, glinting in the firelight and adding to the threatening atmosphere. I felt like he was going to feed one of them to us.

"Sit," Snape said. Harry and I sat instantly and in sync. Snape, however, remained standing. "Mr. Malfoy has just been to see me with a strange story, Potter, Nox."

Damn it. We didn't beat him back here. My worst fear had been confirmed. Snape wasn't just pleased with having seen us at the one-eyed witch statue that he knew led into Hogsmeade. Malfoy had told him the story and Snape had come rushing to try and meet us before we could get back to Gryffindor Tower. Malfoy must have taken the carriages back. It was the only way that he could have managed to beat us here. Because we had never run so fast before in our lives. Except maybe from Fluffy. Harry and I didn't say anything as Snape paced.

"He tells me that he was up by the Shrieking Shack when he ran into Weasley - apparently alone." Still, Harry and I didn’t speak. "Mr. Malfoy states that he was standing talking to Weasley, when a large amount of mud hit him in the back of the head. How do you think that could have happened?"

We tried to look mildly surprised. "I don't know, Professor."

"Perhaps someone was hiding in the bushes and playing a cruel prank," I offered.

Obviously there was no chance that he was buying my story. He knew that we had done it, we knew that we had done it, and everyone knew that if anyone was going to peg Malfoy with mud, it was one of us. In fact, I was known for throwing things at Malfoy. It might as well have been on my resume. Throwing things at Draco Malfoy and breaking his nose. Check. Snape’s eyes were boring into Harry’s and mine. It was exactly like trying to stare down a Hippogriff. With that thought in mind, I tried hard not to blink.

"Mr. Malfoy then saw an extraordinary apparition. Can you imagine what it might have been, Potter? Nox?" Snape asked.

"No," Harry said, now trying - and failing - to sound innocently curious.

I didn't speak. "It was your heads, Potter, Nox. Floating in midair."

Did he really have to say anything? I had thought that Malfoy and I might have been getting to the point that we could be friends. At least, quasi-friends. But this had set us back at least a year. I couldn't believe that he really hated at least me enough to say something that would get me expelled. There was a long silence. I didn't say anything for fear of giving anything away. Harry didn't speak, likely because he was trying to figure out what to say. Snape wasn't speaking, probably waiting to hear our excuses.

"Well Malfoy has been known to see things before," I finally said flippantly.

"Maybe he’d better go to Madam Pomfrey," Harry said. "If he’s seeing things like -"

"What would your heads have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter? Nox?" Snape asked softly.

"It's a curious question. One that likely doesn't have a simple answer," I said almost teasingly.

It didn't please Snape. His eyes narrowed. "Yes. That much I would imagine is accurate. Your heads are not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of either one of your bodies have permission to be in Hogsmeade," Snape growled.

"We know that,” Harry said, striving to keep his face free of guilt or fear. "It sounds like Malfoy’s having hallucin -"

"Malfoy is not having hallucinations," Snape snarled, and he bent down, a hand on each arm of Harry’s chair, so that their faces were a foot apart. I felt a little badly for Harry, but I was glad that it was happening to him and not me. "If your heads were in Hogsmeade, so were the rest of you."

"We've been up in Gryffindor Tower," Harry said. "Like you told -"

"Can anyone confirm that?" Snape asked.

"We're the only ones who were there," I said quickly.

"As for Longbottom?" Snape asked.

Shit. Didn't think about that one. Would Neville maybe confirm the story? He would probably try. Unfortunately I knew Neville well enough to know that he was terrified of Snape. That meant that he would start stuttering the moment that Snape started to speak to him. It wouldn't work out well if we tried to drag Neville into it. He wasn't Ron or Hermione - who would definitely confirm our story. Even Hermione, who so often threatened to rat us out. So Harry and I didn't say anything. Snape's thin mouth curled into a horrible smile.

"So," Snape said, straightening up again. "Everyone from the Minister of Magic downward has been trying to keep famous Harry Potter and Tara Nox safe from Sirius Black. But famous Harry Potter is a law unto himself. Let the ordinary people worry about his safety! Famous Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for the consequences."

Now that was rude. Never had I been quite so happy to not be famous. I had been pleased that I wasn't nearly as famous as Harry a number of times before. I would have never wanted to be like him. But I was slowly realizing that Snape took it so hard on Harry not just because he was famous - although he hated that too. It was because his father, whom Snape had also hated, was famous too. Of course, he was only famous because he had died. Harry and I stayed silent again. Snape was trying to provoke us into telling the truth. We wouldn't do it. Snape had no proof - yet.

"How extraordinarily like your fathers you are, Potter, Nox. They too were exceedingly arrogant. A small amount of talent on the Quidditch field made them think that they were a cut above the rest of us too," Snape said suddenly, his eyes glittering.

"My father was a professional player," I said stubbornly.

"Silence," Snape growled at me. "Strutting around the place with their friends and admirers... The resemblance between you all is uncanny."

"My dad didn't strut. And neither do I," Harry said, obviously before he could stop himself.

Not good. Definitely not good. "Your father didn't set much store by rules either," Snape went on, pressing his advantage, his thin face full of malice. "Rules were for lesser mortals, not Quidditch Cup-winners. His head was so swollen -"

"Shut up!" Harry interrupted, shouting loudly.

"Harry!" I gasped.

As much as I hated Snape and what he was saying, I knew that this was the moment to sit and try to grin and bear it. We were already in trouble. Speaking out against a professor would only make things worse for us. Harry was suddenly on his feet. I pressed my forehead into the palm of my hand. What the hell was he thinking? I knew that he was furious, but I didn't care! I was not getting kicked out because of him. Snape's face had gone rigid, the black eyes flashing dangerously. I could tell that Harry didn't care.

"What did you say to me, Potter?" Snape asked.

"I told you to shut up about my dad! I know the truth, all right? He saved your life! Dumbledore told me! You wouldn't even be here if it wasn’t for my dad!" Harry yelled.

Snape’s sallow skin had gone the color of sour milk. "Harry, shut up," I begged quietly.

Snape obviously heard me, but he didn't dare peel his eyes away from Harry's. "Listen to your friend, Potter. And did the headmaster tell you the circumstances in which your father saved my life?" Snape whispered. "Or did he consider the details too unpleasant for precious Potter’s delicate ears?"

Now that was a curious moment. Somehow James Potter had saved Severus Snape. What the hell could have happened that James had actually saved Snape? I wouldn't. No matter what was about to happen. After all, Snape was an ass. He probably would have deserved whatever was going to happen. Harry and I both bit our lips. The thought of Harry's father saving Snape was somewhat disconcerting. Neither one of us knew what had happened and we didn't want to admit it - but Snape seemed to have guessed the truth.

"I would hate for you to run away with a false idea of your father, Potter," Snape said, a terrible grin twisting his face. "Have you been imagining some act of glorious heroism? Then let me correct you - your saintly father - yours as well - and their friends played a highly amusing joke on me that would have resulted in my death if your father hadn't got cold feet at the last moment. There was nothing brave about what he did. He was saving his own skin as much as mine. Had their joke succeeded, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts."

"At least no one was hurt," I said sheepishly.

Clearly it was the wrong move. Snape’s uneven, yellowish teeth were bared. "Turn out your pockets, Potter!" he spat suddenly. Harry didn't move. I groaned softly. "Turn out your pockets, or we go straight to the headmaster! Pull them out, Potter!"

He would see it. He would probably know what it was. Cold with dread, I watched as Harry slowly pulled out the bag of Zonko’s tricks and the Marauder's Map. Snape picked up the Zonko’s bag. Idiot! They had gone shopping while I had been with Cedric. I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought about it. What was in Harry's pockets was enough to condemn both of us, since it was obvious that Harry had been with me the entire time. My only hope was that he wouldn't know what the Marauder's Map was.

"Ron gave them to me," Harry said quickly. I was praying that we would get a chance to tip Ron off before Snape saw him. "He - brought them back from Hogsmeade last time -"

"Indeed? And you've been carrying them around ever since? How very touching," Snape purred.

"We were eating them as we walked around," I interjected quickly.

"Of course. And what is this?" Snape asked.

Snape had picked up the map. Harry and I both tried with all of our might to keep our faces impassive. "Spare bit of parchment," Harry finally said with a shrug.

Snape turned it over, his eyes on Harry. "Surely you don’t need such a very old piece of parchment? Why don't I just - throw this away?" Snape offered.

His hand moved toward the fire. "No!" Harry said quickly.

All I had done was gasp. Harry had managed to make it clear enough that the 'spare piece of parchment was important. "So! Is this another treasured gift from Mr. Weasley? Or is it - something else? A letter, perhaps, written in invisible ink? Or - instructions to get into Hogsmeade without passing the Dementors?" Snape asked, his long nostrils flaring.

Harry and I blinked. "It's just a spare piece of parchment," I insisted.

Snape's eyes gleamed. "Is that so? Let me see, let me see…" Snape muttered, taking out his wand and smoothing the map out on his desk. "Reveal your secret!" he said, touching the wand to the parchment.

"There's nothing there," I insisted.

Nothing happened. Both Harry and I clenched our hands to stop them from shaking. "Show yourself!" Snape said, tapping the map sharply. It stayed blank. Both Harry and I were taking deep, calming breaths. "Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!"

That time, Snape practically whacked the map with his wand. He must have known what it was. But it was also obvious that he didn't know how to make it work. And there was no way that either one of us were going to tell him how. We just had to hope that he got frustrated and gave up. To my surprise, something started to form on the parchment. But it wasn't the map. As though an invisible hand were writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the map. None of them looked like what I had expected to see.

Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.

Snape froze. Harry and I stared, dumbstruck, at the message. We exchanged a look with each other and I shrugged. I had no idea what the map was doing. I thought that the only way that the writing would appear would be if we said the words that Fred and George had taught us. As I watched, I realized that the map didn’t stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.

Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.

Now that wasv't very nice. Not that I really cared, considering the number of times that Snape had been rude to us. It would have been very funny if the situation hadn’t been so serious. And there were even more words coming.

Mr. Mane would like to put into consideration that Professor Snape needs to keep his abnormally large nose in his own business.

The boys who had created the map must have charmed it to insult people who tried to access the map without the proper instructions. Either that, or they held a grudge with Snape. Could one of them have been... James Potter? No. That was silly. As I watched more words forming on the map, I almost grinned. There was something extremely funny about the whole thing. But I was also a little terrified to see how Snape was going to react when the map was done insulting him.

Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.

Definitely not good. It was getting worse with each passing second. At least I would be able to laugh about this later. For a moment I closed my eyes in horror. When I finally managed to open them, the map had had its last word.

Mr. Wormtail bids, Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.

In a deafening silence, I waited for the blow to fall. "So... We'll see about this..." Snape said softly.

His voice was so low that I thought he might explode. My hands were shaking slightly. He definitely wasn't happy. He was going to kill us. He was actually going to kill us. I was sure of that. Suddenly Snape turned away from us and he strode across to his fire, seized a fistful of glittering powder from a jar on the fireplace, and threw it into the flames. Was he planning on traveling by Floo Powder? Or was he planning on making some type of fire that would likely end up permanently disfiguring us.

"Lupin! I want a word!" Snape called into the fire.

Of the many things that I had seen in the Wizarding World, I had never seen someone speak directly into a fire before. That was definitely a new one for me. It was rather interesting, at least. Utterly bewildered, Harry and I stared at the fire. A large shape had appeared in it, and it was revolving very fast. It wasn't quite Floo Powder, whatever it was that Snape was using for Professor Lupin. Seconds later, the flames had spun up slightly and Professor Lupin was clambering out of the fireplace, brushing ash off his shabby robes.

"You called, Severus?" Professor Lupin asked mildly.

"I certainly did," Snape said, his face contorted with fury as he strode back to his desk. "I have just asked Potter to empty his pockets. He was carrying this."

Snape pointed at the parchment, on which the words of Messrs. Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs were still shining. Did he know what it was. By the way that Snape was speaking to Professor Lupin, I could only imagine that he knew what it was. Maybe the Maurader's Map was something that had been very popular throughout the years. An odd, closed expression appeared on Professor Lupin's face. Maybe he really did know what it was. At least I figured that Professor Lupin would keep us from getting in trouble.

"Well?" Snape asked. Professor Lupin continued to stare at the map. I had the impression that Professor Lupin was doing some very quick thinking. "Well?” Snape repeated. "This parchment is plainly full of Dark Magic. This is supposed to be your area of expertise, Lupin. Where do you imagine Potter and Nox got such a thing?"

Lupin looked up and, by the merest half-glance in Harry and I's direction, warned us not to interrupt. I wouldn't have anyways. "Full of Dark Magic?" Professor Lupin repeated mildly. "Do you really think so, Severus? It looks to me as though it is merely a piece of parchment that insults anybody who reads it. Childish, but surely not dangerous? I imagine Harry and Tara got it from a joke shop -"

"Indeed? You think a joke shop could supply him with such a thing? You don’t think it more likely that they got it directly from the manufacturers?" Snape asked. His jaw had gone rigid with anger.

It appeared that Harry - like me - didn't understand what Snape was talking about. Nor, apparently, did Lupin. "You mean, by Mr. Wormtail or one of these people? Harry, do you know any of these men?" Professor Lupin asked.

"No," Harry said quickly.

"Do you, Tara?" Professor Lupin asked.

"No," I said, just as quickly.

"You see, Severus?” Professor Lupin asked, turning back to Snape. "It looks like a Zonko product to me -"

Right on cue, Ron came bursting into the office. Harry and I both whipped back. He must have run for the carriages the moment that Harry and I had headed back for the castle. I assumed that he had been searching for us for a while. Smart enough of him to figure that Snape was the one to catch us. Everyone was staring at him confusedly. Ron was completely out of breath, and stopped just short of Snape’s desk, clutching the stitch in his chest and trying to speak.

"I - gave - Harry - and - Tara - that - stuff," Ron choked. "Bought - it… in Zonko's… ages - ago..."

"Well!" Professor Lupin cried, clapping his hands together and looking around cheerfully. "That seems to clear that up! Severus, I’ll take this back, shall I?" He folded the map and tucked it inside his robes. "Harry, Tara, Ron, come with me, I need a word about my vampire essay - excuse us, Severus."

We all knew that we were damned lucky to have gotten out of this without anything more than a scathing glare from Snape - and likely an even more increased hatred from him. Not that he could have hated us much more than he already did. Harry and I didn’t dare look at Snape as we all left his office. My heart was hammering as I was in complete disbelief that we had managed to get out of this mostly unscathed. Harry, Ron, Professor Lupin, and I walked all the way back into the entrance hall before speaking. Then Harry turned to Lupin.

"Professor, I -"

"We didn't -" I interrupted.

"I don't want to hear explanations," Professor Lupin said shortly. He glanced around the empty entrance hall and lowered his voice. "I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Mr. Filch many years ago."

"Do you know what this -?" I started.

"Yes, I know it’s a map," Professor Lupin interrupted me again as the three of us looked on in amazement. "I don’t want to know how it fell into your possession. I am, however, astounded that you didn’t hand it in. Particularly after what happened the last time a student left information about the castle lying around. And I can’t let you have it back, Harry."

I knew that we had expected that. Besides, I was too keen for explanations to protest. "Why did Snape think I’d got it from the manufacturers?" Harry asked, beating me to it.

"Because..." Professor Lupin hesitated, "because these mapmakers would have wanted to lure you out of school. They'd think it extremely entertaining."

"Do you know them?" Harry asked, impressed.

"We’ve met," Professor Lupin said shortly.

He was looking at Harry and I more seriously than ever before. "We didn't know just how... dangerous the map was," I said dumbly.

Professor Lupin nodded, still not looking happy with us. "Don’t expect me to cover up for you again, Harry. Or you, Tara. I cannot make either of you take Sirius Black seriously. But I would have thought that what you have heard when the Dementors draw near you would have had more of an effect on both of you. Your parents gave and were willing to give their lives to keep you two alive. A poor way to repay them - gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks," Professor Lupin said seriously.

The guilt wracked through my painfully, just as I was sure that it was with Harry. "We're so sorry," I muttered.

"I know," Professor Lupin said.

"Wait," I said, a thought occurring to me. "Can I ask -?"

"Perhaps after next class, Tara. Can it wait?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Yes, sir," I said, knowing that it wasn't really an option.

By the look on his face, I could tell that he didn't want me asking any questions. He wanted me to ask later. Once he was no longer upset with us and we were no longer in immediate danger from Snape. Professor Lupin walked away without another word, leaving me feeling worse by far than I had at any point in Snape's office. Slowly, Harry, Ron, and I mounted the marble staircase. As we passed the one-eyed witch, I remembered the Invisibility Cloak - it was still down there, but we didn't dare go and get it. Not for a few days, at least.

"What did you want to ask Professor Lupin?" Harry asked curiously.

Should I have really told him what I had wanted to ask Professor Lupin? Probably not. Because I didn't know if I was right. I thought back on my idea with the Marauder's Map and whether or not it had any merit behind it. I was reasonably sure by the way that he had reacted that Professor Lupin was one of the men who had written it. Snape knew too much about it. Could James Potter and Sirius Black have been some of the others? Moony. Perhaps Professor Lupin's allusion to a werewolf? That left two more. For my father and Peter Pettigrew... The math worked out...

"I really did have a question about the vampire essay," I finally answered.

It was a discussion for another day. "You thought about it right then?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

"Professor Lupin's comment reminded me about it," I said.

"It’s my fault. I persuaded you two to go. Lupin's right, it was stupid, we shouldn't have done it," Ron said abruptly.

"We just wanted one day. Who could blame us, honestly?" I reasoned.

"But we didn't have to risk -" Ron started.

Then he broke off. We all knew what he meant. We didn't have to say anything more. There was nothing else that we should have said right now. We knew what we had done and we knew that we had let down Professor Lupin - who seemed to think so highly of us. The three of us headed back up towards Gryffindor Tower. It had been a long day that had started so well but was now ruined. I was feeling even worse than when we had been caught. I felt terribly for letting down Professor Lupin, someone who had always believed the best in me.

When we reached the corridor where the security trolls were pacing, I saw that Hermione was walking toward us. I tried to force a smile on my face. I didn't want to hear an 'I-told-you-so speech' right now. Which I knew that she would give me the moment that she realized what was happening. The stupid thing that we had done. One look at her face convinced me that she had heard what had happened. My heart plummeted. Had Malfoy not been the one to tell what had happened? Had she told Professor McGonagall?

"Come to have a good gloat? Or have you just been to tell on us?" Ron asked savagely as she stopped in front of us.

"No," Hermione said.

That was when I realized that she was holding a letter in her hands and her lip was trembling. Something bad had happened to her. "Hermione? Are you okay?" I asked carefully.

"I just thought you ought to know... Hagrid lost his case. Buckbeak is going to be executed."


	51. The Quidditch Final

"He - He sent me this," Hermione said, holding out the letter.

My hands were shaking. I had really thought that with Hermione helping him, there was no way that Hagrid could lose the case. But it seemed that he had. I had no doubt in my mind that Lucius Malfoy had had something to do with Hagrid's loss. Harry took the letter and I leaned over his shoulder to read it. The parchment was damp, and enormous teardrops had smudged the ink so badly in places that it was very difficult to read. My chest twisted. Hagrid had been crying when he had written this.

Dear Hermione,

We lost. I'm allowed to bring him back to Hogwarts.

Execution date to be fixed.

Beaky has enjoyed London.

I won't forget all the help you gave us.

Hagrid.

He had actually lost... Hagrid had actually lost the case and sweet Buckbeak was going to be killed... "No, no! That's not fair! Malfoy's father just bought the execution!" I shouted, angered beyond belief.

"They can't do this. They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous," Harry said.

"Harry's right. I've ridden Buckbeak before. He was fine with me. Malfoy was just being an ass, which you can't do with a Hippogriff," I snapped irritably.

Buckbeak hadn't done anything wrong. He had just reacted the way that Hippogriff's did when insulted. They were fine. Malfoy hadn't even had anything except a bad scratch that had been healed right up. This was exactly why the two of us would never really be friends. Or anything of the likes. I couldn't stand the way that he didn't take other lives - including animals' - into consideration.

"Malfoy's dad's frightened the Committee into it," Hermione said, wiping her eyes.

"Does Hagrid know about Lucius's bullying?" I asked.

"Of course. He was there. And you know what he's like," Hermione said. I did know. I had met Lucius Malfoy a few times and each time he was less pleasant than the time before. "They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal, though, there always is."

"Maybe Hagrid can win the appeal. Bring Buckbeak, show them that he isn't dangerous," I offered unconvincingly.

Unfortunately, if Lucius Malfoy was already in their heads, nothing would change their minds. Buckbeak was going to be executed. "Hagrid's already tried that," Hermione sniffed.

"There has to be something else," Harry growled suddenly. "The appeal, we can work with that."

"At least there will be one last chance," I muttered.

We all knew that it was futile. Nothing would work. But we also weren't willing to give up. "Only I can't see any hope... Nothing will have changed," Hermione whined softly.

"Yeah, it will. You won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione. I'll help," Ron said fiercely.

I knew that the two of them would eventually manage to put their feud with Scabbers and Crookshanks out of their minds. With everything terrible that was happening with Buckbeak and Hagrid, at least the two of them were going to be friendly again. I supposed that was reassuring. It would also make me a little less stressed, considering that I wouldn't have to keep splitting my time between them - something that I had never been very good with before. I moved forward and pressed a hand against Hermione's shoulder. The fight was over.

"We'll all help," I said determinedly.

Even if we couldn't save Buckbeak, we would try our damnedest. "Oh, Ron!" Hermione howled.

Releasing her shoulder, I allowed her to move from me. I grinned towards the ground as Hermione flung her arms around Ron's neck and broke down completely. She was sobbing into his shoulder. Despite the tense and depressing moment, I glanced over at Harry and smiled. He was smiling back at me. Friendly again; eventually it would become a romance. I was sure of that. Ron, looking quite terrified, patted her very awkwardly on the top of the head. I laughed again. The emotional range of a spoon... Finally, Hermione drew away.

"The wedding is back on," I whispered into Harry's ear.

"You're really rooting for them?" Harry asked.

There was no one that I was rooting for - save Cedric and myself - more than Ron and Hermione. "Hell yeah, I am. Come on, you see it," I said, motioning between them.

Harry snorted. "Of course. I think everyone sees it."

"See? Trust me, just give it time. They'll get married. I'm telling you."

"If they don't kill each other first."

There was also no doubt in my mind that they would ever stop fighting. That was why I thought that they would work out. They already fought like a married couple. "Yes... I suppose that would be a problem," I muttered.

"Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers..." Hermione sobbed.

"Oh - well - he was old," Ron said dumbly, looking thoroughly relieved that she had let go of him.

Sensing the slightly awkward air, I walked between the two of them and smiled, holding them both by the shoulders. "See? Now was that so hard to say?" I asked teasingly.

"Shut up, Tara," Ron muttered, turning even redder than normal.

"No! I've been dealing with you all for weeks," I growled.

Ron rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored me. He then looked back at Hermione. "Anyways, he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now," Ron tried to reason.

Harry and I smiled at each other as Hermione brightened slightly. "See? Look at that. It all works out," I said happily.

Finally we seemed to be back to our foursome. I was sure that we would be back at each other's throats within days, but for now we could be happy. Maybe I would finally be able to leave with Cedric for a while and not have to worry about them killing each other while I was gone. The four of us walked over towards the fireplace and instantly seated ourselves to start working on any last minute things that we could to save Buckbeak from his impending execution. One issue solved, now on to the next.

When the weekend ended and we were back in classes, I was confronted in the morning by Cedric. He wanted to know if I had been okay on the way back to the castle. Apparently Malfoy had said something about seeing Harry and I's floating heads. I had laughed and explained the entire thing - excluding the Marauder's Map - from the moment that we had left to the moment that we had gotten back to the castle. I had even mentioned running into Snape on the way back and how Professor Lupin had saved us from his wrath. Cedric seemed very happy that we hadn't gotten in trouble.

Although I did mention that I felt badly about disappointing Professor Lupin. Cedric insisted that he would be over it by the time that we got back to his class. Before I headed off towards my class, I even told him about how Buckbeak had lost and was now likely to be executed - unless we could stop it. I was planning on cancelling one of our upcoming dates out by the Black Lake for lunch just so that I could try and read up on anything that I could do to stop the execution and save Buckbeak.

Not only that, but I had also mentioned the simple fact that we wanted to spend a lot of time with Hagrid. In the event that we couldn't stop Buckbeak's execution, he should have at least had some time with friends. That was what he needed right now. Cedric had been quite regretful that Buckbeak was going to be executed. I knew that he loved magical creatures just as much as I did. He had even offered to try and do some work to see if he could find anything to save the Hippogriff. I had been more than a little grateful for that.

That was one of the only times that we had seen each other over the past few days. I had been too busy trying to solve the problem with Buckbeak and Hagrid. It seemed almost impossible for the two of us to meet up together while I was trying to work out what was happening in other places. It didn't really matter anyways. With two break-ins from Sirius Black, I was barely ever left alone in the hallways. Not even with my own boyfriend. Other Prefects or professors were always trying to keep me company.

The safety measures imposed on the students since Black's second break-in had also made it impossible for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I to go and visit Hagrid in the evenings. It had been hard enough for the four of us to get out there anyways, but this was making things even worse. It was almost impossible for me to do anything, actually, other than just go along with everyone and try to ignore the lingering teachers. Our only chance of talking to Hagrid these days was during Care of Magical Creatures lessons. He seemed numb with shock at the verdict.

"S'all my fault," Hagrid told us one afternoon.

Placing my hand on his giant arm, I shook my head. That was the last thing that we needed happening. "It is not your fault, Hagrid. It's Malfoy and his father's fault," I snapped irritably.

"Nah. I got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh looked up fer me, Hermione," Hagrid said.

That couldn't have been the reason that he had lost the trial. They were all just in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. "Well I'm sure that they knew that you would be nervous, Hagrid. You can't be the first person in the world who was nervous," I said, attempting to be reasonable.

"An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em..."

"But we can defend you!" I said quickly.

Hagrid shook his head sadly. "Doesn't work tha' way, Tara. Thank yeh, though," Hagrid muttered.

"This isn't fair!" I barked.

"There's still the appeal! Don't give up yet, we're working on it!" Ron said fiercely.

All four of us nodded. There was no way that we were going to let Buckbeak die without doing anything to try and save him. I placed a hand on Hagrid's back and tried to push him towards the hut. "How about some tea, Hagrid?" I offered.

Everyone else was busy with classwork. I had a feeling that they really didn't care if we were inside making tea or outside and actually learning. Unable to speak from grief, Hagrid merely nodded at me. So I snuck into Hagrid's hut to help him out for a little while. It was quite the mess from Buckbeak living in there and having Hagrid unmotivated to clean anything. I made Hagrid some tea as the four of us sat around and chatted with him. The door was open in case someone needed us or people started to complain that Hagrid wasn't teaching. That was the last thing that we needed.

It was obvious enough to see that Hagrid wasn't really into anything that we were saying or doing. He just wanted to save Buckbeak and there was about no chance in hell that we could do that. But we would certainly try. For most of the class period, we were trying to be as sweet as possible and reassure Hagrid that everything would be alright. I made sure to tell Hagrid more than once that there was nothing to worry about, even though I knew that it wasn't the truth. It was going to be very tough to save Buckbeak.

Before we left to go back to class for the last few minutes, I walked over towards Buckbeak. The Hippogriff bowed before I even managed to do it myself. He must have known what was coming. It broke my heart to see the once spirited animal so demure. I walked onto his pillow and sat with him, gently brushing my fingers through his feathers. We had to save Buckbeak... He wasn't even slightly dangerous... Malfoy was just an ass... I spent the last few minutes of class letting Buckbeak nuzzle against my hand and rest his head in my lap.

By the time that class was finally over, it was almost impossible to leave Buckbeak. It was heartbreaking. But I peeled myself away from the Hippogriff and promised Hagrid that I would come back and spend some time him before they left again. Just in case... With Buckbeak locked in Hagrid's cabin, the rest of us were walking back up to the castle with the rest of the class. Ahead of us, I could see Malfoy, who was walking with Crabbe and Goyle. He kept looking back, laughing derisively. His eyes seemed firmly locked on Hagrid.

"S'no good, Ron. That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that..." Hagrid said sadly as we reached the castle steps.

"We'll help. We'll take care of him," I said as hopefully as possible.

But we all knew that it wasn't the truth. There was almost no way that we were going to be able to save Buckbeak. They were already in Lucius Malfoy's pocket and that meant that nothing that we could do would change things. As much as I was trying to comfort Hagrid, I knew that he also knew the truth. There was nothing to do to stop Buckbeak's execution. Hagrid suddenly turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, his face buried in his handkerchief. He didn't even stop for a moment to say anything more to us.

"Oh, Hagrid..." I muttered sadly, watching him stride back to his cabin. He must have been trying to spend as much time with Buckbeak as possible before it was too late. "Buckbeak really is sweet."

"Of course he is," Hermione put in.

"Look at him blubber!"

My head snapped back to see what was happening. I should have known who had said it, but I just wanted to be sure. Every time that it seemed like we might have been making some real progress towards being friends, he always did something else to undermine it. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing just inside the castle doors, listening. The rest of the Slytherin's were standing close by, chuckling at Hagrid's misfortune. The rest of the Gryffindor's were trailing behind us, but they had clearly overheard their comment.

"Fuck off!" I shouted, before thinking better of it.

The words flew out of my mouth before I got the chance to stop them. I knew that I shouldn't have said it. I knew that my parents would have been appalled if they had heard me. In fact, I had never even heard anyone in Hogwarts say that before. My hand instantly slapped itself over my mouth. I had been known to be rather profane before, as I was usually losing House points for foul language, but I just couldn't hold it in that time. The entire class stopped dead in their tracks and went deathly silent. It was the first time that anyone had said anything like that.

Malfoy very slowly waltzed up to me, his eyes narrowed into a deathly glare. "What did you say?" Malfoy growled.

Take it back, Tara. He's an ass, but you shouldn't have said that. Instead, what came out was, "You heard me."

My voice was as threatening as his. "Filthy blood-traitor," Malfoy snarled.

In the back of my mind I knew that this was my chance to be the bigger person and put our constant bickering behind us. It was the time to bury the hatchet. But the big-headed part of me couldn't force myself to do that. So instead I stormed up to Malfoy and did what everyone should have seen coming by now. I reared back and punched Malfoy dead across the face, much harder than I had ever done before. Malfoy stumbled backwards as his friends tried to walk up and help him back to his feet. He shoved them away to straighten up and give me an almost poisonous look.

Everyone looked about ready to step in. Malfoy spit out a mouthful of blood. I was glad that I had caused that. He spit out another glob of blood before saying, "You know that I could -"

"What? Spill the secret?" I interrupted.

There were looks exchanged throughout the small entrance hall that we were standing around. The Slytherin's all raised their eyebrows. They were clearly interested with what was happening between us. The Gryffindor's looked like they were about to assist in the fight. I could see Ron, Harry, and Hermione moving forward to diffuse the fight. They were the only people here who knew the secret. They wouldn't want me to say it. But I was sick of Malfoy hanging something over my head. He was not holding this secret over me anymore. I would simply deal with the consequences.

"Go ahead," I dared.

"You're not serious," Malfoy said slowly.

"Wanna bet?" I tempted.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Go for it. Tell them."

"Tara -" Harry started.

"Stay out of it," I interrupted, not entirely unkindly.

This was my mess. I was the one who needed to fix it. Malfoy smirked, figuring that I would stop him, and said, "That you -"

"Kissed me?" I interrupted. "Yes."

Mostly it had been because I didn't think that he would say it. And, honestly, I wanted to be the one with the balls to say it. So I had been. It was my secret and I was finally ready for everyone to know. The entire class gasped. Both Slytherin's and Gryffindor's. I could see Hermione pinching the bridge of her nose. Harry and Ron looked about ready to attack Malfoy. The girls were whispering about the kiss and asking each other questions. Obviously no one had seen it, so no one had any answers. But I did hear Cedric's name being thrown back and forth.

That would manage to get back to him at some point. I was already well aware that he would want to know more about this, and I would tell him when the time came. The class was still reeling from my announcement. They clearly weren't expecting that. I smirked as the class erupted into whispers about what just happened. Malfoy looked shocked too. He was clearly expecting me to try and stop him. Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise Zabini were all staring at me curiously. Malfoy, too, since he wasn't trying to stop me from actually spilling the beans.

"What?" Pansy finally howled.

Her face was bright pink as she stared at me. A wide smirk spread over my face. "That's right," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and striding up to her. "I was disguised as you and your boyfriend kissed me last year. By the way, he thinks your eyes are dull, he likes mine, and that strawberry Chapstick that you have... Look familiar?"

Dipping my hand down into my pocket, I pulled out my own case of Chapstick. Pansy's jaw was practically on the floor. "You -"

"Have nothing on me," I said, directing the comment towards Malfoy. He was still scowling at me as everyone else slowly moved towards us. "We're done with this secret. Spread it around. I don't care."

"What about when your boyfriend finds out?" Malfoy snarled.

He was trying to hang something over me. But it had happened long before we were together. "That you sprang a kiss on me when you thought that I was someone else? A kiss that I wasn't aware of? That happened before we got together? I don't care. He won't either. And, if nothing else, I'll be more than happy to let him know how much better of a kisser he is than you," I said brightly.

Despite everyone sounding not at all happy about the kiss, they did appreciate my little jab at Malfoy. Although they didn't really sound happy about the fact that Malfoy had initiated the kiss either. The entire Gryffindor side of the class started laughing. Even Harry and Ron, who never wanted to hear about my kisses with Cedric. Slytherin House looked furious. None more so than Malfoy. All of my friends were laughing and grabbing me, giggling madly. Clearly Malfoy knew that he wouldn't win this way. So he tried something else.

"Come on, Nox. You really want to say that you feel nothing for me?" Malfoy asked, walking towards me.

"Yeah, Malfoy. You're a terrible kisser, horrible Quidditch player, and, oh yeah, nowhere near as attractive as Cedric Diggory. Right?" I asked the other girls.

"You bitch!" Pansy howled.

"Leave, Pansy," Malfoy seethed.

"Draco -" Pansy started.

"We'll talk later," Malfoy said, cutting off whatever she was going to say.

No one in Slytherin looked happy with me. They were all glaring at me like I had said something to mortally offend them. Of course, maybe I had. They worshiped Malfoy. I grinned brightly as the rest of the Gryffindor girls started chirping their agreement. Cedric was definitely one of the best looking guys in Hogwarts. And it was just my luck to be with him. Malfoy's jaws set tightly. The kiss wasn't going to get to me. That was already out of my life. Malfoy, knowing that, went back to the way that he was torturing us before.

"Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic? And he's supposed to be our teacher!" Malfoy laughed excitedly.

The Gryffindor's had started to disperse slightly now that the conversation about my kiss with Malfoy was over. I knew that they would all be trying to get that back to Cedric within the day. I could expect to see him before dinner was over tonight. In the meantime, I was steaming over the fact that Malfoy was now back to taunting Hagrid. Was there no low that he could hit? Harry, Ron, and I all made furious moves toward Malfoy, but to my surprise, Hermione got there first. Even more shocking was the fact that she's followed my lead.

There was a loud crack as I took a step backwards. Coming from me wasn't that surprising. I was known to be hot-headed and I had hit or thrown something at Malfoy at least a hundred times before. But Hermione had now slapped Malfoy across the face with all the strength she could muster. It looked to be almost as hard as I had hit him. And I had a Chaser arm... Damn, Hermione... Malfoy staggered backwards, clearly shocked. Harry, Ron, Crabbe, Goyle, and I stood flabbergasted as Hermione raised her hand again.

"Nice!" I chirped happily, thrilled with what she had just done. I turned back to Malfoy with a little grin. "See, Malfoy, it's not just me."

"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic," Hermione started, "you foul - you evil -"

"Hermione!" Ron yelled weakly, and he tried to grab her hand as she swung it back.

"Get off, Ron!" Hermione yelled.

"Let her go!" I chimed in.

As much as I enjoyed hitting Malfoy - as it was always extremely gratifying - it was also thrilling to see Hermione finally grow a little bit of a backbone. I always knew that she could do something like that. Hermione clearly wasn't getting back to Malfoy without Ron letting her go. He must not have wanted her to get in trouble. She wasn't used to being in trouble. I was. So Hermione went the other route and pulled out her wand. Malfoy stepped backward. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him for instructions, thoroughly bewildered.

"Do it!" I chirped.

Malfoy sent me a little scowl. "C'mon. You'll regret saying that," Malfoy muttered, and in a moment, all three of them had disappeared into the passageway to the dungeons.

We were now the only people left. "Doubt it," I muttered after him.

The four of us stared at each other before Harry gave me a long look. "That'll get around the school," Harry finally commented.

Obviously he meant about our kiss. "I don't care," I said honestly.

"Cedric will hear," Hermione pointed out.

"I don't care. He deserved it. I'll explain it to Cedric if he asks," I said determinedly.

"Hermione!" Ron said again, sounding both stunned and impressed.

He was clearly hung up on how Hermione had just smacked Malfoy. Not as good as a punch, but it was a good start. "Nice one!" I cheered happily, grabbing her shoulder and shaking it. "I knew that someone else would eventually hit him."

"Harry, Tara, you'd better beat him in the Quidditch final! You just better had, because I can't stand it if Slytherin wins!" Hermione cried shrilly.

"Trust us, neither can we," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"We're due in Charms. We'd better go," Ron said, still goggling at Hermione.

In all of the hustle and bustle with Malfoy and what he had said about Hagrid - not to mention the multiple hits and revelations to the school that I had once kissed Malfoy - I had almost completely forgotten that there were other classes that we were supposed to be attending. All four of us turned and sprinted off. Hermione and I quickly used the Time-Turner to head to our overlapping classes - spending our respective hours in them - before meeting up and turning it back again, returning to what the boys believed was the only present, before running back to class.

About halfway there, Hermione handed me the Time-Turner and told me to hurry up. She apparently had some books that she had forgotten. I nodded at her and darted off. Back towards the boys. I could see Ron and Harry talking to Hermione and I's doppelgangers about heading to Charms. I ducked into the corner and waited for them to pass before shooting back out, replacing my original self. Together we hurried up the marble staircase toward Professor Flitwick's classroom, the boys none the wiser to what had just happened.

"You're late, kids!" Professor Flitwick said reprovingly as Harry opened the classroom door.

"Sorry, Professor," I called awkwardly.

Everyone was staring at us. I could hear whispers and see fingers being pointed at me. It seemed that the rumors had already spread about Malfoy's kiss. At least we didn't have Charms with the Slytherin's. That would have only made things a little worse. I blushed softly as we took a few steps into the classroom. There wouldn't be long before they all started asking me about what had really happened that day. In all honesty, I still wasn't completely sure what had happened that night. It had all been so sudden.

"Come along, quickly, wands out, we're experimenting with Cheering Charms today, we've already divided into pairs," Professor Flitwick said, motioning us to the few empty chairs.

Awkwardly, Harry, Ron, and I hurried to a desk at the back and opened our bags. I cleared my throat as I sat down in between the two of them. I didn't want to have to talk about Malfoy right now. I had just gotten most people to stop asking me about Cedric. Now it was going to start all over again - and this time with Malfoy - one of my least favorite people in the world. If everyone in class already knew - a class that we happened to have with the Hufflepuff's - it would only be so long before Cedric knew. Ron suddenly looked behind Harry.

"Where's Hermione gone?" Ron asked.

She had been with me when we were heading towards class. But she had turned back to try and get her books. Where the hell had she gone? I had been known to miss classes from time to time, but Hermione never did. She was the one person who never missed classes, even if she was direly sick. The only time that she had missed classes was when she had been Petrified, something that had terrified her. Harry then looked around too. Hermione hadn't entered the classroom, and unfortunately the boys knew that she had been right next to them when he they opened the door.

"That's weird. Maybe - Maybe she went to the bathroom or something?" Harry offered, staring at Ron and me.

"I think that she mentioned that her arm was bothering her. Doubt she's ever slapped anyone," I said carelessly, hoping that the boys would leave it alone.

"Did she say something to you?" Ron asked.

"No. I just saw her rubbing her hand," I said.

"Why didn't she say something?" Harry asked.

"Hush. I'm trying to listen," I hissed.

Mostly because I didn't want to have to admit to the boys what we were really doing. It was bad enough that Cedric knew. He was thankfully keeping it a secret. I knew that it would be even worse if somehow Harry and Ron managed to find out. We would probably tell them one day, but that wasn't today. Maybe after we graduated. Despite everyone feeling better as we performed the Cheering Charms, I knew that Ron and Harry were thinking about the glaringly obvious truth. Hermione didn't turn up all lesson. She was... I had no idea what she was doing, actually.

"She could've done with a Cheering Charm on her too," Ron said as the class left for lunch, all grinning broadly - the Cheering Charms had left us with a feeling of great contentment.

We were all so happy that no one even asked about what was happening to Malfoy. I grinned broadly. It would have been wonderful if we would be able to put off that conversation for a few days. Maybe for a few weeks. Or months. Or even years. I would have loved that. Or if no one ever brought it up again. That was what would have been preferable. As we all made our ways to the tables to get lunch, I sat in between Ron and Harry, happily chatting away. It was the happiest I had been in a long time. But there was one thing that I noticed. Hermione wasn't at lunch either.

Where the hell had she gone? I wanted to say something to the boys about trying to find her, but I was stopped before I could. "Tara?"

Turning back in my seat, I saw that Cedric was standing behind me. "Hi," I said brightly.

"Can we walk for a second?" Cedric asked, motioning towards the entrance hall.

"Sure," I said, jumping off of the bench with my smile still plastered on my face.

Cedric's hand wound around my lower back and I smiled lightly. It was nice to be with him after such a long and annoying day. Although the Cheering Charm kept the damned smile on my face. It was almost impossible to pretend that I wasn't the slightest bit upset about what had happened with Malfoy in Care of Magical Creatures. Honestly, I was more upset about what he had said rather than the fact that people now knew about what had happened that night in the Slytherin Common Room. As we walked out into the entrance hall, Cedric gave me a scrutinizing stare.

"You look oddly happy," he said.

"Am I not normally happy?" I asked curiously.

Although there were a number of times that I was spotted scowling about something or the other. Likely more often than not. "No. You're normally happy. You just don't normally look as happy as you do right now," Cedric pointed out.

"Cheering Charm with Professor Flitwick," I explained.

Cedric smiled somewhat awkwardly. "Ah. That makes sense."

His hands went back through his hair, ruffling it slightly. "Are you okay?"

He had heard the rumor. That was the only explanation for his mildly awkward behavior. "Yeah." The two of us stood in silence for a moment. "I - I just heard a strange rumor," Cedric finally admitted.

"The one time that you actually listen to gossip," I teased.

We both smiled at each other. It was the truth. He never listened to the gossip. Not before the two of us had been officially dating. But maybe that was the reason that he was actually listening to it right now. As much as I really did like Cedric, and as happy as I was from the effects of the Cheering Charm, I was a little annoyed that the rumor with Malfoy was the one that he had actually heard. Of course, it was rather shocking, considering that the two of us had been known to hate each other. Plus there was the issue that I was the one to spill the beans, not him.

Cedric gave me a guilty smile. "Well I normally hear the rumors. I just ignore them," he pointed out.

"It's not a rumor. It's the truth," I said, realizing that this wasn't a truth that I could keep hidden. Cedric needed to know what had happened that night, especially now that it was out. "The one that you heard."

Cedric's face dropped. "What?"

Almost immediately I realized my mistake. "There's a longer story behind it," I said quickly.

"Please," Cedric said, motioning around us. "I'm all ears."

There was a slightly bitter sound in his voice. He didn't like the fact that Malfoy and I had once shared a kiss - despite the fact that I had been disguised as Parkinson and Malfoy hadn't had a clue that I was myself. I wasn't sure whether or not Cedric knew exactly what had happened. That meant that I really needed to tell him. I couldn't just blow this one off. And I really didn't want to let Cedric think that I had gotten with Malfoy just shortly after the two of us had gotten together.

So I awkwardly let out a breath and started to tell him everything about that night down in the Slytherin Common Room and what had happened that night. From the moment that we had realized that Slytherin's Heir was the person who had been opening the Chamber of Secrets. I told him about Ron, Harry, and Hermione's suspicions that it might have been Malfoy who had been his Heir and how we had decided to make the Polyjuice Potion to find out the truth. I finally explained that it was my job to get the extra ingredients - exactly what Cedric had helped me with that day.

There was a small smile on his face. He seemed to think that it was rather funny that he had actually helped us do something very against the school rules. The two of us had laughed about the truth behind that day before I had moved forward with the rest of my story. I told him about the way that Harry and Ron had taken out Crabbe and Goyle while I had knocked out Parkinson. Cedric had gotten a good laugh out of that one. I had then proceeded with the story of how we made our way into the Slytherin Common Room.

In the process of telling him about the transformation with the Polyjuice Potion, I had finally explained the truth of why Hermione was out of classes for so long. Cedric seemed to have felt quite bad for her. At least it was just a distant memory now. Then I told Cedric all about our conversation with Malfoy in their Common Room. I finished with telling Cedric about Malfoy having stopped me from leaving when he thought that I was Parkinson and planting a small kiss on her. I even - begrudgingly - admitted that it had been my first kiss.

But I was very quick to tell him that he had been my real first kiss. The only one that I counted, anyways. I went back to the original topic at hand by explaining how Malfoy had known that it was me. The fact that my eyes had been turning back to their original color and he had tasted the strawberry Chapstick that I wore, which had been easy enough for him to piece together. I explained to Cedric that Malfoy had been holding it over my head since then and proceeded to tell him about what had happened in Care of Magical Creatures and how I had finally gotten it over with and let the truth go.

Cedric was silent for a long time. I couldn't get a read on him. "Are you angry?" I finally asked.

Cedric gave me a long stare. "I don't think that I really can be angry," Cedric said, laughing as he ran his hands through his hair. "I'm not upset with you. It was an accident. You couldn't be caught and didn't even know that it would happen. We weren't dating anyways. I was just surprised. But it makes perfect sense now."

"Incredible how that can make sense," I teased.

"When it comes to you, I never expect anything less than strange."

We both laughed. "Sorry it came out like that. I was just upset."

Cedric shook his head and grabbed my hand, walking us a little deeper into the hallways. "No, it's fine. I would have said something too." We were silent for a few moments. "I see why he liked the strawberry Chapstick," Cedric finally said, making me snort loudly.

"You like it?" I teased.

"Yes, I do," Cedric said.

His arms wrapped around my waist to stop me from walking as they tugged me right up against his chest. I laughed and fluttered my eyelashes playfully. "And my eyes?" I asked.

"Oh, they're lovely."

"Trust me when I say that you're much cuter than Malfoy, too."

We both grinned as I flicked him on the nose. Cedric grinned and nudged me, still not releasing his grip around my waist. "And you are much cuter than Pansy Parkinson."

My gaze narrowed slightly. "We would have had a big issue if you had told me that I wasn't."

"There's no competition."

A small smile fell over my face. "Thanks," I giggled.

The Cheering Charm had done the trick. I was definitely happy having him with me. I was happy in general, despite what had happened with Malfoy not that long ago. Despite what I was sure would be a rumor that would run rampant soon enough. Cedric's fingers wound into the material of my robes as I leaned upwards on my toes to press a kiss against his mouth. There was a small group of giggles behind us and I broke apart to glare at a few First Years. There was nothing to see here. Cedric shooed them off with his eyes. They giggled again before darting off.

Cedric didn't release me, but he did lean back slightly. "How's Hagrid?" Cedric asked.

Sighing softly, I shook my head. "Not good," I admitted. Cedric frowned. "We have one last chance to save Buckbeak, but I don't think that we can. And I can't tell Hagrid that. It would break his heart."

"I'm so sorry about Buckbeak."

"Me too." The two of us stood in silence for a moment as Cedric wrapped his arms around me. I rested my head on his chest, trying to blink back images of what was going to happen to Buckbeak if we couldn't help Hagrid. Eventually I lifted my head to look at Cedric again. "Rest assured that I will never like Malfoy. More than you or at all. Mostly because of things like that," I said.

"I didn't think that I had competition," Cedric teased.

There wasn't even the slightest bit of a competition, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "Don't get cocky," I shot back, shoving into him. We smiled at each other as I placed a hand on his chest, pushing against him. "Come on, admit it. You were jealous."

Cedric laughed softly and shook his head. Was I overreacting? Had he not been jealous? That honestly would have bothered me slightly. I wanted to know that he did care at least a little bit for me. Enough to have been slightly jealous when he had thought that there was something between Malfoy and I. Bristling at the thought that Cedric didn't care about me having kissed Malfoy, I was very grateful when Cedric wrapped an arm tighter around my waist and crushed me up against himself.

"Surprised. Not jealous," Cedric finally admitted. I arched an eyebrow, unsure if he was telling me the entire truth. He still seemed a little mistrustful. "Alright. Fine. I was maybe just a tiny bit jealous."

Smiling up at him, I pressed a hand against his chest. "You've got nothing to be jealous of," I promised.

And he really didn't. If I was being completely honest, Malfoy wasn't half-bad looking. I remembered being briefly attracted to him the first time that we had met at Twilfitt and Tatting's. Mostly because he was rather good-looking. Unfortunately a trait that had come from both his mother and father. Of course, that did nothing for his horrid personality. That was why the two of us would never have had a chance together. Plus there was the fact that my feelings for Cedric would have always completely negated my feelings for anyone else that I could have had.

It would always be the truth. I smiled up at Cedric and took the closest step into him as I could. My arms wrapped up around his shoulders so that I could come a little closer to his height level. At the same time, Cedric's arms wrapped tightly around my hips to close in on them. I really was so happy to be with him. He was such a sweetheart about everything. Even about this. Malfoy was far too much of an ass, ninety-nine percent of the time, for me to ever like. Cedric moved down to press a kiss against my lips as I giggled, grateful that no one else was around.

We lingered together for a little while, not quite ready to go back to lunch yet. A few minutes had passed when Cedric finally broke away from me. I quirked an eyebrow. "So... Malfoy was really your first kiss?" Cedric asked.

My jaw dropped. Cedric snorted as I shoved him away from me. "Go ahead and laugh," I snapped.

"Could have been worse. When I had my first kiss, her father saw us. Of course, we were in the middle of a public park, so it was kind of my fault."

"You had your first kiss in public?"

"Ah... yes... She stole my lollipop and I chased her onto the playground for it. When I caught her, she decided to make up for it by giving me a kiss that I was completely unprepared for. Her father saw us and thought that I had initiated the kiss. He confronted my parents over it and they called the School Board. That was about the time that I was pulled out of Muggle school."

My laughter echoed off of the stone walls. "How old were you?" I asked.

"Eight, I think," Cedric said.

"You don't even know how old you were?"

"It wasn't that memorable. What happened afterwards was much more so."

We both grinned again. "Well, you don't have to count that one if you don't want to. First kisses usually aren't that great. I mean, I don't count the one with Malfoy as mine. As far as I'm concerned, you were my first kiss," I said.

"Oh, I'm honored," Cedric teased. I laughed as he leaned in and pressed another kiss against my lips. "I'm better, right?"

Tilting my head off to the side, I faked a moment to think about it. "Hmm... I'm not quite sure."

"We'll have to try again."

The two of us stared at each other as I smiled. Both of our voices were very teasing. After all, I hadn't even really gotten a chance to actually think about the kiss with Malfoy. It had happened and in an instant, it had been over. The ones with Cedric lingered for a little while longer. They were more serious. I actually felt something with the ones with him. Just as I did when he leaned down and pressed another kiss against my mouth. I smiled into the kiss as one of my hands came up to rest in his hair, my fingers curled around his golden locks.

No sooner had I done that, when a shout came from the other end of the Entrance Hall. "Get a room!" I glanced back and saw that it was Ted. He was walking with a few other friends of Cedric's from Hufflepuff.

"Or a broom closet," another Hufflepuff boy snorted.

My face lit up a brilliant red as the boys laughed. I stepped back from Cedric as they all patted him on the back before stalking off towards their next classes. Once they were gone, I looked back at Cedric. "Sorry about those rumors," I muttered.

Cedric chuckled and shook his head. "That's probably my fault. I think that I could have picked a little less of an obvious spot," he said, motioning around us.

"You're right. This is your fault," I teased.

We both laughed again as I rolled my eyes. "You never answered me," Cedric said, drawing my attention back to him. "Am I better?"

"Yes. Much better."

Another quick kiss was exchanged as his hand looped behind my neck; Cedric was clearly quite proud of himself with my admission that he was a better kisser. It almost made me laugh. He might have looked like a fully-grown man, but he was still just a young adult. When we finally pulled apart, I glanced back at the doors to the Great Hall. The lunch hour was quickly ticking away. We would both have to be getting back to class soon enough.

"I should probably head back," I said regretfully.

"Yeah. Me too. Those damned classes," Cedric teased.

"I know. They're so inconvenient, aren't they? Always interrupting our conversation."

"You would think that the professors might be a little more accommodating. After all, there's socializing to be doing," Cedric said, being playfully haughty. I giggled softly. "I'll see you later."

Before he could walk away, I called him back. "Wanna study over the weekend?"

Cedric's eyebrow quirked. I didn't usually make offers for studying. "Sure. I'll meet you in the library at noon?"

"Absolutely."

Before we headed back into the Great Hall, Cedric pulled me into him to share another kiss. The two of us stayed together for a few moments before he pulled away. We walked back in together, hand-in-hand, as I so desperately tried to avoid the gazes of everyone in the Great Hall. I could see their eyes darting back and forth between Cedric and I to Malfoy. It would be a long time before that whole thing went away. I probably should have given some context to the kiss between us. After all, everyone already knew all of the rules that we had broken.

As we got back to the Gryffindor table, I released Cedric and took a seat back in front of my plate. Not even two seconds had passed before I was descended on by Fred and George. The other Third Years knew what had happened, but they didn't. So I spent an unfortunate few minutes explaining to the two of them what had happened with Malfoy that day. They were both very quick to threaten to kill him for daring to kiss me. I laughed and promised that I would beat them to it. If anyone was going to kill Malfoy, it was going to be me.

"So..." Fred started, twirling a strand of my hair that had fallen out of its hold around his fingers. "Since you're giving kisses out, when do I get one?"

Snorting into my water goblet, I shoved Fred off to the side. "Shut up," I laughed.

Fred scoffed and flipped his hair back over his shoulders. "Oh, come on! Diggory gets one," Fred said, mocking what he called my 'dreamy eyes' towards Cedric. I rolled my eyes. "Even Malfoy's gotten one."

Well it wasn't like I wanted the one from Malfoy. I would have rather it been you. But for some reason, I didn't want to say that out loud. So I went with teasing. "I promise that if I give out another kiss, you will be above Malfoy on my list," I joked.

But it wasn't really a joke. It was the truth. "That doesn't impress me that much," Fred scoffed.

"Freddie?" Fred raised his eyebrows. "Go away," I deadpanned.

"What about me?" George asked, leaning over his twin.

"Oh, you're definitely above Fred on my list," I said.

"Hey!" Fred shouted, affronted.

"We already knew that," George teased.

The two of us would always mess with Fred. It was just so easy to harass him. Especially when I could get his twin to gang up on him. I giggled softly as Fred and George squeezed me in between themselves. I was being crushed and groaning loudly as I glanced over and saw that Cedric was rolling his eyes at our antics. I winked over at him and smacked Fred over the back of the head as he started making gagging noises. A moment later, George started doing the same. They would never leave me alone about my relationship with Cedric.

Finally I managed to get the twins to leave me alone, promising them that I would help out with their store a little later. They eventually shifted back over to Lee and I was left in relative peace. Relative, though, seeing as I could still hear the whispers about Malfoy and Cedric with me constantly in the middle. Apparently the students were now questioning who I belonged with. I rolled my eyes at the thought. The only person that I wanted to be with right now was Cedric. Never Malfoy.

But that wouldn't stop the rumors. It never did. It helped that the Cheering Charm was keeping me from being too upset about anything. Unfortunately there was a time limit on the spell. By the time that we had finished our apple pie - with me having stolen all of the whipped cream off of the top of Fred's piece - the after-effects of the Cheering Charms were wearing off, Harry and Ron had started to get slightly worried about Hermione. I knew that she had gone up to Gryffindor Tower, but I wasn't sure where she had gone afterwards.

"You don't think Malfoy did something to her?" Ron asked anxiously as we hurried upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower.

"He's a coward. He wouldn't dare hurt her," I said confidently.

We all smiled at each other. I was smart enough to know that Malfoy hadn't done a damn thing to her. She had likely had something happen to her while she was going back to Gryffindor Tower. Maybe she had fallen asleep. Hermione barely slept as it was. I was honestly shocked that she hadn't already slept through a class or two. Together we passed the security trolls, gave the Fat Lady the password ('Flibbertigibbet'), and scrambled through the portrait hole into the Common Room. I was glad that the boys were with me. I kept forgetting the password.

Since Black had broken into Gryffindor Tower for the second time, the Fat Lady had been changing the password every few days and kept making them more and more complicated. It was mostly so that - if Black somehow overheard it - there was a good chance that he would get it wrong. As we scrambled into the middle of the Common Room. Just as I had been thinking before, Hermione was sitting at a table, fast asleep, her head resting on an open Arithmancy book. I sighed softly. The constant use of the Time-Turner and keeping up with her classes was finally getting to her.

"Is she okay?" Ron asked softly.

"Exhausted, it seems like. Come on. Let's check on her," I said.

The three of us went to sit down on either side of her. Harry prodded her awake. "Wh - What?" Hermione asked, waking with a start and staring wildly around. "Is it time to go? W - Which lesson have we got now?"

Placing a hand on her arm, I gently pushed her back in the chair. "Hermione, its fine. Calm down," I said.

But she still looked like she was about to dart off towards the classes. She would flip when she realized that she had missed a class. "Divination, but it's not for another twenty minutes. Hermione, why didn't you come to Charms?" Harry asked.

"What? Oh no! I forgot to go to Charms!" Hermione squeaked.

"But how could you forget? You were with us till we were right outside the classroom!" Harry said.

"She went to the bathroom. Right, Hermione?" I interrupted, still working to keep up the Time-Turner secret.

"Y - Yes. I wasn't feeling well," Hermione stuttered.

"It's fine. We'll explain to Professor Flitwick. He'll understand," I said.

"I don't believe it! Was Professor Flitwick angry? Oh, it was Malfoy, I was thinking about him and I lost track of things!" Hermione wailed.

It looked like she was about to pass out from exhaustion. "You know what, Hermione?" Ron said, looking down at the enormous Arithmancy book Hermione had been using as a pillow. "I reckon you're cracking up. You're trying to do too much."

There was no way that she would be able to do this next year. It wasn't humanly possible. Not even for Hermione. "No, I'm not!" Hermione gasped, brushing her hair out of her eyes and staring hopelessly around for her bag, which was likely upstairs. "I just made a mistake, that's all! I'd better go and see Professor Flitwick and say sorry… I'll see you in Divination!"

With that, she dashed out of the Common Room to sprint towards Professor Flitwick's office. At least she would be able to explain to him what was happening right now. All of the teachers in the school knew that Hermione and I had the Time-Turner so that we were able to make it to all of our lessons. Exchanging a little shrug between the three of us - as the boys still didn't know about our secret - we headed out behind her. Hermione joined us at the foot of the ladder to Professor Trelawney's classroom twenty minutes later, looking extremely harassed.

"What happened?" I asked.

The words had barely come out of my mouth when Hermione began to jabber. "I can't believe I missed Cheering Charms! And I bet they come up in our exams; Professor Flitwick hinted they might!" she exclaimed.

"We'll help you, Hermione," I offered.

"Oh, I can't believe myself!" Hermione gasped.

It looked like she was about to pass out. I placed a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down. "Mione, you're going to give yourself a heart attack. Calm down," I said softly, trying to reassure her.

"I can't! I've missed Charms!"

"So? I've missed classes before."

It was the truth. I'd slept through a number of classes and had deliberately skipped a couple other ones. "But I haven't!" Hermione shouted.

"First time for everything, right?" I joked.

"Tara!" Hermione yelped.

Everyone around us was giggling. Hermione had never missed a class before and she was clearly horrified that she finally had. "I'm kidding, Hermione. Just calm down. You can't change having missed class. It was just one class. Professor Flitwick will understand," I explained.

She looked no less upset about what had happened, but she did manage to nod slowly. She would be fine. Hermione was one of the fastest learners that I had ever met. It would be like she was there right along with us, showing up almost everyone else in the class. Together the four of us climbed the ladder into the dim, stifling tower room. Glowing on every little table was a crystal ball full of pearly white mist. I raised a brow. I didn't really want to know what kind of horrible thing was in my future. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I sat down together at the same rickety table.

"I thought we weren't starting crystal balls until next term," Ron muttered, casting a wary eye around for Professor Trelawney, in case she was lurking nearby.

"Don't complain, this means we've finished palmistry. I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands," Harry muttered back.

"You know that she'll start flinching each time she looks into the crystal balls," I said.

"She makes a point," Ron said.

The crystal balls were destined to be even worse than anything else that we had done so far. "Good day to you!" said the familiar, misty voice.

For whatever reason, she could never make a normal entrance. It was one of the many things that bothered me about this class. Many things. Mostly all of the times that Professor Trelawney thought that I was going to die; each prophecy getting worse and more violent. Professor Trelawney made her usual dramatic entrance out of the shadows. I rolled my eyes again, a very common occurrence in Divination. Parvati and Lavender quivered with excitement, their faces lit by the milky glow of their crystal ball. This was their favorite class.

"How do they love this class so much?" I muttered.

Hermione hated this class just about as much as I did. But that was only because she didn't understand it and couldn't learn the material from out of a book. She wasn't a natural Seer. None of us were. "They're just as crazy as she is," Hermione whispered back.

"I have decided to introduce the crystal ball a little earlier than I had planned," Professor Trelawney said, sitting with her back to the fire and gazing around. As usual, her eyes lingered on Harry and I a little longer than anyone else. She seemed a bit teary-eyed. She was likely seeing some horrible death of ours. "The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."

Hermione snorted. My gaze shot over to her. It always shocked me how bold she was in this class. She said things to Professor Trelawney that she wouldn't dare say to any other teacher. "Well, honestly... 'the fates have informed her'... who sets the exam? She does! What an amazing prediction!" Hermione said, not troubling to keep her voice low. Harry, Ron, and I choked back laughs.

"Look at you, finally turning into me," I teased.

"Now where was this with Lockhart?" Ron asked Hermione. Her face flushed.

"That was all me," I put in.

No one had ever treated a teacher quite as terribly and disrespectfully as I had treated Gilderoy Lockhart. After all, I had ended up punching him in the face at the end of the year. We all laughed again as we dropped our heads back to the table. The last thing that I needed was to get more work in Divination. I was bad enough at it as is. Everything that I did was made up. It didn't really matter. It was hard to tell whether Professor Trelawney had actually heard us, as her face was hidden in shadow. She continued, however, as though she had not.

"Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art. I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb's infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes," Ron began to snigger uncontrollably and had to stuff his fist in his mouth to stifle the noise, "so as to clear the Inner Eye and the super-conscious. Perhaps, if we are lucky, some of you will See before the end of the class," she said dreamily.

My head was spinning already. What the hell had she just said to us? I stared at Ron and Harry, but it didn't seem that they understood what she had said either. Even Hermione looked a little lost - a complete rarity. Despite not knowing what I was supposed to be doing, I began. I had a feeling that Harry, at least, felt extremely foolish, just like I did, staring blankly at the crystal ball, trying to keep my mind empty when thoughts such as 'this is stupid' kept drifting across it. It didn't help that Ron kept breaking into silent giggles and Hermione kept tutting.

"Seen anything yet?" Harry asked us after a quarter of an hour's quiet crystal gazing.

"Yeah, there's a burn on this table. Someone's spilled their candle," Ron said, pointing.

"No, I think I'm going cross-eyed from staring at this," I said blankly.

All I saw was the reflection of my slightly tanned complexion. "This is such a waste of time," Hermione hissed.

"We already knew that," I said.

"I could be practicing something useful. I could be catching up on Cheering Charms," Hermione said.

Even though I was siding with Hermione about how useless crystal gazing was - as real Seers normally had visions without warning - I still rolled my eyes. She would be caught up and ahead of everyone else on Cheering Charms by the end of the night. As I stared back at the crystal ball, I tilted my head to the side. There was nothing in the damned thing. It was like when I had tried to watch clouds. I just saw a bunch of mush. In the meantime, Professor Trelawney rustled past our table.

"Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents within their Orb?" she murmured over the clinking of her bangles.

"I don't need help. It's obvious what this means. There's going to be loads of fog tonight," Ron whispered.

It was obvious that no one could help it. Not when we kept making little comments like that. Harry, Hermione, and I burst out laughing. I tried to put my hands over my mouth to stifle my giggles, but it wasn't helping. My laughter was only getting louder. I was sure that I had just managed to earn myself a loss of points and maybe even a detention.

"Now, really!" Professor Trelawney cried as everyone's heads turned in our direction. Parvati and Lavender were looking scandalized. "You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!"

My eyes rolled so far back in my head that I was sure that they would get stuck back there. But it was ridiculous. This whole thing reminded me of those terrible 'gypsies' that would come to the local fairs to rip off all of the stupid tourists. To my surprise, Professor Trelawney approached our table and peered into our crystal ball. For a moment I merely stared at her. Then I felt my heart sinking. With a look exchanged with Harry, I realized that he was thinking the same thing that I was. I was sure that I knew what was coming.

"We - We don't need help," I insisted.

"There is something here!" Professor Trelawney whispered, lowering her face to the ball, so that it was reflected twice in her huge glasses. "Something moving… but what is it?"

My hands gently pressed against my temples. I was no fool. I knew exactly what was coming. The same thing that came every other time we were in this class. Some type of prediction about the terrible way that we were going to die. At the moment I was prepared to bet everything I owned, including my Firebolt, that it wasn't good news, whatever it was. And sure enough.

"My dears..." Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing up at Harry and I. "It is here, plainer than ever before... my dears, stalking toward you, growing ever closer... the Gr -"

My irritation getting the better of me, I spit out, "We don't have the Grim!"

"Oh, for goodness' sake! Not that ridiculous Grim again!" Hermione said loudly.

"She's right. We've been in more than one life-or-death situation and we always seem to manage to find a way out of it," I insisted.

Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Hermione's face. I was a little surprised at what we had just said to her. It was definitely rude on both of our parts. But it wasn't me that it seemed that Professor Trelawney was upset about. She was still looking at Hermione - which made perfect sense. I was known to speak out against teachers. Hermione wasn't. Parvati whispered something to Lavender, and they both glared at Hermione and me, too. Professor Trelawney stood up, surveying Hermione with unmistakable anger.

"I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class, my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don't remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane," Professor Trelawney told Hermione.

My jaw dropped. I had never heard a teacher speak that way to Hermione. She was the one student who was constantly under the praise of teachers. Or, if nothing else, being called a know-it-all by Snape. Even he never told her that she wasn't good at Potions. But this was Divination, and unfortunately, it was something that Hermione wasn't good at. I stared at her carefully, waiting to see how the words of discouragement would sit with her. Everyone else was staring too. There was a moment's silence. Then...

"Fine!" Hermione gasped suddenly, getting up and cramming Unfogging the Future back into her bag.

"Hermione..." I whispered, trying to grab her.

"Fine!" Hermione repeated, swinging the bag over her shoulder and almost knocking Ron off his chair. "I give up! I'm leaving!"

She was not going to do that. Hermione was not really going to leave a class. She wouldn't do that. She would never have done that. There was no way that Hermione was going to leave. We were past the drop period anyways. Leaving right now would work, but I somehow doubted that she would actually do it. Hermione never broke the rules - at least, for her own gain. But then, to the whole class's amazement, Hermione strode over to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and climbed down the ladder out of sight.

For a moment I was sure that I was going to pass out. I looked over at Harry and Ron to check if that had really just happened. They were staring right back at me. For a moment I reached for the Time-Turner to go back and stop Hermione from leaving, but she had it. There was no taking this back. It took a few minutes for the class to settle down again. Professor Trelawney seemed to have forgotten all about the Grim. She turned abruptly from Harry, Ron, and I's table, breathing rather heavily as she tugged her gauzy shawl more closely to her.

"Ooooo!" Lavender said suddenly, making everyone start. "Oooooo, Professor Trelawney, I've just remembered! You saw her leaving, didn't you? Didn't you, Professor? 'Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever!' You said it ages ago, Professor!"

Professor Trelawney gave her a dewy smile. "Yes, my dear, I did indeed know that Miss Granger would be leaving us. One hopes, however, that one might have mistaken the Signs... The Inner Eye can be a burden, you know..."

Once again, my eyes rolled backwards into the back of my head. She couldn't have known that Hermione was going to leave. Otherwise, wouldn't she have said that no one was going to die? Wouldn't she have said that the person was going to leave the class? She couldn't have known. I was sure about that. She didn't have an Inner Eye or whatever the hell she was constantly going on about. Lavender and Parvati looked deeply impressed, and moved over so that Professor Trelawney could join their table instead.

"Some day Hermione's having, eh?" Ron muttered to Harry and I, looking awed.

"Yeah..." Harry muttered.

"Poor girl. We all knew that she wouldn't be here next term anyways," I pointed out.

It was just a little more of an abrupt stop than I had been expecting. As everyone went back to work, I was staring blankly at the wall. I was still thinking about everything that had happened with Hermione. Eventually I managed to force myself to get back to what was happening before. So Harry, Ron, and I glanced back into the crystal ball, but I still saw nothing but swirling white mist. Had Professor Trelawney really seen the Grim again? Would we? The last thing that we needed was another near-fatal accident, with the Quidditch final drawing ever nearer.

Aside from classes, the entire school couldn't wait for the match. It would be played against Slytherin - who were leading just by a few points, mostly because of our early loss to Hufflepuff. But we would be able to beat them. I wasn't really able to think about the match that much anyways. Because there was something else to keep me busy. There was a ton of homework for us to focus on as exams started to draw nearer. So much so that I knew seeing Cedric wouldn't be easy. He had preparations for O.W.L.'s kicking his ass these days.

The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. People rarely actually went home for the Easter holidays, but we normally were able to play around in the castle for the week that we got off. Not this year, despite the fact that the weather was perfect for a friendly game of Quidditch or some time spent kicking the soccer ball around. Instead, the Third Years had never had so much homework. Neville Longbottom seemed close to a nervous collapse, and he wasn't the only one. Even I was getting overwhelmed at this point with my heavier-than-normal workload.

"Call this a holiday!" Seamus Finnigan roared at the Common Room one afternoon. "The exams are ages away, what're they playing at?"

They really actually weren't that far away. Only a few more months. "You should have known!" I shouted back.

"I didn't think we'd have this much to do this early on!" Seamus argued.

"Come on, Seamus. Just wait until we have O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams," I pointed out.

He had never looked so disheartened. I knew that our workload was nothing compared to Cedric's - and even Fred and George's - but that didn't mean that we weren't overwhelmed. Although nobody had as much to do as Hermione. Even without Divination, she was taking more subjects than anybody else. She had three more than I did. She was usually last to leave the Common Room at night, first to arrive at the library the next morning; she had shadows like Professor Lupin's under her eyes, and seemed constantly close to tears.

The other night I had warned her against using the Time-Turner next year. She seemed to agree. It was too much for us to handle, but it had been interesting to have for a year. Ron had taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal - as he was the least busy. Harry and I still had Quidditch outside of studying. When Ron wasn't doing his own work, he was poring over enormously thick volumes with names like The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality. He was so absorbed, he even forgot to be horrible to Crookshanks.

Over the week that we had off of classes - or so they said - I only managed to get a few chances to actually speak with Cedric. Most of the time we just chatted for a second before having to move on. He was paranoid about his O.W.L. exams, just as I would likely be in two years. Even without his O.W.L.'s, I was busy studying for my own exams. But we had gotten together for a few library dates. There hadn't even been any rumors about it, since everyone was too busy studying to start up rumors about us. Although one night we had managed to sneak up to the Astronomy Tower for a few hours.

We had gone with the intention of only sitting up there for about an hour just so that we could have some time to enjoy each other's company. But that hadn't been what had happened. We had ended up sitting upstairs together all night. We had mostly chatted about our exams, what had been happening between us and our constant studying, and about the upcoming Quidditch game. There was also the simple fact that we had spent a lot of time actually kissing each other - finally able to do it without the broom closet rumors starting again.

Unfortunately the rumors hadn't completely stopped, they had simply slowed down a little bit. But they were still floating around. Harry and Ron were sure to tell me each time they heard one. Every time that Cedric and I kissed, rumors sparked about what was happening between the two of us. I always blushed stupidly. I didn't want anything like that. Not yet, at least. Probably not for a long time. But I did notice that I was having a slightly harder time pulling away from him. Stupid teenage hormones...

Harry and I, meanwhile, had to fit in our homework around Quidditch practice every day, not to mention endless discussions of tactics with Oliver. The Gryffindor and Slytherin match would take place on the first Saturday after the Easter holidays. Slytherin was leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points. This meant (as Oliver constantly reminded our team) that we needed to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup. It also meant that the burden of winning fell largely on Harry, because capturing the Snitch was worth one hundred and fifty points.

"So you must catch it only if we're more than fifty points up," Oliver told Harry constantly. "Only if we're more than fifty points up, Harry, or we win the match but lose the Cup. You've got that, haven't you? You must catch the Snitch only if we're -"

"I know, Oliver!" Harry yelled.

Knowing that a fight was coming, I laid my hand on Oliver's shoulder. "We aren't going to lose, Oliver. Relax," I promised.

Obviously he was terrified that we were actually going to lose the match. This was his last year. We all knew that we had to win it. Not just because we wanted it for the first time, but also because Oliver would probably really die if we didn't win it for him. The whole of Gryffindor House was slowly becoming obsessed with the coming match. It made me a little nervous. We had to win. There wasn't an option. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley (Ron's second oldest brother) had been Seeker.

But Harry and I both doubted whether any of them, even Oliver, wanted to win as much as we did. The enmity between Harry, Malfoy, and I was at its highest point ever. Malfoy was still smarting about the mud-throwing incident in Hogsmeade and was even more furious that Harry and I had somehow wormed his way out of punishment. Harry and I hadn't forgotten Malfoy's attempt to sabotage us in the match against Ravenclaw, but it was the matter of Buckbeak that made us most determined to beat Malfoy in front of the entire school.

And I would love to rub it in his face that we had won the Quidditch Cup and Cedric was a much better kisser. He was attempting to spread rumors that I had initiated the kiss. Never, in anyone's memory, had a match approached in such a highly charged atmosphere. By the time the holidays were over, tension between the two teams and their Houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a Gryffindor Fourth Year and a Slytherin Sixth Year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.

Getting to kiss Cedric in front of Malfoy right after we won the Quidditch Cup... That sounded like a perfect way to end the season. But it would be a problem even managing to get to the match. Harry and I were having a particularly bad time of it. The constant sabotage. The two of us now couldn't walk to class without Slytherin's sticking out their legs and trying to trip us up; Crabbe and Goyle kept popping up wherever we went, and slouching away looking disappointed when they saw us surrounded by people.

That was our new instruction. Oliver had given instructions that Harry and I should be accompanied everywhere we went, in case the Slytherin's tried to put us out of action. The whole of Gryffindor House took up the challenge enthusiastically, so that it was impossible for Harry and I to get to classes on time because we were surrounded by a vast, chattering crowd. Harry and I were more concerned for our Firebolts' safety than our own. When we weren't flying them, we locked them securely in our trunks and frequently dashed back up to Gryffindor Tower at break times to check that they were still there.

Until the day of the match, we would have to guard them with our lives. Everyone would have a heart attack if we lost them. And I couldn't borrow Cedric's Cleansweep. Not for the Quidditch Cup game. There was no way that I would be able to make the goals that I normally did on the Firebolt. All usual pursuits were abandoned in the Gryffindor Common Room the night before the match. I was practicing chucking a soccer ball back and forth with Seamus and Dean. Even Hermione had put down her books.

"I can't work, I can't concentrate," Hermione said nervously.

"How do you think we feel?" I pointed out.

There was a great deal of noise. Fred and George were dealing with the pressure by being louder and more exuberant than ever. Oliver was crouched over a model of a Quidditch field in the corner, prodding little figures across it with his wand and muttering to himself. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were laughing at Fred's and George's jokes. Harry and I were sitting with Ron and Hermione, removed from the center of things, trying not to think about the next day, because every time I did, I had the horrible sensation that something very large was fighting to get out of my stomach.

"You two are going to be fine," Hermione told us, though she looked positively terrified.

"You've both got Firebolts!" Ron cried.

"Yeah..." Harry muttered.

"But Slytherin's going to play dirty. We all know it," I said, my stomach writhing.

"You two will be fine," Hermione repeated.

"Uh-huh," I groaned.

It came as a relief when Oliver suddenly stood up and yelled, "Team! Bed!"

"Night, everyone," I said weakly.

There was a loud chorus of voices telling me to get a good night's sleep. Unfortunately I slept badly. First I dreamed that I had overslept, and that Oliver was yelling, 'Where were you? We had to use Hermione instead!' She definitely wasn't a flyer. Then I dreamed that Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin team arrived for the match riding dragons. I was flying at breakneck speed, trying to avoid a spurt of flames from Malfoy's steed's mouth, when I realized that I had forgotten my Firebolt. I had fallen through the air and woke with a start.

It was a few seconds before I remembered that the match hadn't taken place yet, that I was safe in bed, and that the Slytherin team definitely wouldn't be allowed to play on dragons. My heart was hammering in my chest as I tried to calm myself. I had to get some sleep if I wanted to actually be useful in the game tomorrow. But I was feeling very thirsty. Quietly as I could, I got out of my four-poster and went to pour myself some water from the silver jug beneath the window.

While I was pouring myself a glass, I glanced out of the window. It was hard to see - considering that the sun wouldn't be up for another few hours - but I could still see some shadows that were dancing off of the trees. The grounds were still and quiet tonight. No breath of wind disturbed the treetops in the Forbidden Forest; the Whomping Willow was motionless and innocent-looking. It looked as though the conditions for the match would be perfect. A small smile fell over my face. Much better weather than our past few games.

At least that was something for me to be able to dream about. We were good enough in the snow and rain and wind. We were practically unbeatable in the sun. There was no way that we were going to lose the game now. Feeling much better about things, I set down my goblet and was about to turn back to my bed when something caught my eye. An animal of some kind was prowling across the silvery lawn. I dashed up to the edge of the window and looked out. It couldn't be the Grim - not now - not right before the match.

Heart hammering to the point that I was sure that I was going to have a heart attack, I peered out at the grounds again and, after a minute's frantic searching, spotted it. The Grim... Was it actually the Grim? Was there a chance that Professor Trelawney wasn't quite as insane as I thought that she was? The figure was now skirting the edge of the forest... My gaze locked on it. That was when I realized... It wasn't the Grim at all... it was a cat... I clutched the window ledge in relief as I recognized the bottlebrush tail. It was only Crookshanks...

For a moment I debated on turning back and throwing something at Hermione. Her damned cat was going to end up killing me. I had really thought that it was the Grim. Crookshanks looked startlingly like one in the dark. I supposed that all animals would have, anyways. My mind was just playing tricks on me. I was already excitable and nervous with the game coming. Or was it only Crookshanks? I squinted, pressing my nose flat against the glass. Crookshanks seemed to have come to a halt. I was sure that I could see something else moving in the shadow of the trees too.

My gaze shot over towards the far end of the Forbidden Forest. I knew that I had seen something else. Something that was much darker than Crookshanks' orange fur. And just then, it emerged - a gigantic, shaggy black dog, moving stealthily across the lawn, Crookshanks trotting at its side. It was the Grim. Snuffles. Whatever the hell it was. My heart started to pound as I stared at the... whatever it was. What the hell did it mean? If Crookshanks could see the dog as well, just like Harry could, how could it be an omen of my death? It had to have been just a normal stray dog.

"Hermione! Hermione! Wake up!" I hissed.

"Huh?"

"I need you to tell me if you can see something!"

"It's the middle of the night, Tara. What're you on about?" Hermione muttered thickly.

"Down here."

Someone had to tell me that they saw the dog too. Not just Harry, since apparently he had the Grim in all of his Divination stuff. I looked quickly back out of the window. Crookshanks and the dog had vanished. Damn it! Where the hell had they gone? I needed Hermione to see it. So I climbed onto the windowsill to look right down into the shadows of the castle, but they weren't there. Where were they now? A loud snore told me that Hermione had fallen asleep again. Damn her and her workload. She was always either studying or asleep.

It didn't take me long to try and brush off what had happened overnight with Crookshanks and the mystery dog. The next morning when I woke up - still surprisingly well rested - I found myself nervous but excited for the game. I knew that we would be able to beat Slytherin. There wasn't a doubt in my mind. They would play dirty but we would win. We had been training just for the game against Slytherin for months. Plus no one wanted to let Oliver down, as it was his last chance for the Quidditch Cup before he graduated.

Once I was ready for the day, I headed out into the Common Room and met up with the rest of the team, all of whom seemed to have been waiting for me. I smiled at them and nodded my consent to leave. So Harry, myself, and the rest of the Gryffindor team entered the Great Hall a few minutes later to enormous applause. I couldn't help grinning broadly as I saw that both the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were applauding us too. Particularly Cedric's friends. The Slytherin table hissed loudly as we passed. I noticed that Malfoy looked even paler than usual.

The moment that we sat down at the table, a figure appeared at my side. "Tara?"

My gaze turned up to see Cedric standing above me. "Hey," I greeted.

Cedric placed a hand on my shoulder as Harry briefly scooted far enough so that Cedric could momentarily sit down. "Good luck. The whole school is counting on you to beat them. So... please win," Cedric said.

"There's no chance in hell that we won't. Right, Oliver?" I asked, leaning back to my captain.

"Absolutely," Oliver said, still not sounding overly-confident.

"You can do it," Cedric said.

Whether he was talking to me, Oliver, or the entire time, I wasn't quite sure. Instead I leaned back in the seat and smiled up at Cedric, starting to eat a small breakfast. Just enough to keep me somewhat energized before the game. I would need it for a match against Slytherin. After popping in a few pieces of bacon into my mouth, Cedric leaned forward and kissed me. It was a reasonably brief kiss, but it didn't matter. The rest of the team started laughing and making kissy noises. I rolled my eyes before breaking away from Cedric and smiling at him.

"Sorry about them," I muttered.

"Oh, that's okay. Just look back there. Mine are doing the same thing," Cedric said.

Turning back, I saw that the guys at the Hufflepuff table were indeed making the same faces at Cedric that my friends were making at me. I rolled my eyes again and leaned back into the chair. "I got it," I said, referring to the Quidditch game.

"You'll do wonderfully. Everyone believes in you," Cedric said.

"Thanks," I said brightly.

"Good luck, everyone," Cedric called to the rest of the team.

"Thanks," they all said.

Cedric slowly stood up from the table. "I'll see you after. Let you have some time to prepare," Cedric said.

That was definitely something that I appreciated. I needed some time to think and work out all of my plays before we got out onto the Pitch. "See you after. When we win, hopefully," I said, only slightly doubtful.

"I don't have any doubt," Cedric said.

His faith was definitely going to be one of the driving factors for my attempt to win the game today. And the fact that Oliver simply had to win. Once Cedric had gone back to the Hufflepuff table, Oliver then spent the whole of breakfast urging his team to eat, while touching nothing himself. It didn't matter how hard we tried to get him to eat, he wouldn't. Then he hurried us off to the field before anyone of the rest of us had finished, so we could get an idea of the conditions. As we left the Great Hall, everyone applauded again.

"Good luck, Harry!" Cho Chang called.

Glancing over, I saw that his face was turning a slight red. "What the hell are you smiling at?" I barked.

Harry's head whipped towards me. "N - Nothing," he stuttered.

"Right," I growled.

"Why are you allowed to flirt with your boyfriend, but I can't even smile at Cho?" Harry asked sharply.

Because she likes my boyfriend, not you. But even I wasn't cruel enough to say that to Harry. Let the boy have some hope, I supposed. "He's my boyfriend. Why wouldn't I flirt with him?" I asked. Harry thought for a moment, but seemed to have no good answer. I smiled haughtily. "As for Chang... Because she's miserable. And you're extremely awkward."

"I'm not that awkward," Harry said.

"Yes, you are," I interrupted.

Oliver's voice distracted our argument. "Okay - no wind to speak of - sun's a bit bright, that could impair your vision, watch out for it - ground's fairly hard, good, that'll give us a fast kickoff -"

As he spoke, Oliver walked at least ten paces ahead of us. He looked very excited to get somewhere. The rest of us essentially had to run to keep up with him. He looked like he was about to keel over from some type of panic. Once we made our way outside, Oliver began pacing the field, staring around with the rest of our team behind him. It was very quiet for a long while. We all just stood in silence and waited. Finally, we saw the front doors of the castle open in the distance and the rest of the school spilling onto the lawn. It was almost time for the game.

"Locker rooms," Oliver said tersely.

No one dared to argue with him. We needed to get changed anyways. I laid a hand on Oliver's shoulder as I walked past the boys section of the locker room and into the girls section. None of us spoke as we changed into their scarlet robes. Neither Alicia, nor Angelina, nor Katie spoke to me as we changed. Everyone was nervous. We had to win this game. For Oliver and for ourselves. And to rub it in Malfoy's face... As I did up the laces on my boots, I wondered if they were feeling like I was: as though they'd eaten something extremely wriggly for breakfast.

In what seemed like no time at all, Oliver was saying, "Okay, it's time, let's go."

"Don't worry, Oliver. We're going to win," I said reassuringly.

Oliver nodded blankly. "Yes. Yeah."

Then I turned to Harry and asked, "You ready?"

"Yeah," Harry said, looking as though he wasn't. "You?"

"I think so," I said truthfully.

Together we walked out onto the field to a tidal wave of noise. Three-quarters of the crowd was wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them, or brandishing banners with slogans like 'Go Gryffindor!' and 'Lions for the Cup!' I smiled when I saw that Cedric and his friends were all wearing Gryffindor colors. Behind the Slytherin goal posts, however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Professor Snape sat in the very front row, wearing green like everyone else, and a very grim smile.

"And here are the Gryffindor's!" Lee Jordan yelled, who was acting as commentator as usual. "Potter, Nox, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley, and Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best team Hogwarts has seen in a good few years -"

Lee's comments were drowned by a tide of 'boos' from the Slytherin end. I rolled my eyes at them as we strode onto the field. I glanced up and saw Ron and Hermione holding a banner with Seamus, Dean, and Neville. They seemed to be going hoarse from screaming. In the Hufflepuff section, I could see Cedric and the rest of his friends cheering for Gryffindor, sporting our colors, with a banner that read 'Nox Rocks!' A small blush flooded my cheeks as I placed my hand on Harry's shoulder. We would be just fine.

"And here come the Slytherin team, led by Captain Flint. He's made some changes in the lineup and seems to be going for size rather than skill -"

There were more boos from the Slytherin crowd. They never liked when anyone said anything less than glowing about Slytherin. Which was quite frequently. But I, however, thought that Lee had a point. Malfoy was easily the smallest person on the Slytherin team; the rest of them were enormous. It was the one thing that we would have a problem with. Our players were a little smaller and had a much harder time trying to brush by the larger players. But we were stronger and had much better skills.

"Captains, shake hands!" Madam Hooch yelled.

As the rest of the team stepped back slightly, I watched as Flint and Oliver walked towards each other. Neither one of them looked very happy with the other. In fact, it looked like they would rather do just about anything than touch each other. Flint and Oliver approached each other and grasped each other's hand very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers.

"Good luck, everyone!" I called.

"Mount your brooms! Three… two… one…" Madam Hooch shouted.

It was almost impossible to hear her over the roar of the crowd. But it was easy enough to see the start of the game. I took a seat on the bench and glanced up to the sky. The sound of Madam Hooch's whistle was lost in the roar from the crowd as fourteen brooms rose into the air. Myself and the Slytherin alternate - both glaring at each other - stared after the team. The moment that the game started, I felt my nerves leave me. We would win. I was confident in that. Malfoy was automatically on Harry's tail, and Harry sped off in search of the Snitch.

"And it's Gryffindor in possession, Alicia Spinnet of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, heading straight for the Slytherin goal posts, looking good, Alicia! Ugh, no - Quaffle intercepted by Warrington, Warrington of Slytherin tearing up the field - Wham! - nice Bludger work there by George Weasley, Warrington drops the Quaffle, it's caught by - Johnson, Gryffindor back in possession, come on, Angelina - nice swerve around Montague - duck, Angelina, that's a Bludger! - She scores! Ten - zero to Gryffindor!"

Ignoring the hisses of discontent from the Slytherin alternate sitting next to me, I jumped up from the bench and started cheering madly. Just forty more points and Harry would be able to catch the Snitch without issue. We were already well on our way to winning the game. But Slytherin was also well known for playing dirty when they started to lose. Angelina punched the air as she soared around the end of the field; the sea of scarlet below was screaming its delight.

"Ouch!" she suddenly yelled.

"Angelina!" I screamed.

Just as I had expected, Slytherin hadn't taken the loss of points well. They were already resorting to violent and dangerous tactics. I assumed that it was something that Marcus Flint had told his teammates to do the second that Gryffindor got the lead. Angelina was nearly thrown from her broom as Marcus Flint went smashing into her. She was almost unseated, but just managed to hang on. It kept me from having to step in for her so early in the game. But I was sure that I would have to come in at some point.

"Sorry! Sorry, didn't see her!" Flint said as the crowd below booed.

His Slytherin alternate was cheering down on the bench with me. I scowled at him before glancing back up to the game and booing along with the rest of the stadium. A moment later, Fred Weasley chucked his Beater's club at the back of Flint's head. Flint's nose smashed into the handle of his broom and began to bleed. I laughed heartily as the Slytherin alternate shifted nervously.

"Yeah, Fred!" I yelled.

"That will do!" Madam Hooch shrieked, zooming between them. "Penalty shot to Gryffindor for an unprovoked attack on their Chaser! Penalty shot to Slytherin for deliberate damage to their Chaser!"

"Come off it, Miss!" Fred shouted, but Madam Hooch blew her whistle and Alicia flew forward to take the penalty.

"Come on, Alicia!" Lee yelled into the silence that had descended on the crowd. I went quiet to watch. "Yes! She's beaten the Keeper! Twenty - zero to Gryffindor!"

Everyone in the stadium was cheering madly again - with the exception of the Slytherin's, who were booing and scowling at the turn of events for them. In the meantime, as the game got back underway, I turned back to see what was happening with Harry, Malfoy, and the Snitch. Harry turned the Firebolt sharply to watch Flint, still bleeding freely, fly forward to take the Slytherin penalty. Oliver was hovering in front of the Gryffindor goal posts, his jaw clenched. I hooted for him as Flint advanced furiously.

"'Course, Wood's a superb Keeper!" Lee Jordan told the crowd as Flint waited for Madam Hooch's whistle. "Superb! Very difficult to pass - very difficult indeed - YES! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! HE'S SAVED IT!"

Now there was just thirty points to get before we were able to actually win the game. Come on, Harry. Keep Malfoy away from the Snitch and don't catch it yourself. Obviously relieved, Harry zoomed away, gazing around for the Snitch, but clearly still making sure he caught every word of Lee's commentary. It was essential that he hold Malfoy off the Snitch until Gryffindor was more than fifty points up. Otherwise we would win the game but come in second place for the Quidditch Cup. Second place wasn't good enough.

"Gryffindor in possession, no, Slytherin in possession - no! - Gryffindor back in possession and it's Katie Bell, Katie Bell for Gryffindor with the Quaffle, she's streaking up the field - THAT WAS DELIBERATE!"

My jaw dropped open. They were even more violent than I had ever seen them before. Montague, a Slytherin Chaser whose nose I had broken in our game last year, had swerved in front of Katie, and instead of seizing the Quaffle had grabbed her head. I screamed loudly, a mix of curses for what Montague was doing and for Madam Hooch to do something. Katie cartwheeled in the air, managed to stay on her broom, but dropped the Quaffle. At least she had managed not to fall. It still kept me from having to come into the game.

Madam Hooch's whistle rang out again as she soared over to Montague and began shouting at him. She sounded just about as angry as the rest of the students and faculty down in the stands. The only person who seemed even mildly amused on the teacher's side was Snape. Not surprising at all. A minute later, Katie had put another penalty past the Slytherin Seeker. I jumped excitedly to my feet, well-aware that we only had to make another two goals before we would finally be able to start really searching for the Snitch.

"THIRTY - ZERO! TAKE THAT, YOU DIRTY, CHEATING -"

"Jordan, if you can't commentate in an unbiased way -!"

"I'm telling it like it is, Professor!"

Snickering slightly at their exchange - as Lee Jordan and Professor McGonagall normally got into it at least three times during a game - I turned back to try and follow Harry's gaze again. Was the Snitch anywhere in sight? That was when I realized that he was staring right at it, simply avoiding the temptation to go and catch it. Trying not to tip off the Slytherin alternate to what I'd seen, I felt a huge jolt of excitement. We had both seen the Snitch - it was shimmering at the foot of one of the Gryffindor goal posts - but he mustn't catch it yet - and if Malfoy saw it...

Very obviously faking a look of sudden concentration, Harry pulled his Firebolt around and sped off toward the Slytherin end - it worked. Malfoy went haring after him, clearly thinking Harry had seen the Snitch there. All of a sudden a loud whoosh echoed through the stadium. One of the Bludgers came streaking past Harry's right ear, hit by the gigantic Slytherin Beater, Derrick. Then again. He would have to really watch out for himself up there. If they could put Harry out of the game, we would stand almost no chance at winning.

"Be careful, Harry!" I yelled.

If he stopped paying attention for even a brief moment, I knew that the Slytherin's would take the opportunity to try and knock Harry out of the game - ending it for us. The second Bludger had just managed to graze Harry's elbow. The other Beater, Bole, was closing in on him. I saw Harry's head whip around, giving him a fleeting glimpse of Bole and Derrick zooming toward him, clubs raised. My heart was beating erratically as I watched. He turned the Firebolt upward at the last second, and Bole and Derrick collided with a sickening crunch.

"Ha haaa!" Lee Jordan yelled as the Slytherin Beaters lurched away from each other, clutching their heads. "Too bad, boys! You'll need to get up earlier than that to beat a Firebolt! And it's Gryffindor in possession again, as Johnson takes the Quaffle - Flint alongside her - poke him in the eye, Angelina! - it was a joke, Professor, it was a joke - oh no - Flint in possession, Flint flying toward the Gryffindor goal posts, come on now, Wood, save -!"

But it was too late. Flint had scored. Instantly I began howling so many curses that Madam Hooch had to warn me to either watch my mouth or she would remove me from the match - causing a big problem for Gryffindor. So I sat back down and begrudgingly silenced myself. The Slytherin alternate was chuckling at my misfortune. In the meantime, there was an eruption of cheers from the Slytherin end, and Lee swore so badly that Professor McGonagall tried to tug the magical megaphone away from him.

"Sorry, Professor, sorry! Won't happen again! So, Gryffindor in the lead, thirty points to ten, and Gryffindor in possession -"

It was turning into the dirtiest game I had ever seen played - both in the professional leagues and at school. Enraged that Gryffindor had taken such an early lead, the Slytherin's were rapidly resorting to any means to take the Quaffle. Bole hit Alicia with his club and tried to say he'd thought she was a Bludger. George Weasley elbowed Bole in the face in retaliation. I had laughed quite loudly at that one. Madam Hooch awarded both teams penalties, and Oliver pulled off another spectacular save, making the score forty-ten to Gryffindor.

My lungs were practically bursting with all of the screaming that I had been doing. I was sure that everyone else in the stadium felt the same way. It was the longest that I had gone without stepping into a game and I was finding myself getting antsy all over again. I wanted to play. But it wasn't my turn just yet. As I turned back to the game, I started looking around. The Snitch had disappeared again. Malfoy was still keeping close to Harry as he soared over the match, looking around for it - once Gryffindor was fifty points ahead.

A few minutes passed before Katie scored. Fifty-ten. I was up on my feet, jumping up and down and screaming for any of the girls to make another score. We would finally be within the range to catch the Snitch. Fred and George Weasley were swooping around Katie, clubs raised, in case any of the Slytherin's were thinking of revenge. Bole and Derrick took advantage of Fred's and George's absence to aim both Bludgers at Oliver; they caught him in the stomach, one after the other, and he rolled over in the air, clutching his broom, completely winded. Madam Hooch was beside herself.

"YOU DO NOT ATTACK THE KEEPER UNLESS THE QUAFFLE IS WITHIN THE SCORING AREA!" she shrieked at Bole and Derrick. "Gryffindor penalty!"

The entire stadium erupted into laughter. That was what they got for trying to even the score. They would manage to put us another goal up and back into the range for Harry to be able to catch the Snitch. The game was about to be over. As I started to dance around in my seat, Angelina scored. Sixty-ten. Moments later, Fred Weasley pelted a Bludger at Warrington, knocking the Quaffle out of his hands; Alicia seized it and put it through the Slytherin goal - seventy-ten. We were now over our safety net.

It wasn't just us that knew. The entire school knew what was happening. They had done the math themselves and knew that Harry was now safely able to catch the Snitch. Once he saw it, that is. The Gryffindor crowd below was screaming itself hoarse - Gryffindor was sixty points in the lead, and if Harry caught the Snitch now, the Cup was ours. I was shouting loudly as I - and everyone else - watched him. Hundreds of eyes were following him as he soared around the field, high above the rest of the game, with Malfoy speeding along behind him.

My eyes caught it at the same time that his did. Actually, I saw Harry spot it and followed his line of vision. It was right there. He had it. The Snitch was sparkling twenty feet above him. Harry put on a huge burst of speed; he stretched out his hand, but suddenly, the Firebolt was slowing down. My mouth dropped open into a foul-mouthed scream over what was happening. Clearly horrified, Harry looked around. Malfoy had thrown himself forward, grabbed hold of the Firebolt's tail, and was pulling it back.

"You -"

But he got out no more of a thought than that. I had never seen someone do something like that in a game of Quidditch before. That had to be against at least five regulation rules. Harry was obviously angry enough to hit Malfoy, and I was cheering him on to do such a thing, but he couldn't reach - Malfoy was panting with the effort of holding onto the Firebolt, but his eyes were sparkling maliciously. He had achieved what he'd wanted to do - the Snitch had disappeared again.

"Penalty! Penalty to Gryffindor! I've never seen such tactics!" Madam Hooch screeched, shooting up to where Malfoy was sliding back onto his Nimbus Two Thousand and One.

"YOU CHEATING SCUM!" Lee Jordan was howling into the megaphone, dancing out of Professor McGonagall's reach. "YOU FILTHY, CHEATING B -"

To my complete surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't even bother to tell him off. Normally she would try and stop Lee whenever he started cursing about what was happening in the game - as profanity was technically against the rules at Hogwarts - but no one bothered to stop me. Malfoy had succeeded in keeping Gryffindor from winning the game. At least, for now. In the meantime, Professor McGonagall was actually shaking her finger in Malfoy's direction, her hat had fallen off, and she too was shouting furiously.

Even by the time that Alicia had taken Gryffindor's penalty shot, the crowd still hadn't calmed down. Everyone was incredibly angry about what had just happened. We had been so close... We would still win, but it had almost been over. I watched as Alicia moved up to take the shot, but she was so angry she missed by several feet. The Gryffindor team was losing concentration and the Slytherin's, delighted by Malfoy's foul on Harry, were being spurred on to greater heights than before - making for even nastier fouls being played.

It didn't take long for the Slytherin's to resort to trying to knock out the other Chasers. They knew that Harry was useless. The Firebolt was simply too fast to outstrip. But it would end up being a mistake on their part. Not long after Alicia's missed shot, Katie was knocked off of her broom and straight into one of the stand towers. She was out like a light, blood pouring down her forehead. She was placed down on the ground with Madam Hooch attempting to revive her as I was sent back into the game.

It looked like Katie just had a very painful concussion. I grabbed her shoulder as I walked into the game and promised her that I would get them back for it. I was nervous to be in the game - well aware that Slytherin would be gunning for me - but I so desperately wanted to win. So I walked into the center of the Pitch as Lee announced my entry into the game, mounted my Firebolt, and instantly shot up into the air. I could hear the cheers surrounding me as I felt the extremely familiar sense of an adrenaline rush.

Just as they normally did, my nerves left me the moment that I was back in the air. I was ready to fly, ready to play, ready to win the game, and ready to pound Malfoy into the sand. Partially for what he was doing in the game, for Buckbeak, for the new rumors that I was cheating on Cedric with him, and just for being annoying in general. I couldn't dare let him win the game. I knew that I would never hear the end of it if Slytherin somehow managed to win. And what would happen to poor Oliver if we lost?

It didn't matter, because we wouldn't lose. As I launched myself into the game - having a difficult time constantly swerving to avoid the barrage of Slytherin players aiming for me - I searched far and wide for the Quaffle. I lost it during my entry into the game. I had seen that it was with Katie before, but she had lost it after her concussion. Where had it gone? After a minute or two I managed to spot the bulk of the players on the other end of the Quidditch Pitch. I shot over towards them, desperate to try and make at least one goal. Or, if nothing else, keep Slytherin from scoring.

Even with the Firebolt, I wasn't able to make it quite in time. They were already near the Gryffindor goalposts and I had known long before that we might not have been able to save that goal. I was literally inches away from the rest of the players when one of the Slytherin Chasers managed to toss the Quaffle just outside of Oliver's reach. I groaned, knowing that we couldn't start falling behind in the game. We could only afford to lose one more point before we would get ourselves back inside the danger zone.

"Slytherin in possession, Slytherin heading for goal - Montague scores -" Lee groaned. "Seventy-twenty to Gryffindor..."

We had to get the Snitch before risking letting Slytherin score again. Now I didn't really care whether or not we actually managed to make another score. The only thing that I cared about right now was that we managed to win the game. Harry was now marking Malfoy so closely their knees kept hitting each other. I could see them streaking in the other direction. I wasn't quite sure where they were going or where the Snitch was, but I knew that Harry wasn't going to let Malfoy anywhere near the Snitch.

"Get out of it, Potter!" Malfoy yelled in frustration as he tried to turn and found Harry blocking him.

Just as they got out of range for me to see them, I pulled myself back into the game. I swerved in front of Montague and another one of Slytherin's Chasers to put myself at Angelina's side. The two of us nodded and went back to our old routine that Oliver so frequently had us practice during practice. She had the Quaffle and the two of us flew side-by-side, tossing it back and forth in between ourselves as we rocketed back towards our goals. I kept myself just a tiny pace ahead of Angelina, having very little problem weaving through the rest of the players.

"Angelina Johnson and Tara Nox have the Quaffle for Gryffindor, playing a grab-and-toss game with each other. Tara with the Quaffle now. Come on, Angelina, come on, Tara. Come on!"

As much as I loved having Lee commenting on the game - especially when it was hard to see what was happening - it also caused some problems on the field. It make it almost impossible to keep secret who had the Quaffle. Right now I could tell that it was becoming a problem. Harry and I looked around the field at the same moment. Every single Slytherin player apart from Malfoy was streaking up the pitch towards Angelina and me, including the Slytherin Keeper - they were all going to block us.

"Harry!" I shouted.

He would know what I wanted. It was my only idea. "Got it!" Harry shouted back.

"Ready?" I called to Angelina, who I knew would understand my silent request.

"Go for it! You've got the Quaffle after?" Angelina asked.

"You're good. Go!" I shouted.

Loosening my grip slightly, I tossed the Quaffle from myself, back towards Angelina. Instantly I ducked down out of the way so that Harry would have a clear shot towards her. That was what we needed. The Slytherin's hadn't seen our move. I knew that they would assume that I still had the Quaffle. So they went to tailing me - just as I knew that they would. I grinned to myself. We would be able to make two goals in a row and they would have no idea. It would be perfect for us to get ourselves way back into the safety zone.

The moment that I was sure that we were safe and the play would work out, I turned back and nodded at Harry to move. He would have to leave his hunt for the Snitch for a moment, but Malfoy would likely follow him and I had a feeling that he had lost the Snitch anyways. Following my silent order, Harry wheeled the Firebolt around, bent so low he was lying flat along the handle, and kicked it forward. Like a bullet, he shot toward the Slytherin's. I laughed softly and ducked out of the way.

"AAAAAAARRRGH!"

The Slytherin's were screaming at the top of their lungs as I dropped towards the ground and Harry was suddenly visible in their sight range. The rest of the audience began to laugh madly at the Slytherin's misfortune. They were all shouting now that Harry was about to ram right through them. They scattered all along the rest of the Pitch as the Firebolt zoomed toward them; Angelina's way was clear. I cheered her on as I spend up the Firebolt to get back to the goalposts - long before anyone else could get there.

"She scores! She scores! Gryffindor leads by eighty points to twenty!"

Harry, who had almost pelted headlong into the stands, skidded to a halt in midair, reversed, and zoomed back into the middle of the field. He was going back to his job of searching for the Snitch. The two of us high-fived each other as we flew past. The crowd was screaming in pleasure now that we were sixty points up. And about to be seventy... A manic grin spread over my face as I started to see the looks of panic in the faces of the Slytherin players. They knew how hopeless their game was becoming.

Speeding the Firebolt as fast as I imagined that it could go, I ducked down underneath the goalpost that Angelina had just put the Quaffle through and managed to catch it just by my fingertips. The crowd was erupting with pleasure as the rest of the Slytherin players tried to chase me down. But they were no match for the speed of the Firebolt. It made it very easy - as the rest of their team started looking only at me to try and stop me - for Fred and George to shoot Bludgers at the rest Slytherin's players. About every other Bludger was connecting.

For a moment I had to circle the Pitch - as the Slytherin players were having a wonderful time cutting me off each time that I tried to zoom back up to their goalposts. So I continued flying in and out of their players and duck by Harry and Malfoy in the meantime; they both looked like they were still trying to find the Snitch. I sped up as I rounded the field and headed back towards the goalposts. I faked out the Slytherin Keeper to a shoot at the furthest goalposts, instantly pushed the Firebolt back, and made a shot at the closest one, flying downwards before I even saw the shot.

The only way that I knew that I had made it was by the screaming of the crowd and the ding that came whenever a score was made on either side. My goal was enough to make the crowd go wild. They obviously didn't see that one coming. But fake-outs were my specialty. I was also going the opposite way to make the toss. But it had worked out. With the help of Fred and George in their beating abilities, I was able to shoot down and catch the Quaffle again as the boys were keeping the other players away from it. I instantly turned back and threw the Quaffle full-force at Alicia.

Giving me a wicked grin, Alicia caught the Quaffle easily and turned to shoot it at Angelina. My shot must have hit her slightly hard. I could see her chest heaving from here. Angelina easily caught the Quaffle. The two of them were winding in and out of the players for a moment as I shot over them and advanced slightly. We all flew for a moment before Alicia threw the Quaffle back to me. I caught it, turned backwards as I flew past the Slytherin goalposts, and threw it through the reverse side of them. A totally legal - albeit unorthodox - move that the Keeper never saw coming.

"Yes! Yes! Gryffindor leads one hundred points to twenty! Good teamwork from Tara Nox, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet!"

The entire crowd was up in arms over the shot. An excitable scream tore out of my throat. There was no way that we would lose. The only thing that we needed was for Harry to catch the damned Snitch. For a moment I risked a glance over at him to see what was happening on his end. I looked over just as it happened. He saw the same thing that was making my heart stand still. Malfoy was diving, a look of triumph on his face - there, a few feet above the grass below, was a tiny, golden glimmer. Harry urged the Firebolt downward, but Malfoy was miles ahead.

"Go! Go! Go!" Harry urged his broom.

My heart was lodged in my throat. If Malfoy caught the Snitch before Harry did, it wouldn't matter how many points ahead we were. It wasn't the two hundred that we would need. I turned back to the game in the meantime. I could see that Slytherin had taken over possession of the Quaffle again. It wouldn't matter. Even if they could make a few goals in the next few seconds, the game was over. Harry would get the Snitch. Angelina, Alicia, and I slowed down slightly. Just for fun, I soared down and kicked the Quaffle out of Montague's hands, watching as it fell down to Angelina.

As she moved off to the side of the game - effectively keeping Slytherin from regaining the Quaffle before the end of the game - I turned back to see what was now happening with Harry and Malfoy. Harry was gaining on Malfoy - Harry flattened himself to the broom handle as Bole sent a Bludger at him. He just barely managed to duck of the way. It must have brushed over his hair. Then Harry was at Malfoy's ankles - he was level. Harry threw himself forward, took both hands off his broom. He knocked Malfoy's arm out of the way and...

"Yes!" Harry shouted.

To my extreme excitement - but not surprise - Harry pulled out of his dive perfectly, his hand in the air, and the stadium exploded. Angelina, Alicia, and I instantly stopped flying, the three of us screaming at the tops of our lungs. It had happened. Harry soared above the crowd, as an odd ringing started to sound in my ears. Maybe it was the noise level in the stadium. The tiny golden ball was held tight in his fist, beating its wings hopelessly against his fingers. Montague threw the Quaffle to the ground in fury.

"Yes, Harry! Yes!" I screamed.

We all instantly flew over towards him. I couldn't believe that we had finally managed to win Oliver his Quidditch Cup. Just in the nick of time. Then Oliver was speeding toward Harry, half-blinded by tears; he seized Harry around the neck and sobbed unrestrainedly into his shoulder. There were two large thumps as Fred and George hit them; then Angelina's, Alicia's, and Katie's voices, "We've won the Cup! We've won the Cup!" Tangled together in a many-armed hug, the entire Gryffindor team sank, yelling hoarsely, back to earth.

Harry's arm wrapped tightly around my waist as I practically landed on his Firebolt. "You did it!" I cried.

"We all did it," Harry said breathlessly.

"We won! Oliver, we won!" I shouted, grabbing Oliver in a tight hug.

He looked as though he couldn't believe it. "We - We won..." Oliver stuttered.

"We won!" everyone was shouting.

It became almost impossible to tell who was who and who was shouting what. I gave up and merely enjoyed the excitement of the moment. Wave upon wave of crimson supporters was pouring over the barriers onto the field. Hands were raining down on all of our backs. I had a confused impression of noise and bodies pressing in on me. Then I, and the rest of the team, were hoisted onto the shoulders of the crowd. I shouted in surprise but didn't protest otherwise. Thrust into the light, I saw Hagrid, plastered with crimson rosettes.

"Yeh beat 'em, Harry, yeh beat 'em! Wait till I tell Buckbeak!"

We all smiled and laughed. At least he had something to be happy about for a little while. Off in the distance there was Percy, jumping up and down like a maniac, all dignity forgotten. I laughed softly. Professor McGonagall was sobbing harder even than Oliver, wiping her eyes with an enormous Gryffindor flag; and there, fighting their way toward Harry and I, were Ron and Hermione. Words failed them. They simply beamed as Harry and I were borne toward the stands, where Dumbledore stood waiting with the enormous Quidditch Cup.

The moment that I landed back on the Pitch, I was instantly swept up by someone else. I was about to shout at them for grabbing onto me the way that they had when I realized who it was. Cedric had finally managed to fight his way past everyone else. Harry released me from a hug so that I could jump into Cedric's arms and plant a large kiss on him. The two of us merely smiled at each other proudly. I had never been quite so happy. My arms looped back over his shoulders as Cedric leaned forward and pressed another long kiss against my lips.

Nothing could force the two of us apart right now. At least, nothing that I could think of. We had managed to win the Quidditch Cup. Oliver would be thrilled. Malfoy would be furious. My boyfriend was finally my boyfriend and no one seemed shocked or horrified about it right now. Actually, the two of us were laughing as we stayed together, despite the fact that others were continuously running into us. The entire school had all but forgotten their manners in the wake of the win. Not that anyone cared. Not that I cared.

"Well done!" Cedric said as we finally pulled apart.

"Oh, I don't ever remember feeling this great!" I laughed.

"Your parents will be so proud."

"And what about you?"

Cedric smiled proudly, brushing my slightly sweaty and very windblown hair out of my face. "It would be hard to beat how proud I am of you," Cedric said.

Normally I would have blushed. Today I was too excited. "Aha, we beat Slytherin!"

"Congratulations, Tara. You absolutely deserved it."

"Thank you."

We had done it... After three years at Hogwarts, we had finally won what we had honestly deserved for the past two years. Nothing could take this moment away from us. The two of us smiled at each other again as Cedric leaned forward and pressed another kiss against my lips. A moment later he grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up onto his shoulders. I laughed as Harry was brought up on Fred and George's. The two of us met in midair and wrapped each other in a tight hug, absolutely thrilled with our performances.

It seemed that everyone in Hogwarts - teachers and students - were cheering. I could see Professor Lupin in the distance smiling. He gave Cedric a slight eye - making me blush - before looking back at me and winking. It was the happiest that I had been in a long time. Now if only there had been a Dementor around... As a sobbing Oliver passed Harry the Cup (who gave me one of the handles to share in holding it with him), as the two of us lifted it into the air, I felt that I could have produced the world's best Patronus.


	52. Chapter 52

My euphoria at finally winning the Quidditch Cup lasted at least a week. It seemed like it was going to last forever after it had happened. Like there would never be exams or anything. Even the weather seemed to be celebrating; as June approached, the days became cloudless and sultry, and all anybody felt like doing was strolling onto the grounds and flopping down on the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice, perhaps playing a casual game of Gobstones or watching the giant squid propel itself dreamily across the surface of the lake.

For that week or so, I spent a lot of time enjoying the freedom that I would have before exam week set in. I ended up spending much of my time with Cedric. It was a good time for the two of us to enjoy each other before we both had to spend all of our time studying our brains out. We had spent a number of afternoons sitting around and enjoying the weather. We even spent some days kicking around a soccer ball. From time to time we even went out to the Quidditch Pitch and played a quick round. He was as good of a Chaser as he was a Seeker.

During all of the time that I spent outside, I regularly saw Malfoy prowling around the grounds. He was much more demure in classes, so seeing him outside was the only chance that I had to harass him these days. I had never seen him so angry, which made me more than just a little happy. It did crack me up that he was so infuriated over the fact that Gryffindor had actually managed to beat Slytherin for the Cup. Especially because the rest of the school had really wanted them to lose. Finally they had.

On the other side of the spectrum, I knew that I had never seen Oliver quite as happy as he was right now. I was sure that I had seen him skipping up and down the halls a few times. And the twins were very convinced that he slept with the Cup. I decided not to give him too hard of a time with it. I knew that he was thrilled that we had managed to win it. But he was so happy that I had a feeling that Oliver would forget that we actually did have exams coming up reasonably soon. I had to remind him a number of times that getting recruited for a professional team still required good grades.

But even I had stopped studying. I really didn't want to study. I was tired of this year and I was tired of having to study for so many classes. I would have to cut down on them a little bit next year. So would Hermione. Although there was one day that I spent almost the entire day up in the Astronomy Tower. Of course, I wasn't alone. Cedric had been with me. We were definitely using the time to bond - for lack of better word - rather than study, but we pretended that we had. Besides, no one was around to actually see what had happened between us. Just some PG-13 associating. Nothing more.

Of course, that would be enough to spark rumors from the rest of the school. With the excitement of the win, there had been no more rumors about the two of us. For now, at least. Not even with the serious kiss that we had shared after the win. But that serious kiss had brought something else about in the front of my mind. It had occurred to me afterwards that Professor Lupin - a good friend of my parents' - had seen the kiss. He could have written my parents about it. So I had gone to his office a few days after the game.

Slowly I wound in and out of the students before walking towards Professor Lupin's office. I knocked gently on the door frame of the slightly-open door. "Professor?" I called softly.

"Come in," Professor Lupin's voice called. I pushed open the door and walked in, closing the door behind me. Professor Lupin smiled. "Tara. How are you?"

"Still on a high from winning the game," I admitted.

Professor Lupin waved his hand for me to sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk. He waved a hand and a cup of coffee appeared in front of me. "Yes, that was quite a magnificent win. Your parents would be very proud. Particularity your father. Of course, then he would start telling you that he taught you those moves," Professor Lupin said, making me smile.

"He certainly did not. That was all Oliver Wood," I said sharply.

Knowing Dad, he would start talking all about how wonderful of a player he was and how helpful he had been. "An excellent player in his own right. Perhaps he will go professional," Professor Lupin said.

"Honestly, I think that's the only thing that he wants to do."

"He would have a good chance." The two of us sat together for a little while as I sipped on my coffee. I couldn't find the words to spit it out. "Was there something that you needed, Tara?" Professor Lupin asked, finally spitting it out.

"Well... yes... But now that I'm here, I'm thinking that it's not entirely appropriate," I said.

"Might as well sit here and finish that coffee of yours." Smiling awkwardly, I continued sipping on the coffee. Spit it out, damn it. "Go on. I promise I'll at least listen," Professor Lupin goaded.

Unfortunately now that I was ready to speak, I still had no clue how to explain what I wanted. So I started slow. "After the game... I saw you standing by and celebrating with the rest of the students. As everyone else was, you know," I said awkwardly. Professor Lupin nodded, still smiling. "And I know that you saw... Cedric Diggory... congratulating me..."

Is that really the best that you can do? Professor Lupin nodded thoughtfully. "Cedric Diggory. Fifth Year student. Captain and Seeker of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Quite good with Defense as well. He's one of my top students. An exemplary Hufflepuff."

Was that supposed to be his way of telling me that Cedric was a good person to be with? I wasn't quite sure. "Yeah... Yes... He is." Gathering my courage, I spit out, "I know that I don't have any right to ask you to do this, but I know that you're friendly with my parents and I know that you write them back and forth, but they don't - they don't know about us."

Professor Lupin was silent for a moment before nodding. "I had a feeling."

"I'm going to tell them, I just want to figure out the words to do it with."

Which would take me a while, seeing as I couldn't even speak to Professor Lupin about our relationship. "I understand. Your mother and father didn't date until our Seventh Year." I smiled, remembering Mom telling me about their relationship before the start of the year. "But I remember your mother dating in our Fourth Year officially. I believe she went out to Hogsmeade with a boy or two during our Third Year. Your father used to try and use other girls to make your mother jealous from our Third Year."

"So about the same time," I muttered.

"That's the thing about parents. They tend to like to have their children wait another few years to start dating than after they did, simply because they remember what they were like at that age."

Begrudgingly I said, "That makes sense."

"I haven't said anything to your parents."

A breath of relief escaped me. "Thank you."

At least I was going to get a chance to explain what had happened myself. They couldn't know yet. I would have gotten a very angry letter about it by now. "As a family friend, Tara... Things tend not to remain secret for too long and they can come out in ways that we don't want them to. You should tell your parents before someone else does," Professor Lupin advised.

"I will. I just don't want them to start getting weird whenever Cedric is around," I admitted.

Professor Lupin smiled, tilting back his cup of tea. "Knowing your father, they will," Professor Lupin said. I laughed softly. At least he was honest. "But they at least won't lose trust in you if you're the one to tell them."

"That's good advice. Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Before I could get up and head back to Gryffindor Tower, something else dawned on me. "Oh, and don't believe all of those rumors that you might hear. People don't exactly say the nicest things about the two of us," I said awkwardly.

Seemingly understanding what I was talking about, Professor Lupin smiled and nodded. "I learned long ago to not listen to simple gossip."

"Thank you, Professor Lupin."

"My pleasure, Tara." The two of us sat in silence for a few moments as we both continued to sip on our drinks. I drained my coffee quickly, still feeling a little awkward for having come to ask Professor Lupin to keep my secret. "I certainly hope that I'm not overstepping my bounds, but seeing as you don't have the advice of parental figures right now, make sure that Cedric Diggory treats you well," Professor Lupin said.

"You aren't," I said honestly. "Thank you. I'll make sure."

Professor Lupin nodded again. "He's a suitable choice. Your father would never admit it, but he's a good boy."

Blushing madly, I said, "I know."

The two of us sat in another brief silence. Professor Lupin seemed to have notice that he had made me a feel a little bit awkward. Not because of him, just because of the situation. "How's studying for your exams?" Professor Lupin asked, finally hanging the subject.

"I'll let you know when I've started," I said.

Professor Lupin laughed softly. "Just like your father."

"See you in class, Professor," I said, getting to my feet.

Professor Lupin grinned and took the coffee mug from my hands as I turned back to the door. "Good luck with you studies, Tara," Professor Lupin called after me, with a tone that dared me to do anything other than study.

It was a warning that I had taken to heart. Mostly because I knew that he meant well. It was time for me to start studying. As much as I really did went to spend some more time with Cedric - before the semester ended and I was back under my parents' watchful eyes, having to ensure that they didn't catch us together - I simply couldn't. Exams were nearly upon us, and instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle, trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows.

To my complete surprise, even Fred and George had been spotted working; they were about to take their O.W.L.s, just like Cedric. Percy was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), the highest qualification Hogwarts offered. As Percy hoped to enter the Ministry of Magic, he needed top grades. He was becoming increasingly edgy, and gave very severe punishments to anybody who disturbed the quiet of the Common Room in the evenings. In fact, the only person who seemed more anxious than Percy was Hermione.

It was saying something that she didn't even have any high-level tests coming up. Hermione and I would not be having an easy time with exams this year. It was mostly considering that most of our exams would start overlapping with each other. We would be taking double the amount of normal students' exams on each day. Although I could have been much worse off. Hermione would actually have triple exams on a few of the days that I simply had doubles. Even I wasn't foolish enough to start overlapping courses that badly.

Hopefully Hermione wouldn't forget to go to any of her exams. I could only imagine how awful that would be. Would anyone even let her retake the exam if she missed it? I guessed that I would have to just keep as close of an eye on her as I could during exam week. Harry and Ron had given up on asking the two of us how we were managing to attend several classes at once, but they couldn't continue restraining themselves when they saw the exam schedule that Hermione had drawn up for herself - and me, subsequently. The first column read:

Monday

9 o'clock, Arithmancy

9 o'clock, Transfiguration

Lunch

1 o'clock, Charms

1 o'clock, Ancient Runes

"Hermione? Tara?" Ron called cautiously, because Hermione was liable to explode when interrupted these days.

"What's up?" I asked, knowing that Hermione wouldn't say anything.

"Er - are you two sure you've copied down these times right?" Ron asked.

"Yes," I said shortly.

As usual, Hermione took the comment a little bit worse than I did. "What?" Hermione snapped, picking up the exam schedule and examining it. "Yes, of course I have."

"Is there any point asking how you're going to sit for two exams at once?" Harry asked.

"No," Hermione said shortly.

Sighing softly, I placed down my Transfiguration books and looked at them. One day we would tell them about the Time-Turner, and until then I was sick of the questions. "Boys, they're redoing the exam schedule for us to be able to take them all at once in varying times. This is just the official times. We have other times that have been agreed upon by the respective professors," I explained as reasonably as I thought was possible.

"But -"

"Have either of you seen my copy of Numerology and Gramatica?" Hermione interrupted Ron.

"Oh, yeah, I borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading," Ron said, but very quietly.

Turning towards Ron, I narrowed my eyes. "You know, it's really not that boring," I said.

Ron's eyes bulged. "Are you kidding? Have you read it?" Ron asked disbelievingly.

"Considering that I'm taking the class, yes, Ron, I have read it," I snapped.

His face flushed with color slightly as Harry leaned in between the two of us. Obviously he was trying to diffuse some of the tension that had built in the Common Room. Not that it was uncommon these days. The Common Room was always tense during exams. No one wanted to be interrupted or potentially fail. Hermione started shifting heaps of parchment around on her table, looking for the book. Just then, there was a rustle at the window and Hedwig fluttered through it, a note clutched tight in her beak. I smiled at her, running my fingers through her white feathers.

"It's from Hagrid," Harry said, ripping the note open. "Buckbeak's appeal - it's set for the sixth."

"Good!" I said happily.

Maybe Hagrid would actually manage to save Buckbeak's life. That would at least take something off of my mind. "That's the day we finish our exams," Hermione said, still looking everywhere for her Arithmancy book.

"And they're coming up here to do it," Harry said, still reading from the letter.

"So we can be there. We'll get to hear what's happening. We can comfort Hagrid, just in case," I said softly, still concerned that Buckbeak wouldn't make it.

"No exams to worry about," Hermione said.

We were all silent for a moment as Harry continued reading down the letter. "Hang on a minute," he said, looking up from the letter. "Someone from the Ministry of Magic and - and an executioner."

Hermione had barely been paying attention. She had simply been listening as she continued working on the monstrous pile of homework and studying that she had to do for her exams. Just like Ron and I, Hermione looked up, startled. I wasn't sure that I had heard Harry right until I saw the looks on the others' faces. Were they really bringing an executioner? That sounded like they were already determined that Buckbeak was guilty. They shouldn't have brought the executioner unless it was already time for that.

"You're joking," I whispered.

"No. Here's the letter," Harry said, handing it over.

Grabbing the letter from Harry, I scanned down the words. He was right. They were planning on bringing the executioner to the appeal. I slowly lowered the letter. "No. No! It's an appeal," I breathed.

"They're bringing the executioner to the appeal! But that sounds as though they've already decided!" Ron yelped.

"Yeah, it does," Harry said slowly.

It had Lucius Malfoy written all over it. But it also had practicality behind it. "They can't! I've spent ages reading up on stuff for him; they can't just ignore it all!" Ron howled, startling me.

Deciding that I might as well have told them what the Ministry was thinking, I started speaking slowly. "Just think about it. Think about it from a practical - albeit cold - point of view," I said softly, earning funny looks from the others. "If Buckbeak loses his appeal, they would just have to come back later to perform the execution. They could get it all done in one foul swoop like this. Don't have to pay people for another day."

"Tara!" Hermione gasped.

The three of them were staring at me like I'd lost my mind. "I'm not saying that I like it!" I barked, trying to defend myself. "I'm just saying to think about it. It makes sense. It's just... it's unnerving."

"She's right, Hermione," Harry argued. "It does make sense. But..."

"Don't say it," I interrupted.

We all knew that I was speaking the truth. But that didn't mean that anyone wanted to talk about it. We didn't want to know about what was going to happen to Buckbeak. Just sharing a brief look with Harry, I knew that he had the same fear that I did. I had a horrible feeling that the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures had had its mind made up for it by Lucius Malfoy. Draco, who had been noticeably subdued since Gryffindor's triumph in the Quidditch final, seemed to regain some of his old swagger over the next few days.

From sneering comments that I had overheard, Malfoy was certain Buckbeak was going to be killed, and seemed thoroughly pleased with himself for bringing it about. It was all the rest of us could do to stop ourselves from imitating Hermione - or perhaps I should have said myself - and hitting Malfoy in the face on those occasions. And the worst thing of all was that we had no time or opportunity to go and see Hagrid, because the strict new security measures had not been lifted, and Harry and I didn't dare retrieve his Invisibility Cloak from below the one-eyed witch.

Everything combined had made for a very stressful few days as we led up to the exams. I tried to push everything out of my mind, thinking only of the upcoming exams. One afternoon I was in the library trying to study for my Transfiguration exam. It was one of the ones that I was more nervous about having to take. I liked the class but Professor McGonagall was known for giving very tough exams. Studying wasn't going well, and it didn't help when, a few hours later, Cedric sat down next to me. He was smiling but looked exhausted.

"Go away if you're not here just to study with me," I said shortly, not even bothering to look up from my work.

"That's nice," Cedric chuckled.

At least he wasn't bitter about the way that I had essentially barked at him to leave me alone. "I'm - I'm sorry," I said, glancing up from my work. "That was rude. Sit, just please don't interrupt me."

Cedric scooted slightly closer to me, looking over my shoulder as I went back to my book. "Transfiguration?" Cedric asked after a few beats of silence.

"Cedric!" I hissed.

"Teapots into turtles," he responded quickly.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

Were we playing some type of game that I hadn't realized? "That's what you're going to be doing for your practical exam. That's what Professor McGonagall always has the Third Years doing. It's what I did," Cedric explained.

Well that just made my studying much easier. "You really shouldn't tell me that. But - thank you," I said softly.

At least now I knew exactly what I had to study. Not the broad range that I had been working with before. "My pleasure. Now that you know exactly what to study for, want to tell me what's bothering you?" Cedric asked.

"Is that why you told me?"

"Honestly?" I nodded slowly. "Yes. You look extremely upset." With everything that had been happening, I wasn't even the slightest bit surprised that I looked upset. I was constantly feeling upset. "Over far more than just having to study for your exams. I shouldn't have told you, but you'll still have to study for it, so I think that it's fair," Cedric reasoned.

"You probably just helped me pass it, so thank you." Cedric smiled softly. "Buckbeak's appeal is set for the day that exams end."

The smile almost instantly dropped off of his face, but it came back a moment later. "Well that's good! Isn't it?" Cedric asked.

"They're bringing an executioner," I said.

His face dropped again. "What?"

"They're bringing an executioner to the appeal. What does that sound like to you?"

"Sounds like they've made up their minds."

"Exactly."

My heart sank even further into my stomach. Even Cedric saw the problem. "Oh, Tara, I'm really sorry," Cedric said softly, placing a hand on my thigh. "I saw the Hippogriff's at the beginning of the year. Buckbeak always seemed so sweet."

All of the times that I had just pet Buckbeak, seeing how sweet he was. "He is. What about Hagrid?" I asked sadly.

The poor man was going to lose his mind if Buckbeak was actually killed. Which it seemed that he would be. Cedric let out a soft breath. "He's going to be upset about it - if it happens - of course, but Hagrid is strong. He'll be able to move on. Perhaps you should help to get him another new creature. Something for him to channel his energy into," Cedric suggested.

For a moment I thought about it. Hagrid did always like his creatures... "That's actually not a bad idea," I mumbled.

Perhaps there was some way that we could get Hagrid a new creature to play with and care for. In the instance that Buckbeak's trial didn't go the way that we wanted it to. "If you ever need to talk about it - if you need to come see someone after it happens... no matter what the outcome is, just send either Dai or Rusty a letter and I'll come meet you," Cedric promised.

"Thank you," I whispered.

It would be great to have him with me - no matter what the outcome. "Come here," Cedric said, offering me his hand.

"Don't you have to study too?" I asked, thinking of his O.W.L.'s.

There was no way that he didn't have to study for those. They were some of the most important test that the students would have to take. "Of course I do. But I think you're a little more important right now," Cedric said.

Despite how upset I was, a small smile broke out over my face. "Damn you," I snapped, punching Cedric in the arm and forcing the smile off of my face. Cedric merely chuckled softly. "Don't make me smile."

"Ah. I'm terribly sorry. I'll only sit here and sulk from now on," Cedric teased.

"Shut up."

But he was still making me smile. Cedric merely laughed and gave me his hand, pulling me up out of my chair. "Quiet. Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"Tara," Cedric warned.

"What?" I asked.

Cedric turned back and smiled again. "Stop talking."

But the last thing that I wanted to do was stop talking. It was one of the things that I did best. Rambled on and on about everything that was bothering me. It was a good thing that Cedric was so good at cutting me off with a kiss. It was one of the very few reasons that I hadn't spilled all of my secrets on a rant about whatever was bothering me at that specific moment. Either way, I grumbled under my breath as the two of us headed out of the library, Cedric pulling me with him as the two of us drew stares and whispers. Just like always...

It was tough to ignore them, but I tried my hardest to do that. Before we could leave the library, I had to pick up my books that were scattered all over the desk and floor. Once I had everything back in my bag, I let Cedric take it and sling it over his shoulder. In the meantime I grabbed my sweater and tossed it back over my shoulders. Seeing as it was after classes and the dress code was no longer enforced, I was wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts. But with the chill in the castle - and my mother's constant warning echoing in my head - I had brought the sweater with me.

As we walked through the hallways, Cedric looped an arm over my shoulder to let me walk pressed up against him. A few times he leaned down and pressed a kiss against my forehead. He obviously knew that I was upset, but he wasn't saying anything about it. He was just trying to make me feel better. The two of us continued to walk through the halls, going wherever the two of us were headed. We eventually made our way upstairs towards the Hospital Tower. I raised a brow, wondering where the hell we were going. I hadn't injured myself lately.

For a moment I wondered if we were going somewhere that he knew and loved. Much like the Astronomy Tower was my place of solace. Maybe there was even a chance that we weren't heading anywhere. Maybe he just wanted me to get out of the library. But it seemed like he knew where we were going as he led me up to the fifth floor and then down one of the hallways. Almost ten minutes passed before we seemed to have finally gotten to where we were meant to go. The two of us stopped by the fourth door down the hallway that was next to a statue of Boris the Bewildered.

"Why are we here?" I asked as we came to a stop.

Cedric turned to me and smiled. "Why do you have to keep speaking?" he shot back.

"What is this place?"

"Pine Fresh."

My eyebrows quirked in confusion. "What?"

"Not you," Cedric said.

To my surprise, at the same moment that Cedric spoke to me, a door to the left of the statue opened up. It was some kind of secret passage. It wasn't the Hufflepuff Common Room. That was down by the kitchens. Plus Cedric would get in a ton of trouble if he ever showed it to me. Once the door was completely open, Cedric placed a hand behind my back, gave a quick glance around the hallway, and ushered me inside. Maybe neither one of us were supposed to be here. That would explain why he looked so concerned that someone might spot us.

Perhaps he was slowly turning into me. Going places that we really shouldn't have been going. Places that would get us into a ton of trouble if someone caught us there. I smiled softly as we walked into the dimly lit room and a lock clunked loudly behind us. Where the hell were we? I had never even known that there were secret rooms around here. As we continued taking small steps into the room, I turned to Cedric with a raised brow. Where had be brought us? I narrowed my eyes suspiciously as Cedric gently pushed me into the room.

As soft yellow lights came up, I realized exactly where we were. Although it didn't make much sense. It looked almost like a bathroom that a millionaire Muggle would have in their home. At least it definitely looked like a bathroom. A very expensive and huge bathroom. It had to be. Mostly because I could see that on one side of the room there were stalls with toilets inside. So definitely a bathroom. But this wasn't just a normal bathroom. Opposite the toilets there was a large, swimming pool-like tub with bath taps surrounding it.

Was this a private bathroom? Perhaps it belonged to Professor Dumbledore. The thought made my skin crawl. Not a picture that I wanted. Cedric walked over to the pool-like bathtub - or maybe it really was a pool - and I stepped back. Honestly I still wasn't sure what I was doing here. The pool-like bath was sunk into the ground, just the way that a normal pool was. As Cedric started fiddling with the taps, I watched curiously. The bath taps all ran different-colored bath water, soap bubbles, and foam.

On the far side of the room there were towels and bathrobes of every color hanging up. My gaze turned back to the bath taps that Cedric was still leaning over. There had to be at least a hundred golden taps surrounding the whole pool-like tub, with a different jewel set in each tap. Sitting on the other side of the tub (pool), bath supplies were there such as soap, bath oil, bath powder, bath salts, shampoo, hair spray, and conditioner. Just looking at the tub, I would have imagined that it would take quite some time to fill, but it actually filled remarkably fast, considering its size.

Just minutes after we had come in, it was already filled to the brim. "Is this a bathroom?" I asked curiously, and also rather stupidly.

Of course it was a bathroom. That was the only thing that made sense. There are toilets in here, Tara. What else would it be? Cedric laughed. "Well spotted," he commented, making me scowl at him. "This is the Prefects bathroom. Prefects, Head Boy, Head Girl, and Quidditch Captains can use it."

"Of which I am none," I pointed out.

He was clearly allowed in here - likely how he knew about it - but I definitely wasn't. "Luckily for you, I am two of those, so I can use the bathroom. There's a privacy lock. No one is coming in here," Cedric explained.

My stomach gave a funny jolt as nerves settled in. "Privacy lock... bathroom... just the two of us... Cedric -"

I didn't need to say anything more than that. Cedric got the hint. "Get your mind out of the gutter," he interrupted.

Raising my eyebrows - relief flooding through me that he didn't want what I had feared for a moment that he did - I walked closer to the center of the bathroom. "I thought that was a Muggle saying," I said.

Cedric met me halfway through the bathroom. "I used to go to a Muggle school." Which he had told me before. I smiled as Cedric grabbed onto my hand and pulled me with him towards the bathtub. "Kick off your shoes. Come on," Cedric said, sitting the two of us down at the edge of the tub. I dipped my feet and most of my shins into the warm lavender-scented water. "Figured you could just use some time to get away from everything. The oils... there's something in them that calms you down. It's kept me sane during all of my O.W.L. preparations.

"This place is nice," I said, watching the glass mermaids move around in the windows.

Cedric placed a hand over my own as I laid my head in the crook of his shoulder. "I'm glad that you like it. Do me a favor?" he asked. I nodded my consent. "Don't tell your friends about this. I really shouldn't even be showing you. I could get in a ton of trouble for it. And don't come here by yourself. Just let me know if you ever want to use it again."

If I could come here whenever, I would probably never leave. "I will. Thanks for this," I said, motioning around.

"You're welcome."

Cedric wrapped an arm over my shoulder and let me lay my head in the crook of his shoulder. For a few minutes we just sat in silence. I found myself slowly relaxing. Maybe it was something in the air. Or in the multi-colored bubbles that were now floating around the room. I laughed as some landed in my hair and lap. I would smell like a Muggle spa by the time that I was ready to leave, but I liked the peaceful air of the bathroom. And knowing that we weren't going to be interrupted made giving Cedric a small kiss much easier.

The two of us sat together for a long while, kicking the water gently back and forth. After a while I glanced up and pressed a long kiss against his mouth. He was one of the few people here that would do the little things like this for me. My heart fluttered in my chest slightly as Cedric kicked some water on me, making me really laugh for the first time in days. It was a moment later that he pulled me back in for another kiss. It felt like an hour had passed when we finally pulled apart and went back to just sitting together on the edge of the bathtub.

"It's gonna be okay - with Buckbeak, you know," Cedric finally said.

"I'm not so sure about that," I whispered honestly.

I had always had a relatively bad feeling about what was going to happen with Buckbeak, but I felt genuinely hopeless now. "It's all gonna work out, Tara. You know that," Cedric said.

"We'll see."

In the back of my mind, I knew that I was being a drag. I knew that Cedric was wonderful for putting up with me. Why he did so, I would never truly understand. "Come on. Brag about the game to me," Cedric said, nudging me in the waist. I gave a bitter smile up at him. "Come on, you know you want to talk about what a great Quidditch player you are. You can even say that you're better than me. I'll let you have it this time."

Laughing softly, I rolled my eyes. I was definitely the better player. "Oh, you'll let me have it?" I teased.

"I will. No strings," Cedric shot back.

This was why I was always so happy to be around Cedric. He always knew exactly how to cheer me up. Even if it was something as simple as bringing me to a bathtub pool to get away from studying. We both laughed again as I leaned up to press a kiss against Cedric's lips. His hands came back to my hair, pulling it out of its hold. It was probably for the best. I was starting to get a headache from how tightly it was tied. Cedric's hands wound together in my hair as he tugged me up against him.

One of my legs was thrown over his lap as the other stayed pressed against the other side of his outer hip. I wasn't sure quite how much time had passed that the two of us stayed together, but I knew that it was getting very hard to breathe. So I broke the kiss long enough to gather my breath before Cedric pulled us back together again. I started to giggle as I realized just how far the two of us had come. We had gone from two friends - when I had had such a hard time speaking to him because of my crush on him - to a couple who snuck away for stolen kisses.

It was also moments like this that I wondered what the future would bring. How long would the two of us manage to last? It wasn't something that I really wanted to think about. Mostly because the two of us were two years apart. What was going to happen once Cedric graduated Hogwarts? Would we manage to stay together or would distance eventually break us up? Trying to brush those thoughts from my head, I grabbed the top of Cedric's shirt and pulled him into me. He laughed as I practically pulled him off of his butt and on top of me.

A few minutes passed before Cedric wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me up. We both laughed again as Cedric easily pulled me across the floor. I sometimes forgot just how strong he was and how tiny I was. My stomach fluttered slightly as Cedric pushed me backwards up against the stone foundation that held a statue of a lion that served as one of the fountains into the bathtub. Cedric leaned over my straightened out legs as he pressed my back up against the stone. His hands gripped almost painfully at my waist as he didn't dare release me. Not for anything.

Not even as time continued to pass. I knew that the others would be looking for me - as I had said that I would only be in the library for two hours - but I couldn't bring myself to care. Ron and Harry would be furious when they realized that I had spent all day with Cedric in a bathroom doing... this. Not that I really cared. I just appreciated the fact that Cedric had finally gotten me to forget about both my schoolwork and Buckbeak. I was much happier being with him right now. He was much more entertaining than studying for a Transfiguration exam.

Off in the far corner of the room I could hear the clock ticking away the minutes, but I tried to push it out of my head. Eventually the two of us ended up splayed on the stone floor together. I was laughing wildly as we half-wrestled each other against the stone. We fought back and forth for a while before finally giving up. Instead we just laid with our legs tangled together as Cedric linked our hands together and the two of us took a break from our previous activities to just chat away softly. We talked about anything and everything, but we didn't dare speak about the exams or Buckbeak.

It was one of the most relaxing times that I had had in a long time. It was easy enough to just forget about all of my troubles as the two of us stayed together. My hip was going slightly numb from laying on the hard stone, my legs were freezing from the chilled air of the room, and I was definitely getting hungry from missing lunch - and probably dinner too - but that didn't mean that I wanted to break away from him. I would have stayed with Cedric all night if we hadn't finally heard the clocks ringing.

That was when we both knew that it was time to get up. That was when we knew that it was time to leave. We had literally spent all day in the bathroom. It was well past midnight when Cedric finally managed to convince me that we had to leave. I was very upset to finally have to do, but we did so anyways. We kissed a number of more times as the two of us dashed through the halls - giggling the entire time - so not to get caught by any of the Prefects or teachers that would be wandering the halls with the new restrictions being put into place from Black's break-ins.

By the time that Cedric left me at Gryffindor Tower, it was nearing one o'clock in the morning. We had to hide out from the gargoyles for a little while - the entire time exchanging a long kiss - before finally departing. I slipped back into the Common Room as I turned back and winked at Cedric before the Fat Lady's portrait closed behind me. The rest of the people who had been in the Common Room when I had left this morning were gone now. Unfortunately, not everyone was gone yet.

It turned out that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were still awake. As I should have expected, they were waiting for me. Mostly because I had vanished first thing this morning. I could only assume that they had noted that neither Cedric nor I had been present at dinner, which would likely lead to a new round of rumors. None of the three of them looked particularly happy at my vanishing act today. They merely snarled at me, asking where I had been all day, but I merely ignored them and smiled, feeling better than I had in a long time. Today was my secret to share with Cedric.

The happiness I had felt from that day didn't last long. Exam week began and an unnatural hush fell over the castle. The Third Years emerged from Transfiguration at lunchtime on Monday, limp and ashen-faced, comparing results and bemoaning the difficulty of the tasks that we had been set, which had indeed included turning a teapot into a tortoise. Just as Cedric told me. I was the only person in class who hadn't had a problem with it. Hermione irritated the rest of us by fussing about how her tortoise had looked more like a turtle, which was the least of everyone else's worries.

"Mine still had a spout for a tail, what a nightmare..."

"Were the tortoises supposed to breathe steam?"

"It still had a willow-patterned shell, d'you think that'll count against me?"

Everyone had been shocked about how I had done so well with the teapot to a tortoise, but I had merely told them that I'd simply gotten lucky with what I had decided to study. None of them needed to know that Cedric had told me exactly how to pass the Transfiguration exam. The last thing that we needed was to get in trouble for cheating. My parents would have been alerted and that would have been a nightmare. I was still trying to figure out exactly how to explain to them that I was dating someone two years older than me.

Problems for another day, I supposed. Right now I still had school to worry about. Because, right after a hasty lunch, it was straight back upstairs for the Charms exam. Hermione had been right; Professor Flitwick did indeed test us on Cheering Charms. Thankfully I had studied for it and had no problems. Neither had Hermione; it was a good thing that we had partnered up. Harry slightly overdid his out of nerves and Ron, who was partnering him, ended up in fits of hysterical laughter and had to be led away to a quiet room for an hour before he was ready to perform the charm himself.

Using the Time-Turner, Hermione and I also had two other exams to go to today. I was exhausted by the end, just barely managing to stay awake through the entire thing. We went to Arithmancy first. The exam for Third Years - the first year available to take the class - was about seeing whether or not we had really learned what that branch of magic was exactly about. It was mostly about leaning how predicting the future using numbers worked with a bit of numerology. I was confident that I had passed the exam, but there were definitely some questions that I could have done better with.

Afterwards the two of us had darted over to Ancient Runes. It was the exam that I was confident that I had done much better with. The entire time I was confident that I had done very well on it. Professor Babbling was one of the easier professors at Hogwarts, despite the subject being rather tough. Seeing as it was the study of runic scriptures, there were only so many things that we could learn in the class. The entire time it was mostly a theoretical subject that studied the ancient runic scripts of magic. There really weren't that many right or wrong answers.

By the time that we were finally allowed to leave class - our second classes - and head back to dinner, I was more than a little exhausted. I just couldn't wait for exams to be over. Next year I would just have to be much more careful about how many classes I would take. That was mostly considering that I still had more exams. Tomorrow I would also have Ancient Studies and Music. Those were on top of the ones that I already had. Not to mention that Divination would be coming soon enough. I was exhausted, but the end was finally in sight.

Not long after Hermione and I had darted back from our Ancient Runes exam, I was almost asleep. The many exams hadn't done much for my already somewhat destroyed brain power. Cedric gave me a quick - albeit exhausted-looking - smile at dinner, but that was all the chance that we had to communicate. Like me, we were both exhausted from exams. And his were far worse than mine. After dinner, all of the students hurried back to our Common Rooms, not to relax, but to start studying for Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Astronomy.

Hagrid presided over the Care of Magical Creatures exam the following morning with a very preoccupied air indeed; his heart didn't seem to be in it at all. He had provided a large tub of fresh flobberworms for the class, and told the class that to pass the test, our flobberworm had to still be alive at the end of one hour. Not that there was any problem with the exam. As flobberworms flourished best if left to their own devices, it was the easiest exam that any of us had ever taken, and also gave Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I plenty of opportunity to speak to Hagrid.

"Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told us, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long."

"Can't you take him on a walk? On a leash, maybe?" I offered.

There had to be something that he could do to help Buckbeak be a little less cooped up these days. Hagrid shook his head sadly. "Nah... they won' let me. But still... we'll know day after tomorrow - one way or the other," Hagrid sighed.

Try as we might, there would be no cheering up Hagrid until he knew what was going to happen to Buckbeak. Almost unable to concentrate, we had Potions that afternoon, which was an unqualified disaster for almost everyone. Try as Harry might, he couldn't get his Confusing Concoction to thicken, and Snape, standing watch with an air of vindictive pleasure, scribbled something that looked suspiciously like a zero onto his notes before moving away. Something very similar happened to Ron. Hermione and I were the only ones that might manage to scrape out a good grade from him.

The moment that we walked out of the Potions exam, Hermione and I looped the Time-Turner around us as we darted out of the way of Ron and Harry. The two of us then headed straight to our other classes. I headed off for my Ancient Studies class. Much of our exam had to deal with the Ancient Egyptians and Grecian's. Thankfully that was something that I had always been good with and it had been something that I had frequently spoken with Ron about - his trip to Egypt. I had no doubt in my mind that I had passed the class with flying colors.

Then I had to flee to my Music exam. It was the only one that I hadn't studied for. It was the only one that I had been confident with. Our only object for the final was to give a good performance. I ended up singing the same song that I had performed for Cedric the day that we had gone on our first official date to Hogsmeade together. I ended up getting full marks for it and I had walked over to tell Cedric about my easy 'O' at dinner. He smiled, teasing me that he was more than happy to take the credit for me passing my class. It was the first time I'd smiled all day.

Then came Astronomy at midnight, up on the tallest tower, that I had only passed with Cedric's help; History of Magic on Wednesday morning, in which Harry and I both scribbled down everything that Florean Fortescue had ever told us about medieval witch-hunts, while wishing I could have had one of Fortescue's choco-nut sundaes with me in the stifling classroom. Wednesday afternoon meant Herbology, in the greenhouses under a baking-hot sun; then back to the Common Room once more, with sunburned necks, thinking longingly of this time next day, when it would all be over.

Our second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was definitely something that I was thrilled for. I wanted to make him proud. Professor Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of us had ever taken; a sort of obstacle course outside in the sun, where we had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a Grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish our way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a Hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new Boggart.

Almost everyone went before I did. "Excellent, Harry," Professor Lupin muttered as Harry climbed out of the trunk, grinning. "Full marks."

After Harry, it was my turn. I went in with a broad grin on my face. It was one of the few exams that I had been excited for. The Grindylow was easy to pass for me. I was one of the fastest people to pass them. It was mostly because they were all over Florida. I had always been forced to deal with them at my old home. The Revulsion Jinx easily took care of them. Afterwards I had to deal with the Red Caps. They were a little trickier. I'd had to step away from three of them and had come very close to getting scratched, but I had managed them well enough.

The Banishing Charm had taken care of them. Although I had definitely run as far away as I could from them. Their nails were sharp and looked like they could have been very painful. The Hinkypunk proved almost no problem. I wasn't great with directions but merely doing the opposite of what they said made it easy enough to get through. The Boggart was still disturbing - still appearing as myself with a fully generated Voldemort - but I managed to take it down much faster this time. As the two red beads hit the ground, I climbed out of the trunk with a broad grin on my face.

There was no way that I could have gotten more than a point or two deducted. It had been a long time since I was quite so proud of myself. "Well done, Tara," Professor Lupin said softly, smiling at me. "You would easily show up your father any day."

"Thank you, Professor," I said brightly.

"Full marks," Professor Lupin said.

"Thanks."

It was only the second class that I had gotten full marks for. At least that I knew about so far. "Full marks?" Harry asked as I walked over to him.

"Yep. You?" I asked.

"Surprisingly," Harry joked.

"Well done. The two of us aren't half-bad," I teased.

"In fact, I think that we're doing alright. Glad to be almost done with exams?" Harry asked.

If only he knew that I had taken almost twice as many classes as the normal student did. "Oh, I'm thrilled. I can finally breathe," I said airily.

Harry smiled. "Do you think Hermione's going to make it?"

She was currently the one going through the obstacle course. I was honestly surprised that she wasn't asleep yet. "If she's not dead yet, I can't believe that she's going to let herself drop before she finishes her exams. She's going to be fine. She's just... she might have a heart attack before she finishes," I said, having noticed that Hermione wasn't even sleeping anymore.

"At least you didn't take that many classes," Harry pointed out.

"That's true."

The last thing that I needed was taking another class. I would have lost it. I didn't even know how Hermione was managing it. Flushed with our latest successes, Harry and I hung around to watch Ron and Hermione. Ron did very well until he reached the Hinkypunk, which successfully confused him into sinking waist-high into the quagmire. That was his only mistake. Hermione did everything perfectly until she reached the trunk with the Boggart in it. After about a minute inside it, she burst out again, screaming.

"Hermione! What's the matter?" Professor Lupin asked, startled.

"P - P - Professor McGonagall!" Hermione gasped, pointing into the trunk.

Walking up to her, I pressed a hand against her shoulder. "It's alright, Hermione. Tell us what happened," I said gently.

"Sh - she said I'd failed everything!"

It was such a Hermione thing to say. I laughed gently but looked away from her. I didn't want her to know that I thought that it was rather funny that her greatest fear really was failing an exam. It took a little while to calm Hermione down after her turn through the Boggart trunk. When at last she had regained a grip on herself, she, Harry, Ron, and I went back to the castle. Ron was still slightly inclined to laugh at Hermione's Boggart - as was I - but an argument was averted by the sight that met us on the top of the steps.

My heart jumped into my throat. I knew exactly what he was doing here. He was here because of what was happening with Buckbeak. But... I had almost managed to forget about it. Not anymore, though. One look exchanged with the others told me that they were thinking the same things. Not that we could say anything. Cornelius Fudge, sweating slightly in his pinstriped cloak, was standing at the top of the steps, staring out at the grounds. He started at the sight of Harry and I heading towards him.

"Hello there, Harry! Miss Tara. Good to see you," he said.

"Hello, Minister," I said as sweetly as possible.

I didn't need him going back to Mom and Dad and telling them that I had an attitude problem. "Just had an exam, I expect? Nearly finished?" Fudge asked.

"Yes," Harry said. Hermione and Ron, not being on speaking terms with the Minister of Magic, hovered awkwardly in the background.

"Feeling confident?" Fudge asked.

"I'm thinking that we've done well on them all," I said brightly.

"That's good to hear," Fudge said.

"Tara -" Cedric started, appearing at my side, breaking off when he realized that we weren't alone. "Ah, hello, Minister."

He must have wanted to talk about exams or discussed doing something now that exams were almost over. But he didn't say anything with his comment still waiting for response from Fudge. To my surprise, Cedric moved to throw an arm over me. I instantly took a step off to the side to make sure that he didn't touch me, not daring to let the somewhat manic smile drop from my face. I didn't want Fudge to know that we were dating. Mostly because he regularly spoke to my parents. Cedric raised a brow at me but otherwise didn't question it.

"Cedric," Fudge greeted, extending his hand to shake. "Good to see you, my boy. How's your father?"

"He's well. I'm sure that he'd like to speak with you sometime," Cedric said.

"I'll have to drop by eventually."

"Wonderful." The air took on a suddenly very tense feeling. My legs were shaking slightly. The execution was about to happen. I knew it. Cedric looked between us all and seemed to have finally notice our tense stances. "I'll - uh - I'll talk to you later, alright?" Cedric asked me.

"Talk to you later," I said quickly.

Knowing that we needed to talk at another time, Cedric smiled and walked off. "Have a wonderful day, Minister," Cedric said.

"You as well, Cedric. Tell your father that I said hello," Fudge said. They nodded at each other as Cedric turned to leave. Once he had, Fudge started looking over the Black Lake. "Lovely day. Pity... pity..."

He sighed deeply and looked down at Harry and I. "Pity?" I questioned, my voice lodging in my throat.

There was no question about what he was saying was a pity. He really was here to help them take care of Buckbeak. "I'm here on an unpleasant mission, Harry, Tara. The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures required a witness to the execution of a mad Hippogriff. As I needed to visit Hogwarts to check on the Black situation, I was asked to step in," Fudge said.

"Buckbeak? You're here for Buckbeak?" I asked weakly.

"Unfortunately," Fudge said.

"Does that mean the appeal's already happened?" Ron interrupted, stepping forward.

"No, no, it's scheduled for this afternoon," Fudge said, looking curiously at Ron.

"Then you might not have to witness an execution at all! The Hippogriff might get off!" Ron shouted stoutly.

Fearful for Ron speaking the way that he was to the Minister of Magic, I grabbed his arm in a painful vice-grip. Before Fudge could answer, two wizards came through the castle doors behind him. One was so ancient he appeared to be withering before our very eyes; the other was tall and strapping, with a thin black mustache. The second one looked slightly familiar. I was able to gather that they were representatives of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, because the very old wizard squinted toward Hagrid's cabin.

Then he said in a feeble voice, "Dear, dear, I'm getting too old for this... Two o'clock, isn't it, Fudge?"

They were already talking about it like it was the execution. Not like it was just the appeal. My stomach was churning painfully. What was about to happen? Would they really kill sweet little Buckbeak? The black-mustached man was fingering something in his belt; curiously I looked and saw that he was running one broad thumb along the blade of a shining axe. My knees quivered slightly. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs and jerked her head toward the entrance hall.

"Why'd you stop me?" Ron asked Hermione angrily as we all entered the Great Hall for lunch. "Did you see them? They've even got the axe ready! This isn't justice!"

"Hermione, they're not even going to do the trial! They already know the answer!" I yelled.

"We don't know that," Hermione said softly.

"We do!" I barked.

"Tara -" Hermione started.

"Why the hell did they bring the executioner?" I interrupted.

But she didn't want to listen to me. She was still more concerned with the way that Ron had spoken to Fudge. "Ron, your dad works for the Ministry, you can't go saying things like that to his boss!" Hermione cried, but she too looked very upset. "As long as Hagrid keeps his head this time, and argues his case properly, they can't possibly execute Buckbeak..."

The way that her voice trailed off told me exactly what she was thinking. She was thinking the same thing that the rest of us had been thinking. We could all tell that Hermione didn't really believe what she was saying. All around us, people were talking excitedly as they ate their lunch, happily anticipating the end of the exams that afternoon, but Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I, who were lost in worry about Hagrid and Buckbeak, didn't join in. Instead we sat together in silence as I pretended to study for the Divination exam.

"Tara?" Cedric asked, walking up behind me. "You free for a moment?"

Glancing down at my Muggle watch, looking away from the same page of my Divination book that I had been staring at for half an hour, I nodded. "Just a couple of minutes. I have to get to the Divination exam soon," I said.

"Good luck with that," Cedric said, offering me his hand. I grabbed it and walked out of the Great Hall with him. "Have you studied at all for it?"

Did anyone ever study for Divination? I wasn't even sure that it was a class that you could study for. "Not really. Honestly it's not really something that you can study for. So I'm just going to go in there and wing it. Hope for the best, you know?" I asked. Cedric nodded. "I'm not so sure that I even care anymore."

"That's not true. I know that you still care about your grades," Cedric pointed out.

"Not that one," I said.

"Fair enough. Everything okay?" Cedric asked after a beat.

Had he not realized what Fudge was here for? "You saw that Fudge was here earlier," I said. Cedric nodded blankly. Maybe he really didn't understand what he was here for. "He's got the rest of the Disposal of Dangerous Magical Creatures Services with him. They've got the executioner with his sharpened scythe. They're ready to kill Buckbeak before the trial even begins."

Cedric frowned as he grabbed my arms, pulling me into him. "Hey - Hey, it's okay. It's okay. It's all going to be okay," he said, wrapping me in a hug.

"Do you think that there's any way to stop it?" I asked his shoulder.

Cedric stayed silent for a moment. "You could free Buckbeak when they're not looking."

My head snapped up from his shoulder. I stared at him. "I have no idea whether or not you're being serious."

Looking the slightest bit guilty at what he was suggesting, he nodded. "I'm not usually one to want to break the rules, so I think that I'm getting bad habits from you." Despite everything that was happening, I smiled. "But I am serious. If you really don't think that Buckbeak has any shot at winning the appeal, maybe you should try and release him before the potential execution. He'd be better off in the wild anyways. That's where he belongs," Cedric pointed out, very fairly.

Maybe I had to offer that suggestion to Hagrid. "That's not really a bad idea. Letting him go. We would get in a ton of trouble if someone saw us, but if we were careful there's a chance that we could get Buckbeak out of here. Hagrid would still miss him, but at least he'd be alive and with his own kind," I said, trying to talk myself into it.

"If you decide to do that, be careful. You could get expelled for something like that. Maybe even arrested. Technically you would be interfering with the justice system," Cedric pointed out.

"Justice," I scoffed.

"Their version of it, anyways."

"Thank you. You actually gave me some good ideas."

Cedric gave me one of his award-winning smiles. One of the ones that I had always been so happy to see pointed at me. "Always glad to help. I think it's almost time to go back to class. Good luck on your last exam," Cedric said.

"Thanks." Before he could walk off, I smiled at him. "How have those O.W.L.'s been going?" I asked.

At least once he was done with them, he wouldn't have another year of big exams until he was in his Seventh Year and had to deal with N.E.W.T.'s. "Wonderfully," Cedric groaned, making me laugh softly. "Actually, they haven't been half-bad. But I'm thrilled to get them done with. We should do something at the end of the semester to celebrate being done with the year."

"Like?" I asked blankly.

"Think about it. Tell me what you want to do," Cedric said happily.

I could tell that he was trying to strike the delicate balance between being happy about the end of the semester and trying to bring my spirits up and still being respectful about what was happening. "Trying to keep my mind off of Buckbeak?" I asked.

"Trying to keep you smiling. I do like your smile, Tara," Cedric said, pressing a hand underneath my chin.

"You're quite the charmer."

"I try."

He gave me a small wink and I laughed softly. "Good luck on that last O.W.L," I said.

He had told me that it was something like Herbology. At least I thought that it was his last class. "Good luck with Divination," Cedric said.

"I'll need it," I giggled.

That was just how hopeless I was when it came to Divination. We both laughed as I pressed a quick kiss against Cedric's lips before heading off to our respective exams. Harry, Ron, and I's last exam was Divination; Hermione's, Muggle Studies. At least I didn't have that class. We walked up the marble staircase together; Hermione left us on the first floor and Harry, Ron, and I proceeded all the way up to the seventh, where many of our class were already sitting on the spiral staircase to Professor Trelawney's classroom, trying to cram in a bit of last-minute studying.

Unfortunately it didn't seem like studying would help anyone's case. "She's seeing us all separately," Neville informed us as we went to sit down next to him.

"Separately?" I asked curiously.

"Yes!" Neville had his copy of Unfogging the Future open on his lap at the pages devoted to crystal gazing. If that was what we were doing, I would definitely fail. I was even more hopeless at that than either tea leaf reading or palmistry. "Have any of you ever seen anything in a crystal ball?" Neville asked us unhappily.

"Nope," Ron said in an offhand voice.

"Nah. I'm gonna just make something up," I said.

That was the only way that I had managed to maintain an 'A' in the course. Although from time to time I would slip down to grades closer to a 'P.' "Do you think that will work?" Neville asked curiously.

Usually it didn't, but since Divination was so imprecise, it was hard to really give someone a pass or fail grade it there. It was all subjective. "I'm thinking that I don't really care whether or not it works. I've passed all of my other exams with flying colors. Divination doesn't mean much to me. I'm even thinking about dropping it," I said pointedly.

"Really?" Harry asked curiously.

"Yeah. But it also looks good on an Auror application. Trying something outside of the main job range," I explained.

If I wanted to be an Auror, I had to start somewhere. And it started with showing them that I had done even more than just the required courses. Even if it meant suffering through Divination. "Tara, you know that you're only fourteen, right?" Harry asked blandly.

"I'm thinking to the future, Harry," I said, shoving into him gently.

"There you go. That's what you say in your Divination exam," Ron said.

"That's not actually a bad idea. Thanks, Ron," I said happily.

Perhaps it would be easy enough to pass the Divination exam. I had a feeling that it might not be as terribly hard as I originally thought that it was going to be. As we sat outside the classroom, I chatted softly with Harry. But I knew that neither one of us were completely into the conversation. And it wasn't because there was an exam that we were supposed to be studying for. It was because of something very different and much more difficult. Ron kept checking his watch; Harry and I both knew that he was counting down the time until Buckbeak's appeal started.

It was set to start not long after we got out of the Divination exam. The line of people outside the classroom shortened very slowly. As each person climbed back down the silver ladder, the rest of the class hissed, "What did she ask? Was it okay?"

Everyone would merely shake their heads at us and pretend like we hadn't even said anything. No matter what everyone said to them or how good of friends they all were, they all refused to say. The only people that had come out looking even mildly happy were Padma Patil and Lavender Brown. I assumed that Lavender would be just as happy when she came out. They were the only ones that were really good at the class. As Seamus Finnegan came out of the classroom - looking pale and horrified - he also refused to say what had happened in the exam.

"Useless. They're all so useless," I scoffed as he vanished down the hallway.

"Think it's that scary?" Ron asked.

"I think they're that confused," I said.

Maybe not just that. Maybe they were also freaked out by Professor Trelawney. She freaked me out too. I didn't want to have to be in there alone with her. "She says the crystal ball's told her that if I tell you, I'll have a horrible accident!" Neville squeaked as he clambered back down the ladder toward Harry, Ron, and I, who had now reached the landing.

We were some of the last few to take the exam. "Oh, Neville," I sighed after him.

"That's convenient," Ron snorted.

"Funny how that works out, isn't it?" I chuckled.

Ron gave a quick glance after Neville before looking back at us. "You know, I'm starting to think Hermione was right about her," Ron jabbed his thumb toward the trapdoor overhead, "she's a right old fraud."

A spike of anger shot through me. I would always hate Professor Trelawney because of her constant death predictions on Harry and I. "Of course she is!" I barked, startling the boys. "She might be a real Seer, but they normally don't actually have visions on command. It happens at random and there's nothing that they can do to bring them on."

"Yeah," Harry said blankly, looking down at his own watch. It was now two o'clock. "Wish she'd hurry up..."

"You know that she won't. That's what we get for going one at a time," I grumbled.

It turned out to be one of the longest amounts of time that any of us had ever had to wait for an exam. Even the one in Defense Against the Dark Arts had gone by a lot faster. Mostly because everyone was trying to get out as fast as possible. Not that people were going to go any slower when it came to getting out of Professor Trelawney's exam. There were very few people who wanted to be alone in a room with her. That was until Parvati came back down the ladder glowing with pride. I raised a brow curiously.

"Good exam?" I asked as politely as possible.

At least for the next few years I had to be nice to her, considering that we lived together. "She says I've got all the makings of a true Seer," Parvati informed Harry, Ron, and I.

"Oh, does she?" I asked curiously.

If Parvati was a little smarter, she would have heard the disbelief in my voice. "I saw loads of stuff," Parvati said.

"Like?" I asked.

"That would spoil the surprise. Well, good luck!" Parvati cried.

My eyes rolled so far back into my head that I was sure for a moment that they would get stuck back there. She was extremely annoying. Mostly because she thought that she was so wonderful with everything having to do with Divination. It didn't help that Divination was the only class that she was better at than me. I might have been just the slightest bit bitter about it. Without saying anything more to us, Parvati hurried off down the spiral staircase toward Lavender. Harry, Ron, and I exchanged a bewildered look.

"How do you live with them?" Ron asked me.

We all laughed at his comment. It was because of Parvati and Lavender that I spent so little time in my dorm. Plus the fact that I had Harry and Ron to hang around. "That's why you never spend time in your own dorm," Harry reasoned, making me smile.

"That is true," I said.

"She'd spend much more time in there if Diggory was in Gryffindor," Ron snorted.

Harry and I whipped around. "What?" Harry barked.

My face lit up a brilliant red as I thought about the day that we had spent in the bathroom. "Ron!" I sneered, whacking him on the back of the head. "What the hell?"

"Ronald Weasley," called the familiar, misty voice from over our heads.

As Ron walked off, I grabbed his arm. "Count your blessings that she called you in right now, Ronald Weasley," I hissed.

Ron gave me a bright smile and briefly grabbed my arm before stalking off. Harry was scowling at me and I tried desperately to glance away from him. We could talk about that later. Or never. Never was a good choice. Ron grimaced at the sound of his name to Harry and I and then climbed the silver ladder out of sight. Harry and I were now the only people left to be tested. Harry and I settled ourselves on the floor with our backs against the wall, listening to a fly buzzing in the sunny window, as my mind across the grounds with Hagrid.

"What was Ron talking about?" Harry finally asked, interrupting the silence.

"He's being an ass," I said quickly.

"Tara -"

"What's going on with your crush on Cho Chang?" I interrupted.

The last thing that I wanted to talk about with Harry was what Cedric and I did in the dark. Which was nothing more than some heavy kissing. "Do we have to talk about that?" Harry groaned, shoving his head down into my shoulder.

"Do we have to talk about my relationship with Cedric?" I asked.

Harry smiled, twirling his wand around in his head. "Sorry about that. Couldn't resist. Things are still...?" Harry trailed off.

My eyebrows quirked upwards for a moment. What was that supposed to mean? Then it clicked. I knew exactly what Harry wanted to know. Just how far things had gone. My cheeks started to burn. "Things are still good with the two of us. We spend almost all of our time together in public and the times that we're in private are no big deal. Okay? I'll let you know if something changes," I said somewhat awkwardly.

"No - No, please don't," Harry said, waving me off. "Just..."

"Don't do anything until I'm married?" I suggested.

"Not even after," Harry said.

As I laughed, Harry scowled at me. I knew that he meant for me to be serious. "Yes, father," I teased.

"Telling your parents yet?" Harry asked.

If he was suggesting that I go and tell my parents that Cedric and I were dating, he was dead wrong. I still hadn't figured it out just yet. "I'm working on it! I just don't know how to bring it about so that they won't start freaking out and keep me captive over the summer. They won't trust me to go out with him anymore," I groaned sadly.

"You're right about that," Harry said.

We both scowled at each other. He was completely useless. "Help me out?" I asked slowly.

Perhaps there was a chance that my parents wouldn't hate me quite as much if Harry was there to help me out. They had always taken it easier on him. "I'll be there to tell them about it with you if that's what you want," Harry promised, grabbing my hand.

"Thanks, Harry. For your support, you know?" I offered.

"Just please don't let me catch the two of you snogging," Harry said.

We both snorted. I supposed that if it kept Cho Chang away from Cedric, I could get behind Harry having a crush on her. Although I still wouldn't be happy about it. "Same goes for you and Chang," I said slowly.

Harry's face brightened but also went slightly red. "Am I getting your -?"

"No," I interrupted.

"Oh, Tara," Harry sighed.

For a moment the two of us stared at each other. Then we both started to laugh. I smiled as I leaned my head down on his shoulder, sitting hip-to-hip with Harry. The two of us just sat together and chatted back and forth for a little while. We were talking about the other exams that we had taken - as I took ones that he hadn't - and how excited we were to spend some time together over the summer. Just the two of us. I promised that I was going to spend a lot of time just with Harry - despite my relationship with Cedric. After all, Harry had been around first.

Finally, after about twenty minutes, Ron's large feet reappeared on the ladder. "How'd it go?" Harry asked him, standing up.

"Rubbish," Ron said.

"That bad, huh?" I asked.

"Worse. Couldn't see a thing, so I made some stuff up. Don't think she was convinced, though..." Ron muttered.

"Could have been worse," I reasoned.

At least the only problem was that he hadn't seen anything and had made something up. That was how most of us went along in the class from day one. Eventually Professor Trelawney's voice called, "Harry Potter!"

"Meet you in the Common Room," Harry muttered.

"Good luck," I said.

"Thanks, Tara," Harry said.

As he clambered up the stairs - leaving me as the sole person downstairs - I waited in silence. I thought about writing a letter to Cedric and running it to Rusty quickly. Something asking him to meet me in the Prefect Bathroom. But I thought better of it quickly. Maybe it was something for another time. Or maybe we could just spend some time together after the end of exams. I could have used some time to sit with him and try and tune out everything else that was happening. Then we would have to figure out how the summer would work with my parents.

It would definitely be a problem with having to deal with them. I would miss the whole come-and-go-as-you-please air about Hogwarts. That was always the worst part about the summers. I sat outside of the tower for about ten minutes before Harry came back down with the end of his test. He was pale white and looked like he was about to have a heart attack. I jumped to my feet, dashing over to Harry, and grabbed his hand. I was genuinely concerned about him. He looked far worse than just thinking that he had failed. He looked terrified.

"Are you okay?" I asked desperately.

"Fine - Fine... Just... probably failed, you know?" Harry muttered.

But the way that he was speaking told me that it was far worse than just thinking that he had failed. He didn't care about his grades that much. "Hey, it's going to be okay. Don't worry about it too much, okay?" I asked softly.

"I'm gonna wait for you. Do you mind?" Harry asked awkwardly, pointing to where I had just been sitting.

"No - No. Go ahead. I'll be back soon," I promised.

"Tara Nox," Professor Trelawney's misty voice called.

"Take a seat, okay? It's gonna be fine," I said, walking Harry over to where I had been sitting before. He practically collapsed. I dug through my bag for a moment. "Here's some Gillywater. Drink it by the time that I'm out."

Harry nodded blankly. "Okay."

Once I was sure that Harry wasn't going to pass out from a stroke or have a heart attack, I turned and headed up the stairs into the classroom, feeling sick to my stomach about what had just happened with Harry. The tower room was hotter than ever before; the curtains were closed, the fire was alight, and the usual sickly scent made me cough as I stumbled through the clutter of chairs and tables to where Professor Trelawney sat waiting for me before a large crystal ball. At least it's not palmistry...

"Good day, my dear," Professor Trelawney said softly.

"Hello, Professor," I said sweetly.

Goodbye any chances of perfect grades. "If you would kindly gaze into the Orb..." I took a seat across from Professor Trelawney. "Take your time, now... then tell me what you see within it..."

"Okay," I whispered.

Think about something, Tara. Say something that isn't going to get you a failing grade in the class. As much as I wanted to try and focus, I was still thinking about what had happened with Harry. What was his problem? What had happened in the exam? Trying to push those thoughts from my head, I bent over the crystal ball and stared, stared as hard as I could, willing it to show me something other than swirling white fog, but nothing happened. So I tried to say something that came to mind. I want some alone time with my boyfriend? No. Harry's losing his mind? No. Both bad choices.

"Well? What do you see?" Professor Trelawney prompted delicately.

What the hell could I see? My own bluish-brown eyes staring back at me. Worry lines forming around my eyes and forehead. I wasn't sure what I could say to get myself into a potential passing grade. The heat was overpowering and my nostrils were stinging with the perfumed smoke wafting from the fire beside us. It was just like the types of perfume that Lavender and Parvati would spray all over the dorms. I couldn't focus with it. Come to think of it, this was probably where they had gotten it. Suddenly I thought of what Ron had said earlier, and decided to go with pretending.

"Er -" I started awkwardly, "a dark shape... um..."

"What does it resemble? Think, now..." Professor Trelawney whispered.

It was impossible to manage to lock my thoughts onto one thing. They were fluttering all over the place. What was wrong with Harry? What happened in here earlier? How was I going to manage to tell my parents that Cedric and I were dating? What was really happening with the two of us/ How far would things go? Where was Sirius Black? Was the Grim actually haunting me? Had I managed to pass the rest of my exams? One thing, Tara. Just think about one thing. I cast my mind around and it finally landed on Buckbeak.

"A Hippogriff," I said firmly and a little dumbly.

"Indeed!" Professor Trelawney whispered, scribbling keenly on the parchment perched upon her knees. "Two in a row." So Harry had used Buckbeak as an excuse too. Maybe we would both manage to pass this exam after all. "My dear, you may well be seeing the outcome of poor Hagrid's trouble with the Ministry of Magic! Look closer... Does the Hippogriff appear to... have its head?"

"Yes," I said firmly, bile rising in my throat at the thought.

"Are you sure?" Professor Trelawney urged me.

"Yes," I repeated.

"Are you quite sure, dear?"

"Yes."

"You don't see it writhing on the ground, perhaps, and a shadowy figure raising an axe behind it?"

"No!" I yelled, starting to feel slightly sick and very angry.

"No blood? No weeping Hagrid?"

"No!" I said again, wanting more than ever to leave the room and the heat. My face was starting to turn red from both anger and horror at the thought that the very things Professor Trelawney was asking about might come true. "It looks fine, it's - flying away..."

Professor Trelawney sighed, leaning away from the crystal ball. "Well, dear, I think we'll leave it there... A little disappointing... but I'm sure you did your best," she said softly.

"Evidently," I scoffed.

It definitely meant that I would be getting a failing grade for this assignment. Which wasn't good, considering how much the exam was worth of our entire grade. At least this wasn't a class that I really needed. Maybe I would have to drop this class, the way that Hermione had done. Relieved that the worst - at least with exams - was behind me, I got up, picked up my bag and turned to go. Exams were finally over. At least now I only had Buckbeak's trial to deal with. I was almost out of the classroom, but then a loud, harsh voice spoke behind me.

"It will happen tonight."

The voice was crackling and hoarse. It was about ten octaves deeper than anything that I had heard Professor Trelawney speak in before. That had to have been her speaking. She was the only other person in the room. Unnerved from the sudden voice and terrified that something horrible was about to happen - as it so normally did - I wheeled around. Professor Trelawney had gone rigid in her armchair; her eyes were unfocused and her mouth sagging down against her chest. Was she having a stroke, maybe? Magical beings got normal health conditions, too, after all.

"Excuse me? Professor Trelawney? Are you alright?" I asked slowly.

Perhaps I would just have to bring her somewhere. We weren't that far from the Hospital Wing. Maybe Madam Pomfrey would be able to help her out. But Professor Trelawney didn't seem to hear me. Her eyes started to roll backwards into her head. I stood there in a panic. What the hell was I supposed to do? Mom was the healer, not me. Professor Trelawney looked as though she was about to have some sort of seizure. I hesitated, thinking of running to the Hospital Wing - and then Professor Trelawney spoke again, in the same harsh voice, quite unlike her own.

"The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight… the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master... and bring... the girl..."

Arms and legs and every other bit of me trembling, I tried to push myself to my feet. "P - Professor?" I stuttered.

Anything to get her to snap out of it. I had to help her. For a moment I thought about calling out for Harry's help, but then Professor Trelawney lunged forward towards me. I instantly let out a scream. "The girl! She mustn't go!" Professor Trelawney shouted.

"Let go!" I begged.

"She must pick a path," Professor Trelawney cried in her hoarse voice desperately.

"Professor, please! Snap out of it!" I screamed.

Finally she managed to get herself out of whatever was happening to her before. At least, I had a feeling that she did. Professor Trelawney's head fell forward onto her chest. As she released me, I stumbled backwards and collapsed back into the chair that I had been sitting in during the exam. She made a grunting sort of noise. The prediction was over. That had to have been what was just happening. Too terrified to move, I just sat there, staring at her. Then, quite suddenly, Professor Trelawney's head snapped up again.

"I'm so sorry, dear child, the heat of the day, you know... I drifted off for a moment..." she said dreamily.

There was no way that she was just going to throw something like that on me and then go back to normal. I had heard that Seer's didn't always remember having their visions, but I had never actually seen someone have one before. I thought that they were more like dreams. Not like someone was playing out The Exorcist in front of me. Professor Trelawney was back to simply giving me one of her misty-eyed smiles like nothing had happened. Did she not even remember the prediction? What had it meant? I had to know. I sat there, staring at her.

"You're a Seer," I finally breathed out.

Professor Trelawney gave me a slight smile. "Well, yes, I suppose that I am partial to the Inner Eye."

"What did you mean?" I asked, remembering her words.

"Is there anything wrong, my dear?" Professor Trelawney asked.

"You - You just told me that the - the Dark Lord's going to rise again... that his servant's going to go back to him..."

She really didn't remember. As my voice dropped off and I found myself unable to finish my previous thought, I realized that she actually didn't remember what she had just told me. It wasn't just a rumor. It was the complete truth. Seers could never remember what they predicted. So what was I supposed to do? Tell her word-for-word what she had just told me? Someone had to believe me. Would she? Professor Trelawney looked thoroughly startled. Judging by the look on her face, I assumed that she wouldn't.

"The Dark Lord? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? My dear child, that's hardly something to joke about... Rise again, indeed -"

"But you just said it! You said the Dark Lord -"

"I think you must have dozed off too, dear!" Professor Trelawney insisted.

My jaw almost dropped. I was not imagining what she had just told me. I wasn't. "You told me about a girl! A girl that needed to pick a side and needed to be protected. You were grabbing my shoulders and pointing at me! Were you talking about me?" I asked, all in one breath. I had to know. How was I connected to Voldemort? Why would no one tell me? "Tell me!"

"Oh, my dear, I would certainly not presume to predict anything quite as far-fetched as that!" Professor Trelawney said.

But she had. I didn't understand. She had just told me that Voldemort's servant was going to rise tonight. Who was that supposed to be? Was it supposed to be Black? I knew enough about Seers to know that their visions were rarely exactly as they sounded. The only thing that made sense was that Black would return to bring Voldemort back to life tonight and that I would have to pick a path. To be with Voldemort or stay with my friends? That made enough sense. But it couldn't have been the truth. There had to have been something deeper here. What was it?

It turned out that Professor Trelawney was a real Seer. She wasn't just the crack that I had always thought that she was. She wasn't just good at making random predictions. I knew that the way that she was speaking was the way that someone who had just made a real prediction would speak. My heart was pounding in my chest as I thanked Professor Trelawney awkwardly and limply stumbled out of the chair. Did this have something to do with me? Was something going to happen to me tonight? Was my vision in the Mirror of Erised finally going to come true?

There was no way. It couldn't. I had seen myself in it. I looked about sixteen or seventeen. Not fourteen. I climbed back down the ladder - almost collapsing a few times - and then the spiral staircase, wondering if I had just heard Professor Trelawney make a real prediction. Was I overreacting? Had that been her idea of an impressive end to the test? The moment that I hit the ground, I made a break to run back to the Common Room and tell the others about what had happened, but I ended up slamming right into Harry. My mouth dropped open to scream when Harry stopped me.

He slapped his hand over my mouth and only released me when I had nodded and stumbled back a few steps. "A Seer," I said breathlessly. Harry's head tilted to the side. "Professor Trelawney is a real Seer."

"She gave you a prediction?" Harry asked curiously.

"Yes!" I rasped.

"She gave me one too!" Harry cried.

"What did she say?" I asked desperately.

"She - She said -"

It was obvious enough that Harry was already forgetting what she had said, so I spoke over him. "I need you to tell me exactly what she said, Harry. It's so important. Okay? Don't leave out anything," I prompted.

"Okay. Okay," Harry breathed slowly. "She said, 'The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight… the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master...'

She had made the prediction twice. Did that normally happen? For a moment I waited for him to continue. But he never did. What about my part? "That's it?" I asked.

"Yes. Did she tell you something else?" Harry asked curiously.

"She added this, '... and bring... the girl...'"

Harry was silent for a little while. "You?" he finally asked.

My heart lodged in my throat. It was the classic issue. The moment that I said it, it would become real. "I think so. She leaned over me and started screaming again. 'The girl! She mustn't go!' That's what she said. When I begged her to let go, she said, 'She must pick a path.' That was when she snapped out of it," I said, earning a horrified look from Harry.

His hand latched around my wrist as he started tugging me after him. "Tara... Tara, we have to tell someone. Professor Trelawney has no idea that she just made that prediction," Harry said quickly.

"I know. I know. We have to go, Harry. Run. Please," I begged, yanking on his arm.

"Come on. Let's go," Harry agreed.

We had to leave. We had to tell Ron and Hermione and then figure out what to do from there. Five minutes - and a bucket of sweat - later the two of us were dashing past the security trolls outside the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, Professor Trelawney's words still resounding in my head. People were striding past us in the opposite direction, laughing and joking, heading for the grounds and a bit of long-awaited freedom; by the time we had reached the portrait hole and entered the Common Room, it was almost deserted. Over in the corner, however, sat Ron and Hermione.

"Professor Trelawney," Harry panted, "just told us -"

The moment that he stopped speaking I wanted to slap him. We had to tell them! We had to speak before one or both of us managed to forget what Professor Trelawney said. There were no cameras. If we forgot what she said, there would be no proof that it had ever happened. In fact, we had no proof now that it happened. It wouldn't help that Professor Trelawney was insisting that she hadn't predicted what she had. But someone had to know. I was about to whack Harry to continue, but I stopped abruptly at the sight of their faces. Something bad had happened.

"What's happened?" I asked blankly.

"Buckbeak lost," Ron said weakly.

Every other thought left my head. "What?" I breathed.

"Hagrid's just sent this," Ron said.

Harry and I slowly walked forward. My heart was pounding in my chest. There was no way that Buckbeak could have lost. It just didn't make sense to me. We had everything. People had agreed that Buckbeak wasn't dangerous. Of course, Lucius Malfoy had bought over the school governors and that meant that there was almost no way that he would have won the appeal. But I had been so hopeful. Hagrid's note was dry this time, no tears had splattered it, yet his hand seemed to have shaken so much as he wrote that it was hardly legible.

Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset.

Nothing you can do. Don't come down.

I don't want you to see it.

Hagrid.

Sunset... They were even going to do it tonight. Hagrid only had a few more hours with Buckbeak. "Oh... Oh, no... I didn't want to think that there really wasn't a chance that they could actually kill him," I whispered.

"We've got to go," Harry said at once.

"You're right. Let's go," I agreed.

"He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner!" Harry continued.

"Come on," I said, grabbing his arm.

"Sunset, though," Ron said, who was staring out the window in a glazed sort of way. He and Hermione must have been thinking about this all afternoon. "We'd never be allowed... 'specially you two, Harry, Tara..."

But we couldn't just stay here. We had to be down there for Hagrid. How? How would we not get caught? I sank my head into my hands, thinking. "If we only had the Invisibility Cloak..." Harry mumbled.

"But we still have to go!" I said, shaking his shoulders.

"Where is it?" Hermione asked.

The two of us exchanged a look. Was she really about to do something extremely foolish and dangerous? Snape knew the four of us well enough to know what was happening. If he caught her out by the statue of the one-eyed witch, he would know that Harry and I had sent her there. After debating it for a moment, I nodded for Harry to tell her. We had to get to Hagrid. We had to be there for him and Buckbeak in his final hours. So Harry told her about leaving the Invisibility Cloak in the passageway under the one-eyed witch.

"... if Snape sees us anywhere near there again, we're in serious trouble," Harry finished.

"That's true," Hermione said, getting to her feet. "If he sees either one of you... How do you open the witch's hump again?"

"You - You tap it and say, 'Dissendium,'" Harry said.

"Good work, Hermione," I said happily.

"But -"

Hermione didn't wait for the rest of Harry's sentence. I wasn't even sure what he was planning to tell her. Probably the same thing that I was thinking. The simple fact that she was going to get in trouble if Snape saw her. I didn't really care though. She had to get out there and get the Invisibility Cloak. That was the only way that we would be able to get down to Hagrid's hut. Without giving us a moment to argue back against her, Hermione strode across the room, pushed open the Fat Lady's portrait and vanished from sight.

"She hasn't gone to get it?" Ron asked, staring after her.

"Of course she has. When it comes to Buckbeak and Hagrid, she's willing to do anything," I said.

The three of us simply waited for her. None of us really knew what to say. We were still reeling from the simple fact that Buckbeak had lost the appeal and was now set to be executed. Not only would that, but the fact that Hermione had just done something that likely get her into a ton of trouble if she was caught. And she knew it! Maybe I was starting to rub off on her. It turned out that she had done exactly what I was thinking. Hermione returned a quarter of an hour later with the silvery cloak folded carefully under her robes.

"Nice!" I said excitedly.

"Hermione, I don't know what's gotten into you lately! First you hit Malfoy, then you walk out on Professor Trelawney," Ron said, astounded.

Hermione looked rather flattered. I nudged her, trying to tease that she was slowly turning into me. She merely laughed as we awkwardly sat back on the chairs to wait for dinner. We couldn't even leave until after we had eaten. Snape and the other teachers would get far too suspicious if they saw that we weren't there. Particularly because they knew about Buckbeak's execution tonight and they knew how close we were to Hagrid. So we merely sat and tried to force some awkward conversations about exams.

Finally we went down to dinner with everybody else, but we weren't planning to return to Gryffindor Tower afterward. We walked all the way down to the Great Hall and sat down at the table to have our dinner. Time passed as the four of us sat together in silence. We were some of the few people who weren't talking. We were all exhausted from everything and completely ready to get this year over with. Especially since Buckbeak - who we had been working so hard to save - now had nothing left to fight for.

"How were your exams?"

Wheeling around on the bench, I looked back up at Cedric, who was leaning down and smiling at me. "Damn it!" I hissed, pressing a hand against my rapidly-beating heart. "You scared me."

"Are you alright?" Cedric asked, sensing my irritable nature.

For a moment I thought about just letting it go. But I needed to talk about something. So I stood from the table - giving my friends a brief nod - before turning to Cedric. "Let's talk. I don't have long - but let's talk," I said quickly.

"Okay," Cedric said. "What's going on?"

"Come with me," I prompted, grabbing his arm.

"Okay."

Hand-in-hand, the two of us walked out of the Great Hall together. A few girls were giggling and I could see Angelina, Alicia, and Katie making funny faces at me. I forced myself to smile. Before we left, I promised the others that I would be back by the time that we were ready to see Hagrid and be with him for Buckbeak. My stomach was churning in knots as we walked out. Cedric must have known that I was upset. Of course he did. He knew me well enough. As we walked out into the hallway, Cedric turned and grabbed me in a tight hug, pressing a kiss against my forehead.

"Buckbeak lost his appeal," I whispered into Cedric's shoulder.

Cedric pulled back to look at me. He stared for a few moments to try and see if I was joking. "Oh, no. Oh, Tara... I'm so sorry to hear that," Cedric said, running his hands over my arms.

"I knew that it would happen. I knew it. But... I don't know. I guess that I was just hoping that..."

"That luck might be on your side."

"Yes."

"Don't go down there. Don't see it."

Like I had thought about before, Cedric knew me better than almost anyone else. He knew what I was planning on doing. "Someone has to be there, Cedric. Someone has to be there with Hagrid. I don't want him to be alone. He doesn't want us to come, but I don't think that I can just leave him be by himself," I said sadly.

Cedric shook his head and brushed my stringy hair off of my forehead. As it always did when I was stressed out, it looked terrible. "Respect Hagrid's wishes, Tara. Do yourself a favor. If you see that... you'll never be able to un-see it," Cedric pointed out.

"But -"

"But what, Tara?" Cedric interrupted. "Hagrid doesn't want you there."

"But I don't want him to be by himself," I argued.

I knew that I shouldn't go, but I just couldn't stop myself. I had to be there for Hagrid. "Go see him tomorrow. Go see him when he's had some time to be with Buckbeak and mourn by himself. Wouldn't you want that?" Cedric asked. I frowned. "As an adult, you want kids to get to be kids. You don't want them to have to deal with something like that. Can you understand that?"

Could I? Of course I could. "Yeah," I muttered.

"But I know that you're not going to listen to me," Cedric reasoned.

"You know me so well."

Cedric gave a bitter smile. He wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me into him. "Believe it or not, I do. Tara, please listen to me. Don't be there when it happens. You don't want to see that. I don't want you to see that."

My thoughts were so locked on Buckbeak, that a sudden memory almost jarred me. My head snapped up to Cedric's. "Can I ask you something?"

"Tara -"

"It's not about Buckbeak," I interrupted.

"Okay," Cedric said, nodding softly. "What's going on?"

"When you took your first Divination exam a few years ago... Did something strange happen?" I asked.

"Yeah. I passed it," Cedric said.

Despite everything that was happening, I laughed at the serious look on Cedric's face. He started smiling a moment later. "Don't make me laugh," I chuckled, punching Cedric in the chest. "I'm serious. Did Professor Trelawney say something a little strange to you?"

"Have you met her?" Cedric asked.

"Cedric! I'm trying to get an answer here," I whined.

Sensing that I was being completely serious, Cedric nodded and put his hands up, essentially surrendering himself to answer me honestly. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. No, she was just her abnormal self. I made some stuff up and was as convincing as possible. That was the end of it. Did something odd happen to you?" Cedric asked curiously.

"Come on, doesn't it always?" I offered.

Cedric smiled bitterly. "Want to talk about it?"

But I clammed up. "No. Maybe I shouldn't have -"

Almost instantly Cedric's smile faded and he snapped back at me. "Oh, no. You don't get to do that anymore," Cedric said, almost as harshly as I had ever heard him before. I jumped back, slightly startled at his exclamation. "You hold so many secrets. Even from your friends. You hang onto too many things. Just this once, tell me what happened."

Well, if he really wanted to hear... "I think Professor Trelawney is an actual Seer," I said.

Cedric's face dropped. "You're joking."

"No, I'm not. She had an actual prediction during my exam."

"What was it about?"

Despite wanting to talk to someone about it, I didn't really want to tell Cedric. In all honesty, he was worried enough about me. He was always worried that something terrible was happening to me or that I was getting into something far bigger than me. Both of which were oftentimes true. So I decided to get it over with and tell him what happened. I spent a few minutes fearfully recounting the entire story of what had happened during the Divination exam. The entire time Cedric flipped in between looking horrified, angry, and heartbroken for me. Finally he pulled me into a hug.

The two of us stayed together for a long time. When he finally released me, he pushed the hair back off of my forehead. "She could have been talking about anyone," Cedric said slowly.

The way that he was speaking to me was told me that he really doubted what he was saying. "You know that she's talking about Voldemort. The way that she grabbed onto me, Cedric, I know that she was talking about me," I said determinedly.

Cedric nodded, grabbing onto my hands. "For your own safety, don't go out there tonight," Cedric said. I started to shake my head, determined that I still had to go and see Hagrid, but Cedric spoke over me. "If what Professor Trelawney was saying is the truth, that someone is going to rise again tonight, you can't risk being out there. Even if it happens across the world, don't take the chance."

"But -"

"Do you like my hair?"

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Do you like my hair?" Cedric repeated.

"Yes..." I said slowly.

"Then stop doing things that are going to make me pull my hair out."

He was still giving me a fond smile, one that I fought not to return. After a moment, I steeled my nerves again and spoke. "Tonight... if his servant is coming back -"

"Then you shouldn't be anywhere near it," Cedric interrupted. "Tara, you're only fourteen. This is more than you can handle." As always, it was something so much bigger than me. But I couldn't stop it this time. It was going to happen and I knew about it. "You know that and I know that. You should tell someone and then make sure to stay near people."

"Who do I even tell?" I asked slowly.

"Professor Dumbledore. He can help."

For a moment I stayed quiet. Then I said, "I'm sorry for making you deal with this."

It wouldn't have surprised me if one day Cedric ended things between us. I was just too much to handle and I knew it. But Cedric merely smiled. "You're not making me deal with anything. I'm trying to help you, but there's not much that I can do. There's not much that anyone can do. Not even you and your friends. Not this time," Cedric said sweetly.

The moment that I opened my mouth to speak, Harry called, "Tara, we're ready to go."

Turning back to the three of them who were still waiting for me, I nodded. "Yeah, I'll be right there," I called back.

Sensing that I was leaving before the conversation was over with, Cedric started to say, "Tara -"

"I'll be fine," I interrupted quickly. Cedric looked like he was going to speak again, so I continued to try and reassure him. "We're just going down to say goodbye to Buckbeak and offer Hagrid our condolences. I shouldn't have even told you about Professor Trelawney's prediction. I wasn't really thinking. But I'm not going to hunt them down."

Knowing that he had lost this one, Cedric said, "Please don't, alright?"

"I won't. We'll be careful. We'll be back in under half an hour," I promised.

"You can write to me after it happens." I twitched slightly, knowing that in an hour, Buckbeak would be dead. There was nothing that we could do. "Find a place to meet up later, if you want," Cedric offered.

Maybe a night in the Astronomy Tower or Prefect Bathroom would do me well. "Thanks," I whispered.

"Be careful, alright?"

"Of course. I'll see you later."

"Don't stay for it. Okay?"

"Okay," I said, swallowing a lump in my throat.

He was right about one thing. I really shouldn't stay to watch the actual execution. That would probably break my heart. Cedric leaned forward and gave me a soft but lingering kiss. His hand went around the back of my neck to keep me against him for a few moments. Everyone started laughing at us but they didn't understand quite how stressful everything was right now. So I merely ignored them. After a few beats Cedric finally pulled away. But he leaned in to press another small kiss against my forehead before finally really pulling apart.

"I'll see you later," I whispered.

"Stay safe. Write to me whenever you need," Cedric said.

"Thank you."

The two of us shared another quick kiss as Harry popped up at my shoulder. I pulled away from Cedric and gave Harry a weak smile. "Ready to go?" Harry asked.

"No, but we should go anyways," I said.

Waving Cedric off, I turned and left with Harry, the two of us walking back through the hallway. Harry had the cloak hidden down the front of his robes; he had to keep his arms folded to hide the lump. It looked the tinniest bit like he was pregnant. The thought almost made me laugh. Together we skulked in an empty chamber off the entrance hall, listening, until we were sure it was deserted. It was a few minutes when we heard a last pair of people hurrying across the hall and a door slamming. Hermione poked her head around the door.

"Okay, no one there - cloak on," Hermione whispered.

Harry grabbed the cloak and threw it over our shoulders. I was in between Harry and Hermione, with Ron on her other side. It was slowly becoming much harder than it used to be. All of us had gone through growth spurts. Walking very close together so that nobody would see us, we crossed the hall on tiptoe beneath the cloak, then walked down the stone front steps into the grounds. The sun was already sinking behind the Forbidden Forest, gilding the top branches of the trees. It was stifling under the cloak, but I didn't say anything.

The last thing that we needed was getting caught when we were out past when we were supposed to be. Especially Harry and I. We didn't need to be getting detentions and points deducted so shortly before the end of the year. It took a few moments for us to reach Hagrid's cabin. The moment that we did, Harry leaned forward and knocked. Hagrid was a minute in answering, and when he did, he looked all around for his visitor, pale-faced and trembling. He looked like he was about to pass out, cry, or be sick. Maybe all of them.

"Oh, Hagrid," I whispered.

"It's us. We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off," Harry hissed.

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered, but he stood back, and we stepped inside.

"We had to, Hagrid," I said.

He felt the exact same as Cedric did. He was right that it was wrong to be here and potentially see Buckbeak be executed. But I just had to see Hagrid. And I really needed to see Buckbeak one last time. Hagrid shut the door quickly and Harry pulled off the cloak. The moment that I could clearly see Hagrid, I felt the breath go out of my lungs. Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon our necks. He looked like a man who did not know where he was or what to do. This helplessness was worse to watch than tears.

"Wan' some tea?" Hagrid asked. His great hands were shaking as he reached for the kettle.

"Why don't I make it?" I offered.

Hagrid shakily set down the tea kettle as I stepped forward. "Thank yeh, Tara," Hagrid mumbled.

"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"I - I took him outside," Hagrid said, spilling milk all over the table as he filled up the jug. "He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an' - an' smell fresh air - before -"

As I was making some of the tea for each of us, Hagrid was still trying to pour the milk into our cups. Unfortunately it didn't work too well. Hagrid's hand trembled so violently that the milk jug slipped from his grasp and shattered all over the floor. We all stepped backwards in surprise, but we didn't say anything to Hagrid. I knew that it would only hurt him even more. I felt terribly for him. He was about to lose one of the things that he treasured most in the world after he had tried so hard to show us how beautiful that he thought it was.

"I'll do it, Hagrid," Hermione said quickly, hurrying over and starting to clean up the mess.

"There's another one in the cupboard," Hagrid said, sitting down and wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Harry and I glanced at Ron, who looked back hopelessly.

"That's beautiful, Hagrid. Buckbeak will love seeing the sunlight," I said after a few moments of silence.

"Isn't there anything anyone can do, Hagrid?" Harry asked fiercely, sitting down next to him. "Dumbledore -"

"He's tried." My heart sank. I hadn't known that Hagrid had gone to Dumbledore to have him help. "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared... Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like... threatened 'em, I expect... an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy's... but it'll be quick an' clean... an' I'll be beside him..."

His voice faded a moment afterwards. My stomach lurched painfully. Quick and clean... That was horrifying. And I didn't realize that Hagrid was actually going to be there. I had figured that he would, but I didn't like thinking about it. Hagrid swallowed thickly. I resisted going to give him a hug. I was sure that he wanted to be left in somewhat peace. Hagrid's eyes were darting all over the cabin as though looking for some shred of hope or comfort. Suddenly a thought dawned on me. I had heard the name Macnair before.

"Wasn't he a Death Eater?" I asked suddenly.

Ron and Hermione's heads snapped over to me. Harry stared blankly. "Not no more," Hagrid said. I scoffed. That was doubtful. "Dumbledore's gonna come down while it - while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter - ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore..."

Even Dumbledore was going to be there. At least if he wasn't able to stop, he would be brave enough to be there. It was rather sickening, but Hagrid was right about thinking what a wonderful man Dumbledore was. Hermione, who had been rummaging in Hagrid's cupboard for another milk jug, let out a small, quickly stifled sob. If there had been anyone more determined to save Buckbeak from execution than Hagrid, it was Hermione. She straightened up with the new jug in her hands, fighting back tears.

"We'll stay with you too, Hagrid," Hermione began, but Hagrid shook his shaggy head.

"You should have friends here," I interjected.

"Yeh're ter go back up ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' be down here anyway... If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, Tara, yeh'll be in big trouble," Hagrid insisted.

Damn us getting in trouble. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered right now. The year was almost over and the exams were done. We had already won the Quidditch Cup. There wasn't much more that they could threaten us with anymore. All that mattered was that we were here for Hagrid tonight. Cedric would forgive me. Silent tears were now streaming down Hermione's face, but she hid them from Hagrid, bustling around and helping me make tea. Then, as she picked up the milk bottle to pour some into the jug, she let out a shriek.

"What?" I asked, panicked.

"Ron! I - I don't believe it - it's Scabbers!" Hermione gasped.

Ron gaped at her. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

Scabbers was actually alive? After everything that they had fought about in the beginning and middle of the school year - Scabbers and Crookshanks - and after thinking that Crookshanks had killed Scabbers, it turned out that he was alive. Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table. I couldn't believe that he was still alive and hiding out here. Why hadn't he returned to Ron?

"Scabbers! Scabbers, what are you doing here?" Ron asked blankly.

What the hell was wrong with the little rat? He looked horrible. He hadn't come back to his owner. Nothing made sense to me right now. Why hadn't he come back after escaping from Crookshanks? Fear of the cat, maybe? Ron grabbed the struggling rat and held him up to the light. Scabbers looked dreadful. Even more so than from the beginning of the year. Scabbers was thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed in Ron's hands as though desperate to free himself.

"It's okay, Scabbers! No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!" Ron yelled.

It seemed like Scabbers was about to have a heart attack and die. What the hell was he so afraid of? Not Crookshanks, obviously. He would have been able to smell the cat if he was hanging around somewhere. It had to be something else. Was Scabbers afraid of Buckbeak? No. That didn't make sense either. Scabbers had clearly been here for a while, as had Buckbeak. He would have left earlier if that was the case. Hagrid suddenly stood up, his eyes fixed on the window, interrupting my train of thought. His normally ruddy face had gone the color of parchment.

"They're comin'..."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I whipped around. Had we really just spent too much time here? I hadn't thought that we were here for that long. Clearly we were. A group of men were walking down the distant castle steps. In front was Albus Dumbledore, his silver beard gleaming in the dying sun. Next to him trotted Cornelius Fudge. Behind them came the feeble old Committee member and the executioner, Macnair. Instantly I jumped up to my feet. Maybe I really didn't want to get into trouble...

"Yeh gotta go," Hagrid said. Every inch of him was trembling. "They mustn' find yeh here... Go now..." Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Hermione picked up the cloak. "I'll let yeh out the back way."

"It's gonna be okay, Hagrid," I promised.

Just a few last words of encouragement before... it... happened. There was clearly no stopping it right now. Despite wanting to stay and be there for Hagrid, I knew that we had to leave. So we followed him to the door into his back garden. The entire thing felt strangely unreal, and even more so when I saw Buckbeak a few yards away, tethered to a tree behind Hagrid's pumpkin patch. Buckbeak seemed to know something was happening. He turned his sharp head from side to side and pawed the ground nervously.

"It's okay, Beaky. It's okay..." Hagrid said softly. My heart gave a small twinge. Hagrid then turned to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I. "Go on. Get goin'."

But we didn't move. "Hagrid..." I whispered.

"Hagrid, we can't -"

"We'll tell them what really happened -"

"They can't kill him -"

"Please -"

"Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!" Hagrid said fiercely.

By that point, we had no choice. As much as I would have loved to say or do something to save Buckbeak and spare Hagrid's feelings, I knew that he was right to tell us to leave. As much as I wanted to be there for him, I really didn't want to have to see Buckbeak lose his head. As Hermione threw the cloak over Harry, Ron, and I, we heard voices at the front of the cabin. They were less than five seconds away from entering the cottage. Hagrid looked at the place where we had just vanished from sight.

"Go quick. Don' listen..." he said hoarsely.

The last thing that I wanted was to hear it. I didn't want to see it, hear it, and I wished that I didn't know that it was going to happen. Then Hagrid strode back into his cabin as someone knocked at the front door. They were here and it was about to happen. We had finally, officially, run out of time. Slowly, in a kind of horrified trance, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I set off silently around Hagrid's house. Each one of us was just as horrified as the others. I held onto Harry's hand tightly as we walked. As we reached the other side, the front door closed with a sharp snap.

"Please, let's hurry. I can't stand it, I can't bear it..." Hermione whispered.

"I can't leave," I said, my feet freezing in their place.

"Tara, come on. We shouldn't see this," Harry said, tugging at my arms.

"But, Hagrid -"

"Doesn't want us to see this. Come on," Harry insisted.

My entire being was torn. I wanted to stay and be there for the last few moments of Buckbeak's life. I didn't want Hagrid to be alone. But I also didn't want to see the Hippogriff be murdered in cold blood. Knowing that the others weren't going to leave me alone, I grabbed onto Harry's arms and let him pull me along with them. Together we started up the sloping lawn toward the castle. The sun was sinking fast now; the sky had turned to a clear, purple-tinged grey, but to the west there was a ruby-red glow. Ron stopped dead.

"Oh, please, Ron," Hermione began.

"It's Scabbers - he won't - stay put -"

What the hell was happening? I had officially decided that I didn't want to be around to see Buckbeak's death and now they were standing here just waiting for it to happen. I didn't want to see it happen. Not anymore. And I knew that they didn't want to see it either. But there was now a new problem. Ron was bent over, trying to keep Scabbers in his pocket, but the rat was going berserk; squeaking madly, twisting and flailing, trying to sink his teeth into Ron's hand. I had never seen him like that before. Not even around Crookshanks.

"What the hell is wrong with Scabbers?" I asked.

"Scabbers, it's me, you idiot, it's Ron," Ron hissed.

Suddenly we heard a door open behind them and men's voices. "Oh, Ron, please let's move, they're going to do it!" Hermione breathed.

"Okay - Scabbers, stay put -"

We had to leave. It was about to happen. I could already hear them speaking. The only voice that I couldn't hear was Hagrid's. Although I could hear him sniffling. It sounded like he was about to cry. Dumbledore's wise voice was quietly echoing throughout the grounds. I could hear how tense his voice was. He must have been furious that this was actually happening. Together we walked forward again; like Hermione, I was trying not to listen to the rumble of voices behind us. Ron stopped again.

"Just drop the damn rat! Let's go," I hissed.

"I can't hold him - Scabbers, shut up, everyone will hear us -"

We had to get out of here before it happened. They weren't going to want to drag this out. Not standing right in front of Buckbeak. So the chances were that it was about to end. It was going to happen within the next few seconds. We had to be gone by then. The rat was squealing wildly, but not loudly enough to cover up the sounds drifting from Hagrid's garden. There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence, and then, without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe. Hermione swayed on the spot.

My legs quivered as I latched onto Harry's arms. "Oh... Harry..." I muttered.

Harry was trembling as he pulled me into him for a hug. Ron and Hermione joined a moment later. "It's okay," Harry muttered into my hair.

"They did it! I d - don't believe it - they did it!" Hermione whispered into my back. Cedric and Hagrid were right. We shouldn't have been here for this.


	53. Cat, Rat, and Dog

My entire body was shaking from head to toe. It had been a long time since I was as shocked as I was right now. I was used to expecting nightmarish things. But nothing like this... Something that had happened because Malfoy was an asshole... My mind had gone mostly blank with shock. What was Hagrid feeling right now? The four of us stood transfixed with horror under the Invisibility Cloak. My knees were threatening to cave out from underneath me. The very last rays of the setting sun were casting a bloody light over the long-shadowed grounds.

With every fiber of my being, I was horrified over what had just happened. I couldn't even believe it. I could have looked to see if it was really true, but I couldn't bear doing it. I hadn't even seen it. None of us had. But I did hear it. Cedric was - as usual - completely right. I shouldn't have been around for Buckbeak's execution. I shouldn't have had to hear it. Because I was never going to be able to forget the sound of the blade slicing through skin and bone. It broke my heart. After all of this time and effort, Buckbeak was finally dead.

Everything that we had done had been for naught. On the other side of Harry, I could hear Hermione sniffling. She probably cared the most out of any of us about what happened. I sobbed softly into Harry's shoulder as my arms wound up around his neck. He pressed a hand into my hair, keeping me pressed against him. I was sure that none of us would be able to move for a while. As Harry pulled me a little bit closer to him, I so desperately wished that we weren't here. Wishing that I was somewhere else. Maybe in that Prefect bathroom with Cedric.

Right about now I wished that I was anywhere else. Even in the Potions classroom with Snape berating everything that we were doing. Anything would have been better than being here. It would have been wonderful to be somewhere that we didn't have to deal with all of this. A few minutes passed when I was finally able to look up from my protective spot in Harry's shoulder - morbidly curious to see what was happening - but Harry instantly pressed my head back down into his shoulder. He obviously didn't want me to see it. Then, behind us, we heard a wild howling.

For a few moments I thought that it was an animal. Maybe they hadn't taken Buckbeak out in an immediate swoop. "Hagrid," Harry muttered.

My stomach threatened to empty itself onto the floor. We had to go see Hagrid and let him know that it would be okay. He couldn't be alone right now. "They'll be gone. We need to see him," I said, removing myself from Harry's shoulder.

"No," Ron grabbed for my shoulder, "Tara -"

"We have to see him!" I interrupted, whirling back around to him. I threw my arm back towards Hagrid's hut. "Look at what he just went through."

There was no way that he could be alone right now. Not after everything that he had just been through. He had just lost one of the things that meant the most in the world to him. Despite not wanting to have to deal with the Buckbeak fallout anymore - and really not wanting to see what had become of the Hippogriff - I knew that Hagrid's needs were greater than ours right now. So, without thinking about what I was doing, I made to turn back. It wasn't just me. Harry was doing the same thing. Unfortunately both Ron and Hermione seized our arms.

"We can't," Ron said, who was now paper-white.

"Ron -"

"I'm sorry, Tara. He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him," Ron reasoned.

That might have been true, but what more could they do to Hagrid that they hadn't already? I just wanted to make sure that he was okay. "But we can't just leave him like this," I said guiltily.

Half of the problem was that we could have done more. We could have spent more time trying to help Hagrid with everything for Buckbeak. But we had been so busy with being angry with Hermione that we hadn't. Not that it likely would have changed anything. Lucius Malfoy was already in the Ministry's pocket, so he would have always gotten things to end like this. But it didn't change the fact that we had just witnessed essentially a murder of a completely innocent animal. Standing apart from us slightly, Hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven.

"Mione? Are you okay?" I asked, grabbing her shoulder.

If I felt badly, it was nothing compared to how Hermione felt. She looked like she was about to pass out. "How - could - they?" Hermione barely managed to choke out through sobbing breaths. "How could they?"

"Come on," Ron said, whose teeth seemed to be chattering.

"I -" I stuttered, unable to move, "I..."

"It's okay. It's going to be okay," Harry said, pushing the hair back off of my forehead.

Unwilling to stay here, but also unwilling to go back to the Gryffindor Common Room and wallow in my own misery, I decided to go elsewhere. "I think I'm gonna go up to the Astronomy Tower," I muttered miserably.

"Okay," Harry whispered.

They must have known that I was planning on writing to Cedric and asking him to meet me up there. That was the one place that the two of us always went. Just to talk, to try and make up from a little disagreement, or just to be a little closer to each other. It was my place of solace with him. Somewhere that had always made me feel just a little bit better. That was something that I needed right now. To feel better. He would likely think that I was foolish for having actually been out here, but he would comfort me for as long as I needed.

"I just - I don't want to - to - be here," I stammered horribly.

"It's okay, Tara," Harry said.

Today wasn't the day for any of us to be fighting with each other. "Thank Merlin I didn't eat much today," I mumbled softly.

"Exactly," Ron added.

An evening of complaining about how right Cedric had been about not being here when it happened sounded just about right. So we set off back toward the castle, walking slowly to keep ourselves hidden under the cloak. Harry had an arm wrapped around my waist to keep me from collapsing. My legs were still shaking. But we had to get up to the castle. The light was fading fast now and we weren't allowed to be out at night. By the time we reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around us. To my surprise, Ron was still jerking around wildly.

"Ron, what the hell are you doing?" I hissed, fearing that he was about the knock off the Invisibility Cloak.

"It's Scabbers!" Ron shouted.

"Make him stop! You're going to get the cloak knocked off of us," I barked.

"Scabbers, keep still," Ron hissed.

If we weren't careful, we were going to get caught out here. That would make things about ten times worse than they already were. Ron was trying to stop Scabbers, but it really wasn't working. Even when he reached up and clamped his hand over his chest to keep Scabbers in place. The rat was wriggling madly. We all stared at each other confusedly. What the hell was happening to the rat? We needed to leave. Ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket. We all stopped with him, giving a sharp glare.

"Keep walking!" I barked.

"I can't," Ron said desperately. "What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still - Ouch!"

"Now what?" I growled.

"He bit me!"

"Get over it! He's a rat, they bite. Let's go," I said.

We had to leave here. Before someone either discovered us or I passed out from exhaustion. "Ron, be quiet!" Hermione whispered urgently. "Fudge will be out here in a minute -"

"He won't - stay - put -"

The four of us all stopped for a moment to see what was happening. Obviously it was quite a big problem. Obviously Scabbers was acting in a way that he never had before. I had never seen the rat quite so terrified. Not even in the moments that Crookshanks would go after him earlier in the year. Something else was happening to scare Scabbers the way that it was. For a moment I tried to reach out and calm the rat down - as I had always been good with animals - but he snapped at me too. Scabbers was plainly terrified. He was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of Ron's grip.

"What's the matter with him?" Ron asked desperately.

"Doesn't matter, let's go!" I barked.

All of a sudden I felt something crawl over my skin. An eerie sense of foreboding - something that I had always prided myself on. I always knew when something bad was coming. So I turned to see what was happening. It was something much worse than I was expecting. Because I had just seen it, and it was too late - slinking toward us, his body low to the ground, wide yellow eyes glinting eerily in the darkness - Crookshanks. That was what was freaking Scabbers out. Whether he could see us or was following the sound of Scabbers's squeaks, I couldn't tell.

"Crookshanks! No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!" Hermione moaned.

"Get that damned cat away from here! We have to go!" I snapped, kicking out at him.

Things were bad enough with Scabbers right now, Crookshanks was only making things worse. "What do we do?" Hermione whined.

"Get Crookshanks to leave!" I yelled.

Be damned with being quiet, we had to get a move-on. "I can't! He isn't listening!" Hermione called back.

"Go away, you stupid cat!" I hissed at Crookshanks, trying to kick him again.

"Be quiet!" Harry whisper-yelled.

"Why the hell aren't these stupid animals listening?" I asked. They were normally halfway decent with listening to their owners. "We have to leave. Just drop the damn rat! We'll come back for him later."

But Crookshanks was getting nearer. "Scabbers - No!" Ron yelled.

"Now what?" I asked, overwhelmed.

Unfortunately we saw what was happening at the same time. And now it was too late to do anything else - the rat had slipped between Ron's clutching fingers, hit the ground, and scampered away. At least now that he was gone we could all get away. But it didn't change anything. Because, in one bound, Crookshanks sprang after him, and before Harry, Hermione, or I could stop him, Ron had thrown the Invisibility Cloak off himself and pelted away into the darkness. Honestly I should have seen that one coming.

"Ron!" Hermione moaned.

"Get back here! The rat isn't worth it!" I yelled.

"Now what?" Harry asked.

"We have to go after him. Come on!" I said.

"Scabbers, come back," Ron yelped.

"Wait!" Harry yelled.

"Scabbers, you bit me!" Ron cried.

There was no way that we could let Ron get away from us. He was going to get himself into a ton of trouble. Hermione, Harry, and I looked at each other, then followed at a sprint; it was impossible to run full out under the cloak; we pulled it off and it streamed behind us like a banner as we hurtled after Ron; I could hear his feet thundering along ahead and his shouts at Crookshanks. Undoubtedly Harry and I were faster than Hermione, so I wrapped an arm around Hermione's wrist and pulled her - probably somewhat painfully - after us.

"Get away from him - get away - Scabbers, come here -"

There was a loud thud. "What the hell is going on over there?" I asked breathlessly.

It sounded like Ron had managed to get into a fight with Scabbers and Crookshanks, and it definitely sounded like he was losing. "Keep moving!" Harry said as I started to lose distance.

"Gotcha!" Ron yelped happily.

I assumed that Ron had finally caught Scabbers. "Ron!" I yelped into the blackness. "What's going on?"

"Hurry up!" Ron called.

Why the hell wasn't he just coming over here? "Ron, get back here!" I shouted.

"Get off," Ron's voice called, "you stinking cat -"

So obviously Crookshanks was still somewhere close by. We had to get after him. All of us had to get back to the castle before the teachers figured out that something was happening out here. Harry, Hermione, and I almost fell over Ron; he had appeared so suddenly in front of us. We skidded to a stop right in front of him. He was sprawled on the ground, but Scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump. He hadn't made a move to get up and leave yet - something that we needed to do.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I snapped angrily.

"It's Scabbers -"

"Who cares?" I interrupted, still infuriated with what Ron had just foolishly done. "You could get us expelled if someone comes out here and sees us! Get the stupid rat and get under the cloak. Now!"

"Ron - come on - back under the cloak -" Hermione panted. "Dumbledore - the Minister - they'll be coming back out in a minute -"

"She's right. We have to go," I interrupted.

There was a good chance that someone had been drawn out by all of the noise that we were making. We had to leave before someone came out to investigate what all of the noise had been for. And I hadn't done all of this running for nothing. But before we could cover ourselves again, before we could even catch our breath, we heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws… Instantly I whipped backwards. What was coming for us? Something deadly and terrible, I'm sure. Something was bounding toward us, quiet as a shadow - an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog.

"Merlin..." I said, spotting Snuffles standing up on a hill just a few meters from us. "What the hell?"

"Tara," Harry said, gripping my arm, "it's -"

"Snuffles," I interrupted, taking a step forward. Maybe I could get him to be friendly with me again. "Okay... come on. Let's try this again. Come here, Snuffles. Come on." I dropped down onto my knees and extended an open-palmed hand. "Remember? We're friends."

"Tara, that's a Grim," Ron said, fear shaking his voice.

"It's just a dog," I called back uncertainly. "Come on."

In the back of my mind, I knew that it could end up being quite dangerous for me. I was the closest to the dog, sitting now just a few feet away from him. If he decided to make a lunge for me, he would have his jaws around my throat before I ever got the chance to scream. I tried to kneel as non-threateningly as I could. One last try to see if the dog was actually reasonably friendly. I wanted Snuffles to come to me, but I scented the danger in his stance. He was making a lot of growling noises and slowly inching closer to me. He looked about ready to bite me. It was making my knees shake.

Anticipation was getting the best of me. I was about ready to lunge and sprint off. He was too close. But I was determined to get Snuggles to be friendly with me again. The damn dog had once been incredibly friendly to me. At least, the slightest bit. So why was he trying to attack me right now? Why had the dog started being nasty to me the moment that Harry had come around? Was it really his fault? Knowing that things were getting dangerous for me, I tried to slowly inch backwards from Snuffles, but I knew that it was too late.

The dog's muscles were tensed, obviously showing that he was about ready to lunge. "We have to leave. We have to get under the cloak and get back to the castle," I whispered to the others.

"It's the Grim! We have to go!" Ron shouted.

"Tara, get away!" Harry yelled.

But obviously the dog didn't want me. "Harry!" I screamed.

Unfortunately I hadn't seen it soon enough. I hadn't seen what Snuffles was about to do until seconds before he did it. Harry was reaching down for his wand, but it was too late - the dog had made an enormous leap and the front paws hit him on the chest; I assumed that Snuffles had to weigh well over a hundred pounds. Far too much for any of us to fight off, even if we were all fighting him together. Not with those teeth. Harry keeled over backward in a whirl of hair; Snuffles was breathing down on him, his teeth were bared.

"Harry!" I yelped.

We had not made it this entire year just for Snuffles to kill us only days from the end of the semester. As I tried to run after Snuffles - desperate to do anything to stop the coming attack - I realized that we might be getting a second chance here. Because the force of its leap had carried it too far; it rolled off Harry. Sprinting over to Harry, I wrapped my arms around his and gave him a rough pull. Obviously dazed, and gripping his ribs as though they were broken, Harry tried to stand up; I could hear Snuffles growling as he skidded around for a new attack.

Yanking on Harry would do nothing for the damage that the impact had caused, but we needed to get out of here. Harry glanced up and his eyes went wide. "Tara, get out of the way!" Harry yelled.

But it wasn't me in danger. "Ron, move!" I shouted.

All in one move, the dog tried to attack us both. As I moved in front of Harry, the dog turned on an about-face and made a move to lunge for me. I tried to sprint out of the way to avoid his razor sharp teeth - towards where Ron was trying to grab for my arms and bring me with him. Snuffles just barely missed my arm and instead turned again to try and lunge after us both. Ron rolled the two of us over, shielding me with his body - just the way that Harry had done with the Basilisk last year. I screamed into Ron's shoulder as I realized just how painful it would be if the dog actually attacked us.

Before the dog could do any more damage, Ron rose to his feet and pulled me with him. The moment that Ron was on his feet, he grabbed me around the waist and literally threw me from harm's way. As the dog sprang back toward us, Ron stepped over my body as I tried to get back to my feet and shoved me down. What was he doing? A moment later, he pushed Harry aside; the dog's jaws fastened instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry lunged forward, he seized a handful of the brute's hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll.

"Oh, Merlin!" I screamed, getting to my feet. "Ron! Ron! Get up! Run!"

But nothing that I could say would make a difference. He couldn't get away from the dog's grip. "Harry, Tara, Hermione; run!" Ron yelled as he vanished.

"From what?" I asked dumbly.

The three of us ran full-speed after Ron, desperate to try and stop the dog from doing any more damage to him, but we didn't get too far. We certainly didn't get to dive into the hole that Ron had vanished down with the dog. Because we were about to find out what it was that Ron had been warning us to run away from. Right then, out of nowhere, something hit Harry, Hermione, and I so hard across the face that we were knocked off our feet again. I heard Hermione and Harry shriek with pain and fall too.

What the hell had just happened? It wasn't any type of animal. At least, not that I had ever felt before. Instead it was something that felt almost like steel. My head was throbbing as I tried to get back to my feet. We had all just gotten to our feet when something massive whacked us right against the stomachs. Harry, Hermione, and I were thrown backwards almost twenty feet through the air, landing roughly on our backs. Blood was dripping down my forehead and into my vision from the first impact and I was sure that the second had either broken or cracked a rib.

"What the hell?" I hissed, trying to roll onto my side.

"Tara?" Hermione asked.

She sounded like she was a few feet from me. I couldn't see very clearly through the blood. "Hermione! I'm over here!" I called as loudly as I could. "Harry?"

"Tara!" Harry cried, shuffling on his knees over to me. "Are you alright?"

"Something hit me. I'm bleeding but I'll be fine," I said.

"Me, too," Harry said.

"Help!" Ron's voice called at a distance.

In an instant, all three of us were up on our feet and dashing towards him. "Ron!" Hermione cried, panicked.

"Ron! Ron!" Harry yelled.

"Ron!" I screamed.

He had to be somewhere around here. He sounded like he was still reasonably close to us. Maybe the dog hadn't managed to drag him too far away from us yet. Maybe we would still be able to get him back before the dog had actually managed to rip off his arm or leg. All three of us started groping for our wands, with both Harry and I blinking blood out of our eyes. My head was spinning slightly from the two back-to-back impacts. But Harry grabbed onto my arm and dragged me back to my feet, brushing blood out of my eyes.

"Lumos!" Harry whispered.

Finally the area was lit up enough to really see what was happening. When I glanced up above us, I realized just what it was that had attacked us. "Harry... Do you know what tree this is?" I asked blankly.

"That's not good," Harry said.

Of course this would happen to us. "We need to move!" I shouted.

We had already been whacked by the tree at least twice. And I had a feeling that the tree wasn't planning on taking things too easy on us within the next few minutes. Whenever we could get away from it. If it even let us get away from it. The wand light from Harry showed us the trunk of a thick tree; we were closer than I had thought. We had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop us going nearer.

After having already been hit twice by the tree - and a lot more last year when we had flown the Ford Anglia into it - I wasn't overly fond of the thought of getting hit again by it. But something very quickly changed my mind. Because right there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Ron backward into a large gap in the roots - Ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight. We had to make it to the dog before Ron vanished. Getting past the Whomping Willow wouldn't be easy.

"Ron!" Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again.

"Ron! Ron!" I screamed, not that it would make much of a difference.

"Ron!" Hermione yelled.

At least, if nothing else, Ron would know that we weren't abandoning him. He would know that we were trying to save him. All we could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground - but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; Ron's leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight. All three of us screamed at the same moment. Harry and I had both broken bones before. We knew how badly it hurt. And to be hurt in a moment of panic like this...

"Ron! Oh my - he's hurt. We have to help him!" I screamed desperately.

"Harry - Tara - we've got to go for help -" Hermione gasped; she was bleeding too; the Willow had cut her across the shoulder.

"We don't have time! Ron could be dead in seconds," I said breathlessly.

"No! That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time -"

"The Grim's supposedly been coming after Harry and I," I interrupted Harry. Something here didn't make sense. "Why would it go after Ron?"

"Who cares?" Harry asked quickly.

"I'm just - it doesn't make sense," I said.

"Harry - Tara - we're never going to get through without help -"

"Just run," I said quickly.

Honestly I knew what was about to happen. I knew that we were going to try and get past the Whomping Willow and it was trying to kill us for doing it. But it didn't matter to me. We had to go. We had to get Ron back. There was no doubt that something terrible was going to happen now that the dog had Ron away from us. The moment that we made a move to go, another branch whipped down at us, twigs clenched like knuckles. The three of us just barely managed to stumble backwards to avoid it.

"If that dog can get in, we can," Harry panted.

He had a point about that. There had to be a way for the three of us to get in there. The dog had done it without itself or Ron getting too badly injured. We would be able to do it. The three of us linked hands, darting here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but we couldn't get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows. There was no way that we were going to be able to get past the Willow without engaging it in a fight at least once. We would get hurt, but we had to do it.

"Oh, help, help," Hermione whispered frantically, dancing uncertainly on the spot, "please..."

"Wait... " I shouted, seeing a branch make a wide swing for us. "Move!"

"Come on!" Harry yelled.

Grabbing each other's hands again, the three of us sprinted after where I could still hear Ron's screams. He must have been terrified and in a ton of pain. Harry was in the middle with Hermione and I on either side of him. As we ran under the flailing branches of the Willow, a large branch thumped down just where I had been standing; if Harry hadn't pulled me to the side, it would have smashed me into the ground. The three of us started moving again a moment later, but we had barely made it another two steps when the tree went for another attack.

"Move!" Harry yelled.

Just as we were back on our feet, two more branches came down in between us. I shoved Hermione off to one side as Harry wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me off to the other side. We hit the ground and shifted forward immediately. We weren't going to get much of a chance to move before the Willow tried to attack again. A branch landed on my other side as Harry grabbed me and Hermione and pulled us both with him. We were scrambling back to our feet when we stopped dead in our tracks. Another branch was headed right for us.

"Duck!" Hermione screamed.

The two of us instantly got down to our hands and knees in a panic. Unfortunately Harry wasn't quite as fast on the uptake as the two of us were. As the branch went over Hermione and I's heads, Harry was caught against the collarbone and thrown a few feet away from where Hermione and I were still laying. His glasses had been knocked off. I was still bleeding pretty badly from the impacts of the tree and my constant falls, but otherwise I was okay. It was Harry that I was now concerned for.

"Harry!" I yelped in a panic.

A fight with the damn Whomping Willow. We should have seen this one coming. We were constantly getting knocked around by something at the end of the year. Turned out that it was the Whomping Willow and Grim this year. As I glanced back in front of me, I saw a branch heading right for Hermione and I. Linking hands, we jumped over it just in time to avoid having our shins broken. Unfortunately when we landed it was too late to move again. Hermione was whacked across the stomach with one branch and picked up as I was thrown a few feet by a second.

On the other side of the tree, Harry was searching for his glasses. Hermione was brought straight up in the air as I blearily got to my feet. I could barely see anything through the blood pouring down my face. That included the branch swinging right at my stomach. Unable to decide whether to duck under it or jump, I was whacked across the stomach and picked up from the ground. I was brought straight up into the air almost forty feet. Knowing that I had to do something, I released my grip and dropped from the branch, praying that the grassy ground was soft.

Unfortunately the tree knew what I was doing and wasn't willing to let me out of the fight that easily. Another branch shot out and I crashed straight into it, barely managing to hook a leg over it. It's like riding a broom, Tara. Just hang on. As the branch that I was riding swung out wildly, trying to throw me against the jagged rocks that surrounded the branches, I desperately hung on. I was just barely able to see Harry narrowly miss a large impact from the tree and see Hermione's branch just barely miss hitting Harry.

As Hermione and my branches both shot straight up into the air, we were brought back down at full speed. My face and shoulders were being badly cut up by the branches but we were both managing to hang on. Although our branches were quickly smashed together, Hermione and I just barely managing to stay out of the way of the impact. I made a quick jump onto her branch as we were swung out again. Hermione just barely managed to grab a hold of me as we were thrown out to where Harry had finally managed to find his glasses.

He was still on the other end of the field from us. But it wasn't for very long. As the branch swung out at a distance - just as it had been trying to throw me off before - Hermione and I leaned down. We had to get out of this problem. The two of us leaned down as Harry got back to his feet. We both grabbed out for his clothes and just barely managed to grab him. Holding onto him was almost impossible as we swung back around over the hole that Ron had vanished down earlier. We nodded at each other and released Harry, watching as he fell straight into the hole.

Honestly I couldn't believe that it actually worked. The branch whipped around again, continuously hitting the two of us in the face, neck, arms, and chest. Hermione and I were nodding at each other. It had worked for him. It would work for us too. Hermione kept a tight grip on my arm as I started to slide off of the branch. Giving her a quick warning to be careful and only stay around on one more loop, I released over the hole in the ground. I slid painfully into the hole, bumping against the opening, instantly falling straight onto Harry's back.

"Sorry - Sorry," I muttered, rolling off Harry. "Are you okay?"

"Oh... I'm fine. Are you?"

"Pretty banged up, but I'll manage."

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked, searching around us.

She still hadn't landed back here. Where was she? It didn't take that long to make a lap, did it? Had she finally been thrown from the branch? "I told her to drop from the branches but she must have held on. Come on. We should make sure she's okay," I said.

The moment that I moved off of Harry completely to try and peek our heads outside of the hole underneath the Whomping Willow, Hermione came flying through the opening. I just barely managed to spin out of the way in time for her to flop straight onto Harry. The two of them collapsed on the floor as Harry grunted under Hermione's weight. Hermione let out a little shriek at the impact. I stumbled over to them to try and pull Hermione off of Harry. Obviously we were all in a lot of pain from everything that had just happened.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Hermione said, pulling herself up.

"Don't worry," Harry replied.

The two of them crawled off of each other as Hermione and I attempted to pull Harry back to his feet. "Come on. Up," I said.

"Oh, Merlin..." Harry sighed.

My back was throbbing from the multiple impacts from the Whomping Willow. As I pushed back my bloody and dirty hair, I stood with the others. "I guess that's payback for us hitting it with the Anglia last year," I said.

"Fair enough," Harry groaned.

We all looked as terrible as I was sure that the rest of us felt. Harry's arms wrapped around my waist as I limped off. My leg was throbbing from one of the harder impacts that I took. Hermione reached over to wipe the blood out of my eyes as the three of us tried to recover. I wasn't sure where Ron was right now, but I refused to believe that he was dead already. He had to still be alive. Suddenly I saw Crookshanks dart forward. He slithered between the battering branches like a snake and placed his front paws upon a knot on the trunk.

What the hell was the damned cat doing? I was also infuriated that the cat somehow hadn't gotten hurt by the branches. The three of us had been beaten and battered to hell but Crookshanks was somehow still in one piece and unharmed. Of course he was the one that would get away. Abruptly, as though the tree had been turned to marble, it stopped moving. Not a leaf twitched or shook. That knot must have been designed to keep the tree from moving to allow someone entrance to that tunnel. Were they always on Whomping Willows?

"Crookshanks!" Hermione whispered uncertainly.

She was now grasping my arm painfully hard. "A little too late for that," I growled, wishing that the cat had appeared a few minutes earlier.

"How did he know -?"

"He's friends with that dog. I've seen them together," Harry said grimly.

"Odd that a cat would befriend a dog trying to hurt its owner," I said slowly.

"Tara," Hermione started slowly, "what are you -?"

"I don't know. I don't know what I'm getting at," I said dumbly. I had a bunch of different thoughts, but none of them were really making sense to me. I couldn't string them together into any coherent thoughts. "Never mind. We need to go. I think that I'm just delirious from the impacts back there. Let's go, we need to make sure that Ron's okay."

"Come on - and keep your wands out -"

It was the first time that I'd really gotten the chance to look around and see where we had landed ourselves. I took a step back to watch what was happening with Crookshanks. Just a few seconds passed when Crookshanks slid into it with a flick of his bottlebrush tail. We all walked, bent over, down the earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. There were stairs not far from where we were standing that would likely lead us to wherever the passage likely led. Crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from Harry's wand.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione whispered in a terrified voice.

"This way," Harry said, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks.

Just a moment later I wrapped a hand around Hermione's wrist and pulled her with me. "Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asked breathlessly from behind us.

"The direction is towards Hogsmeade," I answered.

"I don't know… It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it..." Harry added.

"Obviously because the Whomping Willow is protecting it," I said irritably.

Was this really a necessary way to get to Hogsmeade? Could there not have been a slightly better way to get to Hogsmeade? "It goes off the edge of the map, but Tara's right, it looked like it was heading for Hogsmeade," Harry said.

Where could this have possibly let out? The forest surrounding it somewhere, maybe? That didn't really make sense either. How would anyone ever find the entrance? No. It had to be in a shop, like the one behind the one-eyed witch. "There are no doors and windows in the Shrieking Shack. I wonder if maybe... it's because the only way in and out is through this," I finally said.

"But - why?" Hermione breathed.

At the same moment, something else dawned on me. "Professor Lupin said that the Whomping Willow was planted here when he was a student," I said. Harry and Hermione clearly didn't understand. "What if they had a reason for this? What if the legends about the Shrieking Shack are just that? Legends. They wanted a passage and obviously wanted it well protected."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. I'm just offering my suggestion," I mumbled.

"Come on," Harry said, grabbing our arms.

He was right. We couldn't just stand here and wait. Ron was getting in more and more danger with each passing moment. So the three of us moved as fast as we could and as fast as we dared, bent almost double; ahead of us, Crookshanks's tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes. I had to be right. It had to be towards the Shrieking Shack. All I could think of during our trek was Ron and what the enormous dog might be doing to him... I was drawing breath in sharp, painful gasps, running at a crouch.

Almost five more minutes passed that the three of us simply wandered through the tunnel, increasingly desperate to get to the end and find out what had happened to Ron. My arm was tight on Harry's and Hermione's was tight around my shirt. The three of us were walking side-by-side, each of us shaking in our own way, when then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Where the hell were we? Instead of Crookshanks, I could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.

We had to be close to the entrance of wherever the tunnel let out. Still what I was thinking was the Shrieking Shack. I had been so prepared to get here. I had been so ready to make sure that Ron was okay. But right now I wished that I wasn't already there. I wished that we still had another minute or two to go. Harry, Hermione, and I paused, gasping for breath, edging forward. My hands were shaking as we inched forward into the entrance. All three of us raised our wands to see what lay beyond.

It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up. What the hell had happened in here? I could imagine that someone was exhausted. Likely they had been infuriated over something and had attempted to destroy the entire place. Wherever we were was very old and had clearly been destroyed recently. It appeared that we really were in the Shrieking Shack.

Or, at least, we were about to be in the Shrieking Shack. I took a few glances around to see if there was anything or anyone that I recognized. Nothing looked very familiar right now. Ron was nowhere in sight and neither was the giant dog. Had we somehow taken a wrong turn or done the wrong thing? Were we somehow in the wrong place or had they left and gone elsewhere? We had to find out. So Harry glanced at Hermione and I, who I was sure both looked very frightened but we both also nodded.

If we didn't move sometime soon, Ron would likely be dead by the time that we found him. That was enough to get the rest of us moving. Harry pulled himself out of the hole, staring around. I grabbed his open hand and motioned for him to pull me out. He yanked me up and I looked around. The room was deserted, but a door to our right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. It was the Shrieking Shack. I was positive. Hermione suddenly grabbed Harry's arm again. Her wide eyes were traveling around the boarded windows.

"Harry, Tara. I think you're right. I think we're in the Shrieking Shack," Hermione whispered.

"It has to be. It's the only thing that makes sense," I whispered back.

"You were right, Tara," Hermione said.

"I don't understand why they're connected, though," I said blankly.

Something didn't make sense here. Why would we ever need a passage that connected an abandoned house with no doors or windows to a killer tree? Why would someone have put this here? Unless... the Whomping Willow had been placed here to cover up the passageway. So that left one question. What had the passage been designed for? Actually, there were lots more questions, but that was the only one I could think about right now. I looked around. My eyes fell on a wooden chair near us. Large chunks had been torn out of it; one of the legs had been ripped off entirely.

"Ghosts didn't do that," Harry said slowly.

As I looked around, something else dawned on me. "Look around," I muttered.

"For what?" Harry asked.

"No blood," I answered, gazing around. "That's a good sign."

If there was no blood anywhere in the room, which meant that it was pretty likely that the large dog hadn't torn Ron limb from limb yet. Maybe we weren't too late to save him. At that moment, there was a creak overhead. Something had moved upstairs. My hands were tightening around my wand as all three of us looked up at the ceiling. Hermione's grip on both Harry and I's arms were so tight that I was losing feeling in my fingers. Turning to her, both Harry and I raised our eyebrows at her; she nodded again and let go of us.

As much as I would have loved to run in the other direction as fast as I could, I knew that there was no way that we could leave Ron here. Not with something that was destined to kill him. Quietly as we could, we crept out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. We all had to move incredibly slowly and carefully to ensure that they didn't creak or break. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made by something being dragged upstairs. Ron...

The worst part was that I couldn't hear Ron anymore. I couldn't hear him crying out in pain. I would have rather that than the complete silence that I was hearing right now. It only made me even more nervous that something had already happened to him. But I had seen no blood. He was fine. Pretty badly banged up with a broken leg, but he had to still be alive. Wrapping my hand around Harry and Hermione's, I led the two of them up the final few stairs. After what felt like an eternity, we reached the dark landing.

"Nox," all three of us whispered together, and the lights at the end of our wands went out.

My namesake spell. I never had actually learned if we were related to the witch or wizard who had originally come up with the spell. But I supposed that now was really the long time to be thinking about it. I glanced down the hallway. Only one door was open. That had to be the one that the black dog had dragged Ron into. No matter what, I needed to know what had happened to him. We all did. As we crept toward it, we heard movement from behind it; a low moan, and then a deep, loud purring. We exchanged a last look, a last nod.

That moan had to have been from Ron. It meant that he was still alive. Even if he was badly injured, we weren't that far from the school. We would easily be able to get back to the Hospital Wing and have him fixed up. The three of us inched forward slightly. I tried to glance ahead of us and peer into the room - just in case this was the set-up that it so desperately felt like - but the door was too far closed. We would have to actually enter the room. Wands held tightly before us, I nodded and watched as Harry kicked the door wide open.

On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of us. That crazy damn cat was going to either get us killed, or I was going to kill him. I couldn't stand it and I had somewhat of a feeling that this was partially Crookshanks' fault. To my complete surprise, on the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron. He wasn't dead. He wasn't even injured beyond the broken leg. The dog had left him alone. Harry, Hermione, and I dashed across to him.

"Ron - are you okay?" Hermione asked.

"Where's the dog?" Harry asked.

Leaning down, I pressed very gently on the leg. Ron groaned loudly but otherwise remained still. There was no doubt what the injury was. "Broken leg." I tried to shuffle through my head to remember the spell that Cedric had so often used to heal me, but it was stuck. Probably because I was scared of what was about to happen. "Damn it, Cedric taught me the spell for it..." I trailed off.

"Now is not the time for your boyfriend," Ron grunted.

"I'm trying to help you!" I snapped.

If I could remember that spell, I could at least heal Ron's leg. Or maybe make the pain just slightly better. "Not a dog," Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain.

Any thought of the spell went straight out of my head. "What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Harry, Tara, it's a trap -"

"What -?"

"He's the dog..." Ron grunted, "He's an Animagus..."

Harry and Hermione were still staring blankly. "I knew that dog was actually listening to me..." I whispered.

It dawned on me what the truth was. Everything finally made complete sense. I was sick to my stomach. I knew exactly what he was talking about. And suddenly everything started to fall into place. The dog at Magnolia Crescent. Everything with the Grim. The dog that was constantly following us. It wasn't just a normal dog. It was a human being that remained almost constantly in Animagus form. Ron was staring over our shoulders. We all wheeled around. With a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind us.

How could we not have seen him before? Maybe because that would have made things much better. My knees were shaking slightly as they threatened to cave out from underneath me. Voldemort liked to talk. I was sure that was the reason that Harry and I were still alive. Too much talking. But what about him? A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius Black.

As the others appeared about ready to pass out from shock, I instantly stumbled backwards. My legs were so shaky that I almost stumbled over the crooked floorboards. Despite everything that had happened to me - despite his horrible appearance - I noticed instantly that he looked rather familiar. Both from the photographs that I had seen of him since everything happened that put him in Azkaban. And also because he was my godfather. Some part of him just looked the slightest bit familiar. Something that chilled me to the bone.

His gaunt eyes were roaming over us as I thought back and remembered Professor Trelawney's prediction from earlier. She had predicted that the servant of Lord Voldemort would rise tonight. It made complete sense. We were standing right in front of him. Cedric was completely right that I shouldn't have come out here. Sirius Black was back and I was certain that he was about ready to kill us. I noticed Harry stiffen as I tried to move forward. To do what, I wasn't quite sure. It didn't matter. Harry grabbed my waist and pulled me back.

"Expelliarmus!" Black croaked, pointing Ron's wand at us.

Before we could get the chance to do anything back, Harry, Hermione, and I's wands shot out of our hands, high in the air, and Black caught them. We were unarmed and I knew very few wandless spells. They didn't even always work. We were likely about to die and we couldn't do anything about it. Even screaming wouldn't help. We were out in the abandoned side of Hogsmeade. Black's eyes roved over my wand curiously for a moment before he tucked it away. Then he took a step closer. His eyes were fixed on Harry and me.

"I thought you two would come and help your friend," Black said hoarsely.

His voice sounded as though he had long since lost the habit of using it. We had been completely predictable. Just as people always were. We had done the foolish thing. Black would have known exactly what we were doing. We had fallen right into his trap. But something had dawned on me. He was armed with three wands - two of which were very powerful - but he hadn't dared move forward to hurt us. Even right now he hadn't. If he hadn't broken Ron's leg, he wouldn't have actually hurt any of us at all. It was something that struck me as relatively strange.

"Your fathers would have done the same for me," Black said.

"My father still believes that you might be innocent," I said slowly.

"Tara -"

"Shut up," I interrupted Hermione.

If we were going to die here, I at least wanted to know what this was all about. "Sounds more like your mother," Black mumbled.

That was what everyone said. When I thought things out, I sounded more like Mom. When I was brash and thoughtless, I was more like Dad. The two of us stood and stared at each other for a long while. Everyone was as tense as could be, save Black, who looked surprisingly relaxed. I tried to search through the back of my mind for something to say to him, but I couldn't. I didn't know what I could say to Black that wouldn't involve a game of Twenty Questions or shouting every foul word that I knew at him.

"Brave of you two, not to run for a teacher," Black said.

"We prefer to deal with things ourselves," I snapped quickly.

The corners of Black's lips quirked upwards. "There's your father," he muttered.

"It's been a long time since you two have known each other."

"That's true..." Black said, looking almost regretful. I didn't know what to say back to him. "I'm grateful... this will make everything much easier..."

"Killing us?" I asked.

"Your father jumped to conclusions, too."

What the hell was that supposed to mean? The words didn't mean much to me for a few moments. I understood them all, but I couldn't string them together to form a coherent sentence. I couldn't figure out what they meant. Jumping to conclusions... What did it mean? Jumping to conclusions about him wanting to kill us? That was the only thing that I could think of, but it didn't make sense. Of course Black wanted to kill us. We already knew that. But, then, why hadn't he done it yet? I didn't understand.

But there was something else that was bothering me. Not just the fact that he hadn't killed us - that was actually quite pleasing. I wasn't keen to die anytime soon. No; it was his words that were bothering me. He was acting like nothing had ever happened between himself and my parents. He was acting like he still knew them. Not that he had almost caused their deaths. And that was exactly what he had done. That wasn't something that I would be able to get over anytime soon. I needed to have my answers. I needed to know why he betrayed them.

Turning to the side briefly, I saw that Harry was practically shaking with anger. I knew what he was thinking. The taunt about Harry's father was clearly ringing in Harry's ears as though Black had bellowed it. Even from here I could see it; a boiling hate that had erupted in Harry's chest, leaving no place for fear. His hands were twitching, likely for his wand. I could assume that he wanted it, not to defend himself, but to attack… to kill. Harry started forward, but there was a sudden movement on either side of him as Ron and Hermione grabbed him and held him back.

"No, Harry!" Hermione gasped in a petrified whisper; Ron, however, spoke to Black.

"If you want to kill Harry and Tara, you'll have to kill us too!" he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke.

To my horror, Ron was trying to push past Harry and I to stand in front of us. The last thing that I wanted was for him to get himself hurt or killed. That was a nightmare for us. We were supposed to die; honestly, we should have died a long time ago. We shouldn't have brought Ron and Hermione around here. We were going to end up getting them killed. To my surprise, something flickered in Black's shadowed eyes. Something that looked almost like... sadness?

"Lie down. You will damage that leg even more," Black said quietly to Ron.

It was that comment right there. My spine straightened out as my eyes shot straight to Black's. They all seemed to notice my sudden change in stature as the others shifted to look at me. But my eyes were still on his. Something about that last comment struck me as funny. I saw the look in Black's eyes when he had said it. He looked almost bothered by the thought that we thought that he would kill us. Now he looked bothered at the sight of Ron in pain. That didn't make sense. None of this was making sense to me.

Something finally dawned on me as time seemed to finally slow. Things were very slowly falling into place - leaving lots of little holes in the story - but I did understand a little bit now. When Black was in his Animagus form, he bit down on Ron's arm. But why did he go after Ron? To lure us away? That didn't make sense. He could have done it quickly and quietly out there. Plus, why bite down on his arm? It wasn't a fatal place. It gave Ron the chance to scream and draw attention to himself. Us too. So why didn't he just kill us right then?

"Did you hear me?" Ron asked weakly, though he was clinging to Harry to stay upright. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"

"There'll be only one murder here tonight," Black said, and his grin widened.

"Who?" I asked sharply, looking to Harry.

"Why's that?" Harry spat before I got my answer, still trying to wrench himself free of Ron and Hermione. "Didn't care last time, did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew... What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"

"Harry! Be quiet!" Hermione whimpered.

Something still wasn't sitting right with me. Something here didn't make sense. We were still alive. Why were we still alive? Everyone said that Black wanted Harry and I dead; he had the chance, but hadn't done it yet. There was something wrong about this entire thing. Even more than the obvious. It just didn't make sense. Nothing was adding up. Harry was obviously not thinking, only using anger and goading Black. But Black still hadn't attacked and seemed to be effortlessly calm. Why was it?

"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry roared.

"He did not! Voldemort did!" I shouted back.

Everyone's shocked gazes alerted me to what I had said. I couldn't even be sure what I had said it. Black gave me a startled look. "Are you insane?" Harry asked, going ghostly white. "He would have killed yours, too!"

"Listen to me," I begged. "Something doesn't make sense here - Harry!"

With a huge effort he broke free of Hermione's and Ron's restraint and lunged forward. I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen it coming. How had I not realized that Harry was going to do something like that? I just wanted Harry to listen to me. I wanted them all to listen to me. Something wasn't making sense here. There was a massive problem with this entire thing. We were still alive and Black hadn't once made a move to hurt us. He was just leaving a slight distance. Of course, Harry quickly changed that.

With a few steps he had completely crossed the room and moved to attack Black. A fool's move. Something that - having known Harry for as long as I had - I should have seen coming. Harry had obviously forgotten about magic - he had forgotten that he was short and skinny and thirteen, whereas Black was a tall, full-grown man. The fight would be completely and unfairly matched, despite Black's lack of muscles from lack of food. All I knew was that Harry wanted to hurt Black as badly as he could and that he didn't care how much he got hurt in return.

"Stop it! Stop!" I shouted.

If Black wasn't going to kill us before, I was absolutely positive that he was going to kill us now. Chances were that he would be infuriated right now - at least, now that he'd been attacked. Perhaps it was the shock of Harry doing something so stupid, but Black didn't raise the wands in time - one of Harry's hands fastened over his wasted wrist, forcing the wand tips away; the knuckles of Harry's other hand collided with the side of Black's head and they fell, backward, into the wall. Well this just got about ten times worse...

Hermione was screaming; Ron was yelling; there was a blinding flash as the wands in Black's hand sent a jet of sparks into the air that missed Harry's face by inches. I darted forward to try and push Harry off of Black. To my surprise, when Black pushed me backwards, it wasn't that hard, almost like he was trying to avoid injuring me. What? Black's shrunken arm under Harry's fingers was twisting madly, but Harry clung on, his other hand punching every part of Black it could find. But Black's free hand had found Harry's throat.

"Get off of each other!" I howled.

"No," Black hissed, "I've waited too long -"

What did that mean? Waited too long for what? To kill us? Why hadn't he done it immediately? Black's fingers tightened, Harry choked, his glasses askew. Then Hermione pushed me out of the way and swung her foot out of nowhere. Black let go of Harry with a grunt of pain. As I stared at them, lost in my own world, Ron had thrown himself on Black's wand hand and I heard a faint clatter. Still standing back, I watched as Harry fought free of the tangle of bodies and saw his own wand rolling across the floor; he threw himself toward it but -

"Argh!" Harry shouted.

Crookshanks had joined the fray; both sets of front claws had sunk themselves deep into Harry's arm. Fearful for a moment and feeling guilty that I wasn't even trying to help my friends, I rushed forward and kicked out at Crookshanks. He instantly hooked his claws into my leg. I dropped onto my knee, in pain from the sharp puncture wounds. This was exactly the reason that I was growing to hate cats. Crookshanks, Mrs. Norris... Harry ran over to me, grabbed Crookshanks and threw him off, but Crookshanks now darted toward Harry's wand.

"NO YOU DON'T!" Harry roared.

All three of us stumbled backwards. I hit the ground and pulled a pack of gum out of my pockets, throwing it at Crookshanks. It didn't do much. He ran back after me. As I stumbled back, Harry darted in front of me to defend myself from the crazy cat. Harry aimed a kick at Crookshanks that made the cat leap aside, spitting. We both darted off to the side again. As I tried to slip my wand out of my pocket to stun Crookshanks and keep him out of the fray, Harry snatched up his wand and turned.

"Get out of the way!" Harry shouted at Ron and Hermione.

They didn't need telling twice. Hermione, gasping for breath, her lip bleeding, scrambled aside, snatching up her and Ron's wands. It was at that same moment that I felt the blood trickling down my legs from Crookshanks' claws. The split in my head had opened again and was still dripping blood - probably from my impact with the floor. Ron crawled to the four-poster and collapsed onto it, panting, his white face now tinged with green, both hands clutching his broken leg. He had to have been in an immense amount of pain.

As much as I knew that this was the time to stun Black and make a run for it with the rest of my friends - back to the castle where we could bring some help - I also had to know. I had to know why Sirius Black had sold out his best friends. I had to know why he had gotten away from Azkaban yet come straight back here. And I couldn't get any of those things if Black was dead. I needed him alive and not in a prison. So I did something very stupid - something that I so frequently found myself doing. I threw myself in front of Black, who looked stunned at the turn of events.

"Tara, move!" Harry yelled.

"Stop. Put the wand down," I said, holding my arms out.

If nothing else, I knew that Harry wouldn't risk cursing me. "What are you doing?" Harry asked breathlessly.

"I need to know," I said, breathing heavily. My voice was cracking, despite not having done much work. "I need to know why he did it."

"Who cares? He killed my parents! He almost killed yours!" Harry yelled.

"I care!" I yelled back. "I need to know."

"The same brave little fool that your father is," Black laughed.

The taunt about my father was almost enough to make me whirl back and send a curse straight to his heart. But I didn't. Despite everything, I wanted to keep him alive long enough to tell me why he had done what he had done. What would cause him to do something that I was so confident that I would do to my own friends at some point? Black was sprawled at the bottom of the wall. His thin chest rose and fell rapidly as he watched Harry walking slowly nearer, his wand pointing straight at Black's heart. I instantly stepped back in front of him.

"Tara - move," Harry breathed.

Walking to meet him halfway, I forced myself not to reach out and touch him. We had to stay alert. Just in case... "Don't you want to know? Get some answers before you do this?" I asked softly.

"Going to kill me, Harry? Or will you listen to Tara?" Black whispered.

"Don't taunt him. This is the only reason that you're still alive," I warned.

How could Black still be taunting us at a moment like this? I was just barely managing to keep myself from attacking Black. It was almost impossible to keep Harry from doing the same thing. I needed to talk to Black. I needed to know why this had all happened. Keeping myself between Harry and Black, Harry walked as close as possible. He stopped right above Black and in front of me, his wand still pointing at Black's chest, looking down at him. A livid bruise was rising around Black's left eye and his nose was bleeding.

"You killed my parents. You almost killed Tara's," Harry said, his voice shaking slightly, but his wand hand quite steady.

Black stared up at him out of those sunken eyes. "I need to know why. Tell us why," I said, my voice cracking again.

"I don't deny it. But if you knew the whole story," Black said very quietly.

"The whole story?" Harry repeated.

"Tell us," I said, a furious pounding in my ears.

"You sold them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know," Harry interrupted.

"Shut up!" I snapped at Harry. "I want to know."

"Listen to her, Harry. You've got to listen to me. Both of you," Black said, and there was a note of urgency in his voice now. My eyebrow raised. Any taunting in his voice was gone. He sounded desperate for us to actually know what had happened. Almost as desperate as I felt. "You'll both regret it if you don't. You don't understand."

"Let us understand," I said.

"I understand a lot better than you think," Harry said, and his voice shook more than ever.

"Stop!" I shouted, wheeling around to face him. "Stop talking."

But it was like Harry was deaf to my pleas. "You never heard her, did you?" Harry asked Black. "My mum... trying to stop Voldemort killing me... and you did that... you did it..."

It made complete sense about how desperately Harry wanted to kill Black. I would have wanted to kill him too if were Harry; if I had lost my parents to him. But that didn't change things. It didn't change the fact that I needed to know why Black had done it. I needed to know why a man would betray his best friends. Before either of them could say another word, something ginger streaked past Harry; Crookshanks leapt onto Black's chest and settled himself there, right over Black's heart. Black blinked and looked down at the cat.

"Get off," he murmured, trying to push Crookshanks off him.

It was yet another thing that struck me as odd about Black. "Come on, Harry. He won't even let you kill the cat to get to him. There's something wrong here," I said. Harry was giving me a horrified look. Obviously he thought that I was insane for even wanting to listen to Black for just a moment. "We're missing something, Harry. Listen to me, we're missing something."

"You know what he did," Harry begged, his voice breaking.

"I know, but I know that something's wrong here," I said softly.

"Tara -"

Neither one of us got the chance to say anything back to each other. We couldn't. Anything that the two of us could say right now would lead to a massive fight. That wasn't something that we could afford. Before I could figure out what I wanted to say to Harry, Crookshanks sank his claws into Black's robes and wouldn't shift. If we wanted to kill Black, we were going to have to kill Crookshanks too. What would Hermione say? The cat turned his ugly, squashed face to Harry and looked up at him with those great yellow eyes. To our right, Hermione gave a dry sob.

We couldn't kill the poor cat. He hadn't done anything wrong. Black was the one who had done something wrong. Harry and I both stared down at Black and Crookshanks; I could see Harry's grip tightening on the wand. Weighing back and forth the merits of what to do. So was I. So what if we had to kill the cat too? Obviously he was in league with Black... If he was prepared to die, trying to protect Black, that wasn't either of our business... If Black wanted to save it, that only proved he cared more for Crookshanks than for Harry's parents...

But something was still striking me as strange. He wanted to protect the cat. He had just said so. How did that make sense? Black was willing to die to protect a cat but he had sold out his best friends? None of this made any sense. As I had thought so many times before, something was very wrong here. Harry raised his wand. I knew what he was thinking. Now was the moment to do it. Now was the moment to avenge his mother and father. He was going to kill Black. He had to kill Black. This was his chance...

Having known Harry for as long as I had, though, I knew that he couldn't just kill Black. Not in cold blood. Not the way that Black had killed the rest of Harry's family. Not the way that he had almost killed mine. For a moment my hand twitched on my wand. He almost killed your parents... Do it! The seconds lengthened. It felt like hours had passed that we all just stood and stared at each other. Still Harry and I stood frozen there, wand poised, Black staring up at us, Crookshanks on his chest. Ron's ragged breathing came from near the bed; Hermione was quite silent.

Finally I decided to make the first move. "Stop, Harry," I said, reaching over to his shoulder. "Just let him explain. You can kill him after if that's what you really need to do. But listen to him. What'll it hurt?"

"He killed them," Harry said, not looking away from Black.

"I know. But you should know why," I whispered.

If there was one thing that either one of us deserved, it was the knowledge of what had happened. Even though it had been twelve years ago, we needed to know. I needed to know what would make someone do something like that. What might end up making me do it? Harry stared at Black for a little while longer before I finally leaned over and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. The two of us stood together as I brushed back the hair that had fallen in his eyes. He was going to be okay. We were all going to be okay.

Just a few more minutes and this would all be over. The moment that we were done I would let Harry kill him. It could all be over. The Ministry could pick up his body and the manhunt would be done with. But right now, we needed to know. Before any of us could make our next move, there came a new sound. Muffled footsteps were echoing up through the floor - someone was moving downstairs. We were out of time. Someone must have seen what was happening out on the grounds and come to check on us.

"WE'RE UP HERE! WE'RE UP HERE - SIRIUS BLACK - QUICK!" Hermione screamed suddenly.

"No!" I gasped, realizing that we were going to lose our window of opportunity. "What are you doing?"

"Are you mad?" Hermione cried.

"I need to know, Hermione!"

Each one of us made a sudden move and I was sure that none of us actually knew what we were doing. Just trying to do something before we were caught by the person downstairs. Black made a startled movement that almost dislodged Crookshanks; obviously he was trying to get away before the new threat burst through the door. Harry gripped his wand convulsively. Do it now! a voice in my head yelled at me. But the footsteps were thundering up the stairs and neither Harry nor I had worked up the nerve to do it.

We hadn't killed him or gotten the truth of what had happened that night. The door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks and I wheeled around as Professor Lupin came hurtling into the room, his face bloodless, his wand raised and ready. Of all the people that I had expected to come in here, he wasn't one of them. His eyes flickered over Ron, lying on the floor, over Hermione, cowering next to the door, to me, clearly very conflicted on what to do, to Harry, standing there with his wand covering Black, and then to Black himself, crumpled and bleeding at our feet.

"Expelliarmus!" Lupin shouted.

To my surprise, the spell actually hit us that time. My wand flew once more out of my hand; so did the two Hermione was holding and so did Harry's. It seemed like we just weren't going to be able to hold our wands for more than a few moments today. Either way, we had just lost any chance at an explanation or a chance to hurt him. Professor Lupin caught all of our wands deftly, then moved into the room, staring at Black, who still had Crookshanks lying protectively across his chest.

If Professor Lupin looked surprised to see the man that had once been one of his best friends, he was doing a rather good job of hiding it. It really looked like he was debating on what curse to use on Black. Harry, Hermione, and I stood there; Ron was still sitting on the ground. He looked about ready to pass out from the pain. I found myself feeling suddenly empty. We hadn't done it. Our nerve had failed us. Black was going to be handed back to the Dementors. There would be no explanation and no revenge.

"Professor Lupin..." I whispered.

But I couldn't figure out what I wanted to say after that. My words were still failing me. Was there even anything to say right now? I didn't think so. We just had to stand here and wait it out. Everyone stayed in an awkward and tense silence for a long time. We were all still trying to figure out what had just happened. Every time that I glanced over at Professor Lupin, I saw that he was still merely staring at Black. The silence was starting to turn dangerous. Finally Professor Lupin spoke, in a very tense voice.

"Where is he, Sirius?"

My jaw loosened slightly. What was that supposed to mean? Something wasn't making sense here. Actually, nothing had made sense for a long while, but now things made even less sense. Harry and I exchanged a brief look. Clearly he didn't understand what was happening any better than I did. Then I looked quickly at Professor Lupin. For the life of me, I didn't understand what Professor Lupin meant. Who was Professor Lupin talking about? Us? We were right here. Black? He was also here. Who else was there? I turned to look at Black again.

His face was almost - if not just as much - as expressionless as it had been before. He made no movements or speeches to answer Professor Lupin or even indicate that he really understood what he was talking about. We all simply stared at each other. No one spoke and no one moved. For a few seconds, Black didn't move at all. Then, very slowly, he raised his empty hand and pointed straight at Ron. What the hell did Ron have anything to do with this? Mystified, I glanced around at Ron, who looked bewildered.

"What -?"

"But then..." Professor Lupin muttered, interrupting me, staring at Black so intently it seemed he was trying to read his mind, "Why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless," Professor Lupin's eyes suddenly widened, as though he was seeing something beyond Black, something none of the rest could see, "unless he was the one... unless you switched... without telling me?"

If there was ever a moment that I felt like a complete fool. What were they talking about? Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Professor Lupin's face, Black nodded. Just like the rest of us, I sat there, completely dumbfounded. What were they talking about? Why couldn't I make sense of this? I was always good at puzzles, but this one just didn't click. What could the two of them have switched? Nothing made sense right now. There was something so strange - even more than expected - about what was happening right now. There was something very wrong.

"Professor," Harry interrupted loudly, "what's going on -?"

But Professor Lupin was clearly preoccupied with Black. He seemed to have barely noticed that we were here. "Well, well, Sirius. Looking rather ragged, aren't we? Finally, the flesh reflects the madness within," Professor Lupin said.

There was something teasing, almost friendly, about the way that Professor Lupin was speaking to Black. "Well, you'd know all about the madness within, wouldn't you?" Black shot back.

He was wearing something akin to a smile on his face as he stared up at Professor Lupin. Whatever it was that Harry had been planning on saying before didn't matter, because he never finished the question. It was what we saw next that made all of our voices die in our throats. Professor Lupin was lowering his wand, gazing fixedly at Black. The Professor walked to Black's side, seized his hand, pulled him to his feet so that Crookshanks fell to the floor, and embraced Black like a brother. My jaw dropped, as did my stomach and heart.

"I found him," Black said, gripping desperately to Professor Lupin's shoulders.

"I know," Professor Lupin said.

"It's him."

"I understand."

"Let's kill him!"

Was I wrong about this entire thing? Had Professor Lupin been in league with Black this entire time? Were they both plotting to kill us? Suddenly I felt as though the bottom had dropped out of my stomach. This entire thing was getting stranger and stranger by the moment. Especially this moment right here. I knew that the two of them were once friends, but it turned out that they were still friends. As much as I wanted to boil with hatred, Professor Lupin's previous words were still trapped, thrashing against my skull. What did they switch? That was when it dawned on me. Fudge's story...

"I don't believe it!" Hermione screamed.

But her call was made on deaf ears. I merely stared at them all. Things were finally starting to click into place. Granted, there were still about five thousand plot holes in the entire story, but things were slowly starting to fit. At least, little bits of the story. Professor Lupin suddenly let go of Black and turned to Hermione. I wanted to say something, but I wasn't quite sure where to start. I had more questions than I knew what to do with. Hermione had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Professor Lupin, wild-eyed.

"You - You -"

"Hermione -"

"- you and him!"

"Hermione, calm down -"

"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you -"

"Hermione, listen to me, please!" Professor Lupin shouted. "I can explain -"

Honestly I needed to speak to them all. I could see Harry shaking, not with fear, but with a fresh wave of fury. They must have thought that this was an utter betrayal. But I had an inkling of what was happening... "Listen -"

"Tara!" Harry yelled.

Like always, he knew what I was going to say before I said it. "Stop! Okay? All of you, just stop!" I shouted, turning to the other three. Professor Lupin and Black looked bewildered. "Think for a damn second. None of this makes sense!"

"Of course it doesn't!" Harry shouted back. "It -"

"Enough! There is something wrong here!" I yelled.

"Tara -"

"Doesn't this strike any of you as strange?" I hissed, interrupting Hermione's attempt at speaking to me. I just had to get this out there. "Doesn't any bit of this seem a little suspicious? We aren't dead! There's a reason that we're not dead!" I whirled around to Black. "You - You're the dog that I used to see wandering around Magnolia Crescent, aren't you?"

"Yes," he said softly.

"See! I was around you plenty of times before this all happened. If he had really wanted us dead - like everyone thinks - we would have already been dead! I was out there alone, at night, inches away from you. No one was out there. You could have killed me if that was what you wanted." Black's eyes flickered. "Harry, we were out there, just the two of us, when he came back. We would have been dead! But we're not! Doesn't that strike you as a little strange? He's been here, at Hogwarts, with us not that far away, and he still hasn't attacked us! Professor Lupin has clearly been friendly with him."

"Tara," Professor Lupin started, advancing on me, "you have to -"

"No!" I shouted, interrupting him again, taking a few steps away from him. "If he had wanted to, he could have killed us! I've been in his office - alone - with him at least four times. He could have easily killed me. You've been alone with him before too! We both have, during the Patronus lessons. Why would he teach us something to keep us safe if he wanted us dead?"

"Because," Hermione started, "he -"

"There's no reason!" I interrupted, now shouting at them again. "There - is - none! Something is wrong here! Something doesn't make sense! I've seen you a thousand times before," I said, my voice dropping off as I looked back at Black. "Professor Trelawney was right about something. She was seeing a big black dog. It wasn't the Grim - it was you. And you could have killed us at least twenty times already if you'd really wanted to."

"Tara -"

"Don't!" I interrupted Black.

"He almost killed me!" Ron shouted.

"No, he didn't!" I yelled back. "Clearly he's been an Animagus at least since he was a kid in Hogwarts. He knows how to control himself in dog form. He has to. He's old enough. He knew that he was going after your leg, not at all a vital place. If nothing else, he was doing it to lure us in here. But that doesn't make sense. If he had wanted to kill us, he could have done it out there. No one was around. No one would have heard us. He saw us before we saw him. He could have torn out our throats before we'd even gotten a chance to scream. All of us. Why take Ron? Why drag him here?"

"You can't honestly be defending him?" Harry asked.

"Of course not! I'm just trying to figure it out!" I shouted.

"We know what happened! He killed my parents! He almost killed yours!" Harry yelled.

"Harry," Professor Lupin started, "please -"

"What were you talking about?" I interrupted, turning to face Professor Lupin. "You switched?"

Professor Lupin pushed his hands out towards me, almost in a defenseless position. "You must listen to me, Tara. All of you. It won't make sense if you don't," Professor Lupin said.

His voice seemed to fade off into oblivion. He was still speaking and it seemed like he wasn't planning on stopping speaking anytime soon. He was saying something about how important it was for us all to let them tell us about what had been happening, but I had stopped listening long ago. Right as Professor Lupin started to explain, something dawned on me. There was only one thing that they could have switched that would make Sirius Black innocent - as it seemed that Professor Lupin thought he was. It was that story that they had told Madam Rosmerta...

"You weren't their Secret-Keeper..." I whispered.

Both Professor Lupin and Black looked straight at me. So did Hermione, Harry, and Ron. "What?" Hermione breathed.

"You switched. That's what you switched," I reasoned.

Harry and Ron were clearly clueless. But Black was smiling - something that made him look just slightly healthier. "I knew that you were bright. Brighter than either one of your parents ever were at your age," Black said.

"Sirius -"

"I trusted you," Harry shouted at Professor Lupin, interrupting him, his voice wavering out of control, "and all the time you've been his friend!"

There went getting the chance to ask them if I was right. "You're wrong. I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now - Let me explain," Professor Lupin said.

"No! Harry, Tara, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too - he's a werewolf!" Hermione screamed.

Evidently even someone as smart as Hermione could manage to fall for the presumptions that werewolves were dangerous to normal people. But they were normal people. They simply had to be a little more careful with what they were doing on full moons. With Hermione's words, there was a ringing silence. Harry and Ron were always too dense to realize what was right in front of their eyes. In fact, all of Hogwarts was. Everyone's eyes were now on Professor Lupin, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale.

Deciding to break the silence, I stepped forward. "I know what he is! We spoke about it! It doesn't make any difference to me! It shouldn't make any difference to you either!" I shouted back. "It's not being a werewolf that makes someone evil. It's the kind of person that they are."

"Well that's much appreciated, Tara," Professor Lupin said, looking rather grateful for my words. "And not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione. Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry or Tara dead..."

An odd shiver passed over his face. "I told you!" I yelled.

"But I won't deny that I am a werewolf," Professor Lupin continued.

Ron made a valiant effort to get up again but fell back with a whimper of pain. Professor Lupin made toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped, "Get away from me, werewolf!"

"Ron!" I yelped.

Ron whipped around to me and asked, "How are you on his side?"

"I'm not! I just want to know what the hell's happening!" I shouted.

They were all so annoying. They never wanted to stop and ask questions. They just believed everything the way that it was. Professor Lupin stopped dead. Then, with an obvious effort, he turned to Hermione and said, "How long have you known?"

"Ages. Since I did Professor Snape's essay," Hermione whispered.

"Your final clue," Professor Lupin told me, laughing humorlessly.

"I knew beforehand," I responded.

"He'll be delighted," Professor Lupin said coolly, in regards to Professor Snape's essay. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant... Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"

That was when it clearly started to dawn on Harry. "That was what you went back for. Not to ask a question about the Boggart essay," Harry said.

"Yes," I said.

"Both," Hermione said quietly.

Professor Lupin forced a laugh. "If it weren't for Tara, I would say that you're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione." Despite what was happening, I smiled slightly. "Although you are a Muggle-Born. Something that even Tara doesn't have going for her," Professor Lupin continued.

"I'm not. If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!" Hermione yelled.

"I've told you before, it's not being a werewolf that makes someone evil!" I shouted back.

"You knew and didn't tell anyone, Tara," Hermione said.

"You think that Professor Dumbledore honestly didn't know?" I snapped.

"As usual, Tara, you are correct on all accounts," Professor Lupin said before turning back to Hermione. "Because they do already know. At least, the staff do."

"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf? Is he mad?" Ron gasped.

"He obviously knew him as a student!" I shouted.

There was nothing wrong with Professor Lupin being a werewolf. It was Sirius Black who was the real problem right now. "Correct again. Some of the staff thought so," Professor Lupin said. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy -"

"AND HE WAS WRONG! YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!" Harry yelled.

"Would you stop?" I shouted over him.

"What is wrong with you?" Harry asked breathlessly, turning back to me.

"I need to know, Harry! I need to know everything!" I yelled.

Harry let out a deep breath as he slowly walked up to me. It looked like he was trying to keep from losing it. "For once, Tara, just once, forget about it! Remember what he almost did to your family!" Harry bellowed.

"It wasn't him! He wasn't the Secret-Keeper..." I groaned.

Now who was the Secret-Keeper was going to be the next question. But, honestly, I needed to know why he had switched first. And I had to make absolutely sure that I was right about this. Ron was confusedly pointing at Black, who suddenly crossed to the four-poster bed and sank onto it, his face hidden in one shaking hand. Was I actually right? It certainly seemed that way right about now. Crookshanks leapt up beside Black and stepped onto his lap, purring. Ron edged away from both of them, dragging his leg.

"Tara is correct." My jaw almost dropped. I hadn't been expecting to actually be right. "I have not been helping Sirius," Professor Lupin said. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look -"

He separated Harry's, Ron's, Hermione's, and my own wands and threw each back to its owner. That was my proof that we weren't going to be in any danger. They trusted us enough to leave themselves unarmed while we were. Now I just had to make sure that Harry didn't set a spell off before we got our answers. As Professor Lupin threw my wand last, I caught it, still mildly stunned.

"There," Professor Lupin said, sticking his own wand back into his belt. "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"

For a moment I didn't know what to think. Was there a chance that it was a trick? No... I firmly believed that this was honest. I believed that neither one of them wanted us dead. "Do you believe me now?" I asked the others.

Before they got a chance to answer me, Harry turned to Professor Lupin. "If you haven't been helping him, how did you know he was here?" Harry asked, with a furious glance at Black.

"The map. The Marauder's Map," Professor Lupin said. "I was in my office examining it -"

"You know how to work it?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Of course I know how to work it," Professor Lupin said, waving his hand impatiently.

Moony... Hah... They had clearly had quite the sense of humor. "You were one of the writers," I said blankly.

Professor Lupin glanced over at me with something akin to a smile. "My, my, Tara. I always knew that you were my brightest student, but even I underestimated you," he said.

"Clearly," I said.

"He - He wrote it?" Hermione asked.

For all of the moments that Hermione made me feel like a moron, it was moments like these that I wondered how she had marks as high as she did. "With the help of the rest of their friends. Remember 'their little gang' that Madam Rosmerta was talking about?" They all nodded. "It was them with the rest of their friends. Think about the map. Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Moony. Him." I pointed at Professor Lupin. "Werewolf - the moon. Padfoot. Obviously him." I pointed at Black. "A dog; they have paws with pads on the bottom. Mane. That's Dad, isn't it?" I asked.

"How did you know?" Professor Lupin asked, surprised.

Shrugging my shoulders, I said, "He's always had a strange fascination with cats. He loves them. Lions in particular." Professor Lupin blew out a puff of air. "Lions have a mane. That's his Patronus, isn't it? Or was he an Animagus too?"

"First of us to learn how," Black said.

"Of course," I scoffed. Mom must have never known. She would lose her mind. "He always loved breaking the rules. Who are the others? Prongs and Wormtail? Obviously one is James and the other is Peter Pettigrew."

"Astoundingly clever girl you are. I'd barely believe that you were your father's daughter," Black said, a wicked grin spreading over his face.

"Don't talk about him," I snapped. "Not until I know what happened."

"Is she telling the truth?" Harry asked.

"Yes. I helped write it. Like Tara said, I'm Moony - that was my friends' nickname for me at school."

"You really wrote -?"

"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you two, Ron, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"

Professor Lupin had started to pace up and down, looking at us. Little patches of dust rose at his feet. "Of course. You know us," I said.

"You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry -"

"How d'you know about the cloak?" Harry interrupted.

"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it..." Professor Lupin interrupted, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."

"What? No, we weren't!" Harry yelped.

Had someone else been with us? No. The only extra living thing that we had brought with us from Hagrid's hut was... Scabbers... It was slowly dawning on me. The truth of what was happening. It was the very thing that had always struck me as being so strange about Scabbers the rat. Back on the Hogwarts Express in our First Year, Ron had gotten the spell from Fred and George to turn him yellow. If it was a real spell, wouldn't it have been for a rat? Just a normal rat. What if the spell was used on something that was just disguised as a rat?

"I couldn't believe my eyes," Professor Lupin said, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"

"No one was with us!" Harry yelped.

"Yes, someone was with us," I said softly.

Now they were all looking at me like I was insane. "And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black..." Professor Lupin continued, still ignoring us. "I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow -"

"One of us!" Ron said angrily.

"No, Ron. Two of you," Professor Lupin said.

He had stopped his pacing, his eyes moving over Ron. To my surprise, Black briefly rose up off of the bed to dash over to Professor Lupin. "Enough talk, Remus! Come on, let's kill him!" Black yelled, motioning vaguely around.

"Wait!" Professor Lupin yelled.

"I did my waiting!" Black shouted, his voice shaking from a clear lack of use. "Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!"

It was easy enough to see that we all jumped from the sudden increase in volume. I hadn't been expecting that. I'd barely been expecting him to say anything. It finally dawned on me as I stared at Black. Things were starting to make much more sense. There was a reason that Sirius Black never went mad in Azkaban. It was because he didn't have to deal with the knowledge of what he had done. Because, for all of this time, he had been completely innocent. Maybe he did something wrong, but he was not the reason that Harry had lost his parents and I had almost lost mine.

Sirius Black wasn't a man who was guilty for a crime of anything more than extenuating circumstances. At the same moment that the truth of Black's past came to light in my mind, something else occurred to me. It was the thing that had always creeped me out so much about Scabbers. I finally realized what it was about the rat that had never made sense. Especially because of the age. There was no way that Scabbers was just a normal rat. It all came together at the exact same moment. The crucial turning point in my head.

"You weren't going for Ron..." I breathed.

"No, I wasn't," Black admitted.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked.

"Remember how desperately Scabbers was trying to get away from you?" I said.

"Yes, but it was just because he was afraid of what was happening. He must not have wanted to be captured again. Either that, or he saw Crookshanks coming up," Ron said.

"No, he didn't. He saw you," I told Black.

"Yes," Black responded softly.

Very slowly, I turned back to Ron. "Ron, how old is Scabbers?" I asked.

"What? He's - He's..." Ron searched back through his head, clearly having a hard time thinking past the pain of the broken leg. "I don't know. Thirteen, fourteen?"

Yes... The timing worked out perfectly. "Oh, Ron..." I muttered, stumbling back a step.

"What are you on about?" Ron asked.

"Listen to your friend, she's put it together," Black said, something almost like... pride... shining in the depths of his sunken eyes.

"Where did you get Scabbers from?" I asked Ron.

"What? I - I don't know. A breeder?" Ron offered.

He wouldn't have even been old enough to remember where they had gotten Scabbers. He would have been a baby. Maybe Percy knew, but definitely not Ron. "No, not twelve years ago, you didn't," I replied.

"We did!" Ron barked. "He's -"

"Twelve years?" Black asked, regaining his voice. "Curiously long life for a common garden rat!"

"Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" Professor Lupin asked evenly, interrupting the tense moment.

"What? What's Scabbers got to do with it?" Ron asked.

"Everything. Could I see him, please?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Give him the rat, Ron. Do you trust me?" I asked.

"Of course," Ron said. "You're -"

"Give him Scabbers. Do it," I interrupted.

If they were about to tell me the truth of what was happening, I was more than happy for Ron to hand over his rat. Crookshanks meant nothing to me on the best of days, and now he meant less than ever. In fact, I was debating on stepping on him and squishing him and being done with this whole thing. Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately; Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him escaping. Crookshanks stood up on Black's leg and made a soft hissing noise.

Professor Lupin moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers. "What?" Ron asked again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"

"That's not a rat," Black croaked suddenly.

"What d'you mean - of course he's a rat -"

"Wormtail..." I muttered, staring at Scabbers' tail. "Oh... It's him..."

"Yes," Black said softly.

"Tara..." Harry muttered, obviously trying to piece things together too.

"Wormtail, indeed. No, he's not just a normal rat. He's a wizard," Professor Lupin said.

"An Animagus, by the name of Peter Pettigrew," Black said. Apparently I really was right about things. Although, being right this time meant that things were about to get far more complicated.


	54. Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

My head was spinning from everything that I had heard. Despite the fact that it hadn't been much so far - just that Scabbers the rat was apparently the deceased Peter Pettigrew. Perhaps it was also the simple fact that my head was still spinning slightly from having had the Whomping Willow whack me relatively hard earlier. Either way, I knew that it would have been a good idea to take a seat. But I didn't. I merely stayed staring at Professor Lupin and Sirius Black for a long time, looking for any hint that they were joking and that I had stupidly believed them.

But I knew that it was the truth. I knew that I was right this time, even though I wished that I hadn't been. There were many times that I liked being right. Arguing with Hermione, telling Ron that he had forgotten something, or just about any moment that I was with Harry. This was not one of the times that I wished that I was right. It would have been much easier for me to be wrong. We could attack Black and speak with Professor Lupin about everything that had happened in the past few minutes.

It would have been much easier if I could just believe Harry, Ron, and Hermione that they were lying. But I didn't believe them. I knew the truth. I knew that somehow Scabbers really was Peter Pettigrew. We were missing a lot of pieces of the puzzle, but they had to have been telling the truth. Even though things would have been much simpler if they weren't. No matter how absurd the statement was, it was the truth. I turned to the others and saw the disbelief in their eyes. They still thought that they were lying.

"You're both mental," Ron finally voiced.

"Ridiculous!" Hermione yelped faintly.

"They're not mental," I said, so softly that I barely heard it.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione were looking at me like I had lost my mind. Even Professor Lupin and Black looked a little surprised that I believed them. "Are you mental too?" Ron asked disbelievingly.

Slowly I shook my head, watching Professor Lupin and Black, just to ensure that they wouldn't make a sudden move. "No, I just understand what's happening right now. Not all of it, not nearly all of it. But things are starting to make sense. If you would stop getting so angry with them, things might make a little more sense to you all too," I pointed out.

"Tara," Hermione started softly, "you can't honestly think that you're right about this?"

She was speaking softly to keep from upsetting me. The only thing that was upsetting me was the fact that they never believed me. "I think that I've been right about everything so far," I pointed out.

"What're you -?"

"Don't be an idiot, Harry," I interrupted. "All of you. When have I really been wrong? I told you that it wasn't Snape back in First Year. I didn't know who had done it, but I knew that it wasn't him. I was right that it wasn't Malfoy who was the Heir of Slytherin. I knew that it wasn't Hagrid who had opened the Chamber of Secrets the first time. I knew that Tom Riddle's diary was bad news. And I'm telling you, right now, that they're telling the truth. I'm not sure what the entire truth is, but I think that..." Very slowly I turned towards Black. "I think that you're innocent."

The shock radiated on everyone's faces. Clearly no one had actually believed that I was going to side with Professor Lupin and Black. Actually, I still wasn't a hundred percent sure that I was on their side. The only thing that I knew was that they weren't lying to us about Scabbers being Pettigrew. It was the truth. Hermione was giving me a long and scrutinizing stare. Ron was staring at me open-mouthed. Harry looked in between strangling me and screaming. Professor Lupin looked stunned. Black's expression was indiscernible.

"Tara, I love you and I know how often you've been right, but you're wrong about this," Harry said. I turned to him and started shaking my head. He was wrong about this. I was right. "He's guilty. We know it!"

"No, we don't!" I shouted back. He was so blinded by hate that he couldn't see what was right in front of him. "We weren't around when all of this happened. At least, not old enough to remember. We're going off of stories."

"Who else can we believe?" Ron interjected.

It was like speaking to a bunch of monkeys. I would always love my friends. That much I would never doubt. They were wonderful and constantly made me laugh. They were my best friends. But that didn't change the fact that they were all a bunch of morons. The only two people - literally the only two, save Peter Pettigrew, who was currently a non-verbal rat - that knew the entire truth were standing in the room with us. We all wanted to know the truth, but they weren't even willing to listen to the only two that could give it to us, just because it sounded a little crazy.

"The two that were there!" I barked, motioning to Professor Lupin and Black.

"They'll just try and get us to believe them," Harry snarled.

Blinded by hatred... "You three are honestly so useless." I scoffed at the affronted look that Hermione was giving me and turned to Ron. "There's something wrong with Scabbers, Ron. Maybe he really is Peter Pettigrew. What will it hurt to listen for a few minutes?" I offered.

If we let them speak for ten minutes and explain the truth to us, we might actually manage to solve a twelve-year-old mystery. "Peter Pettigrew's dead! He killed him twelve years ago!" Harry yelled, pointing at Black, whose face twitched convulsively.

Everyone jumped at Harry's sudden outburst. "I meant to, but little Peter got the better of me," Black growled, his yellow teeth bared.

"What does that mean?" I asked curiously.

"Not this time, though!" Black yelped, otherwise ignoring me.

It turned out that Black really had wanted to kill Peter Pettigrew. But something was still bothering me. The two of them had been best friends years ago. So why, all of a sudden, did Sirius Black decide that he wanted to kill Peter Pettigrew? Could it have been because they had switched being the Potter's Secret-Keeper and Pettigrew had betrayed them? I supposed that it made just the slightest bit of sense. They had already essentially confirmed to me that Black hadn't been the Potter's Secret-Keeper. So wouldn't that have been the only way that the Potter's hiding spot had been given away?

My brain was racing a million miles a moment. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what had caused Black to switch in the first place. I could have just assumed that Pettigrew had been cornered by Voldemort to give away their location and had been too cowardly to die for their protection. Interrupting my confusing and never-ending thought process, Crookshanks was thrown to the floor as Black lunged at Scabbers; Ron yelled with pain as Black's weight fell on his broken leg. I gasped softly and moved forward, unsure of what I could do.

Black was a fully-grown man. I wouldn't be able to do anything. "Sirius, no!" Professor Lupin yelled, launching himself forwards and dragging Black away from Ron again, "Wait! You can't do it just like that - they need to understand - we've got to explain -"

"We can explain afterwards!" Black snarled, trying to throw Professor Lupin off.

As the two of them fought back and forth, I rolled my eyes so far back into my head that I was sure that they were going to get stuck back there. The two of them were acting like teenagers. I was trying very hard to keep my feet rooted in their place. I didn't want to step in and get involved with what was happening right now. This was their problem, not mine. Although I really could have used the two of them to relax and try to remember that I was trying to help them out. I really was trying as hard as I could, but they were only making things harder.

Even if I had wanted to step forward and try to end their fight, there was no way that I could. I simply wouldn't have been strong enough to try and stop them. Ron's leg was clearly killing him, but Black obviously wasn't trying to hurt Ron; he was simply continuing his quest to kill Scabbers. One of Black's hands was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to escape. It seemed that Ron was certainly not getting out of tonight without a laundry list of injuries.

"They've - got - a - right - to - know - everything!" Professor Lupin panted, still trying to restrain Black. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand! And Harry - you owe Harry and Tara the truth, Sirius! She's on your side!"

Harry and I exchanged a quick look with each other. I nodded at Harry, trying to keep him from doing or saying anything stupid. At long as no one overreacted, we would get our answers and be able to go from there. Black finally stopped struggling, though his hollowed eyes were still fixed - almost like one of Crookshanks' lingering gazes - on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, scratched, and bleeding hands. Black's gaze slowly turned to me and my skin crawled slightly. I wasn't really on his side. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

"Hang on," I said, glancing in between Black and Professor Lupin and the rest of my friends. They all stared at me confusedly. "I'm not on anyone's side. I just want to know the truth."

Professor Lupin leaned forward, pressing his palms out. "Please, Tara, listen to us," he begged softly.

"That's what I've been trying to do," I pointed out.

"All right, then," Black said, without taking his eyes off the rat. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."

It must have been Pettigrew that had sold out Lily and James Potter. That was the only thing that would have made sense. That had to have been the only reason that Black really wanted to kill Pettigrew. After all, hadn't Madam Rosmerta said that Pettigrew had hero-worshiped Black, James Potter, and my own father? My head started to ache at my temples, where I so often found myself getting stress headaches. Very slowly I walked forward, trying to make sure that I wasn't making a terrible mistake and that, for once, Harry and the others were right.

"Weren't you two friends?" I asked Black curiously.

His beady eyes slowly shifted towards me. I wasn't sure that I could read what was in them. Pity, exhaustion, and maybe longing. To be understood? It didn't make sense. "Much has changed since those days," Black said slowly.

"You're nutters, both of you," Ron said shakily to Professor Lupin and Black, looking round at Harry and Hermione for support. He then turned to me somewhat desperately. "Tara, come on. They're lying."

But I wasn't so sure that they were. "Would you listen to me?" I snapped tiredly. This was not the way that I wanted to spend my recuperation from exams. "I really don't think that they are."

"I've had enough of this. I'm off," Ron said suddenly.

It broke the tense eye contact that everyone else was having. I was trying to stare at Professor Lupin, so desperately trying to understand what had happened and where his head was at. My gaze didn't stay locked with Black for long. His stare unnerved me. I was trying so desperately to get Harry and Ron to understand where I was coming from without having to speak to them. Hermione still seemed to be trying to work it out, like a complicated math problem. In the meantime, Ron tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but Professor Lupin raised his wand again, pointing it at Scabbers.

"Don't -" I started fearfully, my breath lodging in my throat.

Professor Lupin shook his head at me and moved forward. "I'm not going to hurt him. You're going to hear me out, Ron. Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen," he said quietly.

"He's not Peter, he's Scabbers!" Ron yelled.

Clearly no one believed that Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew, save myself, which might have been crazier than the actual truth. As I stared at the wall, trying to gather my thoughts, I watched as Ron tried to force the rat back into his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting too hard; Ron swayed and overbalanced, and Harry caught him and pushed him back down to the bed. It was probably for the best. Ron's leg was badly swollen and starting to turn a deep purple. Then, ignoring Black, Harry turned to Professor Lupin.

"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die. A whole street full of them," Harry said.

"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Black snarled savagely, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands.

Deciding to step in before things got even more heated, I turned to Harry. "They were Muggles, bear in mind," I said. Harry was giving me his blank stare that I had always been so fond of. "Muggles don't always understand things. If there was a confrontation, maybe there's a good chance that they didn't completely understand what was happening."

"Smart girl," Black said softly.

"Thanks," I said instantly. The others - myself included - looked a little surprised that I had even thought to thank Black. "I think that wasn't sarcastic," I added quietly and dumbly.

The room was plunged into an awkward silence for a little while. "Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter. I believed it myself - until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's Map never lies... Peter's alive," Professor Lupin told us. "Ron's holding him, Harry."

Once more, no one knew what to say at first. We all merely stared at each other. The way that Professor Lupin was speaking and how angry Black was about this entire thing... it really seemed that they were telling us the truth. What reason would they have had to lie anyways? We were armed against them, the school and teachers were just a few minutes away, and they were outnumbered. If they were lying to us, this was a convoluted and poorly thought-out plan. There would have been much easier ways to trick us. It told me that they really were being honest.

"He really is an Animagus? You all are?" I asked slowly.

Looking back on Dad's constant obsession with big cats and my parents' constant respect for werewolves, I supposed that the entire thing did make sense. "Yes. Just like you thought, that's where the names came from," Professor Lupin said.

So I really was right this entire time. Not that I truthfully understood where the story was going or how we would even get to the end (or what the end was, for that matter) but the pieces were very slowly falling into place. I tried to remember what Fred had once told me about playing a well thought-out prank. They would have to take it step by step, and things didn't always go in chronological order. Sometimes they would have to go back and forth before things finally made complete sense. This was definitely more elaborate of a story than any of their pranks.

But, surprisingly enough, it was making just the slightest bit of sense to me. Although the moment that I turned to the others, I realized that they weren't nearly as convinced as I was. My gaze turned to Harry first, but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Ron. Harry looked down at Ron, and as their eyes met, they agreed, silently: Black and Professor Lupin were both out of their minds. Clearly they were thinking that their story made no sense whatsoever. How could Scabbers be Peter Pettigrew? He was an Animagus. That was the only logical answer.

Being a Pureblood, I would have thought that Ron would realize that. Unfortunately Scabbers was his pet and he was very connected to him. Which was going to be very awkward, if Scabbers really was a thirty-five-year-old wizard whom had been sleeping with a young boy and the rest of his family for years. A sharp shiver ran up my spine at the thought. One more glance told me that Harry was trying to piece together his own theory. What could he have been thinking? Azkaban must have unhinged Black after all? Wondering why Professor Lupin playing along with him?

Where did we all go from here? What was the next step? I tried thinking of something that Cedric would say. Probably that we shouldn't be here; that we should leave, tell a professor, and stop doing things to get ourselves into trouble or in a deadly situation. But those things simply weren't in my nature. To my surprise, I wasn't the next person that had to manage to think of something to say. Because, right then, Hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will Professor Lupin to talk sensibly.

"But Professor Lupin... Scabbers can't be Pettigrew... it just can't be true, you know it can't..." She very slowly turned to me, giving me the same look that you would give a dying animal to comfort it in its dying moments. "Tara, you know that they can't be Animagi," Hermione said slowly.

"Yes, they are," I muttered.

"They aren't!" Hermione shouted back.

It was one of the few times that I had ever heard her yell. "Why can't it be true?" Professor Lupin asked calmly.

If there was one thing that I could give him, it was the simple fact that Professor Lupin always seemed to be able to keep a cool head. Even right now, it was as though we were all in class, and Hermione had simply spotted a problem in an experiment with Grindylow's. Hermione had gone even paler than normal. She might have known about Animagi, but I knew a little something about constantly breaking the rules. And having known my father for my entire life, I knew that he would have loved to break a rule like being an illegal Animagus.

"Because… Because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus," Hermione said. I rolled my eyes. She always forgot about rule-breaking. "We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework - the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things... and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list -"

"You honestly think that they were registered?" I interrupted.

As much as I loved Hermione, she seemed to always just jump to the logical situation. Sometimes things were illogical. I had barely had time to marvel inwardly at the effort Hermione put into her homework, when Professor Lupin started to laugh. "Right again, Hermione! And how correct you are, Tara," Professor Lupin said, giving me an amused smile. "But the Ministry never knew that there used to be four unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," Black snarled, who was still watching Scabbers's every desperate move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"I somehow think you can manage another twenty minutes," I scoffed.

Black's stringy hair whipped around his head as he turned towards me. "Tara!" Hermione hissed, clearly afraid that Black would snap and try to kill me.

"All right... but you'll need to help me, Sirius. I only know how it began..." Professor Lupin said.

There was something almost bothered about the way that he said it. He didn't know how it all began. He really didn't know why Black - one of his best friends - had tried to kill Pettigrew - another one of Professor Lupin's best friends. It must have made no sense to him. It still didn't make complete sense to me. Professor Lupin very suddenly broke off. There had been a loud creak behind him. The bedroom door had opened of its own accord. All six of us stared at it. A chill went up my spine. Had someone followed us here? Had someone seen the incident with the Whomping Willow?

Then Professor Lupin strode toward it and looked out into the landing. "No one there..." Professor Lupin said.

"This place is haunted!" Ron gasped.

My eyes were rolled so far back into my head that I was sure that I could see my brain. "You've met ghosts before, Ron. They don't typically stay invisible when it comes to magical people. It's just the wind," I said, trying to convince myself.

Had it really been the wind though? Something seemed a little wrong here. Actually, a lot of things seemed really weird right about now. But the way that the door had opened of its own accord... It was something that I normally saw during Muggle movies. Someone really was here. My heart was pounding in my chest as I tried to look for anything. Shifted dirt, a little shift in the appearance of one of the walls, or someone's soft breathing. Even though I was sure that there was now a seventh person in the Shrieking Shack, I couldn't see where anyone would have been.

"Like Tara said, it's not," Professor Lupin said, still looking at the door in a puzzled way, distracting me from my thoughts. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted... The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."

"Were they really?" I asked curiously.

"Yes," Professor Lupin said.

Now that actually did make sense. It was a good cover-up for having a werewolf at Hogwarts have a place to go to transform. "I suppose that makes sense. Howls, moans, crashing, and growling. A werewolf making the noises while confined could sound like a haunting," I mumbled.

"Very good," Professor Lupin said.

Both my head and chest were throbbing. My head from all of the information that I was trying to take in at one moment. I had always had problems trying to put things together when they were so convoluted. But things were even worse right now. Mostly because I knew the end of the story, but I didn't know any of the pieces in between. My chest was throbbing from the hard whack from the Whomping Willow earlier. My legs and underneath my eye, too. That was when another piece of the puzzle dawned on me.

"You told me that they planted the Whomping Willow while you were in school," I said slowly, looking at Professor Lupin.

"You're starting to put it all together," he replied.

"Trying, at least."

Trying to put things together was just the beginning of what I was trying to do. Honestly I wanted to understand the entire thing. But I just couldn't. There were so many of the pieces that still didn't make sense. Although the Whomping Willow did seem to make sense. At least, a little bit. It seemed that they really had planted the Whomping Willow at Hogwarts to keep Professor Lupin's comings and goings as a werewolf a secret. He had a place that he could transform where no one else would be able to see, since no one was foolish enough to come close to it.

It was actually a reasonably good idea. Not a fantastic idea. As Professor Lupin had once told us, a boy named Davey something or another had almost lost an eye trying to touch its trunk. I supposed that in the end it did make sense. Although it was something that only Dumbledore would have cooked up. I would have loved to see what Professor McGonagall had thought about the entire thing when he had told her that he wanted to plant a killer tree on campus around thousands of students to give a student with lycanthropy a place to transform.

Professor Lupin pushed his graying hair out of his eyes, thought for a moment, then said, "That's where all of this starts - with my becoming a werewolf. None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitten... and if I hadn't been so foolhardy..."

It reminded me of the story that he had told me. All about how Fenrir Greyback had broken into his house when Professor Lupin was only five years old and had bitten him. Thankfully his father had managed to break into his bedroom and stop things before Greyback had managed to take him. He had been riddled with lycanthropy since that day, but thankfully it seemed that he had always had people there to protect him. Although, evidently things had gotten somewhat dangerous during their days at Hogwarts. I noticed that Professor Lupin looked sober and tired. More so than usual.

Ron started to interrupt, but Hermione hissed, "Shh!" She was watching Professor Lupin very intently.

"I was a very small boy when I received the bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery. It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform... I am able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again."

Despite knowing that Wolfsbane would keep a werewolf in the middle of their transformation completely docile, there was something about it that made me slightly unnerved. "You stay in the castle during your transformations?" I asked.

"The door is locked; there's no way that I can get out," Professor Lupin reassured.

"I trust you. I think," I said awkwardly.

At least, I had definitely trusted him with my life before all of this. Right now, I was reasonably confident that I could still put at least some of my trust in him. "Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a fully-fledged monster once a month," Professor Lupin said, the corner of his eye twitching slightly. They must have been terrible memories. "It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts. Other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me.

"But then Dumbledore became Headmaster, and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school." Professor Lupin sighed, and looked directly at Harry. "As Tara said, I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that it was planted because I came to Hogwarts. This house," Professor Lupin looked miserably around the room, "the tunnel that leads to it - they were built for my use."

Even though we were in a very serious moment with people who seemed to be incredibly dangerous, I still managed to smile just the slightest bit. The grin slowly started spreading over my face. Everyone else was staring at me, probably wondering why I was smiling. It was because, as always, I had been right. Professor Dumbledore and the rest of the staff at Hogwarts back in our parents' days had planted the Whomping Willow here - not because they had liked it or wanted one here, but because it kept everyone else safe and allowed a mostly normal boy to go to school.

It was rather nice that Professor Lupin had gotten to be a normal child while he was in school. It must have been about a week a month that he hadn't felt well or had to miss classes, but clearly he had managed. At least with the Whomping Willow in its place so that Professor Lupin would have been able to come and go to keep his transformations a secret. Not forever, at least. At some point his friends had either found out or he had told them. I smiled softly again. I was glad that they were at least willing to help him out.

"Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous," Professor Lupin continued to explain.

Obviously the others were completely lost. Risking very briefly glancing away from Professor Lupin and Black, I glanced at the others. Harry looked like he was about to pass out from confusion. I could practically see the gears turning in Hermione's head as she tried to piece everything together. Ron looked like he might pass out from pain at any moment. In the back of my mind, I wasn't really sure whether or not I could actually see where this story was going, or what it was pertinent to with Black, but I was listening raptly all the same.

Just as everyone else was. No one wanted to speak right now and interrupt the already tense air. The last thing that we wanted was to end the story prematurely or have Black merely go for it and kill Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew before we got the chance to figure out what was really happening. Right now the only sound apart from Professor Lupin's voice was Scabbers's frightened squeaking. It was my indication that Scabbers might have really been Pettigrew. What other reason would he have to be so freaked out? Scabbers was usually completely docile, no matter what was happening.

Very suddenly I realized that my father and the rest of their friends must have known what was going on with Professor Lupin. I had known before, but it had just really dawned on me. They must not have ever been afraid, rather they had helped him out. It was almost relieving to know that our parents had been kind enough to help out Professor Lupin, not leave him. He was clearly the exact reason that my parents had always taught me that werewolves were not beings to be looked down upon.

"My transformations in those days were - were terrible," Professor Lupin continued. His voice was weaker than normal. "It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor... Even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it...

"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, four great friends. Sirius Black... Peter Pettigrew... and, of course, your fathers, Harry, Tara - James Potter and Marcus Nox."

Honestly I had already known that they were all friends. At one point or another, both my own parents and Professor Lupin had told me that much. I had even known that my parents were friends with Black. But that didn't stop Harry and me from exchanging a look. He looked completely bewildered. I couldn't be sure of exactly what he was thinking right now. So I merely smiled softly and nodded that Professor Lupin was telling the truth. I still couldn't believe that Harry didn't believe him. He should have known that Professor Lupin was telling the truth.

Very suddenly I realized that I had to do something. It was something that I really shouldn't have been thinking about right now, but I had always thought about things at rather inconvenient times. This was something that I had to speak about with my parents - people whom I had been avoiding speaking to ever since I had learned about what Black had done, at least, the widely-accepted version of what had happened. This time I would be able to tell them the truth. They needed to know that Sirius Black was innocent - because that was what it really seemed like.

Even though the stories all made it seem that there was no way that he could be innocent, the way that they were speaking made it seem like there was no way that he had done what I had originally thought that he had. On one hand, I knew that my parents would both be thrilled to know that he really hadn't betrayed their trust. I could tell by the way that they wrote about him and their adventures when they were kids. They missed having him in their lives. Plus, he was my godfather. I might enjoy having another technical family member around.

"Now, my four friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month," Professor Lupin continued, distracting me from my thoughts. "I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her... I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, Tara, worked out the truth... It was your mother who found out first."

Mom always had been one of the smartest people that I had ever known. "Did she?" I asked curiously.

Being a Healer, I wasn't surprised that Mom had been unbothered by the fact that one of her friends was a werewolf. Because of her, I wasn't bothered that my professor was one. "Yes. After only a few months, she figured it out," Professor Lupin explained. I nodded slowly. It hadn't taken me long to figure it out either. "She was there and encouraged me to tell the others."

"But you never did," I realized slowly.

It was a secret that most people were terrified of ever admitting. It didn't surprise me that he couldn't find the words to tell them. "No, they figured out beforehand," Professor Lupin said.

"Mom always did care very much for the rights of werewolves," I admitted.

"She has her entire life. Very much like your mother, they didn't desert me at all," Professor Lupin said. Of course not. They were all wonderful people. "Instead, they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."

Rolling my eyes, I scoffed, "Of course they did."

"You're right not to be surprised," Professor Lupin said.

Having known my parents for my entire life, I could never be surprised that they did stupid things like becoming an illegal Animagus. At least, Dad did. "Trust me, I know," I groaned.

"My dad too?" Harry asked, astounded.

"Yes, indeed. It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Both of your fathers and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong - one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it," Professor Lupin explained.

"It's almost impossible to learn without help," I reasoned.

It was illegal to become one without registering anyways, so they must have done everything in secret. Honestly I didn't know that much about the process that it took to become an Animagus. All I really knew was that the learning process involved holding the leaf of a Mandrake in your mouth for an entire month. How Dad had managed to keep his mouth shut for an entire month was a mystery to me. How hadn't everyone else known that something was wrong? He couldn't be quiet for more than ten minutes these days.

"Your father is not as clueless as everyone else likes to pretend that he is. If you've ever wondered where your brains come from - trust me, they're not all from your mother," Professor Lupin said.

I cracked a tiny smile. "He's no fool. I know that," I said softly.

Not that I ever wanted him to know that I said that. He would never let me live it down. "Peter needed all the help he could get from James, Marcus, and Sirius. Finally, in our Fifth Year, they managed it," Professor Lupin continued.

Without an adult's help, books that came from the restricted section, or real knowledge of how to become an Animagus, doing it in three years was quite the accomplishment. "It only took three years?" I asked.

"How long should it take?" Harry interrupted.

"Most people could never figure it out," I explained.

"How right you are, Tara," Professor Lupin said. He then turned back to the others. "They could each turn into a different animal at will."

"But how did that help you?" Hermione asked, sounding puzzled.

"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals. A werewolf is only a danger to people," Professor Lupin explained to the others, who all looked bewildered. "They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed… Peter, as the smallest, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them."

Deciding to help them out a little bit I explained, "A werewolf is still an animal. It can interact with others. Almost like friends."

"Yes, Tara," Professor Lupin said.

If only I was this good in Astronomy and Divination... "Hurry up, Remus," Black snarled, startling me, still watching Scabbers with a horrible sort of hunger on his face.

"I'm getting there, Sirius, I'm getting there. Well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night," Professor Lupin said. My brow quirked. That seemed... a little dangerous. "Sirius, James, and Marcus transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did..."

There was something about what they were telling us that really bothered me. Perhaps it was because of the fact that it didn't matter that the rest of their friends were able to keep Professor Lupin controlled when he was a werewolf. The real problem was that, if someone was out on the grounds past curfew, Professor Lupin could have seriously hurt them. They were kids - careless and stupid, much the way that we were right now - but this seemed even more dangerous than anything that we did. We put ourselves in danger. Not others.

"The map, then?" I asked curiously.

Professor Lupin nodded. "Indeed, the map. And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Like Tara has already figured out, Sirius is Padfoot. Marcus is Mane. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."

"What sort of animal - ?" Harry began, but Hermione cut him off.

"That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?" Hermione cried.

Was that honestly what she was thinking about right now? How dangerous it was? I knew that it had been incredibly dangerous, but that didn't change the fact that it was such a Hermione thing to say. Even right now she was saying things like that. So I couldn't help but to roll my eyes as far back into my head as I could. What I really wanted to know was not how dangerous their idea was, but what kind of animal my father had turned into. Some type of cat was obvious, but I wasn't sure exactly what one. If I was really right... It would have been rather fascinating to find out for sure.

Even though I wanted to think of the type of animal my father could have turned into, I was busier thinking that Hermione really was right. She had quite the point. It really was something dangerous. As just teenagers, the five of them really hadn't thought anything about the real danger that they were posing to the rest of the school. They could have easily gotten someone killed. They really should have just gone to the Shrieking Shack and kept him company there, still locking the doors behind them. It would have been with the rules and much safer.

"A thought that still haunts me. And there were near misses, many of them," Professor Lupin said heavily. It was something that we would do these days. Not in ten years. "We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless - carried away with our own cleverness."

"Mom must have hated that," I growled softly.

She wasn't a stickler for the rules, but she definitely didn't enjoy people endangering themselves or others - the way that I so often did. "She did," Black said softly, sounding a little more relaxed for the first time in a long while. "It wasn't until Marcus matured in our Seventh Year and agreed that we were being too reckless that she finally agreed to a date."

"Oh..." I muttered dumbly, unsure of what else to say.

"I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, of course… he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others' safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally," Professor Lupin said, drawing the attention back to him.

Despite the tense air and the danger of where we were and the people that we were surrounded by, I couldn't help but to snort softly. There was something rather amusing about the way that he had said it. I somehow doubted that Dumbledore didn't know that Professor Lupin and the rest of their friends were illegal Animagi. He must have known that the five of them were constantly vanishing for nothing good, especially with their penchant for getting in trouble. After all, there wasn't much that he didn't know about.

"But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure," Professor Lupin said, distracting me from my thoughts again. "And I haven't changed..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked curiously.

Professor Lupin's face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice. "All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why?" The four of us exchanged a confused look. I shrugged my shoulders again. "Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me… and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me."

Suddenly I realized that maybe Professor Lupin had been telling the truth the entire time. Maybe he really was telling the truth. Maybe we weren't being taken for fools. Maybe Dumbledore really hadn't known about the five of them becoming illegal Animagi. In which case, Professor Lupin was right. Professor Dumbledore was crazy, but he didn't put people in unnecessarily dangerous situations. At least, I didn't think that he did. What the five of them had been doing was dangerous and stupid. But I had a feeling that Dumbledore wouldn't have minded anyways. He would have trusted them.

"He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it... so, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along," Professor Lupin explained sadly.

"Snape?" Black asked harshly, taking his eyes off Scabbers for the first time in minutes and looking up at Professor Lupin. The sharp edge was back in his voice. "What's Snape got to do with it?"

"He's here, Sirius. He's teaching here as well," Professor Lupin said heavily. Then he looked up at Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I.

"Your father must love that," Black said bitterly, looking at me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I awkwardly crossed my arms over my torso. "We've definitely earned the ire of Professor Snape more than once because of the way that our parents treated him," I muttered, blaming the both of them for Snape's hatred of us just the slightest bit.

"Who can say that they're surprised," Black growled.

Clearly the hatred hadn't stopped at all, even after over thirteen years. "Professor Snape was at school with us," Professor Lupin explained, even though we already knew. "He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons... you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me -"

Black made a derisive noise. "It served him right. Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled..." Black sneered.

"What happened?" I asked curiously.

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month. We were in the same year, you know, and we - er - didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James and Marcus's talent on the Quidditch field... anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform," Professor Lupin told us. I sucked in a breath. "Sirius thought it would be - er - amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me.

"Well, of course, Snape tried it - if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf - but both of your fathers, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to their own lives..." Just as dangerous as I had expected. Professor Lupin turned to me. "Your father transformed to keep me preoccupied and beat me back while James pulled him out. Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was."

"You could have gotten him killed," I sneered at Black.

Despite liking Snape about as much as the mountain of Muggle math homework that I used to get, I didn't want to see him get seriously injured or killed. To my surprise, Black looked a little... ashamed? No. Something told me that no matter how bad things got between Black and Snape, he would never really be ashamed of any of the cruel pranks that they played on him. But there was something in the back of his eyes. It looked like he might have been the slightest bit guilty about the joke gone wrong.

"I never meant to kill him. I only meant to scare him," Black said, as if that changed things.

"Young and stupid," I scoffed.

Professor Lupin nodded blankly. "Yes, it was a poorly thought-out joke that ended well because we were lucky, not because we had realized it beforehand," he explained.

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you, because he thought you were in on the joke?" Harry asked slowly.

"That's right," sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Professor Lupin.

Every single one of us whirled around to see what was happening. Even Black, whom had barely looked away from Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew since we had arrived nearly fifteen minutes beforehand. My heart sank into my stomach as I realized that the door hadn't opened on its own will. It wasn't a ghost. It was something much worse. Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing directly at Professor Lupin.


	55. The Servant of Lord Voldemort

There wasn't a single person that didn't react at the new addition. Hermione screamed. Black leapt to his feet. Harry looked as though he had received a huge electric shock. My hand instantly shot down to my wand to do something. Not that I really knew what to do. Snape was still a teacher and that meant that I couldn't just attack him. My heart sank down to my feet. What the hell were we supposed to do now? We were here, with Black, a convinced murderer, after hours with no good reason as to why we were here.

"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow," Snape said, throwing the Invisibility Cloak aside, careful to keep this wand pointing directly at Professor Lupin's chest.

"Brilliant..." I muttered irritably.

We were really in for it this time. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you..." Snape purred.

More than anything right now, I really wanted to slap someone. Particularly Harry, who was the one who had left the Invisibility Cloak out in the open. We seemed to always be leaving it somewhere that it would manage to get at least one of the four of us into trouble. This time it was with Snape - the worst person to get in trouble with. Last time it was with Filch in our First Year, when we were trying to get Norbert out of the castle. It caused both some very good and very bad things. Right now I couldn't figure out if this was good or bad.

Snape was slightly breathless, but his face was full of suppressed triumph. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" Snape asked, his eyes glittering.

Knowing that now was the wrong time to say anything, I spoke anyways. "Honestly I'm more surprised that you haven't already given us a long lecture on the many ways that you'll get us in trouble - starting with expelling us, I'm sure."

"Tara!" Hermione gasped, turning a glare on me. "Now is not the time."

But it was always a good time if it meant harassing Snape. Although today he ignored me. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along," Snape purred.

Was he kidding? This was really something that he wanted so badly that he was willing to completely ignore me being outright disrespectful to him? He always jumped on the chance to punish me. But there was something else on my mind. The last comment that Snape had made had struck me as funny. Had Snape just said that Professor Lupin had forgotten to take the Wolfsbane Potion? Was it a full moon tonight? I didn't know the lunar cycle. I had never paid enough attention in Astronomy. I supposed that today was one of those days that I wished that I had paid a little more attention.

When was the last time that I had seen Professor Lupin look extremely sick? It really hadn't been that long ago. He actually always looked a little sick. But what if it was a full moon tonight? Did that mean that Professor Lupin was going to turn into a werewolf with all of us around? Could Black control him with a number of humans standing around? That was not a good thing. If that was the truth, we really needed to leave and keep Professor Lupin in isolation for the night. My stomach turned, but Snape's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"And very lucky I did... lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight," Snape growled.

"Severus -" Professor Lupin began, but Snape overrode him.

"I've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof."

A small scoff escaped me before I could stop it. "A fully-grown adult and still a tattletale," I snarled under my breath.

"Silence you stupid girl," Snape hissed at me, turning back to Professor Lupin.

My jaws ground together. I had some of the best grades in Third Year. "I am not stupid..." I muttered.

"Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout -"

"Severus, you're making a mistake," Professor Lupin interrupted Snape urgently. "You haven't heard everything - I can explain - Sirius is not here to kill Harry or Tara -"

"Bet you're depressed about that," I said lowly.

All of a sudden Snape whirled on his heels so hard that I was sure he would be ripped off of his feet. "Silence!" I jumped at his voice as he turned back to Professor Lupin again. "Two more for Azkaban tonight," Snape growled, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this... He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin... a tame werewolf -"

"Don't be an asshole!" I shouted, ignoring the obvious repercussions for cursing at a teacher. "There's nothing wrong with a man with lycanthropy! He just has to control -"

"Shut your mouth!" Snape interrupted harshly.

Well I had definitely just earned myself at least three detentions, if not expulsion. "You fool. Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?" Professor Lupin asked softly.

The comment did not sit well with Snape. He obviously liked being spoken as a child by Professor Lupin even less than he did from me. There was a loud bang that echoed through the Shrieking Shack. Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape's wand and twisted themselves around Professor Lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. For a moment I thought about moving forward to help, but Harry held me back. With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black's eyes.

"Stop!" I shouted suddenly.

"Silence!" Snape howled, whipping back to me.

But I didn't want to stop speaking. He had to listen to me. Black and Professor Lupin had a right to be heard out. "Whether or not he's done something illegal, you'll be imprisoned for murder," I tried.

My attempt didn't go over well with Snape, who looked like he had just drank poison. "You're already going to be recommended for expulsion, would you like me to suggest you to Azkaban for defending a murderer?" Snape growled.

Maybe I finally would be expelled from Hogwarts... Almost three years without being expelled... That had to at least count for something, right? "You don't know the truth!" I shouted, knowing that I couldn't really make things much worse. "No one does!"

"Stop speaking!" Snape seethed.

To my surprise, it wasn't my friends that were upset by Snape's words towards me. "Watch your words, Severus," Black warned lowly.

He might have been my godfather, but what reason did he have to start defending me? The two of us likely hadn't seen each other since I was maybe two or so. One of the times that he had come over to babysit me. What sense did it make that he was trying to help me out here? Maybe he was still thinking about the days that he had been best friends with my parents. Maybe he was thinking about the days that he had defended them and their family. Maybe he really hadn't even betrayed them. Black's comment went over with Snape even worse than mine had.

"Give me a reason. Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will," Snape purred.

He was very slowly walking towards Black. His wand hand very slowly rolled over so that his wrist was facing the ceiling. It was the most defensive position that I had ever seen someone take. It was a stance that was usually used during a duel. Black stopped dead in his tracks, as he had been advancing towards Snape before. It would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred. I very slowly and awkwardly stepped forward, hoping that neither would send a sudden spell that would end up hitting me.

"Umm... I'm not sure what to call you, but please, step back," I told Black, placing my hand palm-out so that it was facing him. Black stared at me with an unreadable expression. "I still need to know the truth and you're integral to that."

"You will know nothing, you foolish, moronic, girl," Snape barked, whipping around.

"I'm trying to figure out the truth!" I shouted back.

To my surprise, Black walked forwards and stepped in between the two of us, despite the fact that it was now placing him closer to Snape's wand. "It's alright, Tara. I'll tell you," Black said, turning to the other three. "All of you."

Honestly I should have said something else. I wasn't sure what, but I wanted to stop this. I needed to stop this. We all needed to know the truth. But I did nothing. I merely stood there. So I just stood there, paralyzed, not knowing what to do or whom to truthfully believe. I wanted to believe Black, but I still had to be cautious. What if he had almost gotten my parents killed? I glanced around at Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Ron and Harry looked dreadfully confused. Ron was still fighting to keep hold on the struggling Scabbers.

Hermione, however, took an uncertain step toward Snape and said, in a very breathless voice, "Professor Snape - it - it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w - would it?"

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school. You, Potter, Nox, and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf," Snape spat.

My heart gave a little jolt at the sight of Professor Lupin's face. He looked heartbroken to hear the continued insults over him being a werewolf. "There's nothing wrong with being a werewolf. There's something wrong with hating someone's kids just because of the way that their parents treated you. Have you grown up at all since Hogwarts?" I barked.

"Listen to the girl, Severus," Black said, the ghost of a smile appearing on his face.

"Shut your mouth!" Snape hissed at Black, their rivalry clearly no less now than it was twenty years ago. Snape then turned to me, very slowly and dangerously. "If you aren't somehow expelled from this school, you will spend every night in detention until you graduate."

"I'd rather spend the rest of my life in Azkaban..." I mumbled.

"For once in your life, hold your tongue," Snape continued.

I wasn't sure if he was speaking to Hermione or I, but she took it upon herself to keep speaking. "But if - if there was a mistake -"

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged.

Shocked by the way that he was speaking to a student - and my best friend - I shouted, "Don't speak to her like that!"

Snape turned to me with a look more werewolf-like than I could ever imagine Professor Lupin appearing. "SILENCE!" Snape howled, the vein in the side of his neck bulging. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

Being a Gryffindor, I had heard Snape scream angrily at me and the rest of my friends many times. But I had never heard him quite like this before. This had to have been a lot more than just a little childhood hatred. There was genuine malice in the faces of both Black and Snape. A few sparks shot out of the end of Snape's wand, which was still pointed at Black’s face. Hermione fell silent. I twitched slightly, fearing for a moment that he was going to hurt Black, which really didn't make sense as I should have hated Black.

"Vengeance is very sweet. How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..." Snape breathed at Black.

"The joke’s on you again, Severus," Black snarled, looking as though he would rather face a Dementor than try to be polite to Snape. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle," he jerked his head at Ron, "I'll come quietly..."

That was enough to indicate to me that Black was genuinely positive that Scabbers was Pettigrew. Why else risk being brought back to Azkaban? "Up to the castle?" Snape asked silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black... pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay..."

There was something in Snape's voice that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I hated plenty of people in Azkaban, but I had never felt that Dementors should regularly be used. To die was one thing. It was the end to all suffering. But to have your soul sucked out and be left as just the shell of what you had once been... Whether or not Black had done what everyone believed that he had, I wasn't so sure that he deserved that. Particularly just because Snape hated him. What little color there was in Black’s face left it.

"You're sick!" I shouted, ignoring the obvious trouble that would come my way for the new insult. "You could doom a potentially innocent man to a fate worse than death just because you hate him! How pathetic could one person be?"

Snape turned back to me with a look that almost lit me on fire. "Do - not - speak," Snape seethed.

"You - You've got to hear me out," Black croaked. "The rat - look at the rat -"

But he never got to finish his thoughts. His voice died a moment later. Obviously just the mere thought of having to return to Azkaban and face the Dementor's Kiss was the biggest nightmare of his life. Plus he seemed to know that there was no reasoning with Snape right now. Not the way that he was. Because there was a mad glint in Snape's eyes that I had never seen before. He seemed beyond reason. How much had he really hated Black, James Potter, and my father? Enough to condemn any one of them to a fate worse than death?

"Come on, all of you," Snape said with an attitude that told me that we weren't going to be getting out of this. Snape clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin flew to his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf."

Bristling slightly, I snapped, "Call him by his name."

Honestly I had completely forgotten about Snape being our teacher. Right now he was just being a royal pain in the ass. Snape's face went even whiter than usual with fury as he turned to me. "You -"

"It's alright, Tara," Professor Lupin muttered through the binds. At least, that was what I thought that he said.

"Perhaps the Dementors will have a kiss for him too -" Snape continued.

Right now he was muttering and speaking to himself like we weren't even standing there. He must have been so pleased with himself at the thought that he was going to put his two of his childhood enemies behind bars. If only my father was here. Snape likely would have had a stroke from happiness. Before I realized what he was doing, Harry had crossed the room in three strides and blocked the door. He - like me - clearly now wanted the truth. Thrilled that he was finally siding with me, I took those same three strides and came to stand with him.

Snape clearly hated that we were being deliberately disobedient. "Get out of the way, Potter, Nox, you're both in enough trouble already," Snape snarled dangerously. "If I hadn't been here to save your skin -"

"Save us?" I interrupted, irritated with everything that Snape had done. We were so close to finding out the truth. "We were doing just fine! Actually, we were doing much better without you here."

"Silence!" Snape barked.

If it wasn't against the law to hit children, I had a feeling that Snape would have flattened me by now. It was a good time for Harry to interrupt, who Snape liked even less than me. "Professor Lupin could have killed us about a hundred times this year. The two of us have been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the Dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish us off then?" Harry offered.

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," Snape hissed.

My spine straightened again. "Get over your damned prejudice," I snapped.

Snape turned to me with a gaze nothing short of pure, seething hatred. "Watch your mouth, Nox. You're already in far too deep," Snape growled.

"No," I started, "you're not even bothering to stop and think about -"

"Get out of the way, Potter, Nox," Snape interrupted.

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled.

Startled from his sudden shout, I turned back to Harry and smiled before turning back to Snape. "Finally, someone else sees it. It's not just me," I muttered towards the ground.

"JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN -"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever.

Having been used to myself speaking back at Snape, his shout didn't surprise me in the slightest. What did surprise me was the way that Harry was speaking. Despite everything, even I was a little surprised with the way that Harry was speaking to Snape. I had never heard Harry dare speak like that to a teacher before. He had been bold before - just the way that I had so many times before - but he had never spoken quite like that. Not even to Snape, who we all knew would make our lives completely miserable after tonight.

"Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bent knee!" Snape howled.

"You didn't save anyone!" I shouted back.

Snape whirled back around. "Shut your mouth, Nox! As stupid as your father was," he sneered.

All of this really was because of one stupid schoolboy rivalry carried over into adulthood. "I'm not stupid and neither is my father! You're just prejudiced that they made a few cruel jokes towards you during your school days! How pathetic can one person be?" I asked sharply.

"Silence!" Snape roared, almost rattling the wooden panels before turning back to Harry. "You would have been well served if he'd killed you!"

My jaw was practically hanging on the floor. To wish a thirteen-year-old boy dead? "How dare you!" I screamed.

"And your father as well, Nox!" Snape added nastily.

"Don't you ever speak about my father like that!" I shouted back.

My father might have been a bit of an ass at times, but he didn't deserve to be dead, and neither did Harry's father. "You'd have died like both of your fathers, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black - now get out of the way, or I will make you," Black howled. But neither one of us moved. "GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER! NOX!"

Snape had never looked quite so angry before. I had a feeling that in a few seconds Snape would be sick of waiting for us. There was a good chance that, the law be damned, he was planning on just forgetting magic. He was probably planning on punching us in the faces. Maybe we deserved it. Maybe we didn't. I couldn't be sure without knowing the truth. And that was something that I needed. So I made up my mind in a split second. Before Snape could take even one step toward either one of us, I had raised my wand.

"Expelliarmus!" I yelled.

Except that mine wasn't the only voice that shouted. I had almost figured that Harry might try and curse Snape too. But I hadn't realized that anyone else would be on our side. There was a sudden blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. It reminded me very much of when Voldemort/Quirrell had blown me off of my feet down in the dungeons during the end of my First Year. Unlike me, Snape had been knocked out.

Blood was still trickling out from his head. I didn't like Snape in the slightest, but I really hoped that we hadn't seriously injured him. Mostly because I really didn't want to get expelled for killing a teacher. But I could see his chest rising and falling still. I slowly looked around. Ron, Harry, and Hermione had tried to disarm Snape at exactly the same moment that I had. Snape's wand soared in a high arc and landed on the bed next to Crookshanks. Black and Professor Lupin were staring at us, bewildered, very much the same way that I felt.

"I had better not get expelled for that," I breathed, shattering the silence.

"You both shouldn't have done that. You should have left him to me," Black said, looking at Harry and I.

Harry was avoiding Black's eyes. For a moment I glanced at Harry, who looked back at me. The two of us stared at each other for a while. One long look at him told me that we were both thinking the same thing. That we weren't sure, even now, that we had done the right thing. After a moment I glanced back at Black. He was still staring at the two of us with wide eyes. It was the first time that I had ever seen him give me a look that had some real emotion. Not that I was really sure what it was. Gratefulness, maybe.

"Well if we get expelled, I'll know who to blame for it. Although it was kind of worth it to hit him with a spell that I've wanted to hit him with for years," I said blankly.

"Please never let me forget this moment," Ron said.

As funny as it might have normally been, I didn't really want to laugh about this right now. "Ron! Wrong time," I barked.

"We attacked a teacher... We attacked a teacher..." Hermione whimpered, staring at the lifeless Snape with frightened eyes. "Oh, we're going to be in so much trouble."

Unless we could Obliviate Snape, she was probably completely right. I wasn't sure if what we had done would warrant Azkaban, but I would definitely be getting expelled. We all would. Freeing Black, or hearing him out, at least, had better damn well be worth it. Professor Lupin was once more struggling against his bonds. Black bent down quickly and untied him. I tried to imagine what my father would be doing right now. Probably laughing and being otherwise useless. Professor Lupin straightened up, rubbing his arms where the ropes had cut into them.

"Thank you, Harry, Tara," he said.

"I'm still not saying I believe you," Harry told Professor Lupin.

Then Harry turned to me, clearly wondering what I thought? What did I think? I wasn't sure. My thoughts were all over the place. "Honestly, I think that I'm to the point that I believe you. I still want to know exactly what happened. I won't believe you until we get there," I warned Professor Lupin and Black, both of whom nodded. "But I do think that I believe you. Don't make me regret it."

"We won't. Then it's time we offered you some proof," Professor Lupin said.

"You, boy - give me Peter, please. Now," Black groaned.

His voice seemed to have died with everything that had happened. I had a feeling that he was still fearful over Snape's previous threat that he would be brought straight to the Dementors. As far as I was concerned, that was a punishment that no one deserved, save a few particular individuals. Not even Snape deserved that, as much as I really did hate him. Ron clutched Scabbers closer to his chest. Clearly he had not yet believed that Scabbers was Pettigrew. I was about seventy percent true that they were telling the truth.

"Do it, Ron," I said.

"Come off it. Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just to get his hands on Scabbers?" Ron asked weakly. "I mean..." He looked up at Harry, Hermione, and I for support. I shook my head. "Okay, say Pettigrew could turn into a rat - there are millions of rats - how's he supposed to know which one he's after if he was locked up in Azkaban?"

"You know, Sirius, that’s a fair question," Professor Lupin said, turning to Black and frowning slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"

Black put one of his claw-like hands inside his robes and took out a crumpled piece of paper, which he smoothed flat and held out to show the rest of us. I leaned forward to see what it was, ignoring the fact that I was now standing within inches of Black. The moment that I looked at it, I realized that, of course, Black had known where he needed to be. It was the photograph of Ron and his family that had appeared in the Daily Prophet the previous summer, and there, on Ron's shoulder, was Scabbers.

"How did you get this?" Professor Lupin asked Black, thunderstruck.

"Fudge. When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me his paper," Black explained.

He must have seen the cover when Fudge had walked in. I suddenly remembered Fudge's words. "Of course. Remember Fudge saying that he asked for the crossword?" I asked Harry, who nodded blankly. "You must have seen Scabbers, right?"

Black looked almost impressed that I had put everything together. Even I was impressed that I had put it together. "Yes. And there was Peter, on the front page... on this boy's shoulder... I knew him at once... how many times had I seen him transform? And the caption said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts... to where Harry and Tara were..." Black trailed off.

"To protect us or kill Pettigrew?" I asked curiously.

"A little bit of both," Black admitted sheepishly.

At least he had been honest. "My God," Professor Lupin said softly, staring from Scabbers to the picture in the paper and back again. He had been observing it while I was speaking with Black. "His front paw..."

"What about it?" Ron asked defiantly.

"What did they find left of Pettigrew?" I tried with Ron, who still didn't understand.

But Hermione did. "A finger..." she breathed.

"He's got a toe missing," Black told Ron.

"Of course. So simple... so brilliant... he cut it off himself?" Professor Lupin breathed.

"Desperation," I answered, fitting the pieces together.

The others still looked much less convinced. "Just before he transformed. When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself - and sped down into the sewer with the other rats..." Black explained.

It was the perfect explanation. It put almost everything together. But there was still something bothering me. "All of that just to save himself?" I asked, still unsure that someone would rather live out the rest of their life as a rat than face justice.

"Yes, because he knew what I would do once I knew the truth of what had happened," Black explained.

"Didn't you ever hear, Ron? The biggest bit of Peter they found was his finger," Professor Lupin said.

"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something!" Ron yelped, clearly trying to find any reason to believe that Black was lying. "He's been in my family for ages, right -"

"Twelve years, in fact. Didn’t you ever wonder why he was living so long?" Black asked sharply.

"No rats live that long, Ron. Not common house rats. They live, at maximum, about five years," I said, well-aware that what I was saying was the truth.

"We - We've been taking good care of him!" Ron gasped.

"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" Professor Lupin asked, pointing at Scabbers' fading fur. "I'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again..."

"That's why the rat tonic wasn't working," I said dumbly.

It was made only for rats. Not for Animagi pretending to be a rat. "He's been scared of that mad cat!" Ron barked, nodding toward Crookshanks, who was still purring on the bed.

But something else had dawned on me. That wasn't right, I thought suddenly. One look at Harry told me that he was thinking the exact same thing. It was wonderful to see that even Harry was starting to see the problem here. Scabbers had been looking ill before he met Crookshanks... ever since Ron's return from Egypt... since the time when Black had escaped... It all made complete sense. Harry and Hermione were clearly convinced. Ron was the only one who looked like he was still trying to figure out a way to prove that Black and Professor Lupin were mad.

"They're telling the truth, Ron. We all know it. You have to believe them," I said softy.

"This cat isn't mad," Black said hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked Crookshanks's fluffy head. It was the friendliest that I had ever seen the cat. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met." Ron scoffed. "He recognized Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me... Finally, I managed to communicate to him what I was after, and he's been helping me."

"What do you mean?" Hermione breathed.

"He tried to bring Peter to me, but couldn't... so he stole the passwords into Gryffindor Tower for me," Black explained.

"That explains why he hated Scabbers so much," I continued.

"As I understand it, he took them from a boy's bedside table," Black continued.

That night I had sworn that I had seen something pass me on the staircase. It turned out that it wasn't Black. He had been in the castle - Peeves hadn't been lying - but Black hadn't ever tried to kill us. I had been completely safe that night down with Fred and George. Maybe I would have to tell them. Although I had a good feeling that no one - not even Cedric - would believe that Black really wasn't a danger to anyone other than Peter Pettigrew, whom most people believed was dead. My brain seemed to be sagging under the weight of what I was hearing. It was absurd... and yet...

"Yeah. He got a boy named Neville in a lot of trouble for it," I mumbled, unsure of what else to say.

"Tara!" Ron gasped. I turned back, confused at what he was yelling at me for. "Don't give up Neville's name!"

My eyes rolled so far back into my head that I thought that they would be stuck there. "Don't be a moron. If we've been alive for this long with no problem, you must realize that no one else is in any danger either," I groaned.

Before Ron got the chance to say anything back to me, Black continued. "But Peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it... This cat - Crookshanks, did you call him?" Hermione nodded numbly. "... told me Peter had left blood on the sheets... I supposed he bit himself... Well, faking his own death had worked once."

Of course. He had never even been hurt. I hadn't even realized that much. It had never occurred to me that perhaps Scabbers had never even been hurt by Crookshanks. At first I had thought that he was killed by the cat. Then I had figured that he was simply bitten roughly by the cat. Now I realized that Scabbers had been deliberately trying to get away, doing anything in his power. He was too smart for a rat. He was simply a man who was trying to do anything possible to save his own life. Black's words had finally jolted me to my senses.

"Of course. He wanted to get away from you before it was too late," I mumbled.

Everyone started nodding. Even I was nodding at myself. "And why did he fake his death?" Harry asked furiously. Maybe he hadn't realized the actual truth. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"

"Harry, relax. Let him talk," I told him.

"No," Professor Lupin started, "Harry -"

"And now you've come to finish him off!" Harry continued.

"Yes, I have," Black said, with an evil look at Scabbers.

Now that definitely wasn't helping things. I stepped forward and laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry, you have to give this all a chance. Come on, I can see that you're starting to understand things," I said slowly. "Just listen to them for a -"

"Then I should've let Snape take you!" Harry shouted, interrupting me like he hadn't even heard me.

"Because shouting always helps," I mumbled.

"Harry, don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down - but it was the other way around, don’t you see?" Professor Lupin asked hurriedly. "Peter betrayed your mother and father - Sirius tracked Peter down -"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE! HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!" Harry yelled.

"Harry, stop!" I shouted, shoving Harry back away from both Black and Professor Lupin. "He means out of guilt. Weren't you listening? He said that they switched. They switched the Secret-Keepers."

My breaths were heaving and Harry was looking at me like I was insane. But I was right, I knew that I was right. Harry was staring at me blankly. Even Black looked the slightest bit surprised that I had managed to put things together. Everyone was frozen in their spots. No one seemed to know what to say or where to go. Harry was still pointing at Black, who shook his head slowly; the sunken eyes were suddenly overly-bright. Everyone shifted around awkwardly. It seemed that Black finally had found what he was looking to say.

"She's right," Black said breathlessly. "But Harry... I as good as killed them. I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me... Remus was already taken by Marcus and Julia. They were in just as much danger. I'm to blame, I know it... The night they died, Peter was watching over Tara." My entire spine straightened bit by bit as Black turned to me. I didn't know that. Your parents were close. They were working with the rest of our friends on an attack arranged against Voldemort and his many followers.

"I wasn't sure whether or not your parents had come back yet. Instead I'd arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he'd already gone. But I knew that he wasn't still with you. Your parents were already back home. So I thought, at least. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right. I was scared. I set out for your parents' houses straight away to find out what happened. And when I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies... I realized what Peter must've done... what I'd done..."

His voice broke. He turned away. That entire thing struck me as very funny. I did believe Black about what he had said - the story was too exact to have been a lie - but I hadn't known the truth. I never had. I never knew that Peter Pettigrew was babysitting me the day that Harry's parents had died. No one, not even my parents, had ever told me. I had thought that they were home with me. That was the way that the story had always seemed. But apparently Pettigrew was there. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end at the thought.

"What about my house? What about my family?" I asked weakly.

Black turned to me slowly. "Marcus and Julia arrived back home straightaway. They were called in by the Ministry. For fear of what was happening, Marcus and Julia immediately evacuated your family into one of the Ministry's safe-houses. You were all gone by the time that I had arrived with the threat of Voldemort. I don't know how long Peter was around you. If Voldemort ever even saw you..." Black said. I swallowed thickly. "But I know that he was after your parents next."

"Pettigrew was in my house when Harry's parents were murdered?" I asked.

Was there a chance that the attack had been planned that night because Voldemort had known that my parents weren't there? Because he had known that he would have free entrance into my house? "I believe so," Black said. "Peter knew where everyone was. He knew, in the event that he needed to hide somewhere. To take care of the kids. Anything. No one ever believed that he could do what he did."

Unless I was wrong, I could have sworn that Black's voice cracked, thick with tears. "Enough of this," Professor Lupin said, and there was a steely note in his voice that I had never heard before. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened. Ron, give me that rat."

"What are you going to do with him if I give him to you?" Ron asked Professor Lupin tensely.

"Force him to show himself. If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him," Professor Lupin explained simply.

"Hand him over, Ron. Please," I said desperately.

If this really was Peter Pettigrew, I wanted to face the man who had almost allowed Voldemort to walk into my home and kill me that night. Or take me, whatever he had wanted. Ron hesitated for a moment. He glanced at me and I nodded my consent. We had to do this. Then at long last, Ron held out Scabbers and Professor Lupin took him. My breath shortened. We all needed to know the truth. It was the only way that this would end and we would finally know the truth. Scabbers began to squeak without stopping, twisting and turning, his tiny black eyes bulging in his head.

"Ready, Sirius?" Professor Lupin asked.

It was obvious enough that Black had been ready for this since the day that Black had first been put into Azkaban. Black had already retrieved Snape's wand from the bed. Harry and I both took a step backwards. I wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing right now, other than just watching dumbly and hoping that they really weren't insane. Black approached Professor Lupin and the struggling rat, and his wet eyes suddenly seemed to be burning in his face. He had waited for this for twelve years.

"Together?" Black asked quietly.

"I think so," Professor Lupin, said holding Scabbers tightly in one hand and his wand in the other. "On the count of three. One - two - three!"

A flash of blue-white light erupted from both wands; for a moment, Scabbers was frozen in midair, his small gray form twisting madly. My first thought was that Scabbers might really have been a rat. Maybe there was a chance that we were really hurting him. For a moment I felt desperately guilty about what we were doing. Ron yelled in surprise and horror at the treatment of his pet. The rat fell and hit the floor suddenly. There was another blinding flash of light and then something even stranger happened.

It was even more than I had thought would happen. It was like watching a sped-up film of a growing tree. A head was shooting upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment later, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands. My legs were so weak from what had just happened that I was sure that I was going to pass out. They were telling the truth... Scabbers really was Peter Pettigrew. And Peter Pettigrew was not what I was expecting. Crookshanks was spitting and snarling on the bed; the hair on his back was standing up.

We all stared at him blankly. Peter Pettigrew was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry, Hermione, and I. His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who had lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked as much like a human-rat possibly could. He looked around at us all, his breathing fast and shallow. I saw his eyes dart to the door and back again.

"Oh... Oh my..." I breathed weakly.

Had our fathers really been friends with this man? "Well, hello, Peter," Professor Lupin said pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted into old school friends around him. "Long time, no see."

"S - Sirius... R - Remus..." Even Pettigrew's voice was squeaky. He looked almost just like a rat in his human form too. Again, his eyes darted toward the door. "My friends... my old friends..."

Very slowly I turned towards the others. "Now would probably be a really bad time to say I told you so, right?" I asked softly.

"Tara!" Ron gasped.

"Just saying..." I muttered.

Now was really the wrong time for me to be saying things like that. But I was telling the truth. I had told them a number of times to listen to Black and Professor Lupin, but they hadn't listened to me. Although now that I was right, I wasn't really sure that I had actually wanted to be right. Black's wand arm rose, but Professor Lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning look, then turned again to Pettigrew, his voice light and casual. I took another step backwards, this time towards the door, just in case Pettigrew tried to make a run for it.

"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed -"

"Remus," Pettigrew gasped, and I could see beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you? He tried to kill me, Remus..."

"So we've heard," Professor Lupin said, more coldly. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'd be so -"

"He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew squeakily interrupted suddenly, pointing at Black. At that moment, I saw that he used his middle finger, because his index was missing. The truth was sounding more and more likely. "He killed Lily and James, he was going to kill Marcus and Julia, and now he’s going to kill me too... You've got to help me, Remus..."

There was something about the way that he had said my parents' names that genuinely bothered me. I wanted them to say just about anything else. I did not want to hear them mentioning my parents and how close it had come to them being dead. Black's face looked more skull-like than ever as he stared at Pettigrew with his fathomless eyes. I had a feeling that Black was actually hurting, staring at a man that had once been one of his best friends, now listening to him blame him for the deaths of his other best friends.

"No one's going to try and kill you until we've sorted a few things out," Professor Lupin said.

"Sorted things out?" Pettigrew squealed, looking wildly about him once more, eyes taking in the boarded windows and, again, the only door. "I knew he'd come after me! I knew he'd be back for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve years!"

"You knew Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban? When nobody has ever done it before?" Professor Lupin asked, his brows furrowed.

"He's got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of! How else did he get out of there? I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him a few tricks!" Pettigrew shouted fearfully.

Just the way that Pettigrew was speaking was enough to tell me that he was lying. It was obvious that he was trying to do or say anything right now that would maybe save his life. I awkwardly shifted backwards. Pettigrew was only focused on Black and Professor Lupin right now and I didn't want that to change. Harry grabbed my arm and pulled me over towards the others. Black then started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the whole room. That must have been why everyone thought that he was insane. He sounded insane.

"Voldemort, teach me tricks?" Black chuckled.

Pettigrew flinched as though Black had brandished a whip at him. Strange, it seemed. Pettigrew had obviously been one of Voldemort's most loyal servants since he had feared him. But now he couldn't even hear his name. He had abandoned Voldemort once he was no longer in power, and now feared the day that he would return to power. But as for what Black had said, I knew that he was right. Black was the first Gryffindor in a long line of Slytherin's. I doubted that Voldemort had ever really wanted him.

"What, scared to hear your old master's name?" Black asked nastily. "I don't blame you, Peter. His lot aren't very happy with you, are they?"

"Don't know what you mean, Sirius -" Pettigrew muttered, his breathing faster than ever. His whole face was shining with sweat now.

"You haven't been hiding from me for twelve years. You've been hiding from Voldemort's old supporters. I heard things in Azkaban, Peter... They all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them... I've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. Sounds like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them. Voldemort went to the Potters' on your information... the Nox's would have been next... and Voldemort met his downfall there. And not all Voldemort's supporters ended up in Azkaban, did they? There are still plenty out here, biding their time, pretending they've seen the error of their ways... If they ever got wind that you were still alive, Peter -"

"Don't know... what you're talking about..." Pettigrew muttered again, more shrilly than ever. He wiped his face on his sleeve and looked up at Lupin. "You don't believe this - this madness, Remus -"

"I must admit, Peter, I have difficulty in understanding why an innocent man would want to spend twelve years as a rat," Professor Lupin said evenly.

"Innocent, but scared! If Voldemort's supporters were after me, it was because I put one of their best men in Azkaban - the spy, Sirius Black!" Pettigrew squealed.

Black's face contorted. "How dare you," Black growled, sounding suddenly like the bear-sized dog he had been. "I, a spy for Voldemort? When did I ever sneak around people who were stronger and more powerful than myself? But you, Peter - I'll never understand why I didn't see you were the spy from the start. You always liked big friends who'd look after you, didn't you? It used to be us... me and Remus and Marcus... and James..."

My heart gave a painful jolt at the thought. My father, Harry's father, Professor Lupin, and Black. The four of them had been incredibly strong and popular boys. Why had they taken in Pettigrew? Short, stout, and awkward. Because they were good men who cared about others. It turned out that the little wimp was the shrew in the end. Our parents had protected him and he had repaid the favor by getting them killed and forcing the others to go into hiding. Pettigrew wiped his face again; he was almost panting for breath.

"Me, a spy... must be out of your mind... never... don't know how you can say such a -"

"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," Black hissed, so venomously that Pettigrew took a step backward. "We already had Remus protecting Marcus and Julia. I thought placing you as their Secret-Keeper was the perfect plan... a bluff... Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would never dream they'd use a weak, talentless thing like you... It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters, and in turn, the Nox's."

Unfortunately Black hadn't realized that Pettigrew must have already been working for Voldemort. He likely had for years and our parents had never been smart enough to realize it. Pettigrew was muttering distractedly; I caught words like 'far-fetched' and 'lunacy,' but I couldn't help paying more attention to the ashen color of Pettigrew's face and the way his eyes continued to dart toward the windows and door. He knew that he was caught and any second now he would start looking for a way to bolt again and go back into hiding.

"Professor Lupin? Can - Can I say something?" Hermione asked timidly.

"Certainly, Hermione," Professor Lupin said courteously.

"Well - Scabbers - I mean, this - this man - he's been sleeping in Harry's dormitory for three years. If he's working for You-Know-Who, how come he never tried to hurt Harry before now?" Hermione asked fearfully.

"There!" Pettigrew cried shrilly, pointing at Ron with his maimed hand. "Thank you! You see, Remus? I have never hurt a hair of Harry's head! Why should I?"

"Because you would have to be brave enough to risk revealing yourself," I said sharply.

It was the first time that Pettigrew had looked at me and I found myself very uncomfortable with the lingering stare that I received. I hoped that he saw the eyes, hair, and face of the people that he had almost killed. Just the way that I hoped that he saw the same thing when he looked at Harry. Black broke eye contact with Pettigrew for the first time since he had first revealed him to really be Pettigrew. The two of us locked eyes for a moment as I nodded for him to continue speaking. I still needed to hear the entire thing.

"Exactly," Black told me before turning back to the others. "I'll tell you why. Because you never did anything for anyone unless you could see what was in it for you. Voldemort's been in hiding for fifteen years, they say he's half dead. You weren't about to commit murder right under Albus Dumbledore's nose, for a wreck of a wizard who'd lost all of his power, were you? You'd want to be quite sure he was the biggest bully in the playground before you went back to him, wouldn't you? Why else did you find a wizard family to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren't you, Peter? Just in case your old protector regained strength, and it was safe to rejoin him..."

The words were harsh and about as unkind as I had ever heard before. He wasn't exactly speaking in nasty terms, but I could hear the complete venom put in behind his words. And behind that, something almost sad. Because he had to threaten someone who had once been like family to him. I shifted awkwardly again, wondering when we would finally hear everything. Pettigrew opened his mouth and closed it several times. He seemed to have lost the ability to talk. He clearly knew that this was almost over for him. We were almost to the end.

"Er - Mr. Black - Sirius?" Hermione asked awkwardly.

Everyone whipped around to her the moment that she had said it. Even I was thinking about calling him something other than Black. It seemed a little rude for someone who was so clearly trying to make things better with us. But even I hadn't called him by another name, because I couldn't think of what to say. At least Hermione had been bold enough to speak directly to him. Black jumped at being addressed with something akin to respect and stared at Hermione as though he had never seen anything quite like her.

"If you don't mind me asking, how - how did you get out of Azkaban, if you didn't use Dark Magic?" Hermione asked.

"Thank you!" Pettigrew gasped, nodding frantically at her. "Exactly! Precisely what I -"

"She's not defending you! She's asking a good question," I interrupted loudly.

Pettigrew's head whipped towards me again. Unless I was wrong, I could have sworn that he had twitched slightly. Perhaps he was remembering just how nasty both Mom and Dad could be when provoked. As for the darkness in me... that might have made things even worse. Pettigrew looked like he might start groveling again, but Professor Lupin silenced him with a look. Black was frowning slightly at Hermione, but not as though he were annoyed with her. He seemed to be pondering his answer.

"Thank you, Tara," Black said weakly.

His voice was almost shaking. "You're welcome..." I trailed off when I realized that, like Hermione, I wasn't sure what I should call the man who was apparently my godfather. "What should I call you?"

Black seemed to contemplate my answer for a while. "Please call me Sirius," Black - Sirius said slowly.

"Sirius..." I repeated slowly, testing the name awkwardly on my tongue.

"I don't know how I did it," Black admitted slowly. "I think the only reason I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the Dementors couldn't suck it out of me... but it kept me sane and knowing who I am... helped me keep my powers... so when it all became too much I could transform in my cell... become a dog. Dementors can't see, you know." He swallowed. "They feel their way toward people by feeding off their emotions. They could tell that my feelings were less - less human, less complex when I was a dog... but they thought, of course, that I was losing my mind like everyone else in there, so it didn't trouble them."

"They didn't think that there was anything worth feeding off of anymore," I reasoned sadly.

It was a depressing thought that Sirius might have almost gotten to that point. "Yes. But I was weak, very weak, and I had no hope of driving them away from me without a wand... But then I saw Peter in that picture. I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry and Tara... perfectly positioned to act, if one hint reached his ears that the Dark Side was gathering strength again..."

He really had left at least partially to help protect Harry and me. He really had risked being executed or having the Dementors Kiss performed on him if it meant that he could come and save us. Maybe try and make up to us what had happened with our parents so many years ago. Harry and I stared at each other as I nodded. Sirius was innocent here. Pettigrew was still shaking his head though, mouthing noiselessly, but staring all the while at Sirius as though hypnotized.

"... ready to strike at the moment he could be sure of allies... and to deliver the last Potter to them. If he gave them Harry, who'd dare say he'd betrayed Lord Voldemort? He'd be welcomed back with honors. To bring Tara back as well, whom Voldemort had always seemed so interested in, would have made Peter a hero," Sirius continued. A chill shot up my spine. So even Sirius knew that Voldemort wanted me for some strange reason. "So you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was still alive.

Once more I was jolted backwards through time. I remembered what Mr. Weasley had told Mrs. Weasley. 'The guards say he's been talking in his sleep... always the same words... He's at Hogwarts.' Of course. It all made perfect sense now. It made sense why Mom and Dad hadn't seemed completely convinced that Sirius was guilty. It all made sense. Even they had known, on some level, that Sirius Black was always innocent. Moving towards Sirius again, I ignored the looks in the room that were being sent my way.

"You weren't muttering about Harry. You were muttering about Pettigrew," I said softly.

"Yes. It was as if someone had lit a fire in my head, and the Dementors couldn't destroy it. It wasn't a happy feeling... it was an obsession... but it gave me strength, it cleared my mind. So, one night when they opened my door to bring food, I slipped past them as a dog. It's so much harder for them to sense animal emotions that they were confused. I was thin, very thin... thin enough to slip through the bars. I swam as a dog back to the mainland... I journeyed north and slipped into the Hogwarts grounds as a dog."

But I had seen him. I was absolutely positive that he was Snuffles. "You came to Magnolia Crescent first, didn't you?" I asked.

Sirius looked almost ashamed. "Yes. I had to see you. Both of you. Marcus and Julia." Of course. He must have spied on both of us and our families. "I hadn't seen them in so many years. You look stunningly like both of your parents," Sirius continued.

His voice almost cracked. "So people say," I answered dumbly.

"I wanted so desperately to come see you. To come up to you. But I made myself a promise that I wouldn't come close to you until you knew the entire truth and I had caught Peter," Sirius said.

Nodding slowly, I twisted the cords of my jacket. "That makes sense, I'm ashamed to say," I mumbled.

"I've been living in the forest ever since, except when I came to watch the Quidditch match, of course," Sirius continued.

"I knew I saw you," I scoffed.

Seeing him was also what had caused my collision with Cedric and the almost every single broken bone in my body. "You could out-fly your father ten times over," Sirius said.

"Thank you," I said awkwardly.

"You fly as well as your father did, Harry..." Sirius continued.

His voice was much tighter when speaking to Harry. At least when he spoke to me, he had the knowledge that my parents had survived the almost attack. He didn't have their deaths on his conscience. But as for Harry, every time that he looked at him, he must have seen the two friends that he had failed to protect. The two that he would always blame himself for getting killed. Sirius looked at Harry, who did not look away. It was the first time that I had seen real doubt in Harry's eyes that Sirius had betrayed his parents.

"Believe me. Believe me, Harry. Believe me, Tara. I never betrayed James and Lily. I never betrayed Marcus and Julia. I never betrayed you. I would have died before I betrayed them," Sirius croaked.

The way that he was speaking told me that this was the one thing that he had been looking forward to since he had first been sentenced to a life in Azkaban. He so desperately wanted us to know that he had never hurt either one of us, at least, not intentionally. And I really did believe him. I really did believe that everything that they were telling us was the truth. One look at Harry, who was still staring at Sirius, told me that, at long last, Harry believed him too. Obviously with his throat too tight to speak, he nodded.

"We believe you, Sirius," I whispered.

"No!"

The sudden shout startled me so much that I almost dropped to the ground. Everyone else in the room turned back to Pettigrew, who had so suddenly interrupted the tense but peaceful air that had fallen over us with Harry's acceptance of Sirius's apology. Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though Harry's nod and my acceptance had been his own death sentence. To my surprise, Pettigrew shuffled forward on his knees, groveling, his hands clasped in front of him as though praying.

"Sirius - it's me... it's Peter... your friend... you wouldn't..."

Sirius kicked out and Pettigrew recoiled. "There's enough filth on my robes without you touching them," Sirius snarled.

It almost surprised me how furious Sirius sounded. "Remus!" Pettigrew squeaked, turning to Professor Lupin instead, writhing imploringly in front of him. "You don't believe this... wouldn't Sirius have told you they'd changed the plan?"

"Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter. I assume that's why you didn't tell me, Sirius?" Professor Lupin said casually over Pettigrew's head.

It was the plainest that I could have ever heard someone asking if their best friend had thought that he had betrayed them. "Forgive me, Remus," Sirius said earnestly.

"Not at all, Padfoot, old friend," Professor Lupin said happily, who was now rolling up his sleeves. "And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?"

"Of course," Sirius said.

To my surprise, the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. It was only the second one that I had seen since meeting him. I couldn't tell if he was actually happy or if he was just relieved that he was finally getting this over with. A moment later he, too, began rolling up his sleeves. I wasn't surprised in the slightest. It was time for them to get their competence from what had happened all those years ago. Although I did realize that none of them - my own parents included - had ever thought that weak little Peter could have been strong enough to be the spy. It had really been their fault.

Now they were finally making up for it. "Shall we kill him together?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, I think so," Professor Lupin said grimly.

"You wouldn't... you won't..." Pettigrew gasped.

Without warning he scrambled around to Ron. "Ron... haven't I been a good friend... a good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron, will you... you're on my side, aren't you?" Pettigrew asked, grabbing onto his robes.

But Ron was staring at Pettigrew with the utmost revulsion. A disgusted chill ran up my spine and spread over the rest of my body. "You're despicable," I seethed.

"I let you sleep in my bed!" Ron cried.

"Kind boy... kind master..." Pettigrew crawled toward Ron, "you won't let them do it... I was your rat... I was a good pet..."

"You should have been a good friend," I growled.

"If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter," Sirius said harshly.

Moving forward, I thought about ripping Pettigrew out of Ron's way. But I realized that he was holding onto Ron's broken leg and moving him would only hurt even worse. Ron, going still paler with pain, wrenched his broken leg out of Pettigrew's reach. Even now I could hear Ron groaning and cringing with pain. We really needed to get him up to the hospital wing as soon as possible. Pettigrew turned on his knees, staggered forward, and seized the hem of Hermione’s robes.

"Sweet girl... clever girl... you - you won't let them... Help me..."

"Get away from her!" I shouted.

A moment later I rushed forwards to try and punch Pettigrew, but Hermione actually managed to act faster than I could move. Hermione pulled her robes out of Pettigrew’s clutching hands and backed away against the wall, looking horrified. If there was ever a time for her to punch someone, even more than the punch that she had given Malfoy, it would have been right now. Pettigrew knelt, trembling uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly toward Harry and me. We both stared back at him.

"Harry... Tara... Harry... you look just like your father... just like him... Tara, your mother was so sweet... she would have never hurt me..." Pettigrew said.

Honestly, he was probably right. But that didn't change the fact that I wasn't my mother. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY OR TARA? HOW DARE YOU FACE THEM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES OR JULIA IN FRONT OF THEM?" Sirius roared.

"Harry," Pettigrew whispered, shuffling toward him, hands outstretched. "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed... James would have understood, Harry... he would have shown me mercy... Julia will understand once you tell her... Marcus will understand... Nothing will have had to change..."

"I guess that we'll never know," I snarled.

It didn't matter less to me that either my mother or father would have left him alive. I knew that my father would have attacked him. My mother might have not done anything herself, but I knew that she was furious about Harry's parents' deaths. She would have let this be his repentance. Both Sirius and Professor Lupin strode forward, seized Pettigrew's shoulders, and threw him backward onto the floor. I jumped slightly, having not been expecting it to happen that quickly. Pettigrew sat there, twitching with terror, staring up at them.

"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort. You knew where Marcus and Julia were hiding. You were babysitting their one-year-old daughter! You sold them out. Do you deny it?" Sirius asked, shaking just like Pettigrew was.

But he wasn't shaking in fear. He was shaking in pure, seething, hatred. It was strange to see him that angry at someone whom he must have once laughed and joked around with. Something told me that this exchange was hurting Sirius as much as it was also pleasing him. This wasn't all a good thing. It marked the end of a friendship that had once seemed unbreakable. Pettigrew burst into tears. It was horrible to watch, like an oversized, balding baby, cowering on the floor. How had our parents ever been friends with him?

"Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord... you have no idea... he has weapons you can't imagine... I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and Marcus and James. I never meant it to happen... He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me -"

"DON'T LIE! YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY!" Sirius bellowed.

"He - He was taking over everywhere! Wh - What was there to be gained by refusing him?" Pettigrew gasped.

"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed? Only innocent lives, Peter!" Sirius bellowed again, with a terribly fury in his face.

"You don't understand! He would have killed me, Sirius!" Pettigrew whined.

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!" Sirius roared.

He both sounded and looked very much like the massive black dog that was his Animagus form. Pettigrew scurried back again. I wondered if he felt at all guilty or if he was just terrified that his own life was about to end. Did he feel at all guilty that he sold out the friends who would have gladly died to keep him safe? Probably not. I supposed that it showed the kind of person that he was. Sirius and Professor Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised.

"You should have realized, if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would," Professor Lupin said quietly. "Good-bye, Peter."

It was the most nonchalant that I had ever heard someone discussing killing someone. It was almost frightening how calm they seemed after everything, like they didn't realize that they were about to kill someone who had once been like a brother to them. I swallowed a lump in my throat and steeled myself to watch. Pettigrew had almost given me over to Voldemort. He had almost killed my parents. I needed to see the last moments of his life. Hermione covered her face with her hands and turned to the wall.

"NO!" Harry yelled.

His voice was so loud and sudden that I stumbled back a few steps, having almost forgotten that he was also in the room. Harry ran forward without warning or thought, placing himself in front of Pettigrew, facing the wands. My jaw was practically on the floor with his stupidity. It was things like this right here that were exactly why Harry hadn't been placed in Ravenclaw.

"What are you doing? Let them!" I shouted.

"You can't kill him. You can't," Harry said breathlessly.

Sirius and Professor Lupin both looked staggered. "Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents. This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. He attempted to sell out Tara's parents. And then her... To deliver your best friend to Voldemort as an infant," Sirius snarled. "You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than either one of your whole families."

My heart was pounding in my chest so painfully that I was sure that it was actually going to beat through both my rib cage and my skin. I felt like I was about to be sick. The truth was finally hitting me about what had almost happened to me that night. Pettigrew was about to bring me to Voldemort when I was just a one-year-old baby. What did Voldemort want with me so badly? Why did I mean so much to him? One of my parents' best friends had tried to kill me and them... My life was far too messed up for a fourteen-year-old.

"I know," Harry panted.

"Harry, think about this," I said softly.

Harry turned to me and grabbed my hand reassuringly. "I am, Tara. I promise," he said before turning back to Sirius and Professor Lupin. "We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the Dementors... He can go to Azkaban... but don't kill him."

"Harry!" Pettigrew gasped, and he flung his arms around Harry's knees. "You - thank you - it's more than I deserve - thank you -"

"Get off me," Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew's hands off him in disgust. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because - I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers - just for you."

For once in his life, Harry actually had a perfectly good reason for doing something. It made complete sense to me. I could see why he didn't want to kill Pettigrew. As much as I didn't want to admit it, just this once, Harry was right. But that didn't change the fact that I still wanted him dead for what he had done. No one moved or made a sound except Pettigrew, whose breath was coming in wheezes as he clutched his chest. Sirius and Professor Lupin were looking at each other. Then, with one movement, they lowered their wands.

"What he did," I started, "Harry -"

But Harry turned around and spoke over me, "We don't get to play judge, jury, and executioner. He'll be miserable enough with the Dementors. Having to live with what he did, every day, for the rest of his life."

We were silent for a few moments. "You're sure?" I asked slowly.

Harry seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding. "We're not cruel. Not the way that he is," Harry whispered.

Despite the little bit in the back of my head telling me that I was doing the wrong thing, I eventually nodded my consent. "This once I'll go with you. I still say that we should kill him," I mumbled.

Pettigrew laughed hysterically as he turned to face me. "Your mother -"

"Do not talk about my mother," I interrupted, gnashing my teeth together. Mom would hate Pettigrew after she knew what he had done. "I'm more like my father anyways. And I know that he acts before he does anything. He would kill you. You're lucky that he isn't here right now. But this one is Harry's choice. No matter what you almost did to my family, it's his that genuinely suffered. The choice is his."

Harry looked almost impressed that I was letting him make this choice. "Tara is right. You're the only person who has the right to decide, Harry. But think... think what he did..." Sirius whispered.

Like me, he wanted Pettigrew to suffer for what he had done. "He can go to Azkaban," Harry repeated. "If anyone deserves that place, he does."

If there was any fate that might have been a little bit worse than death, it was having to deal with the Dementors Kiss. That was one of the worst things that anyone would ever have to deal with. He would barely even be the shell of the shell of a person that he was right now. Realizing the truth of what was about to happen, I noticed that Pettigrew was still wheezing behind us. We all turned around to stare at him. He looked like he was about ready to drop dead.

"You're both okay with this?" Sirius asked me.

I would much rather kill him, but I want to prove the Sorting Hat wrong. I do not have a darkness in me. So I said, "Yes."

"Very well. Stand aside, Harry," Professor Lupin said. But Harry hesitated. "I'm going to tie him up. That's all, I swear."

It was much better that Professor Lupin was the one going towards Pettigrew. I had a feeling that Sirius might not have been able to resist the temptation to kill Pettigrew right now. Harry finally stepped out of the way, despite looking like he still wasn't completely sure that they weren't going to kill him the moment that he turned his back. Thin cords shot from Professor Lupin's wand this time, and next moment, Pettigrew was wriggling on the floor, bound and gagged, just the way that Snape had done to him earlier.

"But if you transform, Peter, we will kill you," Sirius growled, his own wand pointing at Pettigrew too, "You agree, Harry?"

In the back of my head I couldn't help but to think that Sirius was likely praying that Pettigrew would make a sudden move and slow them to kill him. I had a feeling that Pettigrew was a little smarter than that. He wouldn't try an escape attempt unless he was positive that he would survive it. Harry looked down at the pitiful figure on the floor and nodded so that Pettigrew could see him. Pettigrew made another tiny whimper that sounded so much like the ones that Scabbers used to give. My skin crawled again.

"Tara?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," I said without hesitation.

"Right," Professor Lupin said, suddenly businesslike. "Ron, I can't mend bones nearly as well as Madam Pomfrey, so I think it's best if we just strap your leg up until we can get you to the hospital wing." He hurried over to Ron, bent down, tapped Ron’s leg with his wand, and muttered, "Ferula."

It really was too bad that Mom wasn't here right now. She always had been the best Healer that I had ever met. Much better than the ones at St. Mungo's. Good enough to bandage me up after each one of my terrible Quidditch injuries when I was a kid. Bandages spun up Ron's leg, strapping it tightly to a splint. He might not have looked much better, but I knew that it must have taken a lot of strain off of his leg. Professor Lupin helped him to his feet; Ron put his weight gingerly on the leg and didn't wince.

"That's better. Thanks," Ron said.

"What about Professor Snape?" Hermione asked in a small voice, looking down at Snape's prone figure.

"Who cares?" I snapped.

To my surprise, Black almost laughed. There was something about his laugh that was almost comforting this time. "There's nothing seriously wrong with him," Professor Lupin said, bending over Snape and checking his pulse. "You were just a little - overenthusiastic. Still out cold. Er - perhaps it will be best if we don't revive him until we're safely back in the castle. We can take him like this." He then muttered, "Mobilicorpus."

Almost as though invisible strings were tied to Snape's wrists, neck, and knees, he was pulled into a standing position, head still lolling unpleasantly, like a grotesque puppet. I knew that it wasn't right to laugh at Snape in the position that he was in right now, but I had to chuckle softly at the helpless look of his limp body. Snape hung a few inches above the ground, his limp feet dangling. I couldn't even imagine how angry he would be right now if he could see himself. Professor Lupin picked up the Invisibility Cloak and tucked it safely into his pocket.

"And two of us should be chained to this," Sirius said, nudging Pettigrew with his toe. "Just to make sure."

"I'll do it," Professor Lupin said.

"And me," Ron said savagely, limping forward.

"You sure that you're okay?" I asked softly.

He had a broken leg. Maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world for Ron to be chained up to someone else. But Ron was determined. "Better than he'll be," he told me fiercely.

So I nodded, knowing that this was something that Ron needed to do. Sirius conjured heavy manacles from thin air; soon Pettigrew was upright again, left arm chained to Professor Lupin's right, right arm to Ron's left. Ron's face was set. He seemed to have taken Scabbers's true identity as a personal insult. Broken leg or not, he was going to finish this. I was much more impressed with him than I ever had been before. Crookshanks leapt lightly off the bed and led the way out of the room, his bottlebrush tail held jauntily high.


	56. The Dementor's Kiss

Despite having been in some very strange situations before, I had never been part of a stranger group. Crookshanks led the way down the stairs; Professor Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron went next, looking like entrants in a six-legged race. Next came Professor Snape, drifting creepily along, his toes hitting each stair as they descended, held up by his own wand, which was being pointed at him by Sirius. Harry, Hermione, and I brought up the rear.

Every now and again I thought about heading up towards where Sirius was walking behind Professor Snape – looking very much ready to curse him all over again – but I quickly realized that this wasn't the most magnificent place to speak. After all, once we got up to the castle and explained that Sirius was innocent, I would have all the time in the world to speak with him. If I wasn't spoken over by Mom and Dad, which was a real possibility.

Getting back into the tunnel from the Shrieking Shack was difficult. Professor Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron had to turn sideways to manage it; Professor Lupin still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. I could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in single file. Crookshanks was still in the lead. Harry went right after Sirius, who was still making Snape drift along ahead of us; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. I had the impression Sirius was making no effort to prevent that.

Not that it bothered me. Honestly, Snape kind of deserved it and it did make me smile after the exhausting night that we had had. There was something rather comical about the moment. It should have been serious and tense – as we had jut captured the person who had sold our parents out to Voldemort – but it made me laugh. Their hatred hadn't lessened any over the years. As I slid back into the passage, Sirius slowly fell back in line with Harry and I.

"You know what this means?" Sirius asked abruptly to Harry and I as we made their slow progress along the tunnel. "Turning Pettigrew in?"

"You're free," Harry said.

Hermione sped up slightly to give us a few moments of privacy. "A free man after so many years. It'll be wonderful for you. Everyone will finally see that you're not the monster that they've made you out to be," I put in.

"Yes... But I'm also - I don't know if anyone ever told either one of you - I'm your godfather. Both of you," Sirius said awkwardly.

"Yeah, we knew that," Harry said.

"We overheard a conversation and we found out," I explained. Sirius nodded blankly. "Turns out that it's actually a good thing."

To my surprise, a slight smile appeared on Sirius's face. "I'm glad that you feel that way," he said.

"We're not upset to hear that, Sirius. About you being our godfather. Just so you know," I said, sensing that Harry was still a little too deep in thought from what had happened in the Shrieking Shack.

"Is that so?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Well, I can't speak for Harry. But speaking for myself, I can honestly say that I'm quite happy to hear that you're my godfather," I said honestly.

"That's - That's wonderful to hear," Sirius stuttered, obviously surprised by my words.

"Yes..." Harry mumbled.

"Well... your parents appointed me your guardian. If anything happened to them," Sirius said stiffly.

My head snapped up to him. Suddenly even Harry looked a lot more alert than he had been a few seconds ago. We both turned to stare at the other. I knew that he was thinking the exact same thing that I was. The one thing that would make Harry the happiest, save having his parents alive again, that is. Harry and I waited for a few moments while Sirius still didn't speak. But did Sirius mean what we both thought that he meant?

Suddenly another thought occurred to me. "What about mine?" I asked, wondering why my own parents hadn't been appointed as Harry's guardians.

"They had left England. They didn't want Harry out of where they could see him," Sirius said. I nodded. Of course the Ministry wouldn't have wanted Harry on the other side of the planet. "They much preferred having Harry somewhere that they could keep an eye on him with you in a place that you were safe in."

"I suppose that makes sense," I mumbled irritably.

But we could have grown up together. I would have loved that. "I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," Sirius continued to Harry. "But... well... think about it. Once my name's cleared... if you wanted a - a different home..."

As thrilled as Harry looked, I couldn't help but to snort. I couldn't imagine that Harry would ever want to go back to the Dursley's. And I was sure that they would absolutely love for someone to take him off of their hands. Especially if that someone was a convicted murderer. They would think that it was a good joke. I could see it in Harry's eyes; the excitement. Thrilled for him, some sort of explosion took place in the pit of my stomach.

"What - live with you?" Harry asked, accidentally cracking his head on a bit of rock protruding from the ceiling.

"Oh, Harry," I gasped, reaching out for his arm. He was bleeding slightly from the impact. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah - Yeah," Harry mumbled, waving me off. "Leave the Dursley's?"

"Of course, I thought you wouldn't want to," Sirius said quickly. "I understand, I just thought I'd -"

"Are you insane?" Harry interrupted, his voice easily as croaky as Sirius's.

"Harry, try and be nice," I snapped.

After all, our godfather had just spent twelve years imprisoned for a crime he hadn't committed. "Of course I want to leave the Dursley's!" Harry gasped. He then turned to me. "I mean, I'll miss you, Tara. I'll miss your parents so much. But I can still come and visit."

"Can I come and visit?" I asked Sirius, shoving Harry out of the way.

Sirius looked like he had just won the Muggle lottery. "Why... yes... of course, whenever you'd like. All the time. You never have to ask," he breathed.

"Thanks! Oh, I can't wait! It'll be so much fun," I said excitably, grabbing Harry's hands.

"Have you got a house? When can I move in?" Harry asked Sirius.

Before he got a chance to answer, I started speaking again. "Oh, if you don't have a house we can see if there's one near Privet Drive!" Having Harry as my neighbor without dealing with the Dursley's - plus my godfather and parents' best friend - would make for a much more entertaining summer. "Could you imagine the look on the Dursley's faces if they had a convinced serial killer in the neighborhood?" Sirius gave a startled look. "Sorry."

To my surprise, he quickly forgave my slip of the tongue. "No more Harry hunting," Harry said happily.

"Mom and Dad would love to have you back around!" I chirped to Sirius.

"Isn't there a house in the back of the neighborhood on sale?" Harry asked me.

In fact, there was. I had seen it on my bike rides. "Oh, yeah, Mrs. Clotter, or something like that?" I said.

"It's a nice house," Harry told Sirius.

"I would love to see Marcus and Julia again -"

Before Sirius could finish his thought, I stepped in again. "We have a spare bedroom in the house, actually. It's pretty big. You could both share it, if need be," I offered.

Not that it was my room to offer... "I'll even take the couch," Harry said.

"Perfect! If you have nowhere to stay for now, you can stay with us. We could all be together," I finished.

Years later I would look back and laugh on the memory of how excited the two of us were to make us one happy family. My parents, Harry, Sirius, and myself, all living together under one roof. Sirius was staring at us like we had already told him that his name had been cleared. He turned right around to look at us, sensing that our back-and-forth was done with for now; Snape's head was scraping the ceiling but Sirius didn't seem to care.

"You want to? You both would have me around? You mean it?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, I mean it!" Harry yelped.

"Of course! Any and all of the above!" I added happily.

"Marcus and Julia -" Sirius started worriedly.

"Will listen to everything just the way that we listened to you," I interrupted, already sensing where that conversation was going. "You just have to give them some time. They'll listen and be more than willing to help once they realized what happened."

"Thank you, Tara.," Sirius said gratefully.

Having my godfather and best friend near me all the time? It was perfect. "Trust me, they've listened to me have to explain how we were almost eaten by a giant murderous snake. This'll be nothing," I said, earning a laugh from Harry.

Sirius's head whipped towards me. "Giant murderous snake?" he repeated.

Right… That probably doesn't make sense to anyone who doesn't know the whole story. "Last year we found a Basilisk in the castle. It's been there since the school opened," I said. Sirius exchanged a baffled look with Professor Lupin. "But it's dead now. We killed it."

"I imagine that your parents are growing gray with the two of you?" Sirius asked us.

Harry and I exchanged a little smile. "Oh, not yet, but I'm sure that it's coming. Especially with you added into the fray now," I teased.

Sirius's gaunt face broke into the first true smile that I had seen upon it. The difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask; for a moment, he was recognizable as the man who had laughed at Harry's parents' wedding. I smiled up at him. He looked almost like the handsome young man who had once been the envy of almost every boy at Hogwarts. His smile reminded me startlingly of my father's.

We did not speak again until we had reached the end of the tunnel. None of us really needed to speak to each other. We had gotten everything out in the open and things were finally looking up for us. Crookshanks darted up and out of the passage first; he had evidently pressed his paw to the knot on the trunk, because Professor Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron clambered upward without any sound of savaging branches. Which was good, since I was still bleeding from our first fight with the tree.

Clasping hands with Harry, who seemed more hopeful than I had ever seen him, the two of us made our way out of the end of the passage. Sirius saw Snape up through the hole, surprisingly not letting him whack any part of his body on the stony entrance, then stood back for Harry, Hermione, and I to pass. At last, all of us were out. I breathed in the fresh air with a little glare at the Whomping Willow. I would always hold a grudge against the damn tree.

The grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. Without a word, only a brief glance at each other, we set off. Pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering. My mind was buzzing. Harry was going to leave the Dursley's. He was going to live with Sirius Black, our parents' best friend. One look at him told me that he felt dazed. What would happen when he told the Dursley's he was going to live with the convict they'd seen on television?

In fact, how were my parents going to react to that? They'd probably be thrilled. I glanced over at Harry and smiled. "Are you excited?" I asked.

He turned to me with a grin. "Don't get me wrong, Tara –"

"Harry, this is the absolute best situation that you could be in," I interrupted, knowing that he felt guilty for leaving. "I don't love that you won't be near me anymore, but this is wonderful for you. And trust me, I'll still come and bother you."

"I wouldn't want it any other way," Harry said, looping an arm over my shoulder.

"Good," I chirped.

"One wrong move, Peter," Professor Lupin said threateningly, up ahead of us. His wand was still pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest.

We continued walking up towards the castle when something dawned on me that I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of before. Obviously, Sirius would soon be meeting my parents again. It would be a wonderful time, but there was something bothering me. He had seen me at the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff and I was sure that he had also seen me on the grounds at some point since then. Which meant that he had also seen someone else with me.

"Um, Sirius? Can I speak with you for a moment?" I asked, falling back in step with him.

"Certainly, Tara."

"You've been wandering the grounds lately, haven't you?"

"For a while, yes."

"Have you been watching over us?" I asked.

Sirius looked just the slightest bit guilty. "A little bit, I admit it. I was just so curious to see James and Lily's son and Marcus and Julia's daughter," Sirius said.

"Have we lived up to what must have been some very high expectations?" I asked teasingly.

"You've surpassed them," Sirius said.

My godfather is nicer to me than my parents are. "Thanks," I said.

The two of us walked together for a moment as I tried to figure out what to say. "I assume that it was my appearance that distracted you in the Quidditch game and caused your fall?" Sirius asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Well, yes, but honestly I should have been paying more attention," I said, spotting him shift guiltily.

"I'm very sorry, I hear that you were badly injured afterwards."

"Oh, I've had worse. No big deal."

Technically it was half-true. I had been injured worse by Voldemort and the Basilisk, but that had been the worst Quidditch injury that I had ever received. Not that Sirius needed to know that. "The Hufflepuff Seeker, he tried very hard to stop your fall. Seemed quite concerned about your well-being afterwards, as well," Sirius said curiously.

"He should," Harry scoffed, "he's her boyfriend."

Now that definitely drew Sirius's attention. Ron groaned as Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, thanks for that!" I shouted, whacking Harry over the back of the head. "We weren't even dating at that point."

"Boyfriend, eh?" Sirius asked, looking very much like the mischievous young man from our photo albums.

"Yes. It's just been a few months," I mumbled dumbly.

"What's his name?" Sirius asked.

"Cedric," I said blankly.

"Does Cedric have a last name?" Sirius goaded.

"Diggory," I said.

Sirius raised a brow. "Amos Diggory his father?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

Sirius chuckled under his breath softly. "Unless I recall incorrectly, most of the girls had a crush on Amos. Even your mother did, at one point," he said.

Now I was definitely interested. "What?" I gasped.

Sirius grinned down at me. "Haven't you ever noticed that your father doesn't love Amos?" he asked.

Did he? He was perfectly nice to Amos at dinners, but he didn't ever seem nearly as chatty with him as Mom was. Oh... "Yeah, right," Harry laughed. "Tara tries to avoid having them all together in the same room, seeing as they don't –"

"Who the hell asked you to talk?" I interrupted Harry, grabbing him by the shoulders and shoving him. "Go away!"

"That makes much more sense," Sirius laughed.

"What?" I asked curiously.

"Well I highly doubt that your parents would be alright with you dating yet," Sirius explained. He was certainly right about that. They would lose it the moment that they learned that the two of us were dating and had been for a while. "Cedric Diggory is likely a few years older than you, isn't he?"

"Fifth Year," I answered.

Sirius laughed and patted me on the back. "Well I'm certainly proud of you," he said.

Of course... I assumed that he had been quite the ladies' man in his own day. "Thanks, Sirius. We can agree to keep this between us?" I asked carefully.

"It won't be the first time that I've kept a secret from your father that has to do with another man in one of his girls' lives," Sirius explained.

"Okay, we're gonna circle back to that," I laughed.

"As obsessed as Marcus was with Julia, she didn't always feel the same way," Sirius said.

It was the same thing that Mrs. Weasley had said, just the way that James and Lily Potter had once been with each other. "Are you talking about Justin?" Professor Lupin asked, turning back to Sirius for just a moment.

"Indeed, I am," Sirius said through a grin.

But neither one made an indication to explain it to me. "Oh, come on! Those are my parents. Shouldn't I get to know?" I huffed.

"I'll tell you when you tell your parents the truth," Sirius reasoned.

My jaws flapped stupidly for a moment. "That's not fair," I grumbled.

Sirius laughed, knowing that he had caught me. "And you, Harry?" he asked.

"Don't get them started," Hermione advised.

"What was that?" Sirius asked as I turned a heated glare on Harry.

"Tara," Harry started, "I don't –"

"I saw that stupid look in your eyes," I interrupted loudly, knowing damn well that Harry had a crush on Cho Chang. "She doesn't like you nor will she ever like you. She's too busy making eyes at my boyfriend."

Sirius and Professor Lupin exchanged a slight smile as I steamed. "Do you ever miss our days at Hogwarts, Remus?" Sirius asked.

"All the time, Sirius," Professor Lupin said.

"Tell me about Cedric Diggory," Sirius said after a moment.

"What's there to tell, really?" I laughed awkwardly.

Harry rolled his eyes. "He's a Fifth Year student. As you see, the son of Amos Diggory. Taking his O.W.L's this year and has been quite serious about them. Studying to be an Auror or Healer, last that I heard from Professor Sprout," Professor Lupin explained. I arched an eyebrow. He really was still thinking about that? I supposed that we didn't talk much about after Hogwarts. "He's a Hufflepuff, just like his father. Been on the Quidditch team as a Seeker since his Third Year. Made Captain this year. First time a team has beaten Gryffindor with Harry and Tara on it. Excellent grades all around. Prefect as well, I believe."

"Are we done?" I asked, embarrassed.

"It'll be hard for Marcus and Julia to fight against that. Prefect? Really?" Sirius asked me disbelievingly.

"He breaks the rules sometimes," I mumbled.

He had taken me into Hogsmeade twice before I should have even been there. Not to mention the Prefects bathroom from the other day. Not that I was going to mention that. "What?" Harry asked sharply.

"Oh, stop it," I snapped.

"He only breaks the rules when it's got something to do with you," Hermione said.

"Calling me a bad influence?" I teased.

"Are you kidding? Yes! You're a terrible influence," Hermione said.

"That's nice," I huffed.

"A bad influence on him as well?" Sirius asked.

"I can see that I'll have a wonderful time dealing with you all," I groaned.

The list of people who didn't like my relationship with Cedric just kept on growing. "Not to fear, Tara. None of us will say a word. But coming from your loving godfather, you should tell Marcus and Julia sooner rather than later. They won't appreciate being the last to know," Sirius said.

It was the same advice that Professor Lupin had given me. "I know," I said.

"Otherwise, in the event that he ever gets a little out of line, it might help to let him know that your convicted serial killer of a godfather is watching out for you," Sirius said.

Despite knowing that Cedric would never do anything to hurt me, it still made me laugh. The thought that I really did have a convicted serial killer of a godfather who was watching out for me. In all honesty, I might miss once his name had been cleared. I would no longer be able to use that threat on Cedric. Everyone in our strange group - with the exception of Crookshanks and Pettigrew - started laughing. Even Ron, with his broken leg, managed a smile.

"You'll have to find a new threat once we clear your name," I teased Sirius.

Sirius thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Alright. Just a godfather who doesn't want his goddaughter hurt," he said.

"Deal," I agreed.

In the meantime, Pettigrew had started pleading again. "Turn me into a maggot. A dung beetle. A Flobberworm! Anything but the Dementors," he begged.

"You really honestly think that's going to work?" I asked.

Right now, he was damned lucky that we hadn't killed him where he stood. But Harry was right. James wouldn't have wanted them to become murderers just for him. And this fate was ten times worse. His suffering would go on forever, until his body finally decayed just the way that his mind would. As Ron drew back from Pettigrew in disgust, Snape bumped his head against a low limb. Hermione turned to us as I snorted in laughter.

"Oh, come on, that's kind of funny," I said in my defense.

"Tara, honestly.," Hermione sighed, shaking her head. "Don't worry. He's under the Somnambulist Charm. It's primarily used to transport the seriously deranged."

"So not that far of a leap," I put in.

Sirius grinned. Between the two of us, I was sure that there would never be a day that went by that we didn't make fun of Severus Snape. Which was just fine with me, after all that he had put me through in just three years at Hogwarts. As Harry nodded at Hermione, I watched as Pettigrew's pleading eyes found Hermione. Had he not been tied to Ron and Professor Lupin, I was sure that he would have already been groveling at her feet.

"Sweet girl. Clever girl. Surely you won't let them," Pettigrew begged.

In fact, he did manage to make it over to her and grasp onto the bottom of her robes. Hermione tugged her robes away from Pettigrew's sweaty grasp in disgust as Professor Lupin yanked him roughly away from her. Sick to my stomach with Pettigrew's attempts to get out of this unscathed, I turned back and saw Sirius staring in wonder at the castle, shining radiantly under the bright bowl of the night sky. It was a lovely sight, likely even more so for him.

"Must have been a long time since you've seen that," I said softly.

"Yes," Sirius breathed as Harry walked up besides us. "Beautiful, isn't it? I'll never forget the first time I walked through those doors. It'll be nice to do it again. Freely."

Of course, he had come in disguised as Padfoot once before. "We'll be glad to see you do it," I said. "Will it be hard?"

"To readjust?" Sirius asked. I nodded. "Maybe. Having your parents will help."

"Good. Has it changed here?" I asked curiously.

What was Hogwarts like back in their day? Probably less dangerous without Harry and I here. "No," Sirius said, smiling fondly. "Seeing the two of you, it's almost like watching James and Julia all over again, defending each other to the death. A rare friendship that only comes along every so often."

It was nice to hear that Mom was as close with James as Dad had been. "When will you two move?" I asked Sirius.

"As soon as my name's cleared," Sirius said, looking to Harry for confirmation.

Harry nodded enthusiastically. "Before you get your name cleared, can you do me a favor and go scare one of the Slytherin's that I can't stand?" I asked Sirius.

Harry snorted under his breath. "Malfoy?" he asked.

"Of course, Malfoy," I said.

Obviously, I had caught Sirius's attention. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?" Sirius asked curiously.

"That exact one," I said.

"You know he still likes you, Tara?" Ron said from ahead.

"No, he doesn't, Ron, shut up!" I shouted, my face burning and trying to resist chucking a rock at Ron's head.

Unfortunately, that comment also drew Sirius's attention. As I was searching for a rock to throw at Ron, Sirius spoke. "Lucius Malfoy's boy likes you?"

"We think he does," Hermione said.

"I miss the days when none of you talked to each other," I groaned.

What I wouldn't give for the days before Harry and Ron had saved Hermione and I from the mountain troll, when they hated each other. "Amos Diggory might not have been my favorite person at Hogwarts, but at least he had a conscience. Do us all a favor and stay with the Diggory boy," Sirius told me.

My face practically on fire, I nodded. "I was planning on it."

For the next few minutes, they all chattered back and forth about how Cedric might not have been their favorite person, but he was much better than Malfoy. I had never been so grateful for Professor Lupin as I was when he advised us to be quiet and draw no attention to us. So silently we tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. Snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of Black, his chin bumping on his chest. Everything was fine.

We were simply counting the moment until Sirius could be a free man again, I would really have a godfather in my life, and Harry would be out of the Dursley's grip forever. And then something very unexpected happened. A cloud above us shifted. Our party was suddenly bathed in the cool moonlight. It had been so cloudy the past few months that I had almost forgotten about the moon. It was a welcomed sight, lighting our path much better.

For a few moments, that was. Suddenly Snape collided with Professor Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, who had stopped abruptly. My head snapped up. What the hell was the problem? Was something coming to attack us? Probably, seeing as that's normally how our school years end, with at least two of the four of us in the hospital wing. But something was wrong here. Sirius froze. He flung out one arm to make Harry, Hermione, and I stop.

What the hell had happened? We were doing so well. Just this once it seemed like we might have been able to make it through one of our idiotic plans that weren't thought out at all and have it go off without a hitch. But apparently that was too much to ask for. Up ahead of us I could see Professor Lupin's silhouette. He had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake. My gaze turned upwards for a moment. Please, please, please don't be what I think it is.

"Professor? Are you alright?" I asked carefully.

There was no response. "What happened?" Harry asked.

"The moon..." I whispered fearfully.

"Oh, my -" Hermione gasped. "He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"

Nope, he definitely wasn't safe tonight. I couldn't believe that this had all happened on a full moon. And, of course, Snape had followed us down here without a thought towards whether or not Professor Lupin had taken the Wolfsbane Potion. My gaze went back to the sky again and I nodded breathlessly. It was definitely a full moon. Then I turned back to Professor Lupin, who appeared to be in the early stages of the transformation. He was still a rigid silhouette, his fingers twitching.

"Remus, old friend... did you take your potion tonight?" Sirius gasped.

In horror, I stared at Professor Lupin, whose eyes had gone from a soft blue to a poisonous green, similar to the Basilisk's skin. His pupils then began expanding to the point where his entire eye seemed almost black. His teeth were slowly beginning to elongate and the gums took on a black tint. Pettigrew's beady eyes were shooting back and forth, taking in the now-dangerous situation. Professor Lupin's wand was trembling in his lengthening fist.

"Run. Run. Now," Sirius whispered.

"Wait! What about you?" I asked.

"I can handle him. Go!" Sirius shouted.

But none of us could bring ourselves to run. Ron was chained to Pettigrew and Professor Lupin. Once he was in full werewolf mode, Professor Lupin would have no clue who Ron was. He would chew through his chest in a matter of seconds. We had to save him before that happened. Both Harry and I leapt forward to try and pull Ron away from the others, but Sirius caught us around the chests and threw us back.

"Ron!" I shouted in panic.

"Leave it to me - run!" Sirius yelled. He then darted over towards Professor Lupin and caught him around the waist. "You know the man you truly are, Remus. This flesh is only flesh." Sirius was pounding his fist against Professor Lupin's chest. "This heart is where you truly live. This heart! Here!"

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see that Sirius's struggle to keep Professor Lupin together were futile. He was going to change and become wild. There was nothing that we could do right now. Not even Wolfsbane would stop him. He wouldn't return to our Defense professor until the dawn. As Professor Lupin's head tilted upwards and he let out a low howl, his fingers relaxed their grip and his wand dropped. Seeing his window of opportunity, Pettigrew leapt for it.

"No!" Harry yelled, flashing his wand. "Expelliarmus!"

Professor Lupin's wand flew a few feet away, but there was something else attracting my attention. From where Professor Lupin and Sirius were standing, there was a terrible snarling noise. Professor Lupin's head was lengthening. So was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws. Crookshanks's hair was on end again; he was backing away.

He grew and grew until he was towering over Sirius, in full werewolf mode. My face drained of color. As the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, Sirius disappeared from view. He had transformed. The enormous, bearlike dog bounded forward. As the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backward, away from Ron and Pettigrew. They were locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other.

My stomach was churning as I watched the two of them fight. What were we supposed to do? We would easily be killed if we tried to enter the fray and any spell that I knew risked hurting either one or both of them. But I didn't just want to do nothing. Stunned by the change of events, I stood, transfixed by the sight, too intent upon the battle to notice anything else. It was Hermione's scream that alerted me back to reality.

Realizing that we were no longer paying attention to him, Pettigrew had dived for Professor Lupin's dropped wand again. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. For a moment he was dragged with Pettigrew. There was a bang, a burst of light from Pettigrew with Professor Lupin's wand and Ron lay motionless on the ground. Hermione was shrieking. Another bang and Crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Professor Lupin's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. "Stay where you are!"

"Don't move," I shouted, running towards him with Harry.

Pettigrew turned towards us in surprise and then slowly turned to us. Face blank, eyes closed, he grinned hideously and waved. It didn't dawn on me until it as too late. Pettigrew's head was thrashing around as every part of him started to shrink. Pettigrew had transformed. Ashe became a rat, he fell out of his clothes and dropped to the ground. I saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on Ron's outstretched arm and then watched the rat dart off into the darkness.

"No! Stop him!" I cried.

As I made to move after Pettigrew, well-aware that there was no way that I would be able to outrun the rat, I tried anyways. At least, until Hermione grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back. Pettigrew was running right into the path of Sirius and Professor Lupin. There was a howl and a rumbling growl; I turned to see the werewolf was taking flight; it was galloping into the forest. At least that would solve one problem.

"Sirius, he's gone, Pettigrew transformed!" Harry yelled.

We had to move before Pettigrew got too far away. Without him, there was no way that we would ever be able to prove that Sirius was innocent. In his Animagus form, Sirius was bleeding; there were gashes across his muzzle and back, but at Harry's words he scrambled up again, and in an instant, the sound of his paws faded to silence as he pounded away across the grounds. It wasn't long before he was once again cornered by Professor Lupin.

I wanted to scream at Professor Lupin and remind him that we were trying to keep Pettigrew from getting away and keep Sirius a wanted man, but he was a monster right now. He didn't know what to do or who to listen to. Suddenly a louder-than-life howl pierced through the air and I wheeled around again. With a shrug, Professor Lupin easily tossed Sirius into the air, then turned. We were now alone, with the werewolf.

All I could hope for was that some part of him remembered us and that he wouldn't eat us. Either that, or, if we were lucky, Sirius would be back here in a few moments to save us. Harry, Hermione, and I began to edge back. If we moved slowly enough, maybe we could get Ron and make a sprint for the castle. That was our only hope right now. As the werewolf gathered his bearings, Harry, Hermione, and I dashed over to Ron.

"What did he do to him?" Hermione whispered.

Whatever he had done, it was nothing good. Ron seemed to be very close to catatonic. It was definitely some kind of hex. Not fatal but clearly quite nasty. Ron's eyes were only half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, I leaned down and checked to make sure that I could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize us.

"I don't know…" Harry muttered.

"He's alive, that's all that matters," I said quickly.

At least Pettigrew was too much of a coward to take care of Ron. He had to have other people do his dirty work for him. In the brief calmness that had surrounded us, I looked desperately around. Sirius and Professor Lupin both gone. At least we didn't have to worry about the werewolf right now. But was Sirius okay? Right now, we had no one but Snape for company, still hanging, unconscious, in midair. Useless, as usual.

"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," Harry said, pushing his hair out of his eyes, clearly trying to think straight. "Come -"

Right at that moment, something happened that completely halted my train of thought and Harry's words. Because right then, from beyond the range of my vision, I heard a yelping and a high-pitched whining. There was no doubt in my mind as to what that was. It was a dog in pain. Clearly that was where Professor Lupin had run off to in his werewolf form. He was trying to finish off Sirius in his Animagus form. I wasn't sure exactly what we could do for him, but I knew that it was better than standing here and doing nothing.

"Sirius," Harry muttered, staring into the darkness.

But right now, we had an even bigger problem. Out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted Professor Lupin returning, still a fully-grown werewolf. He was whining softly as he traipsed up to where we were standing. He was thinner than I had been expecting, having never seen a transformed werewolf before. For just a brief moment I wondered if he might not have been dangerous right now. After all, he sounded like a wounded dog more than a killing machine. He looked hurt, not vicious.

"Harry... Hermione..." I whispered.

Both Harry and Hermione's gazes shot up. Hermione clearly had the same idea, as she too was slowly approaching Professor Lupin. "Professor?" Hermione asked softly.

"Bad idea," Harry breathed from behind us.

"Remus? Are you alright?" I asked carefully.

Maybe if I said his real name he would understand me a little bit better. It turned out that he did, but not in the way that I was expecting. Suddenly Professor Lupin's eyes blazed and his long teeth glittered in the moonlight. Hermione and I jumped backwards towards Harry as Professor Lupin's head dropped back and he let out a long howl. Harry, Hermione, and I were about ready to run, but my feet were also glued to my spot. Where the hell could we even go? Perfectly timed, Snape seemed to have finally broken free of his spell.

"There you are, Potter," he sneered, having not sensed the danger yet.

"Professor!" I shouted.

My hand immediately shot up towards where Professor Lupin was still advancing on us. Snape looked like he was in between strangling me and maybe just throwing me off of the edge of the cliff, but it all changed the moment that he realized what we were cowering from. Snape suddenly threw his body over ours to protect us from Professor Lupin's advances. But the werewolf version of him swiped out a massive paw and we were all knocked to the ground. Hermione let out a piercing shriek as Snape flung her off of him.

"Out of the way!" Snape yelled.

We all physically had to force ourselves back into our feet to try and get away from the danger of the werewolf. Once more, Professor Lupin looked like he was about to pounce. But Snape threw himself in front of us again, just barely managing to shield us from another blow. Maybe he really did like us more than I thought that he did. The werewolf raised a paw to slash through my stomach when Sirius suddenly intercepted him in midair. They hit the ground in a fierce tangle of flashing teeth, a single horrible flailing beast.

It seemed to go on forever, the horrible gnashing of jaws and pounding of flesh and fur against flesh and fur from each one of them. Two best friends, together again after so long, having to fight to what seemed to be the near death. What were we supposed to do? We couldn't come into the fight without any of us getting seriously injured. Again, and again, the two of them fought back and forth, Sirius saving us from a few near-bites from Professor Lupin, when suddenly Sirius was thrown off, letting out a painful howl.

He immediately got back to his feet and went back into the fight. Anything to keep him away from us, even though we were still being shielded by Snape. "Sirius!" Harry gasped in panic.

"Will they kill each other?" Hermione asked weakly.

They were best friends. If they did, it wouldn't be on purpose. "They might. Professor Lupin has no idea who we are," I said.

At that same moment, Sirius let out a horrible yelp. I gasped and made to move towards him, only to be rather painfully pulled back by Snape. Sirius was now roaring in pain as Professor Lupin easily threw him back into the grass. Sirius went flying off into the distance, let out a howl that urged Professor Lupin to follow him, and the two of them took off through the trees. As the werewolf ran off, Harry and I pushed past Snape to dart off into the night.

Snape's hands were on my robes to try and pull me back, but I wasn't stopping. I shoved him off of me and kept running. Hermione made to follow us, but she was caught by Snape at the last moment. We had only had a moment's indecision, but there was nothing that we could do for Ron at the moment anyways, and by the sound of it, Sirius was still in trouble. There was no way that I had just saved my godfather to have him be torn apart by his best friend/my professor/werewolf. When did my life become this mess?

Without a care in the world, Harry and I ran full out after Professor Lupin and Sirius. We only hesitated briefly under an outcropping of rocks, where I could finally see what had happened to the others. Up a few meters ahead of us, framed against the light of the full moon, I spied Sirius, lying inert, with Professor Lupin's razor-sharp claws suspended over his neck. He would tear out his throat. It would be sure to kill Sirius even in his normal human form. Knowing werewolves, Professor Lupin likely wouldn't stop there anyways.

"No!" Harry yelled.

"Professor, stop, please!" I shrieked desperately.

What could we do that wouldn't hurt either one of them? Desperately, Harry and I turned back and forth before he leaned down and plucked a large rock from the ground, handing it over to me. I nodded and took it. I had that Chaser arm for a reason, after all. I reared back and hurled it as hard as I could at Professor Lupin. It was a bulls-eye, striking him right in the spine. The werewolf dropped his claws and turned to us. Then it moved forward. Right towards us. Fearfully I drew my wand, but made no movement to curse him, knowing fully-well that Professor Lupin still dwelled inside the beast.

"Please, Professor. Stop... It's us," Harry begged.

"You won't hurt us. We know that you won't," I whispered.

But Professor Lupin kept advancing. "Can we run?" Harry asked.

"We won't outrun him."

"Know any spells?"

"None that won't hurt him."

Professor Lupin was feet away from us with his paw raised, ready to rip out our throats. Suddenly a howl pierced through the night air. The werewolf faltered for a moment, cocking its head towards the forest. Harry and I stood, linked by our hands, petrified. Then the werewolf's eyes shifted back to us. It snarled deeply and moved closer, ready to kill us. Harry had me placed firmly behind him - not that it would matter once we were attacked - when a second howl echoed high over the forest.

Automatically the werewolf stopped howling and growling. The footsteps faltered again. Was there another werewolf out here? It hadn't sounded that much like Professor Lupin had. But I supposed that I would take it if it kept us alive. Slowly, Harry dropped his arms and looked. I pushed past him to see what was happening. Professor Lupin looked towards the direction of the howl for a moment before bounding toward the forest and vanishing.

Harry and I stared at each other, bewildered. "Did that howl sound oddly human to you?" I asked him.

"Doesn't matter. We'll take the luck," Harry said breathlessly.

"That doesn't just seem lucky to me," I said.

There was no way. It was too well-timed that another werewolf would howl just seconds before we had become Professor Lupin's lunchmeat. The other werewolf would have normally come and helped attack us. My thoughts were broken when I saw Harry's eyes shift. In the darkness, Sirius, very obviously injured, lurched through the tall grass. He fell and rose, staggering like he was drunk, over and over again. Each time he seemed to be becoming more human. He was transforming back. As he disappeared over the ridge, Harry and I sprinted after him.

Grateful for all of the sprints that Oliver had made us run this year, Harry and I set off at a run. Suddenly it seemed that Hermione was right behind us. I wasn't sure how she had managed to get away from Snape and I wasn't sure that I wanted to ask her. We needed all the help that we could get. And in the meantime, Sirius's continued yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. We pelted toward it, and as I was running flat out, felt the cold without realizing what it must have meant.

My skin was breaking out in goosebumps as a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. It was nearly summer. It should have been much warmer. Sirius's yelping stopped abruptly. As we reached the lakeshore, I saw why - Sirius had finally turned completely back into a man. My feet carried me to the point where I was practically flying over the slippery grounds. Sirius was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.

"No. No… please…" Sirius moaned.

"Sirius!" Harry called.

I reached Sirius first, sliding by my knees to his side. "Sirius, it's us," I breathed, trying to pry his arms from his head. Harry and Hermione fell at my sides. "We have to get him out of here."

Dumbledore would believe us that Sirius was innocent. He could help set things right. But things weren't done going from bad to worse yet. As I tried to lift Sirius underneath my shoulders, a fragile mist rolled out of my mouth. My head shot up as a soft breeze ruffled my hair around my ears. Goosebumps rose on my arms again. A fringe of ice appeared on the edge of the lake. I knew that it wasn't just a rare chilly summer night now. Because the Dementors were slowly appearing, oozing like smoke through the trees across the lake.

"No... No!" Harry yelled.

"Not now!" I begged, whipping around. "Hermione!"

She looked absolutely terrified. "Tara! Harry! What do we do?" she shrieked.

Nothing. There was literally nothing to do. There were too many of them. Harry and I could barely handle one of them between the two of us. Right now, there were at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward us. I spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating my insides, fog starting to obscure my vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling us. We would be trapped within seconds, but we had to try and fight back.

"Know the incantation?" I asked Hermione.

"No!" she breathed.

"Expecto patronum," I said.

"Hermione, think of something happy!" Harry yelled.

Right. It would have helped if she knew what to do. But I already knew that we were fighting a losing battle. I rolled my eyes at myself, trying to remind myself that it wasn't going to work if I didn't even have the slightest bit of faith. So I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wand, raising it, blinking furiously to try and clear my vision, shaking my head to rid it of the faint begging and screaming that had started inside it.

Harry's going to live with our godfather. Sirius Black is going to be free of the chains that have bound him for so long. We're going to have an extended family. My parent will have their best friend back. Harry's leaving the Dursleys.

I forced myself to think of Sirius, and only Sirius, and began to chant: "Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!"

It likely would have worked a little bit better if I could think of a memory, but my brain was already being invaded by the presence of the Dementors. I couldn't focus well enough. All I could do was keep bellowing the spell and hope that it would eventually take off. My hands were shaking and tears were rising in my vision. We couldn't even run. The Dementors had us completely surrounded. Sirius gave a shudder, rolled over, and lay motionless on the ground, pale as death.

He'll be all right. Harry's going to go and live with him. He can come and stay with us all the time.

As I tried to gently prod Sirius, I realized that he was even worse than I had thought. "Harry, it's not working! There's too many and we're too panicked. Calm down. Try and calm down," I begged breathlessly.

But as I said that, I realized that I, too, was far too panicked. "Expecto patronum! Hermione, help me! Expecto patronum!" Harry roared.

"Expecto -" Hermione whispered, "expecto - expecto -"

But she couldn't do it. This was one spell that none of us could do right now. We needed more practice. We needed to be calmer. We needed Professor Lupin's help. Where was he? Still a fully transformed werewolf. He would be of no help right now. The Dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from us. What would happen when they reached us? Would they try and give us all the Kiss? Probably. They formed a solid wall around Harry, Hermione, and I and were slowly getting closer.

"Expecto patronum!" I yelled, trying to blot the screaming and pleading from my ears. "Expecto patronum!"

The burning desire started down in my toes, reaching up through my legs, stomach, heart, and searing into my mind. I was just barely able to ignore it long enough to watch a thin wisp of silver escape my wand and hover like mist before me. The same thing had happened with Harry's. I had to be with him... Why didn't I know where he was? Stop it, Tara! Focus... Focus... It's the Dementors talking... At the same moment, I felt Hermione collapse next to me. We were alone... completely alone...

"Expecto - expecto patronum -"

It felt like someone had stuffed a sock down my throat. I couldn't speak. I could barely breathe. We were going to die out here, or even worse, be administered the Kiss. I felt my knees hit the cold grass. My brain felt like the pudding that we ate at Christmas. Fog was clouding my eyes. With a huge effort, I fought to remember - Sirius was innocent - innocent. It was all that I could do to not think about the screaming voices, pleading and begging and blaming, that were still echoing in my head.

We'll be okay - Harry's going to live with him.

"Expecto patronum!" I gasped.

By the feeble light of my formless Patronus, I saw a Dementor halt, very close to me. Maybe five feet away. It couldn't walk - or maybe glide - through the cloud of silver mist that I had conjured. On my other side, I realized that Harry had also found some mild success with his own Patronus. A dead, slimy hand slid out from under the cloak of the Dementor that was trapped by my Patronus cloud. It made a gesture as though to sweep the Patronus aside. It was still coming closer.

"No - no -" I gasped. "He's innocent… expecto - expecto patronum -"

They couldn't take Sirius. He hadn't done anything wrong. He had been framed for all of these years. It was Pettigrew, who was now on the run. I tried to force those words out of my throat, to get the Dementors to track down the real threat, but I couldn't unstick the words from my mouth. I could feel them watching me, hear their rattling breath like an evil wind around me. The nearest Dementor seemed to be considering me. Were they going to turn and leave us be? Maybe alert Dumbledore? Then the Dementor raised both its rotting hands - and lowered its hood.

At that moment I should have looked away; I knew that it would be a sight that would haunt me for the rest of my life. But I didn't. Hypnotized by a morbid curiosity, I stared straight at the Dementor. Where there should have been eyes, there was only thin, gray scabbed skin, stretched blankly over empty sockets. But there was a mouth… a gaping, shapeless hole, sucking the air with the sound of a death rattle. There were jagged teeth that seemed to have no use beyond terrifying the victim.

A paralyzing terror filled me so that I couldn't move or speak. My Patronus flickered and died. So did Harry's and we were left in the blinding darkness. My mouth dropped open in a terrible scream as I scuttled back on my hands and knees. My eyes were fluttering as more Dementors drew nearer, twisting eerily in my vision. To my other side, Sirius gave a gasp, his first sign of life since we had landed at his side. His mouth dropped open as silvery feathers of light tumbled from his lips, as if his very soul were leaving him. They were trying to perform the Kiss.

"Don't touch him!" I screamed.

Trying to leap over him to shield his body was useless. My own was so heavy that I couldn't even move. White fog was blinding me. My eyes were rolling back into my head. I had to fight. I had to save him. Expecto patronum. I still couldn't see… and in the distance, I heard the familiar begging and screaming... The burning desire shot through me, almost impossible to fend off. Expecto patronum. I groped in the mist for Sirius, and found his arm. The Dementors weren't going to take him. Not when he was innocent.

But a pair of strong, clammy hands suddenly attached themselves around my neck. My breath caught in my throat. Was it him? Had he come for me, finally? No... it was something much worse... A Dementor had latched onto me. It was forcing my face upward. My entire body was soaked with sweat. I could feel its breath. It was going to get rid of us first to keep us from saving Sirius… I could feel its putrid breath fanning my face. My parents were screaming in my ears. He was still calling to me. They were going to be the last thing I ever heard.

And then, through the fog that was drowning me, I thought that I saw a silvery light growing brighter and brighter. Unable to process what was happening, I felt myself fall forward onto the grass. Facedown, too weak to move, sick and shaking, I opened my eyes. The Dementor must have released me. Harry's hand reached out to grab mine. At least I wasn't going to die completely alone. The blinding light was illuminating the grass around us. The screaming and begging had stopped and the cold was now ebbing away.

What the hell was happening? Something was driving the Dementors back. Had Professor Lupin finally come back to himself? He couldn't. The moonlight was still shining down on us. Had Dumbledore or Snape managed to come and save us? No. It wasn't them. It was no human that had saved us. One of the centaurs, maybe? Whatever it was, it was circling around us and Sirius and Hermione. The Dementors started leaving. The air was regaining the summer warmth again.

With every ounce of strength I could muster, I raised my head a few inches and saw two animals amid the light, galloping and thundering away across the lake. Eyes blurred with sweat, I tried to make out what they were. They were as bright as a unicorn… Fighting to stay conscious, I watched the two of them canter and spring to a halt as they reached the opposite shore. For a moment, I saw, by its brightness, somebody welcoming them back... raising their hands to pat it... someone who looked strangely familiar... but they couldn't be...

It didn't make sense. My own father was back home in Surrey. How had they gotten the message to him so quickly that we were in danger? Was it really him? Maybe I was imagining things, seeing something that I loved before I died. Was I going to die? It felt like it. I couldn't breathe. For the life of me, I didn't understand what was happening. I couldn't think anymore. I felt the last of my fleeting strength leave me, and my head hit the ground as I fainted.


	57. The Secret

My head was spinning to the point that I was absolutely positive that I was experiencing my first hangover. Every inch of my body was throbbing. But at least I was feeling something. My eyes very slowly peeled open and I tried to remember what had happened to me and where I was. I could see that the room that I was in was lit up with candles. There was a slightly antiseptic smell in the air that was a dead giveaway. I was in the hospital wing. Again. But how did I get here? I was sure that I was either going to die or have the Kiss performed on myself.

Voices brought me back to reality. "Shocking business... shocking... miracle none of them died... never heard the like... by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape..."

Was that Fudge? "Thank you, Minister."

Apparently, it was. "Order of Merlin, Second Class, I'd say. First Class, if I can wangle it!"

Just the way that you gave that title to Gilderoy Lockhart? That was a feud of mine that would never die. "Thank you very much indeed, Minister," Snape's slimy voice called.

"Nasty cut you've got there... Black's work, I suppose?"

"As a matter of fact, it was Potter, Nox, Weasley, and Granger, Minister..."

Oh, thanks for that. "No!"

"Black had bewitched them, I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behavior." Huh... that's kind of nice. "They seemed to think there was a possibility he was innocent. They weren't responsible for their actions. On the other hand, their interference might have permitted Black to escape... They obviously thought they were going to catch Black single-handed. They've got away with a great deal before now... I'm afraid it's given them a rather high opinion of themselves... and of course Potter and Nox has always been allowed an extraordinary amount of license by the headmaster -"

"Ah, well, Snape... Harry Potter and Tara Nox, you know... we've all got a bit of a blind spot where they're concerned." No, you don't. You have a blind spot where Harry's concerned and it just gets put off on me too. "The Nox's have always been good friends to the Ministry and the Wizarding World as a whole."

"And yet - is it good for them to be given so much special treatment? Personally, I try and treat them like any other students." Uh, I beg to differ. You treat us worse. "And any other students would be suspended - at the very least - for leading their friends into such danger. Consider, Minister - against all school rules - after all the precautions put in place for their protection - out-of-bounds, at night, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer - and I have reason to believe they have been visiting Hogsmeade illegally too -"

"Well, well... we shall see, Snape, we shall see..."

"In fact, I have reason to believe that Nox might have even stolen from my personal supplies."

Hey, that wasn't just me. Actually, that wasn't me at all. That was Hermione. "Snape, don't be silly. Tara isn't a thief."

"The very moment that she vanished from my classroom was the same day that a number of supplies were stolen from my personal collection."

"It wasn't necessarily Tara, Snape. It could have been anyone." Look at Fudge. Being useful for once. "Now the two of them have undoubtedly been foolish..."

Bitter was certainly an attitude that I had always done well. I lay listening with my eyes tight shut. Would they stop talking if they saw that I was awake? Probably. Even after a few minutes I still felt very groggy. The words that I was hearing seemed to be traveling very slowly from my ears to my brain, so that it was difficult to understand. It sounded like nothing had changed. Had my memory of the Dementor attack been a nightmare? My limbs felt like lead; my eyelids too heavy to lift. I wanted to lie here, on this comfortable bed, forever.

"What amazes me most is the behavior of the Dementors... you've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?"

It definitely wasn't a dream. We really had been attacked and nearly killed by them. "No, Minister... by the time I had come 'round they were heading back to their positions at the entrances."

"Extraordinary. And yet Black, and Harry, and Tara, and the girl -"

"All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle."

There was a pause. My brain seemed to be moving a little faster, and as it did, a gnawing sensation grew in the pit of my stomach. Did that mean that Snape had brought Sirius to the castle and, in turn, Fudge? Very slowly I opened my eyes. Everything was slightly blurred. I blinked away the fuzziness from my vision. I was lying in the dark hospital wing, only illuminated by a few candles. At the very end of the ward, I could make out Madam Pomfrey with her back to me, bending over a bed. Ron's red hair was visible beneath Madam Pomfrey's arm.

On my other side was Harry, who also seemed to have been just waking up. His glasses were off and he seemed to be having a very hard time making things out. How long had passed since we had been down at the lake? What had happened since then? Was there a chance that Sirius had already been administered the Kiss? But he was innocent! We had to try and save him. He couldn't already be dead, or even worse. It would have made everything that we had been through and done tonight completely useless.

First came getting my brain up to speed and getting out of bed. I moved my head over on the pillow. In the bed to my right lay Hermione. Moonlight was falling across her bed. Her eyes were open too. She looked petrified, and when she saw that both Harry and I were now awake, pressed a finger to her lips, then pointed to the hospital wing door. It was ajar, and the voices of Cornelius Fudge and Snape were coming through it from the corridor outside. I hesitated, wondering what we were supposed to do now.

Could we even do anything? Could we save Sirius from being given the Kiss? Could we prove that he was innocent? I wasn't sure. But we had to try. Madam Pomfrey now came walking briskly up the dark ward to Harry and I's beds. She looked incredibly bothered about something. Probably having to take care of us, yet again. I turned to look at her. She was carrying the largest block of chocolate I had ever seen in my life. It looked like a small boulder.

"Ah, you're awake!" Madam Pomfrey said briskly.

How long had we been out for? My head was still spinning slightly as I tried to keep from puking my lungs up. Whatever the Dementors had done to us down by the lake certainly hadn't done me well. The beating from the Whomping Willow probably wasn't helping either. Madam Pomfrey walked over towards us and she placed the chocolate on Harry's bedside table. After a moment she began breaking it apart with a small hammer, splitting it between the two of us and handing off the pieces.

"Thank you," I mumbled.

"You're welcome, dear," Madam Pomfrey said.

"How's Ron?" Harry, Hermione, and I asked together.

"He'll live," Madam Pomfrey said grimly.

"What happened to him?" I asked curiously.

He was still out like a light. "Nasty curse placed on him," Madam Pomfrey explained.

"His leg?" I asked.

There was a large bandage up to his knee. "Broken." I had figured that it was. Now that I knew that Ron would be fine, it was time to check on Sirius. "As for you three... you'll be staying here until I'm satisfied you're - Potter, Nox, what do you think you're doing?"

Her voice had the same hint of exasperation as it always did whenever she was dealing with one of us and we were injured. But she should have known, by now, that we were never ones to sit still. Harry was sitting up, putting his glasses back on, and picking up his wand. In the meantime, I was grabbing my wand off of my bedside table, trying to shake the remaining fuzz out of my head and remember where the hell Dumbledore lived. If anyone would believe us, it was him.

"I need to see the headmaster," Harry said.

"We have things to talk about," I added.

"Potter, Nox, it's all right," Madam Pomfrey said soothingly.

"It's not alright," I countered. "We have to talk to him."

"Things are better, Nox. They've got Black. He's locked away upstairs," Madam Pomfrey said. My heart jolted in my chest. "The Dementors will be performing the Kiss any moment now -"

"What?" Harry howled.

"No!" I shouted. "What are you talking about?"

"Tara -"

"We have to go!" I interrupted Harry.

We had the same thoughts about what was happening anyways. At least, I figured that we did. Harry and I both jumped up out of bed without warning; Hermione had done the same. Clearly Madam Pomfrey was about ready to wrestle us back into the beds. Unfortunately, our shouts had been heard in the corridor outside; next second, Cornelius Fudge and Snape had entered the ward. They were both staring at us. I tried to avoid Snape's gaze, well-aware that what we had done to him was grounds for expulsion, but I met Fudge's slightly patronizing one.

"Harry, Tara, what's this?" Fudge asked, looking agitated.

We were about to find out if Fudge was really as useless as my parents had always said that he was. "Minister, you have to hear us out!" I gasped.

"You two should be in bed - have they had any chocolate?" he asked Madam Pomfrey anxiously.

"Forget the chocolate!" I shouted. They should have known that something was wrong. I never denied chocolate. "It doesn't matter!"

"Minister, listen! Sirius Black's innocent! Peter Pettigrew faked his own death!" Harry shouted. "We saw him tonight! You can't let the Dementors do that thing to Sirius, he's -"

Harry's voice dropped off when he realized that Fudge wasn't listening to him and that he certainly wouldn't listen to reason about anything that we wanted to say. Of course not, like my parents and Hagrid had all said at one time or another, Fudge was completely useless. Why the hell couldn't Dumbledore be the Minister of Magic? At least he understood to listen... Right now, Fudge was shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

"Harry, Harry, you're very confused, you've been through a dreadful ordeal, lie back down, now, we've got everything under control. The same to you, Tara. Don't fear," Fudge said reassuringly.

"You haven't! You've got the wrong man!" Harry yelled.

"Listen to us! We can explain the whole story! But you can't kill Sirius! You can't let the Dementors give him the Kiss!" I shouted, slightly hysterically.

"Minister, listen, please," Hermione said; she had hurried to Harry and I's side and was gazing imploringly into Fudge's face. "I saw him too. It was Ron's rat, he's an Animagus, Pettigrew, I mean, and -"

"You see, Minister? Confunded, all of them... Black's done a very good job on them," Snape said.

"We're not Confunded!" Harry roared.

"Damn you! You know that we're telling the truth!" I sneered.

Fudge looked scandalized. "Tara! Please!" Fudge cried patiently. "Mind yourself."

"Minister! Professor! I must insist that you leave. Potter and Nox are my patients, and they should not be distressed!" Madam Pomfrey hissed angrily.

"We're not distressed, we're trying to tell them what happened!" Harry said furiously.

"You have got to listen," I pleaded, stepping into them. "I know that you all don't like to use your brains -"

"Tara!" Hermione gasped.

"- but you're going to kill an innocent man!"

"She's right!" Harry yelled. "If they'd just listen -"

But Madam Pomfrey suddenly stuffed a large chunk of chocolate into Harry's mouth. She turned to me and did the same before I got a chance to speak again. I choked, and she seized the opportunity to force the two of us back onto the bed. In the meantime, Fudge still looked to be trying to figure out my previous insult. But I'd meant what I'd said. The men and women at the Ministry liked to act first and think second. Like right now, they weren't going to listen to us. They were just going to pretend that we were Confunded and take Snape's word for it, rather than listen to the facts.

"Now, please, Minister, these children need care. Please leave -"

The door opened again. It was Dumbledore this time. Finally, someone who would listen to reason. If I could manage to swallow the monstrous load of chocolate that Madam Pomfrey had stuffed in my face. So, I swallowed my mouthful of chocolate with great difficulty and got up again. The chocolate stuck down my throat as I forced myself to walk over to where Dumbledore was standing, just barely spinning out of the way of Madam Pomfrey, who looked about ready to wrestle me back into the bed.

"Professor Dumbledore," Harry said, "Sirius Black -"

"We have to talk to you! You have to do something!" I interrupted.

"For heaven's sake!" Madam Pomfrey cried hysterically. "Is this a hospital wing or not? Headmaster, I must insist -"

"My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with Mr. Potter, Miss Nox, and Miss Granger," Dumbledore interrupted calmly. "I have just been talking to Sirius Black -"

"You spoke to him?" I interrupted.

"Yes, Miss Nox," Dumbledore said.

So maybe Sirius would get out of this unscathed. "I suppose he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in Potter and Nox's minds?" Snape spat venomously. "Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive -"

"He is alive!" I hissed.

"Calm yourself, Miss Nox, please. That, indeed, is Black's story," Dumbledore said, surveying Snape closely through his half-moon spectacles.

"And does my evidence count for nothing? Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds," Snape snarled.

"That was because you were knocked out, Professor!" Hermione said earnestly. "You didn't arrive in time to hear -"

"Miss Granger, hold your tongue!" Snape roared.

"Now, Snape," Fudge started, startled, "the young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances -"

"I would like to speak to Harry, Tara, and Hermione alone. Cornelius, Severus, Poppy - please leave us," Dumbledore said abruptly.

"Headmaster!" Madam Pomfrey sputtered. "They need treatment, they need rest -"

"This cannot wait. I must insist," Dumbledore said.

Was he actually getting ready to hear us out? Maybe we really could figure this out. Maybe we could save Sirius, which seemed strange, because just a few days ago I would have loved to hear that this was happening. Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips, obviously annoyed at being overruled, and strode away into her office at the end of the ward, slamming the door behind her. Poor woman was always just trying to do her job, something that we made very difficult. Fudge consulted the large gold pocket watch dangling from his waistcoat.

"The Dementors should have arrived by now, I'll go and meet them. Dumbledore, I'll see you upstairs," Fudge said.

"They can't get to him," I whispered to Harry and Hermione.

"They won't. Professor Dumbledore will listen to reason," Harry said somewhat confidently.

"We just have to tell him that Sirius is telling the truth," Hermione said.

"We have to hurry up. They're on their way to perform the Kiss now," I pointed out.

We likely had less than five minutes to prove Sirius's innocence. A thin sweat built up on my forehead. Was it even possible? All I knew was that we had to try. If anyone would believe our story, it would be Dumbledore. After all, he knew the man the Sirius had once been. Dumbledore crossed to the door and held it open for Snape, but Snape hadn't moved. Instead, he shot a venomous look at us and then turned to Dumbledore.

"You surely don't believe a word of Black's story?" Snape whispered, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore's face.

"I wish to speak to Harry, Tara, and Hermione alone," Dumbledore repeated.

Snape took a step toward Dumbledore. "Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen. You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?" Snape breathed.

"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly.

"Oh, get over it," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

Snape whipped around with his eyes blazing. "Mind your mouth, Nox!" he shouted.

"Enough, Severus. Please be on your way," Dumbledore said calmly.

Honestly, I was just the slightest bit surprised that I wasn't going to get in trouble for what I had said. But I would happily take it. Snape shot me a final nasty look and turned on his heel. His robes whipping around behind him, he marched through the door that Fudge was still holding open. The two of them stood at the entrance door to the hospital wing until it had closed behind them, and Dumbledore then turned to Harry, Hermione, and I. Without giving him a moment to think, all three of us burst into speech at the same time.

"Professor, Black's telling the truth - we saw Pettigrew -"

"They got him to confess what he had done -"

"- he escaped when Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf -"

" - he's a rat -"

"He was disguised from the beginning."

"Pettigrew's front paw, I mean, finger, he cut it off -"

"- it was his way to stay in hiding for all of these years -"

"- Pettigrew attacked Ron, it wasn't Sirius -"

"- the bite was from Sirius, but it was an accident. He was going for Pettigrew."

But Dumbledore held up his hand to stem the flood of explanations. "It is your turn to listen, and I beg you will not interrupt me, because there is very little time," Dumbledore said quietly. We all instantly shut up. "There is not a shred of proof to support Black's story, except your word - and the word of three thirteen-year-old wizards will not convince anybody." Technically Hermione and I were fourteen, but I said nothing. "A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the Potters' Secret-Keeper."

"No, no, they switched!" I shouted breathlessly. He had to do something. Sirius was innocent! "He wasn't their Secret-Keeper before they were murdered."

"Professor Lupin can tell you -" Harry said, like me, unable to stop himself.

"Professor Lupin is currently deep in the forest, unable to tell anyone anything. By the time he is human again, it will be too late, Sirius will be worse than dead," Dumbledore explained. Right, werewolf... "I might add that werewolves are so mistrusted by most of our kind that his support will count for very little - and the fact that he and Sirius are old friends -"

"But -"

"It's not fair!" I yelped. "He didn't do -"

"Listen to me, Harry, Tara. It is too late, you understand me?" Dumbledore said.

"It can't be, Professor. Please," I pleaded.

Dumbledore held up a hand to stop me. "Tara, please." I blushed softly and nodded. "You must see that Professor Snape's version of events is far more convincing than yours," Dumbledore said.

"He hates Sirius," Hermione said desperately. "All because of some stupid trick Sirius played on him -"

"Sirius has not acted like an innocent man. The attack on the Fat Lady - entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife - without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius's sentence," Dumbledore pointed out, which was honestly a very good point.

"He was desperate!" I cried.

"But you believe us," Harry said slowly.

"Yes, I do," Dumbledore said quietly.

"So, you can help?" I asked.

"Unfortunately not. I have no power to make other men see the truth, or to overrule the Minister of Magic," Dumbledore said.

The hope deflated in my chest. "But they love you. You can help convince them of Sirius's innocence?" I asked.

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "Even I cannot undo what the Ministry believes. Sirius had been deemed guilty for years and there is no solid proof that he isn't," he explained.

"So, we do nothing?" I said bitterly.

There had to be something that we could do. I refused to just sit here and wait for Sirius to have his soul sucked out for something that Peter Pettigrew had done. What could we do? I stared up into the grave face of Albus Dumbledore and felt as though the ground beneath me were falling sharply away. Even Dumbledore looked hopeless. After my three years here, I had grown used to the idea that Dumbledore could solve anything. I had expected Dumbledore to pull some amazing solution out of the air. But no... our last hope was gone.

"It's Scabbers who did it!" a new voice suddenly shouted.

The four of us whipped around to see that Ron was awake and glancing around frantically. "You're awake?" I asked, surprised to see that he was already up.

"Scabbers?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Scabbers...?" I trailed off, urging Ron to continue

"My rat, sir. Only he's not really - Well, he was a rat," Ron stuttered anxiously. "See, he used to be my brother Percy's rat and they gave him an owl -"

"Stop talking, Ron. There's nothing that we can say to make them believe us," I mumbled.

"A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless to those who have forgotten how to listen," Dumbledore pondered.

He had always been the type to go off on tangents, but this one seemed a little different. It looked like he was trying to figure something out. Was he still thinking of ways to get out of this? In the meantime, Dumbledore crossed to Ron's bedside and gently tapped a few times on his broken leg. Ron squealed in pain, but Dumbledore was in too deep of thought to notice. I gave him a guilty smile. As Dumbledore released Ron and turned to the window, a shooting star plummeted silently through the sky. Unfortunately, this time it was too late to make a wish.

"Ah... a shooting star. If ever one was to make a wish, now would be the time. But time, I'm afraid, is precisely our problem..." Dumbledore said.

Half of the time I was sure that Dumbledore was losing his mind. Or maybe he was on some kind of drug. Either way, he definitely was on his own planet half of the time. On cue, the midnight bell began to chime throughout the castle. I jumped slightly. Sirius was almost out of time. The Dementors were likely either already there or about to be there. The moment that Dumbledore made it to Professor Flitwick's office, they would give him the Kiss. We needed far more time than we had.

"Mysterious thing, time. Powerful. And, when meddled with... dangerous. "What we need... is more time," Dumbledore said slowly, and his light blue eyes moved from Harry to Hermione and I.

"But -" Hermione began.

"How could we have -?" I started.

And then it dawned on me. Totally illegal, but of course we had time. Professor McGonagall would be livid if she ever found out what we were about to do, but I didn't care. "Oh!" Hermione and I chirped together.

"Now, pay attention," Dumbledore said, speaking very low, and very clearly. "Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this, all of you: you must not be seen. Miss Granger, Miss Nox, you two know the law - you two know what is at stake... You - must - not - be - seen."

"We know. We won't be," I said determinedly.

"Tara -"

"Shut up," I interrupted Harry.

For just a brief moment, I turned to Harry. He looked as though we were speaking in another language. Which, I supposed, in a way we were. We were talking about time travel. Go back and break Sirius out of Professor Flitwick's office before Fudge and the others arrived. Easy enough. Maybe... After all, it did get rather difficult getting to and from classes with the Time-Turner. Saving someone's life with it I supposed that we would talk about it when we got there. Dumbledore had turned on his heel and looked back as he reached the door to the hospital.

"And you would, I feel, do well to return before this last chime," Dumbledore said. Hermione and I nodded. Harry stared blankly. "If not... well, the consequences are really too ghastly to discuss."

"We will," I promised.

"I am going to lock you in. It is -" he consulted his watch, "five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, Miss Nox, three turns should do it. By the way, when in doubt, I find retracing my steps to be a wise place to begin. Good luck."

"Good luck?" Harry repeated as the door closed behind Dumbledore. "Three turns? What's he talking about? What are we supposed to do?"

"What in bloody hell was all that about?" Ron asked.

Harry and Ron were staring at each other, completely bewildered. My hand went up to my neck for a moment before I realized that I didn't have it today. Hermione did. It was a good thing that this had all happened today. Hermione and I were scheduled to bring back the Time-Turner is just a few days. Harry and Ron were still trying to speak to us. but we weren't paying attention. Hermione was fumbling with the neck of her robes, pulling from beneath them the very long, very fine gold chain. I reached over and grabbed Harry's arm, yanking him into me.

"Sorry, Ron. But seeing as you can't walk," Hermione told him.

"What?" Ron asked, baffled.

"Harry, come here. Quick!" Hermione said urgently as Harry tried to walk away.

"Move it!" I snapped.

Apparently we needed those three hours. Harry was staring at me as if to ask whether or not we were serious. I held out my hand for him to walk towards us. He gave another look at Ron, who still didn't understand what was happening. Finally, Harry moved towards us, completely bewildered. Hermione was holding the chain out for Harry. I slipped underneath the chain, tugged on Harry's arm so hard that I felt it pop, and he stumbled into us. His gaze instantly locked on the tiny, sparkling hourglass hanging from the chain.

"Here."

Hermione reached up and threw the chain around his neck too. Harry reached us to grab the Time-Turner but I quickly slapped his hand away. "Stay still," I snapped.

"Ready?" Hermione asked breathlessly.

"What are we doing?" Harry asked, completely lost.

It was probably something that Harry was better off not knowing yet. We would have too many questions and not enough time. We would just explain when we got there. I nodded my consent that I was ready to go. Hermione turned the hourglass over three times and I stared down as it started to spin over itself. The dark ward of the hospital dissolved around us. I never had particularly enjoyed time travel. It gave you the sensation that you were flying very fast, backward. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past us and my ears started to pound. Harry was yelling something but I couldn't hear his voice.

Time was slowly reversing backwards in a dizzying blur, as if a tape were being rewound. Every moment that occurred in the hospital wing earlier tonight flickered by at a dizzying speed while, outside the window, darkness gave way to dusk and the sun un-set, returning to its place low on the horizon. At that point, the time reversal had finally ended and the room was empty except for Harry, Hermione, and I. Everything was slowly coming into focus as Hermione un-looped the necklace and tucked it back into her clothes. Harry glanced around in confusion.

Honestly we really should have done that in a broom closet or something. It was a good thing that no one had been in here earlier. Don't get caught, Tara. That's literally the only rule that you have to abide by right now. Idiot. We were all standing next to each other in the deserted entrance hall of the hospital wing and a stream of golden sunlight was falling across the paved floor from the open front doors floors below us. Harry looked wildly around at Hermione and I. My main concern was that we got somewhere safe and quickly. We were exposed out here.

"Hermione, Tara, what -?"

"Don't talk!" I interrupted.

First concern was getting downstairs. Somewhere that we would be able to bolt out to the grounds without notice. Right now, we were risking someone coming in here and seeing us. After all, with the semester all but over, there were no curfews. I grabbed Harry's wrist and pulled him with Hermione and I. Harry was panting heavily as we dragged him out of the hospital wing, practically flew down the flights of stairs behind the giant clock and towards the entrance hall. I was sure that it was the fastest that we had ever made it downstairs before. Harry opened his mouth to question us when Hermione cut him off.

"In here!" she hissed.

There were footsteps coming down the hallway. Hermione seized Harry's arm and dragged him across the hall to the door of a broom closet. I stumbled after them, hoping that we weren't about to get caught already. Hermione opened it, pushed the two of us inside among the buckets and mops, then slammed the door behind us. I practically fell into one of the buckets, only stopped by Harry tripping over himself right behind me.

"What - how - Where's Ron? Hermione, Tara, what happened?" Harry asked breathlessly.

"We've gone back in time. Three hours back," Hermione said, tucking the Time-Turner chain even further into her clothes.

Harry grabbed his own leg and gave it what looked like a very hard pinch. Probably trying to make sure that he wasn't dreaming. "What time is it?" I asked Hermione.

"It should be nine or so," she said.

"Where were we at nine?" I asked.

"Hermione, Tara, will you please tell me what's going on and what we're doing?" Harry asked.

"Quiet," I barked.

"But -"

"Shh! Listen! Someone's coming! I think - I think it might be us!" Hermione had her ear pressed against the cupboard door. "Footsteps across the hall... yes, I think it's us going down to Hagrid's!"

"Perfect!" I said.

"Are you telling me that we're here in this cupboard and we're out there too?" Harry whispered.

"Yes," Hermione said, her ear still glued to the cupboard door.

"Which means, keep your mouth shut," I snapped.

"I'm sure it's us. It doesn't sound like more than three people... and we're walking slowly because we're under the Invisibility Cloak -" Hermione broke off, still listening intently. "We've gone down the front steps..."

Which meant that we were on our way to see Hagrid and see if there was anything that we could do for him. We were going to have to leave the castle soon. If we didn't, we would end up getting caught by one of the teachers or Prefects monitoring for out of bed students. This would be a good one to try and explain to Cedric. Hermione sat down on an upturned bucket, looking desperately anxious. I walked over and gave her my hand. Now was the wrong time for a panic attack. Clearly Harry wanted a few questions answered.

"Okay, we have to move," I told Hermione.

"Where did you get that hourglass thing?" Harry asked.

"It's called a Time-Turner and we got it from Professor McGonagall on our first day back. We've been using it all year to get to all of our lessons. Professor McGonagall made us swear that we wouldn't tell anyone. She had to write all sorts of letters to the Ministry of Magic so we could have one. She had to tell them that I was a model student, and that I'd never, ever use it for anything except my studies," Hermione whispered.

Harry gave me a suspicious look. I rolled my eyes but explained anyways. "It was a little harder to convince them with my past, but Professor McGonagall promised them that Hermione would have it most of the time and would keep an eye on me."

"We've been turning it back so we could do hours over again, that's how we've been doing several lessons at once, see? But... Harry, I don't understand what Dumbledore wants us to do. Why did he tell us to go back three hours? How's that going to help Sirius?" Hermione asked desperately.

Harry and I stared at her shadowy face. "There must be something that happened around now he wants us to change. What happened? We were walking down to Hagrid's three hours ago," Harry said slowly.

"This is three hours ago, and we are walking down to Hagrid's. We just heard ourselves leaving," Hermione said.

My head was pounding. Normally it was just getting from one side of the castle to the other without getting caught as we went from class to class. But now we had an actual mission. if we had been caught with classes, things would have been bad enough. We would have been in a ton of trouble. But to be caught right now... we would likely wind up in Azkaban right alongside Sirius. I frowned again, pressing my head into my hands; I felt as though I was screwing up my whole brain in concentration. Save Sirius. That was what we needed to do. What else was there?

"Dumbledore just said - just said we could save more than one innocent life..." Harry trailed off.

And then it hit me. "Of course!" I gasped.

"Hermione, we're going to save Buckbeak!" Harry yelped.

"But - how will that help Sirius?" Hermione asked.

Sirius was likely too weak to get too far on foot. But Buckbeak was perfectly healthy. "Because he has to get out of here. We've missed the opportunity to prove that he's innocent, so we can at least ensure that he gets to live as a fugitive," I explained.

"Dumbledore said - he just told us where the window is - the window of Flitwick's office! Where they've got Sirius locked up! We've got to fly Buckbeak up to the window and rescue Sirius! Sirius can escape on Buckbeak - they can escape together!" Harry said, getting more and more excited.

"No one has to die!" I added happily.

What we were about to do was all kinds of illegal, but it would work perfectly. From what I could see of Hermione's face, she looked terrified. "If we manage that without being seen, it'll be a miracle!" Hermione gasped.

"Hermione, we've never been caught in a castle full of students. We can do this. There are only going to be a few people out there," I pointed out.

"This is so dangerous!" Hermione said.

"Well, we've got to try, haven't we?" Harry asked.

"Of course, we do. Time to go. We've got to stay on top of things," I said, rising to my feet.

Harry stood up and pressed his ear against the door. "Doesn't sound like anyone's there... Come on, let's go..."

We wouldn't have long before the professors and Prefects were out here. There was no Invisibility Cloak this time. Harry pushed open the closet door. The entrance hall was now deserted. Everyone was back in their Common Rooms. As quietly and quickly as we could, we darted out of the closet and down the stone steps. Harry and I were sprinting just a bit ahead of Hermione, who clearly wasn't used to running like this. The shadows were already lengthening, the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest gilded once more with gold.

"Remember, we can't be seen," I panted to Harry.

"If anyone's looking out of the window -" Hermione squeaked, looking up at the castle behind us.

"We'll run for it," Harry said determinedly.

But no one would see us. No one was interested right now. "People are up in the Common Rooms celebrating the end of the semester. No one in their right mind will be out here right now. They'll all be at parties. Plus, we're facing Gryffindor Tower and you know that Fred and George will have everyone entertained by the fireplace," I pointed out.

It was what they had done the last two years to celebrate the official end of the year. "But -" Hermione started.

"We'll run straight into the forest, all right? If someone sees us," Harry offered. "We'll have to hide behind a tree or something and keep a lookout -"

"Okay, but we'll go around by the greenhouses!" Hermione interrupted breathlessly. "We need to keep out of sight of Hagrid's front door, or we'll see us! We must be nearly at Hagrid's by now!"

"So, move it!" I hissed, pushing her ahead of me.

After this, I really needed to sleep for the next year or so. Or at least until summer break officially started. We deserved some well-earned rest. Looking like he was still trying to work out what Hermione and I meant about not getting caught, Harry and I set off at a dead sprint, Hermione behind us. Together we tore across the vegetable gardens to the greenhouses, paused for a moment behind them, then set off again, fast as we could, skirting around the Whomping Willow, tearing toward the shelter of the forest.

At least I could finally be thankful that Oliver made us run so damned much. Particularly me. One of his favorite punishments for me was making me run ten laps around the Quidditch Pitch. For talking back, being late, not paying attention, goofing around... the list went on and on. Fred and George were the only ones who could even stand up to my record of receiving punishments from Oliver Wood. Once I was safe in the shadows of the trees, I turned around. Just a second after me, Harry arrived, seconds later, Hermione arrived beside him, panting.

"Good thing Oliver makes us run all those drills, right?" I teased Harry.

"Finally, something to be thankful for," Harry laughed.

"Right. We need to sneak over to Hagrid's... Keep out of sight, Harry..." Hermione gasped.

"He's got it, Hermione. Let's go," I said.

Together we made our way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge of the forest. I led the way with Harry behind me and Hermione right behind him. Then, as we glimpsed the front of Hagrid's house, we heard a knock upon his door. We were already here and underneath the Invisibility Cloak. We took a few steps back into the shadows of the forest. We moved quickly behind a wide oak trunk and peered out from either side. Hagrid had appeared in his doorway, shaking and white, looking around to see who had knocked. And then I heard my own voice.

"Oh, Hagrid," I whispered.

"It's us. We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off," Harry said.

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered.

"We had to, Hagrid," I said.

He stood back, we watched for a moment as what I assumed were our bodies traveled through the doorway, and then he shut the door quickly. I shifted slightly so that I could glance into Hagrid's house through the window that faced the forest. We were careful to stay out of sight as I watched us pull the cloak off of our shoulders. It was the first time that I had really watched the first version of myself. My hand went back to my hair. Was it really that long? I guessed that Mom was right. I really did need to cut it. Wrong time, Tara.

"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done," Harry said fervently.

"Oh, trust me, things are going to get much weirder," I mumbled.

"Let's move along a bit," Hermione whispered. "We need to get nearer to Buckbeak!"

"Keep low and quiet. We don't want him seeing us and getting excited," I said.

It was definitely a good thing that Buckbeak couldn't bark. That would have caused a big problem. The three of us crept through the trees until we saw the nervous Hippogriff, tethered to the fence around Hagrid's pumpkin patch. He was scratching at the ground. Obviously Buckbeak knew what was coming. My heart skipped a beat as I stared at him. What if we couldn't save Buckbeak? Would we be able to save Sirius without the Hippogriff? I supposed that we would worry about that if and when the time came.

"Now?" Harry whispered.

"Don't!" I hissed.

"No! If we steal him now, those Committee people will think Hagrid set him free! We've got to wait until they've seen he's tied outside!" Hermione explained.

"We have to make sure that no one can be at fault for this. They have to think that Buckbeak managed to tear himself free," I added.

"That's going to give us about sixty seconds," Harry said.

"We can make it..." I mumbled.

But sixty seconds really wasn't that long. This was starting to seem impossible. At that moment, there was a crash of breaking china from inside Hagrid's cabin. "That's Hagrid breaking the milk jug. I'm going to find Scabbers in a moment," Hermione whispered.

We moved forward slightly as Buckbeak feasted on a ferret; Harry, Hermione, and I ducked behind a pile of Hagrid's giant pumpkins. Sure enough, a few minutes later we heard Hermione's shriek of surprise. Peering back into the hut, I spotted Hermione and Ron embrace awkwardly realizing that Scabbers wasn't really dead. Harry and I looked at each other and grinned. A second later we turned, only to find Hermione analyzing the moment with considerable fascination. Caught staring at herself, she regarded Harry and I defensively.

"What?" she snapped.

"Nothing," we both said quickly.

The moment that she turned back to Hagrid's, Harry and I grinned at each other again. "Hermione, Tara," Harry said suddenly, "what if we - we just run in there and grab Pettigrew -"

"No!" Hermione yelped in a terrified whisper.

"Harry, I would love to make Pettigrew pay for what he's done to our families, but there's no way that we can burst in there without making things even worse," I said, well-aware of what Harry was thinking. "Like Dumbledore said, there will be dire consequences if someone sees us."

"Tara's right, Harry. Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody!" Hermione said hysterically. "You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen -"

"We'd only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!" Harry countered.

"Those are still people, Harry," I pointed out.

"Harry, what do you think you'd do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid's house?" Hermione asked.

"I'd - I'd think I'd gone mad," Harry said slowly, "or I'd think there was some Dark Magic going on -"

"Exactly!" Hermione interrupted. "You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself! Don't you see? Professor McGonagall told us what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time... Loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!"

"Okay!" Harry growled irritably. "It was just an idea, I just thought -"

"We know that it was just an idea," I interrupted, placing a hand on his knee and pushing him away from Hermione. If they kept arguing they would get too loud. "It's a good one, but we can't risk someone seeing us. Not even if we could convince them that we were trying to help."

If I saw myself, I would know what was happening. But Hagrid, Ron, and Harry would likely lose it. Before Harry could try another argument, Hermione nudged him and pointed toward the castle. I moved my head a few inches to get a clear view of the distant front doors. It was tough in the darkness but I managed to see who it was soon enough. Dumbledore, Fudge, the old Committee member, and Macnair the executioner were coming down the steps. We would have our window of opportunity to rescue Buckbeak in another minute or two.

"We're about to come out!" Hermione breathed.

"Get ready," I whispered. Before we could move, I looked at Hermione and placed a hand over her stomach, keeping her from moving. "Hang on, we need to draw him out. Keep him calm while we lead him away."

"How?" Hermione asked.

"What motivates Hippogriffs?" I said.

"I - I -" Hermione stuttered.

"Food, Hermione!" I hissed, motioning to the dead ferrets hanging from the fence.

Hermione followed my hand and turned a slightly pale green. "Oh, gross..." she whispered.

"Yeah..." I added.

Sure enough, moments later, Hagrid's back door opened, and I saw myself, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walking out of it with Hagrid. It was, without a doubt, the strangest sensation of my life, standing behind the tree, and watching myself in the pumpkin patch. At least at school all I was doing was trying to keep up with my old self. Here we were trying to hide from ourselves. This felt even stranger, knowing that, while we had been walking away the first time, Harry, Hermione, and I had also been watching ourselves. My head started to thump at the overwhelming thoughts.

"It's okay, Beaky, it's okay..." Hagrid said to Buckbeak. Then he turned to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I. "Go on. Get goin'."

"Hagrid..." I whispered.

"Hagrid, we can't -"

"We'll tell them what really happened -"

"They can't kill him -"

"Please -"

"Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"

It was even sadder watching everything right now, knowing how heartbroken Hagrid was. I wanted to reassure Hagrid that he would be okay and that we would save Buckbeak, but he would know soon enough. He would be fine. We were all going to be fine. I watched the Hermione in the pumpkin patch throw the Invisibility Cloak over Harry, Ron, and myself and I slowly started to slink forward. We needed every second that we could get.

"Go quick. Don' listen..."

Then there was a knock on Hagrid's front door. The execution party had arrived. Hagrid turned around and headed back into his cabin, leaving the back door ajar. I watched the grass flatten in patches all around the cabin and heard four pairs of feet retreating. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I had gone. We would be up near the Whomping Willow soon enough when Ron lost Scabbers. As for now, the Harry, Hermione, and myself hidden in the trees could actually hear what was happening inside the cabin through the back door.

Quickly, Hermione, Harry, and I dashed back into the trees directly behind us. We were just in time to see ourselves - along with Ron - slip behind the pumpkin pile where, only seconds before, we were hiding. It looked like we were about ready to make a run for the hill. I hadn't realized before that, with all of our jostling around because of Scabbers, the Invisibility Cloak had slipped off a few times, nearly causing us to get caught. Thankfully Fudge was too busy with his finger stuck up his nose to notice. Hermione seemed to be pondering the back of her own head.

"Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?" Hermione asked quietly.

Was she finally opening up to actually using makeup or hair products? "You wonder why I try to get you to go to Madam Primpernelle's with me," I muttered.

"Shhh!" Harry hissed.

That was just enough to alert our past-selves' attention. As the Invisibility Cloak shifted off of Hermione, I saw her turn towards our current selves. I hadn't noticed before as I'd been busy arguing with Ron about Scabbers. Ducking into the trees, the three of us accidentally stirred the branches. Once I heard our footsteps again, I then peeked out to see past-Hermione staring curiously at the branches dancing oddly in the wind. Or so she thought. I could just barely hear me snapping at Ron to keep moving. Then I heard Harry's voice over Ron and I's bickering.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"Nothing, I just thought I saw... never mind," Hermione mumbled.

"Where is the beast?" came the cold voice of Macnair.

"Oh, that's nice," I scoffed.

"Out - outside," Hagrid croaked.

Poor Hagrid... He had no idea that we were going to save Buckbeak. Harry managed to just barely pull his head out of sight as Macnair's face appeared at Hagrid's window, staring out at Buckbeak. We were just barely hidden by the pumpkins. I could see that Buckbeak was trying to get to us, curious as to what the commotion was that we were making, but we continued to slink backwards. We couldn't alert the others that anything was wrong. Then we heard Fudge.

"We - er - have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid. I'll make it quick. And then you and Macnair need to sign it," Fudge said awkwardly. "Macnair, you're supposed to listen too, that's procedure."

It was very obvious that Fudge didn't want to be here or be doing this. He had always liked Hagrid. He didn't want to have to tell him that he was going to sign off on killing his pet. After all, Fudge had also been the one to send Hagrid to Azkaban for a month when the Basilisk had attacked the students last year. I wondered if he was remembering that wrong for Hagrid. Macnair's face vanished from the window. We had less than a minute to go before they came out here to take care of business. If we wanted to save Buckbeak, it was now or never.

"Wait here. We'll do it," Harry whispered to Hermione.

How did I always manage to get dragged into these things? Harry gave me a pleading look and I nodded my consent. After all, I had been the first person to approach Buckbeak in class that day. And I had ridden him before. Perhaps it was for the best that I came up to him first. As Fudge's voice started again, Harry and I darted out from behind his tree, vaulted the fence into the pumpkin patch, and approached Buckbeak. The Hippogriff was now alert, his amber eyes boring into my own brownish-blue ones. Please realize that we're trying to help you...

"Hermione," I hissed lowly, "grab the ferrets."

"Oh -"

"Just toss them to me, you big baby!" I snapped.

Harry hissed for me to be quiet as Fudge's voice drifted into the yard. "It is the decision of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures that the Hippogriff Buckbeak, hereafter called the condemned, shall be executed on the sixth of June at sundown -"

Careful not to blink, I stared up into Buckbeak's fierce orange eyes once more and bowed. Just like last time, Buckbeak stared at me for a moment. Thankfully it was nothing more. I Had been concerned that, without Hagrid, Buckbeak might have been a little more cautious around us. The moment that Harry had done the same, Buckbeak sank to his scaly knees and then stood up again. Harry and I darted up to him. As I patted him on the beak, trying to keep him quiet, Harry began to fumble with the knot of rope tying Buckbeak to the fence.

On the far side of the fence I could see Hermione get over herself and grab the ferrets. She was holding them in disgust as she climbed as near to the fence as she could. I caught them from her toss, instantly drawing Buckbeak's attention. I pulled one free from the clip - which was about ten different kinds of repulsive - and tossed one into his mouth, narrowly missing his jaws. As Buckbeak chomped away happily, I petted his side, trying to keep him calm while Harry worked at the knots. We couldn't have him tugging on the rope while we were trying to free him.

"... sentenced to execution by beheading, to be carried out by the Committee's appointed executioner, Walden Macnair..."

"Come on, Buckbeak, come on, we're going to help you. Quietly... quietly..." Harry murmured.

"Faster, Harry," I groaned.

"You're not helping," Harry said.

"... as witnessed below. Hagrid, you sign here..."

They would be out here within seconds. We had to move but Buckbeak refused. Harry had gotten all of the knots undone - and there was a surprising amount of them - and now came the issue of actually getting the stubborn creature into the forest. I threw Buckbeak another ferret, making him take another five or so steps, but then he cemented himself where he stood. Harry and I each took the rope with both of ours hands and leaned back. I threw all of my weight onto the rope, as did Harry, but Buckbeak had dug in his front feet.

"Damn it, Buckbeak, please! We're trying to save your life!" I cried hysterically.

"Well, let's get this over with," called the reedy voice of the Committee member from inside Hagrid's cabin. "Hagrid, perhaps it will be better if you stay inside -"

"No, I - I wan' ter be with him... I don' wan' him ter be alone -"

"Hermione, the ferrets!" I called for the second batch.

She nodded and pulled them off of her neck, showing them to Buckbeak. Footsteps echoed from within the cabin. "Buckbeak, move!" Harry hissed.

The ferrets that were hanging around Hermione's neck had drawn Buckbeak's attention. It wasn't the place that I would have put them, but if it worked, I supposed that was all that mattered. As Buckbeak took a few slow steps forward, Harry and I tugged harder on the rope around Buckbeak's neck. The Hippogriff finally began to walk, rustling its wings irritably. If he was that angry with us, we could deal with it later. Unfortunately, we were still ten feet away from the forest, in plain view of Hagrid's back door.

"Here, Beaky... Come and get the nice dead ferret... yum yum..." Hermione cooed.

Harry was looking at Hermione as if she had gone mad, but it was working. As long as she kept her voice low. She was obviously terrified of Buckbeak and disgusted by the entire thing, but it was somehow working. Hermione waved around one of her dead ferrets that obviously had drawn his attention. As Buckbeak trotted after her, the cawing crows scattered. At must have meant that they were getting close. Then I heard it. The dinging bell that signaled that Hagrid's front door had been opened.

"One moment, please, Macnair. You need to sign too," Dumbledore said.

If there had ever been a tome that I was grateful for Albus Dumbledore, it was in that moment. He had given us enough time to get Buckbeak and ourselves out of sight. The footsteps stopped just inches away from the edge of the wooden house. Harry and I heaved on the rope as Hermione tossed a ferret high into the air, narrowly managing to avoid getting her arm bitten off. Buckbeak snapped his beak at Harry and I after finishing his ferret and walked a little faster. Hermione's white face was sticking out from behind a tree.

"Harry, Tara, hurry!" she mouthed.

Even as we inched closer and closer to the woods, I could still hear Dumbledore's voice talking from within the cabin. In the back of my mind, I wondered if he had either already seen us or if he knew what we were planning to do later... now... whatever. After all, the earlier comment that had just barely kept us from getting discovered was too well timed. Either way, we had gotten an extra minute. So I gave the rope another wrench along with Harry. Buckbeak broke into a grudging trot. Then we finally reached the trees.

A huge breath escaped me. Another two of three steps and we would be in the woods an out of sight. Harry and I caught up with Hermione so that she and the dead ferrets could lead Buckbeak away when the back door suddenly opened. All three of us, along with Buckbeak, froze. We were caught. Fudge's eyes were drifting our way, when - as before - Dumbledore raised his hand and directed the attention of the others away from Buckbeak.

"Professor Dippet had those blackberries planted when he was Headmaster," Dumbledore explained.

He knew. He had to know. I could have kissed Dumbledore. Not that I would, but I certainly could have. Thrilled that we might actually make it through this thing unscathed, Harry, Hermione, and I shooed Buckbeak along, no longer concerned about getting bitten by him, and we finally disappeared into the forest. Not a moment too soon either. We had slipped into the trees just as Dumbledore concluded his reverie about the blackberries.

"Quick! Quick!" Hermione moaned.

In all fairness, we were still pretty close to the hut. We needed to be further away. Especially if the committee member or Macnair decided to go hunting for Buckbeak. Hermione darted out from behind her tree, seizing the rope too and adding her weight to make Buckbeak move faster. All three of us together must have been pushing three hundred and fifty pounds, but it barely made a difference. Buckbeak weighed over a thousand. I looked back over my shoulder; we were now blocked from sight; I couldn't see Hagrid's garden at all.

"Stop!" Harry whispered to Hermione and I. "They might hear us -"

"Do you think that he already knows what we're planning to do?" I interrupted curiously.

"It's Dumbledore. There's not much that he doesn't know," Harry pointed out.

"Fair enough," I said.

"Quiet!" Hermione hissed.

The three of us snapped to attention. I turned towards Hagrid's house, unable to see, but hoping that we would be able to overhear what was happening. Hagrid's back door had opened with a bang. I jumped slightly, willing myself not to make a little squeak and praying that they wouldn't come looking for Buckbeak. We weren't really that far away. Harry, Hermione, Buckbeak, and I stood quite still; even the Hippogriff seemed to be listening intently. Did he possibly realize that we might have just saved his life? There was a long silence... then their voices floated towards us.

"Where is it?" asked the reedy voice of the Committee member.

"Where is the beast?"

"It was tied here! I saw it! Just here!" Macnair said furiously.

"How extraordinary," Dumbledore said. There was a note of amusement in his voice.

"He knows. He has to know," I laughed.

"Beaky!" Hagrid cried huskily.

There was a swishing noise, and the thud of an axe. I tilted my head up slightly to see what was happening through the thick veil of the trees. The executioner seemed to have swung it into the pumpkin in anger. Just the way that he would have been preparing to swing it into Buckbeak's head. At that point we must have been thinking that Buckbeak had just been killed. But no... He hadn't. And then came the howling that we had heard before, but this time we were close enough to hear Hagrid's words through his sobs.

"Gone! Gone! Bless his little beak, he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! Beaky, yeh clever boy!"

A large smile broke out over my face. Even back the first time, we had already done it. Buckbeak had never been killed. We had just heard Macnair with the pumpkins and Hagrid had been crying with glee, not horror or mourning. Buckbeak started to strain against the rope, trying to get back to Hagrid. It was a little sad to see, but he would have a good life elsewhere with Sirius. Harry, Hermione, and I tightened our grip and dug our heels into the forest floor to stop him. We hadn't done all of this just to get caught.

"They never killed Buckbeak... Not even before, when we first heard it. It was Macnair taking out his frustration on the pumpkins," I said breathlessly to the others.

"If only we'd been a little closer before," Harry said.

Actually, that would have been a bad thing. We might have seen ourselves. "Someone untied him!" Macnair was snarling. "We should search the grounds, the forest -"

"Macnair, if Buckbeak has indeed been stolen, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot?" Dumbledore offered, still sounding amused. "Search the skies, if you will... Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea. Or a large brandy."

"O' - O' course, Professor. Come in, come in..." Hagrid said, who sounded weak with happiness.

He was going to be drunk off his ass within the hour. Which I supposed that he deserved, after thinking for so long that Buckbeak was going to be killed. As long as he didn't wander right into Professor Lupin in his werewolf form in a few hours, I couldn't have cared less. Harry, Hermione, and I listened closely for the all-clear to move. We heard footsteps, the soft and rather nasty cursing of the executioner, the snap of the door, and then silence once more.

"Now what?" Harry whispered, looking around.

"We wait and save Sirius," I said.

"How?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. We'll figure it out when we get there," I said.

"We'll have to hide in here. We need to wait until they've gone back to the castle. Then we wait until it's safe to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius's window. He won't be there for another couple of hours... Oh, this is going to be difficult..." Hermione said, still looking very shaken from the near-miss earlier.

She looked nervously over her shoulder into the depths of the forest. The sun was setting now. "It'll be fine," I promised.

"We're going to have to move. We've got to be able to see the Whomping Willow, or we won't know what's going on," Harry said, clearly thinking hard.

"Okay," Hermione said, getting a firmer grip on Buckbeak's rope. "But we've got to keep out of sight, Harry, remember..."

After barking at her to stop talking about being seen, the three of us got to moving. Harry was right about one thing. We had to be able to see ourselves or we would have no idea what was going on and when we needed to go and save Sirius. Together we moved around the edge of the forest, darkness falling thickly around us, until we were hidden behind a clump of trees through which we could make out the Willow. I glared at it, touching my forehead tenderly. It was still stinging slightly from the fight earlier.

"There's Ron!" Harry said suddenly.

It wasn't easy to see, so I moved forward slightly to catch what Harry was talking about. A dark figure was sprinting across the lawn and its shout echoed through the still night air. To think that the four of us had no idea that we were actually watching ourselves as we fought with Ron and Scabbers, and eventually the Whomping Willow. I exchanged a slight look with Harry. His eyes were locked firmly onto Ron. More specifically, Scabbers. I knew what he was thinking, which was exactly why I tightened my grip around his leg. I wanted Pettigrew to pay too, but this was the wrong way.

"Get away from him - get away - Scabbers, come here -"

"What the hell is going on over there?" I heard myself ask.

"Keep moving!" Harry's voice yelled back.

It was definitely a strange sensation. Watching Ron wrestle with an animal that we could barely see, now well-aware that the animal wasn't an animal at all, in fact, it was the man who had betrayed our parents. As I glanced back towards where our voices had come from, I saw three more figures materialize out of nowhere. We had run after Ron and had thrown the Invisibility Cloak off of ourselves. I watched myself, Harry, and Hermione chasing after Ron with myself in the lead. Then I saw Ron dive.

"Gotcha!" Ron shouted.

"Ron! What's going on?" I asked.

"Hurry up!" Ron called.

"Ron, get back here!" I shouted.

"Get off, you stinking cat -"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I snapped angrily.

"It's Scabbers -"

"Who cares?" I interrupted. "You could get us expelled if someone comes out here and sees us! Get the stupid rat and get under the cloak. Now!"

"There's Sirius!" the current Harry said.

My head whipped around to see what was happening. I had been so busy thinking about Pettigrew and Scabbers and Ron and the rest of us that I had almost forgotten that Sirius was still going to come and sort-of attack us. The great shape of the dog had bounded out from the roots of the Willow. Even I had to say that Sirius did look quite frightening when he was in his Animagus form. And I was saying that as someone who loved dogs.

"Merlin..." past-me said, spotting Sirius standing up on a hill just a few meters from us. "What the hell?"

"Tara," Harry said, gripping my arm, "it's -"

"Snuffles," I interrupted, taking a step forward. "Okay... come on. Let's try this again. Come here, Snuffles. Come on." I dropped down onto my knees and extended an open-palmed hand. "Remember? We're friends."

"Tara, that's a Grim," Ron said, fear shaking his voice.

"It's just a dog," I called back uncertainly. "Come on."

Sirius was making a lot of growling noises and slowly inching closer to me. I could see my knees shaking. I had been sitting in front of Sirius longer than I thought that I had. At least a full minute passed that I tried to get Sirius to come to me. Now I could see that his eyes were firmly locked on Pettigrew. Then I tried to slowly inch backwards from Sirius. His muscles were tensed, obviously showing that he was about ready to lunge.

"We have to leave. We have to get under the cloak and get back to the castle," I whispered to the others.

"It's the Grim! We have to go!" Ron shouted.

"Tara, get away!" Harry yelled.

"Harry!" I screamed.

Harry was reaching down for his wand, but it was too late - the dog had made an enormous leap and the front paws hit him on the chest. Harry keeled over backward in a whirl of hair; Sirius was breathing down on him; his teeth were bared. "Harry!" I yelped.

Because the force of Sirius's leap had carried him too far; he rolled off Harry. Sprinting over to Harry, I wrapped my arms around his and gave him a rough pull. Obviously dazed, and gripping his ribs as though they were broken, Harry tried to stand up; I could hear Sirius growling as he skidded around for a new attack. He was trying to get past us to Ron. Past-Harry glanced up and his eyes went wide.

"Tara, get out of the way!" Harry yelled.

"Ron, move!" I shouted.

"Looks even worse from here, doesn't it?" Harry asked, watching the dog go for Ron.

"Well at least now we know that he wasn't really going for us," I said. We watched the fight for a while longer before I looked back at Harry and Hermione. "Too bad that Sirius's Animagus form isn't a squirrel or something. That would have been much less menacing."

Harry snorted as Hermione looked at me in disbelief. "Is that really what you're thinking about?" she asked.

"Kind of," I admitted.

"Ouch - look, I just got walloped by the tree - and so did you two - this is weird -"

My gaze went back to us. We were trying to fight the tree now to get to Ron. The Whomping Willow was creaking and lashing out with its lower branches; I could see ourselves darting here and there, trying to reach the trunk. It was almost funny watching the Willow whack us in the face, throw us back onto our butts time and time again, and even watch the ride that we had taken on its branches. The pain radiated through my tailbone all over again when I watched myself get thrown into the hole and onto Harry, Hermione going after me. And then the tree froze.

"That was Crookshanks pressing the knot," Hermione said.

It still would have been nice if Crookshanks had been a little faster. "And there we go..." Harry muttered, watching the last of our robes whip into the tunnel. "We're in."

"Looks a lot worse from far away," I commented.

Watching the Whomping Willow take out its frustrations on us made me sure that it had broken something in me. Some of those hits to my ribs were damned hard. The moment that we had all fully disappeared down the hole, the tree began to move again. Seconds later, we heard footsteps quite close by. All three of us whipped around. There was no way that Professor Lupin was already here. We were alone with Sirius for at least five minutes. It wasn't him quite yet. Dumbledore, Macnair, Fudge, and the old Committee member were making their way up to the castle.

"Do you realize how close we were to getting caught?" I asked quietly.

"Right after we'd gone down into the passage! If only Dumbledore had come with us..." Hermione said.

"Macnair and Fudge would've come too. I bet you anything Fudge would've told Macnair to murder Sirius on the spot..." Harry said bitterly.

"That's true. Plus, we would have been in serious trouble for being out on the grounds after dark, since we still thought that Sirius was trying to kill us," I added.

Hermione hummed softly and said, "She has a point."

Things were bad enough. We were already in enough trouble for getting caught by the Dementors again. Especially since the teachers knew that we had been on the grounds. Although, it seemed, at Dumbledore's orders, we weren't going to get in trouble. Maybe he'd feed them the same lie that Snape had, that we were Confunded the entire time. Together we watched the four men climb the castle steps and disappear from view. For a few minutes the scene was deserted. I sat with my feet pressed against Harry's and Hermione's head rested on my shoulder. Then we saw something.

"Here comes Lupin!" Harry said.

My head whipped around and I very nearly collided with Hermione to see what was happening. Looking out towards where Harry was pointing, I saw another figure sprinting down the stone steps and haring toward the Willow. He seemed... concerned. Was he still thinking that Sirius was guilty? Hoping for the best? Confused beyond belief? Probably all three. I looked up at the sky. Clouds were obscuring the moon completely. We watched Professor Lupin seize a broken branch from the ground and prod the knot on the trunk. The tree stopped fighting, and Professor Lupin, too, disappeared into the gap in its roots.

"Wait until Fred and George hear about that," Harry said.

Letting the twins in on how to get past the Whomping Willow didn't sound like a good idea to me. "Oh, do not tell them that. They'll lose an eye trying to get near that thing," I said.

They would be like that boy that Professor Lupin had told us about. Davey Gudgeon or something of the likes. "If he'd only grabbed the cloak. It's just lying there..." Harry said. He turned to Hermione and I. "If I just dashed out now and grabbed it, Snape would never be able to get it and -"

"Harry, we mustn't be seen!" Hermione gasped.

"We can't do that! We sit here and wait!" I snapped.

"How can you stand this? Just standing here and watching it happen?" Harry asked Hermione and I fiercely.

Okay, that was uncalled for. "Don't be an ass, Harry!" I snapped. He whipped around to me in surprise. It wasn't too often that I spoke to him like that. The only other time that I could remember was last year, when we were arguing about whether or not Hagrid had been the one to set the monster in the Chamber of Secrets loose. "Think about this a little bit. People have been executed for using a Time-Turner improperly, which is exactly what we're doing right now. This is dangerous enough. If someone catches us, we're going to be imprisoned for using this.

"So will Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, and what good will we do to Sirius from Azkaban? Nothing! He'll still be administered the Kiss, and likely so will we. I know you want Sirius to be deemed innocent, so do I. But we've lost that window of opportunity. He won't be guilty forever. We'll figure something out. But now is the wrong time. Right now, we just have to focus on getting him out of here safely. As a fugitive on the run with some very powerful allies is better than dead. See where I'm going with this?" I asked slowly and as calmly as possible.

"She's right, Harry," Hermione said after a few beats of silence.

Harry hesitated. "So we really do nothing?"

"We're not doing nothing. We're saving him and Buckbeak," I said.

"I'm going to grab the cloak!" Harry decided.

"Are you kidding?" I asked blandly.

"Harry, no!" Hermione seized the back of Harry's robes not a moment too soon.

Just then, we heard a burst of song. I whipped around the other way to see what was happening. It definitely wasn't Snape. It was too early and I had a feeling that he would rather have his fingernails plucked off one by one than sing such a joyful tune. It was Hagrid, making his way up to the castle, singing at the top of his voice, and weaving slightly as he walked. A large bottle was swinging from his hands. Drunk, of course. At least he was happy. I snorted under my breath and turned back to Harry, who looked a little bashful.

"See? See what would have happened? We've got to keep out of sight!" Hermione whispered desperately.

Harry still looked quite disappointed. "This isn't the ideal situation, but we've been using this thing for months. We know how dangerous it is and how to use it! Just this once, please listen to us and don't do anything stupid. I know how hard that might be for you," I snapped.

"But -" Harry started.

"No, Buckbeak!" Hermione gasped.

It cut off any attempt that Harry would have been making to argue with me. As we had all been arguing about whether or not we could do something to prove Sirius's innocence, the Hippogriff was making frantic attempts to get to Hagrid again. I felt a little badly, but we couldn't risk Buckbeak being seen. Especially with Hagrid. Harry, Hermione, and I all seized on our ropes a little harder, straining to hold Buckbeak back. We watched Hagrid meander tipsily up to the castle. He was gone. Buckbeak stopped fighting to get away. His head drooped sadly.

"At least Hagrid's happy," I said.

"He's drunk," Hermione pointed out.

"That's how you know he's happy," I said.

The three of us eventually settled back into the grass as we watched the Whomping Willow. It was a little strange to just sit and wait, something that none of us had ever really been that good with. I wanted to do something, but it wasn't our job right now. Barely two minutes later, the castle doors flew open yet again, and Snape came charging out of them, running toward the Willow. His teeth were gnashing together. He must have already been plotting Sirius's demise. How the hell had no one questioned the front doors of the castle opening and closing as much as they had tonight?

For someone who seemed to so rarely enjoy any form of exercise, Snape was surprisingly quick to make it down to the Whomping Willow. Perhaps it was because he was thrilled, thinking that he was finally going to make Sirius pay for all of the torment that he had caused him throughout his time at Hogwarts. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Harry's fists clench as we watched Snape skid to a halt next to the tree, looking around. He grabbed the cloak and held it up. He must have known what it was. It was likely that he knew it as James's.

"Get your filthy hands off it," Harry snarled under his breath.

"Shh!" Hermione said.

"Relax, Harry," I whispered.

My hands went back to Harry's knee to try and calm him down. I knew that he was upset that Snape had his hands on something that had once been his father's. Especially since he was using it to help put his godfather in prison for the rest of his life as something even worse than dead. Snape seized the branch that Professor Lupin had used to freeze the tree, prodded the knot, and vanished from view as he put on the cloak. We would be out of the tree within the hour. No one else was going in or coming out.

"So that's it. We're all down there... and now we've just got to wait until we come back up again..." Hermione said quietly.

"It's gonna be a long night," I groaned.

As much as I really did want to help Sirius save his own life and get somewhere safe, I really would have rather been partying with Fred and George in the Common Room until the middle of the night, at which point Percy would have been a prat and called Professor McGonagall in to end the party. Or maybe go with Cedric back to the Prefect bathroom. Anything would have been better than just sitting here. Hermione took the end of Buckbeak's rope and tied it securely around the nearest tree, then sat down on the dry ground, arms around her knees.

Minutes passed until it felt like we had been sitting here for at least half of the night. None of us spoke in case someone or something was closer than we thought. I glanced upwards and saw the tops of the trees etched against the darkening sky. It would be nearly pitch black in seconds. At that same moment, a group of bats flew toward us. I smiled at the breeze that their wings brought with them. They had almost passed us when Buckbeak snagged one out of midair. The tail twitched briefly between his beak, then - with a sickening slurp - it was gone.

"Oh, gross," I groaned.

"'Least someone's enjoying himself," Hermione sighed.

Well the rest of us definitely weren't. I sat with my knees pulled up to my chest, twirling my wand around in my hands. Staring up at the sky every now and again, I willed the moon to never show itself. If it hadn't, Sirius would have never ended up in the forest and the Dementors would have never found him. Pettigrew would have never gotten away. I sighed at my useless wish and dropped my head into my hands as the shadows slowly lengthened. Harry snapped off a piece of the chocolate that Madam Pomfrey had given us and handed it to Hermione and I.

"Harry, Tara, there's something I don't understand..." Hermione said.

"That's new," I quipped.

Hermione scowled as Harry laughed. "Shut up, Tara," Hermione snapped, sounding very much like Ron.

"Just trying to lighten the mood," I mumbled.

Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to her previous comment. "Why didn't the Dementors get Sirius? I remember them coming, and then I think I passed out... there were so many of them..."

Harry, who had been pacing before, sat down too. The two of us stared at each other and nodded before launching into the explanation of what we had each seen; how, as the two nearest Dementors had lowered their mouths to Harry and I's, two large silver somethings had come galloping and sprinting across the lake and forced the Dementors to retreat. Unfortunately, we had to add the fact that we didn't know what they were. At least, it didn't make much sense. Hermione's mouth was slightly open by the time Harry and I had finished.

"But what was it?" Hermione asked.

"There's only one thing it could have been, to make the Dementors go. A real Patronus. A powerful one," Harry explained.

"That was corporeal. I just couldn't tell what it was," I said.

"But who conjured it?" Hermione asked.

Harry and I stared at each other for a long while. It didn't make any sense. It couldn't have been who either one of us were thinking it was. But who else would it have been? My head still felt like it was spinning. A long silence passed where neither Harry nor I said anything. At that moment we were both thinking back to the people that we had seen on the other bank of the lake. There really wasn't much mistaking it. We both knew who we thought that it had been... but how could it have been? One was dead and the other was hundreds of miles away.

"It doesn't make sense," I finally said.

"Didn't you two see what they looked like? Was it one of the teachers?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"No. They weren't a teacher," Harry said firmly.

"But it must have been a really powerful wizard, to drive all those Dementors away... If the Patronus was shining so brightly, didn't it light them up?" Hermione asked curiously. "Couldn't you see -?"

"Yeah, we saw them. But... maybe I imagined it... I wasn't thinking straight... I passed out right afterward..." Harry said slowly.

"It doesn't make sense," I repeated.

"Who did you think it was?" Hermione asked.

"I think -" Harry swallowed. I put a hand on his shoulder, knowing how strange this was going to sound. "I think it was my dad."

"Sounds about right. I could have sworn that it was my dad too," I added.

Of course, it would have made sense if it really had been my father. Sure, he was well over five hundred miles away, but at least he was alive. Harry gave me a long look and I nodded. I wasn't sure if it was possible to see ghosts, but it couldn't have been. My father had looked real enough. And there had definitely been two figures. Harry and I finally looked away from each other and glanced up at Hermione. Her mouth was fully open now, looking like she was trying to catch flies. She was gazing at Harry with a mixture of alarm and pity.

"Harry, your dad's - well - dead," she said quietly.

"I know that," Harry said quickly.

"That's nice," I scoffed.

Hermione gave a slightly guilty look. "You know what I meant," she told me before turning back to Harry. "You think you saw his ghost?"

"I don't know... no... he looked solid..." Harry mumbled.

"But then -"

"Maybe I was seeing things," Harry interrupted.

"Could it have been your dad?" Hermione asked me.

Much more probable, but it still seemed wrong. "Maybe... I suppose that Professor Lupin could have wrote him a letter before everything happened, but it wouldn't have gotten home in time. Plus, wouldn't my dad have been at the hospital wing to make sure that we were okay? And I think that he still believes that Sirius is innocent. You know that he would have been there fighting back against Snape's story. It couldn't have been him," I said, positive that I was right.

"So... maybe it was your dad?" Hermione asked me.

"But there were two figures. I'm sure of it," I said.

"But... from what I could see... it looked like him... I've got photos of him..." Harry muttered.

Clearly, he had been ignoring Hermione and I. My head was racing as I tried to figure out who it could be. I had been so busy thinking about saving Sirius and Buckbeak that I hadn't even thought about who could have cast the Patronus. Our fathers were extraordinarily unlikely, but it seemed like it was the only even moderately viable option that we had. Hermione was still looking at Harry as though worried about his sanity. I would have been too, had I not seen the figure myself. It really had looked like James and the other had kind of looked like my father. But we were far away from the figures.

"I know it sounds crazy," Harry said flatly.

Try and look at things reasonably, Tara. "Neither one of them really looked like anything special. Lots of people look like the two of them. It could have easily been someone else. The question is, who?" I asked slowly.

"Who would care enough to save all of us?" Hermione asked.

"And who would have been in the forest?" I added.

"It wouldn't have been Professor Lupin, would it?" Hermione asked, repeating the question from earlier.

"He was still a werewolf at the time," I pointed out.

"Maybe it was your parents," Hermione offered.

"I don't know. They were blurry. Honestly, it could have been anyone," I said slowly.

Nothing made sense. Absolutely none of this made sense. Wouldn't my father have stayed to make sure that we were okay if it had been him? Wouldn't he have at least asked to see Sirius? I thought that he was convinced that he was innocent. After a few minutes of silence, I turned to look at Buckbeak, who was digging his beak into the ground, apparently searching for worms. But I wasn't really watching Buckbeak, more just looking for a reason to not have to talk to Harry or Hermione. I was thinking about my father and about my father's four oldest friends... Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs...

Five of them. One was dead. One of them was a professor at school. One of them was a traitor, only pretending to be dead. One was imprisoned wrongly for a crime he hadn't committed. Only one had gotten off relatively unscathed. For now, at least. Had all five of them been out on the grounds tonight? Wormtail had reappeared this evening when everyone had thought he was dead... Was it so impossible that Harry's father had done the same? Or had we been seeing things across the lake? The figure had been too far away to see distinctly... yet I had felt sure, for a moment, before I'd lost consciousness.

The entire thing was a bad situation. We had no proof that we were telling the truth. We had no way to be sure of what had happened with the Patronus caster. The leaves overhead rustled faintly in the breeze. The moon drifted in and out of sight behind the shifting clouds. We were just lucky that it had been behind the clouds when we had emerged from underneath the Whomping Willow. Hermione sat patiently with her face turned toward the Willow, waiting. And then, at last, after over another hour of us just sitting there, Hermione spotted it.

"Here we come!" Hermione whispered.

Harry, Hermione, and I got to our feet. Buckbeak raised his head. We stayed ducked down slightly to see what was happening but far enough that the others wouldn't see us. At first, we saw Professor Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron clambering awkwardly out of the hole in the roots. They were eventually followed by the unconscious Snape, drifting weirdly upward. Next came Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and I. We walked steadily out into the grounds and I watched as Sirius pulled Harry and I aside to talk to us.

"You see Sirius talking to us?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Yes."

"He's asking me to come live with him."

"Really?"

Harry and I nodded. "When we free him, I'll never have to go back to the Dursley's. I'm going to tell him I'd like to live someplace in the country. I think he'd like that, after all those years in Azkaban. We don't need a big place and I can help him..." Harry said slowly, almost like he was already dreaming of his new home.

"He'll love that," I told Harry.

Of course, I would miss him, but he and Sirius both deserved a fresh shot at life. They weren't going to get that on Privet Drive. Plus, Harry might have an open field at his new house. We could all come over and play Quidditch. The old versions of ourselves all began to walk toward the castle. My heart was starting to beat very fast. I glanced up at the sky. Any moment now, that cloud was going to move aside and show the moon... Before we got to that, though, I could see our conversation about Cedric was starting to pick up steam.

"You all have really got to stop harassing me about Cedric," I mumbled.

"He's your godfather, Tara, I doubt that he's ever going to stop harassing you about your boyfriend," Hermione said.

"Should have thought that one through," I muttered.

We sat in silence for a little while, barely able to overhear the conversation. "Harry, we've got to stay put. We mustn't be seen. There's nothing we can do..." Hermione muttered as though she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"So we're just going to let Pettigrew escape all over again," Harry said quietly.

"It's not that we want to!" I hissed.

"How do you expect to find a rat in the dark? There's nothing we can do! We came back to help Sirius; we're not supposed to be doing anything else!" Hermione snapped.

"All right!" Harry yelled irritably.

Steaming in our own irritation with each other, we went back to watching the rest of the group. They chattered among themselves for a little while longer, looking perfectly comfortable. Little did they know what was about to happen. Sirius leaned over to me, made his comment about keeping Cedric in line, and then we waited. Just a few moments later the moon slid out from behind its cloud. We saw the tiny figures across the grounds stop. Then I saw movement. Professor Lupin's limbs were locking up and Sirius had just been alerted to the problem.

"There goes Lupin," Hermione whispered. "He's transforming -"

"Hermione! We've got to move!" Harry said suddenly, startling me.

"We mustn't, I keep telling you -"

"No, he's right," I breathed, as the reasoning behind Harry's words dawned on me. "We've gotta go."

"Not to interfere!" Harry barked.

"Lupin's going to run into the forest, right at us!" Hermione gasped, finally understanding.

"Quickly! He ran off pretty fast," I said.

"Quick!" Hermione moaned, dashing to untie Buckbeak. "Quick! Where are we going to go? Where are we going to hide? The Dementors will be coming any moment -"

"Back to Hagrid's! It's empty now - come on!" Harry interrupted.

Undoubtedly, we would be eaten if Professor Lupin darted off in his werewolf form before we could get away. I didn't really like the idea of being in the cabin and being so far away from everything that was happening, but it suited me better than becoming werewolf chow. I could only imagine the look on Cedric's face if he found out that I had died after being mauled by a werewolf. Actually, he probably wouldn't be surprised. Together we ran as fast as we could, Buckbeak cantering along behind us. I could hear the werewolf howling behind us.

Hagrid's cabin was in sight. Hermione was slowing down slightly, having not been used to doing this much running at once. I grabbed her arms, slowing myself down slightly, and started dragging her after me, her feet barely touching the ground. Harry skidded to the door of Hagrid's home, wrenched it open, and Hermione, Buckbeak, and I flashed past him; Harry threw himself in after them and bolted the door. My heart was hammering against my ribs as I leaned up against the doorframe, trying to catch my breath. Fang the boarhound barked loudly.

"Shh, Fang, it's us!" Hermione said, hurrying over and scratching his ears to quieten him.

"Come here, Fang!" I chirped.

There was always one way to get him to be quiet. Fang darted over to me and instantly bowled me over, sitting over me happily. I laughed softly and started petting under his jaw. "That was really close!" Hermione said to us.

"Yeah..." Harry mumbled.

As I tried to get my breathing back to normal, I gently pushed Fang off of me and got back to my feet. Harry was looking out of the window. I walked over and joined him seconds later. It was much harder to see what was going on from here. How were we ever going to know what was going on from in here? Buckbeak seemed very happy to find himself back inside Hagrid's house. He lay down in front of the fire, folded his wings contentedly, and seemed ready for a good nap. I smiled at the Hippogriff and walked back over towards the door.

"I'm gonna peek outside, see where we're at," I said.

"Okay," Hermione said.

As softly as I could, I stepped over to the door and pushed Fang back. The last thing that we needed was worrying about keeping him safe from a werewolf. I slipped out of the door just in time to see the full werewolf form come back to attack Sirius. I wandered out into the opening of the pumpkin patch slightly, curious to see what was happening. Eventually Harry and Hermione joined me, also watching the scene. We were a few good yards from Hagrid's hut, watching the werewolf continue to advance on us with no warning that he would stop. I raised a brow curiously.

"Where's the howl?" I whispered.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"There was a howl that drew Professor Lupin off of us before he could attack," I explained.

"When?"

"Seems like it should be right now."

Where the hell was the howl? I knew that it was coming. It had happened just milliseconds before the werewolf had been able to tear us to pieces. But still, it seemed like it should have already happened. Where was it? Professor Lupin was already on top of us. All of a sudden, I heard it, much closer than expected. Harry and I both wheeled around to see Hermione, hands cupped to her mouth, making a loud howl. Identical to the one that I had heard earlier... Harry reached over and covered her mouth.

"Are you nuts?" I hissed.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Saving your lives," Hermione said.

Saving our lives? She was losing her mind was what she was doing. Out of curiosity I looked back to the tall grass. The werewolf form of Professor Lupin was frozen. Just as it had done before, it began to approach Harry and I again. This time the werewolf turned and looked straight towards us. Hermione's howl was rather impressive, and clearly the werewolf shared the sentiment. Just as before, it looked off into the woods. This time, it didn't go back for Harry and I, who I could see talking. This time, neither one of us stopped her.

Once she had stopped howling, I turned to Harry. "I knew that howl sounded oddly human," I said.

"Thanks," Harry told Hermione. "But we have to move."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Because that werewolf you just called is running right this way," Harry said.

"Brilliant," I groaned.

The three of us exchanged a glance and then broke into a run. It wouldn't take long for Professor Lupin to catch up to us like this. "Back to Hagrid's!" Harry shouted.

"No! No!" I gasped, pulling the two of them back. They were staring at me like I had lost my mind. "If that werewolf thinks that another one is in there, he'll tear right through the wood. Bad place to hide."

"So where do we go?" Hermione cried.

"Try and slip him in the forest," I offered.

Far from the best idea that I had ever had, it at least would likely keep us alive. Harry, Hermione, and I dashed for our lives, vaulted almost effortlessly over the fence of Hagrid's pumpkin patch, and sprinted into the woods. I grabbed Harry and Hermione to swing behind a huge tree like the redwoods back in California. Hopefully we could slip past the werewolf while it tried to find us and make the lap back to the Hagrid's house. It would keep searching the woods while we would be safe again. My heart was thumping painfully loudly as I sank back against the wood.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced off to the side of the tree. To my horror, I could hear the werewolf growling and whining softly as it approached the tree. It had to have been able to smell us. We had to move. Professor Lupin paused just a few feet from the thee. As it approached the tree trunk, Harry, Hermione, and I silently sidestepped in the opposite direction, until the werewolf was gone from sight. At least, for now. He was still close. I knew that much. As we made a near circle around the tree, Hermine leaned into us.

"Buckbeak. We've got to find him," she whispered.

Right, I had nearly forgotten about Buckbeak. Slowly I turned back to see here the Hippogriff had gotten off to - since we had left Hagrid's door open and Buckbeak had likely wandered off to find his owner by now - but I was almost immediately stopped. On the far side of the tree was the werewolf, just barely fifteen feet past, waiting for us to reveal ourselves. And we just stupidly had. As Harry, Hermione, and I stepped out, we froze. The werewolf poised itself, preparing to pounce. I turned on my heel, ready to make a desperate escape attempt, when I heard something.

There was a loud shrieking noise that made me halt in my tracks and turn back around. The trees were shaking with the fury of a hurricane as Buckbeak charged into the clearing, well past where the three of us were standing in shock. The werewolf was snarling, angry at his interrupted meal and then made to charge. With lightning-fast reflexes, Buckbeak slashed at the air, only inches from the werewolf's face. Professor Lupin stopped, eyes glittering with rage, then tilted his head up, howling into the night. Turning, he vanished into the forest, leaving us breathless, with Buckbeak looking very proud.

"Poor Professor Lupin is having a really tough night..." Hermione gasped.

"Yeah? So are we," I snapped. My head tilted up towards the sky and I closed my eyes for a second. "Oh, I just wanted to celebrate the end of the year..."

Just then, a chilly wind rose in the air. My eyes snapped open as I stared off in the distance. What the hell was happening? That was when I realized that the timing made perfect sense. The leaves of the trees started to tremble with the breeze. Eerie shadows were fluttering over the moon, greasy as smoke. My breath shortened. Dementors. We were finally going to find out who had cast the Patronus.

"Let's go," Harry whispered.

"It'll be a few minutes before we get there. Let's wait it out at Hagrid's," I said.

"Alright," Hermione agreed.

Together the three of us returned to Hagrid's hut and left Buckbeak at the foot of Hagrid's bed. I let out a deep breath as I walked in the door and closed it behind us. Thankfully Professor Lupin was gone and wouldn't be coming back until morning, at which point he would no longer be dangerous. As I took my spot back in the house, Hermione was just barely able to stop me from taking a long swig of Hagrid's brandy. I growled at her as I dropped down on the couch. I certainly could have used some right now.

"I think I'd better go outside again, you know," Harry said slowly. "I can't see what's going on - we won't know when it's time -" Hermione looked up. Her expression was suspicious. Even I was a little suspicious of what he wanted. But... "I'm not going to try and interfere. But if we don't see what's going on, how're we going to know when it's time to rescue Sirius?"

"I'll go with you," I said quickly.

"Well... okay, then..." Hermione said slowly, looking still unconvinced at what we were doing. "I'll wait here with Buckbeak... but Harry, Tara, be careful - there's a werewolf out there - and the Dementors -"

"We'll be fine," I interrupted, patting her on the shoulder. "Be back soon. Take care of Buckbeak."

The two of us stepped outside again and edged around the cabin. We were very careful to ensure that Professor Lupin was already well away from where we were. We didn't need any more surprises tonight. I grabbed Harry's hand as the two of us walked. I knew that we both wanted the same thing. We needed to know who cast the Patronus and we needed to save Sirius. I could hear yelping in the distance. That meant the Dementors were closing in on Sirius. Harry, Hermione, and I would be running to him any moment.

We had a matter of minutes left before we ran out of time. We had to be there when the caster let off the Patronus or else we would miss our chance to find out who they were. Harry and I stared out towards the lake. My heart was doing a kind of drum roll in my chest. Partially because I was nervous to see who had sent the spell and partially because I really wanted it to be Harry's father. He deserved to see him - speak to him - for just a moment. Either way, whichever two people had sent those Patronus' would be appearing at any moment.

For a fraction of a second Harry stood, irresolute, in front of Hagrid's door. I turned back to him and stared for a moment. I knew that he was terrified to potentially meet his father. But he also wanted to see him. Just once. Still though, Dumbledore's warning echoed through my head. You must not be seen. I knew what would happen if we were seen. Nothing good. We would be in a ton of trouble. But honestly, I really didn't want to be seen. I wanted to do the seeing. I had to know. Harry had to know.

And there were the Dementors. We had to be careful to make sure that we weren't caught by them. They could potentially give us the Kiss. Clearly we weren't good enough to beat them. We were risking a lot to go out there. But we had to. We deserved to know. I could see that the Dementors were emerging out of the darkness from every direction, gliding around the edges of the lake. They were moving away from where Harry and I stood, to the opposite bank. In all fairness, they wouldn't even notice that we were here... We wouldn't have to get near them...

"I know that you want to see him," I whispered to Harry.

"Tara," Harry started, "I -"

"Understand," I interrupted, smiling at him. "Let's see what we can see."

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. You're not the only one who's curious."

"What about being seen?"

"We'll make sure that we aren't," I said.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment as I reached over and pulled Harry into a tight hug. We had to see. I wanted to make sure that Harry got a chance to see who we were so sure was his father. A second after we broke apart, Harry and I began to run, much faster than I had ever run before. We had to make it. The Patronus casters would be there soon. I had no thought in my head except for our fathers. If it was them... if it really was them... Harry deserved to know. He had to find out. We both had to find out.

The lake was coming nearer and nearer, but there was still no sign of anybody. I couldn't see anything. There were the Dementors hanging all around the lake. They were going to be on top of us within seconds. The Patronus casters would be close. I was honestly surprised that we hadn't seen them already. Where were they? On the opposite bank, I could see a few tiny glimmers of silver. It was our own attempts at a feeble Patronus. The Dementors were coming closer and closer. The caster would be here at any second.

There was a bush at the very edge of the water. It was our only chance to come closer to where the caster would be without us down at the lake seeing it. Harry grabbed me by the arm and threw the both of us behind it, peering desperately through the leaves. I glared at him for banging up my hip on the impact, but he wasn't looking at me. He barely seemed to realize that I was with him. On the opposite bank, the glimmers of silver were suddenly extinguished. A terrified excitement shot through me - any moment now, the casters would arrive and save us.

"Come on!" Harry muttered, staring about. "Where are you? Dad, come on -"

"They weren't here yet. Give it a minute," I whispered.

When we had been down there on the lake, it had felt like we were there for hours. But now I saw that it was barely a minute. The entire thing seemed to be sped up. We continued to wait, hoping that the caster would soon make their appearance, but no one came. And we were getting closer and closer to when the Patronus was supposed to have been cast. Harry and I raised our heads to look at the circle of Dementors across the lake. Two of them were lowering their hoods. It was time for the rescuers to appear - but no one was coming to help this time.

"It's horrible to watch," I whispered.

"Don't worry. My dad will come... Right there... you'll see... he'll come... any minute... he'll conjure the Patronus. Maybe yours will be here too," Harry said determinedly.

But I was starting to get a little suspicious. Why wasn't the caster at least already here? I couldn't even hear someone coming. My breathless scream and Harry's terrible groan were echoing over the lake. I glanced away from the scene and eyed Harry warily. He was transfixed, staring hungrily toward the outcrop. The wind rose as the Dementors closed in. The lake was slowly beginning to freeze. One after another, Dementors dropped from the sky and vanished in the cyclone that was surrounding us.

"No one's coming, Harry..." I whispered.

"He will! He will come!" Harry shouted.

But no one was coming. He wanted this to happen. I knew that he wanted this to be true. But his father wasn't coming. Mine wasn't coming. No one was coming to save us. Something else had happened here. I wasn't sure what, but I knew that it wasn't our parents. Just to be sure, I looked around. There was nothing. Desperately, my eyes flashed to the cyclone, to the pitiful sight of Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and I at the water's edge... wracked with pain... dying... There was no way that it was our parents. Someone had done it, but no one was coming.

"Harry," I started gently, "I know how much you wanted this to be true, but look -"

"He's coming!" Harry shouted.

"No one's coming!" I shouted back. "We're dying, all of us... and no one's coming!"

"They are!" Harry yelled.

That was when it hit me. I finally understood. We hadn't seen our parents. We had seen ourselves. I grabbed Harry's arm desperately. "Do you remember the werewolf howl that Hermione did earlier?" I gasped. Harry nodded blankly. "When she did it in the alternate past, it happened in what was our current timeline. We were saved because we already knew what was going to happen. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"

For a moment, Harry stared at me. And then it hit him. We both finally understood the truth and not a moment too soon. Together, Harry and I flung ourselves out from behind the bush and pulled out our wands. I knew that we were going to be seen by ourselves - the one thing that we weren't supposed to do - but it was too bad. Harry and I slashed through the trees, down to the rocky outcrop, to the exact spot where we had thought that our fathers had appeared. Poising my wand, I looked out over the sea of Dementors on the other side of the lake.

"Expecto patronum!" we both roared.

And out of the ends of our wands burst, not shapeless clouds of mist, but two blinding, dazzling, silver animals. I screwed up my eyes, trying to see what it was. It looked like a lion. It was sprinting silently away from him, across the black surface of the lake. The one that Harry had cast was lowering its head and charging at the swarming Dementors. My own was sprinting around and around the black shapes on the ground, and the Dementors were falling back, scattering, retreating into the darkness. As fast as it had happened, the Dementors were gone.

"It was us," I breathed.

Suddenly the two Patronus' turned. I stared at it blankly for a moment, trying to figure out what it was. The two of them were stalking back towards Harry and I across the still surface of the water. At least, mine was. His was going more at a gallop. It turned out that the Patronus wasn't a lion. Harry's wasn't a horse, as I had originally been thinking that it was, either. His was a stag. And mine was a tiger. It was shining brightly as the moon above... it was coming back to me...

My father's Patronus was a lion. They had told me earlier and I had figured that much, considering that his nickname in school was Mane. Honestly, how no one else had figured out that they were illegal Animagi was beyond me. It must have been beyond obvious. Either way, what I had seen tonight wasn't my father. It was me. I had always looked a lot like my father. Even more right now, considering that my hair was pulled up. Besides that, we were in nearly pitch darkness and there was a good amount of distance between us and the lake.

The two Patronus' continued to approach us. I smiled slightly as I watched them. I had never seen a Patronus look so real. Not even Professor Lupin's. Of course, he hadn't even cast a corporeal one. I had never seen someone do one before. I hadn't even realized that I could. Finally the two of them stopped on the bank. The hooves and paws of the animals made no marks on the soft ground as they stared at Harry and I with their large, silver eyes. Slowly, the stag bowed its antlered head. Harry's eyes widened in realization.

"You have his Patronus," I whispered.

"Prongs," Harry whispered.

While he was enamored with the stag that took the appearance of his later father, I glanced over at my own Patronus. It was standing with its head low to the ground. I stared blankly as it stalked over towards me. I wasn't really sure whether or not my mother knew how to produce a Patronus. I smiled at the tiger, wishing that I knew what it meant. Why was that particular animal mine? The tiger kept low to the ground, making a few dangerous circles around me as it roared, bearing its long fangs to me.

"Hello," I whispered. But as my trembling fingertips stretched toward the creature, it vanished. I turned towards Harry with a sigh. "They're beautiful."

"Yeah..." Harry mumbled.

For a long time, Harry and I stood there, hands still outstretched. I let out a gentle breath. I couldn't believe that we had done it. We had conjured up a Patronus, saved ourselves from the Dementors, and still hadn't gotten caught. The only negative was that Harry didn't get a chance to see his father. Then, with a great leap of my heart, I heard hooves behind us - Harry and I whirled around and saw Hermione dashing toward us, dragging Buckbeak behind her. She didn't look happy in the slightest.

"What did you two do? You said you were only going to keep a lookout!" Hermione sneered fiercely.

"We just saved all our lives... Get behind here - behind this bush - we'll explain," Harry said.

At least if there was someone who could have caught us, it was only Hermione. The three of us ducked down out of sight - just in case Snape came up a little bit faster than we were expecting, and we launched into the explanation of everything that had happened. Running over here, watching the entire thing happen all over again, waiting for the Patronus casters to appear, realizing that no one was coming to help us, and finally understanding that it had been us all along. Hermione listened to what had just happened with her mouth open yet again.

"Did anyone see you?" Hermione asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, Hermione. You're really still on that?" I sighed.

"Yes, haven't you been listening?" Harry asked. Hermione's eyes went wide. "We saw ourselves but we both thought that we were our parents! It's okay!"

"Harry, Tara, I can't believe it... You two conjured up two Patronus's that drove away all those Dementors! That's very, very advanced magic..." Hermione breathed, seemingly over the fact that we had been seen.

"All those lessons came in handy, I guess," I said.

"We knew that we could do it this time, because we'd already done it... Does that make sense?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Hermione said.

"We were also a little calmer," I pointed out.

"Harry, Tara, look at Snape!" Hermione said.

Together the three of us peered around the bush at the other bank. Snape had regained consciousness from... whatever it was that Hermione had done to get away from him in the first place. He was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp forms of Harry, Hermione, and I onto them. He brought up another for Sirius, looking as though he would have rather just killed him right there. A fifth stretcher, no doubt bearing Ron, was already floating at his side. Then, wand held out in front of him, he moved our limp forms away toward the castle.

"Look at how happy he seems to have caught Sirius," I growled.

"He's not going to get away with it," Harry said.

"I know."

"Right, it's nearly time," Hermione said tensely, looking at her watch. "We've got about forty-five minutes until Dumbledore locks the door to the hospital wing. We've got to rescue Sirius and get back into the ward before anybody realizes we're missing."

"We should start heading up soon," I said.

Together we waited, watching the moving clouds reflected in the lake, while the bush next to us whispered in the breeze. Forty-five minutes had never seemed to take so long. Especially since we had nothing to do. So I sat and drew patterns with my wand in the dirt in front of us. I wished, for just a moment, that wizards could have used cell phones like Muggles. At least I would have had something to occupy my time with. Buckbeak, just about as bored as I was, was ferreting for worms again.

"D'you reckon he's up there yet?" Harry asked, checking his watch.

"He might be. He talked to Dumbledore for a while, after all," I said.

We both looked up at the castle and I began counting the windows to the right of the West Tower. He was in one of those rooms. "Look! Who's that? Someone's coming back out of the castle!" Hermione whispered.

She was right about that. I stared through the darkness, wishing that the moon was a little bit brighter. It was almost impossible to tell who it was. Not Pettigrew. He had taken off the moment that Professor Lupin had transformed into the werewolf. That would be a problem for another day. The man who had just left the castle was hurrying across the grounds, toward one of the entrances. Something shiny glinted in his belt.

"Macnair! The executioner! He's gone to get the Dementors!" Harry said. "This is it -"

"We're running out of time!" I interrupted. "Hermione first."

Knowing that she wouldn't like what we were about to do, I shoved her forward anyways. Hermione put her hands on Buckbeak's back and Harry gave her a leg up. She swung herself on as I swung up behind her. Harry stared at me and I shrugged. I did used to ride horses back in Florida, after all. I supposed that Buckbeak wasn't that different. Then Harry placed his foot on one of the lower branches of the bush and climbed up in front of us, keeping Hermione in the middle. Harry pulled Buckbeak's rope back over his neck and tied it to the other side of his collar like reins.

"Ready?" he whispered to us.

"Let's go. It's not a fun ride. Fair warning," I told the other two.

"Right," Harry muttered. "You two had better hold on to me -"

I wrapped my arms forward around Hermione and latched onto the back of Harry's shirt. They hadn't flown on the Hippogriff before, but I knew how unpleasant Buckbeak's takeoffs were. Giving us a final warning, Harry nudged Buckbeak's sides with his heels. Buckbeak soared straight into the dark air, just as he had the first time I flew on him. Harry was gripping his flanks with his knees as I nearly tore his shirt from my grip, feeling the great wings rising powerfully beneath us. Hermione was clearly holding Harry very tight around the waist.

In front of me I could hear her muttering, "Oh, no - I don't like this - oh, I really don't like this -"

"You alright, Hermione?" I asked.

"Yes, I just don't like flying!" Hermione shrieked.

Harry urged Buckbeak forward. The Hippogriff went into a low dive towards the castle. I reached around and kept a hand clamped over Hermione's mouth. The last thing that we needed was someone in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor Tower to realize that we were flying a Hippogriff, who should have been killed to rescue a man, who was supposed to be given the Kiss. We were gliding quietly toward the upper floors of the castle. Harry pulled hard on the left-hand side of the rope, and Buckbeak turned. I was trying to count the windows flashing past.

"Whoa!" Harry gasped, pulling backward as hard as he could.

"Where is he?" I whispered.

"He's there!" Harry said, spotting Sirius as we rose up beside the window.

Buckbeak slowed down and we found ourselves at a stop, unless you counted the fact that we kept rising up and down several feet as the Hippogriff beat his wings to remain airborne. I could barely see Sirius pacing the small room, seemingly realizing that he was a man condemned. Not today. Harry reached out, and as Buckbeak's wings fell, was able to tap sharply on the glass. Sirius looked up. From behind Hermione's bushy hair, I saw his jaw drop. I smiled as he leapt from his spot, hurried to the window and tried to open it, but it was locked.

"Stand back!" Hermione called to him, and she took out her wand, still gripping the back of Harry's robes with her left hand. "Alohomora!"

"Did you really expect them to lock it with a spell that First-Years can manage? He's a convicted murderer," I snapped.

"You do it if you're so clever, then.," Hermione hissed.

Good thing that Mom gets angry with Dad and his Quidditch friends so often. "Bombarda!" I shouted.

There was a deafening bang as the window sot out of the opening on the castle and crashed ten stories below us, leaving Sirius more than enough room to climb out. "That'll do," Sirius said, obviously surprised.

"How do you know that one?" Hermione asked me.

"You don't wanna know," I said honestly.

"How - how -?" Sirius asked weakly, staring at the Hippogriff.

"Get on - there's not much time," Harry said, gripping Buckbeak firmly on either side of his sleek neck to hold him steady.

"Come on, Sirius. They'll be here in seconds," I pleaded.

"You've got to get out of here - the Dementors are coming - Macnair's gone to get them," Harry added.

Four people on a Hippogriff wasn't likely to be fun, but we had to get out of here. For ourselves, for Buckbeak, and for Sirius. Sirius placed a hand on either side of the window frame and heaved his head and shoulders out of it. It was very lucky he was so thin. I extended an arm to help him keep from falling. In seconds, he had managed to fling one leg over Buckbeak's back and pull himself onto the Hippogriff behind me. I felt his bony arms cling onto my waist. He was barely half on Buckbeak, but we had to leave before we were caught.

"Okay, Buckbeak, up! Up to the tower - come on!" Harry said, shaking the rope.

Without warning, the Hippogriff gave one sweep of its mighty wings and we were soaring upward again, high as the top of the West Tower. Hermione gave another whimper as I snapped at her to be quiet. I had almost forgotten how scared of heights she was. She didn't even like being a few feet up on a broomstick. Buckbeak eventually landed with a clatter on the battlements of one of the topmost towers, and Harry, Hermione, and I slid off him at once. Sirius was laughing, still atop Buckbeak. His smile made him look at least ten years younger.

"You truly are you father's kids," Sirius told Harry and I.

"Thanks," I said.

"I'll be forever grateful for this. To all of you."

"We know," I said.

"I want to go with you," Harry said quickly.

Sirius gave a regretful look. "One day perhaps. For some time... life will be too... unpredictable. Besides, you're meant to be here," Sirius said, clapping Harry on the shoulder.

But it wasn't fair for him to have to go back into hiding. "You can go to my house and hide out there. Mom and Dad would love to have you and you can still see us," I said desperately.

Sirius looked in between Harry and I, giving us both very fond looks. "I would be putting your parents in danger. No one can be known to associate with me until we get my name cleared, you understand?" Sirius asked me.

I nodded. "Yes. This isn't fair," I grumbled.

"Life often isn't. But you three have saved two lives tonight. Your parents would all be very proud. Just as I am."

"You'll come back eventually, right?" I asked.

"You have my word," Sirius said. "Promise me something. Both of you."

"Anything," Harry said.

"Of course," I added.

"Trust yourselves. Trust each other." Harry and I looked at each other and smiled. "No matter the challenges you face - and I fear there will be many - you'll be surprised how many times you can find the answers..." Sirius reached down and tapped Harry on the heart, "... here." As Sirius repositioned himself on Buckbeak, a shooting star arced through the sky. "A shooting star. Make a wish," Sirius breathed.

"Sirius, you'd better go, quick. They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment, they'll find out you're gone," Harry panted.

Buckbeak pawed the ground, tossing his sharp head. "What happened to the other boy? Ron?" Sirius croaked.

"He's going to be okay. He's still out of it, but Madam Pomfrey says she'll be able to make him better," Hermione explained.

"Broken leg. He doesn't blame you," I added.

"Quick - go," Harry said.

But Sirius was still staring down at Harry and I. "How can I ever thank -"

"Go!" Harry, Hermione, and I shouted together.

Sirius slowly wheeled Buckbeak around, facing the open sky. "You can thank us by not getting caught," I called after them.

Sirius turned back to me with a smile. "We'll see each other again. You are - truly your father's son, Harry... Tara... tell your parents that I'll see them soon, and that they've done a wonderful job. With you both," Sirius said.

"I will," I promised, smiling fondly.

With a final glance back at us, Sirius squeezed Buckbeak's sides with his heels. Harry, Hermione, and I jumped back as the enormous wings rose once more. The three of us raised our arms and started waving as the Hippogriff took off into the air. Sirius gave a loud laugh as he flew off into the distance. At least he would finally be able to be somewhat free. Buckbeak and his rider became smaller and smaller as I gazed after them. I just had to remember that we would see him again. Then a cloud drifted across the moon, blocking them from sight. They were gone.


	58. Owl Post Again

"Harry! Tara!"

Hermione was tugging at my sleeve, staring at her watch. "What?" I asked dumbly.

"We've got exactly ten minutes to get back down to the hospital wing without anybody seeing us - before Dumbledore locks the door -"

"Okay, let's go," Harry said, wrenching his gaze from the sky.

"Run," I muttered.

This was no time for being quiet. We had mere minutes before we were supposed to be back in the hospital wing. And we still couldn't be caught. The three of us slipped through the doorway behind us and down a tightly spiraling stone staircase. I had never been in this section of the castle before, much to my frustration. I wasn't sure where to go. As we reached the bottom of it, I heard voices. We flattened ourselves against the wall and listened. It sounded like Fudge and Snape. They were walking quickly along the corridor at the foot of the staircase.

"... only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties. The Kiss will be performed immediately?" Snape was asking.

"As soon as Macnair returns with the Dementors. This whole Black affair has been highly embarrassing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to informing the Daily Prophet that we've got him at last... I daresay they'll want to interview you, Snape... and once young Harry and Tara are back in their right minds, I expect they'll want to tell the Prophet exactly how you saved them," Fudge replied.

"Yeah, right," I muttered.

"Quiet!" Hermione hissed.

So I settled for clenching my teeth. The only thing that Snape could to save me was die. I caught a glimpse of Snape's smirk as he and Fudge passed Harry, Hermione, and I's hiding place. I sank back into the wall slightly, praying that they wouldn't find us. Finally their footsteps died away. Harry, Hermione, and I waited a few moments to make sure that they had really gone, then started to run in the opposite direction. I was panting slightly as we threw ourselves down one staircase, then another, and along a new corridor - then we heard a cackling ahead.

My feet halted as I came skidding to a stop. "Peeves!" Harry muttered, grabbing Hermione and I's wrists. "In here!"

Together the three of us tore into a deserted classroom to our left just in time. There was no doubt in my mind that Peeves would have screamed to the high heavens about us being in the hallway and that would have led to an awkward conversation. I pressed my ear to the door of the classroom and listened. Peeves seemed to be bouncing along the corridor in boisterous good spirits, laughing his head off. As usual, he was probably thrilled that something depressing or dangerous was happening. I could only assume that it was about the Kiss this time.

"Idiot," I groaned once I was sure that he had gone.

"Oh, he's horrible. I bet he's all excited because the Dementors are going to finish off Sirius," Hermione whispered, her ear to the door along with mine.

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Probably on his way to watch," I muttered.

At the same time, Hermione glanced down to check her watch. "Three minutes, Harry, Tara!" she hissed.

"We'll make it. Don't worry," I said.

Of course, we were really pushing our time limit. There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to make it barely in the nick of time. It didn't help that I could see Hermione's Muggle watch ticking away the precious seconds that we had. We waited with baited breath until Peeves' gloating voice had faded into the distance, then slid back out of the room and broke into a run again. I took the lead, dashing up staircases and rounding corners so tightly that I was about to go flying off of my feet. We were still a few halls away.

"Tara - Hermione - what'll happen - if we don't get back inside - before Dumbledore locks the door?" Harry panted.

"I don't want to think about it!" Hermione moaned, checking her watch again. "One minute!"

"We're going to make it, damn it," I growled.

We had not made it almost the entire year just to be caught right before we were preparing to give the Time-Turner back. Especially because they were kind of super illegal to use like this. I rounded the corner of one of the hallways and took the stairs two at a time as I hit the landing for the hospital wing. Harry and Hermione were right behind me as we passed the pendulum of the clock that sat above the entrance hall. We had finally reached the end of the corridor with the hospital wing entrance. We slowed to a walk to make sure that we weren't about to walk into someone else.

"Okay - I can hear Dumbledore. Come on, you two!" Hermione said tensely.

The three of us had to make sure that we didn't alert anyone that we were here. Not even our old selves. We would have to walk into the hospital wing at the same time that we had used the Time-Turner. It had never felt like a more impossible mission. I had honestly never thought that the Time-Turner was this hard to use before tonight. Together we crept along the corridor, Hermione first, followed by Harry and I. Suddenly the door to the hospital wing opened. I was about to duck behind a pillar when I realized that it was just Dumbledore's back that had appeared.

"I am going to lock you in. It is five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, Miss Nox, three turns should do it. By the way, when in doubt, I find retracing my steps to be a wise place to begin. Good luck," Dumbledore was saying.

It was a little strange to realize that, when he had been talking to us about using the Time-Turner, our future selves had been right outside of the room. Dumbledore backed out of the room, closed the door, and took out his wand to magically lock it. Wait a second... Were we about to be locked out of the room when we needed to be there? The other two must have been thinking the same thing. Exchanging a panicked look, Harry, Hermione, and I ran forward. Dumbledore looked up, and a wide smile appeared under the long silver mustache.

"Well?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

"We did it! Sirius has gone, on Buckbeak," Harry said breathlessly.

"They're already well on their way," I added happily.

Dumbledore beamed at us as we all grinned back at him. "Well done. I think -" He listened intently for any sound within the hospital wing. “Yes, I think you've gone too - get inside - I'll lock you in."

"Thank you, sir," I chirped.

Harry, Hermione, and I slipped back inside the dormitory. I turned back and gave Dumbledore one final smile. He really was one of the strangest people that I had ever met. The three of us stood in the far corner of the hospital wing as our previous selves began spinning the Time-Turner. The hospital wing was thankfully empty except for Ron, who was still lying in the end bed, staring confusedly at where the three of us had just been. As the lock clicked behind us, we quietly crept back to our own beds, Hermione tucking the Time-Turner back under her robes.

As I dropped down into my bed, only concealed by the darkness of the hospital wing, I caught just the faintest glimpse of myself vanishing across the room. It looked a little strange. Almost like we were evaporating. Finally we completely vanished from view and I grinned at the baffled look on Ron's face. He blinked a few times, as if trying to understand what had just happened. Then he turned and frowned, seeing us seated back on our old beds. He glanced back at where we had just been and back over to the beds.

"How'd you three get over there? I was just talking to you... over there," Ron said breathlessly.

He looked like he had just been whacked over the head with a frying pan. That was kind of the way that I felt. Ron glanced to the other side of the room where we had just been - likely to try and figure out a way that we had managed to move places without him noticing. He frowned again when he turned back to us, clearly waiting for an answer as to what had just happened. Hermione glanced mischievously to Harry and I. I was almost surprised. It was normally Harry and I that messed with Ron, not Hermione.

"What d'you think, you two? Too much for him - everything that's happened tonight?" Hermione offered.

"Not for the fragile, I'm afraid," I said.

"Afraid so. Always been a bit of the nervous type, Ron has," Harry teased.

Ron's jaw was practically on the floor as he stared at us, confounded. He clearly hadn't been expecting anything like this. Of course, neither had I. One day we would tell Ron what had happened tonight - and we would have to tell him soon, considering that he would want to know what had happened to Sirius - but right now I just wanted to sleep for the next year or so. Maybe until I graduated, to avoid any disasters that were sure to come over the next few years. Slowly, we all turned to each other and grinned, ignoring Ron's face.

"But -" Ron started.

"Honestly, Ron, how could someone be in two places at once?" I interrupted.

Harry, Hermione, and I shared a long look and began laughing. Ron still looked more bewildered than I had ever seen him before. I almost felt a little bit badly about making him look like a fool, but he just made it so easy. I brushed back some sweaty hair off of my forehead and dropped down against the bed, drinking in the cool air that was bouncing off of the stone walls. A moment later, Madam Pomfrey came striding back out of her office. She looked about as unhappy as I had ever seen her before.

"Did I hear the headmaster leaving? Am I allowed to look after my patients now?" she huffed.

"He's gone, ma'am," I said.

She was definitely in a very bad mood. I was sure that I had never seen her as grouchy as she was. Harry, Hermione, and I thought it best to accept our chocolate quietly. No need for any of us to be tempting fate. Madam Pomfrey stood over us, making sure that we ate it. But I could hardly swallow - and I loved chocolate. Harry, Hermione, and I were waiting, listening, my nerves jangling as the minutes passed. And then, as we all took a fourth piece of chocolate from Madam Pomfrey, I heard a distant roar of fury echoing from somewhere above us.

"What was that?" Madam Pomfrey asked in alarm.

It was certainly about to be a good fireworks show. I could imagine that Snape would try and blame us for what had happened. But considering that he didn't know that we had the Time-Turner, he would never be able to prove it. I snickered down into my hands as I waited for him to enter the hospital wing. After a few seconds it become very easy to hear the angry voices, growing louder and louder. It sounded like Snape and Fudge. Harry, Hermione, and I exchanged a look as Ron watched on in bewilderment. Madam Pomfrey was staring at the door.

"Really - they'll wake everybody up! What do they think they're doing?" Madam Pomfrey huffed.

To the poor woman's credit, she really did try so hard to do her job properly. I could only imagine how hard the rest of us made it to do that. She looked about ready to go tell the person off for making so much noise, but it was too late. They were nearly in the hospital wing already. I was trying to hear what the voices were saying, but it wasn't easy. All I could make out were a few not-so-nice comments. Definitely from Snape. The two of them were drawing nearer. I moved to shift myself onto Harry's bed.

"You know that he's gonna lose it when he sees us?" I whispered.

"Yep," Harry said.

"He must have Disapparated, Severus," Fudge's voice came from outside of the hospital wing. "We should have left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out -"

"He didn't Disapparate! You can't Apparate or Disapparate inside this castle!" Snape roared, now very close at hand.

"Oh, look, someone else that's read Hogwarts: A History," I teased Hermione.

But she had gone very pale in the face. She was obviously very worried about getting caught. "Shut up, Tara," Hermione said, her voice a strained whisper.

"This - has - something - to - do - with - Potter - and - Nox!" Snape howled.

"There it is," I muttered.

"Severus - be reasonable - Harry and Tara have been locked up -"

We all knew that Snape was going to find a way to blame this on us. I was in the middle of thinking of subtle ways to make Snape even angrier about the loss of Sirius when there was a deafening bang. The door of the hospital wing burst open. Fudge, Snape, and Dumbledore came striding into the ward. Dumbledore alone looked calm. Indeed, he looked as though he was quite enjoying himself. Just the way that I was. Fudge appeared angry. But Snape was beside himself. He came stomping up to Harry and I, closely followed by Fudge and Dumbledore.

"Hello, Professor," I chirped, plastering a smile on my face.

"Out with it, Potter! Shut your mouth, Nox!" Snape bellowed. I pretended to look surprised. Being nice when Snape was angry was a surefire way to make him even angrier. "What did you two do?"

"Professor Snape! Control yourself!" Madam Pomfrey shrieked.

"See here, Snape, be reasonable," Fudge said. "This door's been locked, we just saw -"

"They helped him escape, I know it!" Snape howled, pointing at Harry, Hermione, and I.

His face was twisted; spit was flying from his mouth. I pushed my face towards the ceiling to stop from laughing. It was one of the angriest that I had ever seen him. "Calm down, man! You're talking nonsense!" Fudge barked.

"You don't know Potter or Nox!" Snape shrieked. "They did it, I know they did it -"

"That will do, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly. "Think about what you are saying. This door has been locked since I left the ward ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?"

"Of course not! I would have heard them!" Madam Pomfrey hissed, bristling at the inference that she couldn't do her job correctly.

"Well, there you have it, Severus. Unless you are suggesting that Harry, Tara, and Hermione are able to be in two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling them further," Dumbledore said calmly.

Unless I was wrong, Dumbledore looked quite amused by the entire situation, just the way that we were. Hermione still looked frightened. Harry was staring at Snape with an unreadable mask. It was very obvious that I was trying not to laugh. Ron still looked befuddled. Snape stood there, seething, staring from Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling behind his glasses. Snape whirled about, robes swishing behind him, and stormed out of the ward. I laughed into my arm, covering it as a sneeze.

"Fellow seems quite unbalanced. I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore," Fudge said, staring after him.

"Oh, he's not unbalanced. He's just suffered a severe disappointment," Dumbledore said quietly.

"He's not the only one! The Daily Prophet's going to have a field day! We had Black cornered and he slipped through our fingers yet again! All it needs now is for the story of that Hippogriff's escape to get out, and I'll be a laughingstock!" Fudge puffed. Like you weren't already? "Well... I'd better go and notify the Ministry..."

"And the Dementors? They'll be removed from the school, I trust?" Dumbledore asked.

"Oh yes, they'll have to go," Fudge said, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. I let out a soft breath. I definitely wouldn't miss having them around Hogwarts. "Never dreamed they'd attempt to administer the Kiss on two innocent students..."

"Oh, my," I gasped, feigning surprise. "Who would have ever dreamed that XXXXX creatures, such as the Dementors, would be uncontrollable and attempt to kill a student who would have no idea how to fend them off?"

Fudge went on as though he hadn't even heard me as Harry and Ron laughed. Even Dumbledore sent me a tiny smile. "Completely out of control... no, I'll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight... Perhaps we should think about dragons at the school entrance..." Fudge mumbled.

"Hagrid would like that," Dumbledore said, smiling at Harry, Hermione, and I.

The last thing that Hagrid needed was a dragon that was guarding the school. I was sure to get my hair singed off or something of the likes. As Dumbledore and Fudge left the dormitory, Madam Pomfrey hurried to the door and locked it again. Muttering angrily to herself, she headed back to her office. How she hadn't lost her hair yet, I had no idea. Then there was a low moan from the other end of the ward. We all turned to see that Ron was slowly sitting up, looking even more confused than ever. He was rubbing his head and looking around.

"Okay, now someone tell me. What happened? Harry? Why are we in here? Where's Sirius? Where's Lupin? What's going on?" Ron groaned.

Poor Ron really had no idea what had happened over the last few hours. Technically twice. As much as I wanted to explain what had happened and reassure him that both Buckbeak and Sirius were safe, I also wanted to take a nap. Until I graduated would have been preferable. Harry, Hermione, and I looked at each other. I immediately shook my head and threw myself back against the bed, banging my bruised body against the bedframe.

"Not it," I said.

"You explain," Harry said, helping himself to some more chocolate and tossing me a piece.

When Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I left the hospital wing at noon the next day, it was to find an almost deserted castle. I had already wandered around as the others slept in so I was unsurprised to see that there were no people. At least, there were very few. The sweltering heat and the end of the exams meant that everyone was taking full advantage of another Hogsmeade visit. Which suited me just fine. I wasn't sure that I wanted to pay the Shrieking Shack another visit anytime soon. And I really wasn't keen to spend all day walking while my legs were still throbbing from the Whomping Willow attack.

Earlier in the morning I had woken up well before Ron, Harry, and Hermione had - much to my own surprise, considering that I was normally the last one awake. I had debated on waking the others up for a moment before deciding to let them sleep like I would have wanted. So I had gone down to breakfast with everyone else, trying to pretend like I hadn't done what I had the night before. Plus I was a little curious to see whether or not the rumors about Sirius and Buckbeak had started to swirl yet. So I had gone down and met everyone in the Great Hall.

While everyone else had been alert and happy, I had been drooping in my seat, barely able to force-feed myself some oatmeal. Maybe I should have stayed in bed... The rest of the castle seemed to be happily chattering away and laughing about the end of their exams while I was still picking branches from the Whomping Willow out of my clothes. I forced myself to participate in a few conversations with the other Gryffindor's and even managed to throw everyone off of what I had been doing the night before. Eventually Cedric plopped himself down beside me in Harry's usual spot.

"Good morning," Cedric chirped brightly.

"Morning," I mumbled.

My head was in my hands as I tried to force myself to be a little happier. After all, we had saved Buckbeak and Sirius and the year was finally over. "Party a little too hard last night?" Cedric teased.

"Oh, you could say that."

"Tara?" Cedric asked softly and with a tinge of worry. I very slowly glanced up to meet his gaze, knowing that he would see the lash mark that the Whomping Willow had left on my forehead. His eyes instantly widened. He grabbed my chin in his hand and lifted my face up to meet his. "What have you and your friends done this time?"

"How believable would nothing be?" I asked, smiling guiltily.

Cedric smiled back. "Not at all," he said. Yeah, I hadn't really expecting that he would believe me. "Come here." I moved towards him again as he tilted my head up and pressed the tip of his wand to my temple. "Episkey."

There was a warming sensation as the cut in my forehead sealed itself. Cedric released me and I laughed as I pressed a hand to the now unbroken skin. "I really have to remember that one," I muttered.

Cedric nodded. "So what were you doing last night?" he asked curiously.

How many rules had we broken last night? Probably all of them, along with a number of laws. We had helped a man convicted of murder escape from the Dementor's Kiss. We had battled against the Dementor's, which we really weren't supposed to do. We were out on the grounds after hours - as we so often were - and we had freed a Hippogriff that was condemned to death. Not to mention that we had attacked Snape and had run from Professor Lupin while he was in his werewolf form before finally defending Sirius with a proper Patronus and then releasing him and Buckbeak.

Not to mention everything that had happened with Pettigrew last night. "You know, I honestly don't think that you'd believe me if I told you," I said truthfully.

"Try me," Cedric said.

Perhaps when we had more time and the entire castle wasn't within listening distance. "Another time, maybe. Right now I think I need to sleep for a year," I groaned.

Cedric laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "So can I take that as a no on going to Hogsmeade with me today?" he asked.

I perked up slightly. "There's a Hogsmeade visit today?"

"Yes."

How hadn't I known that? Probably because I had been so busy dealing with literally everything that could have - and did - go wrong last night. I supposed that there had been a poster in the Common Room about it, but I hadn't even been there in a day. As much as I would have loved to wander around in the blistering heat - something that I loved - I knew that it was a better idea to rest up for the day. Besides, I wanted to see if Ron, Harry, or Hermione had any ideas about where Sirius might have gone. So I shook my head at Cedric and smiled.

"Any other day, I definitely would have said yes," I said.

"Then how about meeting me up in the Astronomy Tower tonight?" he offered. Much better. "I'd love to hear all about what I'm sure was a fascinating night for you."

"It's a date," I said.

Cedric glanced around and seemingly finally noticed that there were three lingering presences missing from the Gryffindor table. "Where are your friends?" he asked.

"Sleeping. In the hospital wing," I added bashfully. Cedric rolled his eyes. "I just woke up early."

Cedric laughed and reached around to tighten his grip on my hands. "Glad you're still alive."

"High praise," I teased.

"Only for the best," Cedric shot back.

We both laughed as Cedric wrapped an arm around my waist. I tried to resist letting out a pained squeak. I had definitely bruised something during the night. Probably multiple somethings. Cedric leaned down and pressed a quick kiss against my mouth. I tried very hard to ignore the others at the Gryffindor table rolling their eyes and gagging. Cedric gave me the slightest wink before rising and leaving, back to the Hufflepuff table, where his friends were also laughing. I ended up having to hit my own to keep them from annoying me even more than usual.

For a while I sat around and chatted with everyone else. Like I had been expecting, they were all planning their visits to Hogsmeade for the afternoon. While I did want to go, I had other things to do. Like checking on Professor Lupin to ensure that he was alright after wandering the grounds all last night. Plus I wanted to get out a letter to my parents before heading home - just to let them know that we had a lot to talk about when I returned. After a few minutes Fred dropped down at my side, interrupting a conversation that I had been in with Seamus.

"Coming to Hogsmeade?" Fred asked.

"Not today. I'm kind of tired," I answered.

Fred stared at me for a moment. "Where were you last night?" he asked.

Damn it... They had noticed that we were missing. "What are you talking about?" I asked, playing dumb.

Fred rolled his eyes but humored me anyways. "Last night, while we were celebrating the end of exams, we went looking for you. We were going to have you set off the fireworks with us," he explained. I knew that they would be doing something stupid but I hadn't realized that they might have wanted me to join in. "No one could find you. Any of you, actually."

His gaze dropped suspiciously to the empty seats of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Honestly, Freddie, we were doing something highly illegal and I'd like to not go to jail for it by describing it to you," I said, shooing him away.

Fred feigned a gasp and instead leaned up against me, invading my personal space, just as he had always done. "And you didn't invite me? How rude," Fred huffed.

"Next time," I promised.

Fred and I exchanged a smile as I stole a few sips of his tea. "So can we expect that you'll be able to pack us into your jammed schedule this summer?" he finally asked.

I quirked a brow. "What are you talking about?"

"You and Diggory," George said, dropping down on my other side and surprising me slightly. I rolled my eyes at them. Not this conversation again. "How will you manage it?"

Snorting under my breath, I shoved the two of them away from me. "Oh, I'm sure that I'll come up with something. After all, I made a promise to you boys," I said seriously.

A long time ago I had made them the promise that I would help them with their store. That wasn't a promise that I intended to break. They were already working so hard on it. If they wanted to start networking, next year would be the time to do it and they couldn't do it alone. That meant that I would be helping them a fair bit. I smiled at the twins and grabbed their hands. As much as I did like spending time with Cedric, Fred and George were some of my best friends. I would never sacrifice my time with them or any of the rest of my friends just for a boyfriend.

"And just remember something. We liked you first," Fred teased, ruffling my hair.

"Of course, boys," I laughed, shoving them away.

They only teased me for a little while longer before heading off to make plans with Lee for the summer. I smiled at them as I went back to finishing my breakfast. We were only about halfway through the allotted hour before I began to drift off. Thankfully Seamus had caught me before I'd fallen into my oatmeal and had escorted me back to the hospital wing with the promise that one day I would tell him what was going on. I slumped back into my bed and instantly fell asleep. I really didn't do well without at least a solid two hours of sleep that wasn't brought on by Dementors.

It was a good thing that - after I explained about the Hogsmeade trip when everyone had woken up - neither Ron nor Hermione felt like going. So the four of us wandered onto the grounds, still talking about the extraordinary events of the previous night and wondering where Sirius and Buckbeak were now. Sitting near the lake, watching the giant squid waving its tentacles lazily above the water, I lost the thread of the conversation as I looked across to the opposite bank. The tiger had stalked toward me from there just last night...

On my other side, I could tell that Harry was thinking the same thing. I still wanted to know what it meant. All I knew was that tigers were supposed to be dangerous - which was an unsettling thought. I supposed that it might have been one of those things that I would never know. So I leaned back and soaked up the sun. For the first time in months I was able to wear my shorts and tank top. I really couldn't wait to visit the States again in the summer. As much as I loved England, I could have done with slightly warmer weather.

Suddenly a shadow fell across us and I looked up to see a very bleary-eyed Hagrid, mopping his sweaty face with one of his tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs and beaming down at us. I slowly pushed myself up and sat with my legs crossed. Had I not known any better, I would have thought that he was crying because Buckbeak was dead. At least now I knew that they were happy tears and that he was probably just a little bit hungover.

"Hi, Hagrid," I chirped.

"Know I shouldn' feel happy, after wha' happened las' night. I mean, Black escapin' again, an' everythin' - but guess what?" Hagrid asked.

It was only a matter of time before Sirius's escape went through the student body. "What?" we all asked, pretending to look curious.

"Beaky! He escaped! He's free! Bin celebratin' all night!" Hagrid cried.

"Wow, we're so thrilled to hear that!" I said happily.

"That's wonderful!" Hermione said, giving Ron a reproving look because he looked as though he was close to laughing.

It was a little tough not to laugh, but Hagrid looked so happy that I was thrilled for him. "Yeah... can't've tied him up properly," Hagrid said, gazing happily out over the grounds. "I was worried this mornin', mind... thought he mighta met Professor Lupin on the grounds, but Lupin says he never ate anythin' las' night..."

"What?" Harry asked quickly.

Weren't Dumbledore and Snape the only teachers that had known about Professor Lupin? No... They had all known. Professor Lupin had told us that much. But that didn't change the fact that Hagrid had just said it out loud to us. Did he know that we knew? Or maybe he realized that we wouldn't be as biased as the rest of the school. There was a churning sensation in my stomach that I only got when I was about to receive some bad news. The four of us exchanged a look as I slowly glanced back up towards Hagrid.

"What was that about Professor Lupin?" I asked nervously.

"Blimey, haven' yeh heard?" Hagrid asked, his smile fading a little. He lowered his voice, even though there was nobody in sight. "Er - Snape told all the Slytherin's this mornin'... Thought everyone'd know by now... Professor Lupin's a werewolf, see. An' he was loose on the grounds las' night... He's packin' now, o' course."

Of course Snape had told the Slytherin's. He was bitter about everything that had happened last night. He hated Professor Lupin for what had happened when he was a child and now he was taking it out on the man in adulthood. And that was when I realized that the Slytherin's - who hated Professor Lupin because he didn't fall at their feet and typically favored Gryffindor over the other Houses - would have told everyone else. It was likely the only thing that they were talking about in Hogsmeade. Now I was really glad that I hadn't gone. I wouldn't have been able to stand it.

That was also when something that Hagrid had said dawned on me. "Doing what?" I asked.

"He's packing? Why?" Harry asked, clearly alarmed.

"Leavin', isn' he?" Hagrid said, looking surprised that Harry had to ask.

"Was he fired?" I asked.

There was no way that Dumbledore would have fired him. He didn't care about lycanthropy. "Nah. Resigned firs' thing this mornin'. Says he can't risk it happenin' again," Hagrid explained.

Harry and I scrambled to our feet. "I'm going to see him," Harry said to Ron and Hermione.

"I'm going with you," I said.

"But if he's resigned -"

"- doesn't sound like there's anything we can do -"

"I don't care. I still want to see him. We'll meet you back here," Harry interrupted.

"See you guys later!" I shouted.

Together Harry and I sprinted back up the grounds. It was a good thing that no one else was around, because we likely would have been trampling them to make it to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom office before Professor Lupin left. Harry ended up having a hard time steering me away from the dungeons to set off a stink bomb in Snape's office. Something to ask Fred and George about another time, I supposed. It was also hard to keep me from hunting down Malfoy to punch him again, since I was suspicious that he had begun the rumors.

By the time that we finally broke into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, we saw that Professor Lupin's office door was open. As the two of us headed upstairs, I saw that he had already packed most of his things. The Grindylow's empty tank stood next to his battered old suitcase, which was open and nearly full. I sighed and stepped forward slightly. There was clearly no stopping him, as much as I wanted to. Professor Lupin was bending over something on his desk and looked up only when Harry and I knocked on the door.

"I saw you two coming," Professor Lupin said, smiling.

Despite having knocked, I still jumped when Professor Lupin spoke. Perhaps it was because he sounded a little bit happier than I was expecting. After all, he was a man out of a job now. Harry and I stepped into the office a little bit. Professor Lupin looked worse for wear (in fact, worse than he ever had) and I sighed guiltily. Buckbeak had just been trying to protect us, and in the process, he had hurt Professor Lupin. He pointed to the parchment he had been poring over. I walked up to the edge of his desk and looked down. It was the Marauder’s Map.

"Clever," I grinned.

"We just saw Hagrid. And he said you'd resigned. It's not true, is it?" Harry asked.

"I'm afraid it is," Professor Lupin said.

For a moment I was thrown by how content he looked. There was no way that he didn't care about the fact that he was now out of a job. I didn't understand how this could be happening. Who cared that Professor Lupin was a werewolf? We all oved him and had actually learned quite a bit from him during the year. More than I ever had with Quirrell or Lockhart. Harry and I stared at each other, silently asking how we could get him to stay. But we both knew that it was too late. Professor Lupin started opening his desk drawers and taking out the contents.

"You can't!" I cried.

"I'm very sorry, Tara," Professor Lupin said.

"Why? The Ministry of Magic don't think you were helping Sirius, do they?" Harry asked.

Professor Lupin crossed to the door and closed it behind Harry and I. "No. Professor Dumbledore managed to convince Fudge that I was trying to save your lives." He sighed.

"But that's a good thing, right?" I asked slowly.

"That's a very good thing," Professor Lupin confirmed.

"I still don't understand why you're resigning," I said.

"That was the final straw for Severus. I think the loss of the Order of Merlin hit him hard. So he - er - accidentally let slip that I am a werewolf this morning at breakfast," Professor Lupin explained.

"What an asshole," I scoffed. Professor Lupin turned to me with a chastising look. "Sorry."

Professor Lupin merely smiled. "It's not like I can give you a detention for it anymore."

"You're not leaving just because of that!" Harry said.

Professor Lupin smiled wryly. "This time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents. They will not want a werewolf teaching their children, Harry. And after last night, I see their point. I could have bitten any of you. That must never happen again."

"It was an accident! Something like that would have normally never happened," I argued.

"Yes, but you see how accidents can and do happen?" Professor Lupin asked.

Well I supposed that it was a fair point. "You're the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had! Don't go!" Harry yelped.

Professor Lupin shook his head and didn't speak. He carried on emptying his drawers. Then, while I was trying to think of a good argument to make him stay, Professor Lupin said, "From what the headmaster told me this morning, you two saved a lot of lives last night, Harry, Tara. If I'm proud of anything I've done this year, it's how much the two of you have learned... Tell me about your Patronus's."

"How d'you know about that?" Harry asked.

"What else could have driven the Dementors back?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Idiot," I groaned.

Harry glanced at me and scowled. I merely smiled at him. He knew that I loved him. Distracted from what the real problem was, Harry and I told Professor Lupin all about what had happened. Everything from running to the lake to seeing ourselves dying to our argument to realizing that we had seen ourselves. We explained all about the tiger and stag that we had seen and how close they had come. Harry even mentioned calling the Patronus Prongs, just like they had called his father. When we had finished our story, Professor Lupin was smiling again.

"Yes, your father was always a stag when he transformed. You guessed right... that's why we called him Prongs," Professor Lupin said, turning to me. "As for the tiger... an interesting choice."

"Not a lion, like my dad," I pointed out.

Professor Lupin shook his head. "No. It is rare to take on a family member's Patronus."

"So why a tiger?" I asked.

Professor Lupin let out a deep breath, smiling at me as he pressed a hand against my arm. "I wish that I could tell you that," he said. I huffed softly. I wanted to know why my Patronus was a tiger and what it meant. "All that I know is that tigers are fiercely loyal to those that they love and that they are one of the bravest animals in the world."

For a long time I stood in silence and thought about what he had said. I liked to think that I was loyal. Even Cedric had once said that I would have made a good Hufflepuff because I was loyal - almost to a fault. It had been after I had finally admitted what had happened with Norbert. As for being brave, that was one of the defining traits of Gryffindor House. It made perfect sense. But still... there seemed to be something missing. Professor Lupin threw his last few books into his case, closed the desk drawers, and turned to look at Harry and me.

"Here - I brought this from the Shrieking Shack last night," Professor Lupin said, handing Harry back the Invisibility Cloak. "And..." He hesitated, then held out the Marauder's Map too. "I am no longer your teacher, so I don't feel guilty about giving you back this as well. It's no use to me, and I daresay you two, Ron, and Hermione will find uses for it."

Perhaps there was still some bit of Moony in Professor Lupin. I had a feeling that Dad would find it hysterical that we now had the Marauders Map. In fact, he would probably ask me to see it again. Not that it would matter. There weren't many people in the Hogwarts during the holidays. The map wouldn't be of much use to us until we were back in Hogwarts next year. The two of us took the map and grinned. We would definitely have to see if we could find any secrets in the map over the summer. I would have to ask Dad about it.

"Thank you. We'll try not to get into too much trouble with it," I said, lying straight through my teeth.

"Is that so?" Professor Lupin asked, raising a brow.

Blushing softly, I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe," I mumbled.

Professor Lupin laughed, knowing that I wasn't even going to try and not get in trouble. It just wasn't in me. "You told me Moony, Mane, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs would've wanted to lure me out of school... you said they'd have thought it was funny," Harry said.

"And so we would have," Professor Lupin said, now reaching down to close his case. "I have no hesitation in saying that James would have been highly disappointed if his son had never found any of the secret passages out of the castle. As for Marcus's daughter, I think that we all knew that she would be even more of a troublemaker than he was."

I laughed softly. "It's a gift," I said happily.

Being a troublemaker was one of the many things that I loved. Dad had always thought that it was hysterical and Mom might have rolled her eyes, but I knew that she was proud of me too. They might have hated how much trouble I could get myself into, but at least I had some fun in my life. There was a knock on the door that made me jump slightly. Harry hastily stuffed the Marauder's Map and the Invisibility Cloak into his pocket. When I turned back I saw that it was Professor Dumbledore. He didn't look surprised to see Harry and I there.

"Your carriage is at the gates, Remus," he said.

"Thank you, Headmaster." Professor Lupin picked up his old suitcase and the empty Grindylow tank. "Well - good-bye, Harry, Tara. It has been a real pleasure teaching you both. I feel sure we'll meet again sometime," he told the two of us before turning to Dumbledore. "Headmaster, there is no need to see me to the gates, I can manage..."

The two of us stared at Professor Lupin sadly. I wanted to try and convince him that it was a mistake to leave Hogwarts, but I also knew that he had his own reason for leaving and I knew that he was right. Dumbledore would eventually have no choice but to fire Professor Lupin. At least now he had the option to retire with some dignity. That didn't change the fact that I really didn't want to see him go. Although, watching him walk around the office, I had the impression that Professor Lupin wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

"Good-bye, then, Remus," Dumbledore said soberly.

"Bye, Professor Lupin," I said. Before he got the chance to leave, something occurred to me. "Will you drop by the house sometime? Mom and Dad would love to see you."

Professor Lupin turned back with a slight smile. "Of course. Tell Marcus and Julia that I'll write them."

"I will."

At least Harry would be able to stop by and say hello when he came by, just like he would get the chance to do with Sirius, whenever he came around. Professor Lupin shifted the Grindylow tank slightly so that he and Dumbledore could shake hands. Then, with a final nod to Harry and I and a swift smile, Professor Lupin left the office. Harry sat down in his vacated chair, staring glumly at the floor. I squished into the chair with him, wishing that I could light Snape on fire for spilling his secret. I heard the door close and looked up. Dumbledore was still there.

"Why so miserable, Harry, Tara?" Dumbledore asked quietly. Was he joking? "You two should be very proud of yourselves after last night."

"It didn't make any difference. Pettigrew got away," Harry said bitterly.

But it did make a difference. Not the one that we had been hoping for, but it did. "Didn't make any difference? It made all the difference in the world, Harry. You helped uncover the truth. You saved an innocent man from a terrible fate," Dumbledore said quietly.

"But he's still on the run," I said grumpily.

"As he is alive," Dumbledore pointed out.

Perhaps that was the important part. At least Sirius was still alive. He might have been on the run, but one day we would be able to clear his name and we would all be able to live happily together. But then something occurred to me with what Dumbledore had said. Terrible. Where was it that I had heard that before? Something stirred deep in my memory. Where had I already heard that and why did it give me a sinking feeling in my stomach? Greater and more terrible than ever before... Of course... Professor Trelawney’s prediction!

One look at Harry told me that he was thinking the same thing. "Professor Dumbledore - yesterday, when I was having my Divination exam, Professor Trelawney went very - very strange," Harry said dumbly.

"Indeed? Er - stranger than usual, you mean?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Her normal self was nothing compared to this," I said.

Harry and I exchanged a little look with each other. Should we really tell him about what had happened? "Yes... her voice went all deep and her eyes rolled and she said... she said Voldemort's servant was going to set out to return to him before midnight... She said the servant would help him come back to power," Harry said.

If Dumbledore had given any hint of emotion from what we had said, I had missed it. He didn't look confused at all. In fact, he seemed more curious than anything. Harry and I exchanged another look with each other. Did we say something wrong? Did he think that what was happening was dangerous? Of course, when it came to the two of us, it meant that it was always dangerous. Harry stared up at Dumbledore before looking back at me. I knew what he was telling me. To tell him the other part of Professor Trelawney's prediction.

"She added to me that the girl would have to make a choice. That he was coming back for her," I mumbled.

"Yeah... And then she sort of became normal again, and she couldn't remember anything she'd said. Was it - was she making a real prediction?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore looked mildly impressed. There was no hint of nervousness or concern in his face or voice. "Do you know, Harry, Tara, I think she might have been. Who'd have thought it?" Dumbledore said thoughtfully. There was no concern about all of this? "That brings her total of real predictions up to two. I should offer her a pay raise..."

"What was the first?" I asked curiously.

Dumbledore sent me a strained smile. At least, as strained as he could be. "Another day, perhaps," he said.

"But -" Harry looked at him, aghast. I knew that he was thinking the same thing that I was. How could Dumbledore take this so calmly? "But - I stopped Sirius and Professor Lupin from killing Pettigrew! Even Tara wanted to kill him."

There was something about Harry's words that bothered me. His insinuation that it would have been easy to kill Pettigrew. Maybe because he was right. It really would have made me happy to get to kill him. Mostly because of what he had done to our families. But there had been that slight itch - somewhere in the back of my mind - that had told me that I'd really wanted to kill him. Could it have been the darkness in me that the Sorting Hat was talking about during my First Year? Could it have been finally coming to surface?

No... No. I was just angry. That was it. Nothing more. "Does that really bode well to you that a fourteen-year-old girl wanted to kill a man?" I snapped irritably. "It creeps me out. Don't talk about it."

"But... That makes it my fault if Voldemort comes back!" Harry shouted.

"Oh, shut up," I groaned, rolling my eyes.

He was about as at fault for Voldemort's potential comeback as I was. "It does not," Dumbledore said quietly. “Hasn't your experience with the Time-Turner taught you anything, Harry? The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed... Professor Trelawney, bless her, is living proof of that. You did a very noble thing, in saving Pettigrew’s life."

"He's right, you know. It's like you said, your parents and their friends wouldn't have wanted you to become a killer for them," I said slowly.

"But if he helps Voldemort back to power -!"

"Pettigrew owes his life to you. You have sent Voldemort a deputy who is in your debt. When one wizard saves another wizard's life, it creates a certain bond between them... and I'm much mistaken if Voldemort wants his servant in the debt of Harry Potter," Dumbledore said.

"I don't want a connection with Pettigrew! He betrayed my parents!" Harry shouted.

That was about all that I could handle on that subject. "Welcome to the club!" I yelled back, startling Harry and Dumbledore. "I don't want a connection with him or Voldemort either, but look where we are."

Harry at least had the mind to look bashful. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's fine," I muttered, a little embarrassed.

Thankfully Dumbledore stepped in to keep the moment from getting even more awkward. "This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable, Harry. But trust me... the time may come when you will be very glad you saved Pettigrew's life," Dumbledore said.

"Really?" I asked curiously.

"It may not be for many years, but trust me, the day will come," Dumbledore confirmed.

Would that day really come? I couldn't even imagine when that day would be. What would ever make me want to forgive Pettigrew or be happy that he was alive? He was a coward who had nearly given me up to Voldemort when I was a baby. He had almost gotten my parents killed. He had gotten Harry's parents killed. Judging by the look on Harry's face, I could only assume that he was thinking the same thing. He had destroyed our lives. What did we have to be grateful to him for? Dumbledore looked as though he knew what Harry and I were thinking.

"I knew your fathers very well, both of them, both at Hogwarts and later, Harry. The two of them would have saved Pettigrew too, I am sure of it. Although I do have a feeling that Marcus might have needed some convincing from James," Dumbledore said gently.

The look that he was giving me told me that I shouldn't have been so upset that I'd wanted to Pettigrew. Because I had a reason to want to do it, but the important thing was that I hadn't. I supposed that was what mattered in the end. The simple fact that I hadn't done it. Harry and I exchanged a look and I nodded at him. I knew what he wanted to say. I knew that he wanted to ask about seeing who he thought was his father. So Harry then looked up at the headmaster. I knew one thing. Dumbledore wouldn't laugh - he could tell Dumbledore.

"I thought it was my dad who'd conjured my Patronus. I mean, when I saw myself across the lake... I thought I was seeing him," Harry mumbled.

"An easy mistake to make. I expect you'll tire of hearing it, but you do look extraordinarily like James. Except for the eyes... you have your mother's eyes," Dumbledore said softly.

From what I had seen in the pictures that Harry had of James, he did look exactly like his father. I thought that it was rather sweet. But I could imagine how it was also rather painful. He looked just like his father, but he would never get to see him. I could see Harry cast his gaze downwards. I imagined that he really did wish that he had seen him. For his part, I wished that it had been him. He deserved to see one of his parents, if only for a moment. Harry shook his head sadly.

"It was stupid, thinking it was him I mean, I knew he was dead," Harry muttered.

"You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him. How else could you produce that particular Patronus? Prongs rode again last night," Dumbledore said softly.

Dumbledore's first few words rang through my head for a number of moments following. And they were words that would come back to me many times in the years to come. The dead never really do leave us. Especially those that we love. Harry didn't really look any happier about what had happened, but I hoped that it was something that he would always remember. His parents might have been dead, but that didn't mean that they were gone. Not really. They were still within him. He just had to search for them.

Trying to lighten the mood slightly, I said, "If it makes you feel any better, I thought that I was my father."

Harry gave the slightest of a smile. "Believe it or not, you look extraordinarily like your father. He too had a habit of not cutting his hair, as much as Julia begged him to. Small but strong frame," Dumbledore pointed out. I supposed that it was true enough. People always had said that I looked more like Dad then Mom. "From a distance, I don't doubt that the two of you look much alike. And it's not always what we see on the outside, but on the inside."

Dad and I were a lot alike. "Right," I mumbled.

"Tigers and lions," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "Both very strong and fiercely loyal to those they love."

"So I've heard," I said softly.

It was better to be more like Dad than anyone else. If there was someone for me to take a resemblance to, I would always be glad that it was him. He might have driven Mom up the wall and have been a little off-beat, but there was something endearing in his personality. I smiled softly at Dumbledore and shifted around the office. Then Dumbledore's previous words came back to me. Stag. Tiger. Lion. How had he known that? I had thought that Dumbledore didn't know... It took a moment for Harry and me to really realize what Dumbledore had said.

He clearly knew what we were thinking. "Last night Sirius told me all about how they became Animagi. An extraordinary achievement - not least, keeping it quiet from me," Dumbledore said, smiling. "And then I remembered the most unusual form the two of your Patronus's took, when they charged Mr. Malfoy down at your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. You know, Harry, in a way, you did see your father last night... You found him inside yourself."

If there was ever one teacher to catch you in a lie, it would always be a good thing if it was Dumbledore. He had a penchant for understanding things that no one else would. I gave him another slight smile and small nod. I really was glad that we had him around. I would have lost my mind a long time ago without him. And probably have been expelled at least three different times. Without another word, Dumbledore left the office, leaving Harry and I to our very confused thoughts. A long silence passed where the two of us simply stood in the middle of the office together.

Shaking my head slightly, I turned to Harry. "Well that was nice," I said. Harry gave me a blank stare and nod. I let out a soft breath and walked forward, placing my hand on his arm. "He would have been really proud of you, Harry."

Harry gave me the slightest smile. "Thanks, Tara."

"Should we head out?" I asked, wanting to leave Professor Lupin's old office as soon as possible.

Harry nodded. "Yeah." He grabbed my arm and started pulling me from the room. "Let's try and have some fun while we're here," he said happily.

We only had a set few days before we headed back home and I had to start being careful about what my parents overheard and saw. Plus there would be no more magic, which was definitely the worst part about the holidays. Harry and I turned from Professor Lupin's office, gave it one last smile, and then left. We quickly headed back out towards the grounds to head back to Hermione and Ron, telling them all about what Dumbledore had said and why Professor Lupin was leaving the school.

Once we had told them everything, we had quickly changed subject. I really didn't want to have to talk about the loss of one of the best professors that we had ever had at Hogwarts. As we laid down in the grass outside of the Black Lake, I dangled my feet in and let Hermione braid my hair. The four of us spent much of the afternoon talking and wondering about where Sirius could possibly be. I was sure that he was somewhere on the other side of the world - far from Hogwarts. Somewhere far away from where everyone else was still looking for him.

As the day wore on and the others returned from Hogsmeade, we all enjoyed a dinner together and our early evening watching and helping Fred and George set off fireworks in the Common Room. It was rather comical watching the twins nearly light Percy's hair on fire. Percy was very pompous all night long, chatting back and forth with some of the other Seventh-Years about how he was determined to work at the Ministry. As the night wore on and more people left the Common Room, I remained behind, using the excuse that I couldn't stand Lavender's snoring.

Not long after the clock chimed midnight, I left the Common Room. Thankfully it had already been empty and I hadn't had to talk my way around anyone. I slipped on the Invisibility Cloak that Harry had (begrudgingly) let me borrow and left Gryffindor Tower. As I traipsed through the castle quietly, I wandered up the staircases and into the Astronomy Tower. Cedric was already in our spot by the balcony with a blanket laid out for us. I smiled, taking a seat at his side and stealing a Sugar Quill that was hanging out of his bag.

"Thank you," I said, popping the Sugar Quill into my mouth.

Cedric smiled. "You're welcome. Did you hear?" Cedric asked after a few beats. I shook my head, unsure of what he meant. "They caught Sirius Black last night. He was here, being held in the castle for a little while."

"Did they?" I asked, trying to look surprised.

"That's the rumor that was going around this morning. Apparently Professor Snape apprehended him and brought him up to the castle," Cedric explained. I had to keep from rolling my eyes. Snape was a bitter moron. "They were on their way to get the Dementors to perform the Kiss and by the time that they got there, he was gone again."

"Do they know that he got away?" I asked curiously.

Maybe I should have gone to Hogsmeade, if nothing else to have heard the rumors about Sirius. "Seems to be the only reasonable guess," Cedric said.

"Well who could have honestly expected that they would be able to keep him contained?" I shrugged.

Cedric's head snapped over to me. "Excuse me?"

Idiot... He doesn't know that you no longer hate Sirius! "He was able to escape from Azkaban, a place that no one had ever escaped before him," I said slowly, trying to backpedal. "Did they honestly expect that Hogwarts would be able to hold him?"

Cedric was staring at me like I had lost my mind. I tried to smile but it came out as an awkward grimace. "This coming from the girl who I found in tears when she discovered that Sirius Black was her godfather," Cedric said slowly.

"It's out of my control. No use being upset about it."

My words clearly did nothing for him. I really was such a moron. I had to learn to keep my mouth shut. "Tara..." Cedric muttered slowly. "We spent all night together with you crying because you found out that he had betrayed your parents and he was apparently after you. Now he's back on the run and you seem like you couldn't care less."

"Oh, trust me, I care."

"Alright then, why don't you look bothered?"

Because it turns out that he's really been a wonderful godfather. It's actually Peter Pettigrew that I want dead. "Some things happen for a reason, I suppose. Maybe people were wrong about why he was here in the first place," I said slowly, knowing that this was one secret that I needed to keep from him. "After all, Harry and I are still alive and Sirius Black has his chance to start over somewhere new. It's over. For now, at least."

Cedric and I stared at each other for a long time as I gave him a somewhat guilty smile. I had a feeling that he would eventually find out what had happened last night, but it wouldn't be tonight. This was one thing that he just didn't need to know. Especially not while tempers and emotions were still so high from his recent escape. Perhaps once things had calmed down a little bit. Cedric let out a soft breath and pulled me a little bit closer to him, wrapping the blanket back over our shoulders as the chilly breeze blew through the tower.

"You know that feeling that you get when you're about to jump off of somewhere very high? That mix of excitement but also fear because you know that something very bad might happen," Cedric said.

"Yes, I know it," I said slowly, unsure of what it meant.

"That's the feeling that I get every time that I speak to you."

Cedric was giving me the slightest smile. I couldn't tell whether or not it was strained or if he meant it as a compliment. I was pretty sure that it was a compliment but I wasn't completely positive. After all, there were a lot of times that I had told him something terrible. I had told him about what had happened in the dungeons after battling Voldemort and Quirrell in our First Year. I had told him about the Basilisk and seeing the younger Tom Riddle after the Chamber of Secrets. I had even told him about the untrue version of what had happened with Sirius this year.

Perhaps I really did put more on him than I should have. "Is that a bad thing?" I asked slowly.

"It's an exhausting thing." My heart sank down into my stomach. Perhaps this conversation was going somewhere that I didn't want it to. "But not one that I would trade for the entire world," Cedric added.

"Good," I chirped.

The two of us looked at each other for a long moment as he pulled me into a lingering kiss. His hand went up to the back of my neck and splayed out over my spine. I grinned into the kiss, grabbing onto the shirt that he was wearing and tugged him into me. I really would miss these afternoons when the summer had started and we were constantly having to avoid my parents. Cedric's hands pushed my hair out of the hold that it was in as I laughed against his mouth and my heart started fluttering. Just a little while longer...

In the back of my mind I knew that we should have stopped, but I couldn't bring myself to. Especially because these moments were limited. I was almost surprised to say that I wanted to come back to school for Fourth Year already. Cedric yanked me into him as I threw my legs over his lap. His hands wound their way around my hips to pull me flush against him. The two of us laughed as I flipped him over to lay directly over him, keeping us connected at the mouth. It was definitely a good thing that no one was coming up here to check on us.

The benefit of having a boyfriend who was a Prefect who was supposed to be on the night rounds. Once we had finally pulled apart to breathe, I started running my fingers over the pattern on his shirt, laying with my legs thrown over his own. His hands went back around my waist to press them against my hipbones. He pressed another few pecks against my lips in the coming moments. After a while I leaned back slightly and laid my head down against his chest, staring up at the moonlight.

"Wanna tell me what you did last night?" I asked him.

"I'm sure that it paled in comparison to what you did last night," Cedric teased.

"Probably," I laughed.

Cedric snorted and nudged me in the butt with his knee. I laughed and laid over his leg to keep him from kicking me again. "We were just celebrating the end of exams down in our Common Room. The O.W.L.'s were as exhausting as everyone said that they were," Cedric groaned.

"On the bright side, they're over. How do you think that you did?" I asked.

"Pretty well, actually." I gave him a small smile. "I'm certain that you're the reason that I'll pass Arithmancy," Cedric said.

"So will you blame me if you fail?" I teased.

"Don't put that in my head!" Cedric barked. We both laughed as he whacked me over the head and forced my head down into his shoulder. "But, yes, I will be blaming you if I fail."

"It's not my fault that you're a bad student," I shot back.

Cedric laughed and whacked me on the shoulder again. I giggled as I shoved his head away from me. "Oh, yes, it is. Who was it that coerced me into coming up to the Astronomy Tower, well after we should have been in bed, rather than studying in the Common Room?" Cedric teased, motioning around us.

"I don't know, definitely not me," I teased. We both laughed again as Cedric pressed a kiss against my forehead. "Just think, N.E.W.T.'s are two years away and then you're done."

A slight pain went through my chest at the thought. Two years seemed like a long time, but it really wasn't. I had already been at Hogwarts for three years. Cedric and I had been together for at least six months - about three in the eye of the rest of the school. Time seemed to fly by. In two years he would be out of here and I would still be stuck here for another two after him. What would that be like? Would we stay together and just make it work long distance or would we split? It wasn't the first time that I had thought about that.

"An exciting and frightening thought," Cedric said about only having two years left.

"You gonna forget about me when you're gone?" I asked, only half-teasingly.

Cedric gave me a small smile. "How could I ever?"

He reached down and grabbed my chin. I laughed softly as he leaned up and pressed a small kiss against my mouth. The two of us leaned down against each other, with me down on his chest and his head resting on mine, as the two of us chatted back and forth. We were talking about anything and everything. Mostly about our plans for the summer, making dates with each other, and figuring out things that we wanted to do while we were out of school for a few months. Needless to say, wandering around Diagon Alley was at the top of the list.

But so was playing Quidditch in his field and finding some place for the two of us to spend some quality time together, uninterrupted. "You know the Quidditch World Cup will be here this summer?" Cedric asked after a while.

Suddenly I perked up. I hadn't been to one in years. "Really?" I asked happily.

"Yeah. Your dad didn't tell you?" Cedric asked curiously.

"Expect he was waiting to tell me in person," I reasoned. Perhaps even showed me the tickets. At least, that was what I was betting on. "That's awesome! I haven't been to one of the World Cups since I was a kid. A younger kid. Last time the Stars were in it."

"So I can expect you to be there?" Cedric asked.

"Hell if I'm gonna miss it," I scoffed.

Cedric gave a slight smile. "We'll be there too. My dad and I." Well... all of our parents together might have been a little awkward, so I could only hope that they wouldn't talk to each other much. It was obvious that Cedric knew what I was thinking. "Are you planning on telling your parents about us anytime soon?" he asked carefully.

It was the same question that I had asked myself a thousand times before. How and when was I going to tell my parents? "I'm working on it. I just want a couple of weeks of freedom before I tell them and they get weirdly possessive of me. Because that's exactly what's going to happen," I huffed.

"I thought that your parents liked me?" Cedric asked.

My parents liked him more than they liked me sometimes. "They do. But the second that they find out that we're dating, they're going to hate you. Fair warning," I said truthfully.

"So once they find out, I won't be able to..." Cedric trailed off, pressing a soft kiss against my mouth, barely lingering there for more than a second.

"Definitely not that," I said, once he had pulled away.

"Then I'll just have to make up for it now."

I laughed softly as Cedric rolled the two of us over onto the stone floor, leaning down over me, and pressing a long lingering kiss against my mouth. We could have been together for days and I wouldn't have even realized. We didn't bother breaking apart for anything. Not even when the clock started to chime that it was past one in the morning. I had a feeling that neither one of us were ending up back at our dorms tonight. Not that I really minded. I was perfectly content to stay up here all night, as we had done a number of times before.

The air was definitely warm underneath the blanket and with Cedric's body heat, but I loved it. I was sick of the icy Scottish weather. The summer couldn't have come soon enough. The two of us barely came up from air as his hands wrapped tightly around my waist, keeping me pinned against him. It was mostly because I knew that I wouldn't be able to do anything like this once I was back home in a few days. My hair was likely a giant mess from Cedric running his fingers through it, but I really couldn't have cared less at the moment. After all, so was his.

As we rolled around the ground, I eventually ended up pinned down against the ground with Cedric hovering over me. There was a good chance that I would have bruises littering all over my body in the morning - from something other than the Whomping Willow - but I really didn't mind. There was also a good good chance that, if we were caught, we would both be expelled for the way that we were interacting with each other. Hogwarts had a rule about no excessive public displays of affection. Plus we were still out after curfew. But I didn't care about any of it.

Perhaps it was a number of hours after we had gotten to the Astronomy Tower together. Or maybe it had just been a few minutes since we had first started rolling around. I couldn't be sure. But eventually we simply laid down together on the stone floor. The blanket was so tangled from our wrestling match that it was impossible for either one of us to move. We were trapped together. So we laid there as I placed my hand on Cedric's chest as his arm wrapped around my waist. The two of us watched the sun rise in a peaceful silence.

So perhaps we had been bonding together for a little while longer than I had been expecting. "You know what else I heard?" Cedric asked, breaking the peaceful silence.

"Hmm?"

There was a grin in his voice. I could hear it even without looking at him. "A certain Hippogriff managed to pull himself free of the ropes that bound him, helping him escape from what was certain death."

There was definitely something accusatory in his voice now. But he didn't sound angry. He sounded more amused. "Did he? What a wonderful situation," I chirped.

Cedric's spare hand reached up to grab my chin and tilt my head towards his. He was smiling. "I don't know what you four did last night, in fact, I don't think that I want to know, but I know that you did the right thing," Cedric said.

"We did. I promise."

"Will you tell me one day?"

The day would come that Sirius would be an innocent man and we would be able to give away what had really happened tonight. "Yeah, I think that I will. Tell you what," I said. Cedric nodded for me to continue. "It'll be your graduation present from Hogwarts from me."

"Two years from now?" Cedric huffed.

"Oh, come on, it's not that long," I said.

Plus it was a good incentive to keep him talking to me for the next two years. Cedric gave me a slight smile. "Okay. It's a deal," he said, teasingly shaking my hand.

I laughed softly as I glanced at the rising sun. "Should we get up?" I asked.

"Just a few more minutes."

"Don't have to twist my arm."

The two of us smiled as we laid back against the stone floor and watched the sun start to peak over the horizon, painting the sky a gentle pink. My legs were thrown over his own as we held each other close. Despite knowing that we were supposed to get up in a few minutes to keep from getting caught heading back to our dorms, I ended up falling asleep right on his chest. It was obvious enough that Cedric did too. When Cedric finally woke up, shaking my shoulder to wake me up too, I saw that the sun was already rising into the sky.

We both immediately realized that we had slept for far too long. After scrambling back to our feet - laughing like maniacs the entire time - the two of us packed up the few things that we had brought upstairs with us and sprinted out of the Astronomy Tower. We went flying down the stairs so fast that we bounded down the staircase in under five seconds. We raced towards out respective Houses, desperate to reach them before breakfast started. We were just barely able to share a quick kiss before I dove past the Fat Lady and into the Gryffindor Common Room.

Of course, by the time and I pulled myself into the Common Room and straightened up, I realized that Fred and George were already awake and clearly waiting to harass me. After recovering from the surprise of seeing them, I merely threatened to tell their mother about their plans for the joke shop if they ever repeated that I hadn't spent the night in my dorm. Thankfully when Harry and Ron came downstairs - not long after Hermione had - they just thought that I had woken up early. My real whereabouts the night before were never revealed.

By the time that we made it to breakfast that morning, the rumors about Sirius were already in full swing. Nobody at Hogwarts now knew the truth of what had happened the night that Sirius, Buckbeak, and Pettigrew had vanished except Harry, Ron, Hermione, myself, and Professor Dumbledore. As the end of term approached, I heard many different theories about what had really happened, but none of them came close to the truth. It was a little tough having to pretend to be upset at Sirius's escape, but I knew that I couldn't tell anyone the truth of that night.

To my complete pleasure, Malfoy was furious about Buckbeak. He spent most of his time sulking around the castle and growling about how Hagrid needed to be fired since he couldn't even keep tabs on Buckbeak. Malfoy was thoroughly convinced that Hagrid had found a way of smuggling the Hippogriff to safety, and seemed outraged that he and his father had been outwitted by a gamekeeper. I spent much of my time grinning about how upset he was. Percy Weasley, meanwhile, had much to say on the subject of Sirius's escape.

"If I manage to get into the Ministry, I'll have a lot of proposals to make about Magical Law Enforcement!" Percy told the only person who would listen - his girlfriend, Penelope.

No one else really wanted to know what he thought. They would rather talk about the incredible possibilities of how Sirius had escaped not only once, but at least three times. It was rather hard not to laugh and tell them. Though the weather was perfect, though the atmosphere was so cheerful, though I knew that we had achieved the near impossible in helping Sirius to freedom, I had never approached the end of a school year in worse spirits. It felt like we had saved Sirius and Buckbeak, but there was one person whom we had failed to help.

We certainly weren't the only ones who were sorry to see Professor Lupin go. Most of the school missed Professor Lupin within days of him leaving the school grounds. Especially since he had been so wonderful with teaching us more than any of the other Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers had over the past few years combined. There were a few students who were thrilled to see a werewolf gone, but most genuinely hated the idea of not having him next year. The whole of our Defense Against the Dark Arts class was miserable about his resignation.

"Wonder what they'll give us next year?" Seamus asked gloomily.

"Maybe a vampire," Dean suggested hopefully.

That might have been an interesting one. I laughed and shook my head at them. "Well we had one good year. You know what that means. Another two bad ones," I groaned.

It wasn't only Professor Lupin's departure that was weighing on my mind as the end of the year approached though. I couldn't help thinking a lot about Professor Trelawney's prediction. Now that I no longer had to worry about Sirius getting to safety, I kept thinking about her words and what had happened with everything since that night. I kept wondering where Pettigrew was now, whether he had sought sanctuary with Voldemort yet. If they were together... was I doomed to have to meet them soon? After all, they wanted me, didn't they?

There was one person even more upset than I was. The thing that was lowering Harry's spirits most of all was the prospect of returning to the Dursley's. For maybe half an hour, a glorious half hour, he had believed he would be living with Sirius from now on... his parents' best friend. It would have been the next best thing to having his own father back. And while no news of Sirius was definitely good news, because it meant he had successfully gone into hiding, I couldn't help feeling miserable when I thought of the home he might have had, and the fact that it was now impossible.

He had so deserved those few moments of happiness that would now never come. I could only hope that in the next few years, things would get better. Sirius would be freed and cleared and we would all be able to live together freely. On the other hand, there were some other things that we had to think about. Because the exam results came out on the last day of term. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I had passed every subject. I was amazed that I had gotten through Potions. I had a shrewd suspicion that Dumbledore might have stepped in to stop Snape failing me on purpose.

Not only me, but Harry too. If we had thought that Snape had hated us before, we were dead wrong. Snape's behavior toward Harry and me over the past week had been quite alarming. I wouldn't have thought it possible that Snape’s dislike for the two of us could increase, but it certainly had. A muscle twitched unpleasantly at the corner of Snape's thin mouth every time he looked at Harry or myself, and he was constantly flexing his fingers, as though itching to place them around our throats.

On the bright side, even with having been paranoid about what Sirius was planning, all of my exams had come back wonderfully. Cedric was most of the reason that I had managed to pass Astronomy. The only other class that I hadn't gotten either an O or an E in was Divination. Honestly, I was shocked that I had even managed to pass it in the first place. Cedric had managed to pass everything and his Study of Ancient Runes O.W.L. had apparently come back as much higher than he had been expecting - thanks to me, as he had said.

Percy had got his top-grade N.E.W.T.s; Fred and George had scraped a handful of O.W.L.s each. Gryffindor House, meanwhile, largely thanks to our spectacular performance in the Quidditch Cup, had won the House championship for the third year running. This meant that the end of term feast took place amid decorations of scarlet and gold, and that the Gryffindor table was the noisiest of the lot, as everybody celebrated. Even I managed to forget about Harry having to start hiding my relationship the next day and SIrius's whereabouts as I ate, drank, talked, and laughed with the rest.

Naturally it didn't take Fred and George long to start harassing me about Cedric. I rolled my eyes at them and scowled. "Congratulations on your... two, was it, O.W.L.'s?" I asked.

Fred whacked me over the back of the head. "Ha-ha, there were three."

Three out of... how many classes did they have? Six? Seven? "Oh, impressive. I'm sure that your mother will be thrilled with that," I said honestly.

Mrs. Weasley would lose it when she found out how few O.W.L.'s they had gotten. "Oi, Tara, where was it that you were the other night?" Fred asked loudly.

"Shut up!" I shouted, slapping my hand over his mouth as the others started looking at me. I leaned into Fred and dropped my voice to a whisper. "I'll kill you if you ever mention that."

Fred laughed as the two of us backed away from each other. "You hear that the Quidditch World Cup is coming this summer?" Fred asked.

"I did!" I chirped happily. "Are - Can you guys go?"

"You mean, can we afford it?" Fred asked knowingly.

Well that definitely wasn't the way that I had meant for that to happen. "No - I mean, well, Freddie - I didn't -"

Fred laughed and laid a hand on my shoulder. "I'm messing with you, Tara. Normally we wouldn't, but because dad works at the Ministry, he gets free seats for all of us," Fred said.

"Don't do that!" I shouted, whacking him on the shoulder. "I thought that I was being an ass."

"Well, you were -"

"Thanks," I interrupted.

"- but I wouldn't have it any other way." I laughed softly and rolled my eyes. "Can we expect that you'll be there?" Fred asked.

Even if I had to sneak out of the house and go myself. There was no way that I was missing a relatively local Quidditch World Cup game. "Are you kidding? With Dad around? Of course we'll be there," I said. Dad hadn't missed one in years. Not even the ones that he hadn't competed in. "He's actually probably going to be in charge of it, or at least one of the top workers, considering his job."

A long period of silence passed where I sat and goofed around with the rest of Gryffindor House. I even chatted with Oliver - who was about to graduate from Hogwarts. He had apparently been invited to play for Puddlemere United as a reserve player after some of their recruiters had been to the last few Quidditch Games. They weren't my favorite team and certainly weren't one of the best, but they were a part of the British and Irish Quidditch League - something that Oliver had always wanted to be a part of - so I was thrilled for him. I promised to watch and sort-of cheer for them.

We were in the middle of chatting about how long it might take him to be a regular player when Fred tapped me on the shoulder. I pardoned myself from our conversation and turned back to him. "Hey, we heard that Sirius Black escaped again," Fred said.

"Yeah, I think everyone's heard that," I shrugged.

"Are you doing okay with it?" Fred asked.

As for Sirius being gone, it was wonderful. Pettigrew was another story. "You know what?" I said slowly. "Yeah... I think I'm better than I have been in a while. I guess it took all of Sirius Black's escapes and some other unforeseen situations this year that proved to me that things happen for a reason. And you can't stop them. You just have to learn to take it in stride."

Fred stared at me for a long while before saying, "I think someone put rocks in your head."

"Here I thought that I was thinking like an adult," I growled.

"What fun is that?" Fred teased.

He was the biggest brat that I had ever met. One of these days I was going to dump the pot of mashed potatoes all over him and his brother. They were both laughing as I rolled my eyes and glanced away from them. Although I couldn't help it. Even I started giggling. After a little while Hermione began speaking to me in a lowered voice, mostly about our schedules for the next year. I knew that we were both thinking the same thing. As much as we liked all of the classes that we were taking, it was too much. I was sick of having the Time-Turner. I wanted a normal class schedule again.

So the next morning the two of us had woken up before anyone else and headed down to Professor McGonagall with the Time-Turner. She looked surprised to see us but clearly understood that we simply didn't have enough time for everything. We both had spent most of the night before talking about which classes we wanted to drop - while also joking around with everyone else about how thrilled we were that the school year was finally over and we had two months off without having to worry about classwork.

With the aid of Professor McGonagall - who was recommending which classes to keep or drop so that one day I would be able to be an Auror - I ultimately decided to drop Ancient Studies and Music, which freed me up to have a normal schedule again. As much as I liked Ancient Studies and Music, they were both electives and not really that important to me wanting to be an Auror. The others were. Unfortunately now that I was back to a normal schedule, we also had to give back the Time-Turner, something that I really didn't want to do.

Hermione seemed very glad to have gotten rid of it. With our schedules fixed for the next year, we went back upstairs, finished packing up our things, and went down to the carriages with the rest of the school. I took a compartment with Harry, Ron, and Hermione towards the back of the train with the rest of our friends in the ones nearby. I dropped down in the chair by the window and watched as the castle vanished in the distance. As the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station, Hermione and I decided to give Harry and Ron our news.

"We went to see Professor McGonagall this morning, just before breakfast. I've decided to drop Muggle Studies," Hermione explained.

"But you passed your exam with three hundred and twenty percent!" Ron said.

"It was that high?" I asked curiously.

Even I hadn't scored that high on any of my exams. "I know, but I can't stand another year like this one," Hermione sighed. "That Time-Turner, it was driving me mad."

"Yeah, it was tough. I decided to drop Ancient Studies and Music," I added.

"But you love those classes," Harry said.

"Yes, I do, but Ancient Studies is more of an elective and I do still have Study of Ancient Runes. Same thing with Music. Plus I'll still sing and drop by the classroom from time to time. Although I will miss the Time Turner," I groaned.

"We've handed it in. Without Muggle Studies and Divination, I'll be able to have a normal schedule again," Hermione said.

"Same here," I added.

"I still can't believe you two didn't tell us about it. We're supposed to be your friends," Ron said grumpily.

"We promised that we wouldn't tell anyone," Hermione said severely.

"We would have gotten in a ton of trouble," I said.

"Even though Diggory knew that you had it," Harry groaned.

I had forgotten that I'd mentioned that to him the other day. "Why did he know?" Ron gasped.

"Thanks for that!" I shouted at Harry, whacking him over the back of the head. "We were having a snowball fight on one of the trips that we took to Hogsmeade and when we tripped I landed underneath him. The Time-Turner slipped out of my shirt and he saw it. I explained to him what it was and he promised me that he wouldn't say anything."

"So Diggory knew and we didn't," Ron huffed.

"Knock it off!" I barked. "He wasn't supposed to know either. It was an accident."

"Wait a second," Hermione said suddenly. "Cedric knew that we had this?"

"Get over it," I snapped.

Why the hell had Harry said anything about it? Forget dumping the potatoes on Fred and George. I was going to throw them on Harry the moment that we got back to the castle. I turned to Harry to yell at him for having said anything, but I quickly realized that he wasn't actually looking at us. It didn't seem that he had been listening to us either. Instead he was watching Hogwarts disappear from view behind a mountain. He always had hated coming back home, but now it was even worse. He had been so close to leaving with Sirius. And now it was two whole months before he'd see it again.

"Oh, cheer up, Harry!" Hermione said sadly.

"I'm okay. Just thinking about the holidays," Harry said quickly.

"Remember, you've always got me!" I chirped.

Harry gave me the slightest smile. "It'll be fun, Tara. What about Diggory?" he asked.

Did he really think that I would trade him for Cedric? "Relax, you'll always be my best friend," I said, grabbing him in for a hug. "We're going to do fun things together this summer. I should see if Mom and Dad will take us back to play on the Stars Pitch again."

He deserved to have some fun. "That'd be awesome!" Harry said excitedly.

Finally he seemed like he might have been the slightest bit happy. "Yeah, I've been thinking about them too," Ron said, about the holidays. "Harry, you've got to come and stay with us. I'll fix it up with Mum and Dad, then I'll call you. I know how to use a fellytone now -"

"A telephone, Ron. Honestly, you should take Muggle Studies next year..." Hermione said.

"She makes a good point, you know," I added.

If there was one person here who really should have known how Muggles worked, it was Ron. Hermione was a Muggle-Born and had to live like a Muggle during the holidays. Harry had been raised as a Muggle with the Dursley's. I had always lived in Muggle neighborhoods so I was used to everything that they used. Ron ignored the two of us. Ron really needed to learn how to use a telephone and simple things like that. He would never be able to live in a world without magic. Not like the rest of us could.

"It's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! How about it, Harry? Come and stay, and we’ll go and see it! Dad can usually get tickets from work," Ron explained.

"Fred and George were telling me about that! I can't wait!" I said excitedly.

"Are your parents going?" Ron asked curiously.

"Are you kidding? You know who my dad is, right?" I said.

"Right," Ron mumbled.

Hermione was watching us chat about Quidditch with slightly more enthusiasm than she usually did. "It's gonna be so much fun. Hermione, you might even enjoy it," I said happily.

"I like watching Quidditch!" Hermione snapped. "I just don't like participating."

"Because you're a terrible flyer," I said.

Harry and Ron snorted. "No, I'm not!" Hermione barked.

"Love you, Hermione, but your flying skills are on par with Neville's," I said.

Her face told me that she was completely put off and upset at the thought of being compared to Neville in anything. Particularly flying, which had always been one of the things that he was the worst at. The only thing that he might have been worse with was Potions and that was much because Snape hated him as much as he did. As Hermione began rattling off all of the ways that she was better at flying than Neville - and the few ways that she really wasn't that bad at flying - I could see that Ron's proposal of the World Cup had the effect of cheering Harry up a great deal.

"Yeah... I bet the Dursley's would be pleased to let me come... especially after what I did to Aunt Marge..." Harry grinned.

"Have you spoken to them since?" I asked curiously.

"No," Harry said.

"Ought to be a good homecoming," I laughed.

So did the others. It would definitely be a good one. Feeling considerably more cheerful about what was sure to be an amusing summer, I joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione in several games of Exploding Snap, and when the witch with the tea cart arrived, I bought myself a very large lunch, though nothing with chocolate in it. Over the next few hours I spent a great deal of time wandering the train to speak with some of my other friends who were in the compartments scattered up and down the length of the train.

Fred and George were trying to set off some of their prototype fireworks. Oliver was celebrating his new Quidditch job. The rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team agreed to meet over the summer to practice. Oliver promised to write us and help next year. Seamus, Dean, and Neville invited me for a game of Exploding Snap. In Cedric's compartment, we joked around about not allowing me to come for their Quidditch practices over the summer, even if I was his girlfriend. I was still laughing as I went to change into my Muggle clothes for the platform.

In the bathroom I met up with Lavender, Parvati, Padma, and Fay. Like most of the years before, we had agreed to go shopping a few times over the summer. By the time that Cho arrived in the bathroom with her cohorts, I made an excuse to leave with Ginny. Cho clearly hated me just as much as she always had and likely always would. I went back to the compartment after a while and settled into my seat, humming to myself. It was late in the afternoon before the thing that made me truly happy turned up.

"Harry," Hermione said suddenly, peering over his shoulder. "What's that thing outside your window?"

All three of us turned to look outside. Something very small and gray was bobbing in and out of sight beyond the glass. I jumped to my feet to see what it was. Harry stood up for a better look and as I walked up to his side I saw that it was a tiny owl, carrying a letter that was much too big for it. The owl was so small, in fact, that it kept tumbling over in the air, buffeted this way and that in the train's slipstream. I tried to see if the owl appeared the slightest bit familiar, but I had never seen it before. I had no idea whose it was.

Harry quickly pulled down the window, stretched out his arm, and caught it. He brought it carefully inside and handed it to me. It felt like a very fluffy Snitch. It was adorable. The owl dropped its letter onto Harry's seat and began zooming around our compartment, apparently very pleased with itself for accomplishing its task. Hedwig and Dai clicked their beaks with a sort of dignified disapproval. Crookshanks sat up in his seat, following the owl with his great yellow eyes. Was he thinking about eating it? Ron, noticing that, snatched the owl safely out of harm's way.

"It's addressed to us both," Harry said.

"You take it," I shrugged.

Harry picked up the letter. He ripped open the letter, and shouted, "It's from Sirius!"

"What?" Ron, Hermione, and I asked excitedly. "Read it aloud!" 

"Hurry up!" I snapped.

"Dear Harry and Tara, 

"I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post. 

"I've sent a letter to Marcus and Julia as well, explaining what happened. They're waiting on your arrival to fill them in on the rest of the details. It seems that they were not surprised by any of our antics of that night.

"Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about his reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job. 

"I believe the Dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted. When I can get the chance, I'll drop by. Perhaps a few weeks from now, if all goes according to plan.

"There is something I never got around to telling you both during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolts -"

"Ha! See! I told you it was from him!" Hermione yelped triumphantly.

"Shut up!" I barked.

"Yes, but he hadn't jinxed it, had he?" Ron asked. "Ouch!"

The tiny owl, now hooting happily in his hand, had nibbled one of his fingers in what it seemed to think was an affectionate way. I snorted under my breath as Ron shoved the owl away from himself and it hopped over towards Hedwig and Dai, neither of whom seemed rather thrilled to see him. I assumed that they didn't like how small the owl was. They were both on the slightly snooty side. I looked back at Harry, glad that the interruptions seemed to be over - and nodded for him to keep reading.

"Crookshanks took the orders to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from my own Gringotts vault. Please consider it as thirteen and fourteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfather. 

"I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you. As for you, Tara. You're a brave girl, most people would have run from me. I'm glad to see both of your parents in you.

"Harry, I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable. 

"If either of you ever you need me, send word. Your owls will find me. 

"I’ll write again soon. 

"Sirius."

Well that was surprisingly nice. At least Sirius knew where we lived in the event that he ever wanted to drop by and say hello, even for the night. It would be great to have him over for dinner. And apparently Sirius wasn't even done with his presents yet. I nodded for Harry to see what else Sirius was giving him. Harry looked eagerly inside the envelope. There was another piece of parchment in there. He read it through quickly and then handed it off to me. I felt suddenly as warm and contented as though I had swallowed a bottle of hot Butterbeer in one gulp.

I, Sirius Black, Harry Potter’s godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade on weekends.

No more illegal trips to Hogsmeade on the weekends. At least for the sanctioned ones. Other times was something else altogether. "That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!" Harry said happily.

"That's awesome!" I chirped.

Harry looked back at Sirius's letter. "Hang on, there's a P.S."

I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat.

So that was why the owl hadn't immediately flown back to the owner. Because Ron was now the owner. It wasn't the best owl in the world. He was small and wouldn't be able to carry much for long hauls, but he was certainly rather adorable. And he looked a lot more reliable than Errol, Ron's old owl that had once been Percy's, before he had gotten Hermes. Ron's eyes widened. The minute owl was still hooting excitedly. Dai and Hedwig were still looking at the owl with a slight disdain. Maybe they would get used to him in time.

"Keep him?" Ron asked uncertainly.

"Well he's kind of cute," I said.

In all honesty, he was very cute. I assumed that he was a barn owl or something of the likes. He would be good enough until we got out of Hogwarts and Ron was able to get himself a new pet. Definitely one that wasn't a human being in disguise this time. Ron looked closely at the owl for a moment, as if to see whether or not he was about to turn into a sleazy man; then, to all of our great surprise, he held him out for Crookshanks to sniff. For a moment, I thought that he was going to let the cat eat the owl.

"What d'you reckon? Definitely an owl?" Ron asked the cat. Crookshanks purred. "That's good enough for me. He's mine."

Ron definitely sounded happier than he had in a while. Harry read and reread the letter from Sirius all the way back into King's Cross station. I sat in the corner of the compartment and counted down the minutes until we were back in the Muggle world and I had to start my massive lie. I wondered how I could possibly tell my parents about Cedric and myself, but even after the two remaining hours of the ride, I had nothing good to go with. All that I could think was to just spit it out and hope that they wouldn't start screaming at me.

The others had no good suggestions. Ron suggested that I just let them catch us and have it come out that way. But they would kill me. Harry suggested just breaking up. Ron agreed. Hermione and I vehemently denied that one. Hermione suggested to just be an adult about it and explain what had happened rationally. But we all knew that I wouldn't do that. The letter from Sirius was still clutched tightly in Harry's hand as he, Ron, Hermione, and I stepped back through the barrier of platform nine and three-quarters.

I still didn't know what to tell my parents about Cedric as the boy in question fell into step with me. "Hey," Cedric greeted.

"Hi," I said happily.

"Your parents here yet?" Cedric asked, glancing around.

As far as I could see, they weren't here. They were probably just pulling into the station. "They're around here somewhere, I'm sure," I said.

"Come here for a second," Cedric said.

One last time before we had to be extremely careful about what we were going. My parents had always been good about finding me doing things that I shouldn't have been doing. I smiled softly as Cedric pressed a quick kiss against my mouth. I wanted it to go even longer but we didn't. Just in case. Although I giggled as we pulled apart and I caught Vermin eyeing the two of us suspiciously. I had come to Hogwarts single with a massive crush on Cedric and was leaving in a relationship with him. My how things had changed in just a year.

"Since I'll have to be careful doing that for the next few months," Cedric said.

Feeling slightly guilty about making him keep the secret, I said, "I promise that I'll get around to telling them eventually."

"Take your time," Cedric said sweetly. "What do you say you come over next week?"

"Show you how miserable you are at Quidditch?" I teased.

"If I recall correctly, you lost to us," Cedric said.

Now that was uncalled for. "Because of the Dementors! And you slammed into me, so honestly, it was your fault," I snapped.

"How will I ever be able to make it up to you?"

"You'll figure out something, I'm sure."

The two of us grinned at each other. "Hurry up, Tara!" Ron snapped.

Why could no one let us have just a few moments all by ourselves unless it was in the Astronomy Tower after curfew? "Come on, lover girl," Fred said, walking up and placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Time to see just how good of a liar you are," George added.

"I'll write you, yeah?" Cedric offered.

"Just let me know."

"Tell your parents hello for me," Cedric said.

"You can stay for a few minutes and say hi," I said.

"Your friends won't mind?" Cedric asked.

They always minded whenever Cedric hung around us. "I'm sure that they will, but they'll get over it," I said carelessly.

Cedric gave me a little smile as we walked further into the station. "Oh look, Tara, your mum and dad are standing right over there," Fred said. He was right. They were on the far side of the station, smiling and waving at me. "Why don't we go tell them all of the interesting things that happened in your life this year?"

"Right you are, Fred," George said.

"Stop it!" I shouted.

They were not telling my parents before I got the chance to tell them. If I ever got up the guts to tell them myself. Despite knowing that they were just kidding - because I would have killed them if they really did it - I dove after the two of them and locked my arms back around Fred's neck. The two of us were laughing madly as we went spinning off of our feet together, practically pinning ourselves against one of the stone pillars of platform five. I could see Cedric standing in the background, giving the two of us a strained smile.

What was that look for? As I shoved him away from me, I stepped back over with Cedric. "Hi, Fred. George," he greeted somewhat tensely.

"Hey, Cedric," George said evenly.

"Hey," Fred added.

Whatever was happening with them, I supposed that I could ask them about it later. "Hi, Mrs. Weasley!" I chirped, spotting the short and stout red-headed women behind the twins.

"Oh, hello, darling!" Mrs. Weasley said happily, giving me a tight hug. "Can we expect you over at the Burrow this summer?"

"As long as you'll have me," I said.

"Of course. It'll be a pleasure, as always."

"Thank you." I turned to the twins and scowled. "Can I count on you two setting my hair on fire while I sleep?" I asked.

"Of course not, Tara," George said, ruffling my hair.

"We love you," Fred added, throwing his arms over my shoulder.

"Sure," I scoffed.

"Bye, Tara!" Ginny called.

I pulled apart from the twins and walked over to where she was standing. "Bye, Ginny! We'll see you over the summer!" I said happily. We exchanged a quick hug and, as the Weasley's walked off, I gave Ron a tight hug. "I'm gonna come over soon and we're going to have a conversation on how to use the telephone."

Ron rolled his eyes and laughed. "Right. See you later," he said.

"Bye." As he walked off, I darted over to Hermione and wrapped her in a hug. "Call me?" I asked.

"Absolutely. See you in a few weeks, I'd assume?" Hermione asked.

"Whether or not you want me to," I teased.

There was no way that the two of us wouldn't see each other over the summer. We always did like hanging out with each other. She told me that I needed to study and I told her that she needed to have some more fun. The two of us smiled as I turned and headed back to where Cedric was standing. He was saying goodbye to some of his friends as he had been waiting for me to say goodbye to mine. As his friends walked off towards their respective families, I headed over towards him, noticing that he was watching the Weasley's oddly closely.

"Are you alright?" I asked curiously.

Cedric whipped over to me, looking surprised that I was even here. "Yeah. No - I'm good," he stuttered.

"Okay," I said slowly. "Come on."

Maybe he didn't like Fred and George. After all, they would have had some classes together. Perhaps they annoyed him. I wasn't sure and honestly, I didn't really care at the moment. As we walked over to my friends, I noticed that Harry had spotted Vermin at once. He was standing a good distance from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, eyeing them suspiciously, and when Mrs. Weasley hugged Harry in greeting, his worst suspicions about them seemed confirmed. I laughed softly as my own parents walked over to join the fray.

"I'll call about the World Cup!" Ron yelled after Harry and I.

"See you soon!" I yelled back.

At least there was something massive to look forward to for the summer. It wasn't just going to be full of lies. When I turned back, ready to leave the station and head back home, I noticed that my parents had stopped to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. The four of them chatted for a while, looking like they might have been making promises to meet up, before they headed back over towards us. I noticed with a hint of horror that Mr. Diggory wasn't far behind them. They didn't look angry so they must not have known. Maybe he hadn't told them yet.

"Mom!" I yelped happily.

"Hello, darling," she said, wrapping me in a loving hug. It was the first time that I had seen them in a long time. "Have an eventful year?"

There was something knowing in her gaze. "Nah, not really," I shrugged.

"Mm-hmm," she hummed disbelievingly. Then she spotted Cedric and smiled, walking over to him. "Cedric, sweetheart, how are you?"

The two of them exchanged a short hug. "Wonderful, Mrs. Nox. Thank you. How are you?" Cedric asked.

"Better now that my kids are home," Mom replied. Cedric stepped back as Harry walked up to her. Mom perked up as she brought Harry into a hug. "Harry, how was your year?"

"Good, thank you," Harry said.

"Hey, kiddo," Dad said, walking up and grabbing my arm. "Good year?"

"Wasn't bad," I said carelessly.

"Cedric, my boy. How are you?" Dad asked.

"Good, sir," Cedric said respectfully.

"I hear that you managed to beat my daughter in Quidditch," Dad said.

My face started burning with embarrassment. "Dad - honestly -"

Why did he have to say things like that? "It wasn't really a fair win," Cedric said. I smiled at his humbleness. "Dementors flew into the match and while Tara was distracted by them, I accidentally flew into her. In all honesty, they should have won the match and I didn't want to win the way that we did. I offered to replay the match, but Oliver Wood agreed that Hufflepuff won."

Dad seemed impressed that Cedric had tried to call off the match. "Good man," he said, slapping Cedric on the back.

"I'll exact my revenge next year," I teased him.

The two of us smiled at each other - probably rather obviously - as Mr. Diggory walked in between us. "Come on, Ced. Time to go home. Your mum wants to see you," he told his son.

"All right," Cedric said.

"Tara. How are you?" Mr. Diggory asked.

"Good, Mr. Diggory. Yourself?" I replied.

"Glad that this disaster of a year is over," Mr. Diggory huffed. I could only assume that he had been working on Sirius's case. The thought almost made me smile. "Come on now. We'll see you soon, I expect?"

"Oh, I'm sure," Mom replied.

"Bye, Cedric," I said, swallowing a lump in my throat.

"See you around, Tara," Cedric said.

As the two of them walked away, exchanging hugs and promises for a dinner together, I forced myself to be content with a smile. "Awkward," Harry said in my ear.

"Shut up," I growled, shoving into him.

The two of us laughed as we headed out of the station with everyone else, catching up with the Weasley's and Granger's. Harry and I bid Ron and Hermione good-bye as the adults chatted back and forth. I whacked Fred and George over the heads for laughing at my awkward goodbye with Cedric and promised that I would keep in touch to help them with the joke shop. Once we were all done saying our farewells, we then wheeled the two trolley's bearing our trunks and Hedwig and Dai's cages toward Vermin, who greeted him in his usual fashion.

"What's that?" Vermin snarled, staring at the envelope Harry was still clutching in his hand. "If it's another form for me to sign, you've got another -"

"It's not. It's a letter from my godfather," Harry said cheerfully.

"Godfather? You haven't got a godfather!" Vermin sputtered.

"Yes, I have," Harry said brightly.

"We both do. We share the same one," I chirped.

"He was my mum and dad's best friend. He's a convicted murderer, but he's broken out of wizard prison and he's on the run. He likes to keep in touch with me, though... keep up with my news... check if I'm happy..." Harry said slowly.

And, grinning broadly at the look of horror on Vermin's face, Harry and I set off toward the station exit, Hedwig and Dai rattling along in front of us, for what looked like a much better summer than the last. I knew that Mom and Dad had overheard what Harry had told Vermin, but they said nothing. They merely grinned at the two of us. We were always good with getting Vermin flustered and so were they. Plus he really deserved it after the way that they treated Harry. One or two good scares was nothing.

"Not bad," I said, winking at Harry.

"Thanks."

As we strutted off ahead of everyone else, Mom leaned in between us. "Harry, why don't you come over after you get home and have chance to unpack your things. We'd love for you to tell us all about what you two did this year," she said knowingly.

Harry grinned at her. "Okay."

"See you in an hour or so?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Just come in. Don't bother knocking."

It would probably make for an entertaining car ride for Harry to be able to tell Vermin all about what had happened this year and the way that a convicted murderer was now going to be keeping a close eye on him. I would have loved to see it. The two of us exchanged a brief hug as I was pulled along by my parents towards the fireplaces so that we could take the Floo network back home. As I turned back, I could see that Vermin was already growling and snapping at Harry. If only he could have gotten the chance to live with Sirius...

"Ready to go?" Mom asked.

A problem for another day, I supposed. "Yeah. I am," I said.

One day Harry would get the chance to live with Sirius. I was confident about that. He had been through too much bad in his life to never get the chance to live with someone who really loved and cared for him. He deserved to live with Sirius and Sirius deserved to have his name cleared. I stepped into the fireplace with Mom and Dad and groaned as we were sucked through the Floor network. It was definitely my least favorite way or traveling, save Apparating, which was ten times worse. After what felt like an hour, we were spit out into the living room.

Mom let out a soft breath as Dad started pulling out my things. "Home, sweet -"

"Sirius!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Standing right in my living room, to my complete surprise, was Sirius Black. Mom and Dad laughed as I launched myself over my trunk, tripping over a few of my bags and boxes as I threw myself into his arms. Mom usually would have yelled at me for interrupting her, but she let it go this time. She merely smiled at the sight of the two of us wrapped in a tight hug. Maybe Harry and I would be having a much better summer this year. Sirius laughed as he pressed his hand on the back of my head. He was still underweight, but he had clearly gotten a good bath and haircut recently.

"Hello," Sirius greeted, pulling away from me.

"How long have you been here?" I asked breathlessly.

"Just a few hours."

"Are you staying?"

He could live here with us! Harry could be over every day! "Just for dinner," Sirius explained. The excitement left my chest like a deflated balloon. "I fear that Buckbeak and I will have to keep moving. This will be one of the first places that the Ministry will be expecting me to go."

My mouth flapped open to argue with him that he had to stay, but I knew that his argument would beat it. He had to keep himself and us safe. That meant not hanging around anyone who had been an old friend or family member. I would just have to remember that at least I got dinner with him. Since Harry was coming over, he too would get a chance to see Sirius one more time before he went deep into hiding. As Dad walked over and embraced Sirius like a brother, Mom placed her hand on my back and nudged me towards the staircase.

"Why don't you go upstairs and get ready for dinner? That way we can all hear about what's happened this year," she said.

"And someone can tell me who Justin is," I added, walking towards the stairs.

"What?" Dad snapped.

Mom rolled her eyes. "Oh, you honestly told her about that?" she snapped at Sirius.

"Actually, that was Moony."

As the three of them began arguing among themselves, Mom rolled her eyes and looked back at me. "Move it. We'll start getting everything ready for dinner," she said.

This was destined to be a much better summer than the last one. Especially now that we had a new family member. I darted upstairs to change quickly. I wanted every second with Sirius that I could get. The moment that I sprang into my room, I saw the one sight that I had been praying to never see again. There was another one of the black mystery boxes sitting right on my bed. Still all in black wrappings, tied with a neat bow, with a slightly sinister air about it. I very slowly walked towards my bed, almost collapsing onto it.

How had this happened? Things had been so good. Sirius was here. He was free. Buckbeak was alive. But now there was another one of those damned boxes. From a friend or foe, I couldn't be sure. My heart pounding, fearing what it might be inside of it, I slowly lifted the lid off of the box. It had been so long since I had gotten one. Not since the rat tail. Which I now realized meant Scabbers. This time there was a chunk of what appeared to be a piece of old iron with that same number, eighty-three, engraved on it. There was a note underneath it.

See you soon.

Those three words repeated themselves in my head over and over again. What did it mean? The present sender had clearly been trying to help me over the past few years, but it still seemed so chilling. They still seemed so dangerous. I swallowed a lump in my throat as I ripped up the box, shoved the note and piece of iron in my dresser, and forced a smile on my face as I headed back downstairs. I tried to enjoy the dinner as much as I could, but I was stuck with one never-ending question in my mind throughout the entire thing. Was I finally going to meet the present sender?


	59. Sequel Announcement

Hello everyone!

The sequel to Queen of the Night has officially been posted! It's on my profile and is cleverly titled Queen of the Night: Years 4-5. So I'm not the best with naming things... Anyways, if you're interested, please go ahead and hop on over and check out the first chapter!

Let me know what you think! Until next time -A


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